allowance from Runjeet Singh, who would not, however, receive him publicly at his durbar, to avoid giving offence to the English. Meanwhile the Governor-General declared Appa Sahib dethroned, and proclaimed as his successor the grandson of Raghojee Bhoonsla,who died in 1816. Every department of Government was, however, placed under the direct control of British officers; and the whole country of Nagpore, with its resources, was virtually annexed to the Company's dominions.
With the fall of Asseerghur ended that glorious war which dissolved the Mahratta confederacy, gave the Company an immense accession of territory and revenue, with a boundless acquisition of moral influence, and totally and for ever exterminated the frightful Pindarrie pest which had so long desolated the fairest regions of Hindostan. The exertions of the Anglo-Indian Army during this eventful period were stupendous; independent of several pitched battles, and innumerable skirmishes and forced marches, the reserved division alone performed three sieges – those of Singhur, Belgaum, and Sholapoor. Colonel McDowall's detachment and Colonel Adams' division reduced the Peishwa's numerous and strong fortresses in Candeish; the most famed of these places were Radjeer, Trimbuk, Mallegaum, and Chunda. But thirty hill fortresses, each of which might have defied the whole Anglo-Indian Army, fell in the course of a few weeks. And all this was done with a very defective engineering department, and without a proper supply of men trained to siege-duty. So deficient was the number even of our artillery officers, that there never were enough of them employed in the same siege to afford a relief At the siege of Asseerghur, in particular, the officers of the Madras artillery actually lived in the batteries. This incessant service was so severe that several of the officers died of sheer fatigue, or were worn out and invalided.[1]
- ↑ Macfarlane's "British India;" Lake's "Journals of the Sieges of the Madras Army."
