Page:The Imperial Gazetteer of India - Volume 10 (2nd edition).pdf/380

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368 NORTH-IVESTERN PROVINCES AND OUDH. which the whole of the Oudh dominions in the Doáb, together with Rohilkhand, were made over to the British. The Nawab of Farukhábád, who had thus become a tributary of the Company, ceded his territories in the same year in return for a pension. As early as 1778 a British cantonment had been stationed at CawnPUR, then in the midst of the Nawab Wazir's territory; and around it a grcat commercial city has slowly grown up. In 1801, the British dominions in the present North-Western Provinces were thus confined to the Benares and Taunpur tract, Rohilkhand, and the Lower Doáb, including Allahábád and Cawnpur. Next year, however, the treaty of Bassein was signed with the Peshwa, by which he agreed to cede certain territory in the Deccan to the British of the annual value of 26 lakhs of rupees (£260,000) for the maintenance of an Englislı contingent. By this treaty the British obtained possession of Bundelkhand, though not without the use of force. Sindhia, though nominally the vassıl of the Peshwa, resisted the execution of the treaty; and it became necessary to take up arms against him, both in Hindustán and in the Deccan. Lord Lake's campaign in 1803 against Sindhia's French general, Perron, brought the whole remaining portion of the North-Western Provinces under British rule. He took by storm ALIGARH, Sindhia's great arsenal in the Doáb. Thence he advanced upon Delhi, and within sight of the city defeated General Bourquien, another of Sindhia's partisan leaders, and three days later entered the Mughal capital in triumph. Reinstating the blind old Emperor, Alam Shah, whom the Maráthás had long detained as a prisoner, he advanced upon Agra, which capitulated after a tedious siege. By the treaty of Sirji Arjangáon, which followed these brilliant successes and concluded the campaign, Sindhia agreed to cede all his terri. tories in the Doáb, together with his fiefs on the western bank of the Jumna. The new Districts thus acquired were at once amalgamated with those previously granted by the Nawab Wazír of Oudh, and formed into the Ceded and Conquered' Provinces—a title that long remained in familiar use. After the peace with Sindhia, war with Holkar, another chief of the Marátlá confederacy, followed. It began disadvantageously for the Company, part of whose troops were annihilated as they advanced into Central India. Holkar directed his march on Delhi, but was diverted, and proceeded to lay waste the Doáb. Overtaken by General Lake at Fatehgarh, he was routed and beaten back across the Jumna, only to learn that the rest of his forces had been dispersed at Dig. Then followed the unsuccessful siege of Bhartpur, the famous raid of the Pathán freebooter, Amir Khan, into Rohilkhand, and the renewed pursuit of Holkar by General Lake. A peace was concluded in 1805 by which Gohad and Gwalior were restored to Sindhia, and the Com