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29. which he felt against them at the close of his Indian career.
The Marathas. Treaty with the Peshwa. Submission of Bhonsla.
The most ambitious of Wellesley's schemes of Empire was that which he entertained with regard to the Marathas. This mighty race, which occupied the whole of Central India, from Cuttack on the east-coast to Gujarat in the West, & stretched to the dominions of the Nizam in the South & the Great Mughal in the North, this vast people, though nominally still under the dominion of the decayed Mughal Empire, was in reality divided into several kingdoms under various Maratha chiefs. Of these the most important were the Peshwa, whose capital was Poona; Sindhia & Holkar, two powerful princes whose dominions - much complicated the one one with the other - lay to the East of the Gujarat; & Bhonsla, the Raja of Berar, whose territory stretched over practically the whole of the Eastern part of the Maratha country. These various states were always fighting amongst themselves for power. Since 1801 Sindhia & Holkar had been at war with one another, & Baji Rao, the Peshwa, had joined Sindhia. On October 25th, 1802, Hokar won a decisive vic-
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30. tory & entered Poona in triumph. Baji Rao fled, & came to Bassein. Wellesley thought it a fit opportunity for British interference. By the subsidiary treaty of Bassein, signed on December 6th, 1802, the Peshwa was to receive permanently from the Company six battalions of infantry, for which he yielded to the Company districts with a revenue of about [pound symbol] 250,000 per annum. He was, moreover, to wage no war without the Company's consent, & the Company were to supervise his treaties & mediate in all his claims. Mill's chief accusation against Wellesley here is that such a treaty meant certain war. To this it may be answered that in all probability war was in any case inevitable. The effecty of the treaty was to draw the Maratha nations together, despite their quarrels, against the common foreign foe. Bhonsla & Sindhia united their forces, but were unable to persuade Holkar to join them, though he had consented to a truce with Sindhia. On May 13th, 1803 the Peshwa returned under British protection to Poona. Bhonsla & Sindhia refused to retire peacefully with their armies to their own dominions, &
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31. Wellesley thereupon gave orders for the commencement of the war. His plans included the crushing of the power of Bhonsla & Sindhia, the destruction of all the French power that still existed, & a wide scheme of territorial extension. The minor successes which took place in Cuttack & Gujarat may be passed over as not having seriously affected the resultof the war; but the two main sections of the British army were those commanded by General Arthur Wellesley in Berar, & General Lake in Hindustan. General Wellesley, who was assisted by Colonel Stevenson, had under his command between 16,000 & 17,000 men. His first success was the capture of Ahmadnagar on August 12th. He pushed on, slowly approaching the united forces of Bhonsla & Sindhia, until on September 23rd, the two armies met at Assaye. Space does not permit us to give even the barest account either of this great victory or of those which followed it. The enemy, though ten times our numbers, & trained by French men, & helped by a small number of French troops, were utterly routed. On November 29th, General Wellesley won