EASE OF FIRST VICTORIES IN

BENGAL 173 "bodies of hired troops "*' who usually had no interest in the war be- yond their pay. Between the Marathas, who were spreading over the country from the west, and the Afghans, who had broken in from the north, the inland country was being ruined by rapine and exactions; trade and cultivation had fallen low; and the position of the minor native powers SHIVART HILLS NEAR SALEM IN SOUTHERN INDIA.