308 GOVERNOR- GENERALSHIP OF LORD WELLESLEY

French officers was the only support of his authority. Mornington wrote that these trained battalions at Hai- darabad were the main root of the Nizam's disaffection; he believed that if they were brought into the field to take part in a battle against Tippu, they would almost certainly march over at once to Tippu 's side. THE JAMI 4 MASJID, OB GREAT MOSQUE, AT DELHI. At Poona, the Maratha capital, the influence of Dau- lat Rao Sindhia (Mahadaji's successor) was now com- plete; he also held in sovereignty large tracts in Cen- tral India; and had extended his territorial annexations northwestward up to Delhi, outflanking Oudh and the English possessions in Bengal. He was, in short, the most considerable prince in Central and Northern India, where he maintained an ambiguous attitude, overawing