< Page:History of India Vol 8.djvu
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380 GO VEENOE- GENERALSHIP OF LOED HASTINGS

and protectorate over every native state in the interior of India. In such a cause, however, the hearty co-operation of the Maratha princes could not reasonably be ex- pected. Amir Khan, the Pathan leader, was persuaded or intimidated into disbanding his army and settling down on the lands guaranteed to him. But Sindhia reluctantly agreed to associate himself with the cam- paign against the Pindaris; he delayed the departure of his troops with the manifest purpose of watching events, and was overawed into signing a treaty of co- operation only by* the display of force. The Peshwa, galled by the yoke which the recent treaty had fixed upon him, collected his forces and broke out into open hostility, attacking the British troops at Poona in No- vember, 1817; while at Nagpur the raja declared for him as the head of the Maratha nation and sent his own troops against the British Residency. On both occa- sions the Marathas were repulsed, though not without stout fighting at Nagpur; and as Holkar's army, which attempted to join the Peshwa, had been defeated at Mehidpur in December of the previous year, the oppo- sition of the Maratha powers to the Governor-General's policy of pacification soon came to an end. The Peshwa, pursued by the British flying columns, fought one or two sharp actions; but his troops were at last scattered, his forts were taken, and he himself was pursued until he finally surrendered in June, 1818, upon an assurance of suitable provision. Lord Hastings had determined to exclude him and his family from

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