112 Lieut. -Colonel Brigg^ Translation of the 



alluded to. To this measure he at length acceded. A member of the 

 family, not hitherto known to exist, was suddenly produced from obscurity ; 

 and on the death of Raja Shao (which happened shortly after) the prince 

 was raised to the throne, and his palace became his prison to the day of his 

 decease. The Peshwa Balaji was not the person who confined the prince in 

 the first instance, but it was his aunt Tara Bhye, an ambitious and clever 

 woman, who hoped by this measure to assume the reins of government, 

 and to subvert the power acquired by the Peshwa. She was, however, 

 caught in her own toils. Balaji resisted her authority in the name of the 

 prince whom he affected to regard as his sovereign, but whose release out 

 of the hands of his aunt he never attempted to effect. From that period 

 till the subversion of the government of the Peshwas, ten years since, the 

 existence of the Rajas of Satara has hardly been known, and their power 

 has been virtually extinct. 



The duty of occupying Malwa, and enforcing obedience to the royal 

 grant, was consigned to two chiefs, Holkar and Sindia ; and their descen- 

 dants still hold that extensive territory, the revenues of which were then 

 estimated at one hundred and fifty lacs of rupees, equal to about a million 

 and a-half sterling. 



One other point of the pohtical relations of the Mahrattas with the 

 Muhammedans seems necessary to explain the narrative which is about to 

 follow. This is, the existence of a very formidable power of the latter 

 nation in the Deccan. This state was the vice-regal government of Hy- 

 drabad, held for several years by the descendants of Nizdm-ul-Mulli, called 

 by us the Nizam. The Mahratta armies, in the course of their operations, 

 either overran the districts of this neiglibour, or by forbearance obtained 

 security for their own country during the absence of their soldiers in 

 other quarters ; and something like a balance of power seems to have 

 been mutually recognized as politic by the parties, which however 

 did not preclude them from occasional contests on questions of local 

 importance. 



Dissensions either at the court of Poona or Hydrabad usually led to 

 these wars ; and an opportunity to support the claims of some exiled relative 

 ever afforded a plea for interference which brought with it the ultimate 

 prospect of aggrandizement. It is not necessary to go into the details of 

 these wars : for the present suffice it to say, that the Peshwa's brother 

 Raghunat'h Rao, had been much employed in active military operations, 



