14 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTRAL INDIA. 



these central regions, who, like the vulture, sallied forth from 

 their fastnesses in some secluded wild to gorge on the prey 

 struck down by a nobler hand. Thenceforth, for nearly 

 twenty years, the hill-tribe3, Pindari plunderers, and lawless 

 Maratha soldiery, with their daggers at each others throats, 

 were unanimous only in robbing the husbandmen of the plains, 

 who ploughed their fields by night with swords and match- 

 locks tied to the shafts of their ploughs, or purchased peace 

 by heavy payments of blackmail. Vast areas of the country 

 that had been reclaimed by their industry were again aban- 

 doned to the jungle and the wild beast ; and only round the 

 walls of fortified villages, within which the people and their 

 herds could retreat in time of need, was any tillage main- 

 tained at all. 



In the year 1818 this unheard-of anarchy was terminated 

 by our final success against the Marathas, and the extermina- 

 tion of the Pindari bands. But we entered on the possession 

 of our new territories to find them almost desolated by a 

 quarter of a century of the utter absence of government, with 

 the hill population frenzied by the excitement of a life of 

 plunder, and branded with the character of " savage and in- 

 tractable foresters." The Sagar and Narbada territories, as 

 the northern half of the country was then called, were ac- 

 quired by us in full sovereignty after this war. The southern 

 portion remained nominally the territory of the feudatory 

 Baja of Nagpur, but had long been under British administration 

 when, in 1854, it too was annexed on failure of heirs. The 

 Gavilgarh hills, in the extreme south-west, formed part of 

 the Nizam's territory of Berar ; but that also has for many 

 years been under British management. 



With the establishment of a strong government the hill- 

 men soon proved how greatly they were maligned when 



