

DISTURBANCES AT NAGPORE. 203 



but all the passes were strictly guarded. His distress be- 

 came greater every day ; his followers deserted in vast num- 

 bers, and the English drew their nets round him so closely 

 that he could not hope long to escape. He then opened a 

 correspondence with Sir John Malcolm. After some dis- 

 cussion, it was agreed that he should surrender, and that, 

 on being secured in a pension of eight lacks of rupees (about 

 100,000/.), he should renounce the dignity of peishwa, with 

 all his claims as a sovereign ; spending the rest of his days 

 in some holy city at a distance from the seat of his former 

 dominion. The sum was regarded by the Marquis of Hast- 

 ings as too large ; though, considering it as the final adjust- 

 ment with a prince who ranked in authority and power 

 above all others at that time in India, it docs not appear 

 very extravagant. The apprehension that his revenue 

 would be employed by him as an instrument for regaining 

 his political influence has not been realized. The ex- 

 peishwa almost immediately resigned himself to voluptuous 

 indulgences, to which he had been always addicted, and 

 sought to drown in them every recollection of his former 

 schemes and greatness. 



While the territory of Poonah was agitated by these 

 violent commotions, a scene almost exactly similar was 

 passing at Nagpore. Appa Saheb had invited the British 

 troops with the sole view of maintaining his own situation 

 as regent ; and so long as he judged them necessary for that 

 object he remained faithful. At length he got rid by assas- 

 sination of the young prince, and placed himself on the 

 guddee, as the seat was called to which the dignity of rajah 

 was attached. He then considered himself independent of 

 foreign aid, and began to view it with the dislike so gene- 

 rally felt by all persons in his condition. He was thus led 

 to enter into that confederacy against the British power 

 which was formed among the Mahratta chiefs in conse- 

 quence of the Pindaree war. He was observed to carry on 

 a most active correspondence with the peishwa whilo the 

 latter was maturing his plans of aggression. The first 

 treaty which that prince was compelled to sign greatly 

 abated the courage of his ally, which was revived, however, 

 by the intelligence of his having again taken up amis and 

 attacked tho English subsidiary force. The subsequent 

 retreat of Bajee Rao threw him into much hesitation anil 



