m 



they travelled when wanted officially, and were always considered 

 as a most respectable part of the community. As this city had 

 been twice assessed and plundered in the three preceding months, 

 Ragobah's imposition reduced the inhabitants to the greatest 

 distress. The most melancholy scenes occurred in every quarter, 

 of families delivering up their last mite, and houses robbed of 

 every moveable to answer their proportion of the tax: if insuffi- 

 cient, the wretched owners, stripped of clothes and necessaries, 

 were left in nakedness and poverty; or, under pretence of secret- 

 ing valuables they never possessed, tortures were inflicted with 

 merciless rigour. So common are these executions anions;: the 

 Mahrattas, that our allies thought nothing of the cruelties in 

 Neriad. Britons were not so unconcerned, their generous bosoms 

 glowed with indignation against such wanton oppression : but all re- 

 monstrances were vain ; Ragobah and his officers, like Gallio of 

 Achaia, " cared for none of those things." 



When these cruelties and the refusal of the Bhauts to pay 

 the tax were reported in the English camp, the commanding 

 officer sent the brigade-major privately into the town, to convene 

 the principal Bhauts, and assure them if they discharged their 

 quota quietly, they might rely upon protection, sincerely la- 

 menting the necessity of the measure. The heads of the tribe 

 informed the officer they were able to pay more than was de- 

 manded in any other mode, but if Ragobah persisted in com 

 pulsory assessment, they should prefer death to submission. 



These humane remonstrances and persuasions proving ineffec- 

 tual, and Ragobah continuing inexorable, the whole tribe of Bhauts, 

 men, women, and children, repaired to an open space in the city, 



