SEVAJEE. 
213 
ing a natural and almost impregnable barrier against 
irregular and undisciplined troops, was inhabited by a 
hardy and active race. They felt the galling yoke of 
a conqueror. They were encouraged to resistance by 
their distance from the capital of their despot, and 
by the natural barrier which, under judicious manage- 
ment and an enterprising leader, was considered as 
an almost certain protection against the inroads of an 
invading army. Besides this, the Mahomedan nations 
had been involved in such constant wars, and the 
successions of that mighty state were so continually 
disputed and so bloodily contested, that ample op- 
portunities were afforded to a leader of a daring and 
comprehensive mind to assemble the disunited mem- 
bers of a vast and dislocated empire, at a distance 
from the seat of government, and establish them into 
an independent community upon the wreck of that 
power by which they had been subdued. Such a 
leader was Sevajee, the founder of the Mahratta dy- 
nasty, which finally became the most flourishing and 
formidable in Hindostan. 
This hero was born in the year 1627, at Poonah, 
then a village, but afterwards the capital of the Mah- 
ratta empire. He was of noble descent, and great 
pains seem to have been taken in training him early 
to deeds of arms. He despised letters, but, devoting 
himself to military exercises, soon commenced that 
career of enterprise which distinguished him above 
all the heroes of his day. Before he was eighteen, he 
had collected together a band of the inhabitants of his 
native glens, and commenced the daring but inglorious 
profession of a robber. By degrees he became the 
