A BRIBE OFFERED. 
197 
Colonel Clive, having obtained possession of Geriah, 
took care to prevent the Mahrattas from holding any 
intercourse with the garrison, whom they would have 
bribed to put them in possession. This intention was 
obviated by the vigilance of Colonel Clive, who did 
not permit them to approach the British lines. They 
made an offer of fifty thousand rupees to Captain 
Buchanan and Captain Forbes to be allowed to pass 
their guard; but the offer was rejected with indig- 
nation ; and the Mahrattas, who boast of their wily 
policy, were surprised to find that our officers were 
inaccessible to a bribe, however large, which an East- 
ern prince would not hold it beneath his dignity to 
accept as a full and adequate return for a similar 
benefaction. 
With the surrender of Geriah the power of Angria 
was completely broken, and his adherents dispersed. 
By degrees he was dispossessed of the whole of his 
forts ; and he who had been a terror to all the native 
powers within the influence of his arms soon lost his 
ascendency ; though the descendants of this family, up 
to the latter part of the eighteenth century, committed 
their piratical depredations under the once dreaded 
name of Angria. 
