CHA P T E R XV, 
Soon after the conquest of Salsette I obtained one of the ap- 
pointments generally given to the civil servants, with the detach- 
ment of British forces sent from Bombay to the assistance of 
Ragonath-Row, at that time the reigning sovereign of the Mali- 
ratlas, though he had then been driven from his capital by the 
confederate ministers; and when the Bombay government resolved 
to reinstate him on the musnud at Poonah, he was encamped with 
his army in the province of Guzerat, waiting for the junction of 
the English troops. 
That a war, which, in its consequences, has engaged the East 
India Company in various treaties and alliances with the Mah- 
rattas, may be better understood, I shall give some account of that 
extraordinary nation; who, by their caste, are accounted among 
the lower tribes of the Hindoos; but by courage, policy, and per- 
severance, are become the most powerful and formidable people in 
Hindostan. 
Having already described the Hindoos, in their national and 
individual character, it is only necessary, in this place, to recapi- 
tulate a few circumstances, in which the Mahrattas are generally 
included. Their religious tenets are mild and benevolent; and, 
