HISTORY OF MAURITIUS. 
427 
el Muluch, dying in 1740, the Mahrattas, whose districts bordered on the territory 
of Sirpi, raised some troops, and, after having reduced the whole country, invested 
the town of Sirpi, which is the capital of it. Delar Khan, the successor of the late 
Nabob, having neither the courage nor the means to defend it, gave up the place 9 
and consented to retire into a small district near to Colar. 
The conquest of Sirpi and all its dependencies by the Mahrattas, gave great un¬ 
easiness to the Soubah, who, in consequence of his alarm, sent his brother, Basa- 
letzing, with an army, to drive them from Sirpi. As Ascotah, a frontier town of 
Maissour, was the first which he found upon his march, he accordingly invested 
it. Though the garrison did not consist of more than seven hundred men, armed 
after the manner of the country, the place resisted for two months the vigorous 
efforts of the Soubah’s army. 
Haider Aly, who was ever ready to profit of any opportunity which offered to 
aggrandize himself, dispatched Mir Phasula Khan to Basaletzing, brother of the 
Soubah, to offer him five lacks of rupees, if he would yield to him the government 
of Sirpi with its dependencies. He required the aid of the Mahratta troops to take 
the town, but he undertook to subdue the country with his own. 
As soon as the treaty was signed, and the money paid, Haider set out with his 
troops to join the party with which Basaletzing had provided him. He renewed 
the attack on Ascotah, reduced the place in a few days to capitulate, garrisoned it 
with his own troops, and proceeded to besiege Sirpi, which surrendered in about a 
month. After this event the army of the Soubah returned to Adony. 
Haider met with few obstacles in reducing the rest of the country to submission, 
except the Polygars, or mountaineers of Chinnabalaporam, who, in the space of two 
or three months, had killed at least a thousand of his people. As his expedition 
against them was not only attended with great loss, but also with considerable ex¬ 
pence, and having been frequently attacked by the Mahrattas while he was before 
Chinnabalaporam, he proposed to Chinnapah, chief of the Polygars, to retire with 
his army, on condition of being paid five lacks of pagodas. These propositions 
were received, and he accordingly returned with his troops to Divanelly, about the 
distance of three coss, * on the road to Maissour. 
Morarou, one of the Mahratta chiefs, who had assisted in the defence of Chinna- 
* The coss is an itinerary measure of India of about half a league, or thirteen hundred and 
thirty-five fathoms. 
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