Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan, Volume 1.djvu/434

426 to acknowledge the authority of Salabad-jing, and had lately entered into a defensive alliance with the Morattoe Morari-row, who withthe same spirit of independence had likewise refused to pay allegiance to his sovereign the Sahah Rajah, or Prince of the Morattoe nations. The city of Savanore, or Sanore, lyeth about 200 miles south-west of Golcondah, and about 30 to the north-west of Bisnagar: it is extensive, well peopled, situated in a great plain, and surrounded by a wall with round bastions and towers. On a rock about a mile and a half from the city is a very strong fortress, called Bancapour, whence the capital is generally called by the two names together of Sanore Bancapour, to distinguish it from another town belonging to a Polygar in those countries, which is likewise called Sanore. The country of which Morari-row had taken possession, lies about 220 miles south of Golcondah; to the north it adjoins the territory of Canoul; to the south, the country of Colala; and to the west, the country of Sanore Bancapour. At the time of this expedition against the Pitan and the Morattoe, Seid Laskar-Khan no longer held the office of Duan to Salabad-jing: for notwithstanding the oaths of his reconciliation with Mr. Bussy at Aurengabad in 1753, he secretly continued to thwart all his purposes; on conviction of which Mr. Bussy removed him from that employment, and in his stead replaced Shanavaze Khan, who himself had been removed for the other. At what time this change was made, we do not know; but Shanavaze Khan was at the head of the administration when the army took the field, and had as much concealed aversion to the French interests as his predecessor. Jaffer Ally Khan, the late Nabob of Rajahmundrum, had received lands in the Decan in Jagier, or fief, from Salabad-jing, when he made his submissions at Aurengabad in 1754; and, in consequence of this feudal obligation, now accompanied his lord with a body of troops: he was esteemed an active soldier, and having been deprived of his government because his country had been ceded to the French company, bore much hatred to Mr. Bussy and all his nation: being therefore united with Shanavaze Khan, the friends and connexions of both formed a very powerful party, determined if possible to rescue Salabad-jing from the influence which his European allies had obtained over all his councils.