Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan.djvu/44

38 that both the Morattoe armies should be immediately withdrawn, and three millions more as soon as they should be arrived in their own country. Accordingly it was agreed that Ballerow and Allaverdy should meet and confer together on the 30th of March; but some motions made that day by the troops of Ragojee causing Allaverdy to suspect treachery, he returned to his camp when on the way to the place appointed. However, on the 3d of April they met. The conference lasted two hours, during which the treaty was ratified. Ragojee dissembled his disapprobation, until all the Morattoes had quitted the island of Cossimbuzar, when he openly refused to accept the treaty; and Ballerow, who had received the two millions of rupees, gave himself no trouble either to persuade or Compel him, but marched away with his own troops and the money.

Allaverdy, more satisfied with having removed one half of his enemies, than disappointed at the refusal of Ragojee, immediately marched against him. But the Morattoes, as usual, avoided all encounters of risque, and ravaged the defenceless parts of the country until the month of June, when they retired into Orixa, and in a few days reduced the whole province; of which Ragojee, with the consent of his officers, gave the government to Meer-abib. As soon as the rainy season was passed, some of their detachments again infested Bengal; and in March 1744, new parties, allured by the success of their countrymen, traversed, plundering as they went, all Behar and Bengal, in their way to the main body, which remained in Orixa. The three following months Allaverdy was employed in beating up the parties that remained in Bengal, and as soon as the rains ceased, he marched with his whole force into Orixa; where by continual stratagems he brought on several encounters, in which the Morattoes suffered considerably; and pursuing these advantages, he in less than three months obliged them to quit the province and retire to the westward. However, he was scarcely returned to Muxadavad, in February 1745, when they renewed their incursions; but their detachments were not formidable enough to require the same stress of opposition which had hitherto employed his whole force