Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 5.djvu/368

354 Corah, on condition that they restored him to the sovereignty of Delhi. The Mahrattas gladly caught at this offer, and by the end of the year 1771 they had borne the mogul in triumph into his ancient capital of Delhi.

This was precisely such a case as the directors were on the watch for. Their historian, Mill, says, in their letter to Bengal of the 11th of November, 1768, they had said: "If the emperor flings himself into the hands of the Mahrattas, or any other power, we are disengaged from him, and it may open a fair opportunity of withholding the twenty-six lacs of rupees we now pay him." The opportunity had now come, and was immediately seized on by Hastings to rescind the payment of the money altogether, and he prepared to seize the two provinces of Allahabad and Corah.



"Thus," adds Mill, "they had plundered the unhappy emperor of twenty-six lacs of rupees per annum, and the two provinces of Corah and Allahabad, which they sold to the vizier (the nabob of Oude) for fifty lacs of rupees, on the plea that he had forfeited them by his alliance with the Mahrattas; as though he were not free, if one party would not assist him to regain his rights, to seek that assistance from another."

This bargain was settled between the vizier and Hastings at Benares, in September, 1773.

But the nabob of Oude held out new temptations of gain to Hastings. The Rohillas, a tribe of Afghans, had, earlier in that century, descended from their mountains and conquered the territory lying between the Ganges and the mountains to the west of Oude. They had given it the name of Rohilcund. These brave warriors would gladly have been allies of the English, and applied to Sujah Dowlah to bring about such an alliance. Dowlah made fair promises, but he had other views. He hoped, by the assistance of the English, to conquer Rohilcund and add it to Oude. He had no hope that his rabble of the plains could stand against this brave mountain race, and he now artfully stated to Hastings that the Mahrattas were at war with the Rohillas. If they conquered them, they would next attack Oude, and, succeeding there, would descend the Ganges and spread over all Bahar and Bengal. He therefore proposed that the English should assist him to conquer Rohilcund for himself, and add it to Oude. For this service he would pay all the expenses of the campaign, the English army would