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60 pillaged with indiscriminate ruthlessness north and south of the Narbadá — in the Gangetic valley and in the uplands of the Deccan. His descendants reigned at Sátára, far to the south; but a race of hereditary ministers had eclipsed the lineal heads of the confederacy, and the Peshwás at Poona had won their way to an acknowledged headship. Another powerful subordinate had started an independent princedom in Berár, with Nagpur for his capital; another became a Sovereign at Baroda; Sindhia gathered his retainers at Gwalior; Holkar at Indore. Far and wide, across India, from Gujarát to Cuttack — from the Jumna to the Karnátic — these fierce communities had made the thunder of the Maráthá horsemen a sound of terror. At the beginning of the century their mutual animosities brought a nobler combatant upon the scene, and Arthur Wellesley had crushed a Maráthá army at Assaye. Later victories made the English masters of Delhi, Agra, and a wide tract of country north of the Jumna. The Province of Orissa was taken from the Maráthá Chieftain of Nágpur. Holkar still held his ground, and Lord Wellesley's closing years were chequered by inglorious reverses and baffled schemes. Lord Cornwallis arrived in 1805 with a mission of peace; but the day of peace was not yet dawning. Twelve years later Lord Hastings found himself committed to another Maráthá War. The Peshwá struck a bold blow for his ascendancy — bold, but ineffectual. He was vanquished, lost his kingdom and his Maráthá headship, and retired, a pensioner