Page:Historic Landmarks of the Deccan.djvu/231

 THE SECOND MARATHA WAR IN THE DECCAN. I. Assaye.

EARLY in the year 1803 the great Maratha chiefs of Central India were seriously alarmed by an event which directly threatened their independence. Baji Rao Peshwa, driven from his capital by the rebel Jaswant Rao Holkar, was a fugitive in British territory, a rival set up by the rebel occupied his place, and there was no prospect of a restoration but by the help of British bayonets. The price of that help was heavy, being no less than the sacrifice of independence and the acceptance of the position of a feudatory of the East India Company, but the fugitive had no choice but to pay it. Accordingly, on the last day of 1802, he signed the treaty of Bassein, whereby he surrendered his independence as the price of assistance, and in May, 1803, he was reinstated on the masnad at Poona, while Holkar retired to Malwa. Meanwhile Daulat Rao Sindhya and Raghuji Bhonsla had been in communication regarding the action to be taken by them as a protest against the treaty Of Bassein, for they contested the right of the Peshwa to conclude such a treaty without consulting the other members of the Maratha confederacy. Sindhya was at Burhanpur, and, though he endeavoured to conceal his preparations, his attitude was so threatening that he was called upon by the Governor-General, Lord Wellesley, to declare his intentions; to which demand he replied that he would answer after he had met Raghuji Bhonsla. Shortly after this Sindhya and Bhonsla joined forces and advanced southwards into the Nizam's dominions. By this time Major-General Arthur Wellesley, who had been detached from the Madras army with 8,000 infantry and 1,700 cavalry, and Colonel Stevenson with the Haidarabad Subsidiary Force, were ready to act against the allies, who had failed to induce Holkar to join them. In July Wellesley was encamped in the neighbourhood of Ahmadnagar, the old capital of the Nizam Shahi dynasty, Stevenson being on the Godavari; and by the beginning of August the allies had advanced to Malkapur in Berar. General Wellesley, who had full power as agent to the Qovernor-Genefal,