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Rh mising guarantees, we retained, as has been said, certain great states within the sphere of our surveillance; but we left almost all Central India, including Rajputana, to take care of itself. All round our own territories we drew a cordon of rigid irresistible order; while outside this ring-fence, in the great interior region that contained the principalities of the Maratha families and of the ancient Rajput chiefs, we allowed a free hand to Sindhia, Holkar, and the predatory leaders. Scattered among the Maratha territories were a crowd of tribal chiefships and petty feudatories in various stages of dependence. Beyond the Maratha border, toward the great western desert, lay the Rajput states, too weak and disunited to oppose the exactions and dilapidations of great predatory armies.

BAKHLAWAR SINGH'S CENOTAPH AT ULWAR IN RAJPUTANA.