Page:History of India Vol 8.djvu/417

Rh overawe the freebooter Amir Khan, who was about to overrun the Nagpur country. From 1811 to 1813 the Pindaris increased rapidly in numbers. The origin of these famous bands is to be found in the scouts and foragers who had always formed the loose fringe, so to speak, of every Indian army, receiving no pay, and subsisting by pillage, but generally submitting to the orders of the commander of the whole force.

As the regular armies of the native states were reduced, and as the governments lost strength, these bands detached themselves from all military or civil subordination and set up as hordes of free lances under their own leaders. By this time they had invaded, plundered, and ransomed the territories of the Nizam and the Peshwa, the allies of the British, and now they were threatening with fire and sword the rich English province of Behar. The principle of non-interference seems to have been defended upon the ground that all these jarring and complicated elements of disorder would gradually settle down and become fused into strong and solidly constituted states. But it soon became manifest that an attempt to confine epidemic disease within fixed areas in the midst of some populous country would be not much more unreasonable than the plan of allowing political disorders to breed and multiply in the centre of India.

In the first place the Maratha chiefs were sullen, discontented, naturally ill-disposed toward the government which had recently overthrown their predominance, and seeking by all means to repair and augment