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Rh adopted; and the Governor-General was instructed to despatch to Egypt, by way of the Red Sea, a force of about a thousand Europeans, and two thousand native infantry, under the command of an active and intelligent officer. These instructions were immediately acted upon; and, early in the year 1801, the troops sailed for Egypt, under the command of General Baird, with all practicable expedition. General Baird and his army, after performing a march of extraordinary peril and difficulty across the desert, proceeded down the Nile to Rhonda, from whence they advanced to Rosetta. But the fate of the French attempt upon Egypt had been already decided; and the Indian reinforcement enjoyed no opportunity of gaining distinction, except by its patient and cheerful submission to hardships and toils, and the ready surrender by the native portion of the troops of their prejudices to their sense of military duty.

At the commencement of the year 1802, the Marquis Wellesley, whose policy was everywhere throughout India crowned with the most brilliant success, intimated to the Court of Directors his desire to resign his office, owing to some proceedings on the part of that body, which seemed to indicate a withdrawal of their confidence in his measures. The Court of Directors, however, requested him to prolong his stay for another year; and he consented, in consequence of the threatening posture of affairs which had sprung up between the British Government and the Mahrattas, pregnant with events of more than ordinary interest and importance.

In a former chapter we have narrated the steps by which these people, under their founder Sevajee, raised themselves on the decline of the Mogul empire, until they ultimately became the most powerful instrument of its overthrow. They would even have occupied its place, but for two mighty defeats they sustained from the formidable armies of the Affghans; but as the latter did not attempt a permanent establishment in the Indian peninsula, the Mahrattas again acquired a decided pre-