Page:The Marquess of Hastings, K.G..djvu/100

92 The horrors perpetrated by these demons at other places made the poor villagers, totally unarmed and incapable of resistance, fly to the desperate resolution of burning themselves with their wives and children. The houses were all of wood and palm-leaf mats; so that most of them being set fire to at once, the dreadful sacrifice was immediately fulfilled. Some boys who had not the courage to bear the flames, escaped, and explained the circumstance. All the remainder of the inhabitants perished; and I am strictly forbidden by the Court of Directors to undertake the suppression of the fiends who occasioned this heart-rending scene, lest I should provoke a war with the Maráthás. Hundreds of women belonging to other villages have drowned themselves in the wells, not being able to survive the pollution they had suffered. All the young girls are carried off by the Pindárís, tied three or four, like calves on a horse, to be sold. ... They carried off booty to the value of more than a million sterling .'

In March, 1816, Wazír Muhammad of Bhopál died, and was succeeded by his son Nasír Muhammad, a young prince whose power to sustain his position amid the troubles that surrounded him appeared to be very doubtful: an application was immediately made for protection, but Lord Hastings, being hampered in this matter by the home authorities, had reluctantly to forego the great advantages which he saw must result from a treaty with that state, and was obliged to limit his answer to general sentiments of goodwill and amity.

In the same month, however, an important event took place in Nágpur; Rájá Raghují the reigning