Page:The Marquess of Hastings, K.G..djvu/124

116 instrument of a change beneficial to so many of my fellow-creatures .'

The Pindárís under Kárím, Chítu, and Wasil Muhammad, (each. 7,000 to 8,000 horsemen), well aware that measures were in progress for their extinction, attempted to combine during the summer, and held a meeting in the middle of September, to concert some plan for their common safety; but their counsels were divided and jealousies existed among them, so that they could come to no arrangement for their mutual defence; moreover, contrary to previous experience, though the native princes were as anxious as ever to give them protection and urged them to resist, they found to their dismay that none of their patrons were bold enough to give an asylum to their families. Considerably depressed, they remained inactive near Bhilsa and to the west of that place, and lived in hopes that the Maráthás would declare war and divert from them the danger with which they were threatened. Wasil Muhammad was the first to cast off the lethargy that weighed them down, and early in November made a raid into Bundelkhand, contriving to evade General Marshall's advance, by moving round his right flank, and even menaced Bánda, when a detachment sent by the Commander-in-Chief from the Central Division forced him to retreat. Meanwhile on the 12th the circle surrounding them