Page:The Marquess of Hastings, K.G..djvu/59

Rh Gáekwár which were still unsettled, and which under the treaty of Bassein were controlled by the British authority; he resented this treaty and its consequences, and regretted his loss of influence; he was outwardly peaceable, but under this mask he was busily engaged in recovering his former ascendency over his confederates, in consolidating his power, and in secretly forming a powerful combination of native states to dispute British supremacy in the East. In short, among all the Maráthá chiefs there was, in 1813, a growing feeling that the time was approaching when they could avenge the past with impunity, drive the English out of India, and regain once more their ancient independence.

But there were two other powers, or rather associations, which played an important part in the events now under review. The Pindárís and the Patháns became a source of great danger, and their power to produce disorder, increasing in a very alarming manner between 1805 and 1813, is traceable to the settlement effected in the former year. The Pindárís originally were Hindu outlaws who, frustrating the efforts of Aurangzeb to suppress them, added their strength to that of Sivají, the first Maráthá chief, who towards the end of the seventeenth century wrested power from the Mughals. As the Empire crumbled to pieces, so did they arise in fresh force, and,