Page:The Marquess of Hastings, K.G..djvu/62

54 inroad into a British province was facilitated by the assistance of the Rájá of Rewá, a protected prince, and measures were in consequence taken against him, which were not concluded when Lord Hastings reached India.

The Patháns differed in some respects from the Pindárís; unlike the latter they were composed of paid troops who did not subsist on disorderly plunder, nor were they composed of cavalry only, but reckoned among their forces the most efficient native infantry then known in India which was not commanded by Europeans, as well as very useful artillery; they were therefore more regular in their habits and more disciplined in their demeanour than the Pindárís, banding themselves together in order to prey upon governments and princes, whereas the others ravaged defenceless villages and tortured the unfortunate inhabitants. But they resembled each other in being bodies of organised freebooters, without territorial relations and without responsible chiefs, who lived on rapine and disorder, and who caused serious trouble to the Government of Calcutta. Indeed the Patháns, and to a certain extent the Pindárís, were not unlike the Free Companies which in the Middle Ages overran parts of Europe, now enlisting as mercenaries under some prince, again fighting for their own hand and advantage, often plundering, and in every case oppressing both rulers and people. The Patháns devoted their energies more especially to Rájputána, and devastated that peculiarly disturbed