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Rh deemed prudent to assay the hazardous process of changing horses in mid-stream. So the Governor-General was left free for a time to fight the Company's battles in his own way.

Early in 1778 he empowered the Government of Bombay to form a new alliance with Raghuba and Sakharám Bápu of the Poona Regency against Nána Farnavís and the French. A column of Bengal troops under Colonel Leslie began its march from Kálpi in May, towards the Narbadá. Two months later Alexander Elliot, who had not long returned from England, left Calcutta for Nágpur to negotiate a subsidiary alliance with Mudají Bhonsla, the Maráthá ruler of Berár, 'Elliot is gone. A most critical service,' wrote Hastings to Impey on the 20th July, 'but likely to prove the era of a new system in the British Empire in India, if it succeeds.' Hastings hoped to secure the Rájá's friendship by favouring his claim, as a descendant of Sivají, to the titular headship of the Maráthá nation, in the room of Rám Rájá, lately dead. Before Elliot started on his mission, Mudají had already promised a free passage for Leslie's force through Berár.

Meanwhile Hastings had spared no effort in aid of the projected movement from Bombay. He had sent Governor Hornby ten lakhs of rupees, with a promise of more to follow, had agreed to help him in every way, and had urged the Madras Council to spare some of their own troops for the same purpose. But he found it no easy matter to screw Hornby's courage