CONDUCT OF NATIVE PRINCES. 369 CHAP. VIII. 1818. chiefs, was at once paralysed, and the army of the BOOK II. Dekhin was well suited to curb the discontent of the Peshwa and the Raja of Nagpur, had they not with inconceivable desperation, defied consequences and rushed upon their fate. It is not easy to comprehend the motives which urged the Peshwa into a deadly rupture with his allies, at a moment when his dominions were occupied, and his communications intercepted by armies to which he had nothing to oppose. He no doubt over-rated both the disposition and the ability of Sindhia to assist him, and he probably exaggerated the embarrassments and difficulties of the attack upon the Pindaris. He was not ignorant, however, of the resources of the British, or of the comparative insignificance of his own, nor was he destitute of judgment or sagacity. It is not, however, inconsistent with the native character, to throw away in a fit of extreme irritation the fruits of a long course of caution and craftiness, and to dare inevitable destruction. Without question, however, he relied upon a larger measure of forbearance than he experienced, and looking back to the excessive lenity which had been displayed to Sindhia and Holkar at the close of the last war, expected no heavier retribution than an augmented subsidy and territorial sequestration. The conduct of Apa Saheb was, if possible, still more insane than that of Baji Rao. Inconvenient as he might feel the engagements which he had contracted, yet it was to them that he owed even what he possessed. His power was the work of his allies, and if the price he paid for it was heavy, he VOL. II. BB BOOK II. had yet no reason to believe that it was incapable CHAP. VIII. of alleviation. His only plea in vindication of his 1818. conduct, was his allegiance to the Peshwa, a plea scarcely compatible with his position, as the Bhonsla Rajas had never regarded themselves as vassals of the Peshwa, and had not unfrequently been their opponents. The plea was a mere excuse for the indulgence of a rash and restless nature. His treachery could not have been an element in the estimate of probable foes, but the arrangements that had been made were adequate to the unexpected contingency. The hostility of Holkar was an occurrence upon which anticipation was less at fault. The inefficiency of the Government of the State was matter of universal notoriety, and the predominating influence of the military leaders was likely to compel it to warfare. Their interests were involved; they were a part of the predatory system. Whatever, therefore, might have been thought of the disproportion between the magnitude of the original preparations, and the objects for which they were originally designed, events vindicated in a remarkable manner the wisdom and foresight with which the Marquess of Hastings had adopted so extensive a scale. Contingencies which were unforeseen, as well as those which had been anticipated, were fully provided for, and not only had the predatory hordes been extirpated, but the princes who came forward in their support had shared their downfall. Every object that could have been proposed had been triumphantly achieved, and a single campaign had totally changed the political aspect of HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA. 371 CHAP. VIII. Hindustan. The extent of the transformation will BOOK II. be best understood when we shall have completed the narrative of military operations. 1818. CHAPTER IX. Barbarian races of the ranges of hills along the Nerbudda.-Gonds, Bhils, &c.—Measures against the depredations of the latter in Kandesh and Malwa. -Operations against the Gonds, and other adherents of Apa Saheb.-His refuge in the Mahadeo Hills.-Irregular bands in his service.-Desultory hostilities.-Defeat of a British detachment.—Death of Captain Sparkes.-Extension of the insurrection.-Checked.-Many parties cut up.-Troops penetrate into the hills.-Gond villages destroyed.— Concerted plan of operations.-The Mahadeo Hills ascended.-Apa Saheb leaves the hills, accompanied by Cheetoo.-Flies to Asir.-Not allowed to remain. Assumes the disguise of an Ascetic.Makes his way to Mundi.-Cheetoo not admitted into Asir.-Flies to the thickets.-Killed by a tiger. -Asirgerh demanded from Sindhia.-Jeswant Rao Lar ordered to deliver up the fort.—Procrastination. -The fort besieged.-Lower fort taken.-Upper surrendered. -Documents proving Sindhia's insincerity.-Asirgerh retained.-Close of the warIts results.-Territorial acquisitions from the Peshwa.-System of Management.-From Holkar BOOK II. From Sindhia-From Nagpur.-Territorial arrangements with the Nizam-With the Gaekwar. -Political Results. THE Vindhya and Sathpura ranges of hills, which accompany the Nerbudda, from its source to its ter818. mination in the Gulph of Cambay, following nearly parallel lines on the north and south of the course of the river; expanding at its eastern extremity into a mountain rampart, which separates Bengal and Orissa from Berar, and at the western into a similar, but less extensive barrier, dividing Malwa from Kandesh and Guzerat; appear to have afforded an asylum to the aboriginal inhabitants of central India when they retreated before the southern progress of the Brahmanical Hindus. In the middle portion of this line, the hills sink down to their lowest elevations, and they accordingly afford the most practicable routes from the Dekhin to Hindustan, and are the seat of several populous and flourishing towns; but the country on the east and west presents a succession of hills, of greater, although not very lofty height, which are rendered difficult and dangerous of access, by dense and insalubrious thickets, amidst which existence is secure only to the beasts of the forest, or the scarcely tamer human beings whom habit has fortified against the pestiferous vapours by which their haunts are best protected against the encroachments of more civilised tribes. The most eastern of these hills, from the confines of the British possessions to the borders of Berar, are the loftiest and most inaccessible, and much of the country is even yet unexplored. BARBAROUS TRIBES. 373 CHAP. IX. 1818. They are tenanted by various barbarous races, of BOOK II. whom the principal are the Koles, the Khands, and the Gonds, living in villages among the forests, under their own chiefs; practising, in some places, a limited agriculture, but more usually subsisting on the produce of their cattle, the gleanings of the chase, or the wild fruits, herbs, and grain, which are the spontaneous growth of the thickets. The want of wholesome nutriment is in some measure compensated by the use of fiery spirits, to which the people are immoderately addicted. They are as scantily clothed as fed, and are armed chiefly with bows and arrows, large knives, and occasionally with matchlocks. Although sometimes professing to respect the few ignorant Brahmans who may have settled among them, this is not universally the case, and they cannot be said to follow the Brahmanical religion. The objects of their rude worship, which is commonly sanguinary, and sometimes comprises human victims, are local divinities, as the Deity of the Earth, or the presiding Genii over certain mountain peaks; or shapeless blocks of wood or stone, occasionally dignified with denominations borrowed from the Hindu Pantheon-particularly with the name of Siva, and his wife Parvati: in some few places, also, Mahadeo, in his ordinary type, seems to have been adopted as one of their gods. The Koles, called in some places also Lurka Koles,' are found 1 Of the Koles, or Lurka Koles, little authentic information has been published, and that little has appeared in ephemeral publications. According to Lieutenant Blunt, he met with Koles near the river Sôn, on the eastern confines of Rewa, while all the mountain tribes, from the northern limits of Ruttenpur, towards the confines of Berar and Hyderabad, between them and the Mahanadi, he calls Gonds.-Journey from Chunar |