A History of the Mahrattas v1.c22.35

v1.c22.35

The Emperor, in the first instance, agreed to relinquish, in the form of an assignment, thirteen lacks of rupees of the revenue of the districts south of the Chumbul for the ensuing season, payable by three instalments at stated periods; and to grant an authority to the Peishwa to levy a tribute from the Rajpoot states, from Boondee and Kotah on the west to Budawur on the east, fixing the annual amount at ten lacks and sixty thousand rupees. The latter concession Khan Dowran probably expected, was more likely to create enmity than to establish friendship between the Mahrattas and the Rajpoots. This minister imagined himself superior to a Mahratta Bramin in political artifice, and continued to negotiate, when he should have had no thought but to chastise. The Raja Jey Sing was the medium through whom Khan Dowran sent an envoy of his own, named Yadgar Khan, to treat with Bajee Rao. The Sunnuds for the Chouth and Surdeshmookhee were secretly prepared, and given to the agent with instructions to reserve them; but Dhondoo Punt Poorundhuree, the Peishwa’s wukeel, residing with Khan Dowran, discovered this preliminary admission and apprised Bajee Rao of the circumstance. Mahrattas in every negotiation invariably begin by requiring much more than they expect. If they find their proposal acceded to they rise in their pretensions, and very often, from a tone of the most obsequious complaisance, assume an overbearing insolence of manner and a style of pointed threat and menace, which, to those who have only seen them submissive, is scarcely conceivable.