A History of the Mahrattas v1.c26.31

v1.c26.31

In the early part of these discussions, the Peishwa was employed at Savanoor. When he was urging Sulabut Jung to enter on that expedition, in order to excite the jealousy of Bussy and blind his usual penetration with regard to the design which was in progress, Ballajee Rao wrote to the Presidency of Madras for a supply of European artillery-men and guns. The members of that government were not quite certain who this Ballajee Rao was; ‘but as according to the best information they could obtain, he was said to be the head of all the Mahrattas,’ they agreed to assist him, if he would send a detachment of his army to meet and escort their troops to his camp.¹ The Peishwa’s whole object consisted in the application, and there the matter of course dropped. The army of Sulabut Jung having joined the Mahrattas, Bussy, than whom no Frenchman better knew the art of display, prepared his artillery, and in the face of the two armies, amounting to one hundred thousand men, opened a fire on Savanoor, so heavy and efficacious as to intimidate the garrison and excite the lasting admiration of the besiegers. Prior to this the Peishwa, through the agency of Bulwunt Rao Mendlee,² one of his own officers, had contrived to detach the Ghorepurays from the alliance,³ and Moorar Rao, in consequence, it is said, of his former engagements with the French, procured the interposition of Bussy in his favour with the government of Sulabut Jung,⁴ of which this Mahratta chief was, it will be recollected, a dependant.⁵ The Nabob of Savanoor⁶ was admitted to terms, and on giving up a part of his territory, and making due submission to Sulabut Jung and the Peishwa, a reconciliation took place. Muzuffir Khan was entertained, probably at first secretly, in the service of Sulabut Jung, and Moorar Rao Ghorepuray, with his own and the Sondoore Mahrattas, returned to Gootee in the month of May.