A History of the Mahrattas v1.c30.33

v1.c30.33

The season of the year prevented Mahdoo Rao from taking immediate notice of the hostile intentions of Janojee, but he was publicly engaged in negotiations with Nizam Ally and with Hyder, in which he had a triple object: his chief design was to punish Janojee, and his first care was to engage Nizam Ally in an alliance for that purpose; the second was to draw the tribute from Mysore without the necessity of sending Gopaul Rao’s army from Merich, as Hyder, fully occupied in the war with the English, might be thrown off his guard by his extreme anxiety to procure the aid of the Mahrattas; the third object was to deter the Bengal Government from entering on an alliance earnestly solicited by Janojee, from the fear that Mahdoo Rao, aided by Hyder and Nizam Ally, would ruin the Company’s affairs on the coast of Coromandel before their forces from Bengal could join Janojee in Berar.