A History of the Mahrattas v1.c6.3

v1.c6.3

On the subversion of the government of the Peishwas the most important of their state papers, and of their public and secret correspondence, were made over to me by Mr. Elphinstone, when he was acting under the orders of the Marquis of Hastings as sole commissioner for the settlement of the conquered territory in the Deccan. Captain Henry Dundas Robertson, collector and magistrate of Poona, with Mr. Elphinstone's sanction, allowed confidential agents employed by me, to have access to the mass of papers which were found in the apartments of the Peishwa's palaces. The Mahratta revenue state accounts were examined and extracted for me by the late Lieutenant John Macleod when first assistant to Mr. Chaplin who succeeded Mr. Elphinstone as commissioner for the conquered territory. The records of the Satara government were under my own immediate charge, and many original papers of historical importance, the existence of which was unknown to the Peishwas, were confided to me by the Raja. Mr. Elphinstone, when governor of Bombay, gave me free access to the records of that government; I had read the whole both public and secret up to 1795, and had extracted what formed many large volumes of matter relative to my subject, when Mr. Warden the chief secretary, who had from the first afforded every facility to my progress, lent me a compilation from the records, made by himself, which shortened my subsequent labours and afforded materials amply sufficient, as far as regarded English history, for the years that remained. Mr. Romer, political agent at Surat, not only read, and at his own expense extracted the whole of the records of the old Surat factory, but also sent me an important manuscript history in the Persian language which when referred to, as an authority, is acknowledged in its proper place. The viceroy of Goa most liberally furnished me with extracts from the records of the Portuguese government and the Court of Directors allowed me to have partial access to those in the East India House for some particulars from the Bengal correspondence, and for authenticating a variety of facts, originally obtained from Mahratta authorities, but of which there is no trace in the secretary's office at Bombay. The gentlemen of the India House were on every occasion most obliging: the very old records, under Dr. Wilkins, which I could not have read without great trouble, were made perfectly easy by the intelligence and kindness of Mr. Armstrong, one of the gentlemen in the office of Mr. Platt.