A History of the Mahrattas v2.c34.10

v2.c34.10

Colonel Keating was not authorized to act in any political capacity beyond the tenor of these orders ; but from an injudicious and excessive zeal, often as prejudicial to the public service as its opposite defect, he was ambitious of distinguishing himself as a politician, and entered into a correspondence with Futih Sing shortly after he landed at Cambay, for the purpose of detaching him from the ministerial party by persuading him that it was for his benefit. But those who do not perceive their real interest before it is pointed out by an enemy, are not likely to be convinced by mere reasoning. Colonel Keating had no personal knowledge of Futih Sing, no direct overtures had been made, and the British detachment had as yet gained neither advantage nor reputation. Nothing under these circumstances was to be expected from negotiating, especially with a Mahratta, but humiliation and disappointment. Before quitting Cambay Colonel Keating's detachment was reinforced by the arrival of two companies of European grenadiers and one battalion of Sepoys from Madras, which made up the stipulated complement of two thousand five hundred men. On the 19th of April the detachment formed a junction with the fugitive army of Rugoba at the village of Durmuj, eleven miles north-east from Cambay, where Rugoba's late followers assembled, principally, it would appear, in hopes of receiving their arrears. Mannajee Phakray and Sukaram Hurry were officers of reputation and faithful to Rugoba's cause, but their own followers, amounting to six or eight thousand, were without pay ; mutinous and clamorous : the whole multitude which assembled in their camp, estimated at upwards of twenty thousand men, were worse than useless. Colonel Keating, pleased with the formidable spectacle which the tents, and flags, and crowd of a Mahratta camp present, congratulated himself and the Presidency on their prospects, but in the same dispatch earnestly solicits a supply of treasure, and informs the Government of his having advanced what he could from his military chest, that the spirit of *such* an army might not be damped.