A History of the Mahrattas v2.c35.23

v2.c35.23

Rugoba could never entirely comprehend the nature of the interference on the part of the Governor-General and Council ; but under a supposition that it arose from their deeming the advantages he had granted inadequate, he proposed not only to confirm the treaty of Surat by a new agreement with the Bengal Government, but with the single exception of Viziadroog (Gheriah) to cede the whole Concan, to put the Company’s troops in possession of one of the passes in the Ghauts, to purchase annually ten lacks of rupees’ worth of their woollens and metals, at an advance of fifteen per cent. on the prime cost including all charges; he also proposed that they should unite to subdue Nizam Ally; and made several other offers of which, as none could be accepted, a further enumeration is unnecessary; but one inducement was too remarkable to be passed over, as, with his Mahratta ideas, it must have appeared irresistible. Rugoba offered to cede ten per cent. of all the Jagheers in the Mahratta empire; including, of course, the Mahratta possessions in the Deccan, and those of Holkar, Sindia, and Gaekwar in Hindoostan and Guzerat; which would have placed the East India Company, with respect to those Jagheers, precisely on the footing of Surdeshmookh.