A History of the Mahrattas v2.c35.30

v2.c35.30

Rugoba, from the date of the treaty, was allowed the space of one month to disband his army, a period which was afterwards prolonged, but perceiving that there was no immediate chance of inducing the Governor-General to assist him, he asked and obtained an asylum from the Bombay Government in Surat, where he was admitted with merely his baggage and two hundred domestics. From Surat he appealed to the Court of Directors, and following the example of his brother Ballajee Rao, addressed a letter to the King of England. Colonel Upton remonstrated against the breach of treaty occasioned by the protection afforded to Rugoba. The Bombay Government declared it no breach of the treaty : they justified their conduct on a former letter from Bengal, dated in the preceding October, which permitted them to afford an asylum to Rugoba in case his personal safety should be endangered; and they declared that nothing but absolute necessity should compel them to give up the unfortunate man to his persecutors; that Colonel Upton must know little of Asiatics in the situation of the ministers, if he was not aware that until they had rid themselves of so just an object of dread they would never consider themselves safe, and that common humanity, as well as the law of nations and good policy, dictated the propriety of what they had done, even if unsupported by authority from Bengal.