A History of the Mahrattas v2.c37.89

v2.c37.89

² [In a letter of March 1, 1781, Sir Eyre Coote wrote as follows to General Goddard: ‘Although I ever consider the policy of warring against the Marāthā State a most ruinous one in the interests both of the Company and the English nation; still, on the eve of your late success if we had no other power to combat against, I might have subscribed to the plan you advise me as laid down for the operations of your campaign, as the most likely to procure us honourable terms of accommodation; but, engaged as we are in a scene of contention, I may say, with every power of any consideration in India, all steps, the event of which could not be clearly ascertained as an unfailing remedy, must be exceptionable. . . . I must therefore impose it upon you as a duty you owe your King, your country, and your employers, to leave no means, which may depend upon you, untried to effect a peace with the Marāthās,’ &c. (Forrest, Selections (Marāthā Series), i. 446.)]