A History of the Mahrattas v2.c40.13

v2.c40.13

But as Nana imagined the English would join in an offensive alliance against Tippoo on almost any terms, and being solicitous not to pledge himself so far as to prevent his eventually receding, the overtures to Mr. Boddam,¹ Governor of Bombay, were made with much caution. In the month of July he sent an agent to that Presidency, offering, on the part of the Peishwa, to give up to the Company any two of Tippoo’s seaports on the Malabar coast, on condition of being assisted with a body of troops to co-operate in the reduction of his territory. Mr. Boddam received the proposal without expressing the least surprise at the inadequacy of the terms, and referred Nana Furnuwees to the Supreme Government with an unfeigned indifference, which did not escape the quick-sighted envoy, and from which Nana began to change his opinion of the English policy. Although Nana Furnuwees sent a private agent of his own to Calcutta, it was necessary to prosecute the negotiation through Mahadajee Sindia, whilst there was no British Resident at the Peishwa’s court. Sindia immediately applied to the Governor-General, through Lieutenant James Anderson, then resident envoy in his camp, informed him of the probability of a rupture between the Peishwa and Tippoo, and artfully assumed as a matter of course that the English would afford every assistance ‘as by the treaty of Salbye the friends and enemies of the Mahrattas and English were mutual.’ He added that the Peishwa was sure of the co-operation of Nizam Ally, that the terms of their alliance were that each state should recover its lost territory, and of any new acquisitions there should be an equal participation. Mr. Macpherson² in reply observed that the treaty of Salbye did not stipulate that the friends and enemies of the two states should be mutual, but that neither party should afford assistance to the enemies of the other, and that by the treaty of Mangalore the English were bound not to assist the enemies of Tippoo. Mr. Macpherson, in declining the alliance, made strong general professions of friendship towards the Mahrattas, hinted at some reasons for dissatisfaction with Tippoo on the part of the British Government, in consequence of his not having fulfilled all the stipulations of the treaty of Mangalore, and concluded by assuring Sindia that, in case of any reverse, the British Government would not suffer the Mahrattas to be overpowered.