A History of the Mahrattas v2.c42.49

v2.c42.49

By the end of March, after the usual interchange of civilities, the commanders of the allied armies had put their troops in motion towards their respective frontiers. Hurry Punt returned by the eastern route to Poona, where he arrived on the 25th May; but Pureshram Bhow remained with the heavy baggage and stores, which together with his own artillery and seventeen battering guns, presented by Lord Cornwallis to the Peishwa, greatly retarded his progress. The devastation committed by his own troops on their advance rendered grain and forage extremely scarce, and the heat and drought of the season, together with the active annoyance which, notwithstanding the peace, he continued to experience from Tippoo’s Beruds and Pindharees, combined to render Pureshram Bhow’s march from Seringapatam to the Toongbuddra one of the most distressing the Mahrattas ever experienced. Captain Little’s detachment fortunately escaped the severe privations to which Pureshram Bhow’s army was subjected, by having been directed to join General Abercromby’s army, which marched to Malabar and embarked at Cannanore for Bombay.¹