A History of the Mahrattas v2.c51.24

v2.c51.24

The Governor-General, in the meantime, had taken his measures for the re-establishment of Bajee Rao on his musnud at Poona. For this purpose the subsidiary force at Hyderabad, consisting of six battalions of infantry, each upwards of one thousand strong, with two regiments of native cavalry under Colonel Stevenson, took up a position at Purinda near the Peishwa’s eastern frontier, accompanied by fifteen thousand of the Nizam’s troops. The Honourable Major-General Wellesley was detached from the main army of Madras, assembled on the northern frontier of Mysore, with eight thousand infantry and one thousand seven hundred cavalry; being directed to march towards Poona for the purpose of co-operating with Colonel Stevenson in the Peishwa’s restoration. General Wellesley was joined on the banks of the Kistna by the Southern Mahratta Jagheerdars: Appa Sahib and Chintamun Rao Putwurdhun, Bappoo Gunnesh Gokla, Appa Dessaye Nepankur, and the family of the Patunkurs. The Jagheerdar of Vinchoor, grandson of Wittul Sewdeo, likewise attended the British army. The southern Jagheerdars had orders from the Peishwa to co-operate with the English; and all of them on this occasion, especially the family of Putwurdhun, evinced a very friendly disposition to the British Government. Straggling bodies of Holkar’s horse, belonging to the division of Umeer Khan and Futih Sing Manay, were plundering the country between the Beema and Kistna; but on being called upon to desist they retired. They had scarcely crossed the Beema, when Umeer Khan suspecting that Manay intended to join the Peishwa, contrived to seize him and disperse his troops.