A History of the Mahrattas v2.c51.67

v2.c51.67

General De Boigne¹ having been compelled, as already mentioned, to return to Europe in 1796 from bad health, was succeeded by M. Perron,² who had particularly recommended himself to Sindia by his conduct at the battle of Kurdla, and who had been sent from the Deccan to Hindoostan to assume the command of the army, the charge of the Emperor’s person, and the management of the Jagheer from whence his brigades were paid. De Boigne with much of military enterprise and enthusiasm, was at the same time a man of sense and prudence; a decided enemy to French revolutionary principles, and though friendly and kind to Frenchmen who sought his service, the ideas of conquest in India, entertained by many of his nation, he regarded, even at that period, as chimerical. He knew the power and the watchful jealousy of the English, and he foresaw that any object which might be attempted by the states of India, through a connexion with France, would certainly be anticipated by their subjugation. His last counsel to Sindia, ‘never to excite the jealousy of the British Government by increasing his battalions, and rather to discharge them than risk a war,’ was a sound advice; but his supposed partiality for the English, and the sentiments of his successor, Perron,³ which were precisely the reverse, was one cause which drove Sindia, more confident and ignorant than Perron himself, to attempt projects, which brought on ruin and disaster, before he and his coadjutors had fixed the mode of warfare they intended to pursue. Perron is said to have laid down a scheme of operations,¹ but jealousy and distrust on the part of Sindia, the neutrality of Holkar, and the intrigues of Sindia's officers, for the purpose of superseding Perron in the government in Hindoostan, seem to have combined in preventing its adoption.