A History of the Mahrattas v2.c54.44

v2.c54.44

¹ For a long time they respected the persons of the British subjects, to which the author can himself bear testimony, having accidentally passed through a body of Pindharees in the middle of a night when they had committed great excesses; and to him, though unarmed and unattended, they offered neither molestation nor insult. [Colonel Broughton records an exception to this general attitude towards British subjects. In 1803 Lieutenant Simpson, who was attached to the escort of the British envoy at Daulat Rāo Sindia's court, was seized and carried off by Pindāris. The envoy remonstrated and demanded his release in vain. Simpson was treated with great indignity and cruelty until after the battle of Assaye, when he was handed over to a French officer in the service of the Bēgam Samrū, who did his best to make him as comfortable as circumstances would permit, (Letters from a Mahratta Camp, Constable, 1892, p. 30.)]