A History of the Mahrattas v2.c55.74

v2.c55.74

His next scheme was to establish his ascendancy in Guzerat. Like his claims on the Nizam, he frequently expressed a wish to have his affairs with the Gaekwar settled; but as often as the wish was met by the British Government, he contrived to delay the adjustment. There had been no settlement between the Gaekwar and the Peishwa since the accession of Govind Rao. On the suppression of the rebellion of Aba Shelookur, the Baroda government agreed, as already mentioned, to hold Ahmedabad in farm from the Peishwa, including the tribute of Kattywar, with Pitlaud, Nappar, Chura-Ranpoor, Dhundooka, Gogo, and some rights in Cambay, for the annual sum of five lacks of rupees. When the Bombay Government sent the detachment into Guzerat, to support the party of Rowjee Appajee at Baroda, the government was fast approaching to that state of anarchy and confusion, in which the dominions of Sindia and Holkar were afterwards involved. This fine province was in a great degree preserved from similar misery by the active interference of the British Government, under the able arrangements of Lieutenant-Colonel Walker, the Resident. The revenues of the state amounted to fifty-five lacks of rupees, and its expenditure to eighty-two. The power of the government was, as we have seen, in the hands of a body of Arab mercenaries, and the divisions in the family of Gaekwar afforded a wide field of hope and of profit to military adventurers of all descriptions, who abound in that quarter. The Arabs were driven out: the debts, exclusive of the heavy balance due to the Peishwa, were compromised for a sum less than forty-two lacks; and money was raised on the security, or advanced from the treasury, of the British Government for its liquidation. Mulhar Rao Gaekwar, whose rebellion brought the English permanently to Baroda, went off from Neriad, as the reader may recollect, about the time when the Arabs were besieged in Baroda. He was afterwards, when nearly famished, taken prisoner by Babajee, commander of the Gaekwar’s troops, delivered over to the charge of the British Government, and long kept a prisoner at large in the fort of Bombay, or its environs, where he ended his days. Kanhojee surrendered himself in 1808, and at first was allowed his liberty and an ample pension; but his natural turbulence and love of intrigue could ill brook the undisturbed calm of such a life. In a short time he forfeited the advantages he enjoyed, engaged in plots against the existing government, and was finally conveyed to Madras as a state prisoner.