A History of the Mahrattas v2.c58.36.2

v2.c58.36.2

Here Bajee Rao, with about eight thousand men, remained in a state of the utmost disquietude and alarm; he was unacquainted with the country, and excepting the Vinchoorkur and Aba Poorundhuree, abandoned by almost every person of consequence in the Mahratta country; the fords and passes to the northward were guarded, and troops were closing in upon him on every side. His agent reached General Malcolm’s camp at Mhow, near Indore, on the 16th May. On receiving the Peishwa’s overtures, Sir John Malcolm, who had been furnished with a copy of the Governor-General’s instructions to the Commissioner in the Deccan, resolved to make the Peishwa’s letter the basis of a negotiation for his surrender. Accordingly, two of his political assistants, Lieutenants Low and M’Donald, were dispatched towards the camp of Bajee Rao, instructed to open a negotiation, requiring him to renounce all sovereignty for himself and family for ever in the Deccan, to which he was never to return; and to surrender Trimbukjee and the murderers of the Vaughans. After these preliminaries, Lieutenant Low was to insist upon his immediately separating himself from Ramdeen and all proscribed rebels and Pindharees, and advance to meet Sir John Malcolm, who in such case promised to become the medium of an adjustment with the British Government, and obtain for him a liberal maintenance at such holy city as he might select for his future residence.