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It appears, nevertheless, from the Marquis's address to the Secret Committee of the Court of Directors of 19th April, 1803, that, up to that time, he still entertained hopes that Sindhia would remain inactive, and would see his advantage in giving his adhesion to the treaty of Bassein, if not from friendship for England, from hostility to Holkar, against whom that settlement was primarily and ostensibly directed.
Anderson was immediately instructed to inform Sindhia that his interference in such demands would be considered in the light of direct hostility, and a breach of our treaty with the Mahrattas; and Shah Alam was to be informed that the justice of the English to his illustrous house could never admit the interference or recommendation of other powers, and could alone flow from their voluntary liberality.
Sindhia, justly regarding this as an open act of defection, instantly made terms with Ranjit Singh, the leader of the Jats, and pushed on all his forces to the pursuit, at the same time throwing a strong reinforcement into the fort of Agra, the garrison of which was placed under the command of Lakwa Dada, one of his best officers.
It is quite clear, again, that Sindhia, for his part, was not unwilling to see the British espouse the Peshwa's cause as against Holkar; while it is highly probable that his mind was worked upon by Perron when the latter found himself under combined motives of self-interest and of national animosity.
Give us the sign, that we may know if it is agreeable to Thee that we destroy the enemy of Maharaja Sindhia." When the Bagrees had eaten much cooked rice and meat-balls, which were served on plantain leaves, they drank robustly of mhowa spirit, first spilling some of this liquor upon the ground in the name of the goddess.
The great struggle is about to take place; Holkar and Bhonsla and Sindhia, perhaps even the King of Oudh, leagued together, the accursed English will be driven from India. But even now they are trying to win over Amir Khan and his hundred thousand horsemen by promises of territory and gold. With the Chief out of the way they would disband; he is a great leader, and they flock to his flag.
Grant Duff had seen a secret letter written shortly after the date of the treaty by the Peshwa in which he summoned Sindhia to Punah. Aided by the British under the already famous Arthur Wellesley, the Peshwa soon regained his metropolis, which Sindhia was preparing to occupy. That chief was still further estranged in consequence of the disappointment.
De Boigne, while entertaining a high opinion of Perron's professional ability, seems to have misdoubted his political wisdom, for both Fraser and Duff assert that he solemnly warned Daulat Rao Sindhia against those very excesses into which partly by Perron's counsel he was, not long after, led.
So far back as the beginning of 1803, before war had been declared upon Sindhia, the whole force of the British in Upper India, headed by the Commander-in-Chief himself, had been employed in the reduction of some of the forts in that portion of the Doab which had been ceded by the Nawab of Audh during the preceding year.
Sindhia was one of the first to submit, and in 1782 acceded to that famous instrument, in which the British authorities had recognized him as the representative chief of the Mahrattas, the Peshwa being still a minor, and the ostensible head of the Regency, Nana Farnavis, being a mere civilian, though otherwise an able man.
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