472

HISTORY OF BRITISH RULE.

Pindari

leaders.

Pindariwar, 1817.

New

Maratha

treaty,

1817.

The

Maratha

attack.

Last Mar-atha war,1817-18.

Bombay

territories

annexed,

1818.

Amir Khan , had an organized army of many regiments, andseveral batteries of cannon. Two other leaders, known asChitu and Karim, at one time paid a ransom to Sindhia of^100,000. To suppress the Pindari hordes, who were sup-ported by the sympathy, more or less open, of all the Marathachiefs, Lord Hastings (1817) collected the strongest British army which had yet been seen in India , numbering 120,000men. One half operated from the north, the other halffrom the south. Sindhia was overawed, and remained quiet.Amir Khan disbanded his army, on condition of beingguaranteed the possession of what is now the principality ofTank. The remaining bodies of Pindaris were attacked intheir homes, surrounded, and cut to pieces. Karim threwhimself upon the mercy of the conquerors. Chitu fled tothe jungles, and was killed by a tiger.

In the same year (1817), and almost in the same month(November), as that in which the Pinddris were crushed, thethree great Maratha Powers at Poona , Nagpur , and Indore rose separately against the English . The Peshwa, Baji Rao,had long been chafing under the terms imposed by the treatyof Bassein (1802). A new treaty of Poona , in June 1817,now freed the Gaekwar from his control, ceded furtherdistricts to the British for the pay of the subsidiary force,and submitted all future disputes to the decision of ourGovernment.

Elphinstone, then our Resident at his court, foresaw astorm, and withdrew to Kirki, whither he had ordered up aEuropean regiment. The next day the Residency was burntdown, and Kirki was attacked by the whole army of thePeshwa. The attack was bravely repulsed, and the Peshwaimmediately fled from his capital, Poona . Almost the sameplot was enacted at Nflgpur, where the honour of the British name was saved by the Sepoys, who defended the hill ofSitabaldi against enormous odds.

It had thus become necessary to crush the Marathas. Theirforces under Holkar were defeated in the following monthat the pitched battle of Mehidpur. All open resistance was nowat an end. Nothing remained but to follow up the fugitives,and to impose conditions for a general pacification. In boththese duties Sir John Malcolm played a prominent part. Thedominions of the Peshwa were annexed to the Bombay Presi­ dency , and the nucleus of the present Central Provinces wasformed out of the territory rescued from the Pindaris. ThePeshwa himself surrendered, and was permitted to reside at