Page:Provincial geographies of India (Volume 1).djvu/202

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182
HISTORY— THE SIKH
[ch.

Rohillas, and the English in alliance with the Nawab Wazir of Oudh.

British supremacy established in India.— In the first years of the nineteenth century the Marquess of Wellesley had made up his mind that the time was ripe to grasp supreme power in India. The motive was largely self-

Fig. 61. Maharaja Ranjit Singh. {From a picture book said to have been prepared for Maharaja Dalip Singh.)

preservation. India was included in Napoleon's vast plans for the overthrow of England, and Sindhia, with his army trained in European methods of warfare by French officers, seemed a likely confederate. Colonel Arthur Wellesley's hard-won battle at Assaye in September, 1803, and Lord Lake's victories on the Hindan and