Page:The Marquess of Hastings, K.G..djvu/139

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
REVOLT OF THE MARÁTHÁ POWERS
131

and their camp, military stores, and seventy guns fell into the hands of the victors, whose casualties however were as much as 800 men. Malcolm was now sent in pursuit, and followed Holkar in a north-westerly direction towards Mandesar.

The Gujarat Division ought to have been present at the battle, but its progress to Ujjain had been delayed by the Bombay government, who feared that the troubles at Poona might extend to Baroda. Lord Hastings however did not share this apprehension, and disapproving of this unnecessary diversion of a strong column at a critical moment, ordered its immediate return to the east, and a junction with Hislop was effected on the 30th. But before Mandesar was reached, Holkar had already, 6th January, accepted a subsidiary treaty, and had consented to give up his claims in Rájputána and elsewhere which had occasioned past disorders; Gafur Khán also, urged thereto by Amír Khán, gave up his career as a leader of mercenaries, and was granted possession of a territorial fief, before it was known that he was concerned in the murder of Tulsí Bái.

Scattered portions of Holkar's army escaped pursuit, and some of them were dispersed in January; the remainder took part later in operations against the British; but the transactions just described settled once for all the disorders which prevailed in the Indore state ever since 1808; the government was reformed and reconstructed on a more solid foundation, and thereafter it ceased to be a menace to public tranquillity.