216
ENGLAND IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.
for the subvention of a body of British troops. He was
accordingly restored to his seat at Poonah by armed force; but
his submission to the governor-general led to two wars between
the East India Company and the other Mahratta princes,
First Scindia, and his ally the rajah of Nagpore, attacked the
British; but they were unable to hold their ground. Lord
Battle of Lake, starting from Bengal, beat Scindia’s northern
Laswari— army at Laswari (November ı, 1803), and took
Sa of Delhi, the ancient capital of India. "There he
" found the aged Mogul emperor, Shah Alum, who
had long been the captive of the Mahrattas, and, having rescued
him from his oppressors, proceeded to use his name to
legitimize all our doings in Hindostan. Meanwhile, Arthur
Wellesley, the governor-general’s brother—the
Keane tn a Wellington of a later day—was operating further
Argaum— tothe south, At Assaye he cut to pieces Scindia’s
ee French Sepoys, after the bloodiest struggle that
India had yet seen. Fording a deep river and
advancing on a narrow front under an overwhelming fire of
artillery, he threw his troops upon the disciplined battalions of
the Mahratta chief, Nearly a third of the British fell, but
Scindia’s host was broken and his regular troops cut to pieces
(September 23, 1803). A few weeks later Wellesley attacked
the rajah of Nagpore at Argaum, and inflicted upon him an
equally severe lesson (November 28, 1803). The allied princes
thereupon came to terms, and acknowledged the British
supremacy. Scindia was compelled to surrender Delhi and the
Doab, the nucleus of our “ North-West Provinces,” as also
some maritime districts opposite Bombay, while the rajah of
Nagpore ceded Orissa, on the eastern coast of India, which
was incorporated with the presidency of Bengal. Immediately
en after it became necessary to attack Scindia’s rival
NE % and enemy, Holkar, who tried in his turn to expel
the British from North-Western India, He was
an evasive and lightly moving enemy, who proved very difficult
