rders for the recall of the troops from Poona. After this
the council of Calcutta sent an agent of their own, Colonel Upton, to
undertake treaties, and to pursue a different line of policy to that
which the presidency of Bombay had adopted--he being instructed to
treat, not with Ragoba, but with the chiefs of the Mahratta confederacy.
A treaty was concluded, by which the Mahratta chiefs agreed to yield
Salsette and the small islands near it to the supreme council at
Calcutta, upon condition that aid should be afforded them against
Ragoba. This treaty, for a time, put an end to war; for Ragoba, being
deprived of English assistance, had no power to withstand his enemies;
and therefore he was compelled to lay down his arms and flee for his
life. By the year 1778, however, the Mahratta chiefs who had been
parties to the treaty with Colonel Upton became weary of their bargain.
Fresh intrigues were formed at Poona; intrigues which were supported by
French influence, agents from that nation being at this period at work
in India, as well as in America, to sap the foundation of the English
power. As the presidency of Bombay were nearest to this scene of
Mahratta intrigue, and were likely to be the most affected by it, they
wrote letters to the supreme council at Calcutta, recommending a new
alliance with Ragoba, in order to anticipate the designs of the French
and the Mahratta chiefs. Soon after Hastings received this letter,
he heard that a fresh quarrel had arisen among the Mahratta chiefs at
Poona, and that Baboo, at the head of a powerful faction, had declared
for Ragoba, and had applied to the presidency of Bombay for assistance.
Hastings, conceiving that if the faction opposed to Baboo and Ragoba
should prevail, the territories of Bombay would be in danger, proposed
in council that every assistance should be given, and that an army
should be forthwith sent from Calcutta and Bombay. He was the more
induced to make this proposition because he always had disapproved of
the treaty, and because he was of opinion that great danger would
arise to the Anglo-Indian government from a union of the French with
Mahrattas, if not checked on the instant. Hastings carried his proposition
by means of his casting vote; and orders were issued for assembling
an army at Culpee, on the east of the Hooghly river, and about
thirty-three miles below Calcutta. The command of this army was given
to Colonel Leslie, and it began its march in the month o