Cassell's History of England, Vol. 5 (of 8): From the Peninsular War to the Death of Sir Robert PeelAnonymous
History
Cassell's History of England, Vol. 5 (of 8): From the Peninsular War to the Death of Sir Robert Peel
Anonymous
Great Britain -- History
The year 1818 did not close without one more brush of war. This was
in India. There had not been much quiet, even after the destruction
of Tippoo Sultan and the power of Mysore. When the Earl of Moira
(afterwards Marquis of Hastings) succeeded, as Governor-General,
to Earl Minto, in 1813, he found the country still disturbed in
different directions, particularly on the north-west frontiers. The
Burmese engaged his immediate attention, and then the Nepaulese,
who were not quietened till after two campaigns. But there was a
far more troublesome enemy than either of these in the field. These
were the Pindarrees, a multitude of horsemen made up of the scum
of Hindostan--men who had either lost caste, or never had any--who
formed themselves into flying bands, and with the swiftness of the
wind rushed down on the cultivated districts, and swept all before
them--cattle, sheep, money, jewels, everything that could be made prey
of. The two most celebrated chiefs of the Pindarrees were Kureem and
Cheetoo, but Cheetoo managed to put down Kureem, and became the one
great and formidable head of these robbers. In 1811 he rode at the
head of twenty-five thousand cavalry. In 1814, whilst our troops were
engaged in Nepaul, the Pindarrees, under Cheetoo, crossed the Nerbudda,
the Godavery, and advanced to the Kistnah, ravaging the whole of the
Deccan and the neighbouring territories; and in spite of our forces
under Major Frazer in one direction, and Colonel Doveton in another,
they effected their retreat across the Nerbudda again, loaded with
enormous booty. In 1816 they made a still more extensive incursion,
ten thousand of them descending into the Madras Presidency as far as
Guntoor, and though Colonel Doveton exerted himself to come up with
them, it was in vain. In twelve days Cheetoo's marauders had plundered
three hundred and ninety villages in the Company's territory, put to
death one hundred and eighty-two people, wounded five hundred and five,
and tortured in various ways three thousand six hundred.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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