In the meantime the 2nd battalion had continued actively employed in the East Indies against the _Pindarees_, and these barbarous hordes being composed entirely of horsemen, the services of the corps were of an arduous and trying nature; traversing extensive districts by forced marches, passing rivers and thickets, and attempting to surprise these bands of plunderers, were duties calculated to exhaust the physical powers of Europeans when performed under an Indian sun. While the ROYAL SCOTS were engaged in these services, several of the native princes prepared to wage war against the British. Their designs were partly discovered and disconcerted by the Marquis of Hastings. Hostilities, however, followed, and the battalion was called upon to engage in the contest. The eight battalion companies formed part of the second division under the command of Brigadier-General Doveton; and the flank companies were destined to form part of the 1st division of the army of the Deccan, under Lieut.-General Sir Thomas Hislop, Baronet. The battalion was stationed at Jaulnah; from whence the flank companies marched on the 11th of October, 1817, under the command of Captain Hulme, with two regiments of native cavalry, and four guns, to join the head-quarters of the 1st division, and arrived at Hurda on the 22nd. The battalion companies quitted Jaulnah on the 15th of October, under the command of Brevet Lieut.-Colonel Fraser, (Lieut.-Colonels N. M'Leod,[130] and Neil M'Kellar having the command of brigades,) and arrived, with the remainder of the 2nd division, its train of elephants, camels, and horses, at Meiker, on the 23rd. From this place the ROYAL SCOTS were detached, with the battering train, down the Berar Ghats, with the design of taking part in the reduction of Asseerghur, an important fortress, belonging to a native sovereign named Scindia; but the order was suddenly countermanded, and the division was directed to proceed to _Nagpore_, the capital of the Mahratta territories, an attack having been made on the British force at that place. The division proceeded for this station without delay; and the ROYAL SCOTS, following by forced marches, rejoined the head-quarters on the 7th of November, at Oomrouttee. From this place Brigadier-General Doveton pushed forward with the ROYAL SCOTS, and part of his division, and having encountered excessive fatigue, by constant marching, arrived on the 12th in the vicinity of Nagpore, where he was joined by the remainder of the division on the following day. In the meantime the British troops at this place had taken post on two strong eminences near the residency, on which attacks had been made by the Rajah's forces, and one of the eminences had been carried by a great superiority of numbers; but the other, though attacked, had been maintained.