From a very early age, Runjeet Singh began to display that wisdom and valour, combined with prompt decision and firmness of character, which distinguished him through life. He carved out with his sword his own colossal position in the Punjaub; and, at the age of twenty, expelled the Sikh chiefs, Ischet Singh, Muhuc Singh and Sahib Singh, who opposed him. On the second invasion and retreat of Shah Zeman, king of Cabool, Runjeet Singh acquired the object of his ambition--the wealthy kingdom of Lahore, with the royal investiture and title of Maharajah. About this time the star of the Maharattas again rose in the Northern Provinces, under their able leader, Madhajee Sindhia, who, in 1785, formed an alliance with the Sikhs, and threatened the kingdom of Oude, then under the protection of the British. Runjeet, however, soon became jealous of his allies; and finding that they were likely to prove troublesome, he had recourse to the strongest measures to check their growing influence. One of the generals of the Maharatta forces was an English adventurer, named George Thomas. He came to India in 1781, in a British man-of-war; he was originally a common sailor, but rose to be quarter-master, and on his arrival in India entered the service of the native chiefs. He was sent to oppose the combined forces of the Sikhs. Leaving a competent force for the defence of Jeypore, which was then threatened with an attack from another quarter, he marched to Kurnaul, where the Sikhs lay encamped. Here four successive engagements took place, in which the Maharattas lost 500 men, and the Sikhs about 1,000. Both parties at last inclining to peace, a treaty was concluded, by which the Sikhs agreed to evacuate the Province. In 1800, General Thomas again entered the Sikh country, with a body of 5,000 men and sixty pieces of artillery. He was now opposed by the youthful Maharajah, Runjeet Singh; but the issue was adverse to the Sikhs. Nor was it surprising that General Thomas with a well disciplined army of 5,000 men, and sixty guns[7] should defeat a young chief of twenty-two years of age. The British government was not ignorant of the warlike character and growing power of the Sikhs. As far back as the year 1784, Warren Hastings placed a British agent at the court of Delhi, in order to watch the Sikhs, and deter them from making any attempt upon the kingdom of Oude. The Sikhs, however, finding the Maharattas too powerful for them, applied to the British Resident, to enter with them into a defensive alliance against their common foe, at the same time placing at the disposal of the British a body of 30,000 men, whom they had stationed at Delhi to watch the Maharattas.