At the Point of the Bayonet: A Tale of the Mahratta War

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Henty George Alfred. At the Point of the Bayonet: A Tale of the Mahratta War

Preface

Chapter 1: A Faithful Nurse

Chapter 2: A Strange Bringing Up

Chapter 3: A Change In Affairs

Chapter 4: A British Resident

Chapter 5: Down To Bombay

Chapter 6: In The Company's Service

Chapter 7: An Act Of Treachery

Chapter 8: Nana's Release

Chapter 9: A Popular Tumult

Chapter 10: A Mission By Sea

Chapter 11: A Prisoner

Chapter 12: The Defence Of Johore

Chapter 13: The Break Up Of The Monsoon

Chapter 14: The Great Andaman

Chapter 15: Assaye

Chapter 16: A Disastrous Retreat

Chapter 17: An Escape

Chapter 18: An Awkward Position

Chapter 19: Bhurtpoor

Chapter 20: Home

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On a swell of ground, in the wild country extending from Bombay to the foot of the Ghauts, stood a small camp. In the centre was a large pavilion; the residence, for the time, of Major Lindsay, an officer whose charge was to keep the peace in the district. It was no easy matter. The inhabitants, wild and lawless, lived in small villages scattered about the rough country, for the most part covered with forest, and subject to depredations by the robber bands who had their strongholds among the hills. Major Lindsay had with him a party of twenty troopers, not for defence–there was little fear of attack by the natives of the Concan–but to add to his authority, to aid in the collection of the small tax paid by each community, and to deter the mountain robbers from descending on to the plain. He generally spent the cool season in going his rounds while, during the hot weather, his headquarters were at Bombay.

He had with him his wife and infant child. The child was some three months old, and was looked after by an ayah, who had been in Major Lindsay's service ten years; for three elder children had been born to him–all, however, dying from the effects of the climate before reaching the age of five. The ayah had nursed each, in succession, and had become greatly attached to the family, especially to her youngest charge. She had come to speak English well; but with the child she always talked in her native tongue, as the major saw the advantage it would prove to the boy, when he grew up, to be able to speak fluently one, at least, of the native languages.

.....

"That is true enough," Ramdass said; "none of the three princes would hesitate to put to death anyone who stood in his way, and it seems strange to me that even the Brahmins, who would not take the life even of a troublesome insect, yet support the men who have killed scores of other people. But it is no use grumbling; the thing has always been, and I suppose always will be. It is not only so in the Deccan, but in the Nizam's dominions, in Mysore and, so far as I know, in Oude and Delhi. It seems so natural to us that the powerful should oppress the weak, and that one prince should go to war with another, that we hardly give the matter a thought; but though, as you say, the English in Bombay may rule wisely, and dislike taking life, they are doing now just as our princes do–they are making war with us."

"That is true but, from what I have heard when the English sahibs were speaking together, it is everything to them that a prince favourable to them should rule at Poonah for, were Holkar and Scindia to become all powerful, and place one of their people on the seat of the Peishwa, the next step might be that a great Mahratta force would descend the Ghauts, capture Bombay, and slay every white man in it."

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