ORISSA. 431 revolts. Nine years later, in 1751, the Governor of Bengal, Ali Vardí Khán, bouglit them off, by practically ceding to them the Province of Orissa, and agreeing to pay 12 lakhs of rupees as chauth for Bengal, From that date till 1803, Orissa remained a Maráthá Province. Wretched as the state of Orissa had been under the Mughals, a halfcentury of deeper misery remained for it under the Maráthás. Their prince had his capital or standing camp at Nagpur in Central India, whence he waged incessant war with his neighbours. His deputies, who were constantly changed, and imprisoned on their recall, struggled to wring out of Orissa--the only peaceful Province of his kingdom-a sufhciency to supply the military necessities of their master. Whoever had money was the natural enemy of the State. The Province lay untilled, and any failure of the rice crop produced a famine. Within seven years two terrible scarcities afilicted Orissa. The famine of 1770, a scarcity of much greater intensity than that of 1866, instead of being mitigated by State importations and relief depôts, was intensified by a mutiny of foreign troops. While the people were dying by thousands on every road-side, the Maráthá soldiery threw off the last vestige of control, and for many months ranged like wild beasts over the country, Seven years afterwards, in 1777, another great famine ensued; and as the central Maráthá power at Nagpur decayed, each party into which it split separately harried and plundered the Province. The conquest of Orissa by the English fornis part of the great campaign against the Maráthás in Central India, undertaken by the Marquis of Wellesley. The original plan was that the force, after capturing Cuttack, and leaving a sufficient number of troops to hold it, should make its way by the Bármúl Pass through the Tributary States, and co-operate with General Sir Arthur Wellesley in Berár. The main body of the expedition started from Ganjám in September 1803, and on the 18th entered Puri without opposition. On the 14th October, the fort of Cuttack was taken. Equal success attended the expedition which had been despatched from Bengal against the town of Balasor. The three principal towns of the Province having fallen into our hands, a part of the force was, in pursuance of the original plan of the campaign, despatched under Major Forbes to force the Bármúl Pass, This detachment penetrated through the hilly and jungly country which bounds Orissa on the west, and reached the Pass of Bármúl, the key to Berar and the Central Provinces. Here the Maráthás made a last stand; but on the 2nd November 1803 the Pass was forced, and the enemy, completely broken and defeated, escaped with difficulty across the hills. The Rájás of Bod and Sonpur, in consequence of this defeat, came to render their submission to the British. Meanwhile, Colonel Harcourt was approaching from the east with the intention of effecting a junction with Major Forbes, and leading the combined
