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THE NEW KING.

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massacre by Bheem Sen Thappa, who proclaimed him a few days after, by the name of Koorman, Jodh, Beckrum Sah, and who by his influence with the Regent-mother succeeded in introducing himself to a large share in the government.

CHAPTER VIII.

WARLIKE PRELIMINARIES.

BHEEM SAH was a man of warlike propensities and of considerable ability. Under his regency the passion of the Goorkhas for territorial aggrandisement received an impetus. He carried the tide of conquest westward as far as the Sutlej, subduing the hill rajahs whose lands and authority intervened. Simultaneously with his operations in the west, encroachment was countenanced to the eastward on the territories subject to the British Government. Along the whole of the border, from the frontier of Tirhoot to that of the

OUTRAGES ON THE BRITISH FRONTIER. 173

districts between the Sutlej and the Jumna, the agressive conduct of the officers in the employ of the Nepaul Government had given repeated occasion for remonstrance and representations. Sometimes the Court of Khatmandoo marked its apparent dissatisfaction with their proceedings by removing or suspending the officers; at other times it justified and upheld their conduct on the plea that they were directed to the re-occupation of tracts which had originally belonged to Nepaul, or to chiefs whom the Goorkhas had subdued, and to whose possessions they had the right which conquest confers. In 1807 outrages were committed on the frontier of Pooneah; remonstrances were addressed to the Nepaulese Government; but as no satisfaction was obtained, a military force was employed in 1809 to expel the Goorkhas from the disputed lands. Subsequently to this, claims were advanced by the Nepaulese to certain lands included within the limits of the British provinces of Sarun and Goruckpore. These lands were the district of Sheoraj and the

province of Bhotwal, the whole of which were in the hands of a tributary Rajah whom the Goorkha Government deemed it politic to consider had forfeited his possessions because of his share share in the conspiracy, which had terminated in the murder of Run Bahadur. After several protracted negotiations with successive governments, it was proposed to the Nepaulese that they should retain Sheoraj and withdraw from Bhotwal, but they persevered in declining to listen to any compromise, and had actually sent troops to occupy a part of the latter country.

During the tedious and unfriendly discussions carried on with reference to these lands, similar aggressions supported by similar pretensions were committed in the British territory of Sarun lying to the east of Goruckpore, and, like it, contiguous on its northern division, which constituted the district of Bettia, to the hills throughout the state of Muckwanpore. Between the Rajah of Betteah and the Rajah of Muckwanpore border disputes had

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always subsisted. The Goorkhas taking the part of the latter, and seizing upon part of the Betteah lands, the Betteah Rajah appealed to the British for assistance and the expedition under Major Kinloch, to which reference has already been made, was the result.

We thus

What

became possessors of Muckwanpore. followed is so essential to a right understanding of the course of the war with the Goorkhas in 1814, that it will be better to give the narrative in the words of Professor Wilson,* who has drawn his summary from the Papers regarding the Nepaul War, printed by the East India Company.

"In 1767 a military force under Major Kinloch drove the Goorkhas out of the province, and, following them into the hills, took possession of Muckwanpore. When a good understanding with the Court of Khatmandoo was restored, Mr. Hastings gave up that part

* Mill's "History of India," continued by H. H. Wilson, Bodleian Professor of Sanscrit in the University of Oxford.

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