Treaty with the British.
Maharāwal Gaj Singh, A.D. 1820-46.
It will be observed from the date of this treaty (Dec. 1818), that Jaisalmer was the last of the States of India received under the protection of the British Government. Its distance made it an object of little solicitude to us; and the minister, it is said, had many long and serious consultations with his oracles before he united his destiny with ours. He doubted the security of his power if the Rawal should become subordinate to the British Government; and he was only influenced by the greater risk of being the sole State in Rajwara without the pale of its protection, which would have left him to the mercy of those enemies whom his merciless policy had created around him. The third and most important article of the treaty[[3]] tranquillized his apprehensions as to external foes; with these apprehensions all fear as to the consequences arising from ministerial tyranny towards the princely exiles was banished, and we shall presently find that this alliance, instead of checking his rapacity and oppression, incited them. But it is necessary, in the first place, to bestow a few remarks on the policy of the alliance as regards the British Government.
The Treaty of Alliance.
The Strategical Importance of Jaisalmer.
But setting the political question aside, and considering our possession of the [274] valley of Sind only in a military point of view, our occupation of it would be prejudicial to us. We should have a long line to defend, and rivers are no barriers in modern warfare. Whilst an impassable desert is between us, and we have the power, by means of our allies, of assailing an enemy at several points, though we are liable to attack but from one, an invader could not maintain himself a single season. On this ground, the maintenance of friendship with this remote nook of Rajput civilization is defensible, and we have the additional incitement of rescuing the most industrious and wealthy commercial communities in India from the fangs of a harpy; to whom, and the enormities of his government, we return.
Effect of the Treaty on the Policy of Sālim Singh.
The bardic annalist of Rajputana, when compelled to record the acts of a tyrant, first announces his moral death; then comes the metempsychosis—the animating his frame with the spirit of a demon. In this manner is delineated the famed Bisaldeo, the Chauhan king of Ajmer. Whether the Bhatti minister will obtain such a posthumous apology for his misdeeds, a future historian will learn; but assuredly he is never mentioned, either in poetry or prose, but as a vampire, draining the life-blood of a whole people. For a short time after the treaty was formed, he appeared to fall in with the march of universal reformation; but whether it was that his crimes had outlawed him from the sympathies of all around, or that he could feel no enjoyment but in his habitual crimes, he soon gave indulgence to his rapacious spirit. The cause of his temporary forbearance was attributed to his anxiety to have [275] an article added to the treaty, guaranteeing the office of prime minister in his family, perhaps with a view to legalize his plunder; but seeing no hope of fixing an hereditary race of vampires on the land, his outrages became past all endurance, and compelled the British agent, at length, to report to his government (on December 17, 1821), that he considered the alliance disgraceful to our reputation, by countenancing the idea that such acts can be tolerated under its protection. Representations to the minister were a nullity; he protested against their fidelity; asserted in specious language his love of justice and mercy; and recommenced his system of confiscations, contributions, and punishments, with redoubled severity.