History of the Parsis : including their manners, customs, religion and present position : with coloured and other illustrations : in two volumes

CHAP. I.] NATIVE COURT INTRIGUES. 41

Close, the Resident at Poona, where his abilities were soon perceived, and he was raised to the position of native agent. He was a person of comprehensive judgment and great address. In the above capacity he frequently came into contact with Bajirao, who not only consulted him on all important questions but also appointed him with a large salary to the post of Sar Subha or Governor of the Carnatic, a post which he held at the same time as he filled that of native agent under the English resident. It is almost impossible in any native government for an alien to hold high office without exciting the envy of the officers of the state, and one of the Peshwa’s sardars, Sadasiv Bhau Mankeshvar, preferred charges against Kharshedji of corrupt practices in the affairs of his government. But the Peshwa took no steps to investigate them. Another of Bajirao’s sardars, named Trimbakji Danglia, informed Mr. Elphinstone, who was then Resident at Poona, that Kharshedji was conspiring with Bajirao against the English. The intrigues of a native court were thus to bring this Parsi into trouble. Mr. Elphinstone then considered that Kharshedji’s position at the Residency was incompatible with his appointment as governor of a Maratha province, and he was called upon to resign the one or the other. Kharshedji knew what was good for an honest man, and he stuck to his less lucrative post in the English service, and resigned the higher office under the