This woman, with two hundred of her sex, he found in Bidjegur.
Whatever money they had was their own property; and as such Cheyt Sing,
who had visited the place before his flight, had left it for their
support, thinking that it would be secure to them as their property,
because they were persons wholly void of guilt, as they must needs have
been. This money the Rajah might have carried off with him; but he left
it them, and we must presume that it was their property; and no attempt
was ever made by Mr. Hastings to prove otherwise. They had no other
property that could be found. It was the only means of subsistence for
themselves, their children, their domestics, and dependants, and for the
whole female part of that once illustrious and next to royal family.
But to proceed. A detachment of soldiers was sent to seize the forts
[fort?]. Soldiers are habitually men of some generosity; even when they
are acting in a bad cause, they do not wholly lose the military spirit.
But Mr. Hastings, fearing that they might not be animated with the same
lust of plunder as himself, stimulated them to demand the plunder of the
place, and expresses his hopes that no composition would be made with
these women, and that not one shilling of the booty would be allowed
them.
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