THREE IMPORTANT MEN with Jam Lakhaji. He was a man of great strength of character, who brooked interference from none once he had established an ascendancy over the weak-minded Jam. Eventually Bai Jawuba felt unable any longer to bear her humiliating position, and in A.D. 1756 she orga- nized a movement to overthrow Meraman. Nanji Khawas, Meraman's brother, was killed as a result, but Meraman collected such followers as he could find, stormed the palace, slew or captured the guards, and took Bai Jawuba prisoner. He placed her under a guard and in a secure retreat, and assumed complete charge of the administra- tion of Nawanagar with very little opposition. Jam Lakhaji became a puppet in his hands, and on his death in A.D. 1768 he was succeeded by the elder of his two infant sons, Jam Jasaji. Being entirely unscrupulous, Meraman Khawas, until his death in A.D. 1800, kept the young Jam in close confinement and nipped in the bud any attempt made to place him in charge of the affairs of the State* The third of the great men of Kathiawad during the second half of the eighteenth century was Wakhatsinhji Gohel of Bhavnagar, who in A.D. 1772 succeeded his father, Akherajji, at the age of twenty-four. From the day he ascended the gadi his time was largely spent, until his death in A.D. 1816, in fighting the Kathis and in estab- lishing good relations with the British Government, who were now beginning to make good their footing in Western India. The proximity of Bhavnagar and Gogha to Surat and other ports which came under the British was a great factor in determining his policy, and Akherajji, his father, had had several dealings with the British which Wakhat- sinhji was wise enough to understand greatly benefited his State. In A.D. 1771, for instance, the British, when concluding a treaty with the Nawab of Cambay, bound him never on any pretence to molest Bhavnagar port, or any of the possessions of Akherajji Gohel. In the same 137