What does obliged mean? (In this quote " In this manner he pursued two
of them seperately so close that they were obliged to throw away their guns
and pouches and throw themselves into the river altho’ the bank was nearly
twenty feet perpendicular.)

quickly

asked

scared

forced

To compel or bound someone to do an action. (The one that says "forced")

Explanation:

As stated in the text, for if you were obliged to throw your guns away, and to even throw yourself into a river bank seems like something that someone would need to be compelled, or forced to do.

It may not be the most thorough explanation, but I hope this helped you!

they can increase to boost the enonomy.