t orders to Mr. Morse, the governor of Madras, to
use every effort to destroy the French settlement, of whose rising
power they felt the greatest jealousy. Dupleix, seeing the force that
could be brought against him, and having no French ships on the
station, although he was aware that a fleet under Admiral La
Bourdonnais was fitting out and would arrive shortly, dreaded the
contest, and proposed to Mr. Morse that the Indian colonies of the two
nations should remain neutral, and take no part in the struggle in
which their respective countries were engaged. Mr. Morse, however, in
view of the orders he had received from the Company, was unable to
agree to this.

"Dupleix then applied to the nawab who, at his request, forbade his
European tenants to make war on land with each other, an order which
they were obliged to obey.

"In July, 1746, La Bourdonnais arrived with his fleet, and chased the
small English squadron from the Indian seas. Dupleix now changed his
tactics, and regardless of the injunction which he himself had
obtained from the nawab, he determined to crush the English at Madras.
He supplied the fleet with men and money, and ordered the admiral to
sail for Madras. The fleet arrived before the town on the 14th of
September; landed a portion of its troops, six hundred in number, with
two guns, a short distance along the coast; and on the following day
disembarked the rest, consisting of a thousand French troops, four
hundred Sepoys, and three hundred African troops, and summoned Madras
to surrender.

"Madras was in no position to offer any effectual resistance. The fort
was weak and indefensible. The English inhabitants consisted only of a
hundred civilians, and two hundred soldiers. Governor Morse
endeavoured to obtain, from the nawab, the protection which he had
before granted to Dupleix, a demand which the nawab at once refused.

"I was there at the time, and quite agreed with the governor that it
was useless to attempt resistance to the force brought against us. The
governor, therefore, surrendered on the 21st. The garrison, and all
the civilians in the place not in the service of the Company, were to
become prisoners of war; while those in the regular service of the
Company were free to depart, engaging only not to carry arms against
the French until exchanged. These were the official conditions; but La
Bourdonnais, influenced by jealousy of Dupleix, and by the promise of
a bribe of forty thousand poun