out at last by Robert Clive.

[Sidenote: 1746--La Bourdonnais]

The history of French empire in India contains two specially
illustrious names--the name of La Bourdonnais and the name of Dupleix.
The first had practically called into existence the two colonies of the
Ile de France and of Bourbon; the second had founded the town of
Chandernagor, in the bay of Bengal, and, as governor-general of the
French East India Company, had established himself at Pondicherry with
all the luxury and more than all the luxury of a veritable Oriental
prince. It may be that if these two men had been better able to agree
together the fortunes of the French nation in the Indies might have
been very different. But a blind and uncompromising jealousy divided
them. Whatever Dupleix did was wrong in the eyes of La Bourdonnais;
whatever La Bourdonnais did was wrong in the eyes of Dupleix; and
Dupleix was the stronger man of the two, and he finally triumphed for a
time. In the war that was raging La Bourdonnais saw his opportunity.
He determined to anticipate Dupleix in beginning hostilities against
the English in India. He set sail from the island of Bourbon with a
fleet of nine vessels which he had equipped, at his proper cost, and an
{259} army of some three thousand men, which included a large
proportion of negroes. After a successful engagement with the ships of
war under the command of Admiral Burnett, outside Madras, La
Bourdonnais disembarked, besieged Madras, and compelled the town to
capitulate. So far the star of La Bourdonnais was in the ascendent;
but the terms which he exacted from the conquered town were, by their
very moderation, the means of his undoing. With the keys of the
conquered town in his hand, with the French colors floating bravely
from Fort St. George, with all the stored wealth of the company as
spoils of war, La Bourdonnais thought that he might be not unlenient in
the terms he accorded to his enemies. He allowed the English
inhabitants of Madras to remain prisoners of war on parole, and
stipulated that the town should remain in his hands until the payment
of a ransom of some nine millions of francs.

The triumph of La Bourdonnais aroused, however, not the admiration but
the jealousy of Dupleix. Out of La Bourdonnais's very victory the
cunning of Dupleix discovered a means to humiliate his rival. The
vague schemes which he had formed for the authority of France, and for
his influence in India, did not