ed Madras. There
were likewise to the south, about a mile distant from the White Town,
two other large villages, inhabited solely by natives; but these were
not included within that term. The English at this period did not
exceed {20}three hundred in number, and of these two-thirds were
soldiers, but few of whom had seen a shot fired.[2]

[Footnote 2: Vide Orme's _History of Indostan_ (Edition 1773), vol.
i. p. 65.]

The English colony in Madras was a trading colony. Not one of its
members, up to this period, had the smallest thought of embroiling
their presidency in the disputes which were frequent amongst the
native chieftains. They wished to be let alone; to remain at peace;
to conciliate friendship and goodwill. They were content to
acknowledge the lords of the soil as their masters; to pay for the
protection they enjoyed at their hands by a willing obedience; to
ward off their anger by apologies and presents.

But there was a French colony also on the same coast, and in that a
different policy had begun to prevail. In the year 1672 the King of
Bijapur had sold to some French traders, led by a very remarkable
man, Francis Martin, a tract of land on the Coromandel coast,
eighty-six miles to the south-south-west of Madras. On this tract,
close to the sea, was a little village called by the natives
Puducheri. This the French settlers enlarged and beautified, and made
their chief place of residence and trade. By degrees the name was
corrupted to Pondicherry, a title under which it became famous, and
under which it is still known.

So long as M. Martin lived, the policy of the French settlers was
similar to that of the English at Madras. Nor did it immediately
change when Martin died (December 30, 1706). Up to 1735, when M.
Benoit {21}Dumas was appointed Governor-General of the French
possessions in India (for they had besides possessions on the Malabar
coast and at Chandranagar, on the Hugli, in Bengal) it was in no way
departed from. M. Dumas, however, almost immediately after his
assumption of office, adopted the policy of allying himself closely
with native princes; of taking part in their wars; with the view of
reaping therefrom territorial and pecuniary advantage. This policy,
of which he was the inventor, was, we shall see, carried to the most
extreme length by his successor, M. Dupleix.

It will clear the ground for the reader if we add that the prosperity
of the rival settlements was greatly affected by t