ench fleets instead of English had controlled
the coasts of the peninsula and the seas between it and Europe, can it
be believed that the schemes of Dupleix would have utterly failed?
"Naval inferiority," justly says a French historian, "was the
principal cause that arrested the progress of Dupleix. The French
royal navy did not make its appearance in the East Indies" in his day.
It remains to tell the story briefly.
The English, in 1745, made preparations to besiege Pondicherry, in
which the royal navy was to support the land forces; but the effects
of Dupleix's political schemes were at once seen. The Nabob of the
Carnatic threatened to attack Madras, and the English desisted. The
following year La Bourdonnais appeared on the scene, and an action
took place between his squadron and that under Commodore Peyton; after
which, although it had been a drawn fight, the English officer
deserted the coast, taking refuge in Ceylon, and leaving the control
at sea with the French. La Bourdonnais anchored at Pondicherry, where
quarrels between him and Dupleix soon arose, and were aggravated by
the conflicting tone of their instructions from home. In September he
went to Madras, attacked by land and sea, and took the place, but made
with the governor the stipulation that it might be ransomed; and a
ransom of two million dollars was accordingly paid. When Dupleix heard
of this he was very angry, and claimed to annul the terms of
capitulation on the ground that, once taken, the place was within his
jurisdiction. La Bourdonnais resented this attempt as dishonorable to
him after the promise given. While the quarrel was going on, a violent
cyclone wrecked two of his ships and dismasted the rest. He soon after
returned to France, where his activity and zeal were repaid by three
years' imprisonment under charges, from the effects of which treatment
he died. After his departure Dupleix broke the capitulation, seized
and kept Madras, drove out the English settlers, and went on to
strengthen the fortifications. From Madras he turned against Fort St.
David, but the approach of an English squadron compelled him to raise
the siege in March, 1747.
During this year the disasters to the French navy in the Atlantic,
already related, left the English undisturbed masters of the sea. In
the following winter they sent to India the greatest European fleet
yet seen in the East, with a large land force, the whole under the
command of Admiral Boscawen,
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