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 THE LIBRARY 
 
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 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES 
 
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 DUPLEIX
 
 DUPLEIX 
 
 Colonel JOHN BIDDULPH 
 
 author of 
 "the nineteenth and their times" 
 
 'the pirates of MALABAR AND ENGLISHWOMAN IN INDIA ' 
 "stringer LAWRENCE" 
 
 ' ' He was known often to say that he would reduce 
 the English settlements of Calcutta and Madras to 
 their original state of fishing towns." — Orme 
 
 LONDON 
 
 F. V. WHITE & CO. LTD. 
 
 17 BUCKINGHAM STREET, STRAND, W.C. 
 19 10
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 PAGR 
 
 ix 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 Birth and parentage of Dupleix — Early days in India — 
 Voyage to China — Enmity of Lenoir — Appointed 
 Governor of Chandernagore — Trade — Fortune 
 acquired and lost— His views on the value of a 
 native title ...... 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 The French acquire Karikal — The Mahrattas invade 
 the Carnatic — Dumas befriends the Nawab — 
 Madame Dupleix — Dupleix appointed to Pondi- 
 cherry — Title conferred on Dumas — Anarchy in 
 the Carnatic — War of the Austrian Succession — 
 La Bourdonnais— Quarrel between Dupleix and 
 La Bourdonnais — -Capture of Madras — Dupleix 
 breaks the Convention and defeats the Nawab — 
 The English at Fort St. David — Boscawen — Siege 
 of Pondicherry — Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle . 
 
 23 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 New departures — English attack Tanjore and capture 
 Devicotah — ^Chunda Sahib and Mozufter Jung — 
 
 laGO'lGO
 
 vi CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Dupleix befriends them — Battle of Amboor — Nazir 
 Jung enters the Carnatic — Dilemma of the English 
 — French capture Gingee — Defeat and death of 
 Nazir Jung — Triumph of Dupleix — Bussy sent to 
 the Deccan — Death of Mozuffer Jung — Salabut 
 Jung recognised as Soobadar of the Deccan — 
 Dupleix's ambitious schemes — English fortunes 
 revive — Clive at Arcot — Lawrence and Clive at 
 Trichinopoly — Surrender of Law — Death of 
 Chunda Sahib— French defeats at Bahoor and 
 Trichinopoly by Lawrence — Grant of Northern 
 Circars to the French — Dupleix in difficulties — He 
 makes known his aims to the Company— Dis- 
 astrous repulse of the French at Trichinopoly — 
 The Conference at Sadras — A French success — 
 Dupleix's increasing difficulties— His insolence to 
 the Directors — The jagirs — Fortunes acquired by 
 Pondicherry officials . . . . -83 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 Attitude of the Directors of both Companies in Paris 
 and London — Ignorance of the French Directors 
 concerning events in India — Proposals for Dupleix's 
 recall — English Directors appeal to the Crown — 
 Deputation of Duvelaer to London — Intervention 
 of the English Ministers — French Ministers yield- 
 Points insisted on by the English — Suspicions 
 entertained in Paris of Dupleix's loyalty — His 
 recall — Desperate condition of French Company's 
 finances — Deputation of Godeheu to India — His 
 secret instructions — His arrival in India — The 
 Swiss prisoners — Maladministration of the Car- 
 natic — Dupleix leaves India — Suspension of arms 
 and cessation of hostilities— Dupleix's reception 
 in France — His claims — Effects of the Convention 
 — Advantages secured to France— Dissatisfaction
 
 CONTENTS vii 
 
 PAGE 
 
 in Madras — Dupleix in France — Attacks Godeheu 
 and the Company — His illusions about Trichinopoly 
 — His second marriage and death — His jewels — 
 Mistaken views as to the possibility of a French 
 Empire in India — Unsoundness of Dupleix's 
 policy — His mistake in sending Bussy to the 
 Deccan — Important results to England of Dupleix's 
 actions ...... 142 
 
 APPENDIX 179
 
 PREFACE 
 
 Colonel Malleson, in the Preface to his 
 History of the French in India, mentions 
 his indebtedness to an article on Dupleix 
 in the National Review for 1862, by an 
 anonymous writer, who has since been 
 identified under the name of Cartwright. 
 The article is a bit of special pleading, 
 admittedly written for the purpose of 
 elevating Dupleix to a higher pedestal than 
 that on which his own countrymen had 
 placed him. The necessarily brief sketch of 
 his career is written with such strong- bias 
 against the Directors of the French East 
 India Company, and is marred by such 
 suppression and distortion of important facts 
 as to render it worthless as a contribution to 
 history. It has, however, gained importance 
 by having furnished the foundation on which 
 Malleson in England and Hamont in France 
 have built up a legendary Dupleix who is 
 an exaggerated portrait of the real man as
 
 X PREFACE 
 
 he was known to his contemporaries. To 
 M. Cultru, in his work, Dupleix, ses plans 
 politiques, sa disgrace, Paris, 1901, with its 
 copious extracts from the records of the 
 Compagnie des Indes, and from Dupleix's 
 own letters and dispatches, the world is 
 indebted for the clearing away of the in- 
 ventions that have gathered round Dupleix's 
 name, and for a careful analysis of the 
 causes that led to his fall. The story that 
 within three years of his arrival in India, 
 Dupleix formed the plans for founding a 
 French empire in India, which he, many 
 years later, attempted to carry out, can no 
 longer be accepted. It is to be traced back 
 to a few words in the Abbe Raynal's work 
 on the East and West Indies (Geneva, 
 1780), and has been developed to its fullest 
 extent by Hamont. M. Cultru shows con- 
 clusively from Dupleix's own writings in 
 1753 how entirely mythical is the story. 
 So averse was Dupleix from the acquisi- 
 tion of territory, even after assuming the 
 Governorship of Pondicherry, that he con- 
 demned it in the case of Karikal. " M. 
 Dumas commence a penser comme vous 
 de Karikal," wrote one of the Directors to
 
 PREFACE xi 
 
 Dupleix, in 1746. '* II me disait I'autre jour 
 qu'il chercherait un moyen pour en de- 
 barrasser la Compagnie." The story of 
 Dupleix's visit to Chandernagore, in 1742, 
 is shown to be a pure myth. On the face 
 of it nothinor could have been more im- 
 probable than that an official of the Delhi 
 Emperor should have done homage to him, 
 when the relative positions of the Empire 
 and of European traders, at that date, are 
 taken into account, and the journey itself 
 would have been a matter of months. 
 
 The causes of Dupleix's fall were his 
 insubordination, his studied silence as to 
 what was going on in India, his failure to 
 contribute to the Company's revenues, and 
 the Company's insolvency. For, in spite of 
 the great acquisitions of territory made by 
 him, between 1749 and 1753, no financial 
 benefit accrued to the Company. The 
 Directors in Paris were in no condition to 
 do more than they did for him. Ever since 
 the failure of Law's Mississippi scheme the 
 Compagnie des Indes had been in financial 
 difficulties. Kept in strict tutelage by 
 royal Commissioners, mixed up in business 
 that had nothing to do with Eastern trade,
 
 xii PREFACE 
 
 and paying dividends that it had not earned, 
 it was only kept afloat by the proceeds 
 arising from lotteries and from its monopoly 
 of the sale of tobacco in France, and had 
 practically been insolvent since 1745. The 
 accounts of the Company's finances, given 
 in considerable detail by Raynal and Cultru, 
 show how fatal to both parties was the 
 financial connection between the State and 
 the Compagnie des Indes. According to 
 Voltaire, the Compagnie des Indes, during 
 sixty years, failed to realise a single dividend 
 from the sale of merchandise. In the last 
 forty years of its existence it was supplied 
 from the State treasury with the prodigious 
 sum of three hundred and sixty-six million 
 livres, without the shareholders reaping any 
 benefit. 
 
 Stripped of all inventions and exaggera- 
 tions, Dupleix still remains an interesting 
 and striking figure. To him belongs the 
 distinction of first bringing India within the 
 scope of European politics. In the general 
 break-up of the Moghul Empire the in- 
 trusion of the European may be said to have 
 been inevitable : the real issue for decision 
 was whether F" ranee or England was to win
 
 PREFACE xiii 
 
 the prize. Able men use opportunities 
 rather than create them, and, after the first 
 step, Dupleix played the game with a bold- 
 ness, success, and dexterity that could only 
 have been exhibited by a man of great 
 powers. But, before long, boldness became 
 recklessness, and he allowed the moment to 
 pass when, by yielding an unimportant point, 
 he mia:ht have retained the substantial grains 
 he had acquired. At the time of his recall 
 all chance of success had disappeared, though 
 to the end of his life he failed to perceive 
 this : and Colonel Malleson has shared the 
 illusions in this respect that Dupleix has 
 dwelt on at such length in his Mdmoire 
 contre la Compagnie. The very important 
 point is ignored, that, in 1754, the schemes 
 of Dupleix could have been prosecuted 
 only at the cost of war with England : and 
 France was not then prepared to draw the 
 sword. 
 
 The espousal of the English Company's 
 quarrel by the King's Government was an 
 event of far-reaching importance, and the 
 dispatch of Watson's squadron with the 
 39th Regiment, to the East, due solely 
 to the attempts of Dupleix to establish a
 
 xiv PREFACE 
 
 French empire in India, decided the course 
 of our Indian history. 
 
 The war on the Coromandel coast is a 
 remarkable chapter in the history of the 
 making of our Colonial empire in the 
 eighteenth century. For over four years 
 the English and French trading companies 
 waged war with each other as auxiliaries 
 of native princes ; though they abstained 
 from direct attack on each other's settle- 
 ments. The war extended over a large 
 tract of country not belonging to either of 
 them : it was marked by marches, sieges, 
 and a number of hard-fouQ-ht battles : it 
 was fought without let or hindrance from 
 any native power jealous of its sovereign 
 rights : it was fed periodically with reinforce- 
 ments from England and France, without 
 any notice being taken by the governments 
 of those countries which were at peace ; 
 and their interference, when at last invoked, 
 was exerted to restoring so far as was 
 possible the state of affairs existing before the 
 war began. To the English on the spot, the 
 conclusion of the war appeared at the time 
 lame and impotent. The true results were 
 seen when the contest broke out again in
 
 PREFACE XV 
 
 the Seven Years' War, and England put 
 forth her strength in earnest. It was then 
 apparent that the back of French prestige 
 in India had been broken by Lawrence 
 and CUve, and Lally's defeat was a fore- 
 gone conclusion. The victories of Forde 
 in the Northern Circars and of Coote at 
 Wandewash, followed by the surrender of 
 Pondicherry, only put the final seal to the 
 victories won at Bahoor and under the walls 
 of Trichinopoly. 
 
 It has not been thought necessary here 
 to dwell on the details of the fiofhtingr 
 between the French and English troops. 
 Only the more important events have been 
 alluded to so far as was required by the 
 narrative. Orme must always remain the 
 real historian of the war, though the details 
 on the French side have been dealt with 
 at greater length by Malleson, Orme was 
 in Bengal till the end of 1752, and was 
 appointed a Member of the Madras Council 
 soon after Dupleix's recall. He was there- 
 fore in close contact, at different times, with 
 all the principal actors on the English side. 
 It is impossible to follow in his footsteps 
 and to look through the great mass of his
 
 xvi PREFACE 
 
 MSS., now at the India Office, without 
 recognising the extraordinary diHgence with 
 which he collected information at first hand 
 concerning every event great or small that 
 he had not himself witnessed. Though 
 tedious, diffuse, and written without any 
 sense of perspective or imagination, his work 
 is a most valuable storehouse of facts. 
 
 Students of the period here treated of 
 are apt to be puzzled by discrepancies 
 between the French and English dates. 
 The French revision of the calendar took 
 place in the sixteenth century : the English 
 correction dates from 3rd September 1752, 
 when the contest between the French and 
 English Companies was at its height. The 
 correction was carried out in India on the 
 same day as in England. Up to the 3rd 
 September 1752 dates are given according 
 to both styles, when necessary, but not 
 afterwards. 
 
 In the following pages I have drawn 
 freely on M. Cultru's work, and on the 
 East India Company's records.
 
 DUPLEIX 
 
 I 
 
 Joseph pRANgois Dupleix was born at 
 Landrecies on the ist January 1697. I^is 
 father, Francois Dupleix, was farmer-general 
 of the provincial taxes, and, some twenty 
 years later, farmer of the tobacco revenue, 
 of which the Compagnie des Indes held the 
 monopoly. His mother was Anne Louise 
 de Massac. Joseph Francois was their 
 second son : the elder, Dupleix de Bacquen- 
 court, succeeding his father in the Company's 
 service, and becoming farmer-general about 
 1736. They had also a daughter, Anne, 
 who married a Breton gentleman, Desnos 
 de Kerjean. At the age of eighteen Joseph 
 Francois made a voyage to India. On his 
 return he spent three years in France, at 
 Nantes, Saint Malo, and Dax, but it is not
 
 2 DUPLEIX 
 
 known how he was employed/ During 
 this time, owing to some youthful escapade, 
 he fell into disfavour with his father, who, 
 apparently to get rid of him, used his 
 interest to get him an appointment in India. 
 Both in England and France, India was 
 regarded as the refuge of restless spirits 
 in those days. By his father's interest he 
 was appointed sixth Member of Council at 
 Pondicherry, but, owing to certain adminis- 
 trative changes, he received the appointment 
 of first Member of Council and Commissary 
 General of troops before embarkation. He 
 sailed for India in the Atalanta, 29th June 
 172 1. On board the same ship with him 
 was Dulivier, the Company's Chief Com- 
 missioner at Surat. Dulivier died during 
 the voyage. Before his death he made a 
 loan of 400 pagodas 2 to young Dupleix, 
 with whose abilities he was much struck. 
 
 ^ Dupleix in his Mhnoire says that he made several yoysige's 
 to America and the Indies. M. Cultru says that he made a 
 single voyage only, from St. Malo, in 171 5. In a letter 
 written to his brother from Chandernagore, in 1737, Dupleix 
 stated that from the year 171 3 he had been dependent on 
 his father for only two years and a half. 
 
 2 The pagoda was a gold coin, fluctuating in value accord- 
 ing to the mint of issue. For general purposes its value 
 was about seven shillings and sixpence.
 
 DUPLEIX 3 
 
 The money was intended for Dupleix to 
 use in the private trade followed by the 
 Company's employes, and was the founda- 
 tion of the fortune he afterwards acquired 
 by trading. Dupleix landed at Pondicherry 
 on 1 6th August 1722, after a voyage that 
 lasted fourteen months. On arrival, he 
 learned that the Governor, M. de la 
 Pr^votiere, had died ten months before, 
 and, for a time, it seemed that Dupleix 
 would at once step into the governorship in 
 virtue of his appointment as first Councillor. 
 Since the Governor's death, Lenoir, the 
 first Member of the Council, had acted as 
 Governor. On the dispatches, that had 
 come by the same vessel, being opened, it 
 was found that Lenoir had been ordered to 
 proceed to Surat, and that Dupleix had 
 been nominated next in succession to de 
 Lorme, to whom the vacant governorship 
 would naturally fall, pending the arrival of 
 orders from France. De Lorme refused to 
 take up the appointment, and the Council 
 decided to retain Lenoir as Governor, so 
 Dupleix began his career as first Councillor, 
 on a salary of 2500 livres. Three weeks 
 later, further letters from Paris brought
 
 4 DUPLEIX 
 
 orders for Dupleix to proceed to Masulipatam 
 as a factor, on a reduced salary of 900 livres. 
 Dumas, xh^ procureur gdndral, was dismissed 
 the service for disobedience of orders two 
 years previously. Lenoir and the Council 
 refused to act on these instructions : they 
 were aggrieved at the tone of the dispatches. 
 Dupleix, instead of being sent to Masuli- 
 patam, was retained in the Council, but 
 relegated to the fourth rank on a reduced 
 salary.^ After some delay Dumas embarked 
 for France, but got no farther than Bourbon, 
 where he was detained, and finally brought 
 back to Pondicherry by M. de Beauvollier 
 de Courchant, who had been nominated to 
 succeed de la Prevotiere. Lenoir embarked 
 for France, and Dumas was installed by 
 Beauvollier as first Councillor, to become, 
 in course of time, Governor of Pondicherry. 
 
 Two months after his arrival in India, 
 Dupleix, with a companion named Courton, 
 was sent with sixty French soldiers and ten 
 topasses, to Porto Novo, to obtain re- 
 paration for an outrage committed by the 
 
 ^ A curiously similar instance occurred in our own Indian 
 history, in July 1758, when the Directors' orders for the 
 formation of the Bengal Council, omitting Clive's name, 
 were set aside and ignored.
 
 DUPLEIX 5 
 
 native Governor of that place. During the 
 negotiation, being attacked, they inflicted 
 such losses on their assailants, that the 
 redress sought for was obtained. On their 
 way back to Pondicherry the little party 
 was received in triumph by the English 
 at Cuddalore. All Europeans were alike 
 interested in reparation for outrages being 
 exacted. In the following year Dupleix 
 was sent to Madras to effect a sale of 
 silver bullion : in 1724 he made a voy- 
 age to China as supercargo of a trading 
 vessel. 
 
 His voyage to China, which appears to 
 have been a lucrative one for himself, in- 
 volved him in an affair of great unpleasant- 
 ness. He had some pecuniary dealings, at 
 Canton, with one of the Company's employes 
 named Lhuillier. Lhuillier complained to 
 the Directors that Dupleix had cheated him. 
 The Directors sent instructions to Lenoir, 
 who had succeeded to the Governorship of 
 Pondicherry, to investigate the charge, and to 
 dismiss Dupleix from the Company's service, 
 in the event of the charge being proved. 
 Lenoir, without making any inquiry, pre- 
 vailed on the Council to dismiss Dupleix,
 
 6 DUPLEIX 
 
 and attempted to get him to embark for 
 France (December 1727). Dupleix declined 
 to go, and sent home his own version of the 
 transaction to the Directors. In July 1729 
 the Directors' orders for Dupleix's reinstate- 
 ment were received. During the nineteen 
 months of his suspension he appears to have 
 been in no way straitened for money, as, 
 during the year 1729, he sent 2000 pagodas' 
 worth of diamonds to France for sale on his 
 own private account. His voyage to China 
 had no doubt been very profitable to him. 
 Writing to Vincens, two years later, of the 
 China trade, he says that a trip to China 
 brought independence to captains and super- 
 cargoes : ' twenty-five or thirty thousand 
 rupees are quickly pocketed.' ^ It was during 
 this time that he became intimate with the 
 Vincens family, who received him into their 
 1 house. According to M. Hamont, it was at 
 this time that Dupleix began his study of 
 native politics, and formed the schemes he 
 .afterwards carried into effect. There is no 
 evidence of his having clone anything of the 
 kind. He seems to have occupied his time 
 with private commerce, and made a trip to 
 
 ^ Dupleix a Vincens, 23rd Mai 1732 (Cultru).
 
 DUPLEIX 7 
 
 Madras in company with Madame Vincens 
 and her sister. 
 
 Immediately on his reinstatement, he 
 claimed the chiefship of the Chandernagore 
 factory, which had become vacant by the 
 death of M. de la Blanchetiere. Lenoir 
 ignored Dupleix's claims, and sent Dirois to 
 Chandernagore. Dupleix did not allow the 
 matter to rest there. He appealed to the 
 Directors in Paris, who cancelled Dirois' 
 appointment, and nominated Dupleix to the 
 chiefship of Chandernagore. Ever afterwards 
 Dupleix entertained the most vindictive 
 feelino-s ag^ainst Lenoir and Dirois. In 
 numerous letters from Chandernagore they 
 are never alluded to by him without some 
 exhibition of spite and malice, that betoken 
 little nobility of character. Yet, with much 
 hypocrisy, he maintained a friendly corre- 
 spondence with Lenoir, even offering him a 
 share in his private trade. " Je fais chercher 
 un vaisseau pour les Maldives, je vous y 
 intdresserai de 2000 roupies."^ 
 
 In writino- to Dumas to congrratulate him 
 on his appointment to the Governorship of 
 the Mauritius, he says : " Notre ami Lenoir 
 
 ^ Dupleix h Lenoir, 25th September 1731 (Cultru).
 
 8 DUPLEIX 
 
 enrage comme un diable ; il est au desespoir 
 de voir que ses mendes et fourberies ne 
 peuvent etre admises aupres de la Com- 
 pagnie." ^ A few weeks later he was writing 
 to Lenoir: "Je continue a vous faire mes 
 offres de services et vous remercie de celle 
 que vous avez la bonte de me faire des 
 votres."" When Lenoir was leaving India, 
 Dupleix wrote to Dumas, his successor, 
 urorinor him to demand of the Directors an 
 exemplary punishment for Lenoir: " Je ne 
 fais aucun doute qu'a I'arrivee on ne lui 
 mette la main sur le collet et sur les vracs 
 oia il a ensabM son or, et peut-etre que, 
 reduite a la derniere misere, il sera, sur la 
 fin de ses jours, reduit a mendier un miserable 
 emploi, a moins que I'incommodit^ que lui 
 cause la mer, jointe au chagrin dont il est 
 ronge n'abrege ses jours." ^ Words prophetic 
 of his own fate. A year after Lenoir had 
 left India he was writing to him : " J'apprends 
 avec plaisir que vous jouissez d'une parfaite 
 sant4 que le ministre et la Compagnie, 
 contents de vos services, vous ont admis au 
 
 1 Dupleix k Dumas, 14th January 1732 (Cultru). 
 
 2 Dupleix a Lenoir, 8th April 1732 {id.). 
 
 3 Dupleix a Dumas, 17th April 1736 {id.).
 
 DUPLEIX 9 
 
 nombre des directeurs. Je vous prie de me 
 continuer votre bienveillance dans le cas ou 
 il s'agira de me rendre service."^ The in- 
 sincerity and vindictiveness of Dupleix's 
 character appear in these extracts from his 
 correspondence, which are but a part of those 
 that deal with Lenoir and Dirois. 
 
 French trade in Beng-al was in a languish- 
 ing condition when Dupleix succeeded to the 
 chiefship of Chandernagore in August or 
 September 1731. Twice a year two or three 
 ships arrived from France with money to 
 pay for the merchandise that had been got 
 ready for them. As soon as they were 
 dispatched, the Company's employes had 
 little to do except to prepare for the next 
 shipment. Those who could command the 
 necessary funds devoted themselves to private 
 commerce. Dupleix threw himself into the 
 work with characteristic energy, and in a 
 short time greatly increased the volume of 
 Chandernagore trade. He also re-established 
 the abandoned factories at Patna and Cossim- 
 bazar which had been closed for want of 
 sufficient trade. 
 
 His first year in Bengal was distasteful to 
 
 ^ Dupleix a Lenoir, 27th November 1737 (Cultru).
 
 10 DUPLEIX 
 
 him. His letters at this time are full of 
 complaints. He disliked his fellow-officials 
 and kept aloof from their society. He dis- 
 liked the country : he wrote that it was a 
 good place to make money in, but Europeans 
 died there like flies. He longed for the 
 society of the Vincens family, and thought 
 with regret of his grarden and statues at 
 Pondicherry. He had written the year 
 before to his brother in France to choose 
 and send him out a wife. Now he had 
 changed his mind : he no longer wished 
 his brother to execute the commission : 
 "I'envie de me marier est un peu ralentie." 
 He thought that his salary of 4000 
 livres was insufficient. The expenses of 
 entertainment were heavy. The English 
 governor at Calcutta received 500 rupees 
 a month, and his house, table, and fur- 
 niture were paid for by the Company, 
 while he himself had to find everything 
 on 222 rupees a month. The Governor 
 of Pondicherry had the privilege of send- 
 ing 1000 pagodas' worth of goods to 
 France every year ; he would willingly 
 give up his salary in return for a similar 
 privilege. He thought Lenoir was about
 
 DUPLEIX 1 1 
 
 to return to France, and besought his 
 brother to use the family influence to 
 procure him the Pondicherry governorship. 
 Before long, he succeeded in inducing Vincens 
 to resign the Company's service and join him, 
 with all his family, at Chandernagore. From 
 this moment he threw himself energetically 
 into the business of money-making, and 
 became so much attached to Bengal that he 
 left it unwillingly, ten years later, to take up 
 the governorship he had once so eagerly 
 desired. 
 
 The conduct of private trade by its 
 employes had been strictly forbidden by the 
 Company in 17 19. Two years later per- 
 mission was given to them to trade under 
 certain restrictions. They were allowed to 
 carry on trade ''d'Inde en Inde,'' that is to 
 say, between ports east of the Cape of Good 
 Hope, except to Mocha and China. At 
 first their poverty prevented them from 
 availing themselves of the privilege to any 
 great extent. The Company's vessels were 
 sent yearly to Mocha, the Persian Gulf, 
 China, Manilla, and Pegu, in which the 
 officials were allowed to have a share when 
 they could muster money to trade with,
 
 12 DUPLEIX 
 
 which was not always the case. In 1730 
 some of the Pondicherry officials combined 
 to send a ship to Bengal and Surat. In 
 1734 all restrictions were removed on trade 
 east of the Cape, though the Company still 
 claimed the monopoly of trade in sugar and 
 rice. In 1741 the Company found its share 
 so little profitable, that it abandoned the 
 whole of the trade between ports east of 
 the Cape to its employes. Thus, while 
 the English Company was paying yearly 
 dividends of seven and eight per cent., and 
 making considerable loans to the King's 
 government, the French Company, sinking 
 into insolvency, withdrew altogether from 
 this most lucrative trade. If Dupleix had 
 the Company's interests deeply at heart, it is 
 surprising that he never pointed this out to 
 the Directors in Paris ; but, like the rest of 
 the Company's officials, he had his own 
 interests to consider. 
 
 His voyage to Canton in 1724 had enabled 
 him to pay off his debt to Dulivier's estate, 
 and thenceforth he began to grow rich. In 
 1729, as has been mentioned, he was in 
 a position to send 2000 pagodas' worth 
 of diamonds to France. In the following
 
 DUPLEIX 1 3 
 
 year he had a share in another venture of 
 the kind. Yet all private trading to Europe 
 was strictly forbidden. But so many of its 
 servants were concerned in this illicit trading, 
 that the Company was powerless to put a 
 stop to it. At the time of his leaving 
 Pondicherry for Bengal, Dupleix was partner 
 with Vincens in two plantations worked by 
 slaves in Bourbon and in Mauritius ; and 
 he had a number of trading; ventures 
 on borrowed capital at the same time. 
 At Chandernagore his position gave him 
 greater facilities for borrowing, and, with 
 the command of larger capital, he launched 
 out with greater boldness. From Court, 
 an Englishman in Calcutta, he borrowed 
 20,000 rupees ; from the Chief of the 
 Dutch factory at Chinsura 6400, at nine 
 per cent. ; from a Patna banker 60,000. 
 He was making money fast. Before long 
 he owned eleven vessels trading to Surat, 
 Manilla, Bassora, the Maldives, Pegu, 
 Achin, Cochin, and Jeddah. On some of 
 his ventures a profit of forty per cent, 
 was earned. Instead of borrowing money, 
 he was soon in a position to lend it, 
 and had close commercial relations with
 
 14 DUPLEIX 
 
 his Enolish and Dutch neio^hbours. Two 
 Englishmen, Matthews and Mill, were 
 employed by him to open up trade with 
 Assam. In his private life he lived 
 sumptuously. From France, wines and 
 delicacies not usually seen in India at that 
 time, were sent him by his brother. He 
 procured curiosities, pictures, arms, etc., 
 from Nepaul, Agra, and Delhi. Live animals 
 were sent him from Patna. He dabbled in 
 science, and wrote to his friends in Calcutta 
 to send him English newspapers. Though 
 he did not know English, he had them trans- 
 lated to him. It is evident that his life was 
 one of much mental and intellectual activity. 
 But there is not a trace of the attention he 
 is supposed to have bestowed on politics. 
 On the contrary, when he learns, in 1735, 
 that Dumas was appointed to succeed 
 Lenoir at Pondicherry, he writes : * Many 
 persons anticipated that I should succeed 
 Lenoir, I have never expected it, so I am 
 now not surprised. Moreover, I could not 
 leave this place at short notice without 
 disarranging my private affairs, which, upon 
 my word, concern me more than the honour 
 of being Governor of Pondicherry, an honour
 
 DUPLEIX 1 5 
 
 that goes for nothing as soon as one gets 
 back to Europe, when everybody, returning 
 into his shell, is only distinguished according 
 to the amount of property he has.'^ In very 
 different terms he writes of the appointment 
 of La Bourdonnais to succeed Dumas at 
 Mauritius and Bourbon. To Cossimbazar, 
 to Pondicherry, to Dumas, and to the 
 Directors in Paris he writes in disparagement 
 and condemnation of La Bourdonnais : *' Les 
 bras m'en sont tomb^s. II faut que la tete 
 a tourne a la Compagnie ou bien quelle 
 veut perdre les iles."^ In the following 
 year a venture he made in the Mozambique 
 caused a difference between him and La 
 Bourdonnais, and laid the foundation for a 
 future quarrel. 
 
 The year 1735 was not a fortunate one 
 for Dupleix. The Aimable, in which he 
 and Vincens had shares, with nearly half a 
 million of rupees on board, was lost in the 
 Red Sea : Vincens, who was in the ship, 
 being saved with difficulty. In the same 
 season two more of his ships, the Chander- 
 nagor and the Diligent, met with accidents, 
 and the Union was detained at Mocha. 
 
 ^ Dupleix a Burat, 4th August 1735 (Cultru).
 
 1 6 DUPLEIX 
 
 The dishonesty of one of his captains had 
 also caused grave losses. In the same year, 
 and in 1736, he was sending contraband 
 cargoes to France, through Dutch friends 
 in Amsterdam. In 1736 he heard of the 
 death of his father, who had left all he had 
 to leave to his eldest son, with the exception 
 of a small bequest to his younger children. 
 Dupleix did not resent this, as he had always 
 recognised that his father had no affection 
 for him. At the same time he pressed his 
 brother to obtain for him the cordon of St. 
 Lazarus. He would not care to have the 
 cordon of St. Michael, because it had already 
 been given to the son of a native official, in 
 reparation for ill-treatment to his father at 
 the hands of a former governor. In spite 
 of his recent losses he wrote of his desire 
 to leave India and settle down to 'culti- 
 vate cabbages' in France, and he urged his 
 brother to get Vincens appointed to succeed 
 him, so that there might be somebody he 
 could trust to wind up his numerous com- 
 mercial affairs. He counted on beino" able 
 to retire in January 1739. He calculated 
 that he had 200,000 livres in France, 
 in his brother's hands, and counted on
 
 DUPLEIX 17 
 
 being able to send him 20,000 rupees 
 more in a few months. But in the same 
 year he experienced further losses. 
 
 On the night of the ^"fth^Ser ^1^1^ the 
 Hooghly was visited by a cyclone and earth- 
 quake that wrecked Calcutta, and extended 
 many miles up the river. An enormous 
 quantity of shipping was destroyed, and 
 the loss of life was prodigious. Only one 
 French ship was lost, but several were driven 
 ashore, and Dupleix shared in the general 
 loss. Yet, about the same time, he was 
 sending to France contraband jewels, the 
 cost price of which was 12,000 rupees, and 
 bills for 17,000 rupees. He was at this 
 time full of discontent. He had urged 
 the Company to make Chandernagore in- 
 dependent of Pondicherry, but had met with 
 a refusal. He was haunted with the belief 
 that Lenoir would use his influence to have 
 him removed in favour of Dirois, and that 
 La Bourdonnais would be appointed to 
 succeed Dumas at Pondicherry. It was the 
 possibility of this that no doubt prompted 
 him to urge the Directors to make the 
 Chandernagore administration independent 
 of Pondicherry. The Company, in order to
 
 1 8 DUPLEIX 
 
 show their satisfaction at the re-establish- 
 ment of the Cossimbazar and Patna fac- 
 tories, had granted him a gratuity of lOO 
 pistoles. He at first refused to accept it. 
 On a second gratuity of the same amount 
 being made him, he grumbled at having to 
 appear grateful. The cordon of St. Lazarus 
 was denied him ; he urged his brother to 
 procure him a patent of nobility by bribing 
 the King's private secretary, though he 
 afterwards sneered at Dumas and La 
 Bourdonnais for obtaining their honours by 
 the same method. His ill-humour culminated 
 in the grant of a patent of nobility to Dumas, 
 and he addressed a long memorandum to 
 the Directors, full of egotism, jealousy, and 
 bad temper, in which he asserted his own 
 claims to be equal to those of Dumas, and 
 demanded the same recognition. " N'est-ce 
 pas. Messieurs, me donner a entendre que 
 Ton n'est pas content de mes services, que 
 de m'avoir pas traite comme M. Dumas." ^ 
 While awaiting the Directors' reply he 
 prepared to wind up his affairs and leave 
 India, and we learn incidentally, from one of 
 his letters, that his whole fortune in India and 
 
 ^ Dupleix k la Compagnie, 28th November 1738 (Cultru).
 
 DUPLEIX 19 
 
 Europe amounted to a million and a quarter 
 livres, four-fifths of it being in India. 
 
 The year 1739 was a most unlucky one 
 for him. He was robbed in an opium trans- 
 action by his English agents ; a flotilla of 
 boats from Patna was wrecked in the Ganges; 
 his Malacca and Mozambique ventures turned 
 out badly ; his Manilla ship was lost, and he 
 was reduced to great straits for ready money. 
 Everything went wrong. A mortal blow 
 had been struck at the already tottering 
 Moghul Empire by Nadir Shah's invasion ; 
 the trade of the country was disorganised, 
 and Dupleix had his hands full of unsaleable 
 goods. The Assam venture was a complete 
 loss. A vessel from France with a valuable 
 cargo was lost in the Ganges for want of a 
 pilot. With the exception of what he had 
 remitted to France, he had lost almost every- 
 thing, and the fortune of Vincens was equally 
 involved. To add to his troubles, four of 
 his subordinates accused him of peculation. 
 He met the accusation boldly, and obtained 
 the dismissal of three of his calumniators. 
 In September, his friend Vincens died. 
 Dupleix had lost the greater part of his 
 gains, and had to abandon hope of returning
 
 20 DUPLEIX 
 
 to France ; but the man's indomitable spirit 
 still showed itself. Adversity always brought 
 out the best points of his character. 
 
 Prosaic as all these details are, they serve 
 to show that Dupleix had, at this time, formed 
 none of the political schemes with which he 
 has been credited : his views were strictly 
 limited to trade. Nor did he bring away 
 a fortune from Bengal, as was afterwards as- 
 serted when urging his money claims on the 
 Company. The allusion ^ to " the fortune 
 of several millions which Dupleix acquired 
 in Bengal " cannot be justified, for the simple 
 reason that Dupleix had lost the greater 
 part of his fortune before he left Bengal.^ By 
 his exertions he had raised Chandernagore 
 to a degree of prosperity that had long been 
 unknown. During his ten years of office 
 the Company's revenues in Bengal had trebled 
 in value. 
 
 As a proof of the little attention paid by 
 Dupleix, at this time, to politics, M. Cultru 
 relates an incident that occurred towards 
 the end of his residence at Chandernagore. 
 
 ^ Ndtional Re^new, 1862. 
 
 ^ The fact is also mentioned by Voltaire in his Fragments 
 sur I'Inde.
 
 DUPLEIX 21 
 
 There was at Delhi a certain de Volton who 
 had deserted the French service, and had 
 entered the service of the Emperor as 
 physician. From there he had reopened 
 communication with his countrymen, and, 
 probably wishing to conciliate the French 
 authorities, he offered, in 1739, through the 
 head of the French factory at Patna, to pro- 
 cure for Dupleix a jagir,^ a sir-o-pao,^ and 
 the title of Panch Hazari, or Commandant 
 of 5000 horse. In replying to the offer, 
 Dupleix showed little enthusiasm in the 
 matter. He wrote to Patna that he would 
 have nothing to do with any grant of land ; 
 the title might be useful, but it would 
 be necessary that it should be given in per- 
 petuity to the governors of Pondicherry and 
 Chandernagore ; in any case the offer must 
 be declined if the fees demanded were too 
 large. When informed of the sum required, 
 he declared that de Volton must be a fool 
 if he thought the Company would spend so 
 much on an empty title that would only lead 
 to further expenditure in the future. In 
 reporting the matter to Dumas he states his 
 opinion that the title might be useful in 
 
 ^ A grant of land. ^ A dress of honour.
 
 22 DUPLEIX 
 
 securing more respect for the French, and 
 thus help them in trading matters, as it would 
 show that they were directly under the pro- 
 tection of the Emperor. In short, he treated 
 the offer from the point of view of a trader : 
 so little had he realised the feebleness into 
 which the Court of Delhi had fallen ; so little 
 thought had he at the time of launching into 
 politics.
 
 II 
 
 The year 1738 witnessed a new departure in 
 French policy at Pondicherry, produced by 
 the growing disorders in the Carnatic, con- 
 sequent on the decadence of the Moghul 
 Empire. The Rajah of Tanjore having 
 died, his son and successor, Shahojee, finding 
 his throne in jeopardy through the rivalry 
 of his half-brother Pertab Singh, invited 
 the aid and alliance of the French. In 
 return he offered to make over to them the 
 district of Karikal, of which they were to 
 enjoy the revenues on payment of 40,000 
 chakrums and a yearly present, in token of 
 Tanjore sovereignty, according to the usual 
 custom of such grants. Dumas accepted the 
 offer, and, on Shahojee's purwana being 
 received, deputed Dirois to take possession 
 of the fort of Kircan Gurree, which was 
 included in the agreement. Meanwhile, 
 Shahojee had triumphed over his rival, and, 
 under Dutch advice, repudiated the agree-
 
 24 DUPLEIX 
 
 ment, treated with ridicule the Brahmins 
 whom Dumas had sent with money and 
 presents, and dispatched troops to Karikal 
 to hold it against the French, Dumas, who 
 was acting without the knowledge of his 
 Directors, was in no condition to engage in 
 hostilities with Tanjore, and saw no alter- 
 native but to put up with the breach of faith, 
 when a fresh opportunity presented itself. 
 In addition to internal troubles Tanjore was 
 at the time suffering from external enemies. 
 Under Moghul rule Tanjore had paid tribute 
 to the Carnatic, but for some time past the 
 tribute had remained unpaid, as was happen- 
 ing everywhere in the growing weakness of 
 the Empire. Chunda Sahib, the Dewan and 
 son-in-law of Dost Ali Khan, the Nawab of 
 the Carnatic, who was destined later to play 
 a prominent part in Dupleix' schemes, was 
 warring in the Nawab's name against Tanjore, 
 to enforce the payment of tribute. He had 
 taken Trichinopoly, and, hearing of Shahojee's 
 insulting treatment of the French, sent an 
 agent to Dumas, inviting his assistance in 
 besieging Tanjore ; in return for which he 
 undertook to conquer Karikal and make it 
 over to the French. After some hesitation
 
 DUPLEIX 25 
 
 Dumas sent some ammunition to Chunda 
 Sahib. At the same time, resolved not to 
 be exposed to a second breach of faith, he 
 dispatched Dirois with three vessels to take 
 possession of Karikal and hold it against all 
 comers. For some reason this was not done. 
 Probably it was found that the fort was too 
 strongly held by Shahojee's men, or that its 
 capture by force would make an enemy of 
 Chunda Sahib, who was taking his own 
 measures against Karikal ; so Dirois returned 
 to Pondicherry. 
 
 Chunda Sahib kept faith. On the 8th 
 February 1739 his physician, Francisco 
 Pereira, arrived at Pondicherry, bearing a 
 letter to Dumas, in which he announced 
 that he had captured Karikal, and that 
 Dumas might send and take possession. 
 In confirmation, Pereira brought a purwana 
 signed by Shahojee acknowledging the 
 French title, and another containing an 
 order to Chunda Sahib's general, Nusseer 
 Khan, to deliver over Karikal to the French. 
 The French flao- was hoisted in Karikal on 
 the 14th February, and 100,000 chakrums 
 were paid to Chunda Sahib. Shahojee 
 claimed that some payment should be made
 
 26 DUPLEX X 
 
 to him, on the basis of his first agreement 
 with Dumas, a claim that could not safely 
 be disregarded. While the negotiation was 
 proceeding, Shahojee was deposed in favour 
 of his rival Pertab Singh, and the affair 
 was finally settled by a payment of 37,502 
 pagodas, a sum that included the presents 
 made to Tanjore officials during the negotia- 
 tion. As the Karikal revenues brought in 
 ?ooo pagodas yearly, and the acquisition 
 gave openings for an extension of trade, 
 the bargain was apparently a good one for 
 the French. The Directors, in due time, 
 signified their approbation of Dumas' action, 
 treating- the matter as a commercial trans- 
 action, and ignoring the political side of it. 
 The history of the acquisition of Karikal 
 by Dumas is of interest, because it was 
 the first French acquisition of territory for 
 revenue purposes, and it was by following 
 exactly the same course of action, in furnish- 
 ing military aid to native chiefs, in return 
 for a promised grant of territory, without 
 the previous consent of the Directors, that 
 Dupleix subsequently played so conspicuous 
 a part in southern India. 
 
 In the beginning of 1739 Dumas notified
 
 DUPLEIX 27 
 
 to the Directors his desire to resign his 
 governorship and return to France. The 
 news took the Directors by surprise. Dumas 
 had been in Pondicherry as governor only 
 four years, during which he had proved 
 himself an able and energetic administrator. 
 They wished to retain his services in India, 
 and received the notification of his wish 
 to resign with some vexation. They nomi- 
 nated Dupleix as his successor, but begged 
 Dumas to reconsider his decision. As an 
 inducement they offered him 600 pagodas, 
 under pretence of reimbursing him for a 
 sum they had disallowed. To Dupleix 
 they wrote that they were willing to ignore 
 the intemperate letter he had addressed to 
 them in November 1738, as having been 
 due to oversensitiveness, and to a want 
 of due reflection. 
 
 The result of the Directors' action was 
 to delay Dumas' departure for a year and 
 a half. Meanwhile, the political outlook 
 was threatening. Karikal was not turning 
 out a success, and, owing to the intrigues 
 of the Dutch at Negapatam, great difficulty 
 was experienced in getting in the revenue. 
 The Carnatic was subjected to the attacks
 
 2 8 DUPLEIX 
 
 of a new foe, and the safety of Pondicherry 
 itself was threatened. 
 
 As Tanjore was tributary to the Carnatic, 
 so the Carnatic was tributary to the Deccan. 
 In the general confusion, the Nawab, Dost 
 Ali Khan, had proclaimed himself ruler, in 
 succession to his uncle, Saadat-oolla Khan, 
 without obtaining: the recognition of the 
 Deccan Soobadar, Nizam-ool-Moolk. The 
 Soobadar contented himself for a time with 
 using his influence at Delhi to prevent 
 Dost Ali Khan from receiving confirma- 
 tion from the Emperor. As the Nawab's 
 power was augmented by the acquisition 
 of Trichinopoly and Madura, Nizam-ool- 
 Moolk's resentment increased ; but important 
 changes going on at Delhi prevented him 
 from asserting his authority. 
 
 In May 1740 a Mahratta force under 
 Raghojee Bhonsla invaded the Carnatic.^ 
 Dost Ali Khan met them at the Damal- 
 cherry Pass, and was defeated and slain. 
 
 ^ According to Orme the Mahrattas were incited to over- 
 run the Carnatic by Nizam-ool-Moolk, which seems im- 
 probable. Wilks says they were invited in by Sufdar Ali 
 Khan to break the power of Chunda Sahib ; but Sufdar Ali 
 Khan does not appear to have suspected Chunda Sahib's 
 designs till later. Grant Duff says the invasion was ordered 
 by the Peishwa in his own interests.
 
 DUPLEIX 29 
 
 His son, Sufdar Ali Khan, shut himself 
 up in Vellore, but sent his family and 
 valuables to Pondicherry, where his father's 
 widow had already found asylum. The 
 fortifications of Pondicherry were so superior 
 to anything then known in India, as to 
 promise safety from the Mahratta horse- 
 men, provided the French were friendly. 
 Dumas received the fugitives, at the risk 
 of bringing on himself Raghojee's enmity. 
 Chunda Sahib, who had taken the field 
 with 15,000 men, on the pretence of going 
 to Dost All's assistance, by calculated delays 
 failed to join him, and, on hearing of his 
 defeat, hastened back to Trichinopoly. 
 
 The Mahrattas overran the Carnatic, 
 wasting the whole country, according to 
 their custom, and made themselves masters 
 of Arcot. Raghojee then summoned Dumas 
 to pay tribute, and to surrender the fugitives. 
 Dumas bid him defiance, and prepared to 
 defend himself. Fortunately Raghojee's 
 presence was required in the Deccan, where 
 the death of the Peishwa Bajee Rao in 
 April had given rise to the usual quarrels 
 about the succession. On Sufdar Ali 
 Khan agreeing to pay a heavy tribute,
 
 30 DUPLEIX 
 
 Raghojee withdrew his troops from the 
 Carnatic. 
 
 In September, Sufdar Ali Khan, accom- 
 panied by Chunda Sahib, whose family- 
 had also been granted asylum by Dumas, 
 visited Pondicherry. They were received 
 with much ceremony, and were loud in 
 their expressions of gratitude. To Dumas, 
 besides many valuable presents, the new 
 Nawab made a grant of the village of 
 Archiwak, adjoining Pondicherry. At the 
 end of a fortnight Sufdar Ali Khan be- 
 took himself to Arcot, while Chunda Sahib 
 repaired to Trichinopoly, where he was 
 planning to make himself independent, 
 leaving his family at Pondicherry. Suf- 
 dar Ali Khan, becoming aware of his 
 designs, summoned the Mahrattas to return. 
 In August he had promised them a por- 
 tion of territory as part of the ransom 
 of the Carnatic : he now told them that 
 they might keep Trichinopoly for them- 
 selves, if they would take it and dispose 
 of Chunda Sahib. In December, they 
 suddenly re-entered the Carnatic, and made 
 straight for Trichinopoly. After a three 
 months' siege, Chunda Sahib was forced to
 
 DUPLEIX 3 1 
 
 surrender, his two brothers having been 
 slain in attempting to relieve the place. 
 Raghojee retired, after making over Trichi- 
 nopoly to Morar Rao, the Mahratta chief 
 of Gootee, carrying off with him Chunda 
 Sahib, who was placed in confinement at 
 Satara. 
 
 At Mahe on the west coast, also, Dumas 
 found cause for much anxiety. After its 
 first acquisition, in 1725, it had proved so 
 costly and troublesome to the Company that 
 the Directors had ordered Lenoir to abandon 
 it as a military post. Lenoir prevailed on 
 them to cancel their order, and since 1728 
 things had gone better there. In the end of 
 1738, while Karikal affairs were still unsettled, 
 Dirois had been appointed to the chiefship 
 of Mahe. Before long he allowed himself 
 to be drawn into local quarrels, and in June 
 1740, while Dumas was engaged in prepara- 
 tions to defend Pondicherry against Raghojee, 
 Mahe was blockaded by the Nairs. The 
 confusion reigning in the Carnatic made it 
 impossible for Dumas to send a force to 
 raise the blockade, and Mahe was left to 
 take care of itself. 
 
 Early in 1740, Dupleix learned from
 
 32 DUPLEIX 
 
 Dumas that he had sent home his resignation 
 twelve months before ; that the nomination 
 of his successor might soon be expected, and 
 that, in all probability, the choice of the 
 Directors would fall on himself. To an 
 ambitious man the prospect should have 
 been one of no small satisfaction. Dupleix 
 had proved his capacity at Chandernagore ; 
 he was still at an age when he might expect 
 a long term of office as the head of all the 
 French establishments in India, and Dumas 
 had shown that there were political develop- 
 ments possible at Pondicherry that had been 
 out of his reach at Chandernagore. But 
 Dupleix was so engrossed in local interests 
 and his own private trade that he was now 
 as unwilling to leave Bengal as he had been 
 to stay there when first appointed. He 
 wrote to his brother : " Dumas m'apprend 
 qu'il a demande son conge en Janvier 1739 ; 
 il recevra la reponse cette annee. II compte 
 parce qu'il me marque que ce sera moi qui 
 le releverai. Si la chose arrive, il la faudra 
 recevoir ; mais, en verity je ne le souhaite 
 pas, et au titre pres, je suis bien mieux ici, 
 ceci est mon enfant, je I'ai form6, je I'ai fait 
 ce qu'il est, et la (Pondichery) tout est fait :
 
 DUPLEIX 33 
 
 il n'est point possible d'en faire davantage, a 
 moins de tromper la Compagnie." ^ And 
 this was not a passing expression of opinion 
 prompted by a wish to remain in Bengal. 
 In his letter to the Directors, fifteen months 
 earlier, he had told them he had no ambition 
 to succeed Lenoir and Dumas at Pondicherry, 
 because they had left no room for improve- 
 ment there : " Ouand meme je serais a 
 Pondichery je me trouverais trop heureux 
 de soutenir les choses sur le pied ou ils les 
 ont mises. Tout y est rdgle, tout y est fait, 
 je ne vois plus davantage considerable a y 
 procurer a la Compagnie."^ His views at 
 this time were confined to trade. 
 
 He was further embarrassed by the loss of 
 nearly everything he had acquired by private 
 trade, as he acknowledged in a letter, written 
 at this time, to Hardancourt, one of the 
 Directors. Among other debts, he owed a 
 large sum to the Vincens family, which he 
 was unable to pay. Fourteen years later 
 (October 1754), when drawing up a list of his 
 debts, he acknowledged still owing 118,000 
 rupees to Vincens' estate. He found tem- 
 
 1 Dupleix h. son frere, nth March 1740 (Cultru). 
 
 2 Dupleix k la Compagnie, 25th November 1738 (id.). 
 
 3
 
 34 DUPLEIX 
 
 porary relief from the claim by marrying 
 Vincens' widow, on 17th April 1741, when 
 preparing to proceed to Pondicherry. 
 
 Madame Vincens' origin was not a dis- 
 tinofuished one. The account of her noble 
 Portuguese origin, her great political ability, 
 and her wide knowledge of Eastern languages 
 is only part of the exaggeration that has 
 accumulated round the name of Dupleix. 
 Her mother was a Portuguese half-caste 
 named de Castro, born at Madras in 1684, 
 so devoid of education that she could not 
 sign her name. Her father, Jacques Albert, 
 was a French surgeon. To Vincens she had 
 borne at least eight children (eleven, according 
 to Cultru), of whom five were living at the 
 time of her marriage to Dupleix, when she 
 was thirty-five years old. She was a clever 
 woman of intriguing nature and domineering 
 disposition, whose influence over Dupleix 
 was, in the long-run, mischievous to him. 
 Her knowledge of Tamil, the only native 
 tongue with which she was acquainted, must 
 have been of great use to him at the time 
 when almost every European was at the 
 mercy of native interpreters ; but the part 
 she played in Carnatic affairs has been much
 
 DUPLEIX 35 
 
 exao^Qe rated. On one occasion she wrote to 
 Saunders, the Governor of Madras, to com- 
 plain of a district under her charge having 
 been ravaged by English troops. Saunders 
 politely declined to discuss the subject with 
 her, telling her that ladies should not concern 
 themselves with business affairs : he would 
 discuss the matter with her husband.^ She 
 managed the native spies maintained by 
 Dupleix in the English settlements, and, 
 during the siege of Pondicherry, received the 
 reports of spies in Boscawen's camp. She 
 had under her orders a body of peons whose 
 depredations, in which she shared, were more 
 formidable to the besieged than to the be- 
 siegers. A sortie, projected by her, cost 
 Dupleix the life of M. Paradis, his best 
 officer. Apparently she spied on Dupleix 
 himself. His confidential native secretary, 
 Ananda Ranga Pillay, relates how native 
 attendants in her pay were invariably present 
 at all interviews,^ The grave money diffi- 
 
 ^ Saunders to Madame la Marquise Dupleix, 26th April 
 1754 (Cultru). 
 
 2 Les Fran^ats dans Vlnde. Extraits du Journal 
 d'Anandaranga-pouUe, courtier de la Compagnie Franqaise 
 des Indes. Traduits du Tamoul. Julien Vinson, Paris, 
 1894.
 
 36 DUPLEIX 
 
 culties in which Dupleix found himself during 
 his last year in India were in part due to 
 her mismanagement of the Carnatic revenues, 
 the peculations of her agent, and the general 
 disorder that existed in the districts of which 
 she had sole charge. She bore Dupleix a 
 son, in October 1742, who did not survive 
 his birth. 
 
 On the ^^ October 174.1, Dumas sailed 
 for France. A month before his departure 
 a squadron of seven vessels, commanded 
 by La Bourdonnais, reached Pondicherry. 
 This squadron had been dispatched from 
 France, under circumstances to be narrated 
 later, in the expectation of a war with England. 
 The two countries, however, were still at 
 peace, but its arrival was a timely one in 
 other respects, as it enabled Dumas to send 
 aid to Mahe, which was still being blockaded 
 by the Nairs. It also enabled La Bourdon- 
 nais to concert measures with Dumas against 
 the eventuality of war with the English, 
 which bore fruit five years later. On the same 
 day that Dumas bade farewell to Pondicherry, 
 La Bourdonnais sailed for Mahe, where he 
 restored order in December. 
 
 On the Y% January 1742, Dupleix landed
 
 DUPLEIX 37 
 
 at Pondicherry and assumed the reins of 
 government. On the ^^^\ more than six 
 months after Dumas' departure, a firman 
 arrived from the Moghul Emperor, obtained 
 by Sufdar Ah Khan in grateful recognition 
 of the protection granted him by Dumas 
 against the Mahrattas, in which the title of 
 Munsubdar of 4500 horse, with the dignity 
 of carrying a standard and using the nagara^ 
 were conferred on Dumas. These dignities 
 were personal to Dumas, and not transfer- 
 able to his successor ; nor did Dupleix ever 
 show the least disposition to adopt them. 
 His views about native titles at this time 
 were those he had expressed in the de 
 Volton business three years earlier. The 
 title of Commandant of Horsemen was 
 purely honorary, like the honorary colonel- 
 cies conferred by one sovereign on another 
 in our own day, and conveyed no military 
 authority. The story that Dupleix made 
 use of the title, and that he visited Chander- 
 nagore to receive the homage of the Faujdar 
 of Hooghly is without foundation.^ From 
 
 ^ Kettledrums. 
 
 2 The story of Dupleix's visit to Chandernagore to 
 receive homage is an invention of the Abbe Guyon. 
 Hamont is responsible for the idea that the firman made the
 
 38 DUPLEIX 
 
 the time of his first arrival in Pondicherry 
 in January 1742, till his final departure in 
 October 1754, Dupleix never left the 
 place, except for a short visit to Gingee 
 in 1751/ 
 
 His life at this time was apparently not 
 a happy one. His health was bad, and he 
 thought of resigning ; so far was he from 
 anticipating the part he was destined to play. 
 But the imminence of war with England put 
 an end to the project. The dispute over 
 the Austrian Succession threatened to put all 
 Europe in a blaze. France was taking the 
 field, as the ally of the Elector of Bavaria, 
 and was striking at Hanover. Before long 
 England took the field as the ally of Austria, 
 and the two nations were arrayed in arms 
 against each other,^ while nominally at peace, 
 as the auxiliaries of Austria and Bavaria : an 
 example that was to be followed, before 
 many years, by the rival Companies in 
 India. 
 
 Karikal was continuing to give trouble. 
 
 title transferable to Dumas' successor ; but the wording of 
 the firman shows that this was not the case. 
 
 1 Cultru, p. 184. 
 
 - The battle of Dettingen was fought nine months before 
 the declaration of war.
 
 DUPLEIX 39 
 
 The Tanjore Chief was playing false, de- 
 manding further payments, and preventing 
 the revenue being gathered. In June 1743 
 the powder magazine was blown up by 
 accident, killing the governor, Febvrier, and 
 a number of men. Dupleix sent Paradis 
 there as governor. Paradis soon perceived 
 that no negotiation would ever settle the 
 matter, and it must be decided by force. 
 But Dupleix had not yet gauged the military 
 weakness of native armies, and would have 
 none of it. He wrote to the Directors that 
 they would do well to get rid of the costly 
 encumbrance. Meanwhile, Paradis took the 
 matter into his own hands, and a combat 
 that cost the Tanjoreans sixty or seventy 
 men put an end to their opposition for a 
 time. 
 
 The affairs of the Carnatic continued to 
 be disturbed. Sufdar Ali Khan and the 
 Mahrattas in Trichinopoly were quarrelling, 
 and Nizam-ool-Moolk was preparing to en- 
 force his claims to arrears of tribute at the 
 head of an army. In view of anticipated 
 trouble, Sufdar Ali Khan sent his family 
 and valuables to Madras. It is remarkable 
 that he should not have sent them to Pondi-
 
 40 DUPLEIX 
 
 cherry, where they had found protection 
 eighteen months earlier. According to 
 Orme he chose Madras at the instigation 
 of his Dewan, Meer Assad, Chunda Sahib's 
 rival, who suspected an understanding be- 
 tween Dupleix and Chunda Sahib. Since 
 the invasion of the Mahrattas, two years 
 before this, Chunda Sahib's wife and his 
 younger son Reza Sahib had continued to 
 reside in Pondicherry. Chunda Sahib, from 
 his confinement in Satara, had made an 
 appeal to Dupleix, through his family ; but 
 he could have made no offer that Dupleix 
 would have cared to entertain, likely to 
 endanger the good relations existing be- 
 tween the French and Sufdar Ali Khan. 
 
 In October 1742, Sufdar Ali Khan was 
 murdered by his brother-in-law Mortaza Ali 
 Khan, who gained over the troops and 
 proclaimed himself Nawab of the Carnatic. 
 In a few weeks the troops broke away from 
 Mortaza Ali Khan, who sought safety in 
 Vellore, while Mahommed Said, the young 
 son of Sufdar Ali Khan, was proclaimed 
 Nawab. 
 
 In the following May, Nizam-ool-Moolk 
 advanced at the head of a large army into
 
 DUPLEIX 41 
 
 the Carnatic, which was fast lapsing into 
 anarchy/ Mahommed Said was set aside 
 as too young to exercise authority, the 
 Mahrattas were forced to evacuate Trichi- 
 nopoly, and Nizam-ool-Moolk marched back 
 to the Deccan after restoring order, and 
 appointing Khoja Abdullah as Nawab of 
 the Carnatic. A few months later, Khoja 
 Abdullah was poisoned by an unknown 
 hand, and Anwaroodeen was appointed, 
 provisionally, in his place ; Nizam-ool-Moolk 
 having declared his intention to confer the 
 Nawabship on Mahommed Said on his 
 reaching the ag-e of manhood. A few 
 months later, again (June 1744), Mahommed 
 Said was assassinated by a Pathan, insti- 
 gated, according to general belief, by 
 Mortaza Ali Khan, and Anwaroodeen was 
 confirmed permanently in the Nawabship. 
 These rapid changes were watched by 
 Dupleix without any attempt to intervene 
 or take advantage of them, but he cannot 
 fail to have observed that the Chiefship of 
 the Carnatic was at the disposal of the 
 strongest, that the people were not attached 
 to any particular ruler or family, and that 
 
 ^ See Wilks, i. 254.
 
 42 DUPLEIX 
 
 there were no hereditary rights to the 
 Nawabship. His hands were soon to be 
 occupied with more vital interests. 
 
 In the autumn of 1744 it became known 
 that war had been declared between France 
 and England. The Directors in Paris, in 
 anticipation of war, had already written to 
 Dupleix to do his utmost to prevent hostil- 
 ities east of the Cape of Good Hope. They 
 could hold out to him no hope of assistance 
 in men or money. The finances of the 
 Company were at so low an ebb that they 
 had, some months before, ordered him to 
 reduce expenses ; and the King was not 
 disposed to send troops or men-of-war to 
 India, being already sufficiently occupied in 
 Europe and America. They enjoined on 
 him the necessity of avoiding any aggressive 
 action. It has been generally held that 
 Dupleix, at this juncture, appealed to the 
 Nawab Anwaroodeen for protection, but this 
 does not appear to have been the case. 
 Having neither troops nor money, in 
 December he addressed the English officials 
 at Madras, Calcutta, and Bombay, proposing 
 that no act of hostility should be committed 
 by either nation east of the Cape of Good
 
 DUPLEIX 43 
 
 Hope. In reply he was told that the pro- 
 posal could not be entertained. His design 
 was not only to preserve French settlements 
 in India from attack, but to tie the hands of the 
 British Navy in the Indian and China seas. 
 
 Six weeks after the declaration of war, 
 a squadron of four men-of-war under Com- 
 modore Barnet sailed from the Downs to 
 protect English trade in the Indian seas. 
 The unexpected arrival of La Bourdonnais 
 on the Indian coast, in 1741, had shown the 
 English Company the danger to which their 
 trade was exposed, and their representations 
 to the Crown obtained Barnet's dispatch to 
 the East. But no intention of attacking the 
 French trading settlements in India found 
 place in the plans of the English ministry ; 
 Barnet's instructions were limited to pro- 
 tecting English commerce and harrying 
 French commerce at sea.^ From Mada- 
 gascar Barnet steered for the Malacca 
 Straits, where he captured (in January 1745) 
 three French ships from Canton, a French 
 privateer that had been fitted out at Pondi- 
 
 ^ The instructions themselves cannot now be found, but 
 the covering letter exists, and shows that his operations 
 were only to be extended to sea operations. {Admiralty 
 Orders.)
 
 44 DUPLEIX 
 
 cherry, and a Manilla ship, the Mahommed 
 Shah, sailing under a French pass. Accord- 
 ing to accounts at the time, the Mahommed 
 Shah, in which Dupleix had an interest, 
 had treasure on board to the amount of over 
 ^50,000. This severe blow, falling both on 
 the Company and himself, roused Dupleix's 
 extreme wrath. Naturally arrogant and 
 impatient of opposition, the loss awoke in 
 his mind a vindictive feeling against the 
 English that coloured all his subsequent acts, 
 and frequently obscured his judgment. It 
 soon became known at the Deccan and 
 Carnatic Courts that Dupleix was seeking 
 to revenge himself on the English. The 
 Soobadar and the Nawab at once addressed 
 purwanas to the French, English, and Dutch 
 factories, ordering them to respect all vessels 
 bearing passes from the Nawab's repre- 
 sentative. To Dupleix himself Anwaroodeen 
 addressed a letter, reminding him that the 
 European factories were under the protection 
 of the Emperor, that they were held for trading 
 purposes only, and would be protected from 
 attack, and that he, Dupleix, would be held 
 responsible if he broke the peace. 
 
 In all previous European wars, hostilities
 
 DUPLEIX 45 
 
 had never extended to any part of the 
 Moghul Emperor's dominions, and neither 
 Pondicherry nor Madras had men to employ 
 in enterprises outside their factory walls. 
 Determined to revenge himself, Dupleix 
 wrote to Bourbon to claim the assistance 
 offered to him by La Bourdonnais. Mean- 
 while, he did his best to excite the Nawab's 
 enmity against the English, writing that he 
 was able to defend himself if attacked ; that 
 the English had broken the peace, and if the 
 Nawab would not punish them he must not 
 be surprised if the French took matters into 
 their own hands. 
 
 The English Council at Madras protested 
 to the Nawab that Barnet was not under 
 their orders, and they had no authority over 
 him. To which the Nawab replied that 
 any attack made on the French possessions 
 by Barnet would be visited on Madras. 
 This so alarmed the Madras Council that 
 they impressed on Barnet the necessity of 
 confining his operations to the sea. So 
 Pondicherry, which was at the mercy of his 
 squadron, was not attacked, and Dupleix 
 continued his preparations for war. 
 
 Since 1735 La Bourdonnais had held the
 
 46 DUPLEIX 
 
 governorship of Bourbon and Mauritius. 
 He was a man of energetic and adventurous 
 disposition, and a sailor of the best type. 
 As described by Orme, " His knowledge of 
 mechanics rendered him capable of building 
 a ship from the keel : his skill in navigation, 
 of conducting her to any part of the globe : 
 and his courage, of defending her against 
 any equal force." For some years he had 
 served in the French Company's marine, and 
 had distinguished himself at the capture of 
 Mahe in 1725. He had afterwards quarrelled 
 with Lenoir, and for two years had taken 
 service with the Portuguese. He had then 
 re-entered the Company's service as Gov- 
 ernor of the islands. In 1739, while in 
 France, when war wath England appeared 
 imminent, he had formed a syndicate among 
 his friends to fit out a small privateering 
 squadron to prey on English trade in the 
 East. Before he could sail, the Company 
 took over the project, and, in April 1741, 
 he sailed in command of five Company's 
 ships, arriving at Pondicherry a few days 
 before Dumas sailed for Europe.^ Though 
 war was averted, he was able to render 
 ^ See page 36.
 
 DUPLEIX 47 
 
 opportune service at Mahe, as has already 
 been related. 
 
 Among the plans he had formed for 
 injuring English commerce was one for 
 making a raid on Madras, and holding the 
 town to ransom. To a man of his training, 
 such desultory attacks were more congenial 
 than the deliberate methods of scientific 
 warfare. The scheme was imparted to 
 Dumas when they met at Pondicherry, and 
 afterwards to Dupleix, who thought so well •' 
 of it that he sent his chief engineer, M. 
 Paradis, to Madras to prepare a plan of ^ 
 attack. War not breaking out, the squadron 
 was recalled to France, La Bourdonnais 
 remaining at Bourbon. On news of the 
 declaration of war reaching him, he received 
 similar orders to those sent to Dupleix to 
 avoid hostilities if possible.^ He paid no 
 attention to them. At once he addressed 
 Dupleix, undertaking to fit out six vessels 
 with fifteen or eighteen hundred men, pro- 
 posing that Dupleix should contribute three 
 or four hundred more, and that they should 
 together essay some enterprise that would 
 
 ^ The government of the Isles of France was independent 
 of the government of the French trading settlements in India.
 
 48 DUPLEIX 
 
 make good their losses. The expense was 
 to be borne partly by the Company, partly 
 by Dupleix and himself. His ideas were 
 those of the adventurer rather than of the 
 naval officer. Dupleix was still hoping that 
 neutrality would be preserved, and dis- 
 approved of the project : but his pacific ideas 
 disappeared on hearing of the losses caused 
 by Barnet's squadron, and he wrote to La 
 Bourdonnais to push on his preparations, to 
 which he contributed 10,000 rupees from his 
 private purse. 
 
 Throughout the year (1745) La Bour- 
 donnais worked with ardour at the completion 
 of his armament, converting merchant ships 
 into men-of-war, collecting troops and pro- 
 visions, and notifying Dupleix of the stores 
 he would require on arrival. Dupleix, on his 
 side, was no less diligent in his preparations. 
 A system for obtaining constant intelligence 
 from Madras was established through the 
 eldest daughter of Madame Dupleix, who 
 was married to a merchant there named 
 Barnewall or Coyle de Barneval.^ 
 
 ^ This man is described by French writers as a British 
 subject. The English records call him a Frenchman. 
 When Madras was restored to the English in 1749, he was 
 arrested and ordered to leave the country, and his house
 
 DUPLEIX 49 
 
 As the time for action approached, La 
 Bourdonnais tried to shift part of the 
 responsibihty for the attack on Madras on 
 to Dupleix's shoulders. The Directors in 
 France had been kept in complete ignorance 
 of the design, and, in the event of failure, 
 he wished Dupleix to share the blame. On 
 the 3rd February 1746 he wrote to Dupleix : 
 " Je veux me faire une loi de partager avec 
 vous tout I'honneur du succes de nos 
 operations. Nous devons nous regarder 
 I'un et I'autre comme egalement int^ress^s 
 a la conduite des evenements. II s'agit de 
 nous consulter reciproquement dans le cours 
 de cette expedition." ^ Dupleix, however, 
 had no idea of having the responsibility 
 thrust on him. He replied that the honour 
 of success would be La Bourdonnais' ; he 
 himself would assist in every way that was 
 in his power. He politely declined to take 
 any credit for the scheme, but pointed out 
 that the destruction of the English squadron 
 
 was confiscated. He came to England and petitioned the 
 Court of Directors, who permitted him to return home^ and 
 trade as a Free Merchant. He appears to have returned to 
 India, where Dupleix gave him a military commission. The 
 name appears in the Madras records of 1716. 
 ^ La Bourdonnais ^ Dupleix, 3rd February 1746 (Cultru). 
 
 4
 
 50 DUPLEIX 
 
 was necessary before Madras could be 
 attacked. He was very far at present from 
 desiring to direct French policy in the East 
 at his pleasure. At this time too he was 
 gratified by receiving from France letters of 
 nobility and the cordon of St. Michael. 
 
 While his preparations were still incom- 
 plete, La Bourdonnais received news from 
 France that a squadron was being dispatched 
 to him to be under his orders. His instruc- 
 tions were to convey a sum of money to 
 Pondicherry, and then to cruise against 
 English commerce in the Bay of Bengal. 
 He was to return to the islands about June 
 1746, and send the squadron back to France 
 in the following year. At the same time a 
 certain amount of discretion was left him to 
 change the plan according to circumstances, 
 in which case he was to act in consultation 
 with Dupleix, who was directed to second 
 his efforts. The Directors were still in 
 ignorance of the project against Madras, or 
 of the preparations that had been made in 
 Pondicherry and the islands. 
 
 In March (1746) all was ready. Hardly 
 had the combined squadron left its anchorage 
 when it was scattered by a terrible storm.
 
 DUPLEIX 5 1 
 
 One ship was lost, others were dismasted, 
 and the whole expedition was forced to put 
 back to refit on the Madagascar coast. La 
 Bourdonnais' energy and skill triumphed 
 over all difficulties. By the beginning of 
 June all was again ready, and, with nine men- 
 of-war carrying 3300 men, La Bourdonnais 
 sailed for Pondicherry, where he arrived 
 on the ^I? tT^ after fig^htino- an indecisive 
 
 8th July o & 
 
 action with the English squadron, in which 
 neither side showed much stomach for the 
 fight. Barnet had died three months before, 
 and the command of the English squadron 
 had been assumed by Peyton, an inefficient 
 officer, who, after this engagement, effaced 
 himself and his squadron till the arrival of 
 Commodore Griffin in November ; too late 
 to save Madras. 
 
 While Dupleix had been at Chander- 
 nagore, a difference had arisen between him 
 and La Bourdonnais concerning a matter of 
 trade, and he had not been sparing of his 
 comments on La Bourdonnais when the 
 latter had been appointed Governor of the 
 islands ; but there had been no open quarrel, 
 and of late the two had been drawn to- 
 gether by a common aim. From the
 
 52 DUPLEIX 
 
 moment of setting foot in Pondicherry, La 
 Bourdonnais commenced a quarrel with 
 Dupleix that bid fair to ruin the whole 
 expedition. He complained that he was 
 not honoured with the same salutes and 
 honours as Dupleix, and the complaint would 
 appear to have had some point, as Dumas 
 had received him five years before with 
 equal honours. As Governor of the islands 
 he was not subordinate to the Governor of 
 Pondicherry. He ostentatiously paraded 
 his men in front of Dupleix's house, making 
 them render him the honours that Dupleix 
 would not pay him, and demanded the 
 punishment of an officer in charge of a 
 guard who declined to give him the salute 
 paid to the Governor of Pondicherry. 
 Instead of humouring his vanity, in view of 
 the important project they had embarked 
 upon, Dupleix met his complaints with an 
 equal show of pride, spoke injuriously of him 
 to others, and inflicted small slights on him 
 that were bound to be felt and resented. 
 
 In the beginning of August, La Bour- 
 donnais took his squadron for a three weeks' 
 cruise to the southward to look for the 
 English squadron, and found them off the
 
 DUPLEIX 5 3 
 
 north coast of Ceylon. For three days 
 the two squadrons watched each other 
 without engaging : Peyton, with an inferior 
 force, declining the combat, and La Bour- 
 donnais not forcing it on. 
 
 On his return, the quarrel went on worse 
 than ever. The two men could only meet 
 in Council, where violent scenes took place. 
 Before long it was evident that La 
 Bourdonnais was weakening- in his desig-ns 
 against Madras, and shrinking from the 
 responsibility. He proposed an attack on 
 Cuddalore and Fort St. David. Dupleix 
 would not hear of it. It would expose the 
 French to the anger of the Nawab, without 
 any corresponding benefit. The resources 
 of Pondicherry were being strained past 
 endurance, while the health of the troops, 
 cooped up on board ship, was suffering. 
 Dupleix was beside himself with anger, and 
 talked before others of " ce chien de La 
 Bourdonnais."^ La Bourdonnais had all 
 along refused to acknowledge that he was 
 subject to the authority of the Council, and 
 claimed to do as he thought best. Now 
 he demanded the Council's orders. The 
 
 ^ Les Franqais dans Plnde.
 
 54 DUPLEIX 
 
 Council gave him no orders, but stated their 
 opinion that he should either proceed against 
 Madras or against the English squadron. 
 In the event of his deciding not to proceed 
 against Madras, the sepoys entertained for 
 the purpose must be disbanded, as their cost 
 was too heavy to be borne indefinitely, and 
 the soldiers belongrinCT to the orarrison that 
 he had taken on board must be landed. 
 In fact, 200 men that had been put on 
 board when the squadron first arrived at 
 Pondicherry were disembarked. La Bour- 
 donnais himself took up his residence on 
 shore, and sent the squadron under M. de la 
 Porte-Barre to cruise on the coast. After a 
 feeble attempt to capture an English vessel, 
 the Princess Mary, in the Madras roads, 
 which led to a two hours' bombardment of 
 the fort, the squadron returned to Pondi- 
 cherry. At last La Bourdonnais, after a 
 violent scene with Dupleix, made up his 
 mind to attack Madras. Whatever blame 
 may attach to Dupleix for his share in these 
 dissensions, to him is due the sole credit 
 of keeping La Bourdonnais to the original 
 project of the expedition. La Bourdonnais 
 was the author of it, but his object was
 
 DUPLEIX 55 
 
 plunder. Still, it is difficult to account for 
 his want of resolution when the moment 
 for action had arrived, and it is clear that, 
 except for Dupleix, the attack on Madras 
 would have hung fire. 
 
 The objections of the Nawab had mean- 
 while been surmounted. The great forces 
 brought by La Bourdonnais, together with 
 the ignominious flight of Peyton's squadron 
 from the coast, showed him that the English 
 were not worth considering, and all further 
 doubts were resolved by the present of 50,000 
 pagodas, and the promise of a similar sum 
 after the capture of Madras. The French 
 claimed at the time that they held the 
 ]>\a^Na}:)S purwana granting them permission 
 to attack Madras. 
 
 Madras was the richest and most popu- 
 lous town on the Coromandel coast. The 
 narrow strip of land leased from the Arcot 
 government, had, under the English Com- 
 pany, developed into a settlement of 250,000 
 inhabitants. But it was in no condition to 
 resist an attack. The defences, poor at 
 the best, had been allowed to fall into dis- 
 repair through the Company's parsimony ; 
 while the Council, trusting in the Nawab's
 
 56 DUPLEIX 
 
 protection, the presence of Peyton's squad- 
 ron on the coast, and the neutrality that 
 had hitherto been observed in European 
 wars, had only commenced to repair them 
 when they heard of La Bourdonnais' arma- 
 ment. The Governor was Mr. Morse, and 
 the garrison consisted of about 200 European 
 soldiers of the inferior quality that the Com- 
 pany maintained in its factories, together 
 with a number of half-armed undisciplined 
 peons. The military officers were three 
 lieutenants, two of whom were foreigners, 
 and seven ensigns promoted from the ranks. 
 Only two of the ten officers were deemed 
 efficient.^ For sixty years it had been the 
 policy of the Company to keep their military 
 force in a state of depression, being more 
 solicitous lest they should be dangerous to 
 themselves than efficient against an enemy. 
 When war appeared to be imminent in 
 1742, the Directors had appointed Major 
 Knipe, an old King's officer of thirty 
 years' service, to command at Madras, and 
 made preparations to increase the garrison 
 
 ^ Those desirous of forming an idea of the Company's 
 military officers at this time should study Lord Egmont's 
 speech in the House of Commons in 1754, on the Bill to 
 extend the Mutiny Act to the East Indies and St. Helena.
 
 DUPLEIX 57 
 
 to 600 men. But the men were not 
 sent, and Knipe died four months after 
 arrival. Undefended wealth is certain to 
 be attacked sooner or later, and La Bour 
 donnais had marked Madras as an easy 
 prey. 
 
 When aware at last of the threatening 
 storm, Morse made an appeal for protection 
 to the Nawab, who sent a sham warning to 
 Dupleix. After a few hours' bombardment 
 by La Bourdonnais, the place surrendered 
 unconditionally, on ^ September, without 
 the French having lost a single man. Before 
 La Bourdonnais left Pondicherry, Dupleix 
 had written to him suggesting that the 
 English should be allowed to buy off the 
 attack on payment of a million pagodas, 
 the restitution of the captured French vessels, 
 and an engagement to observe neutrality 
 east of the Cape for the remainder of the 
 war ; and La Bourdonnais, agitated by a 
 rumour of the approach of Peyton's squadron, 
 had hastened the surrender by holding out 
 hopes that the town would be restored on 
 payment of a ransom. While he was at 
 Pondicherry nothing had been settled as to 
 what was to be done with Madras in the
 
 58 DUPLEIX 
 
 event of capture. Directly the place fell, he 
 informed Dupleix that it had surrendered 
 unconditionally. Dupleix at once wrote to 
 La Bourdonnais charoino- him to entertain 
 no thoughts of a ransom, lest he should 
 embroil the French with the Nawab, to 
 whom he had promised to deliver the town 
 in the event of its capture. His idea was to 
 sack it and dismantle the fort, before making 
 it over to the Nawab. 
 
 La Bourdonnais was in no humour to 
 listen to any suggestion from Dupleix. The 
 design had been his, the conquest was his : 
 he was not under the orders of the Governor 
 of Pondicherry, and would do as he pleased. 
 To his corsair-like ideas of war, booty and 
 ransom were the only objects. From the 
 moment the place was in his hands, a 
 systematic plunder of private property was 
 instituted under his supervision. Dupleix 
 sent Commissioners to take charge of the 
 place ; La Bourdonnais imprisoned some of 
 them and sent the rest back to Pondicherry. 
 He even talked of bombarding Pondicherry 
 to bring Dupleix to reason. With Morse 
 and the Madras Council he came to an 
 agreement to restore the fort, with half of
 
 DUPLEIX 59 
 
 the warlike stores in it, in return for bills 
 of exchange, payable in two years, to the 
 amount of 1,100,000 pagodas. In addition 
 to the booty he had obtained he is said to 
 have secured a private payment from Morse 
 of 100,000 pagodas. Such transactions 
 are not committed to paper, but the cir- 
 cumstantial evidence places the matter 
 almost beyond doubt. Afterwards, on ' 
 reaching France, he was openly accused of 
 receiving the bribe, and the charge has 
 clun^ to him ever since. 
 
 Dupleix was in despair. He had com- 
 mitted himself with the Nawab : without 
 orders from the Directors he had exhausted 
 the resources of Pondicherry ; and now the 
 treasure found in Madras had disappeared. 
 Madras itself was beings oiven back to the 
 English, and La Bourdonnais had from the 
 first made known his intention of carrying 
 back his ships and soldiers to the islands not 
 
 later than the -^ October. In vain he sent 
 
 15th 
 
 letters and officers to La Bourdonnais : they 
 were treated with disdain. At one moment 
 La Bourdonnais told him the affair was 
 settled, and quoted orders given him by 
 the Directors, five years before, under other
 
 6o DUPLEIX 
 
 conditions, forbidding him to establish any- 
 new place of trade ; at another he told him 
 there was no treaty with the English. So 
 the dispute went on, and, as subsequent 
 events showed, its prolongation proved 
 favourable to Dupleix. La Bourdonnais 
 was perplexed, because he foresaw that, 
 without Dupleix's assent, his pledge to 
 restore Madras to the English would not be 
 redeemed. Time was pressing ; the season 
 for tempestuous weather on the coast was 
 approaching, and the open roadstead of 
 Madras afforded no protection to shipping. 
 
 On the ^^ October the convention was 
 
 13th 
 
 settled, but not signed, by which the French 
 were to evacuate the town two days later. 
 That same night a hurricane of great 
 violence struck the coast. La Bourdonnais 
 was blown out to sea ; four of his ships 
 foundered, and the rest were saved with 
 difficulty, after losing their masts, and having 
 to throw a number of their oruns overboard. 
 His armament was effectively crippled, and 
 of the Madras plunder much was lost. He 
 regained his anchorage, and proceeded to 
 complete the convention ; but told the 
 English that, owing to the obstinacy of
 
 DUPLEIX 6i 
 
 Dupleix, the surrender must be delayed for 
 three months. According to Hamont he 
 told the English officials that the terms of 
 the convention were approved by Dupleix, 
 though he had in his possession a letter from 
 the Pondicherry council refusing to recognise 
 it. Thus, after playing false to Dupleix, 
 he now played false to the English, who 
 were obliged to put up with the delay. On 
 
 the ^ October, after making: over the 
 
 23rd ' & 
 
 command to D'Epresmenil,^ the first Coun- 
 cillor at Pondicherry, he sailed for that 
 place. 
 
 At Pondicherry he remained only two 
 days, without setting foot on shore. During 
 his absence, three men-of-war had arrived 
 from France, and had landed a detachment 
 of troops. The Directors in Paris had heard 
 of the project against Madras, and had sent 
 orders to Dupleix to hold it in the event of 
 capture. Owing to the crippled state of his 
 ships. La Bourdonnais was also obliged 
 to land 1200 men, 900 of whom were 
 
 ^ D'Epresmenil had married the eldest daughter of 
 Madame Dupleix, and had been designed by Dupleix for 
 the charge of Madras from the moment of its capture. 
 La Bourdonnais excluded him from any share in the 
 convention with the English.
 
 62 DUPLEIX 
 
 Europeans, whom he would otherwise have 
 carried away to the islands. In this way 
 Dupleix had at his disposal a force of 3000 
 Europeans. Thus the storm, so fatal to 
 La Bourdonnais, unexpectedly placed at 
 Dupleix's disposal a body of troops that were 
 of immense value to him in subsequent 
 events. 
 
 On arriving at Bourbon, La Bourdonnais 
 found that a new governor had been dis- 
 patched from France to take his place, so 
 he sailed for the West Indies. Thence he 
 transferred himself to a Dutch ship, impatient 
 to reach France and justify himself. But 
 war had been declared between England 
 and Holland : he was taken prisoner, and 
 carried to London. Here he was treated 
 with great consideration. What had happened 
 in India after his departure was known, and 
 to the English he appeared a loyal and 
 generous foe, while Dupleix was regarded 
 as a vindictive enemy who had failed to 
 observe a solemn treaty. Being allowed to 
 visit France on parole, he was thrown into 
 the Bastille, where he remained a prisoner 
 three years, and died 9th September 1753, 
 shortly after his release.
 
 DUPLEIX 63 
 
 We have arrived at the most important 
 moment of Dupleix's career. Madras had 
 been left at his mercy, and from the action 
 he now took sprung all the consequences 
 that have made his name famous. Without 
 hesitation he resolved to set aside La Bour- 
 donnais' convention with the English and to 
 defy the Nawab. By a gift of money and 
 the promise of more he had obtained the 
 Nawab's permission to attack Madras. By 
 promising to surrender the place to him 
 he had kept the Nawab quiet during La 
 Bourdonnais' occupation. Now the Nawab 
 learned that both promises were to be 
 broken. Exasperated at the defiance of his 
 authority, he set his army in motion, and 
 it appeared before Madras under his son, 
 Mahfooz Khan, almost before La Bour- 
 donnais' sails had disappeared from the 
 horizon. Sending for D'Epresmenil, and 
 ordering his deputy, Barthelemy, to hold 
 Madras against all attacks, Dupleix dis- 
 patched Paradis with reinforcements to his 
 assistance. But before Paradis could arrive 
 Barthelemy had already taken action. Find- 
 ing that his water supply was cut off by 
 the besiegers, he ordered a sortie, which
 
 64 DUPLEIX 
 
 was vigorously carried out by M. de la 
 Tour/ defeating and driving off the advanced 
 parties of the Nawab's army, capturing their 
 camp, and killing some 70 men, without 
 suffering loss himself. Collecting his men, 
 Mahfooz Khan then resolved to intercept 
 Paradis, and took up his position at S. 
 Thom6. Paradis, whose little force consisted 
 only of 300 Europeans, 200 topasses and 
 sepoys, with 10 horsemen, did not hesitate 
 to attack. Fording the Adyar River under 
 fire of the Nawab's artillery, he delivered 
 one volley and charged. The Nawab's 
 troops gave way and retired into the town. 
 Paradis followed them up and made a great 
 slaugrhter amongr the crowded masses en- 
 tangled in the narrow lanes of S. Thome. 
 The rout was completed by the arrival of 
 a portion of the garrison under de la Tour. 
 Mahfooz Khan escaped with difficulty, and 
 his army was dispersed in flight. 
 
 On entering Madras, Paradis issued a 
 proclamation annulling the treaty of ransom 
 made by La Bourdonnais. He then pro- 
 
 ' de la Tour was a captain of grenadiers, one of Dupleix's 
 best officers. He distinguished himself greatly in the defence 
 of Pondicherry, after which we hear no more of him.
 
 DUPLEIX 65 
 
 ceeded, under orders from Dupleix, to carry 
 out measures for the permanent destruction 
 of the EngHsh settlement. All merchandise, 
 warlike stores, and horses were taken posses- 
 sion of. The English were, to a man, 
 treated as prisoners of war. The Governor 
 and some of the principal inhabitants were 
 sent to Pondicherry, and ignominiously 
 paraded through the streets.^ The rest 
 were called on to give their parole not to 
 act against the French until regularly ex- 
 changed. The natives who refused to take 
 an oath of allegiance to the French were 
 expelled the town. Measures were then 
 taken to improve and strengthen the forti- 
 fications. 
 
 It is evident that Dupleix had been 
 in a state of indecision as to the disposal 
 of Madras,^ On the efhlptembL before La 
 Bourdonnais had started on his enterprise, 
 
 ^ This has been denied by Cartwright, who calls it an 
 invention of La Bourdonnais : but it is related by Orme, 
 the most accurate of historians. Orme was in Bengal 
 at the time and intimately acquainted with all the Eng- 
 lish concerned. The act was in keeping with Dupleix's 
 character. In August 1753 when Lawrence's palanquin was 
 captured by the Mahrattas, during the action with Brenier, 
 Dupleix had it paraded through the streets of Pondicherry 
 as a proof of Lawrence's defeat and death. 
 
 5
 
 66 DUPLEIX 
 
 he signified his willingness to allow the 
 English to buy off the attack by the pay- 
 ment of a million pagodas and the restitution 
 of the vessels captured by Barnet. Four 
 days later he wrote to the Nawab that he 
 was attacking Madras under orders from 
 the King of France. On the day that 
 Madras surrendered, he wrote to La Bour- 
 donnais that he had promised the Nawab 
 to make Madras over to him, " bien entendu 
 dans r^tat que nous jugerons convenable." 
 His idea apparently then was to sack and de- 
 stroy the place, and leave it for the Nawab 
 to do what he pleased with it. He was 
 desirous of avoiding hostilities with the 
 Nawab, but the Nawab's prompt action 
 left him no alternative but submission or 
 resistance ; so he decided to fight for his 
 prize. 
 
 How far Dupleix was justified in breaking 
 the convention with the English is a point 
 on which opinions will probably differ. 
 The convention was one that La Bourdon- 
 nais should not have made, in defiance of 
 Dupleix's strongly expressed views. There 
 was no immediate military consideration 
 involved, and La Bourdonnais was about
 
 DUPLEIX 6y 
 
 to leave the coast, while his countrymen 
 who remained would have to bear the con- 
 sequences of his acts. Viewed dispassion- 
 ately at this distance of time, and considering ; 
 La Bourdonnais' questionable dealings, it is ' 
 difficult to say that Dupleix was not fully 
 justified in the course he adopted. The 
 breach of the convention certainly did him 
 much harm with the English, while the 
 ungenerous side of his nature was shown 
 in his ignominious treatment of Governor 
 Morse and the principal English inhabitants 
 of Madras, and his vindictive feelings against 
 the English became known. Henceforth 
 they regarded him as a man void of good 
 faith and good feeling, one who was not 
 bound by the ordinary standards in the 
 conduct of public affairs. One result there 
 was, destined to have an important bearing 
 on future events. Among the prisoners in 
 Madras was Robert Clive, a young writer 
 who had come to India in the Company's 
 service two years before. He, with half a 
 dozen others, regarding themselves absolved 
 by Dupleix's breach of faith from the parole 
 they had given La Bourdonnais, and refusing 
 to take a fresh parole from Dupleix, made
 
 68 DUPLEIX 
 
 their way to the English settlement at Fort 
 St. David, which now became the centre of 
 English authority on the coast/ Clive's 
 thoughts were thenceforth turned to military 
 objects. 
 
 The most important result of all was the 
 demonstration, afforded by Paradis' victory 
 at S. Thome, to English and French alike, 
 of the feebleness of native armies. This 
 feebleness had long been known, but so 
 many years had elapsed since Europeans 
 had measured themselves against any 
 orofanised native force, and their attitude to 
 native constituted authority had been so 
 habitually submissive, that the total defeat of 
 the Nawab s army by a handful of Europeans 
 came as a new revelation. Henceforth all 
 ideas on the subject required adjustment to 
 a new focus. 
 
 Without troubling himself about the 
 Nawab, Dupleix set to work to reduce Fort 
 St. David, the last foothold of the English 
 on the Coromandel coast, twelve miles south 
 of Pondicherry. The garrison consisted 
 
 ^ In a memorandum on the capture of Madras, Clive 
 states that he made his escape disguised "as a Dubash, and 
 blackened " (Orme MSS.).
 
 DUPLEIX 69 
 
 only of 200 Europeans and half that number 
 of badly armed, undisciplined native peons. 
 In their extremity the English appealed 
 to the Nawab, who sent a force of 
 6000 horse and 3000 foot, which encamped 
 five miles from St. David. On the 
 -—y^ December a French force of 1700 
 men with field pieces and mortars, under 
 M. de Bury, crossed the Pannar River 
 and were settling themselves down, a mile 
 from Fort St. David, when the Nawab's 
 army, commanded by his two sons Mah- 
 fooz Khan and Mahommed Ali, suddenly 
 appeared. In a panic, the Frenchmen 
 seized their arms, recrossed the Pannar, 
 and made their way back to Pondicherry 
 as quickly as they could, leaving behind 
 them a quantity of baggage and military 
 stores. 
 
 On the 35^0 a second attempt was 
 made to attack the place, in boats, on the 
 sea face. But a high wind arising, the 
 boats were obliged to put back, and the 
 expedition ended abortively. Seeing that 
 success against Fort St. David would be 
 difficult so long as the Nawab remained 
 friendly to the English, Dupleix set himself
 
 70 DUPLEIX 
 
 to work to detach him from the alliance. 
 He found little difficulty in persuading the 
 Nawab that the French was the winning side, 
 and, before the end of February, Mahfooz 
 Khan visited Pondicherry, where he was well 
 received : a treaty of peace was signed, and 
 the Nawab's army withdrawn from Fort St. 
 David. 
 
 The position of the English on the coast 
 had now become critical. Since the capture 
 of Madras, no assistance of any kind had 
 reached Fort St. David. Two ships from 
 England, conveying money and stores, had 
 sailed into Madras roads in ignorance of the 
 fall of the place, and were captured. A third 
 that anchored off Fort St. David, on learning 
 of the capture of Madras, sailed away for 
 Bengal, refusing to land a single soldier of 
 those on board. At last, in February, when 
 affairs were becoming desperate, a fourth 
 ship, after narrowly escaping capture at 
 Madras, came to Fort St. David, and landed 
 twenty recruits and ^60,000 in silver, a 
 supply of the greatest importance to the 
 garrison. A fortnight later a French force, 
 under Paradis, drove in the garrison and sat 
 down before the place.
 
 DUPLEIX 7 1 
 
 Had it appeared a few days earlier the 
 fort would probably have fallen, but delay 
 had been occasioned by the refusal of the 
 French officers to serve under Paradis. He 
 was an engineer, and therefore hardly 
 regarded as a military man ; and as a Swiss 
 was doubly unwelcome as a commander. 
 By the time their reluctance was over- 
 come, it was too late. A few hours after 
 the arrival of Paradis' force, the English 
 squadron sailed into the roads, and the 
 French marched back to Pondicherry with 
 great precipitation. Two additional ships 
 under Admiral Griffin had arrived from 
 England, and the command had been 
 taken out of the hands of the incompetent 
 Peyton. 
 
 With Griffin came lOO European soldiers ; 
 and before long further reinforcements of 
 Europeans, topasses, and sepoys came in 
 from Bombay and Tellicherry. The em- 
 ployment of sepoys, that is of natives 
 armed and drilled like European soldiers, 
 occurred on the western coast long before 
 they were made use of in Bengal or on the 
 Coromandel coast. To Dupleix has some- 
 times been assigned the credit of first
 
 ^2 DUPLEIX 
 
 employing them, which is not strictly due. 
 Sepoys had been known on the west coast 
 many years before their appearance on the 
 Coromandel coast. The first mention of 
 them in the French records is in 1744, when 
 a company of sepoys, obtained from Mahe, 
 were sent to Karikal. But the English 
 records of Bombay show that sepoys were 
 employed there in 17 18; and it is not im- 
 probable that the credit of first drilling 
 natives in the European fashion belongs 
 to the Portuguese. 
 
 For six months the presence of Griffin's 
 squadron preserved Fort St. David from 
 attack, at a time when there was no officer 
 present capable of commanding the garrison. 
 So helpless were they that Captain Gibson 
 of the Royal Navy was given the chief 
 command on shore. The approach of the 
 south-east monsoon forced Griffin to with- 
 draw to Trincomalee, but, by making occa- 
 sional demonstrations off Pondicherry, he 
 prevented any attack being made on Fort 
 St. David till he was aoain able to anchor 
 in the roadstead, in January. 
 
 Soon after Griffin's first arrival in March, 
 news had reached Fort St. David that the
 
 DUPLEIX 73 
 
 French governors of Karikal and Madras 
 were on their way to Pondicherry. A party 
 was sent out to intercept them, and captured 
 them twelve miles from Fort St. David. 
 Negotiations were opened, and they were 
 exchanged for Mr. Morse, the ex-governor 
 of Madras, and another official. With Morse 
 came his native interpreter, who, during his 
 stay in Pondicherry, had been won over to 
 French interests by Madame Dupleix. 
 
 In January (1748), there arrived from 
 England Major Lawrence, an old officer of 
 great, though as yet unproved merit, who 
 was destined to play a prominent part in 
 defeating Dupleix's schemes. Three months 
 before his arrival, the native commandant 
 of the sepoys from Tellicherry had been 
 discovered to be in correspondence with 
 Pondicherry. Before long, Lawrence dis- 
 covered that Morse's interpreter was corre- 
 sponding with Madame Dupleix, and had 
 secured promises from several native officers 
 to desert to the French, with their men, on 
 the first engagement. The interpreter was 
 hung, and eleven native officers were trans- 
 ported to St. Helena. 
 
 Early in June, Griffin put to sea in pursuit
 
 74 DUPLEIX 
 
 of a French squadron that was steering for 
 Madras, and Dupleix at once seized the 
 opportunity for renewing his attacks : but 
 the time had passed when the English might 
 be deprived by a coup de main of their last 
 foothold on the coast. On the j-r^ June a 
 force of 800 Frenchmen and 1000 sepoys 
 marched secretly to within three miles of 
 Cuddalore, the town of Fort St. David, 
 with the intention of makino- a nio-ht attack. 
 Lawrence had intelligence of their project, 
 and ostentatiously removed the guns and 
 withdrew the garrison, giving out that 
 the place was not tenable. At nightfall 
 the guns were replaced, the garrison 
 strengthened, and all made ready to resist 
 an attack. At midnight the French ad- 
 vanced silently, and began to place their 
 scaling ladders, when they were received 
 with such a fire as struck panic into them, 
 and they made their way back in haste to 
 Pondicherry, having lost upwards of 200 
 men by death and desertion. 
 
 In reporting the capture of Madras to the 
 Directors in Paris, Dupleix suggested three 
 alternatives for its disposal. i. That it 
 should be retained by France till the end of
 
 DUPLEIX 75 
 
 the war, to be exchanged for Louisbourg 
 in Cape Breton, which had been captured 
 by the English in June 1745. 2. That it 
 should be restored to the English East India 
 Company, by direct negotiation, on payment 
 of a heavy ransom. 3. That it should be 
 made over to a native prince, after demolition 
 of the fortifications, on such conditions that 
 it could not be restored to the English. It 
 is indicative of the large views of which 
 Dupleix was capable, that, having passed the 
 whole of his official life in India, occupied 
 almost entirely in commercial affairs, he 
 should, at the outset of his career in im- 
 portant matters of policy, have taken into 
 consideration the affairs of France in North 
 America. 
 
 The French Directors chose the third 
 alternative ; directing him to exchange 
 Madras for territory in the vicinity of 
 Pondicherry in order to secure a fixed 
 revenue, and to ensure the reversion of 
 additional territory and revenue, in the event 
 of the chief, to whom Madras was to be 
 ceded, restoring it to the English. These 
 instructions did not reach Dupleix till the 
 autumn of 1748. He at once offered Madras
 
 ye DUPLEIX 
 
 to Nazir Jung, who had just seated himself 
 on the throne of the Deccan, asking in 
 return that two districts in the vicinity of 
 Pondicherry, yielding a revenue of forty or 
 fifty thousand pagodas, should be given to 
 France. Before the negotiations could be 
 concluded, news was received of the peace 
 of Aix-la-Chapelle, and of the mutual restitu- 
 tion of all conquests made during the war ; 
 so, to all appearances, the disposal of Madras 
 was according to the first of Dupleix's 
 suggestions. His choice of Nazir Jung for 
 the future owner of Madras was probably 
 made in order to provoke dissension between 
 the Soobadar and the Nawab of Arcot, 
 Though it was not in his instructions, he 
 also entertained a project for making over 
 the Carnatic to Chunda Sahib, or one of 
 the late Dost Ali Khan's family, in revenge 
 for Anwaroodeen's enmity, without consult- 
 ing Nazir Jung. Yet Anwaroodeen was 
 the recognised ruler of the Carnatic, with 
 an unimpeachable title. The arrogance of 
 his language at this time is remarkable : " je 
 suis maitre, quand je le voudrai, de donner 
 a qui bon me semblera," he wrote to the late 
 Dost Ali Khan's treasurer.
 
 DUPLEIX Tj 
 
 Meanwhile, war had been brought to 
 his gates. In July 1748 an English ex- 
 pedition, under Boscawen, arrived on the 
 coast, from Europe, for the reduction of 
 Pondicherry. 
 
 He brought with him over 2000 men 
 of the King's troops ; the Dutch furnished a 
 small contingent of 120 men under Roussel, 
 a renegade Frenchman, and the troops and 
 sailors from Fort St. David brought the whole 
 force up to a total of 3720 Europeans, 300 
 topasses, and 2000 badly armed and badly dis- 
 ciplined sepoys. The Nawab Anwaroodeen, 
 anxious to revenge himself on the French, 
 sent a small and useless body of 300 horse. 
 After seven weeks' operations, in which 
 Boscawen committed every blunder it was 
 possible to commit, he was obliged to abandon 
 the siege with the loss of over 1000 men, 
 without having been able to push the attack 
 within 800 yards of the place. The only 
 important loss sustained by the French was 
 in the death of Paradis, who was killed in a 
 sortie. The diary of Ananda Ranga Pillay, 
 with an account of all that passed in the 
 town from day to day, shows that Boscawen's 
 ignorance of land warfare, and the incom-
 
 78 DUPLEIX 
 
 petence of his engineers, alone saved the 
 place. Throughout the siege the native 
 clerk's journal returns again and again to 
 the iniquities of Madame Dupleix. She 
 plundered the native population till the 
 unfortunate townsmen asked themselves if 
 the English could inflict greater wrongs on 
 them than those they endured. She was 
 responsible for the foolish sortie in which 
 Paradis was killed. Those highest in 
 
 o 
 
 authority next to Dupleix, amazed and 
 shocked at what was being done, dared not 
 remonstrate. When the siege was at an end, 
 her peons, under pretence of pursuing the 
 English, plundered the surrounding villages, 
 and the lion's share of the plunder came to 
 Madame Dupleix. Those who complained 
 were beaten, imprisoned, or had their ears 
 cut off by her orders, and a reign of terror 
 was established among the native population. 
 " Les habitants de la ville sont moins 
 effrayees des bombes et des boulets que 
 les ennemis font pleuvoir, que de pareilles 
 injustices. Je ne sais comment decrire et 
 comment ^valuer cette terreur." Nor does 
 the native clerk spare Dupleix, to whom he 
 appears to have been attached, for the
 
 DUPLEIX 79 
 
 weakness with which he allowed his wife 
 to interfere in public matters and create 
 disorder. 
 
 "On n'a jamais vu ni entendu dans le 
 monde un homme plus credule que Monsieur 
 . . . Monsieur est tres capable . . . 
 Monsieur a acquis de la gloire ; puis il n'a 
 pas reussi et a eu de la honte. C'est par le 
 fait de sa femme ; celle-ci est un vrai diable 
 qui terrorise toute la ville . . . Quoi qu'elle 
 fasse, on tremble de peur de ses calomnies. 
 II y a quatre mois que M. Dupleix a perdu 
 I'autorite et Madame I'a prise ... II est 
 venu ainsi a Monsieur du d^shonneur dont 
 les causes sont multiples. D'abord il ecoute 
 les paroles de Madame. ... En second 
 lieu il a mis ici cent individus nomm^s 
 ' pions de Madame ' qui ne font que battre 
 et voler ceux qui vont et viennent . , . 
 Troisiemement, par les vexations de Madame, 
 la ville a pris I'apparence d'un hameau ou 
 Ton vend des concombres." 
 
 The subordinate officers and soldiers did 
 their duty, but the clerk's journal does not 
 give the impression that Dupleix was the 
 life and soul of the defence, as was after- 
 wards said. " Present partout, Dupleix ^tait
 
 8o DUPLEIX 
 
 a la fols administrateur, munitionnaire, 
 artilleur, ingenieur et general." The de- 
 scription is Voltaire's, who is not a reliable 
 authority on the details of occurrences in 
 India. It is foreign to Dupleix's character, 
 as he was not a man of action. The in- 
 capacity of the besiegers without was equalled 
 by the confusion and terror within. 
 
 " Comparativement a I'inquietude des 
 Fran9ais, les Tamouls paraissent tres 
 courageux ; cela se voit a leur mine 
 ddfaite. . . . 
 
 " Si Ton s'occupe de ceux qui ont peur, 
 on peut dire que les Tamouls ont cent 
 fois plus de courage que les Blancs et les 
 Blanches." 
 
 Plenty of Dupleix's opinions on the 
 prospects of the defence, and orders with 
 reference to supplies are recorded, but the 
 diary is silent as to any active part he played 
 in the defence. Despite his undoubted great 
 abilities, Dupleix appears to have been 
 devoid of any soldierly instincts, to such 
 an extent that the French Company, after 
 his recall, accused him of being wanting in 
 personal courage : to which he is alleged to 
 have replied, "que le bruit des armes sus-
 
 DUPLEIX 8 1 
 
 pendoit ses reflexions, et que le calme seul 
 convenoit a son of^nie." 
 
 For the successful defence of Pondicherry, 
 Dupleix was granted the cordon of St. Louis, 
 an order hitherto reserved for military officers 
 of hiofh rank. He was also nominated a 
 Director of the Company. 
 
 Two months after the siege, hostilities 
 came to an end by the announcement of 
 a suspension of arms, shortly followed by 
 the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle. One article 
 of the treaty contained a stipulation for a 
 mutual restoration of all conquests made 
 during the war ; so Madras was restored to 
 the English, while Louisbourg was restored 
 to the French, much to the chagrin of New 
 England. In old England also there was 
 an outcry against the Government. "The 
 British Ministers," wrote Smollett, "gave up 
 the important isle of Cape Breton in exchange 
 for a petty factory in the East Indies belong- 
 ing to a private Company whose existence 
 had been deemed prejudicial to the 
 Commonwealth." This was very short- 
 sig-hted criticism. The restoration of con- 
 quests was directed to objects more vital 
 than Madras and Cape Breton. The High- 
 6
 
 82 DUPLEIX 
 
 land rising that occurred during the war, 
 had forced the Eng-Hsh Ministers to with- 
 draw their troops from the Austrian Nether- 
 lands, which had fallen into the hands of 
 the French. The retention of the Low 
 Countries by France would have constit- 
 uted a perpetual menace for England, and 
 their surrender to Austria was the real 
 equivalent for the restoration of Cape 
 Breton to France. The Government of 
 England was wiser than its critics. The 
 ownership of Louisbourg was settled, once 
 for all, ten years later : the retention of 
 Madras by the French would have seriously 
 crippled us in India during the ensuing six 
 years when Dupleix launched out on his 
 career of conquest.
 
 Ill 
 
 The war was over, and, to outward appear- 
 ance, there was nothing to prevent the two 
 Companies from settling down to their trade 
 again. This, no doubt, was the view taken 
 in London and Paris, but, in India, the 
 agents of both Companies saw things in 
 a very different Hght. The occurrences of 
 the past three years had shown that the 
 old conditions had disappeared beyond 
 chance of restoration. The two nations 
 had fought out their quarrel and made 
 peace, without regarding the local powers, 
 who had proved unable either to hinder or 
 protect them. The one attempt at inter- 
 ference had been brushed aside contempt- 
 uously, and the weakness of native armies 
 had been demonstrated. From the north 
 no interference was to be apprehended. 
 Ahmed Shah Abdali had invaded the 
 
 Punjab and established himself at Lahore. 
 
 83
 
 84 DUPLEIX 
 
 The Emperor had died (April 1748) of 
 grief and vexation, and his successor was 
 fully occupied in maintaining himself amidst 
 the jarring factions of Delhi. The Imperial 
 authority had disappeared from Southern 
 India ; the name alone remained, and was 
 used to justify acts for which no other 
 authority could be cited. Every pretender 
 to power bolstered up his position by 
 claiming Imperial recognition, and, in 
 support of such claims, a system grew 
 up of mock deputations bearing sham 
 letters of authority with all the honours due 
 to their pretended missions, impressing the 
 common people, but deceiving nobody else. 
 The aged Nizam-ool-Moolk had died (March 
 1748), and the Court of the Deccan was 
 in a ferment over a contested succession. 
 Chunda Sahib had reappeared, and was 
 bidding for the Chiefship of the Carnatic ; 
 and Shahojee was again intriguing for the 
 throne of Tanjore. All was confusion and 
 anarchy. At Fort St. David, as well as 
 at Pondicherry, it was seen that a new 
 order of things had arisen, and that hence- 
 forth they could no longer maintain them- 
 selves as simple traders, but must play
 
 DUPLEIX 85 
 
 their part in the great game before them, 
 or lose their place in India altogether. 
 Added to this there were, at both places, 
 considerable bodies of troops, such as they 
 had never had before. 
 
 The English were the first to move, 
 without waiting for the completion of the 
 formalities for the restitution of Madras, 
 in accordance with the terms of the treaty 
 of peace with France. The Governor was 
 Charles Floyer, a weak, inefficient man, 
 quite unfitted to cope with the novel 
 conditions. Boscawen, with his squadron 
 and the troops he had brought out from 
 England, was the chief mover in what now 
 took place. 
 
 By a curious coincidence that same 
 Shahojee who, ten years before, had 
 brought about the acquisition of Karikal 
 by the French, now appeared as the agent 
 provocateur to stir up the English to make 
 their first conquest in India. He offered 
 the Engflish to make over to them the fort 
 and district of Devicotah, and pay the 
 expenses of the war, if they would place 
 him on the throne of Tanjore ; and the 
 Enorlish consented.
 
 86 DUPLEIX 
 
 At the end of March an expedition left 
 Fort St. David to penetrate the Tanjore 
 country, under the command of Captain 
 Cope, though Boscawen kept the direction 
 of affairs in his own hands. At the very 
 outset it encountered a terrible disaster. A 
 violent hurricane wrecked the camp and the 
 ships of the squadron that accompanied its 
 march along the coast. The Naniur, seventy- 
 four guns, one of the finest ships in the navy, 
 was lost with all hands ; the Pembroke, sixty 
 guns, only six of the crew escaping ; and 
 the Apollo, hospital ship, with all hands. A 
 delay at Porto Novo was necessary to repair 
 damages. After a feeble skirmish with 
 the Tanjore troops, and an equally feeble 
 demonstration against Devicotah, the forces 
 returned to Fort St. David, 
 
 The Council were now aware of the folly of 
 the undertaking in which they were embarked. 
 They had discovered that Shahojee had 
 deceived them, and that he had no adher- 
 ents in Tanjore. They had suffered severe 
 losses in ships, men, and stores, as well as 
 in military reputation. In order to repair 
 their credit, and obtain something to show 
 for their expedition, they resolved on the
 
 DUPLEIX ^7 
 
 capture of Devicotah, as a place of arms 
 against Tanjore. 
 
 A second expedition was sent, this time 
 by sea, under Captain Paulet of the Exeter, 
 with Lawrence in command of the troops, 
 and, after some severe fighting, in which Clive 
 first became conspicuous by his gallantry, the 
 place was taken. With the prospect of hard 
 fighting before them, for which they were 
 ill prepared, the English were suddenly 
 relieved from their dilemma by the action 
 of Dupleix. The chief of Tanjore, in view 
 of an alarming state of affairs that had 
 arisen in the Carnatic, where Chunda Sahib 
 had reappeared as a claimant for the throne, 
 opened negotiations for peace. Devicotah, 
 with a district yielding 9000 pagodas of 
 revenue, was ceded to the English, who 
 on their part undertook to prevent any 
 more trouble being made by Shahojee, to 
 whom a pension was secured from Tan- 
 jore. 
 
 For seven years Chunda Sahib had been 
 detained a prisoner at Satara, while his family 
 remained under French protection in Pondi- 
 cherry. Through them he had maintained 
 correspondence with Dupleix, who used his
 
 88 DUPLEIX 
 
 good offices to obtain his release. His 
 efforts were at last successful by the aid of 
 a loan of a lakh of rupees made to Chunda 
 Sahib, who, early in 1748, left Satara, 
 accompanied by his son Abid and a few 
 friends, to seek his fortunes. The Directors 
 in Paris approved of the loan, and ex- 
 pressed their opinion that if Chunda Sahib 
 could obtain the Nawabship of the Car- 
 natic it would be advantageous to French 
 interests. 
 
 After some vicissitudes, not necessary to 
 relate, in which his son Abid lost his life, 
 Chunda Sahib, who had gathered a few 
 hundred men, was unexpectedly joined by 
 Mozuffer Jung, a claimant for the throne 
 of the Deccan, with an army of 25,000 
 men. 
 
 At his death, Nizam-ool-Moolk left six 
 legitimate sons. The eldest of these, Ghazi- 
 oo-deen Khan, was at Delhi, holding an 
 important office and wielding extensive 
 authority. He was unwilling to leave 
 Delhi, but had no intention of abandoning 
 the riofhts to which he considered himself 
 entitled as his father's heir. Nazir Jung, 
 the second son, being on the spot, was
 
 DUPLEIX 89 
 
 acknowledged by the army, and seized the 
 throne of the Deccan. Ghazi-00-deen Khan, 
 who was recognised as the lawful heir by 
 Imperial authority, contented himself with 
 stirring up the Mahrattas to attack Nazir 
 Jung. At the same time a third claimant 
 appeared in Mozuffer Jung, the son of 
 Nizam-ool-Moolk's favourite daughter, who 
 claimed that his grandfather had appointed 
 him his heir before death. Apart from the 
 fact that the rulership of the Deccan was not 
 yet hereditary, and that the matter was one 
 for the Emperor at Delhi to decide, Mozuffer 
 Jung's claim was worthless according to the 
 Mohammedan law of succession ; but, by 
 allying himself with Chunda Sahib, who was 
 a man of courage and ability, he became 
 a prominent sharer in Dupleix's political 
 schemes. Chunda Sahib agreed to re- 
 cognise his title to the Deccan throne, and, 
 in return, he promised to appoint Chunda 
 Sahib Nawab of the Carnatic. 
 
 Early in July, while the English were still 
 enofaofed in the Devicotah affair, the two 
 adventurers invaded the Carnatic. Dupleix, 
 with whom Chunda Sahib was in corre- 
 spondence, made him a further advance of
 
 90 DUPLEIX 
 
 money, and dispatched a body of French 
 troops and sepoys to join him. The Nawab 
 Anwaroodeen, who had taken up a posi- 
 tion at Amboor, was defeated and slain, 
 "f f J"^y - ; his eldest son, Mahfooz Khan, 
 
 3rd August ' ' ' 
 
 was taken prisoner, while Mahomed AH, 
 his second son, fled for refuge to Trich- 
 inopoly/ The victorious army marched to 
 Arcot, the capital of the Carnatic, where 
 Mozuffer Jung assumed the state of Soobah 
 of the Deccan, and formally appointed 
 Chunda Sahib Nawab of the Carnatic, 
 There they wasted valuable time that would 
 have been better employed in disposing 
 once for all of Mahomed Ali. The victory 
 was won entirely by French troops under 
 d'Auteuil, who stormed Anwaroodeen's en- 
 trenchment, while the troops of their allies 
 looked on. It was on this occasion that 
 Bussy, who was destined to play so con- 
 spicuous a part in Dupleix's schemes, first 
 came into notice ; and it was the news of 
 Anwaroodeen's defeat and death that ex- 
 tricated the English from their embarrass- 
 ments with Tanjore. 
 
 ^ According to M. Cultru, the battle was fought on the 
 1st August (N.S.).
 
 DUPLEIX 91 
 
 M. Cultru shows that the victory of 
 Amboor, so far from being the first step in 
 a long-considered plan for the establishment 
 of a French empire in India, was regarded 
 by Dupleix as an episode that was now 
 ended. One chief cause of satisfaction was 
 his triumph over Anwaroodeen, whom he 
 had never forgiven for siding with the 
 English. "Je vais (faire) sentir a toute 
 r Inde que Ton se repent tot ou tard d'etre 
 contraire a notre nation et de se Her avec 
 nos ennemis," he wrote a few days before 
 the battle.^ He expected the dismissal of 
 the French troops by Chunda Sahib, and 
 wrote to d'Auteuil to be sure and secure 
 a good share of the booty and of the ransom 
 of notable prisoners. He did not know 
 Chunda Sahib's plans, and distrusted 
 Mozuffer Jung, "a leech that the new 
 Nawab would find it difficult to satisfy." 
 D'Auteuil ought not to leave Chunda Sahib 
 so long as Mozuffer Jung was with him. 
 He should advise Chunda Sahib to capture 
 Chittapet and Chingleput, where there was 
 much treasure, of which a good share would 
 fall to the French. Like La Bourdonnais 
 ^ Dupleix a Machault, 28th July 1749 (Cultru).
 
 92 DUPLEIX 
 
 at Madras, he had no idea beyond pay 
 and plunder : so Htde did he anticipate the 
 part that Mozuffer Jung was to play in his 
 subsequent policy. D'Auteuil, on his side, 
 was anxious to return to Pondicherry. He 
 has been represented as being a good officer 
 but incapacitated by advancing years and 
 gout. He was, in fact, only thirty-five years 
 old at the time/ He had been sent out 
 to India, like many others, on account of 
 youthful follies, and his chief aim was 
 private commerce. His marriage to a sister 
 of Madame Dupleix was his chief recom- 
 mendation for the command conferred on 
 him. Accordino- to Cultru, he had arranged 
 to go to Mocha on a trading voyage, and 
 took advantage of an attack of gout as a 
 reason for returning to Pondicherry. To 
 the Company, Dupleix, d'Auteuil, and 
 every other Frenchman concerned, the 
 whole affair of lending a body of troops to 
 Chunda Sahib was purely mercenary, and 
 calculated to advance commercial interests. 
 There was no idea of an ulterior policy. 
 
 ^ The fiction of d'Auteuil being an old man, " broken by 
 long disease," is due to Cartwright. Both he and Malleson 
 have failed to notice that d'Auteuil was still in command in 
 the field in May 1757.
 
 DUPLEIX 93 
 
 Chunda Sahib and Mozuffer Jung visited 
 Pondicherry, where they were received with 
 great pomp and ceremony by Dupleix, who 
 urged Chunda Sahib to march on Trichino- 
 poly and dispose of Mahomed Ali. About 
 eighty villages near Pondicherry were made 
 over to the Company, thus securing the 
 fixed revenue which the Directors had 
 declared to be their object. Dupleix, 
 Madame Dupleix, d'Auteuil, and an official 
 named de Bausset each received a district. 
 Seventy-five thousand rupees were distrib- 
 uted among the troops, a large part of 
 which found its way into d'Auteuil's pocket, 
 with Dupleix's approval. 
 
 This unexpected turn of affairs caused 
 much perplexity at Fort St. David. Their 
 own interference in Tanjore prevented the 
 English from remonstrating with Dupleix, 
 whose predominant position in the Carnatic 
 filled them with apprehension. Boscawen 
 counselled support being given to Mahomed 
 Ali, but Floyer refused his consent. The 
 Council were prepared to recognise Chunda 
 Sahib or any de facto Nawab, so long 
 as he was not under French influence. 
 Some litde satisfaction was found in the
 
 94 DUPLEIX 
 
 evacuation of Madras, in August, by the 
 French, in pursuance of the Treaty of Aix- 
 la-Chapelle. 
 
 In October, Boscawen sailed for England. 
 Before he went, the survivors of the men 
 and officers he had brought out with him 
 for the siege of Pondicherry were allowed 
 to volunteer for the Company's service. 
 Eleven subaltern officers were in this way 
 brought into the service ; among them John 
 Dalton and James Kilpatrick, who were 
 destined to play no small part in coming 
 events. 
 
 The day after Boscawen's departure, 
 Dupleix launched Chunda Sahib and 
 Mozuffer Jung against Trichinopoly, rightly 
 discerning the necessity of disposing of 
 Mahomed AH, whose title, in its way, was 
 a better one than Chunda Sahib's. With 
 them he sent a force of 800 Europeans, 
 some sepoys, and a train of artillery. But 
 Chunda Sahib and Mozuffer Jung were in 
 desperate need of money to keep their large 
 army together, and, immediately on entering 
 Tanjore territory, they marched for Tanjore, 
 and laid siege to the place, demanding an 
 enormous sum of money. Had the matter
 
 DUPLEIX 95 
 
 been left to the French, the capture of 
 Tanjore would quickly have been accom- 
 plished, but Chunda Sahib preferred to 
 manage matters in his own way, and allowed 
 himself to be entangled in dilatory negotia- 
 tions, while the Tanjore chief sent urgent 
 appeals for assistance to the English and to 
 Nazir Jung. The response of the English 
 could not have been more feeble. They sent 
 twenty men. For any practical purpose such 
 a force was ridiculous, while it committed 
 them as seriously as a larger force would 
 have done. It marked the first meeting 
 of French and English troops as allies of 
 opposing native chiefs. 
 
 Impatient of delay, the French at last took 
 matters into their own hands, and delivered 
 an assault, which brought the Tanjore chief 
 to terms, at the end of December. But he 
 was not yet at the end of his resources. For 
 several weeks he kept Chunda Sahib and 
 Mozuffer Jung in play, by doling out the 
 indemnity he had agreed to pay, in small 
 sums, each payment being made the subject 
 of prolonged disputes. 
 
 Hitherto nobody had paid much attention 
 to Mozuffer Jung. Dupleix regarded him
 
 96 DUPLEIX 
 
 with distrust, and had no wish to interfere in 
 Deccan politics : his views did not reach 
 beyond the Carnatic. Nazir Jung was 
 occupied with opposing the machinations of 
 his brother Ghazi-oo-deen at Delhi, and, at 
 first, treated the pretensions of Mozuffer 
 Jung with contempt. Mozuffer Jung, on his 
 side, distrusted the French. He had little 
 cause to expect that anything would be done 
 for himself after Chunda Sahib was estab- 
 lished in the Carnatic ; so he secretly 
 encouraged the Tanjore chief and Mahomed 
 Ali in their resistance to Chunda Sahib. 
 But, by assuming the title of Soobadar, and, 
 in that capacity, granting the Nawabship of 
 the Carnatic to Chunda Sahib, he had become 
 an important factor in the political situation. 
 While still engaged in wrangling over the 
 payment of the Tanjore indemnity, they 
 heard that Nazir Jung had entered the 
 Carnatic at the head of an enormous army ; 
 that he had recognised Mahomed Ali as the 
 rightful successor to Anwaroodeen, and had 
 called on the Enoflish to assist him with 
 troops. In a panic, Mozuffer Jung and 
 Chunda Sahib marched away from Tanjore, 
 and encamped in the vicinity of Pondicherry.
 
 DUPLEIX 97 
 
 Thus, by the force of circumstances, the 
 French were placed in the position of rebels 
 against the ruler of the Deccan. They 
 could not repudiate Mozuffer Jung without 
 abandoning Chunda Sahib, who derived his 
 title from him. Dupleix had no alternative 
 but to champion the claims of Mozuffer Jung 
 and fight it out. His correspondence at this 
 time shows that he was ready to abandon 
 Chunda Sahib and recognise Mahomed Ali, 
 if he could have come to terms with Nazir 
 Jung. To reassure them, Dupleix sent 
 d'Auteuil to join Mozuffer Jung with 2000 
 French troops, and further assisted Chunda 
 Sahib with a large sum of money. 
 
 Gathering numbers as it advanced, 
 Nazir Jung's army, estimated at 300,000 
 men, encamped in sight of the French 
 and their allies, fifteen miles from Pondi- 
 cherry. Here they were joined by Major 
 Lawrence and 600 English troops from 
 Fort St. David. At this moment, when 
 an engagement might momentarily be 
 expected, the whole aspect of affairs was 
 changed by an unforeseen occurrence. 
 A mutiny broke out among the French 
 officers, many of whom resigned their 
 7
 
 98 DUPLEIX 
 
 commissions. The men followed suit, and 
 Mozuffer Jung-, in alarm, opened negotiations 
 with the Soobah. Trusting to promises of 
 honourable treatment, he ventured into Nazir 
 Jung's camp, and was at once made a close 
 prisoner, while his army was attacked and 
 dispersed. Chunda Sahib took refuge in 
 Pondicherry with the French, who lost 
 many men in the retreat. In a moment 
 Dupleix's schemes had seemingly fallen into 
 ruins. 
 
 He at once entered into negotiation with 
 Nazir Jung, professing his friendship and his 
 dislike of war, but was unable to procure the 
 recognition of Chunda Sahib. Though his 
 
 o o 
 
 overtures were rejected, they enabled him to 
 gain an important advantage by the insight 
 he obtained into the intrigues by which Nazir 
 Jung was surrounded, and by enabling him 
 to establish a correspondence with three 
 discontented nobles of influential position in 
 the Soobah's camp. 
 
 Meanwhile, matters had not been going 
 well between Nazir Jung and his English 
 allies. When asked to confirm a grant of 
 land near Madras made to the English by 
 Mahomed Ali, he prevaricated and demanded
 
 DUPLEIX 99 
 
 that their troops should march with him to 
 Arcot, which would have left the English 
 settlements open to attack, A quarrel 
 ensued, and Lawrence, a plain, straight- 
 forward soldier, marched his force back 
 to Fort St. David. Nazir Jung, much 
 exasperated against the English, broke up 
 his camp and marched to Arcot. 
 
 To gratify his spite against the French, 
 Nazir Jung then sent orders to close the 
 French factories in the Northern Circars, 
 of which Masulipatam was the most im- 
 portant. Dupleix, who had been promised 
 the cession of Masulipatam by Mozuffer 
 Jung, at once sent a detachment by sea to 
 occupy the place and fortify it. He quickly 
 followed this up by the capture of Trivadi, 
 fifteen miles from Fort St. David. In spite 
 of these insults, Nazir Jung remained in a 
 state of apathy at Arcot, given over to 
 pleasure, and lulled into security by false 
 advisers. Mahomed Ali was, however, 
 thoroughly alarmed and took the field 
 with 20,000 men, calling on the English 
 for assistance, and offering to defray all 
 expenses. The English were only too ready 
 to join him on such terms, and dispatched
 
 lOO DUPLEIX 
 
 a force of 400 men and 1500 sepoys, 
 under Captain Cope, to his camp at 
 Gingee. A skirmish of little importance 
 took place at Trivadi, and then Mahomed 
 Ali, losing heart, proclaimed his intention of 
 moving northwards towards Arcot. This 
 absurd idea was apparently prompted by a 
 desire to collect revenue. As a military 
 movement it was less than useless, as it 
 would have exposed Fort St. David to 
 attack. The English were ready enough to 
 fight, but Mahomed Ali refused to make any 
 move that would bring on a decisive action. 
 On being pressed to fulfil his promise of 
 defraying expenses, he first made excuses, 
 and finally said he had no money ; so Cope 
 marched his men back to Fort St. David. 
 The English were not yet prepared to 
 burden the Company with the expenses of a 
 war. While Dupleix, with a free hand, was 
 advancing money to his allies, the English 
 would not stir without payment for the war 
 being secured to them. They had now a 
 quarrel with each of their incompetent and 
 shifty allies, in whose names they could alone 
 protect their own interests, and were obliged 
 to remain idle spectators of the contest in
 
 DUPLEIX loi 
 
 which those interests were threatened with 
 ruin. 
 
 Dupleix, who was closely watching events, 
 at once reinforced d'Auteuil, and ordered 
 him to attack Mahomed Ali. The camp 
 was attacked and taken, the whole army 
 dispersed without the French losing a man, 
 and Mahomed Ali fled once more for safety 
 to Arcot. Following up his advantage, 
 Dupleix sent Bussy to capture Gingee, one 
 of the strongest fortresses in the Carnatic. 
 The remnants of Mahomed All's defeated 
 army were encamped outside Gingee. Bussy 
 overthrew them with ease, pursued the 
 flying foe into the fortress, and captured 
 it by a brilliant coup de main. The whole 
 garrison was put to the sword, the Com- 
 mandant only being spared. 
 
 These striking events roused Nazir Jung 
 to action. The greater part of the enormous 
 army he had brought with him from the 
 Deccan had been dismissed, so, while 
 awaiting reinforcements, he engaged in the 
 game of negotiation so dear to Oriental 
 princes. Dupleix replied by demanding 
 terms that he knew could not be granted. 
 His plans would now admit of no other
 
 I02 DUPLEIX 
 
 solution than that of war. By his intrigues 
 in Nazir Jung's camp he had ensured the 
 defection of half the Soobah's army, though 
 every day's delay added to the chance of 
 discovery of the conspiracy, with the certainty 
 of death to the conspirators. Nazir Jung 
 accordingly began his march with over 
 100,000 men, but as he approached Gingee 
 he was stopped by the setting in of the 
 rainy season, which rendered the country 
 impassable for several weeks. Chafing at the 
 delay, and impatient to return to the Deccan, 
 he reopened negotiations, agreeing to con- 
 cede everything that Dupleix had demanded, 
 including^ the recoo-nition of Chunda Sahib. 
 The treaty was signed and duly ratified. 
 The day after the ratification his camp was 
 treacherously attacked by de la Touche, under 
 orders from Dupleix, his army defeated, and 
 himself slain by one of the conspirators ^^ 
 December. MozufTer Jung was proclaimed 
 Soobadar of the Deccan by de la Touche, 
 on the field of battle. Mahomed Ali fied 
 to Trichinopoly, whence he opened negotia- 
 tions, offering to resign his claims to the 
 Nawabship. By this decisive act Dupleix 
 imposed his will on Southern India. The
 
 DUPLEIX 103 
 
 rulers of the Deccan and the Carnatic owed 
 their positions to him : Mahomed Ali, pro- 
 tected by the walls of Trichinopoly, and sup- 
 ported by the friendship of the Mysore and 
 Tanjore chiefs, alone opposed his pretensions. 
 Ten days after the battle Mozuffer Jung 
 visited Pondicherry, where he was received 
 with ostentatious pomp and ceremony. In 
 full Durbar, Dupleix, in native costume, 
 hailed him as Soobadar of the Deccan, 
 presented a mizzjiVy and seated himself on 
 his right. Mozuffer Jung, in return, created 
 him a Haft hazari of the Deccan, com- 
 mander of 7000 horse, conferred on him the 
 highly prized honour of the Mahi Muratib,^ 
 and the empty but high-sounding title of 
 his Vicerefjent in all India south of the 
 Kistna. At the same time he confirmed 
 Chunda Sahib in the Nawabship of Arcot. 
 He also gave Dupleix the more substantial 
 reward of Valdoor, with its dependent 
 districts, and a jagir,^ with a yearly revenue 
 
 ^ Literally, " the fish of dignities." A standard in the 
 shape of a fish, conferred by the Moghul emperors only on 
 chiefs of the highest rank. 
 
 ^ A jagir is a grant of land, to be held on such conditions 
 as may be imposed at the time of the grant. Military 
 service was generally the principal condition.
 
 104 DUPLEIX 
 
 of a lakh of rupees. To the French nation 
 he gave Dive, Nursapoor, and Masulipatam, 
 with the privilege of coining money, and 
 confirmed the grants made by Chunda 
 Sahib. The treasures of Nazir Jung were 
 brought to Pondicherry and distributed. 
 They amounted to 120 lakhs of rupees, 
 22 chests of jewels, and a great quantity of 
 silver-mounted horse-trappings. One-sixth 
 was distributed anions the officers and 
 
 o 
 
 soldiers of the Pondicherry garrison. A 
 sum of ;i^5o,ooo was given to the French 
 Company, and no less than ^200,000, 
 according to Orme, given to Dupleix. 
 
 While occupied with weightier matters, 
 Dupleix ministered to his own vanity by 
 founding the town of Dupleix Futtehabad, 
 "The Town of Dupleix's Victory," on the 
 field of Amboor, where Nazir Jung had 
 been slain. It had but a brief existence, 
 and could have been only a collection of 
 huts when destroyed by Clive. The presence 
 of the new Soobadar at his capital was 
 urgently necessary, and without the support 
 of French troops he feared complications. 
 Dupleix placed at his disposal a compact 
 force of 300 Frenchmen, 1500 sepoys, and
 
 DUPLEIX 105 
 
 six guns, under Bussy, who was then only 
 a simple captain of infantry, to be at his 
 entire disposal. So little did Bussy antici- 
 pate the part he was destined to play, that 
 it required a douceur of four lakhs of rupees 
 to win his consent to go ; the other officers 
 were paid in proportion, and each French 
 soldier received 700 rupees. Nor were 
 these arrangements to continue beyond 
 Hyderabad, so as to give Bussy a fresh 
 opportunity for bargaining, in the event 
 of the Soobadar still wishing to take him 
 and his men to Aurungabad. Bussy and 
 his army at this epoch were veritable 
 soldiers of fortune as much as ever was 
 Dugald Dalgetty ; there was no pretence 
 of advancing French interests. " Le de- 
 tachment avait ete fait pour aller jusqu'a 
 Aurunofabad, et les conditions n'avaient et6 
 faites que jusqu'a Edrebad pour fournir a 
 Bussy ' r occasion d' avoir de nouvelles condi- 
 tions, seul objet qui mail fait prendre ce 
 parti au lieu de celui d' abandonner Mousafer 
 Sing,'" wrote Dupleix from Gingee ten 
 weeks later.^ So little idea had he of any 
 further developments, that he was quite 
 
 1 Dupleix a Bussy, 5th April 1751 (Cultru).
 
 io6 DUPLEIX 
 
 prepared to leave Mozuffer Jung to take 
 his chance. 
 
 Three weeks after leaving Pondicherry, 
 Mozuffer Jung was slain by the feudatories 
 with whom Dupleix had intrigued against 
 Nazir Jung. This unexpected event placed 
 Bussy in a great dilemma. He had never 
 contemplated having to play a leading part 
 in Deccan politics. He wrote to Dupleix 
 that the choice for the Soobadari lay 
 between the children of Mozuffer Jung 
 (the eldest being only eight years old) 
 and one of the survivinor sons of Nizam- 
 ool-Moolk. He sugforested that it mis^ht 
 be well for him and his troops to return 
 to Pondicherry. On receipt of the news, 
 Dupleix declared his preference for Salabut 
 Jung, the eldest son of Nizam-ool-Moolk 
 in the Deccan, subject to sufficient provi- 
 sion being made for the family of Mozuffer 
 Jung. Confirmation of the grants made 
 by Mozuffer Jung was to be insisted on. 
 A demand for additional grants of land 
 was to be made, and, if it appeared ex- 
 pedient, the districts of two of the rebel 
 Nawabs were to be placed at the dis- 
 posal of Dupleix, who would nominate the
 
 DUPLEIX 107 
 
 governors. These conditions were to be 
 accompanied by presents of jewels for 
 Dupleix and his wife, " digne de celui qui 
 nous les enverra et de ceux qui les re^oivent. 
 Vous entendez ce que cela veut dire."^ 
 " Vous devez vous le faire presenter, et ex- 
 aminer s'il est tel qu'il doit etre. Faites priser 
 les bijoux avant de les envoyer. Vous devez 
 les faire emballer en votre presence pour 
 qu'on n'en detourne Hen et en faire dresser 
 un inventaire detaille." ^ When they reached 
 him he declared they were pitoyable. "Je 
 n'eusse ose le recevoir publiquement si je 
 n'y eusse fait ajouter pour au moins 200,000 
 roupies de bijoux."^ Yet he considered 
 200,000 rupees sufficient for Salabut Jung 
 to send to the King of France, with a 
 letter announcing his accession. 
 
 Before the instructions could reach him, 
 Bussy had already nominated Salabut Jung 
 to the Soobadari. The success of this 
 notable achievement in king-making, the 
 ease with which it was accomplished, and 
 the consciousness of beingr in command of a 
 
 ^ Dupleix k Bussy, 24th February 175 1 (Cultru). 
 2 Dupleix k Bussy, 12th May 1751 (zV.)- 
 ^ Dupleix a Kerjean, 27th June 1751 {id.).
 
 io8 DUPLEIX 
 
 body of troops capable of dealing with any 
 opposition that might be offered, caused 
 Bussy to exhibit so much pride and exalta- 
 tion as to alarm Dupleix. He sent secret 
 authority to his nephew de Kerjean, who 
 was with Bussy, to take the command of 
 the troops in the event of Bussy disobeying 
 his orders. But Bussy continued his march 
 with the new Soobadar, and the instructions 
 given to de Kerjean were revoked. Soon 
 after his arrival at Aurungabad, Bussy was 
 instructed to obtain from Delhi the Imperial 
 confirmation of all the dignities and posses- 
 sions conferred by the Soobadar, and thus 
 the object of his mission would be fulfilled. 
 " Cette affaire merite votre attention et votre 
 sejour encore pour quelque temps a Aurung- 
 abad, puisque ces pieces, en nous assurant 
 nos possessions, nos jaguirs, nos dignites, 
 mettront le sceau a votre mission qui sera 
 des lors accomplie." ^ Before this letter 
 could reach him, Bussy was writing to 
 Dupleix to say that the Soobadar wished 
 to retain the French troops in the Deccan, 
 and that on such an important point he 
 required positive instructions, as the object 
 
 ^ Dupleix k Bussy, i6th July 175 1 (Cultru).
 
 DUPLEIX 109 
 
 of his expedition had been fulfilled in seating 
 Salabut Jung on the throne of the Deccan. 
 In reply Dupleix sent him a formal order 
 headed, " De par le Roi et la Compagnie des 
 Indes," to remain at the disposal of the 
 Soobadar till further orders.^ The idea of 
 keeping Bussy and his men indefinitely at 
 Aurungabad had not been conceived till 
 Bussy's demand for instructions was re- 
 ceived. So far from having any fixed 
 design, Dupleix's own writings show that 
 his plans changed and developed out of ever- 
 changing circumstances, and that at each 
 stage he believed the end was in view. 
 
 Seven months after Bussy's departure 
 from Pondicherry, Dupleix instructed him to 
 demand an assignment of two lakhs of 
 rupees a month on the revenues of the 
 Carnatic. He preferred a fixed payment 
 to any additional land that might be granted. 
 Two months later he instructed Bussy to 
 demand the Nawabship of the Carnatic, 
 without the slightest regard for the claims of 
 Chunda Sahib. In return he would engage 
 to maintain 2000 European troops, ready 
 to march anywhere, at Salabut Jung's 
 
 ^ Memoire potir le Sieiir de Bussy.
 
 no DUPLEIX 
 
 orders. Nor did his views stop here. He 
 conceived the idea of getting the Soobadari 
 of Bengal conferred on Salabut Jung, and 
 opened negotiations with Delhi for that 
 purpose. He demanded the cession of 
 Balasore to the French, and instructed de 
 Leyrit, the Governor of Chandernagore, to 
 choose districts yielding two lakhs of re- 
 venue, and to press for their cession free of 
 all charge. De Leyrit, in alarm, answered 
 that such a demand would set Bengal in a 
 blaze, and Salabut Jung showed himself 
 lukewarm in rerard to the Benoal Soobadari. 
 In October 1751, Salabut Jung, whose 
 position was menaced by his elder brother 
 Ghazi-00-deen Khan, granted to Dupleix 
 for life, and to the French nation after 
 his death, the Nawabship of the Carnatic, 
 Madura, and Trichinopoly, with their depend- 
 encies, free of all payments. In consideration 
 of this gift, the French were to regard the 
 Soobadar as their friend and ally, and to 
 defend him against all his enemies. 
 
 For a moment Dupleix thought of admin- 
 istering the Carnatic himself; but Bussy, 
 who was already involved in difficulties 
 at Aurungabad, counselled prudence, and
 
 DUPLEIX 1 1 1 
 
 Dupleix contented himself with taking over 
 the administration of a portion only, nom- 
 inating Chunda Sahib as his representa- 
 tive in the Carnatic Nawabship. From the 
 time of Mozuffer Jung's visit to Pondicherry 
 Dupleix adopted the dress and style of an 
 Eastern prince, "cet appareil comique," as 
 Godeheu called it. 
 
 The gift of the Carnatic to Dupleix marks 
 the zenith of his power and influence. It 
 occurred at the very time when Clive was 
 conducting his wonderful defence of Arcot. 
 But Dupleix could see in Clive's success 
 nothing more than a temporary cloud on the 
 horizon which would soon be dispersed. In 
 spite of the enormous advantages he had 
 gained, and the certainty that what had been 
 gained so easily would have to be defended, 
 he had still other schemes. He urged the 
 Company to establish themselves forcibly 
 in Pes^u and take advantage of local 
 dissensions, but the Directors forbade the 
 enterprise. He directed the Governor of 
 Mahe to occupy two fortresses on the 
 Malabar coast ; but the Mah6 troops met 
 with a reverse. He also formed an alliance 
 with the Rajah of Travancore in return for a
 
 1 1 2 DUPLEIX 
 
 cession of land. But the Directors, taking 
 alarm at the opposition of the English, 
 refused their consent. He opened negotia- 
 tions with Goa for a treaty of alliance, with 
 the object of re-establishing the Portuguese 
 at Bassein, which was in the possession of 
 the Mahrattas, and S. Thome, which was 
 held by the English. The French Ministry 
 absolutely forbade the undertaking, which 
 must have necessitated war with the 
 Mahrattas and the English. He wished 
 to seize Surat, to make an establishment in 
 the Maldives, and another in Cochin-China, 
 by force of arms : to invade and conquer 
 Tanjore because it was rich. It is small 
 wonder that the Directors in Paris were 
 filled with alarm as these projects were 
 sprung on them one after another, in the 
 course of a few months, while the Carnatic 
 war was still in progress. They ordered 
 Dupleix to recall his troops from Aurung- 
 abad, and to restrict his enterprises within 
 more modest limits. On receivinor the news 
 of the gift of the Carnatic they wrote : "A 
 peine vous nous proposez une affaire qui 
 m^rite, dites vous, toute notre attention, 
 bien loin de nous donner le temps d'en
 
 DUPLEIX 1 1 3 
 
 recevoir la nouvelle, d'y reflechir et de 
 vous en marquer notre sentiment, vous 
 decidez seul et sans hesiter, . . . nous vous 
 d^fendons tres expressement de songer a 
 cet agrandissement." ^ But Dupleix had the 
 gambler's spirit, which must have all or 
 nothing, and he turned a deaf ear. To 
 enforce his views he dispatched d'Auteuil, 
 by this time a prisoner on parole, to France, 
 to talk over the Directors. But d'Auteuil 
 had no plan to lay before the Directors. All 
 he did was to sing the praises of Dupleix, 
 and to declare that the war in the Carnatic 
 was all the fault of the English. It was 
 impossible, he urged, to recall Bussy from 
 Aurungabad and leave Salabut Jung open to 
 English intrigues. Opinion in France had 
 been for some time turning against Dupleix, 
 and the violent attacks of La Bourdonnais, 
 which had at first been disregarded, had 
 begun to secure a hearing. 
 
 Long before this, Carnatic affairs were 
 absorbing the whole of Dupleix's attention 
 and resources. At the eleventh hour the 
 English at Madras had seen that they must 
 
 ^ La Compagnie k Dupleix, 2nd January 1753 {Mcmotre 
 poicr Dupleix). 
 8
 
 1 14 DUPLEIX 
 
 play the game in earnest or submit to be 
 driven out of Southern India. They were 
 roused to action by seeing French flags 
 planted round Fort St. David for revenue 
 purposes, some of them being contemptuously 
 planted in the Company's boundaries. 
 
 A month after Nazir Jung's defeat and 
 death two important changes had taken 
 place at Madras. Mr. Thomas Saunders had 
 taken up the Governorship, a man of mod- 
 erate capacity, but tenacious and resolute in 
 defence of the Company's interests, though his 
 interference in military affairs was productive 
 of much friction with the military commanders. 
 The other change was of a less beneficial 
 nature. Major Lawrence, whose sterling 
 qualities were as yet unknown, resigned his 
 seat in the Council, with his post in the 
 Company's service, and sailed for England, 
 wearied out with the constant vexatious 
 interference in matters of discipline to which 
 he was subjected. Clive had reverted to 
 civil life, and the Council was left to muddle 
 along in military matters in accordance with 
 the old traditions of the Company. 
 
 The year 175 1 saw the fortunes of the 
 English Company at their lowest. Dupleix
 
 DUPLEIX 1 1 5 
 
 was triumphant everywhere. Owing to their 
 reluctance to appear as principals in the war, 
 the English allowed their feeble efforts to be 
 governed by Mahomed All's personal views 
 and wishes, rather than by their own inter- 
 ests ; and, under the incompetent leadership 
 of Cope and de Gingens, a Swiss officer, they 
 were unsuccessful everywhere. Mahomed 
 Ali, in despair, made advances to Dupleix. 
 In July, Chunda Sahib and a French force 
 sat down before Trichinopoly, whose chief 
 defenders were the disheartened and badly 
 disciplined English troops under Dalton. 
 The fall of the place appeared certain, in 
 which case Mahomed Ali, on whom all the 
 hopes of the English rested, would have 
 shared the fate that befell Chunda Sahib a 
 year later. In Madras the discontent among 
 the military officers had reached such a height 
 that the Council found it necessary to remove 
 several of them, though they were unable to 
 fill properly the vacancies thus created. 
 
 At this juncture the Council decided on 
 making a last desperate cast for fortune. 
 In July, Clive, who had again accepted a 
 captain's commission, had successfully thrown 
 a small reinforcement into Trichinopoly. On
 
 11 6 DUPLEIX 
 
 his return he described to the Council the 
 hopeless state of affairs in the place, and 
 suggested an attack on Arcot as the only- 
 chance of drawing off the besiegers from 
 Trichinopoly. The Madras Council listened 
 to his advice, and denuded themselves of the 
 last man that could be spared to furnish a 
 force for the purpose. The circumstances of 
 Clive's capture and defence of Arcot, with a 
 handful of men, are too well known to de- 
 mand repetition. It was the turning-point 
 of the war. The pressure on Trichinopoly 
 was relieved, the military reputation of the 
 English revived, the active support of the 
 Mysore chief and a Mahratta force were 
 obtained for Mahomed Ali, and the military 
 genius of Clive first recognised. Returning 
 from Arcot, Clive defeated Chunda Sahib's 
 son and a superior French force at Arnee, 
 drove a French force out of Conjeveram, 
 and returned to Madras in December with 
 600 French sepoys who had taken service 
 with him. From this moment the English 
 cast aside hesitation and prosecuted the war 
 with resolution. 
 
 At the end of February 1752 Clive took 
 the field again against Chunda Sahib's son,
 
 DUPLEIX 117 
 
 who, accompanied by a French force, was 
 ravaging the country round Madras. At 
 Covrepauk he blundered on them in the 
 dark, and, after a confused night engagement, 
 completely defeated them, taking twelve 
 guns and sixty prisoners. By these successes 
 a large and valuable tract of country was 
 recovered for Mahomed Ali. Dupleix, in 
 his anger against Chunda Sahib's son at 
 these successive defeats, would not, for a 
 time, suffer him in his presence. On his 
 way back to Fort St. David, Clive razed 
 to the ground the infant town of Dupleix 
 Futtehabad that Dupleix had founded the 
 year before, on the spot where Nazir Jung 
 was slain. This was done in no spirit of 
 revenge, but as a deliberate stroke of policy 
 against Dupleix's prestige, that could not be 
 ignored or concealed. 
 
 o 
 
 Reinforcements had reached Fort St. 
 David, and Clive was preparing to take 
 the field again, when a notable accession of 
 strength was unexpectedly received in the 
 return of the veteran Stringer Lawrence 
 from England, with the title of Commander- 
 in-Chief and enhanced powers calculated to 
 diminish some of the friction between the
 
 1 1 8 DUPLEIX 
 
 civil and military officers. Lawrence at once 
 took the command, and marched with Clive 
 for Trichinopoly, to strike the blow that was 
 to cause the ruin of Dupleix. 
 
 The relations that existed betweeen Law- 
 rence and Clive have been much misunder- 
 stood. For Clive the old soldier entertained 
 the warm feeling that an old bachelor might 
 have for an adopted son, rather than that 
 of a commander for a promising young officer, 
 a feeling cordially reciprocated by Clive ; and 
 no little part of their coming success was due 
 to the intimate friendship and confidence that 
 existed between them.^ 
 
 ^ Lawrence has suffered in history owing to his modesty 
 and self-effacement, together with his apparent disHke for 
 putting pen to paper. The few letters from him that now 
 survive are not written with his own hand, and are only 
 authenticated by his signature. A few of his letters to Clive 
 have recently come to light among the Orme MSS. On 
 30th November 1752 he writes : "As I'm persuaded however 
 distant we are from each other our friendship is unalterable, 
 I shall be always anxious for your well-doing, and the oftener 
 I hear from you the more real satisfaction it will give. Dear 
 Clive, to your affectionate friend, S. Lawrence." Again, on 
 19th February 1753, when Clive was preparing to embark 
 for England : " If I write no more let this be my farewell 
 epistle. I should have been rejoiced to see you once more, 
 but since that is deny'd me by our confin'd situation, may 
 you be happy in a pleasant passage, uninterrupted health, 
 and the enjoyment of your friends, and let me hear of your 
 welfare by every opportunity, as you shall certainly hear of
 
 DUPLEIX 119 
 
 Lawrence's force, numbering 1 500 men, of 
 whom 400 were Europeans, left Fort St. 
 David in March, for Trichinopoly, which 
 had been invested by Chunda Sahib and a 
 French force, commanded by Law, for eight 
 months. Law, a good soldier but a bad 
 general, allowed himself to be cooped up 
 and blockaded on an island in the Cauvery 
 River. Dupleix dispatched a force under 
 d'Auteuil to his relief: Lawrence detached 
 Clive and Dalton against d'Auteuil, who 
 showed himself as timid and irresolute as 
 Dalton and Clive were daring, and on 
 mil TurTe " ^^^ forced to surrender with his 
 whole detachment. Five days later Law, 
 with 820 Europeans, 2000 sepoys, and 45 
 guns, together with the whole of Chunda 
 
 mine. Believe me, Dear Clive, with the greatest affection, 
 your faithful friend, S. Lawrence." Three days later, in 
 reply to a letter from Clive, he writes : " For God's sake 
 why do you mention, why do you mention [sic] obligations 
 to me. I never thought you under any, and the Proof you 
 have given me that I was not deceived in my opinion of you 
 from the beginning affords me much satisfaction." There 
 can be little doubt that Lawrence's affection influenced Clive 
 in adopting a military career, and Clive's selection for the 
 command of the troops sent to Bengal in 1756 to retrieve 
 the Calcutta disaster, must have been largely due to 
 Lawrence's influence. Lawrence's death, six weeks after 
 Clive's suicide, was probably hastened by that event.
 
 I20 DUPLEIX 
 
 Sahib's army, were obliged to capitulate to 
 Lawrence ; an event that was quickly followed 
 by the death of Chunda Sahib at the hands 
 of the Tanjore general. 
 
 This staororerino- blow was the ruin of 
 
 oo o 
 
 Dupleix, though more than two years were 
 to elapse before the indignation of the Govern- 
 ment and Directors in Paris could make 
 itself felt. He was not easily daunted. The 
 opportune arrival of the annual fleet from 
 France brought him reinforcements : he dex- 
 terously detached Mysore and the Mahrattas 
 from their alliance with Mahomed Ali, and 
 proclaimed Chunda Sahib's son, Ali Reza 
 Khan, Nawab of the Carnatic. A momentary 
 success was obtained by the repulse of an 
 English force sent to recover Gingee, and 
 he blockaded the Enorlish settlement of Fort 
 St. David, by land, with a force under de 
 Kerjean. In order to strengthen the garrison, 
 200 Swiss were sent down from Madras in 
 open boats. While passing along the coast, 
 Dupleix swooped down on them, and carried 
 them prisoners into Pondicherry. 
 
 Of all the acts of Dupleix the two that 
 most exasperated the English were the 
 annulling: of La Bourdonnais' convention
 
 DUPLEIX 121 
 
 for the restoration of Madras, and the 
 capture of the Swiss. Both acts were re- 
 garded as breaches of faith. England and 
 France were at peace, and the only justifica- 
 tion for the fighting in India was as auxil- 
 iaries of rival native princes. And so a 
 tacit understanding existed that there should 
 be no direct attack on each other's territories. 
 In blockading Cuddalore and Fort St. David 
 
 o 
 
 the French troops had not infringed on 
 Encrlish limits. The sea was regfarded as 
 neutral, and beyond the scope of native 
 interests, so the capture of the Swiss was 
 regarded in Madras as an act of piracy, and 
 in England as an act of international war. 
 This brought Lawrence into the field again. 
 He took ship at once for Fort St. David, 
 resolved to break the land blockade. De 
 Kerjean, under orders from Dupleix,^ broke 
 up his camp and retreated to within the 
 French limits of Pondicherry, followed by 
 Lawrence. Here he was safe from attack, 
 as Lawrence, under orders from Madras, 
 adhered to the understanding that French 
 territory should not be violated. After 
 driving in the Villanoor outpost, in the hope 
 
 ^ Hamont.
 
 122 DUPLEIX 
 
 of bringing- on an engagement, Lawrence 
 marched back to Bahoor, two miles from 
 Fort St. David. Against his judgment, de 
 Kerjean was forced by Dupleix to follow, 
 upon which Lawrence fell upon him and 
 destroyed his force, taking de Kerjean 
 prisoner, after a hot contest, in which the 
 French troops behaved with great bravery.^ 
 After Bahoor, they never again, during the 
 war, faced the English in the field with 
 confidence. 
 
 Malleson, in his admiration for Dupleix, 
 lays the whole responsibility for the battle 
 on de Kerjean, because delay was advisable 
 in view of the expected arrival of reinforce- 
 ments from Europe. Dupleix, who was 
 never backward in laying blame on others, 
 never sought to blame de Kerjean. In view 
 of the positive assertions of Lawrence and 
 Orme that de Kerjean was forced to follow 
 Lawrence against his wish, and seeing that 
 de Kerjean was at the time in hourly com- 
 munication with Dupleix, who had ordered 
 his retirement a few days before, it is in the 
 highest degree improbable that so masterful 
 a man as Dupleix would have allowed him 
 
 ^The battle was fought, 26t]i August (6th September) 1752.
 
 DUPLEIX 1 2 3 
 
 to leave the confines of Pondicherry, where 
 he was safe from attack, against his wishes. 
 De Kerjean's move was in consonance with 
 the impetuous nature of Dupleix, ignorant 
 of military affairs, and full of confidence in 
 himself, and it is particularly stated by 
 Hamont that he kept de Kerjean under his 
 control. The ease with which Madras had 
 been captured by La Bourdonnais, and the 
 successful defence of Pondicherry against 
 Boscawen, in which he had borne a part, 
 had led him to undervalue the fighting 
 powers of the English. In point of fact, 
 delay would have made no difference in 
 the situation, as the reinforcement never 
 arrived.^ 
 
 It was at this time, when Dupleix was 
 smarting under defeat, that letters were 
 being written to him in France to tell him 
 that the King had been pleased to attach 
 the title of Marquis to the estate he was 
 then purchasing^ in France. 
 
 ^ The Prince sailed from L'Orient in February, was 
 nearly wrecked, and had to put back, so that it did not 
 finally leave France till loth June. In July it was burnt 
 off the coast of Brazil. According to Cultru, only 122 
 soldiers perished with La Touche. 
 
 - M(!moi7'e pour Dupleix contre la Compagnie des Indes,
 
 124 DUPLEIX 
 
 The series of events, commencing with the 
 capture of the Swiss at sea, that cuhninated 
 in the French defeat at Bahoor form an 
 episode in the war apart from all the rest 
 of it. For a few days, both English and 
 French discarded the fiction that they were 
 only auxiliaries in a native quarrel, and stood 
 arrayed in arms against each other, as prin- 
 cipals, without native allies. 
 
 Dupleix was probably the only French- 
 man in India who now failed to see the 
 dangers of the policy in which he had em- 
 barked. During the past year he had 
 suffered a severe check at Arcot, and two 
 crushing defeats in the field, and nearly 
 looo of his best men were prisoners 
 either with the English or with Mahomed 
 Ali. Three months after Bahoor, Bussy 
 wrote to him from the Deccan stating the 
 alarm he felt at the terrible loss of reputation 
 suffered by the French. " C^dez au tems, 
 Monsieur, faites une paix la moins d^savan- 
 tageuse qu'il se pourra avec les Anglois et 
 Mahamet Ali. ... Si vous vouliez m'en 
 croire. Monsieur, vous songeriez a rendre le 
 calme et la tranquillite a ces malheureuses 
 Provinces, qui en ont si grand besoin. , . .
 
 DUPLEIX 125 
 
 Je vous le repute, Monsieur, il est tems de 
 vous tirer de cet labyrinthe."^ 
 
 It may safely be assumed that serious 
 war with the English had no place in 
 Dupleix's plans when he first interfered in 
 Carnatic politics. Either he counted on 
 their standing idle till events had gone too 
 far for them to retrieve their position, or he 
 despised their power so much as to leave it 
 out of his calculations. He did nothing to 
 conciliate or hoodwink them. He continued 
 to believe that the capture of Trichinopoly 
 would settle everything, so the war resolved 
 itself into a struggle for the possession of 
 that place. Yet its importance was of so 
 secondary a nature that Lawrence was at 
 this very time advising the Madras Council 
 to give it up to Mysore. 
 
 Up to this time the English had main- 
 tained the principle that they were only acting 
 under the orders of Mahomed Ali. When 
 Dupleix wrote to Madras claiming the release 
 of the French prisoners taken at Trichinopoly, 
 they replied that the prisoners belonged to the 
 Nawab. At their instance, after Law's sur- 
 render, Mahomed Ali offered peace to Dupleix, 
 
 ^ Memoire pour le Sieur de Bussy.
 
 126 DUPLEIX 
 
 who refused to entertain the proposal. The 
 Madras Council then recorded their resolve 
 to push on military operations with vigour 
 till an honourable peace was procured. 
 
 The year 1753 saw the departure of Clive, 
 who was forced to leave for England, on 
 account of ill health, in the middle of March. 
 But Lawrence was a tower of strength, and 
 in the course of the year he was joined by 
 some excellent officers from the King's army, 
 who entered the Company's service, attracted 
 by the news of fighting in India. French 
 efforts were mainly directed to the capture 
 of Trichinopoly by blockade, while the efforts 
 of the English, with inferior forces, were 
 directed to the breaking of the blockade, 
 from time to time, and keeping the place 
 provisioned. On the 26th June, Lawrence 
 defeated the French, under Astruc, at the 
 Golden Rock. On the 9th August, he 
 defeated Brenier at the Sugar Loaf Rock. 
 On the 2 1 St September, he fell upon Astruc's 
 camp in the same place, capturing Astruc ^ 
 
 ^ Astruc was a man of considerable ability. He had been 
 a sons lieutenatit in the French grenadier company, and 
 distinguished himself during Boscawen's siege of Pondi- 
 cherry. He was dangerously wounded in the sortie in 
 which Paradis was killed.
 
 DUPLEIX 127 
 
 himself, nearly 200 French prisoners, with 
 1 1 pieces of cannon, and totally destroying 
 his force. 
 
 The most notable achievement of Dupleix 
 during the year was the dexterity with which 
 he deprived Mahomed Ali and the English 
 of their native allies, and maintained his 
 influence at Aurungabad. Salabut Jung's 
 seat on the Deccan throne had been secured 
 by the poisoning of his brother Ghazi-00- 
 deen, at the hands of Salabut Jung's mother,^ 
 and by the defeat of the Mahrattas, stirred 
 up by Ghazi-00-deen, at the hands of Bussy. 
 Through Bussy's exertions a grant had been 
 obtained at the end of 1 75 2, from the Soobadar, 
 of the five provinces of Condavir, Musta- 
 phanagar, Ellore, Chicacole, and Rajah- 
 mundry,^ which, added to Masulipatam and 
 its dependencies, and known as the Northern 
 Circars, made Dupleix master of 600 miles 
 of sea coast, with a revenue of over half 
 a million sterling ; the greatest dominion 
 
 ^ October 1752. 
 
 ^ These districts were granted for the pay and subsistence 
 of the French troops that were under Bussy's command in 
 the Deccan. Bussy retained their administration in his own 
 hands, and they did not suffer from the peculation and dis- 
 honesty that did so much harm in the Carnatic districts 
 under Dupleix.
 
 128 DUPLEIX 
 
 both in extent and value that had ever been 
 possessed by any European nation in India. 
 
 With this notable acquisition in his hands, 
 Dupleix would have been wise to come to 
 terms with the English over affairs in the 
 Carnatic. It would have been practically 
 impossible for the English to challenge his 
 possession of the Northern Circars, backed 
 up as he would have been by the Soobadar's 
 arms ; while the difficulty he experienced 
 in finding" a suitable successor to Chunda 
 Sahib, in the Carnatic, made it all the more 
 expedient for him to recognise Mahomed 
 Ali. After Chunda Sahib's death, he had 
 proclaimed his son, Ali Reza Khan, as 
 Nawab of the Carnatic, but in a few months 
 was obliged to set him aside on account of 
 his incapacity. He then selected Mortaza 
 Ali Khan ^ for the Nawabship, but he proved 
 equally useless, and, after Dupleix's departure 
 from India, tacitly relinquished the office. 
 No such opportunity was to occur again for 
 securing his position. 
 
 In July 1753, the Madras Council had 
 learned by letters from England that a 
 feeling against Dupleix was growing up in 
 
 ^ The brother-in-law and murderer of Sufdar Ali Khan.
 
 DUPLEIX 129 
 
 France. They again addressed him regard- 
 ing the termination of the war on terms 
 advantageous to both parties, and were em- 
 powered by Mahomed AH to treat in his 
 name. But Dupleix only gave an evasive 
 answer, declining to put his proposals in 
 writing. 
 
 It was now that Dupleix for the first time 
 put into shape the aims he had in view, in a 
 dispatch to the Directors dated i6th October 
 1753. The tradition that his acts were in 
 accordance with a long-considered policy is 
 conclusively disposed of by this document, 
 in which he shows how his successive acts 
 were the result of circumstances that could 
 not have been foreseen. He lays down two 
 principles " verites qu'une longue experi- 
 ence m'a presentees." ist. That no trading 
 Company can exist solely by trade, and that 
 it must have a fixed and assured revenue, 
 especially if it is obliged to maintain large 
 establishments. 2nd. That a Company should 
 avoid as far as possible the necessity of 
 exporting silver or gold from its European 
 base. He alludes to the English, Dutch, 
 Portuguese, and Danish Companies ; not 
 very felicitously, as the first two had always 
 9
 
 1 30 DUPLEIX 
 
 paid their way and made substantial profits : ^ 
 and he relates how the French establishments 
 had cost more than they earned. " Avec 
 un revenu fixe, les chefs de I'administration 
 dans rinde ne se trouveront plus a la veille de 
 mettre la clef sous la porte et de congedier les 
 troupes et les employes. lis n'auront pas le 
 chagrin d'entendre des propos plus facheux les 
 uns que les autres, et des officiers dire sans 
 honte Point d'argent, point de Suisses. . . . 
 
 ''Des occurrences que la derniere guerre 
 a prdsenUes out servi a faire apercevoir des 
 objets auxqtiels on neut jamais pensd, par 
 la raison qtton ne pouvait se persuader de 
 la possibility. Un encJiaiiievient de circon- 
 stances qiion aurait eu de la peine a prdvoir 
 a cependent conduit au but q7ce Fo7t cherche 
 depuis longtemps. L'on a saisi toutes les 
 occasions qui se sont presentees. ... II 
 serait pousse a sa perfection si j 'avals ^t^ 
 mieux second^, non seulement ici, mais de 
 ma patrie. Malgr6 ces contretemps, je suis 
 venu a bout de procurer a ma nation un 
 
 ^ In spite of the loss of Madras, the EngHsh East India 
 Company paid dividends of eight per cent, for the years 
 1744 to 1748 inclusive. From 1730 to 1744 the Dutch 
 Company had paid dividends varying from fifteen to twenty- 
 five per cent. (Mill).
 
 DUPLEIX 131 
 
 revenu d'au moins cinq millions. Mon 
 dessein dtait de la pousser a dix millions," 
 He admits that the idea of extending French 
 dominion in India, and of expelling all 
 European rivals had sprung into existence 
 during the late war with England, but that 
 circumstances that could not have been fore- 
 seen had alone brought the realisation of the 
 idea within the range of possibility. Three 
 weeks later he was writing contemptuously 
 of the Directors : "II est difficile de faire 
 changer d'id^es a des personnes qui n'ont 
 ^t6 habituees depuis de longues ann^es qu' 
 a des idees trop born^es."^ 
 
 His plan, as stated by himself, in October 
 1753, was to procure a fixed revenue for the 
 Company in order to make them independent 
 of trade. This would enable them to sell 
 Indian products in Europe at a rate that 
 would be impossible for the English to vie 
 with, and thus bring about the ruin of the 
 English Company. Not a word about 
 interference in native politics, of offering 
 protection to native chiefs in order to make 
 puppets of them : not a word of excuse for 
 disobeying the Company's stringent orders 
 
 ^ Dupleix ^ Montaran, 9th November 1753 (Cultru).
 
 132 DUPLEIX 
 
 to recall Bussy and the French troops 
 from Aurungabad. All that was necessary- 
 was that an additional force of 2500 
 men should be sent to him. With 5000 
 men he would give the law to all India. 
 The fact that the English in India were 
 opposing him in the field, that the two 
 nations were at peace, and that his projects 
 could only be carried out at the cost of war 
 in Europe, was not taken into account. 
 
 The charge against the French Directors 
 of not supporting Dupleix in his plan of 
 forming a French empire in India cannot be 
 sustained, for the simple reason that he had 
 never placed any such plan before them. 
 His first communication of a considered plan 
 was not written till two months after the 
 determination to recall him had been formed 
 in Paris. 
 
 In November, the Madras Council again 
 made overtures for the termination of 
 hostilities, through Syud Lashkar Khan, 
 the Dewan at Aurungabad, who was opposed 
 to Bussy and French influence. Dupleix 
 absolutely refused to acknowledge Mahomed 
 Ali's title to the Carnatic, but the increasing 
 difficulties in which he found himself made
 
 DUPLEIX 133 
 
 him not unwilling to consider the advisability 
 of a conference which was proposed to be 
 held at Sadras, the Dutch settlement between 
 Madras and Pondicherry. A little before 
 this he had received a letter from Bussy 
 giving an account of the increasing difficulties 
 he experienced in the Deccan, and stating 
 among other circumstances that pay to the 
 amount of nine lakhs of rupees was owing 
 to his men. At this stage a French attempt 
 to surprise Trichinopoly met with a disastrous 
 defeat which cost them nine officers and over 
 400 men.i Dupleix now consented to send 
 Commissioners to Sadras, and nominated 
 Pere Lavaur,^ Superior of the Jesuits in 
 India, de Bausset, a member of the Pondi- 
 cherry Council, and his nephew de Kerjean, 
 to meet the two English Commissioners, 
 Palk and Vansittart. Even after the arrival 
 at Sadras of the English deputies, Dupleix 
 delayed the dispatch of his representatives, 
 on the ground that the passes provided for 
 them were written in English and not in 
 Persian. The Madras Council replied that 
 
 ^ 27th November 1753. 
 
 ^ According to Voltaire and Saint Priest, Lavaur played a 
 double game between Dupleix and Godeheu, and by his unfair 
 insinuations greatly contributed to Lally's condemnation.
 
 134 DUPLEIX 
 
 the excuse was frivolous and an indignity to 
 the English nation, and Dupleix gave way. 
 
 On the first day of the meeting of the 
 Commissioners, the English deputies wrote 
 to Madras that there was no prospect of an 
 agreement ; and at the end of eleven days, 
 after two meetings only, the conference 
 was broken off. The terms demanded by 
 Dupleix could only have been justified by 
 constant success in the field. He insisted 
 on a recognition of his title as Nawab of the 
 Carnatic, and the time was chiefly occupied 
 by a fruitless controversy as to the authen- 
 ticity of documents, which is only interesting 
 as showing the anxiety of both French and 
 English to legalise their status by appeal- 
 ing to the effete authority of the Moghul 
 Emperor. The English insisted on the 
 recognition of Mahomed Ali as Nawab of 
 the Carnatic, rightly recognising that with 
 the Nawabship in French hands their trade 
 must be destroyed. 
 
 In reading the whole proceedings of the 
 Commissioners it is difficult to believe that 
 Dupleix seriously expected to come to terms. 
 His real object would appear to have been 
 to ascertain if the English were likely to
 
 DUPLEIX 135 
 
 listen to proposals that would result in their 
 abandonment of the cause of Mahomed AH, 
 and to obtain the release of the French 
 prisoners. The mutual restoration of prisoners 
 was proposed by the French deputies as a 
 preliminary step to an agreement. The 
 English deputies replied that it must form 
 part of the agreement itself. A few days 
 after the conference Dupleix scored his only 
 important success in the field against the 
 English. A valuable convoy was captured, 
 and 230 of the best English troops destroyed, 
 15th February 1754. 
 
 For six months more the war lingered on, 
 but the only result was to make evident the 
 decreasing power of the French. Dupleix 
 had got to the end of his resources ; his 
 soldiers, disheartened by defeat, faced the 
 English with hesitation that was fatal to 
 success, and his commanders were discredited. 
 Nor were French affairs going better in the 
 Deccan. From Bussy came a series of 
 urgent letters complaining that nothing could 
 be got from the Soobadar, that he had parted 
 with all he himself possessed to pay his 
 troops, that in spite of repeated demands 
 nothing had been sent him from Pondicherry,
 
 136 DUPLEIX 
 
 and that officers and men were in ereat 
 distress and ready to mutiny. *' La gloire 
 du nom FranQais est arriv^e a son dernier 
 periode," wrote an officer to Dupleix. He 
 was visibly losing ground everywhere. 
 
 Meanwhile, the feeling in France against 
 Dupleix was increasing. The great riches 
 he had acquired for himself and family, 
 exaggerated by rumour, his indifference to 
 the Company's orders, his concealment of 
 important matters, and the insolent style of 
 his letters to the Directors, all contributed 
 to raise their apprehension and anger. '* On 
 n'ecrit pas a un valet comme vous avez ecrit 
 a la Compagnie," wrote one of his friends 
 to him.^ His subordinates, alienated and 
 disgusted by his haughtiness and arrogance, 
 were loud in their complaints against him. 
 Assuming the style of an Eastern monarch, 
 he forced them to present nuzzurs when 
 they approached him, and more than once, 
 accordinor to Orme, he obliofed his own 
 countrymen to submit to the humiliation of 
 paying him homage on their knees. The 
 same is charged to him by Godeheu : " M'a 
 t'on vLi me montrer tous les jours en public 
 
 ^ Montaran c\ Dupleix, 3rd March 1754 (Cultru).
 
 DUPLEIX 137 
 
 avec ce faste imposant, ce cortege nombreux, 
 et toutes les marques exterieures de la 
 Nababie. . . . M'a t'on vu quitter I'habit 
 et le chapeau, me revetir d'une cabaye et 
 d'un turban, et recevoir le salami de la main 
 des Franqais ? " Dupleix denied ever re- 
 ceiving nuzzurs from Frenchmen. When 
 he sustained his check at Arcot he hurried 
 the sailing of the Dauphm so that the officers 
 should not hear of it and report it in France. 
 In like manner he hastened the departure of 
 other ships when the news of Mozuffer 
 Jung's death reached him, and the Directors 
 complained that they received from England 
 news of events that Dupleix might have sent 
 them. The Company's funds were exhausted, 
 and the Directors complained that they 
 received no returns for the sums they had 
 sent out. The books showed that there 
 ouorht to be immense sums at their credit in 
 India, but they were told there was nothing. 
 Yet Dupleix pretended that up to the end 
 of 1752 only ten lakhs of rupees had been 
 advanced for army expenses, which would be 
 repaid when peace was made. In pursuit of 
 his political aims he had completely lost sight 
 of the Company's commercial interests. If
 
 138 DUPLEIX 
 
 his policy was successful there would be 
 plenty of money to make good all deficiencies. 
 The Ministry and the public held Dupleix 
 responsible for their want of dividends. All 
 complaints might have been put an end to 
 by success, but the news of Law's surrender 
 silenced Dupleix's defenders, and his recall 
 was decided on. 
 
 So far back as the autumn of 175 1 proposals 
 for the recall of Dupleix had been laid before 
 the French Ministers, long before the news 
 of the active opposition of the English was 
 known to them. At that time the death of 
 Nazir Jung was known, but they were still 
 ignorant in France of the dispatch of Bussy 
 to Aurunofabad. The general feelins^ was 
 against territorial extension, and in favour of 
 peace and commerce. But there grew up 
 a feeling of personal hostility to Dupleix, 
 coupled with a suspicion that his loyalty 
 could not be depended on. As an official 
 document said at the time: " C'etait un role 
 sdduisant, pour un particulier sorti du com- 
 merce et devenu gouverneur de Pondichery 
 que celui de conqu^rant et d'arbitre de 
 rinde. II pouvait meme y trouver, du cote 
 de la fortune, des avantages particuliers."
 
 DUPLEIX 139 
 
 The enormous sums of which Dupleix, his 
 family, and so many of the French officers 
 were in receipt seemed to render them rather 
 the servants of their native paymasters than 
 of the French Directors, and Godeheu was 
 suggested as the fittest person to succeed 
 Dupleix. A few months later proposals 
 were placed before the Ministers for coming 
 to an agreement with the English and Dutch 
 Companies, ensuring neutrality in India 
 under all circumstances, and for a common 
 undertaking not to acquire territory. The 
 news of Law's surrender appeared to justify 
 Delaitre, one of the Syndics, and Silhouette, 
 one of the royal commissioners, who had 
 prophesied disaster. The Company wrote 
 to Dupleix with dignity and moderation. 
 Before the news of Law's disaster arrived, 
 they had ordered him to make peace and 
 withdraw Bussy from the Deccan. They 
 now sent him 1400 men to enable him to 
 defend himself, and told him they relied on 
 his having already made peace before the 
 reinforcement, which was not to be employed 
 in new enterprises, could arrive. To Dupleix 
 the reinforcement furnished a motive for 
 going on with the game. Like a confirmed
 
 I40 DUPLEIX 
 
 gambler, he was always ready to double the 
 stakes. At this time he was sending rich 
 presents to Madame de Pompadour and 
 other great ladies, in the name of Madame 
 Dupleix, to influence them in his favour. 
 
 The affair that did Dupleix most harm in 
 France was the matter of the presents and 
 jagirs granted to himself, his wife, and 
 other officials. In 1750, the Directors, deal- 
 ing with the question of the jagir granted to 
 Dumas, had reminded Dupleix that the re- 
 ceipt of gifts by French officials from foreign 
 princes was strictly forbidden by royal 
 ordinance. Now they heard, by private 
 persons coming from India, of the immense 
 gifts of land, money, and jewels showered on 
 Dupleix and his subordinates. Between Jan- 
 uary and July 1751 Bussy received in money 
 alone 780,000 rupees. In six months of the 
 same year de Kerjean remitted 380,000 
 rupees to Pondicherry from Aurungabad. 
 Captains of infantry under Bussy received 
 from 25,000 to 40,000 rupees in a year. 
 Dupleix himself had three large jagirs, 
 besides money and jewels of great value. 
 Madame Dupleix had received four valuable 
 jagirs, one of which she gave to the Jesuits,
 
 DUPLEIX 141 
 
 and one she surrendered to the Company. 
 Her daughter had a jagir ; her son received 
 a lakh of rupees in a single day ; Portuguese 
 hangers-on, who claimed relationship with 
 her, had districts. In the Carnatic thirty- 
 two districts were administered by Dupleix's 
 agent for different employes. The enormous 
 sums acquired by obscure individuals of no 
 merit produced widespread demoralisation 
 among all classes, and had a powerful effect 
 in bringing about the final collapse of French 
 power in India a few years later. Instead 
 of checking it, Dupleix boasted of the fortunes 
 that were being made, and sent officers to 
 the Deccan "pour faire leurs petites affaires." 
 On receiving the Directors' order about 
 Dumas' jagir, Dupleix wrote a remonstrance 
 as if no royal order existed. The Directors 
 repeated the order more stringently. Dupleix 
 replied in a letter full of insolence, accusing 
 the Directors of having procured a royal 
 order expressly for the occasion. But he was 
 on his way to France before they could 
 make any rejoinder.
 
 IV 
 
 At the beginning of the contest the 
 Directors of the two Companies were 
 puzzled by the conflicting charges and 
 counter-charges they received from Madras 
 and Pondicherry. Neither in London nor 
 Paris was the affair regarded as serious, and 
 the Directors exchanged informal communi- 
 cations and copies of their advices from 
 India. The French Directors naturally, at 
 first, supported Dupleix, whose successful 
 defence of Pondicherry had made him a 
 popular favourite ; the English Directors 
 were conscious that, in the Devicotah affair, 
 they had laid themselves open to recrimina- 
 tion. On receiving the news of the victory 
 at Amboor the French Directors were warm 
 in their congratulations to Dupleix. On 
 hearing of the capture of Gingee by Bussy, 
 their congratulations were less cordial, and 
 accompanied by the reflection that unless 
 the success had led to a solid peace it was
 
 DUPLEIX 143 
 
 of little value : a sentiment that was repeated 
 from several quarters. The news of the 
 defeat and death of Nazir Jung at the hands 
 of a French force, and what followed it, 
 roused them from their complacency. They 
 became aware that a great deal was going 
 on of which Dupleix was keeping them in 
 ignorance. The employment of French 
 arms against the ruler of the Deccan could 
 not be laid to the blame of the English, 
 for the English had withdrawn from his 
 camp. The dispatch of Bussy to Golconda 
 was inexplicable. In January 1753, the 
 English Directors made a formal representa- 
 tion to the Earl of Holdernesse, the King's 
 principal Secretary of State, forwarding 
 copies of letters written by Dupleix to 
 Madras, "wherein the pretensions and claims 
 of M. Dupleix, in the name of the French 
 nation, appear, and entreating his Lordship's 
 recommendation of the affair to His Majesty's 
 Ministers, that they may obtain such declara- 
 tions and orders from the Court of France 
 as may sufficiently discountenance and put 
 a stop to M. Dupleix's proceedings." A 
 formal communication based on this reached 
 Paris just when the news of Law's surrender
 
 144 DUPLEIX 
 
 was known, and the advisability of recalling 
 Dupleix was being considered by the French 
 Directors. In March, they notified to the 
 English Directors that they were sending 
 Duvelaer and de la Lude to London, to con- 
 sult with the Secret Committee, and confer 
 on means to re-establish tranquillity in India. 
 They declared that they were disposed to do 
 anything that might contribute to that end. 
 
 Malleson has treated Duvelaer's deputa- 
 tion to London as if he had been originally 
 instructed to maintain Dupleix's policy. 
 This was not the case. The negotiation 
 was at first between the two Companies, and 
 not between the French and English Govern- 
 ments. The Directors of both Companies 
 were in accord as to the general principles 
 to be observed in future. The chief point 
 on which disagreement seemed likely to arise 
 was from the difficulty of placing both 
 Companies on an equality in India for the 
 future, in view of the large acquisitions of the 
 French. So far was the negotiation from 
 beinof of a contentious nature at first, that it 
 caused some alarm in Holland,^ where it was 
 
 ^ Sir J. Yorke's letter to the Duke of Newcastle (The 
 Hague, 22nd June 1753, MSS. Brit. Mus.).
 
 DUPLEIX 145 
 
 thought to forebode common action against 
 other European traders. 
 
 The choice of Duvelaer showed the in- 
 tentions of the French Directors. He had 
 spent several years in England and Holland 
 studying English and Dutch commercial 
 systems. He had no personal feeling 
 against Dupleix, but he was averse to a 
 trading Company mixing itself up in politics 
 and acquiring territory. While negotiations 
 were in progress, it came to be recognised in 
 London that the fiorhtingf in India was no 
 passing incident, such as had happened 
 before between European traders in the 
 East, but was due to a policy that would, 
 if successful, prove fatal to English trade ; 
 and the professions of the French Directors 
 were received with distrust. It was known 
 that the French Company were raising 2000 
 men to dispatch to India with M. Godeheu, 
 the Managing Director of the Compagnie 
 des Indes' naval establishment at L'Orient, 
 though the English Ambassador reported 
 that M. Godeheu was said to have absolute 
 power and orders to make peace, and if 
 M. Dupleix opposed it, to send him im- 
 mediately to Europe. On the receipt, in 
 10
 
 146 DUPLEIX 
 
 London, of intelligence of the continuance 
 of fighting in India, the King's Ministers 
 intervened in the negotiation ; the French 
 ambassador, the Due de Mirepoix, was 
 informed by the Earl of Holdernesse of 
 the King's resolution to support the English 
 East India Company in the full enjoyment 
 of all the rights and privileges granted them 
 by royal charter,^ and the 39th Regiment, 
 the one that now bears the motto of " Primus 
 in Indis," was prepared for embarkation.^ 
 At the beginning of January 1754 the Due 
 de Mirepoix was told that eight line-of- 
 battle ships with five frigates were preparing 
 to sail in a fortnigrht for the East Indies.^ 
 At the same time he received instructions 
 from the French Ministry to conclude a 
 
 ^ East India Company's records. 
 
 2 In its ranks were Forde, who drove the French out of 
 the Northern Circars ; Coote, who defeated Lally and took 
 Pondicherry, dying thirty years later as Commander-in- 
 Chief in India ; together with Carnac, Adnett, Yorke, and 
 many others who bore their part in the hard fighting that 
 was to come. 
 
 ^ This was the squadron that sailed from Plymouth on 
 9th March, under Admiral Watson, that destroyed Gheriah 
 and Chandernagorc, and recovered Calcutta. It may be 
 truly said that the favourable position in which the English 
 in India found themselves on the outbreak of the Seven 
 Years' War was directly due to Dupleix's aggressive policy.
 
 DUPLEIX 147 
 
 treaty between the two Companies, conced- 
 ing the points on which the EngHsh 
 Company, backed by the King's Govern- 
 ment, insisted. Before this, Godeheu was 
 on his way to India. 
 
 There can be little doubt that long 
 before the news of Law's defeat and sur- 
 render was known, there was considerable 
 excitement in England over the fighting 
 in India. Many were the petitions from 
 officers in the King's army to the East 
 India Company for commissions in India. 
 In a single day, in November 1752, the 
 Company granted fourteen commissions to 
 captains and subalterns of the Royal Army, 
 having among them men who had fought in 
 Germany and Scotland. There was no lack 
 of readiness in the English Government or 
 the English nation to take up the challenge 
 thrown down to them in India. Yet the 
 whole contention of Dupleix's admirers is 
 based on the assumption that if the French 
 Company had supported Dupleix, England 
 would have acquiesced in the domination of 
 the Carnatic by France. 
 
 The recognition of Mahomed AH as 
 Nawab of the Carnatic, and the surrender
 
 148 DUPLEIX 
 
 to him of a portion of the territory acquired 
 by the French, were the points on which the 
 EngHsh Ministers refused to give way. In 
 the event of Mahomed AH's death before 
 Godeheu's arrival they demanded that both 
 companies should, in concert, request the 
 Moghul Emperor to nominate a successor. 
 They were indifferent as to who the successor 
 should be, provided he was not the nominee 
 of the French. They also insisted on the 
 unconditional surrender of the Swiss cap- 
 tured at sea, as a preliminary to negotiation, 
 and were prepared to treat it as a casus 
 belli if there was any hesitation in the 
 matter. 
 
 Malleson, in his History of the French in 
 India, and M. Hamont, have stated the 
 recall of Dupleix to have been brought about 
 chiefly by the insistence of the English 
 Directors, who tricked the French Directors 
 into the belief that they would on their side 
 recall Saunders if Dupleix was recalled. 
 Dupleix himself believed that his recall had 
 been obtained by the English, and dwells on 
 it with much bitterness in his Mhnoire contre 
 la Compagnie. Yet in another place he 
 writes: "le coup est I'ouvrage du Sieur
 
 DUPLEIX 149 
 
 Godeheu seul." M. Cultru shows that there 
 is no foundation for these assertions. " Les 
 Fran^ais n'eurent pas la triste excuse d'etre 
 forces par I'Angleterre a rappeler Dupleix. 
 II etait attaque depuis longtemps. Personne 
 ne le defendait, sauf le directeur Gilly. . . . 
 Le coup fut porte par Silhouette qui dirigeait 
 I'esprit de Machault. Un memoire, prdsente 
 en Juillet 1753, suggera toutes les mesures 
 qui furent prise docilement par le ministre 
 presque sous la dict^e du commissaire." No 
 mention of Dupleix was made in the negotia- 
 tion. The story of the English stipulation 
 to recall Saunders and appoint a special com- 
 missioner to treat with Godeheu has been 
 traced by M. Cultru to a rumour current in 
 Paris, in 1755, reported to the King of 
 Prussia by his ambassador. Godeheu 
 ridiculed the idea. " Le Roi seul a pro- 
 nonce votre rappel . . . ce n'etait pas une 
 affaire d'arrangement avec les Anglais." In 
 the convention as finally executed, Saunders 
 is styled " President for the Honourable 
 English Company on the coast of Coro- 
 mandel and Orixa, Governor of Fort St. 
 George." Godeheu is styled "Commissary 
 for His Most Christian Majesty, Commander-
 
 150 DUPLEIX 
 
 General of all the settlements of the French 
 Company on both sides the Cape of Good 
 Hope, and at China, President of all the 
 Councils there established, and Director- 
 General of the India Company of France." 
 Orme, with his usual accuracy, states the fact 
 that the admirers of Dupleix have ignored : 
 "The French themselves were so fully con- 
 vinced that Dupleix was not a man fit to 
 be trusted with a commission which contra- 
 dicted so strongly every part of his conduct 
 since the beginning of the war of Coromandel 
 that . , . they of their own accord, and 
 without any application from the English 
 Ministry, took the resolution of removing 
 him from the Government of Pondicherry." 
 
 Nor can Malleson's contention be sustained 
 that the French Directors were influenced 
 by the constant defeats sustained round 
 Trichinopoly/ The defeats of Astruc (26th 
 June and 21st September 1753), Brenier 
 (9th August 1753), and Mainville (9th 
 December 1753) were certainly not known 
 
 ^ " But when they heard, first of Law's disaster, then of 
 the loss of de la Touche and his 700 men, then of the defeats 
 in succession of Astruc, of Brennier, of Mainville, . . . they 
 came at last to the determination to insist on a change of 
 policy" (Dupleix, " Rulers of India Series").
 
 DUPLEIX 1 5 1 
 
 in Paris in August 1753, when Godeheu's 
 deputation to India was decided on. 
 M. Cultru shows that among the reasons 
 for Dupleix's recall were his behaviour in 
 regard to the jagirs, the arrogance of his 
 letters to the Directors, and his concealment 
 of important facts, to which Law's defeat in 
 June 1752 formed the climax. But it was 
 his conduct in respect to the jagirs that 
 chiefly influenced the Directors. For twelve 
 months, in January 1753, the Directors had 
 been without dispatches from Pondicherry. 
 The dispatches then received were silent 
 as to the check received at Arcot in 1751, 
 his receipt of the Nawabship of the Car- 
 natic, and the reasons for the dispatch 
 of Bussy to the Deccan.^ For all that was 
 most important for them to know, the 
 Directors were dependent on letters from 
 private individuals, and on the newspapers 
 published in London and The Hague. If 
 his recall had depended alone on the com- 
 plaints of the English, he would certainly 
 have been sent back to India on the out- 
 
 ^ " Voulant raster maitre absolu de ses mouvements, 
 Dupleix ne rendait compte de rien ; il n'ecrivait pas au 
 minist&re ou ne correspondait avec lui qu'en termes 
 generaux" (Saint Priest).
 
 152 DUPLEIX 
 
 break of war between England and France, 
 soon after his arrival in Europe. 
 
 In addition to these disquieting circum- 
 stances the affairs of the Company had 
 become desperate. Since 1745 the Company 
 had been practically insolvent. At that time, 
 in fifteen months' war, twelve of their 
 merchantmen, valued at 10,600,000 francs, 
 had been captured or lost at sea. Nine 
 millions were owing to the State for loans, 
 yet the payment of dividends had not been 
 suspended. Recourse was again had to the 
 State. A laree loan was sanctioned : fresh 
 capital was raised by the issue of new shares, 
 and for three years the dividends were paid 
 out of the Royal Treasury. By 1750 the 
 Company was in dire distress: in 1753 it 
 was at the last gasp. The almost universal 
 corruption existing in every branch of the 
 Company's service was a potent factor in its 
 ruin. There was no longer a question of 
 making conquests in India : the doubt was 
 whether the Company itself would continue 
 to exist. Peace in India at any price was an 
 absolute necessity, and, in view of his fre- 
 quent disregard of the Directors' orders, peace 
 could only be obtained by recalling Dupleix.
 
 DUPLEIX 153 
 
 The Directors had been lavish in the 
 dispatch of soldiers from France. In 
 September 1750 they sent him 300 men; 
 in 1751, 365 men; in 1752, 1381, of which 
 122 were lost in the Prince; in 1753 he 
 received 600 out of 894 who were dispatched 
 before Godeheu's departure from France.^ 
 Yet all this time they were kept in ignor- 
 ance of what was oroino- on in India. 
 
 Two years before, Godeheu had been 
 named as the best available successor to 
 Dupleix : he knew India, and was a man of 
 integrity. Voltaire says that he was remark- 
 able for prudence and mildness. According to 
 hispublic instructions, he was given full powers 
 to carry out a complete inquiry, and had 
 discretion, if he saw fit, to continue the war. 
 But, from Silhouette and the Minister for 
 naval affairs he carried sealed instructions, 
 of a very different nature. The immense 
 riches acquired by Dupleix, Bussy, and others, 
 it was said, had turned their heads. They 
 talked of inciting the Soobadar to attack 
 Mysore, where the booty was enormous. 
 " Tout ne respire que guerre et brigandage. 
 . . . Une des premieres mesures a prendre 
 
 1 Cultru.
 
 154 DUPLEIX 
 
 est de faire repasser en France ceux dont les 
 richesses immenses ne peuvent que bannir 
 I'esprit de frugalite qui doit pr^sider aux 
 operations d'une Compagnie merchande." 
 
 If Dupleix resisted Godeheu's orders, he 
 and his relations were to be arrested. 
 Godeheu was to restore to the English, 
 unconditionally, the Swiss troops Dupleix 
 had piratically taken prisoners at sea in 
 1752, and open negotiations for peace. He 
 was further directed to land at Karikal, and 
 summon Dupleix to meet him there, so as 
 to preclude any chance of resistance ; but 
 this part of his instructions was not acted 
 on. From the tenor of these instructions it 
 is evident that resistance to the Company's 
 authority was expected, not only from 
 Dupleix but also from those who had 
 enriched themselves under him, and the 
 Directors were determined to make a 
 clean sweep of them. The 2000 men sent 
 with Godeheu were intended as much 
 to coerce Dupleix, if necessary, as to 
 protect French interests. To the French 
 Directors it seemed a monstrous thing that 
 their servants in the East had acquired 
 enormous wealth and were ruling vast
 
 DUPLEIX I 5 5 
 
 territories in the name of the Company, 
 while the Company itself was insolvent. 
 It was not known in France that the riches 
 acquired by Dupleix and his family, together 
 with the revenues derived from the Carnatic, 
 had been dissipated, that the troops were 
 in arrears of pay, and there was no money in 
 the Treasury. 
 
 Godeheu reached Pondicherry on the ist 
 August 1754, and landed on the following 
 day. In a letter dated ist August, he 
 informed the Madras Council that he had 
 arrived with full powers and authority. He 
 stated his earnest desire to make peace 
 between the Companies ; he sent back to 
 Madras the Swiss prisoners, in proof of 
 good faith, and proposed a suspension of 
 arms. It is a proof of his nervousness 
 about the Swiss prisoners (whose numbers 
 had dwindled to 80) that he should have 
 written to notify their surrender, within an 
 hour or two of his arrival, and before he 
 put foot on shore. The matter was not one 
 that brooked delay, as Watson's squadron 
 might be looked for at any moment. In 
 his reply to Dupleix's attack on him, 
 Godeheu relates how a French officer, M. de
 
 156 DUPLEIX 
 
 Dampierre, who was at Madras when Watson 
 arrived there, reported to him that Watson 
 and Pocock complained of their hands being 
 tied, as they had received orders to make 
 reprisals on the French Company's vessels 
 for the seizure of the troops "que vous aviez 
 fait arreter a leur passage de Madras au 
 Fort St. David, quoique les deux nations 
 fussent alors en pleine paix." Surgeon Ives 
 in his narrative also says : "to our great 
 surprise, instead of being employed on the 
 objects of war, we had nothing to do 
 but to look about us." So nearly had 
 Dupleix involved France and England in 
 war. 
 
 Dupleix was at once given to understand 
 that his power was at an end, and that he 
 and his family must return to France, So 
 long as he remained in Pondicherry he was 
 allowed to retain all the insignia of his 
 Governorship and of his Nawabship, and 
 to occupy the Governor's residence : in fact, 
 Godeheu appears to have treated him with 
 a consideration that was not appreciated by 
 Dupleix. It is evident from Godeheu's 
 M&moii'es that he found the administration 
 in great confusion ; the Treasury was empty.
 
 DUPLEIX 157 
 
 and the troops before Trichinopoly had 
 mutinied for want of pay. When asked 
 by Godeheu for money to pay the troops, 
 Dupleix repHed that he had been relying 
 on the money brought out by Godeheu, 
 and that if the ships had not arrived he 
 would have pawned his plate. Unable to 
 see that his policy was discredited, and that 
 Godeheu was acting under superior orders, 
 he urged him again and again to send troops 
 to Trichinopoly,^ and referred him to Papia- 
 poulld for the Carnatic accounts. This 
 Papiapoulle was the agent appointed by 
 Dupleix, or rather Madame Dupleix, as 
 M, Cultru surmises, to administer the 
 Carnatic. According to Godeheu he had 
 once been M. Barthelemy's valet, and was 
 dismissed by him for bad behaviour. He 
 was accountable only to Dupleix, and had 
 been allowed to assume a position of 
 authority second only to Dupleix himself. 
 He robbed the districts in his charge, and 
 played the tyrant everywhere. No French- 
 man dared to oppose him for fear of being 
 
 ^ " Ce nouveau detachement . . . ramenera le courage de 
 nos troupes, qui n'est pas fort assure a la vue des Anglais " 
 (Dupleix to Godeheu, 4th August 17 S4)-
 
 158 DUPLEIX 
 
 ruined : he raised troops, whom he kept with- 
 out pay till they mutinied, and was detected 
 by Godeheu giving orders to the native 
 officers of sepoys in Pondicherry in defiance 
 of those given by Godeheu himself. No 
 single man had so great a share in the 
 ruin of Dupleix's administration as Papia- 
 poulM/ 
 
 Godeheu has been blamed for having 
 concealed his instructions from Dupleix up 
 to the moment of landing, for having dis- 
 played personal animosity, and for having 
 made a sacrifice of French interests. But 
 the French Directors had themselves de- 
 signedly kept Dupleix in ignorance of their 
 intentions when they announced the coming 
 of Godeheu, in their distrust of Dupleix's 
 loyalty, and Godeheu does not appear to 
 have shown any personal feeling or un- 
 necessary harshnesss in carrying out his 
 orders. As one of the Directors, he knew 
 how desperate was the state of the Company's 
 finances, and his inquiry into the Carnatic 
 accounts was necessarily stringent. He had 
 been sent out as an inquisitor, not as a 
 successor in the government of the French 
 
 ^ We should write the name Papiah Pillay.
 
 DUPLEIX 159 
 
 Indies/ After the orders of the Directors 
 for the surrender of the jagirs to the 
 Company, he was not disposed to Hsten 
 with much patience to Dupleix's plea that 
 they were his own property. By a reversal 
 of Dupleix's policy alone could war with 
 England be avoided, and he knew what 
 the English terms were. A suspension of 
 arms for three months was agreed upon. 
 On the 14th October, Dupleix sailed for 
 France. In the last days of the year a 
 conditional treaty was signed between the 
 two Companies, subject to ratification in 
 Europe. The only effect of the treaty was 
 to produce a cessation of hostilities, and 
 an interchange of prisoners, that left a 
 balance of 650 French prisoners in the 
 hands of the English. No surrender of 
 territory was to take place without orders 
 from Europe. It is altogether misleading 
 to say, as Malleson has done, that the effect 
 of the treaty was to undo all Dupleix's work. 
 While these things were taking place 
 in India, opinion in France had partly 
 veered round in favour of Dupleix. His 
 
 ^ He left India again in February 1755, six weeks after the 
 conditional treaty was signed.
 
 i6o DUPLEIX 
 
 aims and achievements were beg^innino- to 
 gain favour in Court circles, while war with 
 England appeared inevitable. A dispatch 
 modifying Godeheu's orders was sent off, 
 but arrived two months after Dupleix's 
 departure. 
 
 His reception by the public in France 
 was at first all that he could desire, and he 
 looked forward to a speedy return to India. 
 On his voyage he spent money lavishly at 
 the Mauritius and the Cape of Good Hope, 
 and in France he made a great display of 
 wealth. But the Directors were less favour- 
 ably inclined to him than the public, and the 
 King's Ministers received him coldly. They 
 had his insolent reply about the jagirs before 
 them : they received before long, from 
 Godeheu, a copy of the treaty of peace, 
 based on their own suggestions, and, in 
 some respects, more favourable than what 
 they were prepared to accept : they learned 
 from Godeheu the result of his inquiry into 
 the Carnatic accounts, which showed an 
 enormous deficit not accounted for ; and 
 Dupleix himself claimed over twelve millions 
 of livres from the Company on account of his 
 jagirs, and over seven millions of livres ad-
 
 DUPLEIX i6i 
 
 vanced from his private resources for public 
 purposes. When called on to account for his 
 possession of such a sum he stated that it was 
 derived from his jagirs. But the Directors had 
 refused to recognise his claim to the jagirs as 
 they had refused to recognise Dumas' claim ; 
 they knew that he had inherited nothing from 
 his father, and that he had lost the fortune 
 he had made in Bengal before he left 
 Chandernagore. Godeheu had to report 
 that the Carnatic was ruined, partly by the 
 ravages of war, but in great measure by 
 the tyranny and peculations of Madame 
 Dupleix's agent ; that the native troops 
 were unpaid, and were in a state of mutiny, 
 so that he had been obliged to disband them. 
 The fact was that Dupleix had expended the 
 Carnatic revenues so far as they would go, 
 and then his own fortune and the fortunes 
 of his friends, in the war. So far back as 
 October 1751 he had written to Bussy : "A 
 peine les revenus de la province peuvent- 
 ils fournir aux depenses qu'occasionnent. 
 M^hemet Ali et les Anglais. . . . Le pays 
 est d^vaste : le d^faut de recoltes m'occa- 
 sionne a moi des avances considerables. 
 II faut qu'il soit sorti de mon coffre plus de 
 II
 
 1 62 DUPLEIX 
 
 dix lakhs de rouples depuis mai dernier sans 
 qu'il puisse y en rentrer une seule." Yet at 
 that date the sums advanced to Chunda 
 Sahib had been repaid. 
 
 The reaction of public opinion in favour 
 of Dupleix appears to have been brief. 
 Cartwright quotes a letter from de Kerjean 
 written in Paris the 6th February 1757 : 
 " I am at a loss to describe the extent to 
 which La Bourdonnais' libels have here 
 made an impression on people's minds, 
 while Dupleix's memorials pass almost un- 
 noticed." 
 
 Dupleix's admirers have laid much stress 
 on the shameful conditions of Godeheu's 
 treaty, and its disastrous results to France. 
 The view is of too partisan a nature to 
 be accepted. The French had not been 
 victorious in the three years of unofficial war 
 waged between the two Companies, and 
 were in no condition to continue the struggle 
 with hope of success. To the English at 
 Madras the terms of the treaty appeared 
 unjustifiable, in view of the great advantages 
 it secured to the French ; and it was only 
 under orders from England that they were 
 ** obliged to conclude a truce on such pre-
 
 DUPLEIX 163 
 
 carious and unequal terms." ^ When Gode- 
 heu's secretary uttered some platitudes on 
 the hatefulness of the war, Saunders replied 
 that the English had nothing to complain 
 of in respect to it. Nine hundred French 
 prisoners were in the hands of the English, 
 while the French had only 250 English 
 prisoners.^ An English squadron was on 
 the coast with a King's regiment far 
 superior in quality to the motley troops 
 who had hitherto fought for the Company. 
 *' Both sides now were able to bring 
 into the field an equal force of about 2000 
 Europeans : but the English troops were 
 in quality so much superior to the French 
 that if this long and obstinately contested 
 war had now rested on the decision of the 
 sword, there is no doubt but that the French 
 would soon have been reduced to ask for 
 peace on much less advantageous terms than 
 the presidency of Madras were obliged to 
 accede to, in obedience to the orders they 
 had now received from Europe."^ Peace 
 
 ^ Orme. 
 
 2 These numbers do not represent the whole of the 
 prisoners captured during the war. There were many 
 Swiss and Germans among them, many of whom took 
 service with their captors. ^ Orme.
 
 1 64 DUPLEIX 
 
 was necessary to the French Company, and 
 the price paid for it was actually extremely 
 small. The one serious concession made by 
 the French Government was the recognition 
 of Mahomed Ali as Nawab of the Carnatic. 
 On this point the English were unyielding. 
 Yet Mahomed Ali was not their nominee, 
 but had been appointed by Nazir Jung. 
 After Chunda Sahib's death Dupleix had 
 been unable to find a satisfactory candidate 
 for the throne of the Carnatic, and the in- 
 difference of the French to Salabut Jung's 
 wishes was shown by the matter being finally 
 settled without his being made a party to it. 
 On the other hand, the position of Salabut 
 Jung, Dupleix's nominee for the Deccan, 
 was left unchanged, and Bussy, v/ith a French 
 army, was allowed to remain and dominate 
 the Deccan. The English Directors formed 
 a scheme for bringing pressure to bear on 
 Salabut Jung to expel Bussy and the French 
 troops, with the assistance of the Peishwa ; 
 and for this purpose Clive, with a body of 
 troops, was sent to Bombay : but the scheme 
 came to nothing. Eighteen months later 
 Salabut Jung himself solicited the aid of the 
 English to expel Bussy from the Deccan.
 
 DUPLEIX 165 
 
 An expedition was prepared and was on 
 the point of marching from Madras, when 
 the news of the capture of Calcutta by 
 Suraj-00-dowla caused the expedition to be 
 abandoned. 
 
 Meanwhile, all mention of Bussy was 
 studiously kept out of the treaty. The 
 territorial changes contemplated by the pro- 
 visional treaty were never carried out, and 
 the French remained in possession of exten- 
 sive districts acquired during the war, yielding, 
 according to Dupleix, a revenue of 2,679,457 
 rupees,^ while the English held only lands 
 yielding 800,000 rupees yearly, which Ma- 
 homed Ali had mortgaged to them for the 
 expenses of the war, and which were open to 
 redemption.^ The solid advantages gained 
 by Dupleix's policy were very great, and con- 
 ferred on France a great initial superiority 
 on the renewal of war two years later. The 
 treaty, in fact, only established a state of 
 armed truce between the Companies, and 
 settled the contention as to Mahomed Ali's 
 title. The removal of Dupleix from India 
 was important to the English, and necessary 
 
 ^ Mdmoire pour Dupleix. Piece justificative, No. vi. 
 2 Orme.
 
 1 66 DUPLEIX 
 
 in the cause of peace, but that was a matter 
 outside the treaty altogether. 
 
 The remainder of Dupleix's days were 
 spent in vainly prosecuting his claims against 
 the Company. His writings run into a 
 prodigious length, which must have confused 
 and wearied those who studied them.^ 
 Against Godeheu he made a violent personal 
 attack, and the public were bombarded with 
 a series of accusation and rejoinders, into 
 which Maissin, Law, and others were drawn, 
 to be followed before long by similar counter- 
 charges between Lally and Bussy. He 
 chose to assume that his recall from India 
 and the composition with the English were 
 solely due to Godeheu's bad faith and folly. 
 But Godeheu was not a free agent in the 
 matter : he acted strictly under orders from 
 the French Ministry. 
 
 To the end of his life he believed that 
 the capture of Trichinopoly would have put 
 the crown to his political schemes, and one 
 of his principal grievances against Godeheu 
 was his failure to push operations with vigour 
 on his arrival in India. But the time had 
 
 ^ Mhnoire conife la Compagnie, 1759 ; 291 quarto pages. 
 Riponse ct Godeheu, 1763 ; 133 quarto pages.
 
 DUPLEIX 167 
 
 long passed, before Godeheu's appearance 
 on the scene, when the quarrel with the 
 English Company might have been ended 
 on such terms. The issue had enlarged to 
 dimensions that could not have been decided 
 by the capture of a single fortress. From 
 auxiliaries in the war the two nations had 
 become principals : it had ceased to be a 
 matter between the two Companies : it had 
 brought France and E norland face to face. 
 He entirely ignored the fact that the capture 
 of Trichinopoly/ if it had been accomplished 
 by Godeheu, would not have settled the 
 matter, and must have entailed open war 
 between England and France. The con- 
 vention was, in fact, beneficial to France, as 
 it gave time for the recuperation of the 
 exhausted provinces, while not a foot of 
 land was surrendered. 
 
 Exaggerated as his private claims almost 
 certainly were, an examination of them would 
 have shown laree sums due to him and to his 
 friends who had advanced money for public 
 purposes. But neither the French Company 
 nor the French Government had money to 
 
 ^ Bussy did not hesitate to call his obsession as to 
 Trichinopoly a 'chimera.'
 
 1 68 DUPLEIX 
 
 spare for such a purpose. Dupleix com- 
 menced a lawsuit against the Company : 
 the French Ministry interfered and put a 
 stop to the proceedings. At the same time 
 they gave Dupleix letters of protection 
 against his own creditors.^ His Mdmoire 
 cont7'e la Compagnie in 1759 must have fallen 
 on deaf ears in that year of universal calamity 
 for France. In November 1756 Madame 
 Dupleix died. Two years after her death 
 Dupleix married Mademoiselle de Chastenay 
 Lanty, a lady of good family but without 
 fortune, by whom he left one daughter.^ 
 On the nth November 1763 he died. 
 
 Long before this he had seen the final ruin 
 of his work. In January 1761 Pondicherry 
 surrendered to the English, and all prospect 
 of French empire in India vanished. But 
 he could see in it only the handiwork of 
 Godeheu. Some months before his death 
 he wrote: "J'ai sacrifi^ ma jeunesse, ma 
 fortune, ma vie, a combler d'honneurs et de 
 richesses ma nation en Asie ; un homme 
 envieux arrive, la voit dans cet etat de 
 splendeur, et la fait tomber dans le mepris 
 
 ^ The protection appears to have been withdrawn some 
 years later. ^ She married the Marquis de Valory.
 
 DUPLEIX 169 
 
 et dans rabaissement, etc."^ But it was 
 France, not Godeheu, that had failed ; in 
 India as in America. Dupleix himself could 
 not have altered the result, though he might 
 have prolonged the struggle. The ruin that 
 had been impending over the Compagnie 
 des Indes for fifteen years was at last 
 accomplished. It is small wonder that, at 
 such a moment, men were more ready to 
 condemn his errors than to remember his 
 first successes. 
 
 On his arrival in France he had been 
 in affluent circumstances. Before he left 
 Bengal he had remitted considerable sums 
 to France ; he had purchased an estate in 
 1752, and, from 1755 to 1759, he was 
 allowed to retain jagirs in India that brought 
 him an income of not less than 300,000 
 rupees a year.^ But with the with- 
 drawal of the protection from his creditors, 
 and the cessation of his Indian incomes, 
 his money troubles began, and the last 
 few months of his life were months of 
 despairing poverty. Four years after his 
 death there was a sale of his jewels for the 
 
 ^ Reponse du Sieur Dupleix a la lettre du Sieur Godeheu, 
 30th October 1763. 2 Cultru, p. 345.
 
 170 DUPLEIX 
 
 benefit of his creditors. Amonof them were 
 a quantity of unset pearls, diamonds, and 
 other precious stones, diadems, aigrettes, 
 gold chains, jewelled sabres and poniards, a 
 box set with rubies and emeralds, etc.'^ 
 
 French national pride has been flattered 
 by the idea that if Dupleix had had better 
 troops, and if he had been better supported 
 by the French Government, his policy would 
 have triumphed. It is difficult to see how 
 this contention can be justified. It is 
 apparently based on the supposition that the 
 success of French arms in the Carnatic 
 would have been acquiesced in by the 
 British Government. But the British 
 Government had shown that they would 
 support the East India Company even at 
 the cost of war, and there is no reason to 
 suppose that the issue would have been 
 different in 1755 from what it was six years 
 later. When Lally landed in India, in 1758, 
 he was relatively stronger than Dupleix had 
 been at any time since 1752. But he failed 
 to take Madras, and had to surrender 
 Pondicherry : while, in the Northern Circars, 
 the French suffered a crushing defeat. So 
 
 ^ See Appendix.
 
 DUPLEIX 171 
 
 long as the English had the superiority 
 at sea, French predominance in India was 
 impossible. 
 
 The frailty of the foundations on which 
 Dupleix's schemes had been built is ex- 
 emplified by Bussy's career at the Deccan 
 Court. For five years he was the successful 
 arbiter of Deccan politics, making peace or 
 war in the Soobadar's name. In the summer 
 of 1756 he succumbed to local intrigues, and 
 was forced to fight his way back to the 
 coast : and so French influence in the Deccan 
 came to its end for a time. 
 
 The soldiers sent out to India from France 
 were no doubt bad. But so were the men 
 sent out from England. The complaints of 
 Orme and Clive place the matter beyond 
 doubt. Yet there was orood fiq-htino- 
 material among the French. The men who, 
 at Bahoor, two months after Law's surrender, 
 met Lawrence's grenadiers bayonet to 
 bayonet, could not have been bad soldiers. 
 Granting the inferior quality of his men, as 
 represented by Dupleix, it may well be 
 asked, why, after Law's surrender, he con- 
 tinued to rely upon them, in preference to 
 listening to the frequent overtures for peace
 
 172 DUPLEIX 
 
 made to him by the English and Mahomed 
 AH, whereby he would have retained every- 
 thing of importance that he was fighting for. 
 It was in officers rather than in men that 
 Dupleix failed, and for this Dupleix him- 
 self was largely responsible. Many of his 
 selections for command had no recommenda- 
 tion beyond their relationship to himself or 
 to his wife. Bussy, the best of them, was 
 engaged to marry one of Madame Dupleix's 
 daughters : and Bussy was not employed in 
 the field against the English. In numbers 
 the European troops at his disposal always 
 exceeded those that the English could bring 
 into the field. The retention of Bussy in 
 the Deccan was a cardinal error. Had the 
 troops with him been employed in the 
 Carnatic they would probably have turned 
 the scale at Trichinopoly. Nobody knew 
 better than Dupleix how little worthy of 
 consideration was the Moghul claim to 
 sovereignty in Southern India, but he failed 
 to see the equal worthlessness of the Deccan 
 Soobadar's claim to sovereignty over the 
 Carnatic so long as it could not be made 
 good by force of arms. The real issue lay 
 in the Carnatic, and the English, with true
 
 DUPLEIX 173 
 
 insight, saw this. When Godeheu's treaty- 
 was made, the recognition of Mahomed AH 
 as Nawab of the Carnatic was insisted on : 
 but Bussy was left undisturbed in the 
 Deccan to be otherwise dealt with, and 
 subsequent events showed that his presence 
 there was of little importance. His warfare 
 in the Deccan has been treated as part of 
 Dupleix's policy. It is difficult to admit 
 this view. Bussy 's operations were confined 
 to maintaininor the Soobadar against the 
 Mahrattas ; but they had not the least in- 
 fluence on Carnatic affairs, or on the war 
 with the English. Bussy and his men in 
 the Deccan were only mercenaries at the 
 disposal of the Soobadar, to be employed by 
 him for local purposes. 
 
 In estimating Dupleix's position as a 
 statesman it is impossible to overlook his 
 failure in promoting the commercial interests 
 of the French Company. Yet his admirers 
 assert that the first measures in his supposed 
 plan for establishing French sovereignty in 
 India was the improvement of French ad- 
 ministration and of the Company's finances. 
 That he understood Eastern trade was shown 
 by his work at Chandernagore ; but, from the
 
 174 DUPLEIX 
 
 time of the capture of Madras by La Bour- 
 donnais, he ceased to concern himself about 
 administrative affairs, and staked everything 
 on the success of his political schemes. The 
 mistake was one that might have been com- 
 mitted by a successful soldier ; but Dupleix 
 was emphatically not a soldier, and he was 
 a very capable administrator. He built 
 nothing ; he consolidated nothing. He 
 raised the scaffolding of an immense political 
 edifice, and was constantly extending it ; but 
 not a single course of masonry was laid or 
 even projected by him. The ease with which 
 native armies were overthrown by his troops, 
 and the favourable way in which events 
 played into his hands for a time, deprived 
 him of all sense of proportion and of the 
 difficult problems that remained to be solved. 
 And so it came to pass that when the 
 order for his recall arrived, his treasury was 
 empty, his soldiers were mutinous for want 
 of pay, the provinces he had pretended to 
 administer were ruined, and his own fortune 
 had been swallowed up. By his arrogance 
 he had alienated the goodwill of his sub- 
 ordinates, and by his insubordination and 
 neglect of the Company's commercial in-
 
 DUPLEIX 175 
 
 terests he had incurred the hostUity of the 
 directors whose support was essential to 
 him. The insolvency of the Company was 
 a powerful factor in his ruin. Had he not 
 been recalled, it is difficult to avoid the 
 belief that a few more months would have 
 seen the failure of all he had projected, even 
 if open war between France and England 
 had been avoided ; for it is impossible to 
 maintain that the French position in the 
 Carnatic was as strong at the end of 1754 
 as it had been when Salabut Jung was placed 
 on the throne of the Deccan. 
 
 Yet Dupleix must ever remain one of 
 the most remarkable figures in our Indian 
 history. With astonishing audacity and 
 temporary success he was the first to show 
 the practical possibility of European dominion 
 in India, and there can be little doubt that 
 Clive's policy after Plassey was founded on 
 the example set by him. That he set out 
 on his career of political adventure without 
 any definite aim is made clear from his own 
 letters. He did not create opportunities : he 
 seized them as they presented themselves. 
 At each turn of the kaleidoscope his ambition 
 grew and his horizon of possibilities enlarged,
 
 176 DUPLEIX 
 
 till nothine less than universal dominion in 
 India seemed attainable. But if he is to be 
 given credit for his first successes, so also 
 must he himself bear the blame for his 
 failures. Nevertheless, our fullest admiration 
 is due to the greatness of his aims, his energy, 
 his political dexterity, his unfailing fortitude 
 under misfortune, and his tenacity of purpose. 
 At this distance of time we may re-echo the 
 words of Orme : " His conduct certainly 
 merited a very different requital from his 
 nation, which never had a subject so desirous 
 and capable of extending its reputation and 
 power in the East Indies." 
 
 The embarrassment caused us by Dupleix 
 for a time, was really a blessing in disguise. 
 He taught the English in India to know 
 their own strength. Till then they had relied 
 on the Crown to do their fighting for them. 
 In the four years' warfare to which they 
 were unexpectedly committed, the East India 
 Company and their servants in India were 
 thrown on their own resources, and discovered 
 that they too possessed soldiers and states- 
 men equal to all emergencies. But for 
 Dupleix, the genius of Clive and the military 
 virtues of Lawrence might have never been
 
 DUPLEIX 177 
 
 discovered. But for Dupleix, there would 
 have been no British squadron in the Indian 
 seas, no King's regiment in India when 
 English trade was extinguished in Bengal 
 in 1756. As the storm that wrecked La 
 Bourdonnais' ships in 1746 gave Dupleix the 
 troops to embark on his career of conquest, 
 so the political storm raised by him gave 
 the English the armed force that enabled 
 them to conquer at Plassey, and strike for 
 empire at the psychological moment, and 
 brought to India the men whose names are 
 imperishably written in our Indian records 
 from 1754 to 1765. It would be difficult to 
 exaggerate the importance of the results 
 wrought by Watson's squadron and the 
 officers and men of the 39th that he took 
 out with him. It was solely owing to Dupleix 
 that they left England. 
 
 To believe that Dupleix, if properly sup- 
 ported in France, would have succeeded 
 in founding a French empire in India, is 
 to misread history. All French efforts at 
 colonisation in the eighteenth century were 
 paralysed by quarrels among the local 
 officials, and by the sacrifice of public interests 
 to the acquisition of private gains. Voltaire 
 12
 
 178 DUPLEIX 
 
 compared the French settlement in Southern 
 India during the Seven Years' War to a 
 dying man whose effects are pillaged by his 
 servants before the breath has left his body. 
 These evils were rampant among the French 
 in India when Dupleix was at the head of 
 affairs, and their results were as fatal to 
 French interests in India as they were in 
 Canada. The verdict on French colonisation 
 given by the Seven Years' War would not 
 have been reversed by the temporary success 
 of Dupleix.
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 OFFICIAL ACCOUNT OF THE SALE OF 
 DUPLEIX'S JEWELS AFTER HIS DEATH, 
 TO SATISFY HIS HEIRS, CREDITORS, AND 
 OTHER CLAIMANTS 
 
 Archives dii departement de Seine et Oise, 
 No. 3761. E. 
 
 (i) Par ordre du Conseil d'Etat du 17 Mars 1764, 
 pour juger en dernier ressort les contestations nees ou k 
 naitre contra la dame Veuve Du Pleix, la succession 
 heritiers et creanciers debiteurs et pretendants droit k 
 la succession du Sieur Joseph Francois Du Pleix 
 Commandant sous le Roi dans les Indes ; 
 
 (2) Le dit Jugement rendu le 17 aout present mois ; 
 
 (3) Commandement au Sieur Jacquard Marin Ecuyer, 
 Conseiller Secretaire du Roy de remettre en nos mains 
 les objets suivants (dont description detaillee). 
 
 (4) I. boite et son couvercle et une 
 
 coupe garnie de diamants et 
 rubis perles d'emeraudes et 
 autre pierres prise (estime) . 11,000 livres 
 2. Manche de jade garni de Rubis 
 
 et ^meraudes pris^ . . . 400 ,, 
 18. Aigrette garnie de 34 Diamants 
 
 prisd ..... 260 ,, 
 
 22. Aigrette garnie de diamants Rubis 
 
 et emeraudes prise . . , 260 ,, 
 
 23. Aigrette garnie de diamants Rubis 
 
 et emeraudes prise . . . 260 „ 
 34. Diademe garnie de diamants et 
 
 emeraudes prise . . . 650 ,, 
 
 »79
 
 1 80 APPENDIX 
 
 38. Aigrette garnie de diamants rubis 
 
 emeraudes prise . . . 470 livres 
 
 39. Diademe garnie de diamants rubis 
 
 emeraudes prise . . . 1,500 „ 
 
 50. 2 boutons de Ceinture d'or garni 
 de rubis et diamants et eme- 
 raudes . . . . . 1,220 „ 
 
 54. 5 chaines d'or garnis d'appliques 
 
 en rubis, de petits diamants prise 3,900 „ 
 
 56. Gand de peau borde de semences 
 de perles et de 2 glands attaches 
 garnies de Diamants rubis eme- 
 raudes ..... 600 „ 
 
 59. 3 Chaines d'or prisees . . 840 „ 
 
 61. Collier de perles et Mosaiques et 
 
 Agraffe de diamant prise . . 1,000 „ 
 
 65. 9 petits paquets de Topazes 
 
 d'Inde ..... 240 ,, 
 
 68. 4 fils de perles prise . . . 1,000 ,, 
 
 70. 2 bracelets garnis de rubis et 
 
 diamants . . . . 520 ,, 
 
 73. Collier garni de diamants, rubis 
 
 et perles prise. . . . 1,110 „ 
 
 75. fils de perles prise . . . 2,000 „ 
 
 84. 4 cercles de bracelets d'Or et 
 
 Rubis . . . . . 550 „ 
 
 (?) un Sabre garni de diamants et 
 fourreau et couteau a manche 
 garni de diamants prise a , 12,900 „ 
 
 10. Aigrette garnie de diamants et 
 
 emeraudes pris^ a . . . 300 ,, 
 
 12. Manche de poignard de Jade, 
 
 rubis et emeraudes pris^ a . 300 „ 
 
 33. Diadbme garni de rubis eme- 
 raudes et diamants prise . . 390 „ 
 
 43. Applique en diademe et dia- 
 
 mants perle prise . . . 220 „ 
 
 44. Diadbme et garniture pris^ . . 420 „ 
 
 45. „ en coeur garni prisd . 270 „
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 i8i 
 
 46. Diad^me forme corbeille prise . 580 
 
 47. ,, applique (milieu manque) 340 
 
 51. Aigrette en grappe prisd . . 100 
 
 52. Doitier d'or garni . . . 320 
 
 57. 2 bracelets de Diamants . . 580 
 
 58. Joyau de poitrine garni Diamants 
 
 ^ Rubis . . . , .120 
 69. Emeraude ronde . . . 1,300 
 72. Bouquet de 6 roses de diamants 
 
 emeraudes rubis . . . 520 
 
 76. 500 perles enfilees bracelets (516 
 
 perles trouvees) . . . 1,000 
 
 77. 388 perles (346 trouvees seule- 
 
 ment) ..... 1,200 
 (?) plus bague gros diamant . . 20,000 
 3. Croix Ordre St. Michel Diamants, etc. 2,400 
 
 livres 
 
 14. boucle de col 14 diamants 
 75. 2 files de perles rondes 
 
 1,800 
 1,600 
 
 Fo. 55 
 
 , Vente de Diamants perles et bijoux dans 
 une des Salles des Grands Augustins Mercredi 
 prochain 2 Septembre 1767 et jours suivants. 
 
 Detail de la vente et produit d'adjudication k 
 la page suivante. 
 
 Fo. 
 
 Date de 
 Vente. 
 
 No. 
 
 Ci 
 
 dessus. 
 
 Mise a 
 prix. 
 
 Description. 
 
 < 
 
 Observa- 
 tions. 
 
 
 2 Sept. 
 
 65 
 
 
 23 Topazes 
 
 36 
 
 livres. 
 
 
 
 
 18 
 
 200 
 
 Aigrette 
 34 diamants 
 
 
 retiree de la 
 vente pas 
 d'acheteur 
 a sa valeur 
 — pour 
 memoire. 
 
 
 
 23 
 
 150 
 
 
 
 »i j>
 
 l82 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 Fo. 
 
 Date de 
 Vente. 
 
 No. 
 Ci 
 
 dessus. 
 
 Mise a 
 prix. 
 
 Description. 
 
 -V 
 
 < 
 
 Observa- 
 tions. 
 
 
 
 34 
 
 600 
 
 
 700 
 
 
 
 
 39 
 
 1,200 
 
 
 
 retiree pour 
 mdmoire. 
 
 
 
 68 
 
 500 
 
 
 1,161 
 
 
 
 
 55 
 
 500 
 
 
 712 
 
 
 
 
 54 
 
 1,500 
 
 
 
 Memoire 
 retiree. 
 
 
 
 70 
 
 400 
 
 
 521 
 
 
 
 
 84 
 
 300 
 
 
 561 
 
 
 
 
 73 
 
 800 
 
 
 
 Memoire. 
 
 
 
 59 
 
 700 
 
 
 
 Memoire. 
 
 
 
 50 
 
 900 
 
 
 1,361 
 
 
 
 
 75 
 
 1,500 
 
 
 2,000 
 
 
 
 
 61 
 
 700 
 
 moins 
 I'agraffe 
 
 1,001 
 
 
 
 
 61 
 
 300 
 
 agrafe seul 
 
 637 
 
 
 
 Jeudi 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 3 Sept. 
 
 65 
 59 
 
 12 
 
 800 
 
 Topazes 
 
 45 
 875 
 
 
 
 
 54 
 
 800 
 
 2 chaines 
 
 
 Memoire. 
 
 
 
 38 
 
 350 
 
 
 
 Memoire. 
 
 
 
 (?) 
 
 
 Manche de 
 Jade 
 
 400 
 
 
 
 
 I 
 
 10,000 
 
 boite et 
 couvercle 
 
 11,070 
 
 
 
 
 76 
 
 800 
 
 
 1,061 
 
 
 
 
 43 
 
 200 
 
 
 501 
 
 
 
 
 69 
 
 300 
 
 
 227 
 
 
 
 
 72 
 
 400 
 
 
 321 
 
 
 
 
 51 
 
 100 
 
 
 130 
 
 
 
 Vendredi 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 4 Sept. 
 
 65 
 
 24 
 
 45 topazes 
 
 31 
 
 
 
 
 65 
 
 12 
 
 7 „ 
 
 
 Memoire. 
 
 
 
 65 
 
 24 
 
 46 „ 
 
 33 

 
 APPENDIX 
 
 183 
 
 Fo. 
 
 Date de 
 
 Vente. 
 
 No. 
 Ci 
 
 dessus. 
 
 Mise a 
 prix. 
 
 Description. 
 
 3 
 
 < 
 
 Observa- 
 tions. 
 
 
 
 52 
 
 300 
 
 
 
 Memoire. 
 
 
 
 58 
 
 100 
 
 
 120 
 
 
 
 
 57 
 
 500 
 
 
 620 
 
 
 
 
 47 
 
 300 
 
 
 381 
 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 2,000 
 
 Croix 
 St. Micliel 
 
 
 Memoire. 
 
 
 
 14 
 
 1,400 
 
 
 1,920 
 
 
 
 
 44 
 
 400 
 
 
 490 
 
 
 
 
 45 
 
 200 
 
 
 320 
 
 
 
 
 74 
 
 1,400 
 
 
 1,700 
 
 
 
 
 12 
 
 250 
 
 manche 
 poignard 
 
 
 Memoire. 
 
 
 
 33 
 
 400 
 
 
 480 
 
 
 
 
 10 
 
 200 
 
 Diademe 
 
 320 
 
 
 
 
 46 
 
 100 
 
 
 584 
 
 
 
 partie de 
 
 54 
 
 550 
 
 
 951 
 
 
 
 Samedi 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 5 Sept. 
 
 65 
 
 27 
 
 6 topazes 
 
 31 
 
 
 
 
 65 
 
 36 
 
 4 „ 
 
 43 
 
 
 
 
 65 
 
 (?) 
 
 20 
 
 300 
 
 260 
 
 I topaze 
 
 doitier 
 
 emaille d'or 
 
 Aigrette 
 
 . 34 
 diamants 
 
 23 
 341 
 
 400 
 
 
 
 
 22 
 
 200 
 
 >) 
 
 280 
 
 
 
 
 23 
 
 240 
 
 )> 
 
 281 
 
 
 
 
 38 
 
 450 
 
 >5 
 
 526 
 
 
 
 
 12 
 
 200 
 
 manche 
 
 poignard 
 
 
 Mdmoire. 
 
 
 
 39 
 
 400 
 
 diademe 
 
 
 Memoire. 
 
 
 
 77 
 
 1,200 
 
 2 bracelets 
 
 1,300 
 
 
 
 partie de 
 
 54 
 
 616 
 
 Chaine d'or 
 
 680 
 
 
 
 J) 
 
 54 
 
 1,100 
 
 >) )> 
 
 1,199 

 
 1 84 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 Fo. 
 
 Date de 
 Vente. 
 
 No. 
 
 Ci 
 
 dessus. 
 
 Mise a 
 prix. 
 
 Description. 
 
 ^a3 
 
 tJD 
 
 < 
 
 Observa- 
 tions. 
 
 
 Samedi 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 5 Sept. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 (suite) 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 partie de 
 
 54 
 
 700 
 
 Chaine d'or 
 
 721 
 
 
 
 
 73 
 
 1,100 
 
 Collier 
 diamants 
 
 1,150 
 
 
 117 
 
 Lundi 
 7 Sept. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 partie 
 
 65 
 
 9 
 
 5 petites 
 topazes 
 
 II'IO 
 
 sols. 
 
 
 
 >> 
 
 65 
 
 6 
 
 7 „ 
 
 II 
 
 
 
 J) 
 
 65 
 
 10 
 
 4 » 
 
 12 
 
 
 
 j» 
 
 65 
 
 12 
 
 4 » 
 
 15-1 
 
 sol. 
 
 
 
 
 12 
 
 200 
 
 Manche de 
 poignard 
 
 
 
 Memoire. 
 
 
 
 39 
 
 (?) 
 
 2,000 
 
 Croix 
 St. Michel 
 
 
 Mdmoire. 
 Memoire. 
 
 Lundi 7 Sept. 1767 a loh. du matin Mr. Corbet Avocat 
 en Parlement avait remis au Sequestre du Sieur Dupleix 
 8000 livres montant et produit des deux derniers 
 vacations. 
 
 9 Septembre. 
 
 Sabre 12,000 vendu 15,001 livres a Mr. Poiret Md. 
 
 Joaillier. 
 Exposition des Nos. 3, 11, 39 — sans resultat. 
 
 10 Septembre. 
 
 Mr. Corbet verse, 15,020 livres. 
 Vendredi, 11 Septembre. 
 
 Manche poignard, No. 12, 200 livres, Memoire. 
 )) 39j 500 livres, Memoire.
 
 APPENDIX 185 
 
 No. 3, Croix de St. Michel 
 Memoire, 
 partie 54, Chaine d'or 500 livres 
 adjugee 522. 
 Bague No. 78, 17,700 livres adjugee 20,700 livres a 
 Antreand Joaillier, Paris, Rue St. Louis. 
 Mr. Corbet Huissier, ordinaire du Conseil d'Etat 
 verse 20,000 livres, dont decharge. 
 
 Fo. 140. Des Jugements de MM. les Commissaires du 
 Conseil deputes pour Sa Majeste etc. etc, 
 
 Dans ladite succession somme de 15,630 livres pour 
 etre mise dans le coffre dont acte fait aux meme jour et 
 an que ci dessus. 
 
 Fo. 144. 8,000 livres versees au Maitre du Sequestre, 
 etc. 
 15,020 livres versees au Maitre du Sequestre, 
 etc. 
 12 Sept. 20,000 livres versees au Maitre du Sequestre, 
 
 etc. 
 149. Mile. Dupleix seule habile a se dire et porter 
 heritiere du Sr. Dupleix son pere et attendu que les 
 objets detailles dans ladite requete lesquels sont d'abord 
 une croix de I'ordre de St. Michel enrichie de brillants, 
 un manche de poignard de jade garni de rubis et enfin 
 un diademe rubis et emeraudes faisant les Nos. 3, 12, et 
 39 de I'estimation faite par les Sieurs Marin et I'Empereur 
 ont ete exposes en differentes fois en vente sans que 
 personne les ait encheris a la somme a laquelle ils ont 
 ete estimes les autorisent a vendre les dits trois objets au 
 dessous de la dite estimation Nos. 3, 12, 39, et incessa- 
 ment proceder a la vente. 
 
 Fo. 154. Fille mineure Dlle. Adelaide Louise Jeanne 
 Josephine Du Pleix sa fille mineure heritiere de son 
 pere et Louis d'Estournelles en nom et comme tuteur de 
 ladite demoiselle. 
 
 29 Janvier 1768 vente annoncee. 
 
 3 Mars 1768 vente k la salle des Grands Augustins 
 
 a savoir. 
 Manche de poignard 100 livres adjuge au Sieur Doris
 
 1 86 APPENDIX 
 
 Md. Joaillier Quai Amorfondier pour 175 livres 
 
 3 sols. 
 Diademe prise 700 livres adjuge au Sr. Lefevre Md. 
 
 Joaillier 852 livres. 
 Croix St. Michel prise 1500 livres adjuge au Sieur 
 
 Le Cocq Md. Orfevre a Paris Rue du Harlay 
 
 pour 1650 livres 3 sols. 
 
 (Signe) Corbet. 
 
 18 Avril 1768 M. Corbet verse 3310 livres 14 sols 
 deduction faite des frais. 
 
 Dont acte fait et passe. Decharge etc. etc. 
 
 (Signe) Corbet. 
 
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 3 1158 00937 7259 
 
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 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 
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