Page:History of the French in India.djvu/176

154 LA BOURDONNAIS AND DUPLEIX. chap. God of armies, it is M. Dupleix who deserves your 1 V " , gratitude. His activity, his attentive care in supply- 1746. i n g me wltn a ^ tnat I needed for the siege, were the chief causes of its success." We have thus alluded in detail to the course pursued by La Bourdonnais after the taking of Madras, in order that no doubt may exist as to the actual occurrences of that much canvassed period. We think it is clear, firstly, that La Bourdonnais had, as commander of the expedition, no right to conclude any definite treaty with the English, without the consent of the Governor- General of French India ; secondly, that up to Sep- tember 25, the fifth day after the capitulation, no such definitive treaty had been entered into, although there had been some conversation regarding a ransom ; and, thirdly, that, up to that date, the feelings of La Bour- donnais, gratified by success, had been most friendly towards the Pondichery authorities. He had even gone out of his way, as we have seen, in a letter to the Superior Council, to render justice to Dupleix. We have now to refer to that action on the part of Dupleix and the Pondichery Council which changed that friendly feeling into one of fierce and bitter hostility, ruinous alike to the cause and to the leader. But before doing this, we must examine at some length the motives which influenced Dupleix, in the respon- sible position which he occupied, in deciding upon his course of action. There can be no doubt but that at this period the main object of the policy of Dupleix was the expulsion of the English from the Koromandel coast. The ex- perience of the three preceding years had taught him that the safety of the one European power could only be assured by the expulsion of the other. It had tasked all his energies, he had had to draw upon all his resources, to preserve Pondichery from the dangers which had threatened it in 1744. But the prohibition