LA BOURDONNAIS LEAVES FOR THE ISLANDS. 183 dichery, in aid of the new scheme, he felt constrained chap. to refuse to entertain it. The fact is he could not , ' forget the past ; he could not forget the terrible trials 1746. of the preceding six weeks ; the open defiance of his authority, the arrest of his agents, the disposal of the Pondichery contingent on board the ships of the squad- ron, the usurpation of an authority supported by physical force alone. These things, indeed, would have been very hard to forget. Especially were they so at the moment when he who had suffered most from such proceedings had upon his shoulders the sole responsibility of the future of Pondichery. To have again voluntarily placed the settlement in the power of one who had shown no respect for the au- thority of its Governor, would have been the height of folly. The honied phrases of La Bourdonnais fell, therefore, upon ears which thoroughly mistrusted both them and their author. The Superior Council declined to entertain his plan for a moment. La Bourdonnais himself had refused to land ; they declined to proceed on board his ship, as he requested, to discuss matters together. Neither party, in fact, would trust the other. Under these circumstances, it is scarcely to be wondered at, that the tenor of the reply to La Bourdonnais , proposition went simply to reiterate the orders which had directed the squadron to proceed to Achin. In the first letter* which La Bourdonnais addressed to the Superior Council after his junction with the squadron of M. Dordelin, he had promised that he would not interfere with their command over the Com- pany's ships. This promise, on his new plan being rejected, he proceeded to fulfil. He had at his disposal seven vessels — fourf in good order, three damaged and
- A Messieurs du Conseil de Pon- "Brillant," the "Mars," and the
dichery, October 26, 1746. " St. Louis." t These were the ** Centaure," the
