184 LA BOUKDONNAIS AND DUPLEIX. CI 1 I ^ P - shattered.* Of these he proposed to form two squad- rons, which, sailing together, should endeavour to gain 1746. Achin. If they succeeded, he would send thence the " Lys " and the " Sumatra " to the islands, and repair- ing the " Achille," would make, at the end of Decem- ber, for Pulikat, there to carry out the orders of the Superior Council. But should he not be able to gain Achin with the two squadrons, the first under the com- mand of M. Dordelin was to make for that place, there to act under orders from Pondichery, whilst he himself, with the damaged squadron, should bear up for the islands. Upon this plan he acted. On October 29th, after a stay in the Pondichery roads — for he did not land in the town — of only two days, he set sail with the seven ships before indicated for Achin. The result he had anticipated happened. The three damaged ships were soon left out of sight by those of the uninjured squad- ron. These latter sailing their best, as had been ordered, reached Achin on December 6th. La Bour- donnais, despairing of being able to gain that anchor- age with ships that had been so shattered as his own, gave up all idea of reaching it, and bore up for Port Louis. He arrived there, his ships in a miserable con- dition, on December 10th. In this manner, after a short sojourn of four months, did La Bourdonnais leave those latitudes, to triumph in which had been the dream of his heart during the best years of his life. Yet, in those four months, what stirring events had been concentrated ! Arriving in the Indian seas with a fleet which he had, for all the pur- poses of the expedition, extemporised himself, with crews he had trained, and soldiers whom he had taught and drilled, he first encountered and beat off an English
- The "Achille," the " Lys," and the " Bourbon," the " Neptune," the
the "Sumatra." The " Sumatra" "Renoinmee," and the "Princesse had come in a shattered condition Marie," had been too disabled to from the islands. The other ships, make the voyage.
