Page:History of the French in India.djvu/207

POSSIBILITIES BEFORE LA BOURDONNAIS. 185 fleet, inferior, indeed, in the actual number of the ships, c ^ p - but far superior in weight of metal ; then, refitting and , re-arming at Pondichery, he sailed out to encounter 1746. once more the English squadron. Not daring to accept his challenge to an engagement, they fled before him, and he, having thus obtained the mastery of the seas, sailed then to attack the stronghold of the English on the Koromandel coast. Taking it without the loss of a man, he heard very soon afterwards of the arrival of a reinforcement of three ships, armed as ships of war, at Pondichery ! What a position did that give him ! Conquerer of Madras, master of the ocean, with no one to oppose his onward progress, with a Govenor-General at Pondichery who was constantly impressing upon him the necessity of rooting out the English from every settlement in India, he might have sailed up the Hugli, have conquered Calcutta, and have destroyed English commerce in the Indian seas. In acting thus he would have fulfilled the very purpose of his mission ; he would have carried out the most cherished dreams of his life. Why, then, did he not effect this I The answer is to be found in the motives which we have unveiled. It was partly — we believe chiefly — because, though he had triumphed over difficulties such as would have baffled most men, though he had conquered enemies on shore, and driven every rival from the sea, he had not over- come himself. Yet there was another reason too, re- garding which it is impossible to be silent. The price of the ransom-treaty of Madras, even if it had no ac- knowledged influence on his conduct, stimulated, never- theless, by its demoralising power, that spirit of rebelli- ous pride, which led him first to oppose every order which would have set aside the treaty that he had concluded, and afterwards to assume a position, as defiant as it was unbecoming, as baneful to the in- terests of France as it was prejudicial to his own character.