240 FRENCH INDIA AT ITS ZENITH. chap, the display; the gratitude of Chanda Sahib was un- „_ ' . bounded. In the first moments of his delight he con- 1749. ferred upon Dupleix the sovereignty of eighty-one villages, adjoining the ground of which Pondichery was the representative capital. MuzafFar Jang stayed eight days at Pondichery. His army, amounting to from 45,000 to 50,000 men, remained encamped meanwhile within twenty miles of the city.* But amid all the festivities that followed the arrival of these two chieftains, Dupleix did not lose sight of the main object which had brought them into the field. We have already stated that though MuzafFar Jang held the higher rank, Chanda Sahib was of the two by far the abler man. When then MuzafFar Jang, at the expiration of eight days, rejoined his camp, twenty miles from Pondichery, Dupleix retained Chanda Sahib to settle the plan of the campaign. It was true that the possession of the Karnatik seemed to have been decided by the battle of Ambur. Anwaru-dm had been killed, his eldest son taken prisoner, and the younger, Muhammad Ali, had sought refuge in flight. Yet, so long as there remained a pretender to the dignity, Chanda Sahib could not consider himself firm in his seat. It is beyond question that he had, both by here- ditary descent and by imperial nomination, a greater right to the office than any of the family of Anwaru- dm. He was, in the first place, the representative of the family of Dost Ali, and, in the second, he had been nominated by MuzafFar Jang, whose title to succeed Nizam-ul-Mulk as Subadar of the Dakhan had been confirmed by a firman from the Court of Delhi. f But, in the distracted state of the Miighal empire, no right
- Extrait de la Lettre de M. Du- It is upon these works and upon the
pleix a la Compajmie, le 28 Juillet correspondence and official documents 1749 ; Copie (Tun Extrait du Kegi- contained in them that the state- stre des Deliberations du Conseil Su- ments in this chapter are based, perieur de Pondichery, 13 Juillet t Dupleix, p. 42. Seir Mutak- 1749 ; Memoire pour Dupleix; Orme, harm. Cambridge, Raymond, and others.
