Page:History of the French in India.djvu/469

ITS SHAMEFUL PROVISIONS. 443 " the word of promise to the ear," but only " to break chap. it to the hope." Karikal was not the equivalent of x Devikota as a place of commerce. But — what was 1754 worse, what was even insulting — to bring about on another part of the coast this declared equality, the English proposed, and the French agreed, to take a district which actually belonged to the French, which was their own, their property, and to give them only a small portion of it, restoring the rest to the native powers. We allude to the agreement to form a settle- ment to be confined rigidly to the country between Nizampatnam and the river Gundlakamma, at a time when the entire coast from Nizampatnam to Jaggannath was French — French by gift, French by actual posses- sion. The alternative proposal, to make the districts of Pondichery equal to those of Fort St. George and Fort St. David together, was even more dishonouring and insidious, for the effect of it would be, to agree to abandon for ever, though without special mention of them, those Sirkars which the genius and policy of Bussy had gained for his country. But of all the clauses, the fourth was the most directly injurious to French interests. This actually proposed that the city of Machhlipatan, with certain districts round it, and the highland of Divi, both actually French property, should be divided between the rival powers. The carrying out of this proposition would alone entail a sacrifice, on the part of the French, of a fixed annual revenue of 4,000,000 francs (£160,000). The fifth, sixth, and seventh articles dealt likewise with French territory to the advantage of their rivals. The remaining articles of the treaty, especially those which referred to the native allies of the two powers, were equally one-sided. The English had but one ally, the Raja of Tanjur ; for Muhammad Ali was but their helpless tool, the puppet in whose name, and under the