28 THE EARLY FRENCH IN INDIA. chap, tempt me to dislodge them.* But when the Dutch l ' fleet appeared before Pondichery, the high-souled 16 93 Maratha was no longer able to exert his influence in their favour. He was shut up in the fortress of Jinji, on the capture of which Aurangzeb had set his heart. The surrounding country fell during this siege under the influence of the preponderating power of the Mughals, and these did not hesitate, on an applica- tion from the Dutch, to sell to them the district of Pondichery for fifty thousand pagodas, and even to detach a body of men to support them. To resist this formidable attack, Martin had literally no resources. The French Company, on taking stock in 1684, had been terribly alarmed by finding that, in- stead of gaining by their commercial enterprises, they had actually lost one-half of their capital. They were therefore little in the mood to send out any material assistance to Martin, especially as they had all along regarded his undertaking as foolhardy and impractic- able. Martin had been therefore from the very outset left to himself. We have seen what he had accom- plished ; how he had built and fortified a town, estab- lished a trade, gained the confidence of the natives, princes as well as people, and laid the foundation of an enduring prosperity. And now all this promising fabric was to be overthrown. In the course of one of those contests, in which the country was always en- gaged, his native allies were temporarily on the losing side. From them, therefore, he could expect no as- sistance. He had six guns, thirty to forty Europeans, and some three or four hundred natives, and he was attacked by a fleet and army strong enough to take possession of all the European settlements in India. It must have been a sad day for Martin when he be- held this storm breaking over his head, and destroying
- M6inoire dans les Archives de' la Compagnie des Iudes ; Grant-Duff's
History of the Marathas.
