Page:History of the French in India.djvu/613

APPENDIX A. PROOFS OF THE BRIBING OF LA BOURDONNAIS, I. In the first edition of this work I appended a note to the page referring to the bribing of La Bourdonnais, which ran as follows : u It was charged against La Bourdonnais in his lifetime, that he had accepted a present from the English of 100,000 pagodas (about four lakhs of rupees) as the price of the ransom-treaty made with the English. " The charge was brought forward separately by M. Depremesnil and M. de Kerjean. The first said that he had heard M. Dupleix affirm that an Englishman had told him that 100,000 pagodas had been given to La Bourdonnais for the ransom. He added that he had done his best to ascertain the truth of the fact, but had been able to learn nothing. " The second, M. de Kerjean, asserted that he had heard a Jew, retired to Pondichery, affirm, that the English had given M. de La Bourdonnais 100,000 pagodas, as an acknowledgment of the good treat- ment they had received at his hands, and that he, the Jew, as his share of this payment, had been taxed at 7,000 pagodas, which amount he had not paid. " Le Bourdonnais's reply to these assertions, was, in substance, that they emanated from two men, one the nephew, the other the son-in-law, of Dupleix, that he had avoided the last farewell to the English- governor because he heard that he intended to offer him a present ; that had he received such a present, he would not have placed himself in the position of being obliged to restore it, by deferring the evacua- tion of Madras from October to January ; that it was not probable he would have been received with such distinction in London by two members of the Madras Council, if they had known as if it had been true they must have known, that the ransom had been the result of a bribe. " Here the matter dropped for a time, it being considered that the