THE CRISIS AT PONDICJIERY. 57 main objects of its being. Confident in the perma- chap. nence of its prosperity, and anxious to draw from it every possible advantage, it had equipped and des- 1721. patched to Pondichery, in 1720, three vessels richly laden, not only with the merchandise of Europe, but with gold and silver. These vessels reached their destination in 1721. Lenoir, the ablest of the succes- sors of Martin, had just then succeeded temporarily to the office of Governor, in the place of M. de la Provostiere,* who had died. He was a steady, plod- ding merchant, shrewd, hard-headed, and well fitted to be the chief of a peaceful community. But the arrival of these three vessels took him completely by surprise. We have already seen how, since the year 1712, the Company had been absolutely obliged to give up its commerce, and to abandon it, on certain considerations, to the merchants of St. Malo. The sudden arrival then of ships laden, not only with merchandise but with specie, was an event for which Lenoir was by no means prepared. It was, nevertheless, a most accept- able arrival. The non-payment of the debts originally contracted at Surat had long lain heavily upon French credit in India. Other obligations too had, in the state of destitution in which the establishments had been left since the death of Martin, been unavoidably entered into at Chandranagar, Baleshwar, and other places. Lenoir, correctly judging that good credit was the foun- dation of mercantile success, determined to invest the greater portion of the money he received in payment of the debts of the old Company, rather than, leaving these unpaid, to purchase return cargoes for the vessels. This course accordingly he adopted, with, however, the unavoidable result that the Company received but a very poor immediate return for a very large outlay.
- M. de la Provostiere was ap- ceeded temporarily by Lenoir. — Ex-
S inted ad interim successor to M. tract f rom the Archives of the Com- ebert on August 19, 1718. He pant/. died in October, 1721, and was sue-
