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 4-08 IIISTOlfV OF IM«I.. [Book III.

AD. 1712. suspect liiiii of siicli iiitcntioiLs. It iiitist }>e confessed, iiowever, that tlie company established undei' his auspices continued for the greater part of a century to rest satisfied with commercial operation.s, and the erection of such factories as seemed necessary for conducting tliem with ease and safety. The most important of the localities on which they had thus fixed were those of Chandernagore, situated, like the Dutch factory of Chiasurah, near tlie town of Hooghly, on the river of that name in Bengal, and Pondicherry on the Coro- mandel coast. The latter was the seat of goveniment, and had gradually become, by the regularity of its buildings and the strength of its fortifications, worthy of the honour thus assigned to it, though, like Madras and all other places on the same coast, it laboured under- the gi'eat disadvantage of having no proper harbour.

Dupieix In the year 1742 the office of governor of the French settlements in India

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govemoi. was Conferred on Joseph Dupleix. The son of a wealthy farmer -general and a director of the company, he had at a comparatively early age obtained the appointment of first member of council at Pondicherry. After ten years' serce in this capacity, he was, in 1730, made head of the factory of Chandernagore. Here by engaging in private trade he accumulated a large fortune ; and at the same time, by the ability of his public management, rose so high in the confi- dence of his employers, that in 174!2, as already mentioned, they made him governor. Thus recalled to Pondicherry, he entered on the duties of his new station in the possession of very superior advantages. To natural talents of a high order, he added a thorough acquaintance with the manners of the inhabitants, and with the political circumstances of the country. These advantages both vanity and ambition disposed him to improve to the utmost, and he was no sooner installed in office than he began to entertain schemes with a view to the ultimate establishment of French ascendency in the East. It was vain to expect this from the commercial operations of the company. In these it had been found impossible to compete successfully with the British and the Dutch ; but another coui'se was still open, and Dupleix was deteimined to put its practicability fairly to the test.

His iimbi The approaching dismemberment of the Mogul empire was now manifest.

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Its soubahdars or governors were almost openly aspiring to independence, and even their subordinate deputies, or nabobs, were disposed to imitate the example. The parties thus formed were often so equally balanced, that neutrals of compara - tively feeble resources could easily, by throwing their weight into one of the opposite scales, determine the result. This was the plan on which the governor of Pondicherry began to act. In carrying it out he found an able coadjutor in his own family. Madame Dupleix, though of European parentage, had been born and brought up in India. Many of the native languages were familiar to her, and by giving easy access to the natives enabled her to be the fittest medium of comnmnication between them and her husband in any course of intrigue.