Page:A Comprehensive History of India Vol 1.djvu/447

 CHAP. II.J NAVAL ENGAGEMENT. 415

fence arrived that Labourdonnais had at Ui.st efiected his object and sailed for a.d. 1740.

India with a fleet which miglit be expected to put Briti.sh prowess to the test. At this critical moment Commodore Barnet died at Fort St. David, and was succeeded by Captain Peyton, who was his second in command, and very im- j)erfectly supplied his place. The squadi'ons fii'st came in sight of each other on the 25th of June, when the Enjvlish were cruisin": on the Coromandel coast neai- Negai)atam. The French fleet consisted of nine ships, the largest of which, moimting seventy guns, of which sixty were eighteen-pounders, carried Labour- donnais' flag. The rest of the ships were of much .^mailer size and Hghter metal, and carried as follows: — one, thirty-six; three, thirty-four; one, thirty; two, twenty-eight; and one, twenty-six guns; almost all twelve and eight ])0unders. The.se .ships, however, were much larger than the number of their guns indicates, as Labourdonnais, after exerting himself to the utmost under very unfavourable circumstances, had been unable to give them their full comple- ment. On the other hand they carried more than the u.sual complement of men, having on board 3300. Of these 700 were Africans or Lascai-s, and about 300 unfit for duty from sickne.ss. The Engli.sh had not above half the number of men ; but, unlike the majority of the French, they were well di.sci[>lined ; they had also fewer guns, but more than made up for the deficiency by superior

weiglit.

All things considered, tlie English squadron had thus decidedly the advan- Knoouuter

.. ....... between tli'

tage. So conscious, mdeed, was Labourdonnais of his inferiority in real naval .siiuaUrons strength, that his great object was to come as speedily as possible to close ((uarters, and turn his superiority in the number of men to account by having recourse to boarding. In this object lie wjvs battled b}- the Engli.sh, whose vessels, ])esides sailinjx and manucievrin<T better than his, had the advantao-e of the wind, and succeeded in frustrating all the efforts of Labourdonnais to deprive them of it. From the long time spent by the one party in making and the other in coun- teracting these efforts, the fight did not commence till four in the afternoon. Owing to the distance maintained, it was almost entirely confined to the cjinnon, and lasted till nightfall without any decisive results. When the combatants separated, it was apparently with the intention of renewing the engagement on the following day, but Peyton, after obtaining the sanction of a council of war, deemed it prudent to sheer off", and vii-tualiv acknowledijinfj a defeat, Avithout having actually sustained it, ma<le the best of his way to Trincomalee in Ceylon. The only reason a.ssigned was the leaky con<lition of the sixty- gun ship.

Labourdonnais, who was waitinor to resume the fio;ht, was astoui.shed, when f.^biess

, _ 1 /^ between

the mornmg dawned, to find that he had already gained the victor}-. He could uupieLx an.i not pursue, as the wind was against him ; and, in fact, though he speaks with ,',^iT^ regret of the enemy having e.scaped him, was not at all disi)leased with their departure, inasmuch as his loss had been more severe than theirs, ami both the