Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan, Volume 1.djvu/86

78 booties: the fortunes of most of the English inhabitants were ruined. The governor and several of the principal inhabitants were conducted, by an escort of 400 men, to Pondicherry: here Mr. Dupleix, under pretence of doing them honour, caused them to enter the town in an ostentatious procession, which exposed them to the view of 50,000 spectators, like prisoners led in triumph. Others of the inhabitants, with several of the military officers, resolved not to give their parole, alledging very justly, that the breach of the treaty of ransom released them from that which they had given to Mr. De la Bourdonnais: and these made their escape out of the town by night, and, travelling through the country by various roads, went to the English settlement of Fort St. David.

The East India company was here in possession of a territory larger than that of Madrass: it had been purchased, about a hundred years before, from the Indian prince of the country; and their title to it was confirmed by the Mogul's viceroy, when the Moors conquered the Carnatic. The fort was situated near the sea 12 miles to the south of Pondicherry: it was small, but better fortified than any of its size in India, and served as a citadel to the company's territory. About a mile to the south of it was situated the town of Cuddalore, in which the principal Indian merchants, and many of the natives dependent on the company resided. This town extended 1,200 yards from north to south, and 900 from east to west: three of its sides were defended by walls flanked with bastions; that to the sea was for the greatest part open; but a river passing from the westward between Fort St. David and the town, flowed, just before it gains the sea, along the eastern side of the town, of which whilst it washed the skirts on one hand, it was on the other separated from the sea by a mound of sand, which the surf throws upon the shore in most parts of the coast. To the westward of the fort, and within the company's territory, were two or three populous villages, inhabited by the natives. The government of Fort St. David depended on that of Madrass, to which it was immediately the next in rank: but on the breach of the treaty of ransom, the company's agents at Fort St. David, regarding those of Madrass as prisoners to the French, took upon themselves the general administration on the coast of Coromandel.