Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan.djvu/303

Book IX. when required, as men of war, of which four had sailed in December, with the regiment of Lorrain; and three were now added to the two Mr. D'Aché already had under his command; and he was to take the others at the Isle of France. The delays of assembling the Company's ships from Port l'Orient retarded his departure from Brest until the 4th of May. The ships carried with them a malignant fever, at that time reigning in the port. On the 23d of July they anchored at Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, having lost 300 men of all kinds by the fever, which continued even in this climate, although healthier than most in the world: having waited two months in expectations of this benefit, the squadron sailed on the 25th of September; and after a passage of 85 days, still infected with the sickness, arrived on the 18th of December at the Isle of France. Here they found the ships which had carried the regiment of Lorrain, returned from Pondicherry. Taking their crews and such of the ships as he chose, Mr. D'Aché formed the squadron, with which he now appeared on the coast. They sailed from hence on the 27th of January. It would be useful to know their route, in order to avoid it; for their passage was very long, not making the coast until the 25th of April, when the Diligent was sent forward to Karical to get intelligence of the English squadron; and returning on the 27th without any, struck on a sand-bank, which detained all the ships the rest of the day in getting her afloat. On the 28th they appeared, as we have seen, before Fort St. David.

Every success was expected to follow the arrival of this armament in India. The ships were to drive the English squadron off the coast, the troops with those already at Pondicherry were to demolish the English settlements; and such was the confidence of not meeting an enemy in the field, that the instructions formed at Versailles ordered Mr. Lally to open his operations by the siege of Fort St. David, before which the ships anchored, in order to land the troops as soon as those from Pondicherry could march to invest the place. The wreck of the two English frigates confirmed these presumptions; and Mr. Lally went away in the Count de Provence of 60 guns, attended by a frigate called the Diligente, to proclaim his