Page:Dupleix and the Struggle for India by the European Nations.djvu/164

Rh the acquisition of important territories round and near to Pondichery; the vast influence exercised by the genius of one man. They were traders, they argued, not soldiers fighting for dominion. They wanted to share peaceably with the English the commerce between Southern India and Europe, not to exterminate rival traders. It is possible that had the policy of Dupleix been immediately successful, the minds of the Directors would have widened so far as to accept results. But when they heard, first of Law's disaster, then of the loss of De la Touche and his 700 men, then of the defeats in succession of Astruc, of Brennier, of Mainville, and found that these military operations interfered greatly with the progress of those commercial relations which they regarded as the reason of their existence, they came at last to the determination to insist on a change of policy. Negotiating with the English East India Company, the Directors of which attributed all the disturbances to Dupleix, they came to the conclusion that that change could be accomplished only if their agent were removed. By them he was considered as the sole obstacle to peace. They resolved then to replace him, to come to terms with their rivals in trade. In vain was it asserted that if Dupleix was responsible for the war, Saunders was not less so. The answer was considered conclusive, that the bellicose humour of Saunders was the necessary consequence of the initiative of Dupleix. There need be but one scape-goat, and it was finally agreed that that