Page:Dupleix and the Struggle for India by the European Nations.djvu/50

Rh out in Europe. France and England were ranged on opposite sides. For the first time since the French had settled at Pondichery the two nations were at war. The English had occupied a small point on the eastern coast, eighty-six miles above Pondichery, in 1639, and had built on that plot a fort which they had called Fort St. George. The natives called the plot Chennapatanam, the English gave it the name Madras. The locality had not been carefully selected. The roadstead, from October to January, was dangerous. The soil of the country about the fort was dry and sterile, and the country itself was but scantily populated. Nevertheless, the enterprise of the English had overcome some of these obstacles and had defied others. A considerable native population had gathered round the place, and the vessels which came every year from Europe succeeded in landing and taking their cargoes without much damage. At the moment when France declared war against England (March, 1744) the chief of the English settlement was Governor Morse, a merchant engaged all his life in trade, and not very conversant with politics.

Although France had declared war against England, the English Government had taken a far wider grasp of the situation which such a declaration might produce than had the Government of France. The story of the prosperity of Pondichery and the versatile talent of its Governor had reached England, and, on the declaration of war, the English Ministry despatched