Page:Dupleix and the Struggle for India by the European Nations.djvu/51

44 orders to Commodore Barnett, then on the Eastern station, to proceed to the eastern coast of India, and employ there his superiority of force to the best advantage. The preparations of the French Government were not nearly so forward. The Directors of the Perpetual Company wrote, however, to Dupleix to inform him that they had instructed M. de la Bourdonnais, Governor of the Isles of France and Bourbon, to sail with a squadron to his assistance. Meanwhile they urged him to endeavour to come to an understanding with Governor Morse, to plead that the settlements had no cause of quarrel, and to suggest that they should remain neutral during the war of their principals.

Dupleix did not consider the proposition as either practical or possible. He made it nevertheless. But Morse saw only the immediate advantage. The British squadron might arrive at any moment. Then Pondichery would be at his mercy. He did not care to imagine that possibly the day might arrive when the situations would be inverted. He pleaded therefore the orders he had received from England, and declined the proposal.

Almost simultaneously with the receipt of this reply came information from the islands that La Bourdonnais had sent back his squadron to France. Left then to his own resources, Dupleix set to work to find a method of baffling the greed of his rivals, and he found it. Pondichery itself was powerless, for the rampart he was building was not nearly completed,