Page:Dupleix and the Struggle for India by the European Nations.djvu/60

Rh Dupleix, and, after a delay of nearly five weeks, characterised by the most unseemly contentions between the representatives of the Civil and Naval power of France on the coast, La Bourdonnais handed over Fort St. George and its dependencies to M. Desprémesnil, a member of the Pondichery Council, on the 23rd of October, and having as far as possible repaired the damages done to his fleet by the bursting of the monsoon on the 15th, sailed, first for Pondichery, and ultimately to the islands, and thence to France.

Sole master now of the situation in India, Dupleix, whose clear brain as yet only aspired to make France supreme, if not alone, amongst the European nations on the coast, set himself to gain, if it were possible, the assent of the Nuwáb of the Karnátik to the retention by France of her conquest. He had induced the Nuwáb to assent to his attack upon Madras by an assurance that, the place once taken, he would transfer it to the Nuwáb himself. Possibly, at the time he made this promise, he was sincere. But the long delay caused by the refusal of La Bourdonnais to transfer the fort to the Pondichery authorities had changed the position. The Nuwáb, mistrusting the assurances of Dupleix, that the delay in making over Fort St. George to his agents was caused by the insubordinate action of the French officer in command, had displayed all the angry feelings of an irresponsible ruler who feels that he has been duped, and, even before La Bourdonnais had departed, he had begun to collect troops in the vicinity of the fort to compel its