Page:Final French Struggles in India and on the Indian Seas.djvu/55

Rh to the south of Trincomali, to which place the English squadron had repaired. By taking up this position Suffren gained all the advantage of the wind which was just beginning to set in from the south. He had previously despatched a brig, the Chasseur, to the islands to demand of M. de Souillac men and munitions of war, of which latter there did not remain to him a sufficient quantity for a single action.

Here, at Batacola, Suftren received despatches from France directing him to proceed to the islands to escort Bussy to the Indian coast. But there were grave reasons which urged Suffren to defer obedience to these instructions. In the first place he could not place confidence in many of his captains. The senior next to himself, Captain de Tromelin, was a man whom he had reason specially to mistrust. To leave to such a man the charge of a squadron wanting in men and ammunition, at a time when an English squadron of almost equal force was ready to dispute with it the mastery of the Indian Seas, and when nearly 3000 French troops, but just landed, required the support of French ships, was a course which prudence and patriotism alike spurned. Suffren preferred then to take upon himself the responsibility of not obeying the minister's order. He justified this line of action in a letter to the Governor of the Isles of France and Bourbon.