Page:Final French Struggles in India and on the Indian Seas.djvu/83

Rh Such was the great sea fight off Trincomali. That the majority of the French captains behaved disgracefully was broadly asserted by Suffren, and was admitted by his adversaries. In the English accounts published in India at that period those captains were stigmatised as being "unworthy to serve so great a man," whilst even in the Calcutta Gazette it was admitted that Suffren had been very badly seconded. There can scarcely be a doubt that he was right in saying as he did in the letter I have already referred to, that if all had fought like the captain of the Illustre he would have mastered Southern India. As it was, the battle was not without his effect on the campaign.

The Madras Government was so sensible of the damages sustained by the English fleet, and so cognizant of the enterprising spirit of the French commodore, that they ordered their army to fall back on Madras. Had there been at the head of the French land forces a man possessing but the atom of a brain, the dream of Dupleix, of Lally, and of Suffren, might even then have been realised!

The consequences to some of the French captains were serious. On the 13th September de Tromelin of the Annibal, de St. Félix of the Artésien, and de la Landelle of the Bizarre, were shipped off the Isle of France. They were accompanied by de Galles of the Petit Annibal, whose health rendered necessary the change.

The French fleet having repaired damages, and