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132 London Board the provisional treaty he had made with Godeheu in 1754, warned his Company that the French were in an advantageous position for continuing hostilities; they had, he wrote, a stronger military force – particularly in native cavalry, which could harry the English districts – and "their influence with the country powers far exceeds ours."

BODY-GUARD OF A NATIVE PRINCE.

Yet the views and motives by which the French ministers were actuated are amply intelligible. The policy of Dupleix had been frustrated in the sense that, after four years of irregular warfare, he had brought the Company no nearer to the triumphant conclusion