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 96 THE RISE OF THE FRENCH POWER IN INDIA chap, added to that proficiency a quickness of comprehension , ' L, and zealous devotion to his interests, such as form, 1741. when united, an inestimable endowment. On assuming the Government of Pondichery, Dupleix found the settlement suffering from the effects of the Maratha invasion. These marauding warriors, where they had not eaten up the land, had, by the fact of their presence, prevented its being tilled, and now the misery of famine had succeeded to the desolation of war. Added to this, the Karnatik was in a condition border- ing upon anarchy. Safdar Ali had only rid himself of the anticipated rivalry of Chanda Sahib to fall into the real clutches of Nizamu-l-Mulk, the Subadar of the Dakhan, who loudly called upon him for the arrears of revenue, due by him as a vassal of the Mughal. The fortifications of Pondichery, too, however formidable they might have appeared to a native power, were quite insufficient for defence against an European enemy, and there were no funds available to enlarge or to repair them, notwithstanding that, even at this date, the rumours of the probability of war between France and England were brought out by each sailing vessel. But Dupleix was equal to the occasion. Convinced that Pondichery had now attained such a stage of de- velopment as to require that the power of France should be recognised and acknowledged, he at once assumed, with an ostentatious publicity, the dignities that had been conferred upon him by the Mughal, receiving homage from those petty chieftains in the neighbour- hood who were of a lower order of nobility. He at the same time set himself to work to inquire into the causes of the increasing public expenditure, to check corruption among the subordinate officers of the ad- ministration, and to examine the state of the defences. On these several points, with the mode in which they should be remedied, he transmitted full reports to the Company. Having thus set everything in train, he