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 IS REQUIRED TO PRACTISE ECONOMY. 97 proceeded to Bengal to be installed as Nawwab at C ^ R Chandranagar. When the ceremony, which was con- , ducted with great pomp, was concluded, he went in 1742. state to HugK for the purpose of paying a visit of respect to the Muhammadan Governor. But this latter, recognising the superior rank of Dupleix, insisted upon making the first visit himself.* The honours with which he was received, and the state which he assumed, appear to have made a deep im- pression upon the natives, prepared as they were to regard with favour everything that was French, and to have rendered his relations with them of a still more intimate and agreeable character. On his return to Pondichery from these visits, Dupleix at once assumed a greater state than had been indulged in by any of his predecessors. It was a part of his policy to impress upon the native princes in his vicinity that he too was an officer of the Mughal ; that he owed his rank to the King of Delhi. He, therefore, would not permit a single sign or symbol which rightfully belonged to his rank to be omitted or neglected. Situated at Pondichery, far away from the reach of the distracted court of the descendant of Akbar, he was able to avail himself of the credit which his position as an officer of that monarch gave him amongst the natives, without in the smallest degree confining his own action, or making any infringement on the duties he owed to his sovereign. He, in fact, was absolute master of the situation, and he simply used the power given him by his title to strengthen and confirm his position. Just at this moment, whilst engaged in this laudable design, and preparing at the same time to make Pondi- chery really as impregnable as the natives believed it to be, Dupleix received from the Company one of those strange despatches so often written by narrow-minded II
 * Histoire des Indes Orientates, yoI. iii.