Page:History of the French in India.djvu/147

 ENCOUNTERS THE ENGLISH FLEET. 125 guns, one vessel carried thirty-eight guns, one thirty- chap. four guns, one thirty guns, one twenty-six, three twenty- '_ four, and one twenty guns. He had on board 3,342 1746. men, of whom nearly one-fourth were Africans. Sailing with a fair wind, constantly exercising and encouraging his crews, La Bourdonnais arrived off Mahe at the end of the month. Here he learned that the English fleet had been last heard of off Nagapatan, below Karikal ; that though inferior in the number of ships, and slightly inferior in the number of crews, it was much superior in weight of metal, being armed with 24- pounders, and that it was waiting at Nagapatan to intercept him. Summoning his captains on board his ship, La Bourdonnais at once held a council of war. He was resolved to fight, but he wished first to test the temper of his subordinates. To his delight he found in them an eagerness almost equal to his own, a desire to gain, if possible, the empire of India on the sea. His mind entirely at ease on this point, he altered his course, and a few days later arrived off Trinkamali. It is time now that we should turn to the proceedings of the English fleet. We left Commodore Barnet, pre- vented by the interdiction of the Nawwab Anwaru-dm from attacking Pondichery, reduced to the necessity of confining his operations to sea. Taking up a position at Mergui, near the entrance of the Malacca Straits, he had employed himself industriously in intercepting French traders, and in effectively stopping French com- merce. Hearing some rumours in the early part of 1746 of the intended expedition of La Bourdonnais, he had returned to the Koromandel coast, and anchored off Fort St. David. Here in the month of April he died, and the command of the squadron devolved upon Commodore Peyton. This squadron consisted of one ship of sixty guns, three of fifty, one of forty, and one of twenty guns, six