Page:History of the French in India.djvu/149

 REPULSES IT AND REACHES PONDICHERY. 127 night separated the combatants before a decisive advan- chap. tage had been gained on either side. 1 Day broke showing the French squadron formed in 1746. line, the advantage of the wind still being, as on the previous day, with the English. It rested with the latter, therefore, whether the contest should be renewed. There were very many weighty reasons in favour of prompt and vigorous action. The English had had but sixty men killed and wounded * the previous day, and one only of their ships had received any considerable damage from the enemy's fire ; they were all ships of war ; eight of the French ships were but imperfectly and lightly armed ; the English fleet had been stationed off Nagapatan to obstruct the advance of the French fleet; to abandon the field, therefore, was to leave Madras a prey to the enemy. But in 1746 the English were not accustomed to regard the empire of the seas as their own. Some of those on board that squadron might, perchance, have recollected the time when the English channel had been scoured for weeks, unopposed, by the victorious fleet of de Tourville— the English fleet having sought refuge in the Thames. f Certain it is, that Commodore Peyton acted as English commodores of the time of the revo- lutionary war never would have thought of acting. Because one of his ships was leaky he deemed the attack too hazardous to be made. A council of war having confirmed this view, he made sail to the south, bound for TrinkamaK, leaving the way open to Pondi- chery — deserting that Madras which he had been sent to protect. If J La Bourdonnais was relieved by the departure of killed and forty-six wounded; the memoirs that it vas with extreme French, twenty-seven killed and regret he saw the English escape fitty-three wounded. him. He adds, that heing without t After the battle off Beauhy Head, provisions, and having on board a June 30, 1690. great number of sick aud wounded,
 * The English lost fourteen men J La Bourdonnais states in his