Page:History of the French in India.djvu/15

 PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. ix give at full length the official correspondence of the various periods. These, likewise, form an excellent basis upon which to found a history, but there are few who would take up such works for amusement, or who would consider the trouble of wading through so many bulky tomes, all of them more than a hundred years old, compensated for by the information they might impart. The void then undoubtedly existing, I have written this volume to supply it. Led, in the first place, rather accidentally, to examine the career of Lally, the interest of the subject induced me to look more deeply into the history of the settlement with which he was so promi- nently connected. To this study I have devoted most of my leisure moments during the past two years and a half. My labours have, however, all along been greatly stimulated by the conviction that I have been able to throw some new light upon a most interesting period. The story of Francois Martin, the founder of Pon- dichery, is, I believe, unknown to, at all events it has been unnoticed by, English historians. A new and, I am satisfied, a correct version is given of the quarrel between Dupleix and La Bourdonnais ; the reasons for the conduct of the latter are fully set forth : and if this portion of the history be regarded as too over- laden with detail, 1 trust it may be remembered that for a hundred years the historians of France and England have, in connexion with this very point, covered the memory of Dupleix with obloquy ; and that charges so weighty, so sustained, and so long uncontradicted, are not to be refuted without full and sufficient proof. I trust also it may be found that