Page:History of the French in India.djvu/155

 VACILLATION OF LA BOURDONNAIS. 133 attempted with safety, before the English squadron is chap. destroyed or beaten." As to the treatment of Madras, s ' in case it should fall into his hands, La Bourdon- 1745. nais had thus, on July 17, addressed the Governor- General: "If fortune favours you," he wrote, "what do you think we ought to do with Madras I My idea is to take possession of and carry off all the mer- chandise we may find there, and to ransom the re- mainder ; for if we should raze every stone in the town, it would be rebuilt in a year, and Madras would be much stronger than it is now." The answer of Dupleix on this point deserves to be remembered. He replied, on June 20 : — " I cannot say at present what it would seem good to do with Madras ; if you should have the good fortune to take it, circumstances will decide as to the fittest course to be adopted. But I beg you to recollect, that so long as Madras remains as it is, Pondi- chery will languish, and commerce will fall off. It is not sufficient to think only of a present, and, perhaps, an uncertain advantage ; we must look forward to the future. I am not of the opinion that this town, once dismantled, could be restored in a year. It has taken very many years to make it what it now is, and the facilities and means for re-establishing it are less than they were for making it." In the letter from which we have extracted, La Bour- donnais had given an exact statement of the condition of the armament of his fleet, and had requested Dupleix to supply from the arsenal of Ponclichery the deficiencies under which he laboured. He had indented upon Du- pleix altogether for forty-four eighteen, and fourteen twelve-pounders. It was not in the power of Dupleix to comply literally with this demand, without weakening to a dangerous extent, the defences of Pondichery. But he supplied instead a larger number of guns than were asked for. In place of forty-four guns of eighteen, and fourteen of twelve, he sent him twenty-eight of eighteen,