Page:History of the French in India.djvu/157

 HE CONTINUES TO HES1TATK. 135 action, and he wonld have no difficulty in taking Fort chap. St. David* Against this plan, as an alternative to the long-medi- 174^. tated attack upon Madras, Dupleix strongly protested. " Gudalur and Fort St. David," he wrote on the 12th, " are not worth the powder and shot you will expend upon them." He pointed out that their capture would very probably range the Nawwab on the side of the English, and that this would save Madras. " The enter- prise against Madras," he added, " is the only one which can indemnify us, and do honour to the nation in India, and I cannot agree with you in your plan of abandoning that project for one which merits neither your attention nor mine, and of which the consequences will be costly and injurious to us." He continued to urge upon him, in a lengthened argument, that two principal objects had brought him to India — the destruction of the Eng- lish squadron and the taking of Madras — and that abandoning one of those, he ought to attach himself with his whole heart to the other. The day after this correspondence, La Bourdonnais took advantage of a favourable breeze to go in search of the English squadron. He arrived off Karikal on August 13, and there obtained, with some difficulty, positive information of the enemy. They had been descried on the 10th, six vessels in number, a little to the north of the northernmost point of Ceylon, about fifteen miles off the coast. To the Dutch officer who boarded them they stated that they had been repulsed by the French, but that they were only waiting the arrival of reinforce - ments to renew the attack. All their damages had been repaired. Satisfied, then, as he stated, that he was free from all attack on that side, La Bourdonnais donnais informs Dupleix of the sick- moirs, he makes of this a charge ness caused on board his squadron, against Dupleix, insinuating that it and from which he himself especially was a part of the general scheme to suffered, from drinking the water annoy him.
 * It is in this letter that La Bour- taken in at Pondichery. In his me-