Page:History of the French in India.djvu/195

 LA BOURDONNAIS OFFERS CONDITIONS. 173 But the shifts to which a wilful nature, working for a chap definite end, is able to resort, were not yet exhausted. , La ourdonnais, in his reply, thus referred to the instru- 1746. tions of the new Minister : " With respect to the extract you have sent me, you may depend that I shall always conform to the orders of the Minister after I shall have received them. But he no longer writes to me here, and the extract you have sent me concerns the Company's captains and not me."* He added that he had received but one letter from the Company, and begged Dupleix to have the others sought for. This despatch had scarcely been sent off, when the missing letters arrived. Whether or not they contained any reference to the orders sent to Dupleix, it is impossible to say,f but this is certain, that from the date of their receipt the tone of his letters changed. In that of the 10th he announced to Dupleix that he would wait the receipt of his views till the loth, and assured him that there was no condi- tion he would refuse, if it did not involve the forfeiture of his word. The same evening he received the reply of Dupleix to the overtures made through Paradis, and he at once transmitted to Dupleix the conditions on which he would make over Madras to the Pondichery authorities, and depart. son, the number of vessels which may send him all the assistance he may be necessary to convey to it, in safety demand of you, and for which he will and with promptitude, the money look to you."— Dated November 25, and the troops, the ammunitions of 1745. war and the supplies, which are des- Now, this letter gives very large tined tor that settlement." powers to the Governor of the Isles " I do not dictate to you the man- of France and Bourbon, but it in bo ner in which you ought to act, to way authorises that official to as- sueceed in this expedition, of which sume authority in the country of the you will yourself feel all the im- Governor, for whom some of the as- portance, persuaded as I am that you sistance was intended. And yet that will do all for the best. Your chief was the strained interpretation La point of view ou°:ht to be the pre- Bourdonnais put upon it. servation of the town of Pondichery, * La Bourdonais to Dupleix, and of the other establishments dated Madras, October 10, 1746 which the Company possesses beyond f He writes iu his letter of Octo- the Cape of Good Hope and in India. ber 10, to Dupleix thus: — ** I have This object ought to be preferred just received the letters of the Mi- to all other enterprises. You should nister ; they, in no way, afi'ect my come to an unnerstanding on this previous orders." But the letters point with M. Dupleix, and should are not given.