Page:History of the French in India.djvu/242

 220 THE FIRST STRUGGLE IN THE KARNATIK. chap, council of war to deliberate on the expediency of an attack. At this council it was resolved, with the con- 1748. currence of the admiral, to avoid an encounter which might perhaps disable the fleet from attempting its greater undertaking, and to push on with all speed to Pondichery. It set sail for Fort St. David accordingly on the following day, and, parting company with the Dutch ships, arrived there on August 11, effecting a junction with Admiral Griffin's squadron. This union constituted a force at the disposal of the English Commander the most powerful that had ever arrived in the Indian seas — far more so than that with which the Dutch had conquered Pondichery in 1693, and infinitely more effective than that which La Bourdonnais had led to the capture of Madras. In this case, more- over, the English admiral was at ease regarding his communications. There was no hostile fleet threaten- ing to interfere with his plans, or to contest with him the supremacy at sea. He was in possession of such strength* that he was able to divest his mind of all fears of naval attack, and to flatter himself with a cer- tainty of the conquest of Pondichery. To attempt this last he landed an army which, by its junction with the troops already at Fort St. David, and with 120 Dutch sent from Nagapatan, amounted to 6,000 men, of whom 3,720 were Europeans. Of this force he detached 700 Europeans, on the morning of August 19, to attack Ariakupum. We have noticed the preparations which Dupleix had made at this place — the outwork of Pon- dichery — to resist the enemy. So secretly had the plans of Paradis been carried out, that the English were entirely unacquainted with the additions that had been just made to its strength, and, like the French before Gudalur, they marched to its attack with a careless con- the fleet of Admiral Griflin, who the line. — Or me. himself left for England, consisted of
 * His fleet after the j unction with 30 ships, of which 13 were ships of