Page:History of the French in India.djvu/27

Rh chap. 1503.

representative of a House which France herself has expelled. Much, also, is due to the fact, that the mighty gulf of the French revolution intervenes between the times of which we are writing and the present; that the military history of modern France begins with the wars of 1792; and that, however much France may regret that the great Eastern prize did not fall into her hands, she cares little for the details of a struggle which occurred before the period at which she conquered the great nations of the continent, and constituted herself, for a time, mistress and arbitress of continental Europe.

We have stated that three of the maritime powers of Europe had effected permanent settlements in India, before the attention of France had been sufficiently attracted to the advantage of the trade. That this was so was attributable far more to the distractions of her government, than to any want of enterprise on the part of the French people. A period in which foreign wars alternated with civil dissensions, was certainly not favourable to fostering commerce with far distant countries. Yet, despite the turbulence of the period, and the inherent vice of their government, the desire for Eastern traffic displayed itself at a very early period amongst the French. In the reign of Louis XII., in the year 1503, two ships were fitted out by some merchants of Rouen to trade in the Eastern seas. But it is simply recorded of them that they sailed from the port of Havre in the course of that year, and were never afterwards heard of. The successor of Louis XII., King Francis I., issued to his subjects, in the years 1537 and 1543, declarations in which he exhorted them to undertake long voyages, and placed before them the pecuniary and national advantages which would result from their following his counsel. But the records of the reign of Francis abound in accounts of exhausting wars, and it is owing probably to this cause that we do not find that his wishes in respect of distant navigation