Page:History of the French in India.djvu/334

 310 THE STRUGGLES OF DUPLEIX WITH ADVERSITY. C vn P a man wnom recen ^ experience had proved to ', be unenterprising, than to court defeat by sending 17.3 2. against Lawrence a force which must be beaten. He might, under the circumstances, have safely left his camp under the protection of one-fourth of his army, and have marched with the rest to crush Lawrence. So would have acted a real general, but experience has abundantly proved that over-caution and incapacity in the held are the almost invariable accompaniments of superciliousness and self-laudation in the cabinet. Having persuaded himself that he could only, with safety to his main force, detach 350 Europeans and 300 or 400 natives to crush 400 English, and 1,100 sipahis, commanded by Lawrence and inspirited by Clive, Law sent them to occupy the fortified post of Koiladi, on the northern bank of the Kavari river. The position was not ill-chosen, and, had it been occupied in suffi- cient force, would undoubtedly have proved a great obstacle to the advance of the English. A glance at the map will show the inherent strength of this position. The advance of Major Lawrence must necessarily take place between the two branches of the river Kavari. Of these, the upper branch was defended by the for- tified post of Koiladi on its northern bank, unassail- able by the English. Be tween the northern and the southern bank the distance was less than half a mile. Possessing Koiladi, and having an equal or superior force available to occupy the ground between the two branches, it would have been easy for the French com- mander to have inflicted upon an advancing enemy a crushing defeat. As, however, the defending force did not nearly equal in number the advancing foe, its com- mander resolved not to attempt anything desperate. He considered, however, that as the ordinary road led directly within cannon shot of Koiladi, and that the English would probably follow it, he would be able, not only to inflict upon them considerable loss in men, but