Page:History of the French in India.djvu/42

 20 THE EARLY FRENCH IN INDIA. dhap. were b th serving under the Dutch flag. This is cer- — y— ' tain, that he was known at Surat as a man on whose 1681. energy and discretion Caron had the greatest reliance ; and he was regarded, at the time of its being carried out, as the soul of the enterprise undertaken against Point de Galle and TrinkamaK. Some, indeed, have asserted that the attempt on Point de Galle failed, be- cause Martin, who had the direction of the attack, had applied for, and been refused, the governorship of that place. But this statement, which was but little credited at the time, is refuted by the whole of his subsequent career. It is no slight proof of the confi- dence which he had inspired in those under whom he served, that although he was the trusted subordinate of Caron, he was regarded with equal favour by those in whose hands the departure of that official left the direc- tion of affairs in 1674. These were Admiral Lahaye and M. Baron. The position in which these gentlemen found them- selves was by no means enviable. They had provoked the hostility of the Dutch by attacking their posses- sions, and the Dutch were now masters of the seas, and inflamed against them with a particular animosity. They had retaken TrinkamaK, and the French could scarcely hope that they would allow them to retain peaceable possession of St. Thome. With a view, therefore, to provide themselves with a place of refuge in case of evil days, the two French Directors ordered Martin to place himself in communication with Sher Khan Lodi, the Governor of the' possessions of the King of Bijapur in Tanjur and the Karnatik, for the grant of a piece of land which they might call their own. Martin obeyed, found the Governor accessible, and was allowed to purchase a plot of ground on the sea-coast in the province of Jinji, near the mouth of the river of that name, considerably to the north of the river Kolriin.