Page:History of the French in India.djvu/474

 448 GODEHEU AND DE LEY KIT. 3HAP. French agent at Mahe, and he had succeeded Dupleix — as Director-General of Chandranagar in 1741. He 1755. would have made probably an excellent head of a purely trading corporation, for he was well versed in mercantile operations ; but he was most unfit for the conduct of the delicate policy by which the relations of Pondichery with the native chiefs required to be guided ; equally was he wanting in the firmness of purpose and deter- mination of will by which alone the aggressive policy of the English could be stayed. In a word, though well-meaning and laborious, he was slow, undecided, wanting in forethought and energy. Yet at that time, if at any, French India required other qualities in her chief ruler. Godeheu had not even quitted the scene of his inglorious labours, scarcely dry was the ink with which he and the English Com- missioners had signed the treaty, — one clause of which provided that the English and French 44 should never interfere in any difference that might arise between the princes of the country," — when the English began to equip a force to assist their ally, Muhammad Aii, in his endeavours to coerce the petty rulers of Madura and Tinivelli, his right over whom was simply the right of the strongest. Although the English were actuated in this policy by purely mercenary motives, hoping to obtain from those districts the means of re-couping themselves for the expenses of the war just closed, there can be no doubt but that it was a glaring in- fraction of the treaty. That it was attempted is a clear proof of the contempt with which the power of the French on the Koromandel coast had come to be regarded. In the beginning of February, under orders received from Madras, an English force under Colonel Heron, of H.M.'s 49th foot, was detached from Trichinapalli on this service. Whatever might have been the apparent success of this enterprise — and Colonel Heron did