Page:History of the French in India.djvu/48

 20 THE EARLY FRENCH IN INDIA. UHAp. tion. But Martin had before dealt with Asiatics, and — ^— ' he knew that there was one argument against which 1819. few of them were proof. For greater security, how- ever, he took the precaution, in the first instance, to send all the property of the Company by sea to Madras. He then requested one of the petty native chieftains in his neighbourhood,* who had made his own submission to the irresistible Maratha, to represent his perfect readiness to acknowledge the authority of Sivaji, and to pay the necessary sums for a license to trade in his dominions. This request, accompanied by a handsome offering, did not fail of success. Sivaji, never very ready to attack Europeans, had, on this occasion, no personal animosity to gratify, and he granted all that was asked of him on the sole condition that the French should take no part against him in military operations. The negotiation was scarcely terminated, when the news of the invasion of Golkonda by the Mughals called him away in a northerly direction, and Pondichery was the safer for the danger that had threatened it. After this, affairs went on for some time quietly. But subsequently to the invasion of Sivaji, Sher Khan, the old friend and protector of the rising settlement, appears to have been engaged in constant warfare, a warfare that did not always end in success. It became therefore an object to the French that he should repay, whilst yet he was able, the sums that had been advanced to him in 1674, amounting to eight thousand rupees. To him therefore, in a friendly manner, Martin signified his wishes. Sher Khan, unable to pay, granted him, instead, the revenue of the lands in the district of Pondichery, and made the cession of that place itself absolute, an arrangement very advantageous to French interests. Thus secure of a fixed revenue, Martin began with greater vigour than ever to carry out his improvements. His bably a small landowner.
 * Guyon speaks of him as a Brahman living in Pondichery ; he was pro-