Page:History of the French in India.djvu/63

 ITS l'MVILEGES RENEWED FOR TEN YEARS. 41 annual payment. Thus it happened that when, in 1714, chap. it petitioned the King for a renewal af its privileges, it _ was actually unable to avail itself of those privileges, 1714. but maintained a lingering existence solely by letting them out to others.* It can easily be imagined how this state of things re-acted on Pondichery. Wanting money, no longer even receiving ships belonging to the parent Company, the first successors of Martin, MM. Dulivier and Hebert, f were able to do but very little. The carry- ing trade passed gradually from their hands into the hands of other merchants and companies, and from this time to 1722, the commerce and credit of Pondi- chery alike continued to decline. The debts contracted at Surat remained unpaid, and this fact alone was suffi- cient to affect the credit of the town to which the Government had been transferred from that place. It was a hard time indeed for those agents of a bankrupt Company. They strove nevertheless to do what they could to second the paltry efforts which the Directors made from time to time to increase their trade. But it was in vain. Fortunately during the entire period they were left unmolested by the native Powers. Though all India resounded with the clash of arms that followed the death of the Emperor Aurangzeb in 1707, though warlike operations were taking place in the Dakhan and on the Malabar coast, Pondichery remained unthreatened. It was a period indeed which a rich parent Company in France, supported by active agents on the coast, might have used with immense advantage to French interests. But under the actual circumstances of the case it was par M. l'Abbe Guyon. office. He held it for uearly two t M> Dulivier succeeded Martin on years, when he was again succeeded January 1, 1707, but continued as by Hebert, who continued as Gover- Governor only till the arrival of the nor till August 10, 1718.— Extract Chevalier Hebert in July, 1708. He- from the. Archives of the Company, berr. continued to administer the forwarded to me by M. Bontemps. att'airs of the colony till October,
 * Histoire des Indes Orientales, 1713, when Dulivier re-assumed the