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Rh Pondicherry forthwith, and empowered to make an alliance with Haidar Alí. Chandarnagar was promptly occupied by our troops. Nine battalions were added to the Bengal army, and the militia were embodied for garrison duty. A marine service was organised for the protection of the river, and two of the Company's best ships, turned into forty-gun frigates, were sent off to reinforce Sir Edward Vernon's squadron in the Bay of Bengal. Orders were issued for strengthening the defences of Baj-Baj, and the Rájá of Benares was called upon to furnish five lakhs of rupees for the maintenance of three Sepoy battalions during the war. Francis and Wheler condemned all these precautions as utterly inadequate, and suspected Hastings of 'the worst designs,' when he explained the purpose of Elliot's mission to Nágpur. Wheler in this matter was evidently guided by Francis, who could see nothing but indolence, incapacity, and bewilderment in the statesman who listened with a suppressed smile to Francis' wild talk about 'resources already exhausted, a French invasion as certain and impending, and the country incapable of resistance .'