330 On the Maritime Commerce of Bengal. 



tonnage, iu consequence ot" tht; war, in the proportion of 

 onc-fitth nearly ; and we are persuaded that the captures 

 nude bv the cneinv during that unfortunate contest, might 

 be stated at a much larger proportion. 



Our fleets in India, in that disastrous period, although 

 numerous, powerful, and well appointed, afforded but little 

 protection to the commerce of the country. Not a single 

 frigate, in my recollection, was ever detached as a convoy 

 to merchant ships in the country trade : nay, T have heard 

 it frequently asserted, that ships of war, sailing from Bengal 

 to join the Hcet on the coast of Coromandel, have rejected 

 all applications for protection to merchantmen pursuing the 

 same voyaoe ; notwithstanding they were laden with grain 

 for the supply of our arnnes in the Carnatic, uhcre famine 

 was then raging with all its horrors. I am not competent 

 to say how far the detention of a frigate a few days, for the 

 purpose of a convoy, might liave been injurious to the public 

 service; but the merchants here, in the loss of property, 

 and the famished inhabitants of the coast, in the privation 

 of food, felt severely this inattention to trade, and com- 

 plained bitterly on the occasion. Nor did they fail to ob- 

 serve, that, for other services, that which did not appear 

 to them of anv importance to the pul)lic welfare, but under- 

 taken solely for the purpose of acquiring prize money, fri- 

 gates and sloops of war were readily detached. Sn)arting 

 under repeated and heavy losses, they could neither perceive 

 the utility nor applaud the zeal which prompted the aid of 

 a frigate and sloop of war to assist this government in the 

 reduction of the defenceless Dutch factory at C'hinsurah 

 in 1781, the capture of which afterwards furnished a subject 

 of so much litigation. 



'i"he daring activity of M. SuflTrein at this juncture made 

 a striking impression. No change of monsoon induced 

 him to quit the bay of Bengal ; and during the absence of 

 our fleet, in their annual visit to Bond:)ay for relitn>enl,and 

 to avoid the storms that prevail at the autumnal equinox, he 

 swept the seas, destroyed oiu" trade, and intercepted the 

 supplies irom this to the other presidencies. A ship of the 

 line and two frigates, which he stationed off the Sand Heads, 

 or entrance into the Houo;hK , at one time nearly shut up 

 the port, at another made many valuable captures, carrying 

 hack an ample supply of all sorts of provisions and stores, 

 which neither his own resources, nor those of his allies, 

 could have furnished. From the abundance of Ikngal both 

 friends and foes drew their supplies ; and, however much 

 the loss of what fell into the enemy's hands might have 



been 



