374 
PONDIGHERRY. 
of the fallen power of the French in this country. Bonaparte seems 
to have formed expectations of raising it to its ancient height, 
otherwise he would not have sent out to a little territory of five 
miles of sea-coast, containing only twenty-five thousand inhabitants, 
and yielding a revenue of only forty thousand pagodas, so splendid 
an establishment as arrived under Captain-General De Caen, which 
consisted of seven generals, a proportionable number of inferior 
officers, and fourteen hundred regular troops, including a body- 
guard of eighty horse. Sparing as Bonaparte is of his money, he 
nevertheless sent with them one hundred thousand pounds in 
specie, and had directed the Government-house to be repaired, and 
furnished with articles sent from France, at an expense of eighteen 
thousand pounds. 
Nothing can be more evident, than that such a number of gene- 
rals and officers must have been intended for a wider field than the 
little territory of Pondicherry. When they were sent from France, 
the power of Perron was at its height in the upper provinces, and 
the original founder of that power was with Bonaparte, to point out 
the most eligible method of undermining the British influence in 
India. Here, therefore, was probably their destination; and had 
they been able to join their countrymen, and mature their projects 
of increasing still more the number of sepoys, disciplined after the 
European manner, the result of a future war might have been the 
accomplishment of their wishes. Fortunately for us, the capacious 
mind of Lord Wellesley saw the danger, and his promptitude has 
removed it, I hope, for ever. In the peninsula little was to be feared 
from French influence. From the time of their first establishment, 
they had violated the prejudices of the natives, and were conse- 
\ 
