HISTORY OF MAURITIUS. 
225 
A further Account of the Operations of M. de la Bourdonnais. 
1744.—The intelligence that war was declared between France and England, 
greatly distressed M. de la Bourdonnais, as it was accompanied with precise orders 
from ihe Company, dated 14th of April, 1744, which, on the idea of a neutrality 
between the Companies of the two kingdoms, forbade him to engage in any act of 
hostility whatever against the English. At the same time he was instructed to defend 
himself in case the English should commence hostilities; and he was authorised to 
keep one or two vessels with him: but what could M. de la Bourdonnais do with 
these merchant ships against four men of war, which had been dispatched from 
Great Britain for the Indies? Besides, since the Company thought proper to recall 
the squadron which had left France under the command of M. de la Bourdonnais, 
the incalculable advantage of arriving first with an armed force in India, was lost, 
all the projects of M. de la Bourdonnais were overturned, the superiority of the 
enemy was decided, and all his apprehensions that we should be beat and taken, in 
every part, confirmed. 
In this mortifying conjuncture, he could do nothing more than send off a vessel 
to inform M. Dupleix, the Governor of Pondicherry, that war was declared between 
France and England, and to dispatch the Fie re to France, with letters for the Com¬ 
pany ; in which he repeated his efforts to undeceive them in their hopes of a neu¬ 
trality. In the mean time, till he should receive fresh orders, he was obliged to let 
the enemy command in these seas. He did not, however, suffer any vessel to go out 
of port; he redoubled his efforts to finish a ship which he had laid on the stocks, 
and completely repaired the Bourbon , that had arrived from the Indies. 
In the mean time, M. Dupleix, in obedience to the orders of the Company, 
negociated with the governments of the English East India Company to conclude a 
treaty of neutrality. The Council of Madras, however, would not render itself 
responsible for the conduct of his Britannic Majesty's ships of war, as M. de la 
Bourdonnais had foreseen; for it could not be imagined that any agreement made 
between the trading companies of two hostile nations, would influence the conduct 
of the ships of war of their respective sovereigns. 
To prove that the French risked every thing, and that the English hazarded nothing, 
in these treaties, it is sufficient to observe, that the latter had ships of war as well 
as merchantmen in the Indian seas, while the former had only commercial vessels: 
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