226 
HISTORY OF MAURITIUS. 
it is evident, therefore, that the French ships belonging to the Company would be 
taken by the English men of war, who are not to be influenced by any engagement 
made by the respective companies, to maintain a neutrality between them, as indi¬ 
vidual trading establishments. 
At length the error, which had been committed by the French India Company, 
was discovered, but, like many other errors, when it is too late; and they acktiow- 
leged the misfortune of having despised the reiterated representations of M. de la 
Bourdonnais. On the 5th of April they were informed by the Fleury, which arrived 
from India, of the capture of the Favori. That vessel was at anchor in the road 
of Achem , with an English vessel, which it would have taken, if it had not received 
orders to the contrary from the company. Captain Peyton, who commanded the 
British vessel, did not act on the same principles, but seized an opportunity, on the 
following day, to board and take her. This French ship, the Fleury , which had 
been fitted out to attack some pirates, had also found herself before Cochin with 
four English vessels, laden for Moka and Gedda; all of which she might have 
taken, had she not been restrained by the command of her superiors. At the same 
time all our merchantmen were taken, except that which was commanded by M. 
de la Villebague, who, suspecting the consequences of a declaration of war, changed 
his course, and arrived at Pondicherry. I shall not enter into a further detail of 
of our losses, but content myself with relating a singular circumstance, the truth-of 
which is too well known. When Captain Barnet, who commanded an English 
ship of war, captured our merchant ships, he observed, that he only executed against 
the French trade, the design which M. de la Bourdonnais had projected against 
that of Great Britain. 
Though M. de la Bourdonnais was extremely mortified, that the decisive stroke 
which he had so long meditated against the enemies of France should have been 
rendered abortive, he was not altogether discouraged; nor did he relax in his efforts, 
as will hereafter appear, to repair the misfortunes of his country: on the contrary, 
he made the same exertions, as if he had been the cause of them. 
The letters, which he received by the Fleury , not only informed him of the 
arrival of the English ships of war in India, but made him acquainted also with 
the actual situation of Pondicherry: that settlement was represented as in a state of 
alarm; and the council communicated to him, in very strong terms, the dangers to 
which their commerce was exposed in the Indian seas. They entreated him to 
