234 
HISTORY OF MAURITIUS. 
further directions. In short, after having done every thing that depended on him 
for the good of the service, he prepared to depart for the coast of Malabar, where 
he reckoned upon meeting, some time in May, the English ships coming from Surat. 
Previous to his departure, he gave the following account of his situation and designs 
to the Company. 
Letter of M. de la Bourdonnais to the Directors of the East India Company. 
Gentlemen, Isle of France, ist March, 1746. 
“ I have the honour to address this letter to you, dated the 1st of March, because, 
it being my design to leave the islands at the end of this month, it is necessary for 
me to prepare my communications to you at this time: whatever may happen sub¬ 
sequent to this date, I will add hereafter. I have given directions to the Council and 
M. de St. Martin, to transmit to you the current detail of the colony; it is enough 
for me to give you an history of the armaments; and as my former dispatches have 
been lost, I shall state to you every occurrence that has taken place, since the first 
intelligence that war had been declared between France and Great Britain. 
“ On the nth of September, 1744, arrived the Fiere: but though the monsoon 
for India was over, I dispatched a small vessel on the following day, to forward your 
letters and orders, which fortunately arrived at Mahe. 
v The shipwreck of the St. Geran being attended with great distress to this colony, 
I sent back the Fiere to Europe, with the hope that she would arrive there in time 
for you to replace, in the following year, all those effects of which we were deprived 
by the loss of that vessel. 
“ You, in a very particular manner, instructed me by your letter of the 14th April, 
1744, not to commit any act of hostility against the English in India, in the hope 
that a neutrality would be observed there. If, however, that should not be the case, 
you authorized me to fall upon them wherever they may be found, as well as to keep 
one or two of your ships from Europe, which might appear to be the best adapted 
to such an object. I had already done myself the honour to communicate to you 
my opinion of this pretended neutrality; that it had not taken place but within the 
Ganges; and that the English in Europe, who were independent of their India 
Company, would not observe a treaty of neutrality, whenever they had an oppor¬ 
tunity to violate it with advantage. I was still more confirmed in my opinion, by 
