HISTORY OF MAURITIUS. 
236 
all possible activity, the armament of the following vessels: the Neptune , the Bourbon , 
the lnsulaire , the Renommee, and the Elizabeth, a small vessel from Surat, which 
appeared to be an excellent sailer, and was retained on that account, as she might 
prove very useful on the look-out service. I shall not trouble you with a descrip¬ 
tion of all the various expedients which we were compelled to employ, in order to 
arm those vessels, at a moment when the loss of the St. Geran had left us, in a great 
measure, without resource; and an epidemical disorder had deprived us of almost 
every workman or artisan in our dock-yard. Nevertheless, I exerted all my dili¬ 
gence and activity in some degree to supply these wants: and our armament was 
considerably advanced when the Favourite arrived; and by your letter, dated the 
22d September, which I received by that vessel, I gained no other intelligence, 
than that you proposed to answer my advices by the ships which you intended to 
send out, with no more than the usual preparations. I understood, also, that you 
had permitted M. Dupleix to expedite the homeward bound ships from Pondicherry 
and Bengal in the same manner. 
“ It appeared therefore to me, that the Company had an entire reliance on a 
neutrality, between the two belligerent powers, in India; and I found myself in 
a perplexing state of incertitude: but no sooner was I informed that the English 
had declared open war in India, than I determined to stop all the ships belonging 
to the Company, in order to reinforce their respective equipments, and to convoy, 
with my squadron, the merchantmen bound to Pondicherry. It was now the month 
of June, and we were ready to set sail; but as your ships did not arrive from 
France, and the crews of the squadron were consuming the provisions of the island, 
I ordered the whole of them, except the Bourbon and the Elizabeth, to depart for 
Madagascar, and wait my arrival there. The month of July was now begun ; and 
as the season was advancing, and no ships from France had yet appeared, I felt the 
absolute necessity of proceeding to the Indies : I accordingly fixed my departure 
for the 1st of August; when, on the 28 th of July, the Expedition frigate arrived, 
by which I received advices from the Comptroller-general of Marine, who an¬ 
nounced to me the five vessels that you had dispatched, which he ordered me to 
fit out as armed ships, and to add them to my squadron. He also informed me, 
that the object of this armament was to carry an hundred thousand marcs de 
piastres to Pondicherry; and, having executed that service, to annoy the enemy in 
those seas which were distinctly .specified. The Minister, also, sent out an order 
