246 
HISTORY OF MAURITIUS. 
fifty, one of forty, and one of twenty guns. That of the French was composed of one 
ship of sixty guns, one of thirty-six, three of thirty-four, one of thirty, two of twenty- 
eight, and one of twenty-six. The English ships were mounted with twenty-four 
pounders; while on our side the Achilles alone had eighteen pounders j and the 
rest were armed only with twelve and eight pounders. The combat soon became 
very violent, and the ship of M. de la Bourdonnais sustained, during a quarter of 
an hour, the whole fire of the enemy. At length, dispirited by the powerful resistance 
of the French, at half past seven the English retired, and M. de la Bourdonnais passed 
the night in making preparations for renewing the action. On the next day, the 
wind remaining in the same quarter, he was obliged to wait for the enemy through 
the whole of it; but, as they had the advantage of the wind, they did not return to the 
conflict; nor could the French squadron, from the number of its sick and wounded, 
as well as the want of provisions, engage in the pursuit of them: it therefore made 
for Pondicherry, where it arrived in the evening of the 8th of July, 1746. 
The knowledge of India is absolutely essential for the due understanding of the 
subsequent events. The navigators, who frequently differ from the geographers, 
comprehend as India, that part of the globe which lies between the Cape of Good 
Hope and Japan, containing three or four times as much sea coast as Europe 
possesses from Lapland to Constantinople. 
This vast continent comprehends from seven to eight thousand leagues of coast, 
and is occupied by a great number of sovereign princes, as well as the colonies of 
several European nations. I shall, however, pass by the settlements of the Portu¬ 
guese and the Dutch, and confine myself to those of the English and the French. 
The former possess eight or ten establishments, distributed under the three principal 
governments of Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay, which are distant five or six hun¬ 
dred leagues from each other. France has also certain establishments, which form 
two principal governments, independent of each other: the one is Pondicherry, 
and the other the Isles of France and Bourbon. 
The former of these comprehends the town of Pondicherry, where the Governor 
and supreme council reside; the three factories of Mahe on the coast of Malabar, 
of Karikal on the Coast of Coromandel, and Chandernagore on the Bengal river, 
are subject to it. This government contains in the whole about a league of coast, 
of seven or eight thousand of which India is composed. Such is the extent of the 
command intrusted to M. Dupleix. 
