HISTORY OF MAURITIUS. 
2 57 
flag; the two French ships taken in the road of Belassor; the Favori , taken in the 
road of Achem; the vessel from Pondicherry, which was sunk ; and a million of 
pagodas for the expence of your armament.” 
He then transmitted a note, which contained an estimation of the value of these 
prizes, amounting to 332,152 pagodas; and proposed also, that a million of pagodas 
should be demanded for the Company. 
It must also be observed, that in this letter M. Dupleix expressed himself in the 
following manner: 
t( As for the rest, I shall not pretend to regulate your conduct or operations; but 
you have asked my advice, and I have told you what I thought would be honour¬ 
able to the nation: I know that the Minister has left you to be the master of your 
operations, and that I am only ordered to second your designs in every thing that 
depends upon me. I shall, therefore, keep within the bounds that are prescribed to 
me, and confine myself to such representations as circumstances may require that I 
should make to you.” 
At length M. de la Bourdonnais sailed from Pondicherry, on the 13th of Sep¬ 
tember, 1746, with nine ships and two bomb-ketches. He ordered the Saint Louis 
and Brillant to stand out to sea, and to get beyond Madras, in order to cut off 
the passage of any vessels that might try to save themselves from the road of that 
place, while the Neptune and the Bourbon received directions to sail directly for 
the road: the other vessels followed with the troops. 
On the 14th he was only four leagues from Madras, when he landed between 
five and six hundred men, with two field pieces ; but not without apprehension that 
the enemy would dispute the descent, which is very hazardous, as it can only be 
accomplished by the boats of the country, conducted by natives, who are the 
greatest cowards in the world; for if one of them had been wounded, the rest would 
have instantly taken flight, and, consequently, the enterprize must have failed. 
On the 15th he sailed along the coast, in order to keep pace with the troops as 
they advanced on the shore; and at noon on the same day he was within a long 
cannon shot of the town. The troops which he had disembarked were already within 
the enemy’s district, when he landed with the rest of the soldiers appointed to carry 
on the siege. The whole consisted of a thousand or eleven hundred Europeans, 
comprehending the Creole volunteers, and the officers of the Isles of France and 
L 1 
