s66 
HISTORY OF MAURITIUS. 
“ I should be happy to raze Gondelour to its foundations: if I had finished here 
at an earlier period, I would have undertaken that service with the greatest satisfac¬ 
tion; but I must now refer it to January. As circumstances, however, may engage 
us elsewhere at that period, I have requested the English to grant me passports for 
two vessels, who may come to take those articles in January, which I could not 
carry away in October; in such case^ I could send two loaded vessels to Pondi¬ 
cherry. You must perceive, therefore, that I shall be enabled to leave a number of 
ships in India, which will not, perhaps, be inferior to the English squadron. As for 
me, my purpose is determined: if fortune smiles on my designs, the Coast of 
Coromandel shall not be the only one to feel the effects of them, &c. &c. 
Signed, “ Mahe' de La Bourdonn ais.” 
Availing himself of the monsoon, M. dela Bourdonnais could in eight days have 
reached the Coast of Malabar, where, as there was no English force to resist him, 
he might have levied contributions on all their factories; and have then returned 
to Pondicherry, to take the cargoes destined for Europe under his protection. In 
October, 1747, he would have been joined by the six laden merchantmen which 
waited for him at the isles; and before the close of the year 1748, he would have 
arrived in France, with fourteen or fifteen ships, richly laden with the spoils of the 
English, to the amount of thirty or forty millions of livres. 
Full of these ideas, M. de la Bourdonnais unfolded a part of them to M. Dupleix. 
The absolute necessity of secrecy, without which nothing could succeed, forbade 
him to discover the whole extent of his views. In short, the success of all his pro¬ 
jects depended on one single point—the dispatch with which the business of Madras 
could be terminated. To this single object, therefore, was all the care and applica¬ 
tion of M. de la Bourdonnais directed; and it was with inexpressible pleasure that he 
beheld himself in a state to execute every thing which he proposed with his former ar¬ 
mament. To accelerate, therefore, the conclusion of the treaty and the evacuation of 
the place, it was necessary to load the ships with the utmost expedition, and regulate, 
with the English, the price of the ransom, conformably to the capitulation. M. de la 
Bourdonnais proceeded in the following manner, to accomplish this two-fold effect. 
The peculiar property of the English East India Company, consisted of gold and 
silver, of ammunition, and articles of merchandize. 
The gold and silver were disposed in the Exchequer and the Treasury, of 
