HISTORY OF MAURITIUS. 
2 75 
M. de la Bourdonnais was altogether dispensed from any precaution in his future 
conduct to them; nevertheless, the fear of interrupting the general welfare, and the 
little apprehension he entertained of any personal inconvenience to himself, deter¬ 
mined him to write that very day to M. Dupleix. His letter was as follows; 
“ The scene which has passed this day at Madras, disorderly as it was, afflicts 
me much less with respect to myself, than as it is humiliating to the whole nation. 
Since the capture of this place, I have done every thing in my power to preserve, 
among the English, that decorum which becomes the majesty of the King’s arms, 
and the character of the officers whom I command. My commission, my orders, 
the wish of the minister, and the right of war, by placing me at the head of French 
warriors, oblige me to sustain the honour of their victorious flag. I entered Madras 
on the condition to treat for its ransom, in the most liberal manner, with the Gover¬ 
nor and his Council. Whether I had a right or not to engage in the capitulation, is 
a question with which neither you or your Council have the least concern. The King 
alone commands here, whose orders I bear. I shall proceed to render to him an 
account of my conduct, to take back the ships with whose command he has entrusted 
me, and to carry him my head, which will be answerable for any ill I have done: 
but I rather expect from his Majesty the recompense of my zeal, than chastisement 
for involuntary errors, if I have committed them. I beg of you, therefore, to give 
me all the assistance which my situation requires; I ask it of you in the name of 
his Majesty and the Company: appoint proper commissaries to watch over the 
claims of the Company; but leave to the King, who is my master and yours, to 
punish me for the pretended crime which has been imputed to me. Inform me if 
you will receive the bales of cloth, the money, the artillery, the rigging, masts, Sec. 
the bills and the hostages, &rc. that I may know what arrangements to make. The 
time presses, and I shall be obliged to depart. If you will not undertake to act for 
the benefit of the Company, I cannot be answerable for your misconduct,” Sec. Sec. 
M. Dupleix did not answer this moderate letter, but by new traits of violent dis¬ 
pleasure. All the representations, all the propositions of M. de la Bourdonnais, 
were offered in vain ; M. Dupleix was absolutely determined to remain master of 
Madras : a resolution, in forming which he neither considered the inierests of the 
Company, nor the dangers to which he exposed the colonies. As M. de la Bour¬ 
donnais had transmitted to him the articles of the treaty for the ransom, in their 
original form, he, on the following day dispatched, with all possible expedition, the 
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