276 
HISTORY OF MAURITIUS. 
five additional articles, which a new arrangement had obliged him to add to them. 
“ I trust,” said he to him, 44 that you will approve them in their present state: if 
you make the least alteration, I cannot answer that they will be accepted. It is then 
on condition that you do not attempt to alter them, that you may send your officers 
and your troops in the Centaur, and I will then deliver up Madras to you. I shall 
leave it with the greatest pleasure, as soon as you and your Council have signed 
the treaty, and the articles which have been added to it, which I now send you 
by express. As soon as I shall have received them, I shall get under way, and you 
will be the master,” &c. &c. 
When M. Dupleix and the Council of Pondicherry had left M. de la Bour- 
donnais to arrange the articles of the treaty of ransom as he thought proper, it was 
not in the common course of things to suppose that they would create new difficul¬ 
ties respecting these articles, especially at a critical time, when the least delay might 
expose the squadron to the greatest dangers. These reasons M. de la Bourdonnais 
urged in all his letters; the approach of the monsoon, the heavy lading of the 
vessels, and a variety of other important circumstances, were represented in his 
communications with them. 
It seems as if M. de la Bourdonnais foresaw the misfortune that was about to 
overtake him, and which he would have infalliably avoided, if he had not found so 
many obstacles and delays in the conduct of the Governor and Council of Pondi¬ 
cherry. This was, without doubt, the greatest loss which the Company had ever 
sustained. In short, though on the 13th of October the weather was uncommonly 
fine, a violent hurricane arose in the night, which dispersed all the vessels, and shat¬ 
tered the greatest part of them. The Achilles was, at about a league from the shore, 
entirely dismasted, and driven towards the coast by an east wind, so that it was on 
the verge of perishing, with its whole equipage: the Bourbon was in still greater 
distress and danger: the Phoenix never appeared again: the Marie Gertrude was 
wrecked, and only fourteen of her crew saved : the Due d’Orleans went down with 
every thing on board, at about six leagues in the offing: the English prize named 
the Princess Mary, was entirely dismasted. In short, a long list of vessels belonging 
to various nations, strewed the coast with their wrecks. M. de la Bourdonnais, as 
may be naturally supposed, was very much affected by this afflicting spectacle; but 
his courage and constancy did not forsake him; and in the midst of his misfortunes, 
his only occupation was to find the means of repairing them. 
