HISTORY OF MAURITIUS. 
285 
well knew that the King of Achem was not in a condition to maintain the neutra¬ 
lity in his road: besides, by the first article of their instructions, they enjoined their 
Captains to fall on the English squadron, if they found them refitting in the road of 
Achem. According to their principles, therefore, the King of Achem, after having 
paid them the value of th eFavori, taken from the French by the English, might be 
obliged to pay the value of the ships which should be taken in the same situation 
from the English by the French. The absurdity of such a consequence is sufficient 
to prove the error of the principle. 
The Centaur, the Mars, the Brillant, and the St. Louis, soon lost sight of M. de 
la Bourdonnais, who, with his three wretched vessels, made many fruitless efforts 
to follow them. He was at length obliged to drive before the wind, which was 
unfavourable to him, and to make the best of his way to the isles, where he arrived 
on the 10th of December, in a very bad condition. 
With respect to the four other vessels, they anchored at Achem the 8th of the 
same month, and fortunately for them did not find the English squadron commanded 
by Commodore Peyton, there, which had sailed for Bengal, nor the two ships com¬ 
manded by Captain Griffin, who were gone to join that squadron. On their return 
from Achem to Pondicherry, the French vessels were to be laden with merchandize 
for the isles, from whence they would pass to Europe, as the Council of Pondicherry 
had assured M. de la Bourdonnais. The Captains had presented several requests 
to the Council to the same effect; but M. Dupleix preferred rather to disappoint 
the Company of the cargoes which they expected, than to send the vessels to the 
isles, where they would be under the command of M. de la Bourdonnais. He also 
suspected that the latter might arm them as ships of war, and signalize himself by 
some new enterprize. The project which he proposed in council was to send them 
into the Ganges to take Calcutta. Such a proposition equally revolted the Council 
and the sea officers; nor could they withhold their astonishment, as it was univer¬ 
sally known that the Mogul caused the neutrality to be inviolably observed in the 
river of Bengal, and that any act of hostility there would bring on a war with the 
Mogul, who could in an instant rase our colonies with the ground, and drive us from 
Indostan fpr ever. This humiliating lessson given to M. Dupleix, by those who 
were not accustomed or disposed to contradict him, inflicted such a wound on his 
pride, that he indulged himself in expressions full of indignity and resentment. 
