4 i8 
HISTORY OF MAURITIUS. 
was appointed Governor of Pondicherry in 1735, obtained of the Mogul, permission 
to coin money in this town; and he struck every year, from 1736 to 1741, when 
he returned to France, from five to six millions of rupees, by which the Company 
derived an annual gain of four hundred thousand livres. 
In 1 739 > a Nabob, named Sander Saib, put the French in possession of the 
town of Karikal, of the fort of Karcangeri, and some other domains in the princi¬ 
pality of Tanjour. Karikal is two leagues from the Danish settlement of Tranquebar, 
and twenty-five from Pondicherry. It was an ancient town, and had been a very 
considerable place. It had five mosques, fourteen pagodas, and from five to six 
thousand inhabitants: it is situated on an arm of the great river Colsain, which is 
capable of receiving vessels of two or three hundred tons burthen. The fortress of 
Karcangeri is within cannon-shot of Karikal, and half a quarter of a league from 
the sea. The French, for their accommodation, destroyed a part of its fortifications, 
which consisted of eight large ancient towers. The domain of Karikal contains, in 
a circumference of five or six leagues, ten small towns; the most considerable of 
them is called Titoumale, which contained two thousand five hundred inhabitants 
when the French took possession of it. The country is excellent, and produces a 
great deal of rice, cotton, indigo, and various grain : its inhabitants fabricate a con¬ 
siderable quantity of stuffs, cotton, and painted linens. The revenue of this territory, 
comprehending the farm of tobacco and betel, with the duty on imports, amounts 
annually to ten thousand golden pagodas, which is equivalent to an hundred thou¬ 
sand French livres. 
The war which was kindled on the Peninsula of India, between the Nabob of 
Arcot and the King of the Mahrattas, at the period when the French made the ac¬ 
quisition which has been just mentioned, gave them a very favourable opportunity 
of increasing the colony of Pondicherry. The Nabob of Arcot, the ancient ally of 
France, was conquered and killed in a bloody battle, on the 20th of May, 1740, and 
his country was laid waste by the Mahrattas. His widow, and all the women of his 
family, accompanied by their children, and a prodigious number of fugitives, came 
to seek an asylum at Pondicherry, whither they brought every thing which they had 
saved in gold and silver, in jewels, and valuable furniture. M. Dumas received 
them with all the attentions and respect due to their rank, their unfortunate situation, 
and the friendship which the late Nabob had always manifested to the French people. 
This humane, generous, and grateful regard, had like to have involved him in a 
