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IIISTOJIY OK INDIA.
[Book III
A.D. 1761.
The fortifi- cationa of Pondicheny demolished.
Annihila- tion of French ascendency in India.
could not be maintained; but Mr. Pigott, when he found argument unavailing, cut the matter sliort, hy intimating that if Pondicheiry were not delivered tin- presidency would not funii.sh money for the pay of the king's tnxjps, or the .sub- sistence of the French prisoners. As there was no other source from which the necessary funds could be drawn, the council of war had no alternative but i/j yield the point under prote.st.
The war which the British and French carried on in India had from the first been truly a war of extermination. The existence of the two nations there as independent rival powers was deemed impo.ssible, and both therefore saw that one or other must perish. Accordingly, when Lally sailed fnnn France at the head of an expedition which anticipated nothing but a series of triumpiis, he was insti-ucted by his government to destroy any British maritime po.sse.ssion in India that should fall into his hands. These instructions were intercepted, and furnished a plausible ground for retaliating the barbarous policy which they enjoined. The presidency of Madras, therefore, as .soon as Pondicherry was delivered over to them, is.sued orders for the demolition of its fortifications. They were speedily obeyed, and the citadel and all the other defences were converted into heaps of ruins.
With the fiiU of Pondicherry the French power in India was to all intents annihilated ; but three places of some importance still remained to be reduced — the settlement of Mah^, on the Malabar coast, and the forts of Gingee and Thiagur in the Carnatic. Mahe, situated seven miles south-east of Telli- cherry, occupied a height at the mouth of a stream which descends from the Western Ghauts. In its immediate vicinity are several hills. Two of them, like itself on the south bank of the stream, were crowned with small forts, Vjut its chief defence was Fort St. George, occupying a larger hill on the other bank. The only dependencies of Mahd were five small forts situated at some distance to the north, and a factory at Calicut. In the beginning of Januar}', 1701, several vessels from England had landed troops at TellicheiTy, to be employed in the reduction of Mahe ; but as it lies within the limits of the Bombay presi- dency, it was necessary to have their authorit} before attacking it, and this authority did not arrive before the beginning of February. The interval was diligently employed by the governor in forming alliances with the neighbouring chiefs. Their assistance was absolutely necessary, for the whole Em'opean mili- tary available for defence did not exceed 100, while theu* assailants, under Major Hector Monro, amounted to 900 European and 700 native troops. Though the chiefs had promised liberally, when the push came not a single man appeared ; and the governor counted himself fortunate when, instead of being obliged to surrender at discretion, he efl'ected a capitulation, which in addition to other advantages secured to the garrison the full honom-s of war, and their conveyance at British expense to the Isle of Bourbon or to Europe. Gingee had been pre- viously invested by Captain Stephen Smith with eight companies of sepoys. It
