A.D. 1761.
could not be maintained; but Mr. Pigott, when he found argument unavailing, cut the matter short, by intimating that if Pondicheiry were not delivered the presidency would not furnish money for the pay of the king's troops, or the subsistence 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 to yield the point under protest.
The fortifications of Pondicheny demolished. 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 impossible, and both therefore saw that one or other must perish. Accordingly, when Lally sailed from 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 possession 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.
Annihilation of French ascendency in India.
With the fall 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 Mahé, on the Malabar coast, and the forts of Gingee
and Thiagur in the Carnatic. Mahe, situated seven miles south-east of Tellicherry, 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, but
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 January, 1701,
several vessels from England had landed troops at Tellicherry, to be employed
in the reduction of Mahé ; but as it lies within the limits of the Bombay presidency, it was necessary to have their authority 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 European military available for defence did not exceed 100, while their 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 effected a capitulation, which in addition to other
advantages secured to the garrison the full honours of war, and their conveyance
at British expense to the Isle of Bourbon or to Europe. Gingee had been previously invested by Captain Stephen Smith with eight companies of sepoys. It
