But the attempts made to colonise Madagascar had not exhausted all the resources of the French Company. Colbert had recognised that the special requirement to ensure success was a man. Hitherto the chiefs of the exploring expeditions had been mere machines. He wanted a man who could think and act for himself, who had a brain to devise and a strong will to execute his daring plans, and who should be, at the same time, patient, laborious, and stedfast. Such a man he believed he had found in 1666 in Francis Caron. Caron, though of French origin, had been born in Holland, and had risen to a high rank in the service of the Dutch East India Company. He was a self-made man who had risen by force of character, and who, on being refused by his masters a post of the highest importance in Batavia, had resigned all his appointments, and tendered his services to Colbert. Colbert accepted them with alacrity, nominated him Director-General of French commerce in India, and despatched him with a new expedition to the Indian seas at the beginning of 1667.
Caron touched at Madagascar. He found the colonists there in a condition so deplorable, that recognising the place to be impossible for the purposes for which it had been originally destined, he did not waste his time there, but pushed on for India. On December 24th of the same year he touched at Cochin, proceeded thence to Surat, and established there the first French factory in India.
