8 THE EARLY FRENCH IN INDIA. chap. For upwards of twenty years after this second at-
- ' _ . tempt to open out a trade with the East, the Company
1(520. effected nothing. A few desultory efforts, by individual traders, to make a settlement in Madagascar, produced no definite result. The powerful Minister, who then virtually ruled France, was occupied during the greater part of his tenure of power in firmly establishing his master s authority over the resisting nobles, and he could ill spare any considerable portion of his time even 1642. to foster large commercial undertakings. In 1642, however, Richelieu was master ; he had triumphed over every enemy, and he at once addressed himself to the revival of commercial intercourse with the East. Under his auspices a new Company was formed, for the avowed purpose of trading to the Indies. Letters patent, dated June 24, 1642, accorded to it exclusive privileges for twenty years and its Directors, desig- nating it "La Compagnie des Indes," and began to make serious preparations to justify their right to the title. Their first ship had scarcely started on its expedition when Cardinal Richelieu died. This event, however did not at all affect the resolution which had incited the French Company to devote their energies, in the first instance, to the development of the large and fertile island of Madagascar. We are not in a position, judging even by the light of subsequent events, to pronounce this determination to have been unwise. It appears, on the contrary, to have been dictated by a sound and far-seeing policy. The advantage of a resting-place midway between Europe and the Indies, had been illustrated in the possession of the Cape of Good Hope by the Portu- guese. This was an example which the French, embarking for the first time seriously on a distant trade, were too prudent to neglect. Nor was it, in its consequences, an unsuccessful venture. For though the French were forced, after several trials, to aban-
