18 THE EA11LY FKENCH IN INDIA. chap, intimated he had sounded the King of Kandy on the ,_ ' subject of the dispossession of the Dutch, and that the 1G72. enterprise would meet with his support. The project was approved by Colbert, and a fleet under the com- mand of Admiral Lahaye — a man of some reputation,* who had quitted high civil employment to gratify his passion for warlike operations — was placed at the dis- posal of Caron to carry out the design. Lahaye made his first attempt towards the end of the year 1672 on Point de Galle. But either the place was too strong, or the jealousies on board the French squadron were too great : for the French were unsuccessful. They were more fortunate at Trinkamali, which they took and garrisoned. But they had hardly landed the guns necessary to defend the fortress, when a Dutch fleet of at least equal force, under Commodore Rylckoff van Goens, came in sight. f Lahaye declined an encoun- ter, and leaving the garrison at Trinkamali to shift for itself, make sail to Malaipur, then known as St. Thome, on the Koromandel coast. Though this place had been well fortified by the Portuguese, from whom it had been taken by the Dutch some twelve years before, the French commander managed to occupy it in a very short time with the loss of only five men. This solitary result of an expedition, from which so much had been hoped, gave little satisfaction to the French Ministry. Trinkamali had had to surrender with all its garrison to the Dutch fleet, and now of their conquests — for at Surat and Machhlipatan they had but factories — St. Thome alone remained. xs is common in such cases, the first outcry was against the projector, and every possible fault was at once attributed to
- It would appear that Lahaye's tives, but his conduct in the attack
reptuatiou was far greater than could upon Ceylon, and subsequently, ap- bo justified ; not only had he, when pears to have been utterly unworthy Governor-General of Madagascar, of a man occupying his high posi- abandoned the colonists there when tion. they were pressed hard by the na- f Aunales des Provinces Unies.
