436 GODEHEU AND DE LEYRIT. chap, factiousness of the envious, themselves too wanting in . , merit not to seek to obscure that of others Do 1754. me the favour to inform me if you can of the views of M. Gocleheu regarding the Dakhan. Personally I am disposed to abandon all and to retire to France. But I wait your answer and your advice. I am so over- whelmed that I cannot apply myself to business. The army is crying out from hunger ;— no one pays, — and I am forbidden to act." Such was the state of matters in the Dakhan and in the Sirkars. Before Trichinapalli it was worse. We left the French army under Mainville occupying the Five Rocks, completely shutting in the city ; Lawrence absent at Tanjur, with the king of which country Dupleix continued up to the last to be in secret com- munication. Very shortly after the arrival of Godeheu, the 2,000 troops that sailed with him from France landed at Pondichery. These should have been sent, as Dupleix strongly urged, to reinforce Mainville, who could then have made sure of the city for which the French had been so long struggling. But far from so acting, Godeheu sent only petty reinforcements ; he cut off also from his army the supplies of money it had been in the habit of receiving ; he stopped the trans- port of provisions ; he sent no orders ; the letters and remonstrances of Mainville he left unanswered. The consequence was that a portion of the army mutinied, and the revolt was only suppressed by the loyal exer- tions of the officers. The letter written by Godeheu to Dupleix on hearing of this outbreak serves to illustrate the character of the new Governor, — to show in a striking light the crime committed by the French Government in sending out such a man to supersede Dupleix. " What resources would you have," wrote he, " in the same case ? You were in a position to make advances from your purse and on your credit ; I can do neither one nor the other."
