THE DUTCH FORTIFY PONDICHERY. 33 Bard wan, rebelled against the authority of the Subadar chap. Ibrahim Khan, the successor of Shayista Khan, and *• rallying to his standard the Orisca Afghans and other i^93. malcontents, plundered Hugli, and carried devastation to the very gates of the European settlements. In this crisis, the English, French, and Dutch traders pressed upon the Subadar the necessity of their being permitted to fortify their respective settlements — a favour which had been before asked and refused. The Subadar would only tell them in reply to provide for their own safety. This was regarded as a tacit permission to fortify, and was acted upon accordingly. Nevertheless, the French at Chandranagar never attempted to be anything more than traders. For a long time their efforts in that respect were not very successful. All French writers speak of their trade there, for many years, as languish- ing. By letters patent, dated February, 1701, Chand- ranagar, with the other French possessions in the Indies (Baleshwar, Kasimbazar — an offshoot from Chandranagar — and Machhlipatan), was placed under the authority of the Governor of Pondichery. It was not, however, till nearly thirty years later that the trade received an impulse which converted Chandranagar into one of the most flourishing settlements of the Company, To that change and its causes we shall refer at the proper time. The factory at Baleshwar (Balasore) was insignificant, and was virtually abandoned at an early period. It will thus be seen, that of all the places in India in which the French had made a settlement, Pondichery was in 1693 the most advanced and most promising. And now they had lost Pondichery. The Dutch knew well the value of their conquest. Its situation, sheltered for nine months in the year from the monsoon, the inconsiderable surf, and the fact of there being a little river falling into the sea navigable for flat-bottomed boats, rendered it superior as a settlement to any other D
