which necessitated the long struggle for predominance in Southern India between France and England.
When day succeeded day and the Nawáb gradually came to the conviction that the audacious ruler of the French settlement had no real intention of transferring to him the conquest La Bourdonnais had made, he resolved to take it by force. He sent, therefore, his eldest son, Ma'afuz Khán, with a force of about 10,000 men, mostly cavalry, to enforce his demand. But, in face of the small French garrison occupying the place, these men soon discovered that they were powerless. When, with a great display of vigour, they had mastered the positions which secured a supply of water to the town, the garrison made a sortie and retook them. That was the first awakening. The second was more startling, more pregnant with consequences. A small force of 230 Europeans and 700 natives, sent by Dupleix under the command of a trusted officer named Paradis to relieve Madras, encountered the entire army of Ma'afuz Khán on the banks of the river Adyar, close to the village of Maliapur, then and to the present day known as St. Thomé[1], defeated it with great slaughter, the Frenchmen wading breast-high through the water to attack the soldiers of the Nawáb. This victory, few in numbers as were the victors, must ever be regarded as pre-eminently a decisive battle. It brought into view,
- ↑ From the fact identified by Bishop Heber and Professor H. H. Wilson, that it is the place where the Apostle St. Thomas is said to have been martyred on December 5, A.D. 58.
