Page 151 - INDIANNAVYV1

HISTORY OF THE INDIAN NAVY. Hi)
ment of Bombay was supposed to be powerless, treated as waste
paper; for, notwitlistandino; its provisions, that chief made
prizes of seven vessels valued at eighteen or nineteen thousand
rupees. The Mahvans seized others valued at ten or eleven
thousand rupees. The subjects of the Peishwa showed them-
selves equally rapacious, and, although their government, when
appealed to, promised that the offenders should be punished, it
was only on the improbable supposition that they could be
discovered and convicted. Even Mannajee Angria, while pro-
fessing to be a close ally of the British, countenanced his sub-
jects in attacking their vessels, and never hesitated to pick up
a stray boat if he could hope to escape detection ; yet, on one
occasion, he rendered a valuable service in rescuing the ' Sala-
mander,' an English ketch, which had been captured off Colaba
by the fleet of Sambhajee Angria. Seven grabs and eight
galivats, in the service of the last-mentioned ])irate, after light-
ing for a night and day with the ' Montague ' and ' Warwick,'
two East indianien, carried off five vessels and a Portuguese
ketch sailing under their convoy. The merchants of Bombay,
driven to despair by the losses they had sustained, held meet-
ings, and unanimously represented to Government that, since
the reduction of the Marine, Khem Sawunt and the Mahvans,
having fitted out small vessels with the express purpose of
preying upon their trade, were bringing them to ruin ; that, in
consequence of the risks they ran, bankers would not advance
money on the security of their goods, so that, although the
stormy season was over, not a ship had been equipped for the
transport of merchandize; and that, unless more cruisers were
provided, the trade of the port would be entirely suppressed.
These representations led to a small but permanent increase of
the Company's Marine.
On the olst of March, 1744. war was declared between Great
Britain and France,* and two French privateers, the 'Apollo,'
As tlio Eiiglii-h had
* The Frencli now aspired to territorial agtrrandisenieiit.
three Presidencies, so also the Isle of France and Pondicherry were each the seat
of a French Governor, who liad a council under liiin. The former island was
called by the Portufjuese Ceme, by the Dutch, who occupied it, Mauritius, after
Maurice, Prince of Orange, but the French, when they took possession of it in
1720, styled it the Isle of France. Subordinate to it was the smaller island of Mas-
carhenas, thenceforth called Bourbon. To tlicGovernnieut of tiiese islands, La
Bourdonnais, a brilliant naval ofliccr in the service of the French East India
Company, was appointed in 1733, and so indd'atigably did he labour for tiieir
improvement, that the inhabitants testified their warm gratitude, and the
author of" Panl and Virginia" affirms in the ]irciace to his work, that, whatever
he has seen in the Isle of F' ranee most usefully devised or most ably executed,
was the work of La Bourdonnais. The other Government was that of Poiidi-
cherry, which the French had obtained and fortified about thirty years before.
The city, containing seventy thousand inhabitants, was regularly and beautifully
Dumas, the Governor, was declared a Nawab
built, and was strongly fortified.
of the Empire, and three fine districts were ceded to him. Thus French inlhiencc
was progressing rapidly even before the advent in 1711 of tlie ambiiuus Ihiplcix,
who is ordinarily supposed to have given it the tirsl impulse. Under the Go-