The fort
was weak and indefensible. The English inhabitants consisted only of a
hundred civilians, and two hundred soldiers. Governor Morse
endeavoured to obtain, from the nawab, the protection which he had
before granted to Dupleix, a demand which the nawab at once refused.
"I was there at the time, and quite agreed with the governor that it
was useless to attempt resistance to the force brought against us. The
governor, therefore, surrendered on the 21st. The garrison, and all
the civilians in the place not in the service of the Company, were to
become prisoners of war; while those in the regular service of the
Company were free to depart, engaging only not to carry arms against
the French until exchanged. These were the official conditions; but La
Bourdonnais, influenced by jealousy of Dupleix, and by the promise of
a bribe of forty thousand pounds, made a secret condition with Mr.
Morse, by which he bound himself to restore Madras in the future, upon
the payment of a large sum of money. This agreement Dupleix, whose
heart was set upon the total expulsion of the English, refused to
ratify.
"A good many of us considered that, by this breach of the agreement,
we were released from our parole not to carry arms against the French;
and a dozen or so of us, in various disguises, escaped from Madras and
made our way to Fort Saint David, a small English settlement twelve
miles south of Pondicherry.
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