"No one doubted that Madras would be besieged, as soon as the monsoon had sent the squadrons off the coast, if reinforcements should not arrive before. But Clive did not entertain the surmise that it could be taken whilst it had provisions; and, as troops were known to be on the way from England, if the ships in which they were embarked should lose their passage in this year, they would probably arrive in the first months of the next. Nevertheless it was necessary, if possible, to alleviate the inequality between the English and French force in Coromandel.
"But the preference which each of the Company's Presidencies was naturally inclined to give to its own safety, as the only ground on which the property and fortunes of the whole community were established, suggested apprehensions that Madras, in the same manner as it had been treated by the Presidency of Calcutta, would, whatever might be the necessity of Bengal, detain on their own service whatsoever troops might be sent to their assistance; and, although little was to be immediately apprehended in Bengal from the French, yet the entire estrangement of the Nabob, and the hazard of all that remained due from him, were to be expected, if he saw the English force too considerably diminished, without the immediate power of recall, to oppose either his own attempts against them, or to afford the assistance he might want, whether in the maintenance of his authority against his own subjects, or the defence of his territory against foreign enemies.
"In consequence of these conclusions it was determined not to send a body of troops to Madras, but to employ all that could with prudence be spared, in concert with Anunderauze, against the French in the ceded provinces[215]; which would either occasion a diversion of their troops in the Carnatic, or, if they neglected this assistance, would deprive them at once of all they had acquired by their long connection with the Soubah of the Deckan; and, lest any danger during the expedition should threaten Bengal, the troops were only to obey the immediate orders of Calcutta.
"The conduct of the expedition was committed to Lieutenant-Colonel Forde, who, on the invitation of the Presidency to take the command of the army in case of the departure of Colonel Clive, had quitted the King's service in Adlercron's regiment, and arrived from the coast in the month of April. Mr. George Grey was sent to continue the course of intelligence at Cuttack, and Mr. John Johnstone was despatched in the Mermaid sloop to make the necessary preparations in concert with Anunderauze at Vizagapatam. The force allotted for the expedition was five hundred Europeans, including the artillery men, two thousand sepoys, and one hundred lascars: the artillery were six field-pieces, the best brass six-pounders, six twenty-four-pounders for battery, a howitz, and an eight-inch mortar: eighty thousand rupees, and four thousand gold mohurs, equivalent to sixty thousand rupees, were in the military chest for immediate expenses. The embarkation was made on three of the Company's ships arrived lately from Europe, on the Thames, a private ship of seven hundred tons, with two of the pilot sloops of the river. The Thames, likewise, carried a great quantity of provisions intended for Madras, whither she was to proceed as soon as the present service would permit. By altercations in the Council, for the measure was too vigorous to be acceptable to all of them, and by delays in the equipment, the vessels were detained in the river till the end of September. Their departure left the English force in the province barely equal to what they carried away."[216]
Of the brilliant success which attended the expedition under Colonel Forde I shall speak hereafter. I shall content myself at present with the insertion of extracts from the private letters of Clive written at the period of its formation. These, while they show the enlarged and just view he took of the state of affairs on the coast, will prove that he not only gave to that settlement all the aid he had the power of giving it, but that he actually left Bengal almost without European troops, in order to provide for its defence.
The following are extracts from Clive's letters, under different dates, to Mr. Pigot.
"I cannot quit the coast without explaining to you my sentiments of affairs there. I do not find that M. Lally is able to take the field with three thousand men. When our expected forces arrive, and we are joined with those of Madras and Trichinopoly, we shall be two thousand five hundred strong; and I do not think victory so much depends upon equality of numbers as conduct and resolution. From the several accounts I have received of M. Lally, I do not entertain the high opinion of him which he seems to have gained upon the coast; and, indeed, his late behaviour has confirmed me in this opinion. Captain Monchanin, who is here, received a letter from his brother at Paris, informing him of the manner in which these troops were raised: they were not draughted out of any of the regiments of France, but are composed of foreigners and deserters; these latter had a pardon promised them on condition of enlisting for the East Indies. Although M. Lally is a Colonel on the Irish Brigade, I do not find any of that corps have come out with him. The capture of St. David's ought to add nothing to our apprehensions of his succeeding in future enterprises, for there was no opportunity given of experiencing the courage of his troops, excepting the attack of the fascine party, which, I think, makes rather in praise of our forces than his, since an officer and fifty men could defend it from all attempts of the French from ten in the evening till three next morning. If Colonel Lawrence could, by any means, draw the enemy upon a spot of ground he is well acquainted with, and attack them in the manner he did at Bawoor, I should entertain great hopes of his success.