REDUCTION OF PONDICHERRY.
From this detail of continental affairs, our attention is recalled to Great Britain, by an incident of a very interesting nature; an account of which, however, we shall postpone until we have recorded the success that, in the course of this year, attended the British arms in the East Indies. We have already observed that colonel Coote, after having defeated the French general Lally in the field, and reduced divers of the enemy’s settlements on the coast of Coromandel, at length cooped them up within the walls of Pondicherry, the principal seat of the French East India company, large, populous, well-fortified, and secured with a numerous garrison, under the immediate command of their general. In the month of October, admiral Stevens sailed from Trincomalê with all his squadron, in order to its being refitted, except five sail of the line, which he left under the command of captain Ilaldane, to block up Pondicherry by sea, while Mr. Coote carried on his operations by land. By this disposition, and the vigilance of the British officers, the place was so hampered as to be greatly distressed for want of provisions, even before the siege could be undertaken in form; for the rainy season rendered all regular approaches impracticable. These rains being abated by the twenty-sixth day of November, colonel Coote directed the engineers to pitch upon proper places for erecting batteries that should enfilade or flank the works of the garrison, without exposing their own men to any severe fire from the enemy. Accordingly, four batteries were constructed in different places, so as to answer these purposes, and opened altogether on the eighth day of December at midnight. Though raised at a considerable distance, they were plied with good effect, and the besieged returned the fire with great vivacity. This mutual cannonading continued until the twenty-ninth day of the month, when the engineers were employed in raising another battery, near enough to effect a breach in the north-west counter-guard and curtain. Though the approaches were retarded some days by a violent storm, which almost ruined the works, the damage was soon repaired: a considerable post was taken from the enemy by assault, and afterwards regained by the French grenadiers, through the timidity of the sepoys, by whom it was occupied. By the fifteenth clay of January, a second battery being raised within point-blank, a breach was made in the curtain: the west face and flank of the north-west bastion were ruined, and the guns of the enemy entirely silenced. The garrison and inhabitants of Pondicherry were now reduced to an extremity of famine which would admit of no hesitation. General Lally sent a colonel, attended by the chief of the Jesuits, and two civilians, to Mr. Coote, with proposals of surrendering the garrison prisoners of war, and demanding a capitulation in behalf of the French East India company. On this last subject he made no reply; but next morning took possession of the town and citadel, where he found a great quantity of artillery, ammunition, small arms, and military stores; then he secured the garrison, amounting to above two thousand Europeans. Lally made a gallant defence; and had he been properly supplied with provisions, the conquest of the place would not have been so easily achieved. He certainly flattered himself with the hope of being supplied; otherwise an officer of his experience would have demanded a capitulation, before he was reduced to the necessity of acquiescing in any terms the besieger might have thought proper to impose. That he spared no pains to procure supplies, appears from an intercepted letter,* written by this commander to monsieur Raymond, French resident at Pullicat...... The billet is no bad sketch of the writer’s character, which seems to have a strong tincture of oddity and extravagance.
* “Monsieur Raymond—The English squadron is no more, sir— of the twelve ships they had in our road seven are lost, crews and all; the other four dismasted; and no more than one frigate hath escaped—therefore lose not an instant in sending chelingoes upon chelingoes, laden with rice. The Dutch have nothing to fear now. Besides, according to the law of nations, they are only restricted from sending us provisions in their own bottoms; and we are no longer blockaded by sea. The salvation of Pondicherry hath been once in your power already: if you neglect this opportunity it will be entirely your own fault—don’t forget some small chelingoes also—offer great rewards—in four days I expect seventeen thousand Mahrattas. In short, risk all—attempt all—force all, and send us some rice, should it be but half a garse at a time.”
PART OF THE BRITISH SQUADRON WRECKED IN A STORM.
By the reduction of Pondicherry, the French interest was annihilated on the coast of Coromandel, and therefore of the utmost importance to the British nation. It may be doubted, however, whether colonel Coote, with all his spirit, vigilance, and military talents, could have succeeded in this enterprise without the assistance of the squadrons, which co-operated with him by sea, and effectually excluded all succour from the besieged. It must be owned, for the honour of the service, that no incident interrupted the good understanding which was maintained between the land and sea officers, who vied with each other in contributing their utmost efforts towards the success of the expedition. On the twenty-fifth day of December, rear-admiral Stevens arrived with four ships of the line, having parted with rear-admiral Cornish and his division in stormy weather: but he joined them at Pondicherry before the place was surrendered. On the first day of January a violent tempest obliged admiral Stevens to slip his cables and to put to sea, where he parted with the rest of the squadron; and when in three days he returned to the road of Pondicherry, he had the mortification to find that his division had suffered severely from the storm. The ships of war called the duke of Aquitaine and the Sunderland foundered in the storm, and their crews perished. The Newcastle, the Queenborough, and the Protector fireship, were driven ashore and destroyed; but the men were saved, together with the cannon, stores, and provisions. Many other ships sustained considerable damage, which however was soon repaired. Admiral Stevens having intercepted the letter from Lally to Raymond, (See-note *), immediately despatched letters to the Dutch and Danish settlements on this coast, intimating that, notwithstanding the insinuations of general Lally, he had eleven sail of the line, with two frigates, under his command, all fit for service, in the road of Pondicherry, which was closely invested and blockaded both by sea and land: he therefore declared, that, as in that case it was contrary to the law of nations for any neutral power to relieve or succour the besieged, he was determined to seize any vessel that should attempt to throw provisions into the place.
GEORGE II. 1727-1760
DEATH and CHARACTER of KING GEORGE II.
While the arms of Great Britain still prospered in every effort tending to the real interest of the nation, an event happened which for a moment obscured the splendour of her triumphs, and could not but be very alarming to those German allies, whom her liberality had enabled to maintain an expensive and sanguinary war of humour and ambition. On the twenty-fifth day of October, George II. king of Great Britain, without any previous disorder, was in the morning suddenly seized with the agony of death, at the palace at Kensington. He had risen at the usual hour, drank his chocolate, and inquired, about the wind, as anxious for the arrival of the foreign mails; then he opened a window of his apartment, and perceiving the weather was serene, declared he would walk in the garden. In a few minutes after this declaration, while he remained alone in his chamber, he fell down upon the floor; the noise of his fall brought his attendants into the room, who lifted him on the bed, where he desired, in a faint voice, that the princess Amelia might be called; but before she could reach the apartments he had expired. An attempt was made to bleed him, but without effect: and indeed his malady was far beyond the reach of art; for when the cavity of the thorax or chest was opened, and inspected by the sergeant-surgeons, they found the right ventricle of the heart actually ruptured, and a great quantity of blood discharged through the aperture into the surrounding pericardium; so that he must have died instantaneously, in consequence of the effusion. The case, however, was so extraordinary, that we question whether there is such another instance upon record. A rupture of this nature appears the more remarkable, as it happened to a prince of a healthy constitution, unaccustomed to excess, and far advanced beyond that period of life, when the blood might be supposed to flow with a dangerous impetuosity.