Bird’s Eye View of Fort St. David in Pulicat, India
Not only was the English East India Company outpost at Madras poorly defended, it was also poorly manned. Only about three hundred company men were stationed in the town. This was less than a quarter of the number of French troops, and most had no military background or experience. The local ruler, or nawab, had forbidden Dupleix to attack the English but had no forces ready to enforce his commands. After two days the fort surrendered; apparently the liquor stores had been blasted and the men, after guzzling the spirits, refused to fight—for which one can hardly blame them, poorly paid and vastly outnumbered as they were. In the confusion of the surrender negotiations, however, the young clerk, Robert Clive, “in the habit of a Dubash [local interpreter] and blackened,” made a daring escape with several other Englishmen. They travelled by foot about 150 kilometres south, to the English company’s last remaining outpost along the coast, Fort St. David. When the French attacked Fort St. David, they had a surprise: they were challenged by nearly ten thousand troops, the forces of the nawab. The much smaller French company forces nonetheless routed them, and the fort was saved only by the timely arrival of the Royal Navy fleet returning from Bengal.
