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ence the court againft Lally on bis trial. It would be from our prefent purpose to enter into a detail of thofe public mifcarriages which exterminated the French Eaft-India company. Two oppofite parties afcribe them, and the lofs of Pondicherry in particular, to oppofite caufes. Leyrit, the vernor, afferts that Lally had feized all the revenues of the city for his own ufe; and in this accufation, he was, in fome measure, juf tified by the immenfe wealth which had been amaffed by the general. On the other hand, Lally retorted the accufation, by faying, the fortress was loft by a want of provifions alone. To this the council of the French Eaft-India company remonftrated, that it was impoffible they could procure provifions, fince their means were exhaufted; that they were every day forced, by the general, to borrow money at a difadvantage. Even their hofpital they affirmed to be unprovided of all neceffaries, from their utter inability to furnish them; and they concluded their charge by faying, that their general might exculpate himfelf, by aflerting the orders were given, when he was confcious of the impoffibility of complying with them.

Upon the reduction of Pondicherry, Lally was brought home a prifoner to England in one of our hips; during which time he feemed utterly regardlefs of the machinations of his enemies, and appeared perfectly fatisfied with his own innocence. When frequently admonished by his friends in this country (for he had feveral) not to return to France, he

would laugh, and fay, that being cafhiered was the worst that could happen.

Upon his return to France he was inftantly made a prisoner, and clapped into the Baftile. Nor was it otherwife with his opponents; they were alfo made prifoners, and a mutual profecution was begun on either fide against each other. This continued for near three years, and was managed by the ableft lawyers in France. The accufa tions of either party were equally ftrong and nearly equally well attefted; there was one circumftance that turned the balance againft the unfortunate Lally. Leyrit, the governor of Pondicherry, died extremely poor; Lally, on the other hand, was known to be extremely rich. The conclufion of this long trial was, that Lally was fentenced to be beheaded, his effects confiftated, and three hundred thousand livres of his eftate to be distributed among the fuffering inhabitants of Pondicherry. The fentence was ac cordingly executed, and the unfortunate general was not allowed even the confolation of declaring his innocence at the place of execution, being brought to the fcaf fold gagged and bound.

As nothing can be more characteris

tic of the man, we will give our readers two authenticated letters of this unfortunate gentleman's; which will ferve to fhew, that the violent impetuofty of temper which attended-him in profperity, did not quit him in any change or reserje of fortwie.

To

To Admiral STEVENS.
Madrafs, Fb. 13, 1761.

under that very protection, coming out of the fort of Pondicherry; and

WHEN I furrendered myfelf, fhould have been murdered, "if the

prifoner to his Britannic Majefty, I trufted that you only, jointly with Mr. Coote, were the mafters of my fortune and liberty; and my capitulation means fo: notwithstanding which the council of Madrafs, or, more properly fpeaking, Mr. Pigott, refufes me (with the most unheard-of violence) a stay of fix weeks, which is neceffary for the re-establishment of my health; and I am to be conducted on board, like a criminal, by a detachment of foldiers, having pofitively declared, by the annexed paper, that I will not embark otherwife. You ought to be more fenfible than I, of the confequence of fuch a proceeding in war; I demand, therefore, from your hands, in the name of the king my mafter, the due execution of my capitula tion. My dependence is upon you and Mr. Coote. You only have the right to difpofe of me. And I proteft before hand against every act of cruelty to the contrary. I have the honour to be, with the utmost esteem, Sir, your moft humble, and moft obedient ferLALLY.

vant;

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English guard that escorted me had arrived a minute later. About four minutes afterwards, the commiffary of my army was affaffinated at the fame gate, at the feet of two of your centinels. I have in vain, till now, demanded justice for it, to the general of your army; who has informed me the reafon of it is, that the town of Pondicherry is delivered to your company. He cannot exercife any authority, in it. I have complained of it in vain to you: far from procuring the Imalleft fatisfaction, I have received nothing but repeated infults and abufe. The officers who were attached to me, and my fervants, are threatened and affronted at Pondicherry from morning till night; and my effects, and theirs alone, examined and fearched with the utmost care, in fpite of the written declaration of the commanders of the fleet and army, and in fpite of the words and honour of the commander of your troops, to whom I capitulated.

As to the treatment, that Mr. Pigott mentioned to the officers of my regiment, (who were taking care of my effects), as reprisals for what Monfieur Landivifion had done to Mr. Winch at Fort St. David; can Mr. Fairfield's complaints againft the fame brigadier for having plundered his houfe, of which he fays he intrufted him with the keys, regard me in any fhape? I was abfent, and my capitulation confirmed: Mr. Winch's effects were not fearched, and they took nothing from him but his chaife and hotfes, which I caufed to be returned to him a month afterwards.

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Mr. Fairfield made no complaint to me, or I fhould have given him fatisfaction immediately.

Mr. Pigott muft confefs, by the anfwer he gave me when I quoted the name of the king my master, a name refpectable to every European fubject, of what nation foever he may be, efpecially to a man in public ftation as he is," that the infulting fearch which has been made of my effects, did not in any fhape proceed from the credit he gave to the difcourfe of a hellish crew, who infinuated that there was treasure in fpecie and merchandize; a difcourfe confuted by this identical, indecent, and public fearch; but only from a refolution taken in concert with fome members of Pondicherry to humble a man of my character: and to what other caufe can I attribute a refufal to treat with me on the moft trifling affairs of a colony, and in regarding the troops of the king my mafter, who are prifoners of war; and likewife to give any fatisfaction for twenty-three of the English company's fervants, who are actually my prifoners, and who (by the custom eftablished between the two companies, even during the prefent war) ought to be exchanged for a like number of French prifoners, but are not yet? Who but me has, or can have, a right to reprefent to the council of Madrals the demands, complaints or grievances of the French colony, of which I am the chief?

The moft folemn treaties between the European powers have eftablished rules for the vanquished, and confined the conquerors to capitulations which have always been looked upon as facred.

I hear just now, Gentlemen, that altho' attacked by a disease looked upon as mortal in this country, you have refolved to embark me for Europe in an unusual feafon, without giving me the time to termi nate fome perfonal affairs, which cannot but indifpenfably have occurred, after an abode of three years in the country, or get to gether my fcattered effects and cloaths.

The lofs of my fortune does not concern me: that of my life concerns me in the manner it does every other being that exifts. You, without doubt, have the power to take it from me, but not to make me confent to it.

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As I have been treated like a traitor, by a council whereof I was chief, it does not appear at all extraordinary to me, that I am treated as a criminal by one to which I am a flave. I am a king's man; (it does not fignify of what king), who has always, in a trading country, had his forehead stained with the impreffion of public hatred: but it is very remarkable, that two companies which are enemies, fhould not agree to look upon me as a man belonging to the company of which I have the honour to be a member.

Now, Gentlemen, this is the declaration that I have the honour to make to you: you are not willing that I fiould be in India when peace may be made; I am deter mined to leave it, and not concern myfelf, directly or indirectly, in any affairs relative to the two companies; I give you my written word of honour of it, whatever orders I may recieve from my court to the contrary,

I fubmit

I fubmit to depart in eight days for whatever country you allot me, I fubmit to conftitute myfelf a prifoner, in your prifons at Madrafs, to depart for Manilla, or for China, in the month of May; and, in a word, to the hardest and moft humbling conditions you please to impose on me. I had rather fuffer death, and will give the whole world a fcene that Tripoli and Sallee have not produced an example of.

A man condemned to die, and not for crimes committed against fociety in general, and efpecially a prifoner of war, ought at leaft to chufe the manner of his death; and if the lofs of my life has been refolved in your council, and you have the leaft repugnance to be the immediate inftruments of it, send me to Pondicherry, and I'll anfwer that in forty-eight hours after my arrival my existence will be no more in queftion, and by this you will at least fave the expence of my paffage.

Madrass, Feb. 13.

1761.

compaffion of his cotemporaries, perhaps the gentleman of whofe life we are going to give a few circumftances, was the most unfortunate. The difappointments of others have been remarked and celebrated; but this gentleman's fufferings feem to have been difregarded, though well worthy, for their ftrangeness, of a place even in hiftory. But it has ever been the way among us, to make the greatest noife about the moft infignificant perfons, while those who really merited well from their country, languifh out their life in obfcurity, and die unknown,

Captain Glas was a native of Scotland, and bred originally a furgeon. In that capacity he made fome voyages to the coafts of Guinea; and his merit being known, he was at length promoted to be mafter of a Guinea fhip, in which ftation he continued till the late war began. Having faved a good fum of money in trade, he was refolved to venture a part of it on board a privateer, and he went himfelf as captain. He was not LALLY. three days at fea in this new com

mand before the fhip's crew mutinied, and fent him what is called in the fea phrase a round-robin, in, which the crew write their names in a circle, left one fhould be before the other, and thus more expofed than the reft. In this fituation he came on board, and offered to RYDEN obferves, with re- fight with any man whom he had

Some account of Captain Glas, who was murdered by ruffians on board the Sandwich, and who may be regarded as the most unfortunate of mankind.

Dpect to the happy and the offended; but the men knowing

unhappy of this life, that

The lucky have whole days, and

thofe they chufe; Th' unlucky have but hours, and those they lofe.

Of all men that ever raised the

him to be very refolute, and greatly fuperior in firength to any in the fhip, declined his challenge, and at length by fair fpeeches from him were pacified; but ftill more fo by the capture of a French merchantman of great value, which followed G 3

imme.

immediately after. This gleam of good fortune, however, was feon difpelled by the appearance of an enemy's frigate about twice his ftrength, with which however he refolved to engage. The conteft was a very warm one for more than two hours; but at length another French fhip appearing, Captain Glas was obliged to ftrike, not without the lofs of more than half his crew, and he himself fhot through the fhoulder.

He remained fome time in a French prifon in the Weft-Indies, and was treated with much feverity; but being at laft exchanged, he refolved to embark the remainder of his fortune upon another adventure in the privateering way. The fame fuccefs attended him now that did upon the former occafion; he was again taken prifoner, and his whole fortune at once deftroyed. Upon being releafed a fecond time, he was employed by merchants in their fervice to and from the Weft-Indies, and was taken prifoner during the laft war no lefs than feven times. In this fluctuation of his fortunes, however, he had, upon the conclufion of the late peace, amaffed about two thoufand pounds prize-money, and being reckoned one of the beft feamen in the British dominions, he refolved in his own fhip to go upon a difcovery. It was upon this occafion that he found out a new harbour on the coaft of Africa, between the river Senegal and Cape de Verd, to which he reafonably fuppofed a very great trade might be driven. Elated with his fuccefs, he returned to England, and laid his difcovery before the miniftry. He went with the utmost patience through all the delays of office, and at length

obtained an exclufive trade to his own harbour for twenty years. Having thus prepared for his departure, with the afiftance of one or two other merchants, he left England with feven or eight feamen, and after a fuccefsful voyage arrived at the new-found har bour. His firft care was to fend one of his men on thore with propofitions of trade, but the trea cherous natives murdered him the moment he was landed. Captain Glas, however, was not yet difcouraged; he found means to inform the king of the country of the wrong done him, and the mutual advantages that might accrue from trading thither. The king feemed to be pleafed with his propofal, but it was only to get him the more fecurely in his power; but Glas being on his guard, he failed in effecting his bafe defign. The king's next attempt was to poison the crew by provifions, which were fent as prefents to the captain; this alfo failed of effect; but Glas, for want of neceflaries, was obliged to go to the Canaries in an open boat, in order to buy what was wanting from the Spaniards. In the mean time, the favages perceiving the captain go off, thought this a very convenient time to fall upon his flip and plunder it; but they were bravely repulfed by the little crew that remained; and the fhip being obliged to quit the harbour, and not finding her captain return, failed away for England, where it arrived in fafety.

In the mean time, the unfortanate captain had landed upon one of the Canary islands, and prefented his petition to the Spanish governor; but his bad fortune fill

followed

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