Dupleix, JOSEPH FRANÇOIS

Dupleix, JOSEPH FRANÇOIS, the celebrated governor of the French Indies, was born 1st January 1697, at Landrecies. At the age of eighteen he was sent to sea on board an East Indianman, and in 1720 his father, a farmer-general of taxes, who was a shareholder in the French East India Company, had him appointed to a seat in the Council at Pondicherry, where he combined admirable official work with the amassing of wealth by legitimate trade speculations. Ten years later he became superintendent at Chandernagore in Bengal. The remarkable success of his administration here led to his being appointed, in 1741, governor-general of all the French Indies, with the title of Nawab. He now successfully pursued that policy of patient skilful diplomacy among the native princes, which at one time made the Carnatic almost a French province. His ostentation, the increase and discipline of his army, and his improvements in the defences of Pondicherry had already begun to alarm the English Company, when war broke out in Europe between France and England (1742). La Bourdonnais, the governor of Bourbon and the Isle of France, having sailed with a powerful squadron to the Coromandel coast, took Madras, but, without authority, and in considera- tion of a bribe of £40,000 from the English Company, agreed to restore it to the English on payment of a ransom. This Duplex refused to accede to, and violent disputes followed between the two governors, the result of which was that La Bourdonnais was recalled. Several brilliant engagements planned by Duplex took place between the French garrison and the troops of the Nawab of the Carnatic, who endeavoured to take possession of Madras, but was precipitately forced to raise the siege. An attack on the English at Fort St David failed, but Duplex's science and courage were eminently displayed in the defence of Pondicherry, which Admiral Boscawen in vain attacked for five weeks, with an apparently overwhelming force, but was forced to retire discomfited, although the defence was conducted by a civilian, unsupported by a single general of repute. The ambitious mind of Duplex had long formed the project of founding a French empire in India on the ruins of the Mogul monarchy, and with this purpose he mixed ingeniously in all the intrigues of Southern and Central India, made himself master of the court of Hyderabad, and placed a creature of his own on the throne of the Carnatic, while he impressed the native imagination by adopting all the pomp and splendour of the Oriental. His military designs, however, able as they were, were frustrated by the energy and military genius of Clive and Lawrence; but the struggle continued until 1754, in which year Duplex was recalled by Louis XV., who had patched up an agreement with England on the subject of the rival Indian companies, which was embodied in the futile Peace of Pondicherry, 1755. La Bourdonnais had actively laboured to disparage Duplex, and the French Company had not seconded their governor's ambitious schemes, and refused to reimburse him for the vast sums he had spent out of his private fortune in carrying on the war. He died in poverty and neglect in 1763. See Hamont, Duplex d'après sa Correspondance inédite; Owen, in Eng. Hist. Rev. (1886); Malleson, French in India (new ed. 1884); Rapson, Struggle between England and France in India (1887); Malleson, Duplex (1890).