Everything was wanting; everything was by him in greater or less measure supplied,--storehouses, dock-yards, fortifications, seamen.

In 1740, when war between France and England became probable, he obtained from the East India Company a squadron, though smaller than he asked, with which he proposed to ruin the English commerce and shipping; but when war actually began in 1744, he received orders not to attack the English, the French company hoping that neutrality might exist between the companies in that distant region, though the nations were at war.

The proposition does not seem absurd in view of the curious relations of Holland to France, nominally at peace while sending troops to the Austrian army; but it was much to the advantage of the English, who were inferior in the Indian seas.

Their company accepted the proffer, while saying that it of course could bind neither the home government nor the royal navy.
The advantage won by the forethought of La Bourdonnais was thus lost; though first, and long alone, on the field, his hand was stayed.
Meanwhile the English admiralty sent out a squadron and began to seize French ships between India and China; not till then did the company awake from its illusion.

Having done this part of its work, the English squadron sailed to the coast of India, and in July, 1745, appeared off Pondicherry, the political capital of French India, prepared to sustain an attack which the governor of Madras was about to make by land.