Although his orders were to remain on the coast until October 15, he backed himself with the opinion of a council of war which decided that the ships could not remain there longer, because, in case of a third battle, there was neither rigging nor supplies remaining in Pondicherry; and disregarding the protests of the governor, Lally, he sailed on the 2d of September for the Isle of France.

The underlying motive of D'Ache, it is known, was hostility to the governor, with whom he quarrelled continually.

Lally, deprived of the help of the squadron, turned his arms inland instead of against Madras.
Upon arriving at the islands, D'Ache found a state of things which again singularly illustrates the impotence and short-sightedness characteristic of the general naval policy of the French at this time.
His arrival there was as unwelcome as his departure from India had been to Lally.

The islands were then in a state of the most complete destitution.

The naval division, increased by the arrival of three ships-of-the-line from home, so exhausted them that its immediate departure was requested of the commodore.