Four times they tried to storm the place, and each time we drove them back; till at last they gave it up in disgust, at the end of June, having besieged us for six months.
"Soon after this Admiral Boscawen, with a great fleet and an army, arrived from England; and on 19th of August besieged Pondicherry.

The besieging army was six thousand strong; of whom three thousand, seven hundred and twenty were English.

But Pondicherry resisted bravely, and after two months the besiegers were forced to retire, having lost, in attacks or by fever, one thousand and sixty-five men.
"At the end of the siege, in which I had served as a medical officer, I returned to England.

A few months after I left, peace was made between England and France, and by its terms Dupleix had to restore Madras to the English.

I hear that fighting has been going on ever since, the English and French engaging as auxiliaries to rival native princes; and especially that there was some hot fighting round Devikota.