1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/La Bourdonnais, Bertrand François, Count Mahé de

LA BOURDONNAIS, BERTRAND FRANÇOIS, Count Mahé de (1699–1753), French naval commander, was born at Saint Malo on the 11th of February 1699. He went to sea when a boy, and in 1718 entered the service of the French India Company as a lieutenant. In 1724 he was promoted captain, and displayed such bravery in the capture of Mahé of the Malabar coast that the name of the town was added to his own. For two years he was in the service of the Portuguese viceroy of Goa, but in 1735 he returned to French service as governor of the Île de France and the Île de Bourbon. His five years’ administration of the islands was vigorous and successful. A visit to France in 1740 was interrupted by the outbreak of hostilities with Great Britain, and La Bourdonnais was put at the head of a fleet in Indian waters. He saved Mahé, relieved General Dupleix at Pondicherry, defeated Lord Peyton, and in 1746 participated in the siege of Madras. He quarrelled with Dupleix over the conduct of affairs in India, and his anger was increased on his return to the Île de France at finding a successor to himself installed there by his rival. He set sail on a Dutch vessel to present his case at court, and was captured by the British, but allowed to return to France on parole. Instead of securing a settlement of his quarrel with Dupleix, he was arrested (1748) on a charge of gubernatorial peculation and maladministration, and secretly imprisoned for over two years in the Bastille. He was tried in 1751 and acquitted, but his health was broken by the imprisonment and by chagrin at the loss of his property. To the last he made unjust accusations against Dupleix. He died at Paris on the 10th of November 1753. The French government gave his widow a pension of 2400 livres.

La Bourdonnais wrote Traité de la mâture des vaisseaux (Paris 1723), and left valuable memoirs which were published by his grandson, a celebrated chess player, Count L. C. Mahé de la Bourdonnais (1795–1840) (latest edition, Paris, 1890). His quarrel with Dupleix has given rise to much debate; for a long while the fault was generally laid to the arrogance and jealousy of Dupleix, but W. Cartwright and Colonel Malleson have pointed out that La Bourdonnais was proud, suspicious and over-ambitious.

See P. de Gennes, Mémoire pour le sieur de la Bourdonnais, avec les pièces justificatives (Paris, 1750); The Case of Mde la Bourdonnais, in a Letter to a Friend (London, 1748); Fantin des Odoards, Révolutions de l’Inde (Paris, 1796); Collin de Bar, Histoire de l’Inde ancienne et moderne (Paris, 1814); Barchou de Penhoën, Histoire de la conquête et de la fondation de l’empire anglais dans l’Inde (Paris, 1840); Margry, “Les Isles de France et de Bourbon sous le gouvernement de La Bourdonnais,” in La Revue maritime et coloniale (1862); W. Cartwright, “Dupleix et l’Inde française,” in La Revue britannique (1882); G. B. Malleson, Dupleix (Oxford, 1895); Anandaranga Pillai, Les Français dans l’Inde, Dupleix et Labourdonnais, extraits du journal d’Anandaran-gappoullé 1736–1748, trans. in French by Vinsor in École spéciale des langues orientales vivantes, séries 3, vol. xv. (Paris, 1894).