It is impossible to over-estimate the effects on the minds of the native princes and native soldiers of Southern India of the victory gained by the French at St Thomé. The famous historian, Mr Orme, who was almost a contemporary, wrote of it that it broke the charm which had invested the Indian soldiers with the character of being 'a brave and formidable enemy.' Another writer[1] has recorded of it that, 'of all the decisive battles fought in India, there is not one more memorable than this. The action at St Thomé completely reversed the positions of the Nuwáb and the French governor. Not only that, but it inaugurated a new era, it introduced a fresh order of things, it was the first decided step to the conquest of Hindustán by a European power.'
There can be no doubt but that the result of the battle gave birth in the mind of Dupleix to ideas of conquest, of supremacy, even of empire, in Southern India. It is no part of this work to follow the course he adopted to secure the triumph of those ideas; but this at least has to be admitted, that the scheme of forming a regular force of trained native soldiers, if it did not actually date from the victory of St Thomé, acquired from it a tremendous impetus. Thereafter the spectacle was witnessed of the representatives of two European nations, longtime enemies in Europe, taking opposite sides in the quarrels of native princes in Southern India, and for that purpose employing not only their own countrymen but natives armed and drilled on the European system, led by European officers, vying with their European comrades in deeds of daring and devotion, and becoming by degrees the main supports of their European masters. After the lapse of a few years the European nation which inaugurated the new system
- ↑ The Decisive Battles of India, from 1746 to 1849 inclusive. New Edition. Page 16.
