"I acquainted you," he observes, "that the neutrality with the French was not likely to be concluded. I continued encamped on the same ground; and, on the 7th instant, received a letter from the Nabob, desiring me to join against the Affghans, the van of whose army was attempting an irruption into this province. Accordingly, I began my march the next morning; and, thinking it a convenient opportunity to prevail on him to suffer us to take Chandernagore, I wrote him word of our having endeavoured to conclude a neutrality with the French, but that the Director and Council were not vested with proper powers for that purpose; that, whilst we were engaged at a distance assisting him against his enemies, the French, joined by Monsieur Bussy, might make an attempt on Calcutta; and that therefore I should wait off Chandernagore, in hopes of receiving his leave to attack it. Accordingly, on the 12th I encamped at the back of it, within a mile of the fort; and on the 13th the Admiral received a letter from the Nabob, the purport of which was, that we might act as we pleased with respect to the French; and, having intelligence at the same time that the troops he had sent to their assistance were withdrawn, I summoned the place to surrender that night; but, receiving no answer, the next morning I attacked their western battery, which they defended very briskly the whole day, but at night abandoned it. A detachment I sent about noon to the southward took post in a garden near the fort, and within some of their batteries. The loss they had sustained at the western battery, and the apprehension of their retreat being cut off by our detachment, made them likewise desert that night all their works to the southward; among the rest, a strong half-moon on the river side, mounting heavy metal, and a battery of three guns playing down the channel, both which must have annoyed our ships greatly in their passage up. The batteries to the northward were all quitted at the same time.