"I cannot quit the coast without explaining to you my sentiments of affairs there. I do not find that M. Lally is able to take the field with three thousand men. When our expected forces arrive, and we are joined with those of Madras and Trichinopoly, we shall be two thousand five hundred strong; and I do not think victory so much depends upon equality of numbers as conduct and resolution. From the several accounts I have received of M. Lally, I do not entertain the high opinion of him which he seems to have gained upon the coast; and, indeed, his late behaviour has confirmed me in this opinion. Captain Monchanin, who is here, received a letter from his brother at Paris, informing him of the manner in which these troops were raised: they were not draughted out of any of the regiments of France, but are composed of foreigners and deserters; these latter had a pardon promised them on condition of enlisting for the East Indies. Although M. Lally is a Colonel on the Irish Brigade, I do not find any of that corps have come out with him. The capture of St. David's ought to add nothing to our apprehensions of his succeeding in future enterprises, for there was no opportunity given of experiencing the courage of his troops, excepting the attack of the fascine party, which, I think, makes rather in praise of our forces than his, since an officer and fifty men could defend it from all attempts of the French from ten in the evening till three next morning. If Colonel Lawrence could, by any means, draw the enemy upon a spot of ground he is well acquainted with, and attack them in the manner he did at Bawoor, I should entertain great hopes of his success. "By this time the superiority of our force at sea, I take for granted, is beyond dispute, and of consequence our resources must be more than those of the French. This will be another inducement for us to hazard an engagement, whenever we can do it with the least probability of success. A victory on our side must confine the French within the walls of Pondicherry; and when that happens, nothing can save them from destruction, but a superior force at sea, of which I see little probability, notwithstanding the report of a third division.