The government of Madras, anxious to add to the army in the field against the French, desired that Colonel Forde should leave Masulipatam with a garrison of five hundred sepoys, and send his remaining Europeans (about two hundred) to Madras. This he objected to, upon the ground of its exposing this important acquisition to recapture by the French fleet. Clive approved of this, as of every part of Colonel Forde's conduct throughout the late service. Besides those public thanks which, as head of the government, he gave to this able officer and his gallant troops, we meet, in Clive's private letters, with frequent and strong expressions of his sense of the importance of the defeat of Conflans near Rajahmundry, and the capture of Masulipatam. He justly concluded that these achievements, independent of their immediate consequences, were calculated to promote our permanent interests in the Deckan; a point to which he always gave great importance, and to which he upbraids his friends in the government of Madras for being too inattentive. In a private letter to Mr. Pigot of the 21st of August, in which he congratulates him on the raising of the siege of Madras, he observes, "I know there are many in England, especially the envious, who have endeavoured to persuade others, as well as themselves, that our wars in India are trifling and insignificant; but our late exploits will, I believe, induce another way of thinking, and add lustre to our quondam victories. "Colonel Forde may, I think, step forth, and very justly claim his share of the laurels gained. His defeat of Conflans, with a great inferiority of numbers, was an important stroke; but his taking by storm such a place as Masulipatam, with a garrison within superior to the force which attacked it, is what we seldom hear of in these our modern times. "I cannot add much to what has been represented to you in our general letter; only let me beg of you not to neglect the affairs of the Deckan; they are of great importance, and I know the gentlemen at home think them so. Besides, we never could be safe in Bengal, while the enemy is so near at hand, and a strong squadron, which may give ours the slip, and co-operate with them. If Colonel Forde had left Masulipatam with only a garrison of five hundred sepoys, and it had been afterwards lost (which I really believe would have been the case), what a load of disgrace would have fallen upon us, for putting the Company to so great an expense, and for losing all the fruits of our eminent successes in these parts."