"The China and Bengal ships will bring you a reinforcement of twelve hundred men, which, added to the garrisons of Madras and Trichinopoly, will enable you to take the field with two thousand five hundred men. Our superiority at sea, by the arrival of two seventy-gun ships, and one fifty, will be beyond dispute. Of consequence, we shall have more resources than the French: we may remedy the ill consequences of a check, by having the sea open to us, and the assistance of our squadron. Our enemies cannot say so much, for, if they should be defeated, they must be confined within the walls of Pondicherry, and then their distress for want of money will ruin them, if supplies are not soon received, which cannot be effected without a superior force at sea, of which I see but little probability. In the mean time, we can supply you from hence with every thing you can possibly want. In short, if we look upon ourselves in any shape a match for our enemies in the field, I am fully of opinion a battle should be risked: a victory will be of more consequence than the loss of ten Fort St. Davids. If the old gentleman[34] take the field, Caillaud should be sent for at all events, and a commission of Major given him that he may act as second. "Should an offensive war not be thought prudent, I think methods may be pursued which will near ruin the enemy without it. A body of Mahrattas may be taken into pay, which will ravage the country in such a manner as to prevent the French receiving any revenue from it. This will occasion them to disband their blacks, and their whites will soon disband themselves. "You are acquainted with the disturbances in Golconda, and the insurrection of the rajahs. I have sent agents there; and you may be assured, if we remain at peace here (as at present there is the greatest prospect) I shall send into these parts as large a force as can possibly be spared, under the command of Colonel Forde. If the country be only thrown into such confusion as to prevent our enemies collecting the revenue, the expense and design of the expedition will be answered. "I have wrote long letters both to Mr. Pocock and Mr. Pigot to enforce vigorous measures. To the former, I have proposed the destruction of the French squadron, even if they should be lying under the walls of Pondicherry."