Before proceeding to the narration of the important events which took place after Clive's arrival in Bengal, it will be useful to take a short view of the situation of the affairs of the Company at this period.
By the terms of the truce between the French and English, proclaimed on the 11th of October, and followed by a provisional treaty of peace between the two Companies, signed on the 26th and 31st of December, 1754, the English gained on the coast of Coromandel all for which they had so long contended; for, by the agreement of both parties to withdraw from any further interference with the native princes, Mahommed Ali, whom they had supported through so many vicissitudes, became the reigning[77] sovereign of the Carnatic.
The territorial acquisitions, and the influence established by the valour and talent of Bussy, which were deemed so valuable by Dupleix, the former Governor of Pondicherry, appear to have been only viewed by his successor Godeheu as obstacles to that peace which it was the chief object of his appointment to establish; and he discouraged all further progress to power in the Deckan.
The peace, or rather truce, obtained by such sacrifices, did not last a twelvemonth. Hostilities between the two nations were carried on as before, under the pretext of supporting the native chiefs and princes with whom the two companies were respectively allied, but with whose quarrels they had agreed not to interfere. To add to the embarrassment which this state of affairs produced, accounts were received at Madras, on the 12th of November, 1756, that war had broken out between France and England; and Clive had not sailed above a month, when a letter from the Governor and Council of Fort St. George, after suggesting an attack on the French settlement of Chandernagore, entreated his early return, with as many of his troops as could be spared, to protect them from the dangers likely to result from the expected arrival of a French armament from Europe.