The Private Diary of Ananda Ranga Pillai A Record of Matters Political Historical Social and Personal from 1736 to 1761 (Jul. 1757 - Dec. 1759)

On the whole then with the exception noted the Diary gives the reader a fairly complete and continuous narrative of what took place at Pondichery and of the rumours which reached it from without ; and the contrast between the confidence with which the diarist begins his story and the troubled anxiety of his closing pages forms a fair measure of the transformation which had taken place in the nat [...] Quite early in the present volume we find him recoring the complaints of the conduct of the troops in the neighbourhood of the town and narrating a specific instance of persons being"INTRODUCTION xiii molested by the guard on their way back into the place. [...] The inspectors whom he sent out into the districts to report on the state of the collections were on the whole unfavourable to the lessee ; and the result was that the diarist was deprived of his lease and heavy demands were made on him for moneys which he apparently had no means of paying. [...] The ships cast anchor to the souteast out of range of the Fort and after hoisting the English flag above the white one hauled down the latter.' We saw an English sloop tacking about between the two ships and the shore and from Fort St. [...] As for the English ships as the captain of the ship from the north hoisted the white flag the others pretended to pursue it in the hope that the Moire would come out to the rescue of the (supposed) French ship and so be1757] ANANDA RANGA PILLAI 18 seized.