Storia do Mogor 17: NOTE ON BOUREAU-DESLANDES.
Storia do Mogor (Irvine) 17
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NOTE ON BOUREAU-DESLANDES.
17.1685
NEXT to François Martin himself, Boureau-Deslandes stands out as the most capable person employed by Colbert's French Company in India in the fifty years of its existence. Yet his name has not hitherto found its way into any biographical dictionary, a fact hardly to be wondered at, perhaps, when we find that it was not until 1860—when the late Mr. Pierre Margry interested himself in the subject—that any adequate, or even tolerably correct, life of F. Martin himself found a place in the 'Biographie Universelle.' I have therefore made some research into the official career and the family history of Martin's son-in-law and colleague, the results of which I here present.
André Boureau-Deslandes, the scion of an ancient and honourable family, was born at Tours probably between 1740 and 1750. I have not been able to procure a copy of his birth or baptismal register, and thus cannot give any more exact date. His early life is not traced, and we first hear of him in India between 1667 and 1672, in the service of the French East India Company, which had been founded in 1665 under the auspices of Louis XIV.'s Minister, Colbert. There being no colonial archives of the État Civil (births, deaths, and marriages) earlier than 1690, no exact date can be given, but before April 26, 1686, at latest, Deslandes had been married at Surat to Marie Françoise, the daughter of François Martin, then chief of the French factory at that place. In 1694 there were six children issue of the marriage, three sons and three daughters.
The eldest child, a girl, was living at Pondicherry with her grandparents, and the proud grandfather writes in October, 1692 : 'La fille que nous avons avec nous, qui est l'ainée, est un petit bijou, une distinction au-dessus de son aage.' In 1693, when the siege by the Dutch began, Madame Martin moved with her granddaughter to San Thomé. On the capitulation of Pondicherry they were allowed to rejoin François Martin, and they proceeded with him to Batavia, thence to Hūglī, where they joined Deslandes and his wife. The second and third children were sons, and the fourth a daughter (born in 1692).
Their second child and eldest son was André François Boureau-Deslandes, born at Hūglī on May 19, 1689, and baptized on May 24 in the church of Notre Dame du Rosaire by the Prior Julian de Gratia, Augustinian, the absent godfather and godmother, F. Martin and Margaret Colinet, being represented by Jean François Cuperly and Gabriel Pellé. This son may be identical with the François Boureau, Lord of Chevalrie and Lieutenant of Militia, whose daughter by his wife, Marie Thérèse Jaham, was baptized at Martinique on March 10, 1709. In any case, we know that A. F. B. Deslandes was appointed a Commissary of Marine on April 30, 1716, and Commissary-General on May 6, 1736. At the latter date he was serving at Brest, but on January 1, 1738, was transferred to Rochefort. He retired upon pension on December 1, 1746, and died in 1757. He became a well-known light lance in literature, and published many works of a sceptical turn. The best-remembered thing about him is his forming the subject of an epigram by Voltaire :
'Écrivez français, bourreau !'
Let us turn now to the official career of the elder Boureau-Deslandes. The exact date on which he entered the French Company's service is not known, but it must have been early in its history. Obviously the MS. petition of 1703, applying for letters of nobility, must be in error in assigning 1676 as the year of his arrival in India. We hear of a Boureau at Calicut in 1669, probably our Boureau-Deslandes ; and Caron, the first director in India (drowned 1674), is said to have sent him before 1672 to Balasor, on the Bengal coast, whence he reached the Hūglī, and then founded (so it is said) Chandarnagar on that river. In January, 1674, there were both a Boureau and a Boureau-Deslandes in the French council at Surat. It is asserted (Weber, 171) that in 1676 Deslandes fortified Chandarnagar, but this may be doubted.
We then hear of him as having been sent from Surat in 1679 in charge of two ships, with orders to re-establish on the Malabar coast the trade which had been broken off by the war. He was instructed to negotiate with the local princes and with the viceroys and governors under the Portuguese crown.
Next we find him on duty in Siam, where he proceeded on board the Vautour. He acquired the confidence of the King of Siam, who desired him to remain to conduct the company's trade. The Vautour, therefore, left Siam without him on December 1, 1680. On December 26, 1682, he reported from Siam to Baron, the director at Surat. The ambassadors subsequently despatched from France by Louis XIV. were instructed to ask confirmation of the treaties Deslandes had obtained. In 1685 he left Siam on an English vessel. He was bound for Surat, and carried with him commissions to be executed for the King of Siam, amounting to over 200,000 livres. He arrived at Surat at some date prior to October 15, 1685.
17.1694
Francois Martin had been transferred from Pondicherry to Surat, where he arrived on August 22, 1681, and upon Baron's death (June 10, 1683) succeeded to the conduct of affairs. It was about this time (1685-86) that Deslandes married F. Martin's elder daughter. On April 20, 1686, we find Deslandes still at Surat, and we are told that he was preparing for a move to Pondicherry as Second in Council, with the object of being employed on the Choromandel coast and Bengal. F. Martin and his family reached Pondicherry on May 20, 1686, and Deslandes either accompanied them or soon followed them. Before he left Surat he was sent with le Sieur Roques as a deputation to the Mahomedan Governor of Surat to remonstrate at his continual exactions.
On June 15, 1686, Deslandes formed one of a deputation from Pondicherry to Fort St. George (Madras); and an English trader's letter from Mergui (in Tenasserim), dated December 30, 1686, would lead us to believe that he was at Pondicherry at that date. We know he was still there on September 24, 1687. It must, then, have been in the end of 1687 that he revisited Siam at the request of the king; but although the king wished to retain him, he did not remain long, for the French Company required his services to found a trading station in Bengal. On the return journey he and the French ambassador to Siam were off Madras on January 14, 1688, but excused themselves from landing on the plea that business required them to hasten to Pondicherry. We have notices of his presence at Pondicherry on February 2 and 17, 1688. He now became Director-General of Commerce in Bengal, and left Pondicherry in April, 1688, to take up his new duties. In October, 1689, he was called upon by Martin to send a shipload of food from Bengal to relieve the distress then prevailing in Pondicherry. He remained in Bengal until 1701, as is proved by a whole series of letters.
In 1690 Deslandes had a dispute with the Portuguese Augustinian friars at Hugli, who had sent their Christians to force their way into the French compound (loge). In consequence, Deslandes retired a few miles off to Chandarnagar, and there built another loge. This seems the real date for the foundation of the French settlement at Chandarnagar; until this time they had apparently, like the other Europeans, lived in or close to Hugli town.
The date of the founding of Chandarnagar is somewhat obscure, but some light is thrown upon it by the English records. In a general letter from Hugli, dated October 13, 1686, para. 8, we hear that the French had sent orders to settle factories all over Bengal; to which Fort St. George, September 1, 1688, para. 44, adds the fact that they are endeavouring to procure the Mogul's farmān. Again, in January, 1689, para. 16, it is said that, 'French trade is increasing by new settlements in ... Bengal, though no factory had been built, nor any certain terms agreed on.' On January 16, 1692, the Calcutta Council write (para. 17) that 'the French had almost finished a large factory at Chandarnagar.' From Dhakkah, under date May 26, 1690, we hear of a struggle between the Dutch and French, apparently about Chandarnagar. The French had bought a piece of ground 'for which they have a prime writing'; but the Dutch refused to let them build. After taking the dispute before the nawab (the nazim) and the dīwan, it was referred to the king. Finally, by the Fort St. George general letter of November 20, 1691 (O.C. 5777) we are told that: 'The Mounseers have been long idle and quiet at Pullicherry ... tho' their Chief in Bengali is building severall large Factoryes, bigg enough for a mighty trade, but 'tis doubted too large for their Stock.'
From F. Martin's letter of January 22, 1691, we learn that Deslandes then spoke of returning to France. He complained of having been passed over in promotion. Other notices of him at Hugli (for thus he dates his letters) are found in his letters of December 15, 1691, and January 20 and 29, 1693 (? 1694). In the last of these he states that he has just heard of the fall of Pondicherry, and that F. Martin was a prisoner. There are other letters from him to the directors of September 27, 1693, and January 25, 1694.
17.1701
Pondicherry had surrendered to the Dutch on September 6, 1693 (N.S.) and F. Martin, his family, and the garrison were transported to Batavia. On arrival there he was allowed at his earnest request to return to India, and on February 15, 1694, rejoined his son-in-law Deslandes at the French factory on the Hugli. There he remained until the restoration of Pondicherry to the French under the Peace of Ryswick (1697). We find several letters in that period signed either by F. Martin alone or jointly with Boureau-Deslandes, viz. : December 28, 1694; July 10 and 25, November 21, 1696; January 15 and 16, October 19, and December 30, 1697. On January 5, 1698, Martin passed Calcutta in a ship taking him back to Pondicherry (India Office, 'Factory Records,' Calcutta, p. 3). There are passing mentions of Deslandes in the Calcutta records of December 6 and 14, 1690, and June 30, 1698. In February, 1700, he wrote to the governor at Calcutta condoling on the loss of the East India Merchant, and sent two sloops to assist in the work of salvage. Boureau-Deslandes remained in charge of Chandarnagar, as is shown by the letters of January 4, February 8, and December 12, 1700, and the list of the company's servants at Hugli, dated January 10, 1700. From the letter of January 9, 1701, signed by B. Deslandes, Dulivier, and Pele, we learn that a month before that date Deslandes had decided to act on the permission he had received to retire on the ground of family cares and poor health. Some farmans that had long been desired had just been obtained, and he believed that affairs could now go on without him. He meant to sail by the Phelypeaux, and gave over charge to Dulivier (Pele and Renault, members of council). On January 10 he embarked for Pondicherry, which he reached on February 3. Manucci, Part IV., fol. 54, also speaks of his being at Pondicherry in February, 1701. He left for France on February 23, and reached that country on August 28, 1701.
17.1706
In April, 1703, Boureau-Deslandes received from Louis XIV. letters of nobility for himself and his posterity in reward for his services in India. On November 28 of the same year he was nominated Commissary at St. Domingo by the king, also Director-General in America by the Royal Company established for supplying negroes to the Spanish colonies. He died in the West Indies on February 13, 1706.
17.1700
A treatise by Boureau-Deslandes — 'Relations de la France avec le Royaume de Siam' — has been published by Pierre Margry in 'Relations et Mémoires' (Paris: Challamel Ainé, 1867), No. V., pp. 149-184; No. IV., pp. 115-148, in the same volume being a paper by François Martin on 'L'Inde et les Nations Européennes,' dated February 15, 1700.
17.p6
One point connected with the history of François Martin may be commented on here. Monsieur Weber, in his 'La Compagnie Française des Indes' (1904), pp. 181, 182, states that on the capitulation of Pondicherry in September, 1693, F. Martin 'était revenu en France où le roi l'avait traité avec honneur.' This is evidently an error, probably due to a confusion between François Martin, the Director-General, and Jean Baptiste Martin, the Second in Council at Pondicherry in 1693. It is clear from the tenth article of capitulation that François Martin begged to be allowed to remain in India. But this request was refused. His wife and granddaughter with their servants and baggage were recalled from San Thomé, where in July, 1693, they had been sent for safety, and they embarked with Martin for Batavia. The Dutch ships from Pondicherry passed Fort St. David on their way to Negapatam on September 15, 1693 (O.S.), and the English write 'we hear Monsieur Martin is in the "Admirall."'
From a resolution of the governor-general and Council at Batavia, dated November 5, 1693, it appears that the French captives had recently arrived there on the Beurs and the Maas. Among them were Director François Martin and his family, consisting of his wife and the daughter of the French director in Bengal, 'Monsieur de Lande,' by their (the Martins') daughter, one French servant, one Armenian, two slave men, and two slave girls. These were accorded quarters in the governor-general's house, and the Martins were to eat at his table.
On November 9, the governor-general reported that F. Martin earnestly prayed to be spared the long journey to Europe on account of the advanced years of himself and his wife, and begged permission to proceed to Bengal. The matter was deliberated on.
Next day (the tenth) a petition from F. Martin was produced before the Council. It recites the fact that Laurens Pit, governor on the Choromandel coast and commanding the troops at the taking of Pondicherry, had referred the question of Martin's destination to the decision of the Batavia Council. During the negotiations he had asked to be allowed to depart either to Masulipatam or to Bengal, where the French Company had factories. This petition was refused, and in order not to break off negotiations, he withdrew his demand, on being given hope that at Batavia the article would be reconsidered. He appeals to the precedent of San Thome (1674), when Baron, director-general of the French Company, had been allowed to withdraw to Surat by land or water with forty-five to fifty persons. He pleads his own great age and the infirmity of his wife, who was not likely to survive a journey to Europe, and prays for terms similar to those accorded to Monsieur Baron. After deliberating the Council resolved, on perusal of the conditions allowed to Monsieur Baron, to grant Francois Martin's request on account of his age, and he was permitted to embark with his family for Bengal via Malacca on the flute Walenburg. We have already referred to his correspondence from Hughli, between 1694 and 1698. He sailed thence for Pondicherry on board the Gaillard in January, and arrived on March 8, 1699. On March 21, 1699, the English governor and Council at Fort St. George wrote to the French director-general and Council at Pondicherry, 'congratulating him on his restoration and being in quiet possession of that place once lost in war.'