ABSTRACT
“In the year 1753,” writes Alexander Dalrymple, “an Expedition to settle at Negrais was undertaken; As the particular Motives, for this Scheme, were communicated only to a Secret Committee, of these, or of the Plan laid down, if there was any, I can therefore say nothing,” He does, however, offer one useful clue to the origin of the settlement in the shape of a paper of anonymous authorship entitled “The Consequence of Settling an European Colony on the Island Negrais.” For many years no attempt had been made to develop settled trading relations with the country: the risks were considered too great. Thomas Saunders’s first move, on hearing of the Pegu-Pondicherry rapprochement, was to write home to the Directors suggesting that in view of a rumour that the French intended to obtain from the Court of Pegu the cession of the Island of Negrais, the Company should forestall them by planting a settlement there.
