The political changes of the late-eighteenth century had troublesome repercussions for the sleepy Capuchin mission in Madras. It had been essentially a French mission ever since the British authorities encouraged a French Capuchin missionary to settle in Fort St George in 1642. He was in fact on his way to Pegu, but the British wanted to counterbalance Portuguese influence in their new settlement. But in the 1780s the position was reversed. The Company's government then found that for reasons of home politics it was expedient to show sympathy for Portuguese interests. French entanglements in Mysore provided an additional reason for the Madras government to favour the Portuguese Bishop of San Thome in nearby Mailapur (Mylapore) rather than the French Bishop in Pondichery.