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Bertrand François Mahé de La Bourdonnais
Bertrand-Francois Mahe, comte de La Bourdonnais (11 February 1699 – 10 November 1753) was a French naval officer and administrator, in the service of the French East India Company.
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Biography
La Bourdonnais was born in Saint-Malo, Brittany. He went to sea when he was at the age of 10, and in 1718 entered the service of the French East India Company as a lieutenant. In 1724 he was promoted captain, and displayed such bravery in the capture of Mahe off the Malabar Coast that the name of the town was added to his own. Although, an alternative account suggests that the town adopted his name, rather than the other way around. For two years he was in the service of the Portuguese Viceroy of Goa, but in 1735 he returned to French service as governor of the Isle de France (now Mauritius) and the Ile de Bourbon (Reunion). His first five years' administration of the islands was vigorous and successful. A visit to France in 1740 was interrupted by the outbreak of hostilities with Great Britain, and La Bourdonnais was put at the head of a fleet in Indian waters.
He saved Mahe, relieved General Dupleix at Pondicherry, defeated Edward Peyton, and in 1746 participated in the Siege of Madras. He quarrelled with Dupleix over the conduct of affairs in India, and his anger was increased on his return to the Isle de France, when he found that Dupleix had appointed a successor as governor. He set sail on a Dutch vessel to present his case at court, and was captured by the British, but allowed to return to France on parole. Instead of securing a settlement of his quarrel with Dupleix, he was arrested (1748) on a charge of gubernatorial speculation and maladministration, and secretly imprisoned for over two years in the Bastille. He was tried in 1751 and acquitted, but his health was broken by the imprisonment and by chagrin at the loss of his property. To the last he made unjust accusations against Dupleix. He died in Paris, aged 54, on 10 November 1753. The French government gave his widow a pension of 2400 livres.
Several places were named after him, including Mahe (Seychelles), Mahebourg (Mauritius) and two streets in Pondicherry: Labourdonnais street and Mahe de Labourdonnais street. Port Louis, Mauritius has a hotel which bears his name, the Labourdonnais Waterfront Hotel and also a school bearing his name Lycee La Bourdonnais.
La Bourdonnais left memoirs which were published by his grandson, a celebrated chess player, Count Louis-Charles Mahe de La Bourdonnais (1795–1840). He also wrote Traite de la mature des vaisseaux (Paris, 1723).