The
French connection at Trincomalee
The
onslaught of western maritime powers which began around 1505 in Sri Lanka
continued in varying intensities until 1815 when the Sinhalese signed
an agreement with British Empire for the governance of mountain kingdom.
Portuguese
and Dutch occupations of parts of Maritime Provinces lasted close to 150 years each.
At the end, in 1815 British by use of force, diplomacy and intrigue were able to
end 300 years of resistance of the last Sinhalese kingdom led by Kandyan Kings.
The
activities of those three maritime empires in Sri-Lanka are well known among us.
However two attempts by the French to come and establish themselves in
Sri-Lanka are not as known and remain in shrouds of mystery. It is interesting
to note that both these French attempts took place in and around Trincomalee;
the second biggest and deepest natural harbour in the world. The first attempt
took place in 22nd March 1672 when a French fleet commanded by Admiral
De La Haye appeared off Ceylon and cast anchor in the bay of ‘Thirikunamale’.
When they arrived at Trincomalee the Dutch who were controlling some parts of Maritime
Provinces at the time had a small fort in Trincomalee. The sudden appearance of
French fleet disconcerted the Hollanders. They set fire to their fort and
retired. The French having seeing the hasty departure of Dutch, occupied the
two islands centrally located within the Trincomalee harbour and started
building fortifications. The two islands were named by French as Isle by Soleil
(island of the sun) and Caron. Since the British period the islands are known
as Sober islands.
At
the time, the king of Kandy was Rajasinghe II (1629 to Dec 1687) and he was at
war with the Dutch. King Rajasinghe, fortunately for the French, was looking
for a maritime power to assist him to cut off Dutch reinforcements coming to
Sri Lanka whilst he was engaged in fighting Dutch on land.
Admiral De La
Haye sent an emissary with 30 French soldiers to Kandyan courts to negotiate
with the king. Sieur Desfon Taines, the emissary was treated so graciously in Kandy
he decided not to return, and settled down in Kandy. Instead two court
officials accompanied by several thousand men arrived at Trincomalee and were entertained
on board ships by French. Few days after
the return of court officials thousands of men arrived from Kandy to assist the
work in fortification. Within two months of arrival of French, a treaty was
signed between king Rajasinghe and the French, granting approval for French to
build fortification for the control of Trincomalee harbour. Shortly afterwards governor
of Dutch processions in Ceylon, Van Goen arrived with a Dutch fleet to oppose
the French presence in Trincomale.
At this juncture the French position was
menacing. More than 400 French soldiers were suffering from dysentery resulting
from exposure to the intense sun and were being treated by the 12 physicians
sent by king of Kandy. There was a serious shortage of fresh provisions and French
could not find adequate supplies, especially meat, for this large body of men.
Dutch meanwhile landed some troops close by in an attempt to cut off supplies
from the interior. Kandyan troops engaged Dutch soldiers but French did not
join the Kandyan troops in this battle claiming that they are formally at peace
with Netherland.
The Kandyan
enthusiasm for their newfound ally suffered greatly because of this apparent
contradiction. Two ships the French sent
to south India to succour supplies were captured by the Dutch fleet making
French position even more perilous. The diseases and the lack of food resulted
in many deaths and Admiral Haye decided to leave Trincomalee leaving just 100
men in the fortification and two vessels at anchor. No sooner main fleet left
Trincomalee Dutch attacked that position and remaining French troops were
forced to surrender. A large army from Kandy came to Trincomalee but they were
late by two days. So the French ambitions to build a trading empire in India
with Trincomalee as its base and Sinhalese dream of getting rid of Dutch from
Sri-Lanka with the assistance of another maritime power, were both lost in 3
months
The second incident of French
appearance that took place after 110 years after the attempt by Admiral Haye,
is as interesting as the previous incident and as short lived as well.
From the beginning French had tacitly
helped Americans in the war of independence. In 1778 they openly declared against
British by signing the treaty of alliance with USA. Because of this open declaration,
British in India captured French strong holds including Pondichary. In order to support their positions and of their
allies, Dutch, France sent 12 ships under the command of Rear
admiral Andre De suffren. After several skirmishes against British ships, his
fleet join with another French squadron that increased the strength of the
fleet to 11 ships of the line and several transports carrying nearly 3000 troops.
In the overall command of the Combined fleet was Admiral D’ Estinene – D Orves.
This elderly Admiral died on board leaving the fleet under the direct command
of Suffren.
The fleet sailed to Madras and met
with British squadron commanded by Admiral Edward Hughes. French fleet engaged British
squadron off Madras in the ‘battle of Sadras’. After the engagement Suffren was
able to safely disembark the French troops in the Indian soil. After meeting
Hyder Ali, the ruler of Mysore Suffren led his fleet to Trincomalee, in pursuit
of British squadron which had sailed for Trincomalee.
Two fleets met in April 1782 off the
Island of Providian (probably present Chalaithivu island near Vakarai, south of
Trincomalee). Broadsides were engaged from noon to nightfall. After the nightfall
Hughes returned to Trincomalee and Suffren anchored at Baticaloa which was still
under the control of Dutch and remained there for six weeks to repair and
replenish.
Next
engagement took place off Nagapatnam when French fleet attempted to capture the
coastal town of Nagapatnam. In this encounter, a storm scatted both the
battered fleets, half way through the engagement, without a decision. The high point
of the campaign took place in 1782 when Suffren together with another small French
squadron that had joined him entered Trincomalee and landed 2400 French troops.
After being bombarded for three days by French, British garrison Commander,
Captain McDowell surrendered Trincomalee to French on 31 August 1782. Suffren fortified
the garrison and waited for Admiral Hughes fleet. Fleet appeared in September
as expected and after the engagement
between two fleets, known as the ‘battle of Trincomalee’ in the annals of
maritime warfare , two fleets broke away
and took shelter; British in Bombay and French in Indonesia, because of the onset of northeast monsoon.
In 1783 with the beginning of
southwest monsoon Suffren returned to India and engaged the British fleet off Cuddalore
inflicting sufficient damage to force Admiral Hughes to withdraw to Madras.
This happened to be the last engagements between the fleets of Suffren and
Admiral Hughes since French and British signed an article of peace to end hostilities
in the sub continent
French handed back Trincomalee to Dutch
East India Company (VOC) at the peace of Paris in 1784 and in 1795 it was taken
over by British
So ended the second attempt by the
French to establish a permanent foot hold in Trincomalee; two brief but
colourful and eventful occupations. Of the two admirals, Suffren, considered
perhaps the ablest naval commander French ever produced, returned to France where
he was enthusiastically received. He was made vice Admiral of French fleet in
1781 and later was killed in a duel, by the prince Du Mirepoix. The course of
the encounter apparently had been saffron’s refusal in very strong language to
use his influence to secure the restoration to the Navy of two of the prince’s
relations who had been dismissed for misconduct.
Hughes returned to England after the peace
agreement. Although he was promoted to higher positions he never hoisted his
flag on a ship again. He lived a rich man from the wealth he accumulated from
his Indian service and died in 1774.
I vaguely remember the name of famous ‘දස්කොන්’ is Pierre Desfontaine and he was a son of this Sieur Desfontaine.
ReplyDeleteRajasingha ii ruled from 1635-1687. Daskon adhigar worked for king Narendrasingha, Rajasinghas grand son 1707-1730, so it is entirely possible, there are several families in kandy with a surname of Daskon
ReplyDelete