DUPLEIX, JOSEPH FRANCIS, an eminent French commander, who served in the Peninsula of India in the middle of the 18th century, and made great efforts to sustain French interests there, against the British. He oppossed Anwar ud-Din and his son Muhammad Ali, in opposition to Major Stringer Lawrence, who was contending against Chanda Sahib. Dupleix failed in an attack on Fort St. David, on the 19th December 1747. His efforts were directed to expel the British from the Peninsula, his chief British opponents being Lawrence and Clive. In that time, Madras, Fort St. David, Cuddalore, Arcot, St. Thome, repeatedly changed hands. He was appointed chief of Chan dernuggur, and succeeded M. Dumas as governor of Pondicherry. . He was of a bold, self-reliant, but haughty character, and was much thwarted by M. de la Boardonnais. It was in his time that Madras was taken and held by the French, and again restored to the British. He twice
failed to take Cuddalore. He negotiated largely and formed alliances with native chiefs,—with Chanda Sahib, Muzaffar Jung, and Nasir Jung. In 1752 he was appointed by Salabut Jung, SubaMar of the Dekhan, Nati ab of the Kar natic. For his services he was created a mar quis ; but misfortunes overtook him, and he was superseded by M. Godeheu, and returned to France in September 1754. Ou his return, the French Government refused to pass the bills for the sums which he had ordered to be disbursed on his own responsibility, and he was reduced to extreme poverty. He was shamefully ill-treated, and three days before his death, in 1754, he wrote in his memoir, I have sacrificed my youth, my fortune, my life, to enrich my nation in Asia.' His great name shed a lustre on the struggles of his country men for enwire in the East.—Orme ; Malleson.