Bertrand-François Mahé de La Bourdonnais

Bertrand François Mahé de La Bourdonnais ( born February 11, 1699 Saint- Malo, † September 9, 1753 in Paris) was a French admiral.

La Bourdonnais was already in 1723 a captain in the navy of the French East India Company. 1724 he distinguished himself at the capture of Mahé (India) on the Malabar Coast and therefore received this suffix. Since 1734 he was governor of the islands of Mauritius (then called Île de France), and Réunion (then Île de Bourbon ) and built this out into thriving colonies. In 1740 he was entrusted with the command of a fleet department in the East Indian waters. From 1744 onwards, there was, during the debates in the War of Austrian Succession to the First Karnataka war with the British East India Company. La Bourdonnais added the English doing significant damage to and forced on September 21, 1746 Madras to surrender. Then he should make no conquest on the mainland, but he left Madras again against a contribution of 9 million livres. That's why he was accused by the Governor General Joseph François Dupleix, of having betrayed the interests of the Company. Therefore, he returned to Paris in 1748 and was imprisoned in the Bastille. After three years of imprisonment, he was released in 1752 and declared guiltless, but he died a short time later.

He has left his Memoires (Paris 1750). In Paul et Virginie by Jacques -Henri Bernardin de Saint -Pierre his memory is perpetuated; in Port Louis in Mauritius him a statue was erected in 1859. It was also the place Mahebourg, a district capital of Mauritius, as well Mahé, the main island of the Seychelles group, named after him.

His grandson was the famous chess player Louis -Charles Mahé de La Bourdonnais, who published The life story of his grandfather in 1827.