 News of the conflict took some months to reach the East Indies , where British and French naval forces had fought an inconclusive campaign for control of the Indian Ocean trade routes since 1793 . British forces , supporting those of the East India Company , were principally operating from Madras and Calcutta in India , the French from their island bases of Île de France ( now Mauritius ) and Réunion . Following an inconclusive engagement off Île Ronde on 22 October 1794 , the French squadron on Île de France had remained under blockade at Port Louis and thus most of the British naval forces in the East Indies were available for the campaign against the Batavian territories . Dutch colonisation of Ceylon did not span the whole island , which was mostly ruled by the interior Kingdom of Kandy . European settlement was instead concentrated at coastal strips surrounding the significant ports of Colombo on the west coast and Trincomalee on the east , supplemented by smaller trading factories and settlements elsewhere . Trincomalee was particularly important as raiding forces based in the port could easily strike against British trade routes in the Bay of Bengal , but the port had limited food supplies , poorly @-@ developed facilities and a small garrison . 
