In 1768, the missionaries were jailed for three months when Siamese authorities complained to the local ruler Mạc Thiên Tứ that the school had afforded shelter to a fugitive Siamese prince. Pigneau was put into a cangue, a wooden and iron frame fastened around his limbs weighing eight pounds. He ignored family requests to return to France, saying that his missionary work was more important than a comfortable life. In 1769, the school was attacked by Chinese and Cambodian pirates, who massacred some of the students and burnt down the establishment... Pigneau was forced to flee in December 1769 with the survivors to Pondicherry, then a French territory, after a long sea journey through Malacca. The College was established a few miles from Pondicherry, in Virampatnam.