was the source of two misfortunes, which were attended with great pain and difficulty to La Bourdonnais. In the first place, it left him too short a space of time to complete the repairs of his ships; nor was this the greatest obstacle; an epidemical disease, then prevalent, had carried off the greater part of his naval artisans at a time when they were most needful. He was, therefore, obliged to form for himself a new set of workmen to supply their place; and what is very singular, from among those whose previous occupations had no connexion whatever with the dock-yard. He accordingly employed house carpenters to shape the ship-timbers, and repair the defective parts of vessels; locksmiths to forge nails, and make carriages for guns, and tailors to make sails. It will be readily conceived with what reluctance artisans, unaccustomed to such work, would have executed them, and how imperfectly such labours would have been performed; indeed, it would not have been possible for him to have succeeded, had he not possessed a perfect acquaintance with the science of ship-building, and made a practical application of it to the necessities of the moment by furnishing models, regulating the shape and measure, and superintending every class of workmen in his own person with unceasing activity and care, and sometimes by actually assisting them in their manual operations.

In short, his knowledge and activity supplied all his wants, and at length surmounted difficulties, which appeared insurmountable to every one, but himself. The second misfortune was still more grievous, than the first; it consisted in a deficiency of provisions and equipment. The ships, which composed the first armament, had consumed their provisions in waiting for the arrival of those expected from Europe; and the latter, having been victualled but for fourteen months, there remained no more than four months provisions after the voyage, so that M. de la Bourdonnais was under the necessity of victualling both squadrons. The crews on their arrival were also in a very bad state, and the Achilles alone was equipped as a ship-of-war, the others being armed only as merchantmen. It was necessary, therefore, to add to their force, and augment their crews; and this had to be accomplished by a man who was already in want of every thing.

In the mean time, he formed soldiers by dividing the crews into companies, and incorporating workmen and with them as many negroes as he could clothe. These he instructed in the use of arms and the practice of military evolutions. He himself taught them how to scale a wall and apply a petard; he exercised them too in firing at a target, and qualified the most dexterous among them to manage a machine, which he had himself invented, to throw grapnels for boarding, to the distance of a hundred and eighty feet, by means of mortars; in a word, he formed a body of soldiers, on whom he could rely in the moment of danger; and his success would undoubtedly have been still more complete, if the officers of both

squadrons had been willing to second his zealous and indefatigable activity; but the good will he discovered in some was more than counterbalanced by the murmurs and disapprobation of the others. The sacrifice of their personal interest was the principal cause of their discontent, as, in order to change the merchant-men into shipsof-war, it was absolutely necessary to unload and leave on shore the ventures allowed by the Company to the officers, so that they risked the loss of those advantages, which they had expected to derive from the sale of them in India. They loudly complained of the deceit practised on them by the Company, and the injury they should sustain by being deprived of those privileges, which could alone remunerate them for the hazards of so long and dangerous a voyage.

These complaints, which were made in the most public manner, caused no small uneasiness and mortification to M. de la Bourdonnais, who day by day remarked how they discouraged the crews, and the more easily as they were now reduced to half allowance, and were kept in a state of continual and laborious discipline. They all felt with what suavity and address he had endeavoured to stifle their complaints, and the ingratiating attentions and persuasive arguments he had employed to gain them over to his views; but while he succeeded with some, there still remained those who did every thing in their power to thwart his designs. As each of his vessels were successively equipped, he sent them to Madagascar to subsist, and collect provisions, until he could join them with the rest of the squadron.

On the other hand, as the ships which arrived from Europe in his absence would be subject to his orders, he directed M. de St. Martin, who remained in the Isles as deputy-governor, to detain a part of these vessels in port, and to make use of their equipment in arming the others. These were destined to cruize off Bombay, and to capture such English ships as might be returning from Gedda, Mocha, or Persia; and he left further orders that they should make the best of their way to Mahé after this cruise, so that they might be in a state to execute any subsequent directions in the beginning of September. In short, after having done everything that depended on himself for the good of the service, he prepared to depart for the coast of Malabar, where he reckoned on meeting in May the English ships coming from Surat. Previous to his departure, he sent a dispatch to the Company at home, which gave an account of his situation and designs. All things prepared, M. de la Bourdonnais set sail from the Isle of France on the 24th of March, 1746, his squadron being victualled only for sixty-five days.

CHAPTER III.

The administration of M. David-Expeditions of Admiral Boscawen and Count d'Aché-Government of MM. Bouvet, Magou, Boucher, Dumas-Intendancy of Poivre.

M. DE ST. MARTIN filled the office of deputy-governor of the two islands on the nomination of his relative M. de la Bourdonnais during the visit of the latter to France, and subsequent expedition against the English settlements in India, and the Baron Grant was entrusted with the direction of their military defence.

It has already been seen how M. de la Bourdonnais contrived to form an effective corps of soldiers by making them practise various manœuvres of attack and defence on the principal batteries of the island, and sham assaults on the forts with bamboo ladders. All the Creoles being thus disciplined and inured to military exercise, formed excellent volunteers for joining with the European troops in the enterprise, which he meditated on Madras. M. de la Bourdonnais having ordered all the troops under arms, presented himself, and commanded all those, whether officers or soldiers, who were willing to go on this expedition, to advance beyond the lines. Not a man remained behind. M. de St. Martin was succeeded in 1746 by M. David, who had previously filled the post of governor of Senegal. He is thus described by Baron Grant in a letter to some friends in France.

"The arrival of our new governor has brought prosperity with it. The inhabitants are enchanted with the manners of M. David; he is not so enterprising as M. de la Bourdonnais; but mildness, humanity, and politeness, are the least of his good qualities. He is rich, and displays the best possible intentions for the welfare of the colony, and from the manner in which he speaks and acts, we shall derive considerable advantages from his administration. After he had made the necessary arrangements for the welfare of the colony, he engaged certain undertakings on his own account. One of these he formed on the sea-shore, for the manufacture of lime from coral, and placed seventy negroes in it. This was a very necessary establishment to carry on the buildings of the Company. He built also a beautiful stone house for himself, which he called L'Epreuve, as it was the first of the kind which had been constructed in the island. He has sent a frigate to France constructed at Port Louis, whose build has given general satisfaction. The East India Company, now assured that the island produces plenty of provisions and refreshment for their ships, will direct them all to stop at this port, which will be considered, as a principal magazine

for their commerce; at the same time every possible encouragement will be given to promote industry and advance cultivation. The different undertakings formed by M. de la Bourdonnais and M. David for raising cotton and indigo have failed, which will render useless the magazines erected by the latter for cultivating them with the necessary advantage and convenience. The sugar plantations have in some degree succeeded, whose produce resembles the coarse honey of Europe: time and industry, however, will bring it to perfection. The more wealthy adventurers are absolutely starving by being compelled to purchase the provisions necessary for themselves and their people. They have had the inconsiderate ambition to burthen themselves with large bodies of slaves, before they had provided the means of maintaining them. On his return from Madras, M. de la Bourdonnais found his place occupied by M. David. Many of the inhabitants were anxious to dispose of their plantations, being persuaded that the changes, which had taken place in the government, would be attended with inevitable disadvantages to them. It will indeed be very difficult to find such a governor as M. de la Bourdonnais. M. David had received orders from the Company to make every possible inquiry, and obtain all possible information relative to the administration of his predecessor. He was at the same time instructed not to give up to him the command of the ships, which were to return to Europe, if he had been guilty of any malversations. M. David had fulfilled his commission before the arrival of M. de la Bourdonnais at the Isle of France, and was fully convinced, that all the complaints exhibited against the latter had proceeded from passion and a spirit of mutiny. As soon as he had landed, M. de la Bourdonnais, to give the fullest proof in his power of the uprightness of his conduct towards individuals, as well as of his zeal and fidelity to the king and Company, repeated the course he had taken in France on a similar occasion, and publicly challenged those who had been injured by him, in any way whatever, either in the Isle of France or Bourbon, to come forward with their charges, that he might immediately do them justice, and make such restitution as they had a right to claim. But though he was now superseded in his government, and was not only a private, but in some measure a disgraced man, not a single complaint was instituted against him; in short, so irreproachable did his conduct appear in every particular, that M. David did not hesitate to deliver him the order of the king to command the ships destined for Europe."

Thus terminated the connexion of M. de la Bourdonnais with the Isle of France, which had lasted for eleven years-years fruitful in events both for the colony and its metropolis, during which the seat of the government had been transplanted from Bourbon to the Isle of France through the sagacity of the Governor-general, who saw at a glance that the possession of two such harbours gave the decided

D

pre-eminence to the claims of the latter over the former island, which was without that qualification.

The monuments of his industry still remain. Indeed, he may be truly said to have been the founder of Mauritius. "His memory still remains (says the local historian) in every heart; his portrait is in every house; his memoirs in every library, and his statue in the Place d'Armes."

con

The reaction against the French power in India consequent on the removal of M. de la Bourdonnais from the command, and the haughty and dishonourable conduct of M. Dupleix, the governor of Pondicherry, with respect to Madras and the native governments, was not long in producing a sensible change in the condition of the Isle of France. The war with England still continued, and the stant reinforcements, which had been sent out by that power, had again retrieved its naval superiority in the East, so that whole fleets, destined for the Isle of France, were either taken or destroyed, a few corvettes alone arriving to announce the disasters, and they were often in a crippled and dismasted condition. Baron Grant thus describes the state of the island in 1746 :

"We have been informed that fifteen ships have been dispatched from the East, laden with provisions for our islands; but unfortunately the English fell in with them, and being superior to them in point of force, have taken them all except one small vessel, which escaped but to make us acquainted with our misfortunes. We live at present in a most wretched state of incertitude, in want of every thing; and, to complete our misery, we are afflicted with a continued drought, which has known no interval throughout the year, but from an hurricane which visited us during the last month, and ravaged everything, occasioning many fatal accidents. Several persons were killed and wounded during its continuance, and, to complete our distress, it was succeeded by a cloud of locusts, which devoured whatever the hurricane had not laid waste."

The English ministry at once perceived that a blow had been struck against France in the East, which required but to be followed up with energy and resolution to produce the most splendid results. For the furtherance of this object, Mr. Boscawen, who had already highly distinguished himself in the execution of the several commissions with which he had been intrusted in Europe, was elevated to the rank of admiral, with the command of a powerful fleet, whose primary operations were to commence with an attack on the Isle of France, which had become the centre of French power in the East, and, after its reduction, to proceed to the attack of Pondicherry.

In November 1747, the rear-admiral sailed from England, with the combined squadrons of the maritime powers under his command, consisting of twenty-eight ships of war of different sizes-one of seventyfour, one of sixty-four, two of sixty, two of fifty, one of twenty, a sloop of fourteen guns, a bombship with her tender, and an hospital