384 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



of fruitlefs voyages, fervices, and labours, I was 

 preparing, in folitude, thefe laft fruits of my expe- 

 rience and application, my fecret enemies, that is, 

 the men under whom I fcorned to enlift as a par- 

 tifan, found means to intercept a gratuity which I 

 annually received from the beneficence of my So- 

 vereign. It was the only fource of fubfiftence to 

 myfelf, and the only means I enjoyed of affifting 

 my family. To this cataftrophe were added the 

 lofs of health, and domeftic calamities, which 

 baffle all the powers of defcription. I have haf- 

 tened, therefore, to gather the fruit, though flill 



firft, as rendering an eflential fervice to my Country, by mak- 

 ing it apparent, that this ifland, which is kept filled with troops, 

 was, in no refpec^t, proper for being the flaple, or the citadel of 

 our commerce with India, from which it is more than fifteen 

 hundred leagues diltant. This I have even proved by the events 

 of preceding wars, in which Pondicherry has always been taken 

 from us, though the Ifle of France was crowded with foldiers. 

 The late war has confirmed anew the truth of my obfervations. 

 For thefe fervices, as well as for many others, I have received no 

 other recoinpenfe fave indireft perfecutions, and calumnies, 

 on the part of the inhabitants of that ifland, whom I repre- 

 hended for their barbarity to their flaves. I have not even re- 

 ceived an adequate indemnification for a fpecies of Ihipwreck I 

 underwent, on my return, at the Ifland of Bourbon, nor for the 

 fmallnefs of my appointments, which were not up to the half of 

 thofe of the ordinary Engineers of my rank. I am well affured, 

 that, under a Marine Minifler, as intelligent, and as equitable 

 as M. the Marefchal de Cajlries, I fliould have reaped fome part 

 of the fruit of my literary and military fervices. 



immature, 



