VOYAGE TO MADAGASCAR. 303 



*' to US to be a very unheakhful fpot^ fur- 

 ** rounded by mountains, the great height of 

 " which attracts the clouds, and coodenfes 

 tbem into rain, de Belcombe re- 

 ** marked to Benyowfki the difadvantages 

 " of this poft : but though they were ob* 

 *' vious, he obRinately refiifed to acknow- 

 " ledge them, la vain was he fliewn the 

 ** defiles in the mountains, which it was 

 *' impoliiblc to guard : he ftill pcrfifted 

 ** that this poft was lefs fufceptible of art 

 attack than that of Louifburgh. He main- 

 tained that a fmall battery, which he cal- 

 ** led Fort Augui^us, fituated on a peaked 

 *' mount, in the middle of the Piam of 

 *• Healibf would ^roted and defend his 

 ** eftablifliment in fuch a manner as to re- 

 ** pel aa enemy, however numerous, I af- 

 cended to tins fine fortrefs by a paltry ftair, 

 ** confifting of an hundred and fifty ll^ps, 

 " and found it a fquare of eight fathoms^^ 



" furrounded 



