FRENCH AFRICAN COMPANIES, ^19 
might have been supposed, that this downfall of 
company after company would at length have 
opened the eyes of government to the error of the 
system upon which they were acting ; and that 
some trial would have been made of the efforts 
of free commercial intercourse. No such idea 
ever occurred ; nor, on the ruin of one company, 
did any remedy suggest itself, except the imme- 
diate erection of another. A fourth was accord- 
ingly erected, which, by great diligence, and by a 
' judicious choice of its agents in Africa, was ena- 
bled to keep itself afloat for fifteen years, after 
which it sunk like the rest. It was succeeded by 
a fifth, w^hich expired in eight years. The under- 
taking was then absorbed by the Great Mississippi 
Company, which undertook to carry on at once 
the comimerce of America, of Africa, and of the 
East Indies. After that mighty bubble had burst, 
the system of exclusive companies, so far as re- 
lated to this quarter of the globe, was at length 
relinquished ; the territories were taken under 
the administration of the crown, and the trade 
was left free to all the subjects of France. 
Notwithstanding the rapid downfall of these 
successive companies, each, at its commencement, 
had a period of hope and activity, during which 
vigorous exertions were made to extend the chan- 
nels of its commerce. The French, therefore, in 
the course of the eighteenth century, penetrated 
