66 
HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
Mons. Maudave, who was sent out to establish this 
colony, reached the island in 1768, took formal possession 
of the government of Fort Dauphin, and made immediate 
preparations for the execution of his plan. It was not 
long, however, before this equitable and benevolent project 
was entirely relinquished by the French government, on 
the plea of having discovered that the establishment was 
founded on false principles. They also declared, that 64 it 
was utterly impossible to afford the advances of every kind 
required by M. Maudave in his new colony.” 
Such are the reasons given by Mons. de Boynes, the 
French minister, in a letter subsequently written to Messrs. 
Tournay and Maillart, relative to the undertaking of Count 
Benyowsky. There is every reason to believe, that after the 
experience the natives had had of the cupidity and cruelty 
of the French, it would have been difficult to persuade 
them to admit even of such an establishment as Mons. 
Maudave proposed, in the interior of the island; but it is 
also probable, that the chief cause of its abandonment was 
the expense it would have brought upon the French govern¬ 
ment, whose resources were at that time so much needed to 
support the measures adopted by that country during the 
American struggle for independence. 
After the return of Mons. Maudave to Europe, the 
French government made another proposal for establishing 
a colony, to Count Benyowsky, a Polish nobleman of great 
celebrity, whose adventurous career was distinguished by 
so much of the marvellous and romantic, and whose 
eccentric and chequered life has been so much misrepre¬ 
sented by party feeling as to render it difficult to ascertain 
with accuracy the true nature of his connexion with the 
island of Madagascar. His memoirs and travels, written 
by himself, form the subject of a work well worthy the 
