HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
69 
in the prejudice existing against him amongst the French. 
In confirmation of his own opinion, he quotes that of his 
friend, Mons. Poivre, which sufficiently proves how little 
the Count had reason to expect from those, on whose co¬ 
operation and support he had been rendered dependent. 
ee We have seen,” said Mons. Poivre, in conversing with 
llochon, cc swarms of locusts devouring in an instant abund¬ 
ant harvests; we have seen two terrible hurricanes threaten 
this island with total subversion; but Madagascar always 
served to compensate the mischief done by those awful 
scourges: henceforth the Isle of France has lost all its 
resources; it must fall and perish, if similar scourges 
should again happen to spread desolation over these fields. 
Under the government of Benyowsky, Madagascar will no 
longer be the support of this settlement; in cur future 
misfortunes, we must only hope for distant and precarious 
relief. I was much habituated to the success of cheats 
and adventurers, but the success of Benyowsky overwhelms 
me with confusion; the more so, as I have written a letter 
on his account to the minister. I well know that oddities 
are pleasing, that they amuse the multitude, and raise their 
credulity to the highest pitch of excess; but how could I 
imagine that a stranger just broke loose from chains and 
prisons at Kamschatka, and sunk into contempt by his 
own writings, should obtain such an important charge 
without my approbation ? Strongly attached, in virtue of 
my office, to the welfare of this colony, I ought, the first 
time he spoke to me about Madagascar, to have excited in 
him a desire of dethroning the Mogul; this request w r ould 
surely have been complied with, and we should have got 
rid of him.” 
In confirmation of the value which it appears, by these 
observations, was attached to the island of Madagascar, 
