HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
71 
Under these circumstances, Benyowsky conducted him¬ 
self with all his accustomed decision and firmness. He 
despatched a part of his troops on the 7th of December, 
1773, in the Postillion brig, which had been deputed for 
the service of Madagascar; but his own stay was pro¬ 
tracted by the conduct of the governor, until the February 
following, by which means his arrival took place in the 
rainy season, the period when the fever usually prevails on 
the coast. 
In the mean time he was annoyed by the most injurious 
reports respecting the object of his expedition. “ I 
learned,” he says in his memoirs, “ that some part of my 
troops were seduced by other regiments, and that some of 
my volunteers had already deserted; that the disadvan¬ 
tageous observations on our expedition had been urged 
with such malice and success, that part of my officers had 
pretended sickness, with a view to delay their departure 
for Madagascar. I understood, likewise, that the chiefs 
of the Isle of France had sent emissaries to that island, 
to the king Hyavi, and other chiefs, to warn them that I 
was come to deprive them of their liberty, and that I had 
no other intention than to impose the yoke of slavery upon 
the whole island.” 
While every species of indignity and contempt were per¬ 
sonally bestowed upon him, Benyowsky prepared to make 
up his complement of men, and to leave the Isle of France 
with such necessary supplies as it was the pleasure of 
Messrs. Tournay and Maillart to grant him. 
It appears, from the memoirs of Benyowsky, that the 
French minister had proposed to place under his command 
in this expedition, one thousand two hundred men, but 
that the Count, thinking this number too great for an en¬ 
terprise where nothing more was intended than to gain the 
