HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
75 
on which a fort might be constructed. There they built 
houses, and an hospital for the convalescents; and in the 
mean time the most explicit representations of the distress¬ 
ing state of the colony were despatched to the Isle of 
France, accompanied by a request for such things as were 
indispensably necessary. The government of that place, 
however, paid no attention to the representations, and 
never sent any assistance. 
During the summer, the governor lost his only son by 
the fever; and at the same time his major, De Marigin, 
who died regretted by every one: he himself had also a 
second attack, which obliged him to repair to the Plain 
of Health, with thirty invalids. 
Notwithstanding the exhausted state of the settlers, the 
small number of the men, and the continued opposition of 
the natives, the works were carried forward with consider¬ 
able activity; so that by September, 1775, the people had 
finished all the necessary buildings at Louisbourg, con¬ 
structed Fort Louis, and made a road twenty-one miles in 
length, and twenty-four feet in breadth. The Count had 
also purchased a considerable portion of land, which was 
distributed amongst his troops, and preparations were made 
for cultivating it the following year. In the mean time, no 
supplies arriving, either from the Isle of France or Europe, 
he was under the necessity of purchasing stores of such 
vessels as accidentally touched at the island. At this time 
he discovered that the governor of the Isle of France had 
secretly sent emissaries to Madagascar, in order to excite 
an insurrection against the colony. He therefore prevailed 
upon the chiefs in alliance with him, to keep up an armed 
force of twelve hundred men, for the defence of the colony, 
in the event of its being attacked. 
