PI I STORY OF MAURITIUS. 
203 
and discipline in its different departments. But though the officers of the Company 
did not venture to oppose themselves to his regulations, as they could not with any 
degree of justice refuse their assent to the necessity of them, they continued to enter¬ 
tain a secret resentment against him. In the first years of his government, from the 
natural state of the island, and afterwards, from an unfortunate mortality among the 
horned cattle, he was not enabled to furnish the Company’s ships with their full 
complement of meat; the captains, therefore, though they appeared perfectly satisfied 
with his endeavours, and left him with every exterior approbation of his conduct, 
were no sooner arrived in-France, than they presented their complaints against him, 
for neglect in furnishing them with the necessary supplies for their homeward 
voyage: nor was it long before he was sensible that these representations had been 
received with a degree of credit which they did not deserve. 
1740.—The death of his wife rendered it necessary for him to return to France; 
and on his arrival there, he found an unaccountable prejudice prevailed against him, 
not only in the minds of the ministers and the Company, but of the public at large. 
In this unmerited situation he made his complaints to Cardinal Fleury; stated in 
the strongest terms his fidelity to the king, and his zeal for the Company, and de¬ 
manded permission to offer his justification against the secret charges which had 
been made against him ; declaring, at the same time, that he was ready to render an 
hundred fold to any one, who could prove that he had received the least injustice 
from him. lie made the same application to the Count de Maurepas, and M. 
Ourry, Comptroller-general; when he was informed, that the accusations against 
him should undergo a very scrupulous examination. 
At this time a publication appeared against him, containing a long detail of charges 
respecting his conduct, as governor of the Isles of France and Bourbon. But, con¬ 
scious of his own rectitude, and despising the author of these calumnies, he let them 
pass away without any particular answer. At length, however, he thought it neces¬ 
sary to check the course of public prejudice, which ran with so much violence 
against him ; and he completely effected it by the justification which he published. 
For the public not only received him to their former good opinion, but the minis¬ 
ters also expressed their approbation of his conduct. 
Fie found, however, new subjects of chagrin and discontent, from the secret 
enemies which he now discovered in the Company. This circumstance very sensibly 
affected him; he perceived the difficulties that would unavoidably arise from being 
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