HISTORY OF MAURITIUS. 
20 5 
But flattered as M. de la Bourdonnais may be supposed to have been by these 
marks of confidence and favour, he was well aware of the opposition he should find 
from the Company, who, piqued at not having been consulted in a project, in which 
they were so materially concerned, would manifest their discontent by delaying the 
operations of the armament: nor did the promise of the minister, to advance him 
to a distinguished rank in the naval service of France, and thereby secure him from 
any vexatious proceedings on the part of the Company, satisfy his mind, or remove 
his apprehensions. 
In short, the Company represented the proposed expedition as injurious to their 
interests, and that it could not produce any advantage to the state. They, conse¬ 
quently, indisposed the public mind against it, and its supposed projector. Accord¬ 
ingly M. de la Bourdonnais intreated the minister to discharge him from the service, 
and to employ some other person, who was better qualified than himself, to conci¬ 
liate the confidence of the Company. But his remonstrances were not heard, and 
he was ordered to obey the commands of his sovereign. M. Ourry, the Comptroller 
of the Marine, however, undertook to dissipate his alarm, by making the Directors 
of the Company declare to M. de la Bourdonnais, in his presence, that they would 
afford him every assistance and support in their power. 
1741.—M. de la Bourdonnais, therefore, left Paris in the month of February 1741, 
with the general commission of captain of a frigate; and the particular commission 
to command the Mars, one of the king’s ships of war. 
He chose the Isle Grande, on the coast of Brazil, as a refreshing place, from 
its intermediate situation; and the Company’s ships, from that time, followed his 
example. After passing twenty-two days there, to exercise and refresh his crews, he 
set sail from thence with the three largest vessels, and in fifty-six days he arrived at 
the Isle of France, August 14, 1741. He left one of his ships at the Isle Grande, 
to wait for another which had not appeared when he quitted it. 
He now learned that the Mahrattas threatened Pondicherry; and to prevent 
a seige of that place, or to maintain it against a beseiging enemy, the Isles 
of France and Bourbon had already transported their garrisons thither. This 
intelligence caused him no small disquietude; and he considered it to be of the last 
importance to proceed with all possible diligence to Pondicherry, after having put 
his islands in a state of security. To fulfil this two-fold object, he began by order¬ 
ing a fort to be constructed upon one of the peninsulas which defends the port of 
