HISTORY OF MAURITIUS. 
233 
It was requisite, therefore, to add to their force, and augment their crews; and 
this difficult task M. de la Bourdonnais contrived to accomplish. He formed 
soldiers by dividing the crews into companies, and incorporating Negroes and 
workmen with them : he taught them the use of arms, and the practice of mili¬ 
tary evolutions. He, himself, instructed them how to scale a wall, and to use a 
petard. He exercised them in firing at a target; and qualified the most dexterous 
among them to manage a machine, which he had himself invented, to throw fire 
grapnel to the distance of an hundred and eighty feet, by the means of mortars. 
Thus he formed soldiers capable of active service; though his success would have 
been more complete, if the officers of his squadron had seconded his zealous and 
indefatigable activity : but too many of them made his conduct the subject of mur¬ 
mur and disapprobation. Their personal interest, indeed, was the principal cause of 
their discontent; as, in order to change the merchantmen into ships of war, it was 
absolutely necessary to disburthen them of the packages which contained the ventures 
allowed by the Company to the officers; so that they risqued the loss of those ad¬ 
vantages which they had expected to derive from the sale of them in India. They 
loudly complained of the deceit practised by the Company respecting them, and the 
injury they should sustain by being deprived of those privileges, which could alone 
remunerate them for the hazards of such a long and dangerous voyage. 
These complaints, which were made in the most public manner, caused no small 
uneasiness and mortification to M. de la Bourdonnais; who could not but remark, 
that they tended to discourage the crews, more particularly as they were now reduced 
to half-allowance, and in a state of continual and laborious discipline. To assuage 
these discontents, he employed every ingratiating attention, and urged every per¬ 
suasive argument; but while he gained several to enter into his views, there still 
remained those who did every thing in their power to thwart his designs. 
As the vessels were successively equipped, he sent them to Madagascar to subsist 
and collect provisions, till he could join them. At the same time, as the ships which 
arrived from Europe would be subject to his orders, he directed M. de St. Martin, 
who remained in the isles as Deputy Governor, to detain a part of these vessels in 
port, and to employ their equipments to arm the others. These were destined to 
cruize off Bombay, to take such English ships as might be returning from Gedda , 
Moka , and Persia; and they were further ordered, after their cruize, to make the 
best of their way to Mahe> in the beginning of September, where they would receive- 
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