240 
HISTORY OF MAURITIUS. 
* c The strength of the enemy, not including a ship of seventy guns* which is now 
on its way to join them, is as follows : 
Two ships of sixty guns. 
One ditto of fifty. 
One ditto of twenty-four. 
One ditto of thirty-six. 
Two privateers of fifty guns, which took the St. Benoit. 
Two ditto, which have certainly been dispatched from England to 
carry supplies of provisions and seamen.--In all, ten vessels. 
“ These, according to every appearance, will prove much stronger than us; but 
what does that signify? hunger will compel us to fight them with eight such ships, 
and so indifferently equipped, as ours. It is not arms or powder that we want, but 
men. I have therefore been obliged to augment the ships’ crews with blacks, half 
of which belong to the Company, and the other I have been compelled to hire. I 
have also distributed the employments necessary for the good order, discipline, and 
accomodation of the squadron, to those whom I believe to be the most capable of 
executing them with honour to themselves, and advantage to the service. 
“ .1 have made my arrangements to set sail about the end of March. After a 
short stay at Bourbon, I shall join the greater part of my squadron at the 
island of St. Mary, where I have sent them, in order to get fresh meat, as well 
as to relieve the colony, whichjs in a very deplorable state. If I had not received 
authentic information of the force of the enemy, and consequently felt the necessity 
of making every possible exertion to augment our own, I should not have stripped 
it as I have done. I may surely deserve credit in this assertion, since I abandon 
my wife and my children: but there is no alternative. I have indeed every reason 
to believe that ships will soon arrive from Europe, and I have left orders to detain 
them for the safety and supply of the island. 
“ My plan on leaving the Isle of France, is as follows: 
“ I shall use every effort to arrive off the coast of Malabar towards the tenth 
of May, in order to intercept the English vessels coming from Surat; which is the 
only success I have any reason to expect during the course of the present campaign. 
I propose to touch at Make, in order to obtain intelligence of the enemy, who, 
as there was no French ship in India, in the course of last year, will naturally 
conjecture that some will be sent out from France, for the service of the present 
