ago 
HISTORY OF MAURITIUS. 
information, relative to the administration of his predecessor. He was at the same 
time ordered not to give up to him the command of the ships which were to re¬ 
turn to Europe, if he had been guilty of any ifialversations. 
M. David had acquitted himself of his commission before M. de la Bourdonnais 
arrived at the Isle of France, and was fully convinced, that all the complaints 
exhibited against him had proceeded from passion, and a spirit of mutiny. Be¬ 
sides, to give the fullest proof in his favour of the uprightness of his conduct 
to individuals, as well as of his zeal and fidelity to his King and the Company, 
M. de la Bourdonnais publicly called upon those who had been injured by him 
in any way whatever, in both the Isles of France and Bourbon, to come forward 
with their charge, that he might immediately do them justice, and make such 
restoration as they had a right to claim: but though he was now deprived of his 
government, and was not only a private, but in some measure a disgraced man, 
not a single complaint appeared against him. In short, so irreproachable in every 
particular did the conduct of M. de la Bourdonnais appear, that M. David did 
not hesitate to deliver to him the King’s order to command the ships destined for 
Europe. 
The repugnance with which M. de la Bourdonnais accepted the command, will 
be easily conceived. Mortified to the quick by these injurious inquiries into his 
conduct, his justification did not save him from the chagrin he experienced at having 
been suspected. However, that he might not be reproached for having refused to 
do his duty in this critical conjuncture, he undertook the command of the squadron 
of six ships, which were so weak, that the equipage of several of them did not 
amount to an hundred men. Nor was this all: he was to conduct these vessels to 
France, in the midst of English squadrons who possessed the sea; and, which natu¬ 
rally made a deep impression on his mind, his wife and children were to share his 
dangers with him. 
In his passage to the Cape of Good Hope he encountered a tempest, which dis¬ 
persed his six ships; and he thought the moment was arrived, when he and his family 
should perish together in the waves. The storm at length subsided, and he conti¬ 
nued his voyage alone, as the whole of his squadron had disappeared. Three of 
his ships, however, having rejoined him, they arrived together at Angola, where he 
had orders to refresh. As to the other two vessels, he saw them no more ; and 
