HISTORY OF MAURITIUS. 299 
the best possible intentions for the welfare of the colony. He has already built a 
very pretty frigate, which has been sent to France. 
As we are now at war with England, it was natural to apprehend that our island 
would be attacked, and we have been employed in putting ourselves in a state 
of defence, which advances but slowly, though we have able engineers: but we 
trust too much to the natural advantages of the island, and the trifling success we 
have had on the attack which has lately been made on us. 
In the month of July last, an English fleet of twenty-eight ships of war, commanded 
by Admiral Boscawen, arrived off this island, and advanced within cannon shot of 
it. Our port was full of vessels belonging to the Company, with one ship of war 
of sixty guns, named the Alcides, commanded by M. de Kersaint, who laid her across 
the entrance of the port. 
The English came to an anchor, as they imagined the French squadron, bound 
for India, was still in the harbour. We worked all night, though with a great deal 
of confusion, to be in readiness for the following day. 
The Count de Restaing, who had been commandant of our artillery, had, before 
his departure, examined the arsenal, and having found an old mortar, had placed it 
on the point that commands the entrance of the habour, before which the English 
fleet was at anchor. 
At break of day, we found ourselves in a state to discharge a bomb at the nearest of 
the enemy’s vessels, which, however, did not reach it: a second was thrown nearer 
to it; and the English Admiral thought proper to increase his distance, in a small 
degree, on the conjecture that we had a battery of mortars; and when he perceived 
that no more were discharged, he concluded that it arose from his being removed 
out of their reach, though the real cause proceeded from the impossibility of throw¬ 
ing another shell, as, by the second discharge, the mortar had been rendered useless. 
The enemy remained off the island for several days, and from the frequent 
communication between the ships, the boats being continually passing from one to 
the other, we concluded that they held frequent councils respecting their future 
conduct. 
On the sixth day, one of their largest vessels approached within cannon-shot of 
he named L’Epreuve, as it was the first of the kind which had been constructed in the island. He 
also formed plantations of cotton, and erected all the necessary magazines for cultivating it with 
advantage and convenience. 
O q 2 
