364 
HISTORY OF MAURITIUS. 
“ M. d’Apres de Mannevillette employed every moment of his voyage in making 
practical applications of the knowledge he had already acquired. A new career of 
study presented itself to his genius, and new difficulties offered themselves to be 
surmounted by him. The theory of the young sailor was confirmed by, as it was 
consolidated with, progressive experience. 
“ On his return to France in 1721, he hastened to Paris, in order to perfect 
himself in astronomy and geometry: his masters were M. M. De Lisle and Des- 
places; and the rapid progress which he made in both those sciences, did equal 
honour to the dispositions of the scholar and the talents of his instructors. After 
having drawn from the works of the most eminent geometricians, and the society 
of learned men, all the knowledge necessary to a navigator, he departed in 1726, 
with the rank of fourth officer on board the ship the Marechal d’Estrees, which the 
India Company had ordered to Senegal and the American islands. 
<f This voyage was not fortunate: the earthquake which alarmed those islands 
on the 20th of September, 1727, was accompanied with a dreadful hurricane, which 
either sunk or greatly injured all the vessels in those seas. The Marechal d’Estrees, 
on setting sail from the Caye St. Louis, was attacked by the tempest: in a short 
time the rigging was rendered useless, and the masts gave way to the violence of the 
wind. It was perceived, at the same time, that the ship leaked; and while one part of 
the crew was employed at the pumps, the other was occupied in attempting to tow 
her to Cape Frar^ois; where, after much fatigue and danger, she at length arrived. 
In this port every exertion was made to repair the damages she had sustained in 
the tempest; and she was no sooner refitted for sea, than the unlimited confidence 
of the Captain in the capacity of the pilot became more fatal than the storm. The 
ship had scarce cleared the port, than she was embarrassed by the rocks of la 
Caye. The young d’Apres had foreseen and foretold the danger into which the 
Captain had brought himself, and pointed out, with modest confidence, the means 
of being extricated from it; but the advice of a young man of twenty years of age 
was rejected with disdain and reproach, for attempting to direct those who had grown 
old on the seas. The opinions of the latter were followed; and the ship having 
struck upon a rock, there was no resource for the crew to save themselves from 
instant death, but to cling to the upper part of the masts, as the ship itself had already 
sunk. Fortunately they had succeeded in getting out the long-boat and the barge. 
