HISTORY OF MAURITIUS. 3^5 
by which the greater part landed on the Great Caique , while the Captain and sixteen 
men pushed forward to gain the Port de Paix. 
“ M. d’Apres de Mannevillette remained with those on the Caique ,.without shelter 
of any kind, and in danger of dying with hunger, as there was nothing to sustain 
him and his companions, but a small portion of provisions which the sailors had 
preserved from the fury of the waves. At length a boat arrived to save him and 
his associates in misfortune from the fate that threatened them. 
“ He now returned to France, and three years passed away without being able 
to obtain any employment from the Directors of the India Company ; but as he 
;was not formed for inactivity and repose, he, during that time, made two voyages 
to America on board mercantile vessels. 
“ In 1730, he was appointed by the Company, second in command of the brig 
le Fier. The voyage he made on this vessel gave him an opportunity of observing 
the coast of Africa, from Cape Blanc to Bisseau. The remarks which he made in 
the course of it, formed the superstructure of that celebrated work with which he has 
enriched his country. 
“ On his return to France in 1732, M. d’Apres remained some time at L’Orient, 
where he married Mademoiselle de Binard; but Love and Hymen did not quench 
his predominant passion, and he soon quitted the arms of his wife to follow M. de 
Tredillac to Cadiz, and from thence to the Madeiras: nor did he return to his 
country but to leave it again. M. Pocreau, Captain of the Galatee, had received 
orders from the India Company to set sail for Pondicherry, and in his way thither 
to pass through the Mozambique Straits. Such a voyage was precisely calculated 
to inflame the desires of M. d’Apres; he accordingly solicited a situation on the 
Galatee, and obtained it. 
“ He returned in 1735, and departed again in 1736, on board the Prince de 
Conti, in the service of the India Company, of which he was appointed Second 
Lieutenant. 
“ In this voyage he employed Hadley’s quadrant, which had hitherto been ex¬ 
clusively used by the English navigators; and on his return to France, his first 
care was to state, in a public print, his high estimation of that curious machine; 
and by thus procuring a reputation to this foreign invention in his country, he may 
be said to have added to its most valuable acquisitions. 
“ The trial that he made in 1740, in another voyage to India, of a machine pre- 
