HISTORY OF MAURITIUS. 
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i( He had long been solicited by his friends to augment the treasures of literature, 
by an history of astronomy, from its origin to his own improvements in that science; 
and he constantly resisted their entreaties, till the voice of the public demanded this 
important work at his hands: but death, which too often interrupts human projects, 
stifled this admirable design at the moment of its conception. What such a work 
would have been, may be conceived from the character of the man who had under¬ 
taken it; and that he did not live to complete it, must be regretted by all who are 
interested in the advancement of science, and the improvement of mankind. 
<c M. de la Caille had completed his forty-ninth year, when his constitution began 
to give way, and at the end of February, 1762, he was attacked by the same disor¬ 
der which he had suffered at the Cape in February, 1752; and on the 21st of 
March he departed this life, at the same age as his father, and in the same month in 
which he was born. It would be needless to describe the universal regret which 
followed the loss of a man equally dear to science and to virtue.” 
