412 
HISTORY OF MAURITIUS. 
people, and built a fort there, in a place called Folonharen , in 25 0 30' south lati¬ 
tude. During the ten years, which was the period allotted by the patent to its 
exclusive privilege, the Company sent several vessels to Madagascar, and expended 
considerable sums of money, without deriving any advantage from it. Its funds be¬ 
ing exhausted, the Marshal de la Meilleraie, and M. Fouquet, possessed themselves 
of the privileges of the Company. The first fitted out several armaments at his 
own expence; but his designs were interrupted by his death, in 1664, though they 
proved of great utility to the new Company. Chamargou, Governor of the island 
for the Marshal de la Meilleraie, and from whom he held his commission, pushed 
on the conquests begun by Flacour, La Roche Saint Andre, and other navigators: 
he completed the submission of the whole country, and exacted tribute of two 
hundred thousand islanders, although his whole force did not exceed an hundred 
and sixty adventurers. 
The inconsiderate zeal of a priest of the mission of Saint Lazarus, was attended 
with very unhappy consequences to the colony. An idolatrous Prince of the coun¬ 
try, who had hitherto been a friend of the French, having refused to embrace the 
Christian religion, the missionary, instead of alarming him with the anger of heaven, 
threatened him with the vengeance of the French. The exasperated Prince imme¬ 
diately sacrificed the priest and a person who accompanied him; and forty French 
people were also massacred by a party of his soldiers, who had formed an ambus¬ 
cade for that purpose. Those who escaped the same fate, were the victims of 
disease; and the establishment of Madagascar was menaced with approaching 
ruin. 
The deplorable state of this colony induced M. Colbert to form a new Company, 
not only to re-establish the affairs of Madagascar, but to extend the commerce of 
France to the East Indies. Nine principal merchants, with a Secretary of the 
Council as their President, were charged with the direction of the Company in the 
capital, and other arrangements were made in the provinces. The King, in the 
edict of establishment, dated the month of August, 1664, engaged to lend three 
millions of livres to the Company, without interest, or the reservation of any part 
of the profit during ten years; and at the same time charged himself with any loss 
that might be sustained during that interval. But the edict also exacted, that each 
of the proprietors of stock should furnish, at least, the sum of a thousand livres; 
