HISTORY OF MAURITIUS. 
526 
conceal his aversion to their revolutionary proceedings. The soldiers of the 107th and 
108th regiments, who formed the garrison of the island, following the example of 
the army in France, had abandoned themselves to the cause of the revolutionists. 
M. de Macnamara, however, thought it his duty to give an account of it to the 
minister of marine, but he was betrayed; a copy of his letter was sent to the barracks, 
and incited the soldiers to threaten him with their vengeance. The grenadiers 
therefore collected themselves in a body to go to the port, in order to seize upon 
all the boats and canoes they might find there, that they might go on board M. de 
Macnamara’s ship. 
Being informed, however, of the preparations that were making to seize his per¬ 
son, he had made ready his cannon, but at the moment when the grenadiers presented 
themselves to mount on board, his sailors refused to defend him, and he was left to 
the discretion of these furious men, who conducted him on shore, and led him as 
their prisoner before the first constituted authority of the colony, then sitting in the 
church, and loudly demanded that he should be punished. 
The fermentation of the soldiers had risen to such a pitch, that it was not possible 
to appease it ; so that the members of this constituted authority found it necessary 
to make M. de Macnamara undergo several interrogatories, and to send him to 
prison for his own security; with the hope that they should thereby appease the 
fury of the soldiers, who unfortunately resolved to conduct him thither. In his way 
to confinement, M. de Macnamara passing before the door of a watchmaker of his 
acquaintance, conceived some hopes of escaping from the midst of these furious 
people, that escorted him. With this design he rushed in at the door, which was 
open, flattering himself that by using his pistols which he had in his pocket, he 
should intimidate those that dared to follow him; but his threats only increased the 
rage of the soldiers, who threw themselves in a crowd upon him and murdered him, 
giving to the Isle of France an horrible example, the remembrance of which still 
makes them shudder with indignation. The inhabitants were distressed and hu¬ 
miliated at seeing their country, till then unspotted with any crime, stained with 
such a bloody outrage. It was, however, the only one that happened during the 
whole course of the revolution; whilst France itself and all its other colonies have 
been inundated with the blood of so many victims to democratic injustice and 
barbarity. 
