538 
HISTORY OF MAURITIUS. 
coast it for five or six months. We answered, “ You know very well, that the money 
which his highness assigned for our expences was entrusted to us in your presence, 
by Shaik Ahmud, Mullik-oo-Toojar; it is, therefore, very unbecoming in you to 
make this request.” 
Refuge of the World, health ! He assigned for our accommodation the part of the 
vessel appropriated to the Lascars, without any place for us to sleep or sit down; and 
our inconveniences increased daily: at last we desired Ripaud to allot some place 
for us to remain in until our arrival at the Mauritius; upon which he gave us a 
small doney (boat), which was on the vessel, to sleep and eat in, until our arrival at 
the island. From the day of our leaving Mangalore, until our arrival at Mauritius, 
he gave us no more water than he allowed to the Lascars, which only sufficed for 
drinking, and was not enough for cooking. In the course of the voyage, he took 
two vessels; when taking the cargo out, he released them. After ten or twelve days 
we steered directly for the Mauritius.—Ripaud sent a message to me,* proposing 
to recite to us the commands which your highness had entrusted to him, respect¬ 
ing the negotiations with the sirdars of the Mauritius; that we should take a trans¬ 
lation of them, and make our representations accordingly, at the island. We 
replied, that the Shaik Ahmud, Mullik-oo-Toojar, had communicated to us in his 
(Ripaud’s) presence, orders to this effect, that whatever he (Ripaud) should dictate 
to us, or tell us, we should make our representations accordingly to the sirdars 
above-mentioned, through the medium of Monsieur de Bay. Ripaud brought 
several papers to us, and dictating to de Bay, caused him to write several articles; 
which being done, he said, that they were in conformity to the orders of the 
Presence, and desired that we would regulate our negotiations by them. It is 
impossible to describe the distress we suffered from the rain and the motion of 
the waves. However, by the favour of God, and your majesty’s auspices, we 
survived, and on Thursday the 3d of the month Rawzee (19th January, 1798), 
being arrived within two coss of the Mauritius, a pilot came off in a boat to learn 
the circumstances of the ship. He came on board, and Ripaud received him with a 
great deal of cordiality ; he told him that we were ambassadors sent by your high¬ 
ness to the sirdars of the Mauritius, and desired that he would send some one on 
shore to give the proper notification. The pilot immediately sent a Lascar, with a 
* The vakeels are designated, throughout this paper, by the term ghoolaum, or slaves. Here 
the word is in the singular number, and is, perhaps, intended to apply to the writer only. 
