HISTORY OF MAURITIUS. 
560 
companies may be said to be the soul, and to contain the energy, of the French 
regiments, whether good or bad. Those, therefore, who wished to excite trouble in 
the colony, perceiving, by the embarkation of the two companies of grenadiers, that 
all their plots would be disconcerted, thought'it absolutely necessary to execute the 
plan of insurrection which they had been, so long fomenting. They accordingly 
represented to these grenadiers, that the order for their embarkation on the Seine 
frigate had been obtained from General Malartic by surprise, and that, instead of 
going upon a cruize, they were to be sent to Tippoo Sultaun, with whose cruelty and 
despotism they were well acquainted : that this project had been formed by the Co¬ 
lonial Assembly, for their destruction, as might be proved by the destination of their 
comrades to Batavia, a colony remarkable for the unhealthiness of its climate. 
The grenadiers were easily persuaded by these insinuations, and refused to obey 
the order for their embarkation. General Malartic represented to them their crime 
in not obeying, and condescended so* far as to assure them, that they were not to 
be landed in the states of Tippoo Sultaun, but were only to reinforce the crew of the 
Seine, that w T as too weak, and to go on a cruize, which would give them an oppor¬ 
tunity of making rich captures, and consequently, of having good shares in the prizes: 
this, however, did not satisfy the grenadiers. 
General Malartic then threatened to force them to obey his orders; but they in¬ 
solently answered him, that he would find it a difficult undertaking; and in spite of 
the entreaties of the greatest part of their officers, on the 24th of April, in the after¬ 
noon, they caused all their comrades in the other companies of their regiments to 
mutiny, and take arms. They got possession of eight field-pieces, which were in 
their quarter, and broke open the doors of the armoury, where the cartouches and 
cartridges were kept. Fortunately the officers of these regiments, the most part of 
whom were still of the ancient government, and almost all of them attached to the 
colony, as well by the ties of blood, as by their possessions, succeeded in prevenling 
the soldiers from coming out of their quarters in arms (as they several times wanted 
to do), by remaining there, in order to keep them, if it were possible, from any 
act of violence. 
Thus the night passed, the soldiers remaining through the whole of it under arms 
in their quarters. The news of this insurrection of the garrison was soon spread in 
every quarter of the island, and orders had been sent to all parts of it, for every 
man capable of bearing arms to come to the town in the course of the night. 
