566 
HISTORY OF MAURITIUS. 
avail themselves of the present moment, to discover the best means of composing 
this first constituted authority, which the colony considered as the centre of its 
safety, now so difficult to preserve, in the critical situation in which it found itself 
with respect to France. It had dismissed its agents, driven out its soldiers, and 
persisted in its refusal to adopt the decree of abolishing slavery; at the same time 
it wished to remain a French colony, though acquainted with the dispositions of 
the French Directory, and the majority of the two councils to punish it. It was 
then resolved by the Governor-general Malartic, according to the desire of a com¬ 
mittee, which was given him for a council, that the primary assemblies of the co¬ 
lony should name fifteen commissaries, eight for the country, and seven for town, 
to decide upon a better constitution to be given to the Colonial Assembly, which, 
till that time, had been composed of fifty-one members, who had been found too 
numerous; since in each shock the colony had undergone, several members of its 
Assembly had been the principal instigators, so that many of them had been actu¬ 
ally proscribed, and exiled from it. 
The conduct of the Colonial Committee was conformable to the general wish; 
and the number of its assembly was limited to twenty-one members, of whom 
fourteen were of the country, and seven of the town, who were to be named by 
the primary assemblies of each canton of the colony. This resolution was sanc¬ 
tioned by General Malartic, and carried into immediate execution. Such is the 
actual and definitive state of the Isle of France. 
Population and Military Force of the Isles of France and Bourbon in 1799. * 
Isle of Bourbon. Isle of France. 
Slaves - - 48,000 Slaves - - 55,000 
Whites and Mulattoes 8,000 Whites and Mulattoes 10,000 
Total 56,000 Total 65,000 
Total of the two islands 121,000. t 
• All the cannon of the Isle aux Tonneliers and Fort Blanc, which defend the entrance of 
Port.Louis, may at present be worked with red-hot balls, by forming reverberating furnaces. The 
cannon of ITsle de la Passe, which defend the entrance of Port Bourbon, may also be worked 
with red-hot balls. 
f The population of Port Louis (or du Port du Nord-ouest), is esteemed to be three-fifths of 
that of the whole Isle of France. 
