187 
These began to be sufficiently manifest as soon as 
lie arrived at the Isle of France, which was on the 
££d of September, 1773, when the unmanly and pre¬ 
varicating conduct of the governor, De Tournay, and 
the commissary, Maillart, convinced the count that 
he had no cordial co-operation to expect from them, 
but rather an inveterate opposition. They went so 
far as to inform him they were “ much surprised that 
the court had undertaken such an expedition, so pre¬ 
judicial to the Isle of France, whose merchants would 
be ruined if the new establishment at Madagascar 
succeeded ; where, by their concurrence, they carried 
on an advantageous trade which could not be legally 
prohibited by a simple letter of the minister; but that 
they would see what could be done until they re¬ 
ceived the most positive orders from the court:—but 
that they could not avoid informing the court that 
the project was impracticable; because the people of 
Madagascar having, for one hundred and fifty years, 
repelled all the attempts of France, they would not 
submit at this moment, when they were united under 
a solid government, formed by themselves.” 
The great evil attending the administration of colo¬ 
nies, is the distance at which they lie from the original 
source of power, and the consequent discretionary 
power with which their governors must necessarily be 
invested. Hence arises the mal-administration so 
frequently witnessed in consequence of the appoint¬ 
ment of men of contracted or vicious minds. 
Benyowsky felt the full effect of this evil in his own 
