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case. He found that he was left to the resources of 
his own mind, and foresaw with grief the sufferings 
and distress both himself and his people would be 
subject to in their undertaking. 
It availed him little that he had obtained the good 
opinion of the ministry at home : he was now in other 
hands, who had it in their power, not only to harrass 
him by withholding the necessary supplies, but also 
to malign him by false accounts of his conduct, thereby 
exciting the French government themselves against 
him. For all this his only remedy was patience and 
firmness of mind, and these he displayed in an eminent 
degree. He had gone too far to recede, and therefore 
resolved, after obtaining what he could of the supplies 
which had been ordered for him, to sail immediately 
to Madagascar, leaving the rest to the accidental ar¬ 
rival of ships from Europe, and the favourable but 
contingent circumstances which might take place in 
the course of events. 
A part of his troop was despatched on the 7th of 
December, 1773, in the Postillion brig, which had 
been deputed for the service at Madagascar ; but his 
own stay was protracted, by the conduct of the gover¬ 
nor, until the February following, by which means 
his arrival took place in the rainy season, the period 
when the fever usually makes its appearance: and, 
in addition, his enemies in the Isle of France had 
taken care to transmit such accounts as prejudiced 
the minds of the Madagascar chiefs against both him 
and the undertaking; while every species of indignity 
