246 
manner in which he resorted to the slave-trade # , while 
he professed to abhor its principle. Nor can we jus¬ 
tify the deception he practised upon the natives, in 
assuming a relationship to the family of Ramini. 
Had his calumniators confined themselves to these 
instances, they might have attacked his character with 
success ; but the fact is, that notwithstanding the air 
of philosophy with which they endeavour to disguise 
their rancour, they did not possess sufficient virtue 
themselves to see that these were vices in him : they 
were therefore obliged to have recourse to falsehood 
to blacken his character. The calm and dignified 
style in which the count has related the transactions 
ofhis life, is finely contrasted with the bombastic, 
petulant, and indefinite invectives of his traducers; 
and while its minuteness carries conviction to every 
mind, it stamps indelible falsehood upon their counter¬ 
declarations. From this sketch of his character we 
flatter ourselves the reader will agree with us, that 
if the count was an adventurer, he was an adventurer 
of the highest class; that instead of being visionary, 
* Two or three instances of this are mentioned in his Memoirs. 
The only possible extenuation that such acts will admit of is the 
destitute state of the colony. Not being able to obtain supplies 
from Europe or the Isle of France, he felt himself obliged to 
purchase them of such private vessels as accidentally arrived. 
While his own fortune lasted, he paid for them out of it; he 
then borrowed of his officers ; and, when both sources were ex¬ 
hausted, he exchanged slaves for them. We will not attempt 
to justify him in it. 
