io6 
MADAGASCAR 
while the Government of Mauritius worked against him 
in every way. Nevertheless, the undertaking in Louis- 
bourg throve wonderfully and even excited a desire for 
plunder on the part of the Sakalava. 
In the year 1776 the clever founder caused an inquiry 
to be made by the colonial government into the position 
of the concern, and is said to have shewn a profit of 
450,000 francs; then he sent in his resignation of the 
post of Governor, as he wished to trade on his own 
account. Benjowsky brought about a great assemblage 
of the natives, drank blood-brotherhood with the chiefs 
and was solemnly elected Manjaka Be^ that is “ over 
king ” of the natives. A few days later a kind of con¬ 
stitution was accepted by the people. With this Malagasy 
kingship in his pocket, our adventurer, full of hope, sailed 
for France in December 1776, in order to offer his pos¬ 
session to the Ministry. In Paris they had long ago 
found another ephemeral idol; they bestowed on Ben¬ 
jowsky a sword of honour and gave him a hint that he 
had become inconvenient. Perhaps France did wrong; 
even if Benjowsky was an adventurer, he might yet, 
under proper supervision, have rendered useful service. 
He, disillusioned, went to Austria and to England, but 
the “King of Madagascar” found no hearing, and ultim¬ 
ately an American house in Baltimore supplied him with 
goods and a ship which brought him again to Madagascar. 
He was soon to meet his end in a quarrel with a 
Creole trader. The government of the Isle of P'rance 
mixed itself up in the affair; sixty soldiers were sent 
against Benjowsky, and a bullet put an end to his event¬ 
ful life on the 23rd of May, 1786. 
The attempt of Benjowsky was not quite fruitless, for 
in the following year numerous Creole traders from 
Bourbon and Mauritius (Isle of France) were attracted to 
Madagascar and did good business there. The French 
Colonial Government even thought it well, in 1804, to 
