410
HLSTOKV (JF INDIA.
[Book III
A D. 1735
Labour- doDnais' reforms at the Isle of France.
cessful voyages, from Pondicheriy to Bengal, and to Mocha in tlie Rod Sea. In the latter locality he ein})loyed his influence in reconciling a serious difference which liad arisen between the Arabs and the Portufnjese. His conduct in this matter was gratefully remembered by the viceroy at Goa, who, on a viiiit which Labourdonnais paid to that capital, made iiim such tempting offers that he was induced to enter the service of Portugal. The object intended at the time was an expedition to Mopibas, on the east coast of Africa ; but tliis having been abandoned, he did not find the scope for his talents whicii he had anticipated, and returned to France m 1 733. The following year he obtained the important appointment of governor of the Mauritius, or the Isle of France, and the Isle of Bourbon, situated in the Indian Ocean to the east of Mada- gascar. These isles had early become known to the Portuguese, and were at a later period frequented by the Dutch, who gave one of them its name of Mauritius in honour of Prince Maurice of Nassau ; but their importance as inter- mediate stations for ships sailing to the Eiist had been first discerned by the French, who had regularly colonized them, and placed them under a distinct governor.
When Labourdonnais arrived at his government in 1735 he foim^d eveiy- thing in confusion. The two islands had separate councils, which, claiming equal jurisdiction, were constantly disputing as to the extent of their powers ; abuses of every kind prevailed, and the capabilities of the soil remained almost totally undeveloped. The new governor at once saw the greatness and difficulty of the task which lay before him, and immediately commenced it with characteristic energy. Ere long the face of matters was completely changed. The kinds of cultivation best adapted for each island were rapidly extended ; new towns and villages arose, harbours capable not only of supplpng the wants of commerce, but of furnishing a rendezvous for ships of war, were constructed and fortified; and, government no longer hampered by the selfish aims and unseemly quarrels of those who administered it, became regular and efiective. In carrying on this work of refoim Labourdonnais often encountered an opposition which obliged him to stretch his powers to the utmost, and pei'haps occasionally to exceed them. Those who had profited by abuses were natm-aUy hostile to the removal of them, while many from mere natm-al indolence were indisposed to great and sudden changes, even when they could not deny them to be improvements. A spirit of hostility was thus engendered, and continued to manifest itself by murmur, complaint, and misrepresentation. These, though probably loudest in the islands, were not so effective there as in France, where, the facts being imperfectly known, were easily distorted. The consequence His aim mis- was, that wliile Labourdonnais was labom-ing -with the utmost zeal and dism- in France, tcrcstedness for the public good, he was generally stigmatized among his coim- trjrmen as little better than a selfish and capricious tp'ant. He appears not to have been aware of the amount of prejudice which had been raised against
