CHAP. VII. NOTICE OF BARON BENYOWSKY. 183 outlying factories of the French establishment formed at Antongil Bay in 1774 by the Baron Benyowsky. The career of this remarkable man was characterised by events the most startling and extraordinary, and that the same individual should be at one time the prisoner of Bussia in Siberia, and then a trader in China, that he should afterwards be acknow ledged as a lineally descended sovereign in Madagascar, and be sent by authorities in that island to treat for alliances with the sovereigns of Europe, and should finally he shot as a rebel by the French, seems more like romance than reality; yet such were some of the striking contrasts of his life. De scended from Polish ancestors, but born in Hungary, he served as a general in the armies of Bussia till after the death of the King of Poland in 1765, when he joined the army in Cracow, where he was captured by the Bussians and banished to Siberia. Here he induced a number of others to join in an attempt to escape, in which he succeeded; at tacked Kamschatka, seized three Bussian vessels with their cargoes, dismasted the rest, and sailed with his companions to China, where he sold his vessels and cargoes. From Macao he proceeded in French trading vessels to Mauritius, then occupied by the French, where his attention was directed to Madagascar. Sailing from Mauritius to France, he was ap pointed some time after his arrival to undertake the formation of a French establishment in Madagascar. A corps entitled the Volunteers of Benyowsky was enrolled, officers appointed, and he sailed to Mauritius. The authorities there were op posed to the projected establishment, and as he was de pendent on them for supplies, he experienced considerable disappointment and delay. At length he reached Madagascar, where he met with a friendly reception from the chiefs, whom he informed that the King of France had decided on forming an establishment in their country to defend them from their enemies, and to open warehouses for trade. He N 4