s purpose of
betraying him. Notwithstanding all these difficulties, by the middle of
1775 the settlers had built a fort in a more healthy situation, which
was called Fort Louis, had constructed all the necessary buildings for
the town of Louisbourg, and had formed a road twenty-one miles in length
and twenty-four feet in breadth. The Count had also done something
towards civilising the people, and among other important measures had
persuaded the women to give up their practice of infanticide, which had
been terribly prevalent. They, however, refused to ratify the
engagement without the presence of the Count's wife, who was residing at
the Isle of France. She was accordingly sent for, and on her arrival
the women of the different provinces, assembling before her, bound
themselves by an oath never to sacrifice any of their children. They
agreed that any who should break this oath should be made slaves, while
they were to send all deformed children to an institution which had been
founded by the Count in the settlement for that purpose.

He had by this time formed alliances with many of the surrounding
chiefs, who ever afterwards remained faithful to him. In other parts of
the island combinations were formed against him. He accordingly
mustered his forces, and marching against his enemies, who had brought
forty thousand men into the field, put them to flight. Those who fell
into his hands he treated with so much leniency and kindness that he
ultimately attached them to his cause. A curious superstition of the
natives was the cause of his being at length raised to the dignity of
the principal chief of the island. It appears that the hereditary
successor to the title was missing, when some of the natives took it
into their heads that the Count Benyowsky was the lost heir. The idea
gained ground at the very time that the affairs of the Count were in a
very precarious condition. His own health was failing, the more
faithful among his European officers were dead, his enemies in the
Mauritius had succeeded in prejudicing the minds of the members of the
French Government against him, and two, if not more, vessels bringing
out supplies had been lost. Under these circumstances it is not
surprising that he should have accepted the proffered dignity, which
shortly led to his being recognised as the principal chief and supreme
ruler of the whole island.

Commissioners had been sent out from France to investigate the affa