e might be out of the way when it
should be executed. In this state of anxiety and suspense, I sent a
message to the fort, desiring that an express might be dispatched to
him, to acquaint him that I wished to see him immediately upon business
of great importance, which would admit of no delay. Whether my message
was forwarded to him or not, I cannot tell; but having waited till the
4th of April, without having seen him or received any answer, I wrote
him a letter, requesting to speak with him, in the most pressing terms,
and the next day he came on board. A few minutes convinced me that he
was wholly a stranger to any such design as I had been made to
apprehend; and he was clearly of opinion that no such design had been
formed. He said, indeed, that one Tomilaly, a counsellor or minister of
the king of Bony, had lately paid him a visit, and had not well
accounted for his being in this part of the country; and, at my request,
he very readily undertook to make farther enquiries concerning him and
his people. The resident and his attendants took notice that the ship
was put into a state of defence, and that every thing was ready for
immediate action; and he told us, that the people on shore had
acquainted him, before he came on board, with our vigilance and
activity, and in particular, with our having exercised the ship's
company at small arms every day. I informed him, that we should, at all
events, continue upon our guard, which he seemed to approve, and we
parted with mutual protestations of friendship and good faith. After a
few days, he sent me word that having made a very strict enquiry,
whether any other persons belonging to the king of Bony had been at
Bonthain, he had been credibly informed that one of the princes of that
kingdom had been there in disguise; but that of the eight hundred men
who were said in my intelligence to be with him, he could find no
traces; so that, except they too, like the troops of the king of
Brentford, were an army in disguise, I knew that no such people could be
in that country.

On the 16th, in the morning, the resident sent me word, that M. Le Cerf
was returned from Macassar with another officer, and that they would
come on board and dine with me. When dinner was over, I asked Le Cerf,
among other conversation, while we were taking our wine, what was become
of his expedition to Bally; to which he answered dryly, that it was laid
aside, without saying any thing more upon the subject.