This part of the story does not concern America; and the Pole's whole
life has been told by Jokai, the Hungarian novelist, and Kotzebue, the
Russian dramatist.
Benyowsky got passage to Europe from China on one of the East India
Company ships, whose captain was uneasy enough at having so many
pirates on board. In France he obtained an appointment to look after
French forts in Madagascar; but this was too tame an undertaking for
the adventure-loving Pole. He threw up his appointment, returned to
Europe, interested English merchants in a new venture, sailed to
Baltimore in the _Robert Anne_ of twenty cannon and four hundred and
fifty tons, interested merchants there in his schemes, and departed
from Baltimore October 25, 1784, to conquer Madagascar and set up an
independent commercial government. Here he was slain by the French
troops on the 23d of May, 1786--to the ruin of those Baltimore and
London merchants who had advanced him capital. His own account of his
adventures is full of gross exaggerations; but even the Russians were
so impressed with the prowess of his valor that a few years later, when
Cook sailed to Alaska, Ismyloff could not be brought to mention his
name; {128} and when the English ships went on to Kamchatka, they found
the inhabitants hidden in the cellars, for fear the Polish pirate had
returned.
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