Benyowsky, MAURICE AUGUSTUS, COUNT DE

Benyowsky, MAURICE AUGUSTUS, COUNT DE, a remarkable Hungarian adventurer, born in 1741. While fighting for the Polish Confederation, he was taken prisoner in 1769, and banished to Kamchatka, where he was made tutor to the family of the governor. In this capacity he gained the affections of the daughter of the governor, by whom he was assisted in his plans for escape; which, however, was not effected without a struggle, in which the governor was killed. Benyowsky, with ninety-six companions, set sail in a ship well armed and provisioned, and with a considerable amount of treasure, and reached France in 1772. Invited by the French government to found a colony at Madagascar, he arrived on the island in February 1774, and was made king in 1776 by the chiefs in conclave, he adopting the native costume. His relations with the French were now not always friendly, and while in contention with the government of Mauritius, he was killed in battle, May 23, 1786. See Memoirs and Travels of Benyowsky, written by Himself (1790; new ed. by Pasfield Oliver, 1893).