On the 10th of July towards six o'clock in the morning, we were marching along the sea coast, when our guide gave us notice to be upon our guard and to take our arms. I seized my knife; the whole party was collected. The country was inhabited by a poor and plundering race of Moors, who would not have failed to attack those who had loitered behind. The precaution was good, some Moors shewed themselves on the downs; their number encreased and soon exceeded ours. To move them, we placed ourselves in a line holding our swords and sabres in the air. Those who had no arms waved the scabbards, to make them believe that we were all armed with muskets. They did not approach. Our guides went halfway to meet them. They left one man and retired: the Moors did the same on their side. The two deputies conversed together for some time, then each returned to his party. The explanation was satisfactory, and the Moors soon came to us without the least distrust.

Their women brought us milk which they sold horribly dear; the rapacity of these Moors is astonishing, they insisted on having a share of the milk, which they had sold us.

Mean time we saw a sail advancing towards us: we made all kinds of signals to be perceived by it, and we were convinced that they were answered. Our joy was lively and well founded: it was the Argus brig which came to our assistance. She lowered her sails and hoisted out a boat. When it was near the breakers a Moor threw himself into the sea, carrying a note which painted our distress. The boat took the Moor on board and returned with the note to the captain. Half an hour afterwards the boat returned laden with a large barrel, and two small ones. When it reached the place where it had taken in the Moor, the latter threw himself into the sea again to bring back the answer. It informed us that they were going to throw into the sea a barrel of biscuit and cheese, and two others containing brandy and wine.

Another piece of news filled us with joy; the two boats which had not stranded on the coast as we had done arrived at the Senegal, after having experienced the most stormy weather. Without losing a moment the governor had dispatched the Argus, and taken every measure to assist the shipwrecked people, and to go to the Medusa. Besides, he had sent by land camels loaden with provisions to meet us, lastly, the Moors were desired to respect us, and to render us assistance: so much good news revived us, and gave us fresh courage.

I learned also that Mr. Schmalz and his family, those very ladies, whom I had seen expose themselves with so much composure to the fury of the waves, and who had made me shed the only tears which our misfortunes had drawn from me, were well and in safety. I should have been sorry to die without having learned that they were preserved.

When the three barrels were thrown into the sea we followed them with our eyes; we feared lest the current, instead of bringing them to the coast, should carry them into the open sea. At last we saw, clearly, that they approached us. Our Negroes and Moors swam to them, and pushed them to the coast, where we secured them.

The great barrel was opened: the biscuit and cheese were distributed. We would not open those of wine and brandy. We feared lest the Moors, at this sight, would not be able to refrain from falling upon the booty. We continued our march, and about half a league farther on, made a delicious feast on the sea-shore. Our strength being revived, we continued our route with more ardour.

Towards the close of the day, the aspect of the country began to change a little. The downs were lower: we perceived, at a distance, a sheet of water: we thought, and this was no small satisfaction to us, that it was the Senegal which made an elbow in this place to run parallel to the sea. From this elbow runs the little rivulet called Marigot des Maringouins; we left the sea-shore to pass it a little higher up. We reached a spot where there was some verdure and water, and resolved to remain there till midnight.

We had scarcely reached this spot, when we saw an Englishman coming towards us with three or four Marabous, or priests; they had camels with them; they were doubtless sent by the English Governor of Senegal, to seek for the shipwrecked people. One of the camels, laden with provisions, is immediately dispatched; those who conduct it are to go, if necessary, to Portendic, to fetch our companions in misfortune; or at least to get some information respecting them.

The English envoy had money to buy us provisions. He informed us that we had still three days march to the Senegal. We imagined that we were nearer to it; the most fatigued were terrified at this great distance. We slept all together on the sand. Nobody was suffered to go to a distance for fear of the lions, which were said to haunt this country. This fear did not at all alarm me, nor hinder me from sleeping pretty well.

On the 11th of July, after having walked from one o'clock in the morning till seven, we arrived at a place where the Englishman expected to meet with an ox. By some misunderstanding there was none; we were obliged to pinch our bellies: but we had a little water.

The heat was insupportable; the sun was already scorching. We halted on the white sand of these downs, as being more wholesome for a resting place than the sand, wetted by the sea-water. But this sand was so hot, that even the hands could not endure it. Towards noon we were broiled by the beams of the sun darting perpendicularly upon our heads. I found no remedy, except in a creeping plant, which grew here and there on the moving sand. I set up some old stalks, and spread over them my coat and some leaves: thus I put my head in the shade; the rest of my body was roasted. The wind overturned, twenty times, my slight scaffolding.

Meantime, this Englishman was gone, on his camel, to see after an ox. He did not return till four or five o'clock: when he informed us that we should find this animal, after we had proceeded some hours. After a most painful march, till night, we, in fact, met with an ox which was small, but tolerably fat. We looked at some distance from the sea, for a place where there was supposed to be a spring. It was only a hole, which the Moors had left a few hours before. Here we fixed ourselves, a dozen fires were lighted around us. A negro twisted the neck of the ox, as we should have done that of a fowl. In five minutes it was flayed and cut into pieces, which we toasted on the points of our swords or sabres. Every one devoured his portion.

After this slight repast, we all lay down to sleep. I was not able to sleep: the tiresome buzzing of the mosquitoes, and their cruel stings, prevented me, though I was so much in need of repose.

On the 12th, we resumed our march at three o'clock in the morning. I was indisposed; and to knock me up entirely, we had to walk over the moving sand of the point of Barbary. Nothing hitherto, had been more fatiguing: every body complained; our Moorish guides assured us that this way was shorter by two leagues. We preferred returning to the beach, and walking on the sand, which the sea-water rendered firm. This last effort was almost beyond my strength, I sunk under it, and but for my comrades, I should have remained upon the sand.

We had absolutely resolved to reach the point, where the river joins the downs. There some boats, which were coming up the river, were to take us on board, and convey us to St. Louis. When we had nearly reached this spot, we crossed the downs, and enjoyed the sight of the river which we had so long desired to meet with.

Happily too, it was the season when the water of the Senegal is fresh: we quenched our thirst at our pleasure. We stopped at last; it was only eight o'clock in the morning. We had no shelter during the whole day, except some trees, which were of a kind unknown to me, and which had a sombre foliage. I frequently went into the river, but without venturing too far from the bank, for fear of the alligators.

About two o'clock, a small boat arrived; the master of it asked for Mr. Picard; he was sent by one of the old friends of that gentleman, and brought him provisions and clothes for his family. He gave notice to us all, in the name of the English Governor, that two other boats loaded with provisions, were coming. Having to wait till they arrived, I could not remain with Mr. Picard's family. I know not what emotion arose in my soul when I saw the fine white bread cut, and the wine poured out, which would have given me so much pleasure. At four o'clock we also were able to eat bread and good biscuit, and to drink excellent Madeira, which was lavished on us with little prudence. Our sailors were drunk; even those among us who had been more cautious, and whose heads were stronger, were, to say the least, very merry. How did our tongues run as we went down the river in our boats! After a short and happy navigation, we landed at Saint Louis, about seven o'clock in the evening.

But what should we do? whither should we go? Such were our reflections when we set foot on shore. They were not of long duration. We met with some of our comrades belonging to the boats who had arrived before us, who conducted us, and distributed us among various private houses, where every thing had been prepared to receive us well. I shall always remember the kind hospitality which was shewn to us, in general, by the white inhabitants of St. Louis, both English and French. We were all made welcome; we had all clean linen to put on, water to wash our feet; a sumptuous table was ready for us. As for myself, I was received, with several of my companions, in the house of Messrs. Potin and Durecur, Merchants of Bordeaux. Every thing they possessed was lavished upon us. They gave me linen, light clothes, in short, whatever I wanted. I had nothing left. Honour to him, who knows so well how to succour the unfortunate; to him especially who does it with so much simplicity, and as little ostentation as these gentlemen did. It seemed that it was a duty for them to assist every body. They would willingly have left to others no share in the good that was to be done. English officers eagerly claimed the pleasure, as they expressed it, of having some of the shipwrecked people to take care of. Some of us had feather beds, others good mattrasses laid upon mats, which they found very comfortable. I slept ill notwithstanding, I was too much fatigued, too much agitated: I always fancied, myself either bandied about by the waves, or treading on the burning sands.(B)

[A11] XXI.—On the Manufactures of the Moors.

The Moors tan skins with the dried pods of the Gummiferous Accia: thus prepared, they are impenetrable to the rain, and it may be affirmed that, for their suppleness, as well as for the brilliancy and finesss of their grain, they might become a valuable fur in Europe, either for use or ornament. The most beautiful of these skins seemed to be those of very young goats, taken from the belly of the dam before the time of gestation is completed. The great numbers of these animals, which are found round all the inhabited places, allow the inhabitants to sacrifice many to this species of luxury, without any extraordiny loss. The cloaks, with a hood, which are mentioned in this memoir, are composed of several of these skins, ingeniously sewed together, with small and very fine seams. These garments, designed as a protection against the cold and the rain, are generally black, but some are also seen of a reddish colour, which are not so beautiful, and heavier these latter are made of the skins of the kind of sheep, known by the name of guinea-sheep, which have hair instead of wool. As for the goldsmiths work, made by these people, it is executed by travelling workmen, who are at the same time armourers, smiths and jewellers. Furnished with a leather bag which is provided with an iron pipe, and filled with air, which they press and fill alternately, by putting it under their thigh, which they keep in constant motion, singing all the while; seated before a little hole dug in the sand, and under the shade of some leaves of the date-tree laid upon their heads, they execute on a little anvil, and with the help of a hammer, and some small iron awls, not only all kinds of repairs necessary to fire-arms, sabres, &c. but manufacture knives and daggers, and also make bracelets, earrings, and necklaces of gold, which they have the art of drawing into very fine wire, and forming into ornaments for women, in a manner which, though it wants taste, makes us admire the skill of the workman, especially when we consider the nature, and the small number of the tools which he employs.

The Moors, like the Mahometan negroes, are for the most part, provided with a larger or smaller number of gris-gris, a kind of talisman consisting in words, or verses copied from the Coran, to which they ascribe the power of securing them against diseases, witchcraft and accidents, and which they buy of their priests or Marabous. Some Spaniards from Teneriffe, who came to Cape Verd, at the time that the French Expedition had taken refuge there, struck us all, by their resemblance with these Africans. It was not only by their brown complexions that they resembled them; but it was also by their long rosaries, twisted in the some manner about their arms, resembling, except the cross, those of the Moors, and by the great number of Amulets, (gris-gris of another kind) which they wear round their necks, and by which they seemed to wish to rival the infidels in credulity. There is then, in the South of Europe, as well as in the North of Africa, a class of men, who would found their authority, upon ignorance, and derive their authority from superstition.

[A12] XXII.—On the Bark given to the Sick.

The bark, which began to be administered at that time, had been damaged, but an attempt was made to supply the want of it by the bark which the negroes use to cure the dysentery, and which they bring from the environs of Rufisque. This bark, of which they made a secret, seems to come from some terebinthine plant, and perhaps, from the monbins, which are common on this part of the coast. In the winter fevers which prevail at Goree, Cape Verd, &c. two methods of cure were employed which had different effects. These fevers were often attended with cholic, spasms in the stomach, and diarrhea. The first method consisted in vomitting, purging, and then administering the bark, to which musk was sometimes added, when the disorder grew worse. In this case, when the disease did not end in death, the fever was often succeeded by dysentery, or those who believed themselves cured, were subject to relapses. The second method, which Doctor Bergeron employed with more success, was opposite to the former; he vomited the patients but little, or not at all, endeavouring to calm the symptoms, to strengthen the patient by bitters, and at the last, he administered the bark.[A13]

The Negroes who, like all other people, have a materia medica, and pharmacopeia of their own, and who at this season, are subject to the same disorders as the Europeans, have recourse at the very beginning, to a more heroic remedy, and such of our soldiers encamped at Daccard, as made use of it, in general found benefit from it. The Priest or Marabous, who often offered them the assistance of his art, made them take a large glass of rum-punch, very warm, with a slight infusion of cayenne pepper. An extraordinary perspiration generally terminated this fit. The patient then avoided, for some days, walking in the sun, and eat a small quantity of roasted fish and cous-cous, mixed with a sufficient quantity of cassia leaves of different species, to operate as a gentle purgative. In order to keep up the perspiration, or according to the Negro Doctor, to strengthen the skin, he applied from time to time, warm lotions of the leaves of the palma christi, and of cassia, (casse puante.) The use of rum, which is condemned by the Mahometan religion, and is a production foreign to this country, gives reason to suppose that the remedy is of modern date, among the Negroes.

[A13] It is to be observed that the author, in these two passages, uses the word Kina or Peruvian bark—T.

[A14] XXIII.—On the Isle of St. Louis.

St. Louis is a bank of scorching sand, without drinkable water or verdure, with a few tolerable houses towards the South, and a great number of low smoky straw huts, which, occupy almost all the North part. The houses are of brick, made of a salt clay, (argile salee) which the wind reduces to powder, unless they are carefully covered with a layer of chalk or lime, which it is difficult to procure, and the dazzling whiteness of which injures the eyes.

Towards the middle of this town, if it may be so called, is a large manufactory in ruins, which is honored with the name of a fort, and of which the English have sacrificed a part, in order to make apartments for the governor, and to make the ground floor more airy, to quarter troops in it.

Opposite is a battery of heavy cannon, the parapet of which covers the square, on which are some trees, planted in strait lines for ornament. These trees are oleaginous Benjamins (Bens Oleferes) which give no shade, and ought to be replaced by tamarinds, or sycamores, which are common in this neighbourhood, and would thrive well on this spot. None but people uncertain of their privilege to trade on this river, merchants who came merely to make a short stay, and indolent speculators would have contented themselves with this bank of burning sand, and not have been tempted by the cool shades and more fertile lands, which are within a hundred toises, but which, indeed, labour alone could render productive. Every thing is wretched in this situation.

Saint Louis is but a halting place in the middle of the river, where merchants who were going up it to seek slaves and gum, moored their vessels, and deposited their provisions, and the goods they had brought with them to barter.

What is said in the narrative of the means of attacking this port, is correct. When the enemy have appeared, the Negroes have always been those who have defended it with the most effect. But unhappily, there, as in the Antilles, persons are already to be found, who are inclined to hold out their hands to the English.

At Louis there are some palm-trees, and the lantara flabelliformis. Some little gardens have been made; but a cabbage, or a salad, are still of some value. Want, the mother of industry, obliged some of the inhabitants, during the war, to turn their thoughts to cultivation, and it should be the object of the government to encourage them.

[A15] XXIV.—On the Islands of Goree and Cape Verd.

At the distance of 1200 toises from the Peninsula of Cape Verd, a large black rock rises abruptly, from the surface of the sea. It is cut perpendicularly on one side, inaccessible in two-thirds of its circumference, and terminates, towards the south, in a low beach which it commands, and which is edged with large stones, against which the sea dashes violently. This beach, which is the prolongation of the base of the rock, bends in an arch, and forms a recess, where people land as they can. At the extremity of this beach is a battery of two or three guns; on the beach of the landing-place, is an epaulement, with embrasures which commands it. The town stands on this sand bank, and a little fort, built on the ridge of the rock, commands and defends it. In its present state, Goree could not resist a ship of the line. Its road, which is only an anchoring place in the open sea, is safe in the most stormy weather; but it is exposed to all winds except those that blow from the island, which then serves to shelter it.

The Europeans who desire to carry on the slave trade, have preferred this arid rock, placed in the middle of a raging sea, to the neighbouring continent, where they would find water, wood, vegetables, and in short, the necessaries of life. The same reason which has caused the preference to be given to a narrow and barren sand bank, in the middle of the Senegal to build St. Louis, has also decided in favor of Goree: it is, that both of them are but dens, or prisons, intended as a temporary confinement for wretches who, in any other situation, would find means to escape. To deal in men, nothing is wanting but fetters and jails, but as this kind of gain no longer exists, if it is wished to derive other productions from these possessions, and not to lose them entirely, it will be necessary to change the nature of our speculations, and to direct our views and our efforts to the continent, where industry and agriculture promise riches, the production of which humanity will applaud.

The point which seems most proper for an agricultural establishment, is Cape Belair, a league and a half to the leward of Goree: its soil is a rich black mould, lying on a bed of Lava, which seems to come from the Mamelles. It is there that other large vegetables, besides the Baobabs, begin to be more numerous, and which, farther on, towards Cape Rouge, cover, like a forest, all the shores. The wells of Ben, which supply Goree with water, are but a short distance from it, and the lake of Tinguage, begins in the neighbourhood. This lake, which is formed, in a great measure, by the rain water of the Peninsula, contains a brackish water, which it is easy to render potable; it is inhabited by the Guesiks, or Guia-Sicks of the Yoloffes, or Black Crocodiles of Senegal; but it would be easy to destroy these animals. In September, this lake seems wholly covered with white nymphaea, or water-lilly, and in winter time it is frequented by a multitude of waterfowl, among which, are distinguished by their large size, die great pelican, the fine crested crane, which has received the name of the royal-bird, the gigantic heron, known in Senegambia by the venerable name of Marabou, on account of its bald head, with a few scattered white hairs, its lofty stature, and its dignified gait.

Considered geologically, the Island of Goree is a group of basaltic columns still standing, but a part of which seem to have experienced the action of the same cause of destruction and overthrow, as the columns of the same formation of Cape Verd, because they are inclined and overthrown in the same direction.

Cape Verd is a peninsula about five leagues and a half long; the breadth is extremely variable. At its junction, with the continent, it is about four leagues broad; by the deep recess which the Bay of Daccard forms, it is reduced, near that village, to 600 toises, and becomes broader afterwards. This promontory, which forms the most western part of Africa, is placed, as it were, at the foot of a long hill, which represents the ancient shore of the continent. On the sea-shore, and towards the north-east, there are two hills of unequal height, which serve as a guide to mariners; and which, from the substances collected in their neighbourhood, evidently shew that they are the remains of an ancient volcano. They have received the name of Mamelles. From this place, to the western extremity of the Peninsula, the country rises towards the north-east, and terminates in a sandy beach on the opposite side.

Almost the whole north-side is composed of steep rocks, covered with large masses of oxyd of iron, or with regular columns of basalt which, for the most part, still preserve their vertical position. Their summits, which are sometimes scorified, seem to prove that they have been exposed to a great degree of heat. The soil which covers the plateau, formed by the summit of the Basaltic columns, the sides of which assume towards the Mamelles, the appearance of walls of Trapp, but already, in a great degree, changed into tuf, is arid and covered with briars. The soil of the Mamelles, like almost all that of the middle of the Peninsula, which appears to lie upon argillaceous lava, in a state of decomposition, is much better. There are even to be found, here and there, some spots that are very fertile; this is the arable land of the inhabitants. Towards the south, all resumes more or less, the appearance of a desert; and the sands, though less destitute of vegetable mould, extend from thence to the sea-shore. It is by manuring the land, with the dung of their cattle, that the Negroes raise pretty good crops of sorgho. The population of this peninsula may be estimated at ten thousand souls. It is entirely of the Yoloffe race, and shews much attachment to all the ceremonies of Islamism. The Marabous or Priests, sometimes mounted on the top of the Nests of the Termites, or on the walls surrounding their mosque, call the people several times a-day to prayer.

The social state of this little people, is a kind of republic governed by a senate, which is composed of the chiefs of most of the villages. They have taken from the Coran the idea of this form of government, as is the case with most of those, established among the nations who follow that law.

At the time of the expedition of the Medusa this senate was composed as follows:

Moctar, supreme chief resident of Daccard. Diacheten, chief of the village of Sinkieur. Phall Yokedieff. Tjallow-Talerfour Graff. Mouim Bott. Bayemour Kaye. Modiann Ketdym. Mamcthiar Symbodioun. Ghameu Wockam. Diogheul, chief of the village of Gorr. Baindonlz Yoff. Mofall Ben. Schenegall Bambara.

This tribe was formerly subject to a Negro King in the neighbourhood; but having revolted against him, though very inferior in numbers, it defeated his army a few years ago. The bones of the vanquished, that still lie scattered on the plain, attest the victory. A wall, pierced with loop-holes, which they erected in the narrowest part of the Peninsula, and which the enemy was unable to force, chiefly contributed to their success. The Yolloffes are in general handsome and their facial angle has hardly any thing of the usual deformity of the Negroes. Their common food is cous-cous, with poultry, and above all fish; their drink is brackish water, mixed with milk and sometimes with palm wine. The poor go on foot, the rich on horseback, and some ride upon bulls, which are always very docile, for the Negroes are eminently distinguished by their good treatment of all animals. Their wealth consists in land and cattle; their dwellings are generally of reeds, their beds are mats made of Asouman (maranta juncea) and leopards' skins; and their cloathing broad pieces of cotton. The women take care of the children, pound the millet, and prepare the food; the men cultivate the land, go a hunting and fishing, weave the stuff for their clothes, and gather in the wax.

Revenge and idleness seem to be the only vices of these people; their virtues are charity, hospitality, sobriety, and love of their children. The young women are licentious, but the married women are generally chaste and attached to their husbands. Their diseases among the children, are worms, and umbilical hernia; among the old people, and particularly those who have travelled much, blindness and opthalamia; and among the adult, affections of the heart, obstructions, sometimes leprosy, and rarely elephantiasis. Among the whole population of the Peninsula, there is only one person with a hunch back, and two or three who are lame. During the day they work or rest; but the night is reserved for dancing and conversation. As soon as the sun has set, the tambourine is heard, the women sing; the whole population is animated; love and the ball set every body in motion. "Africa dances all the night," is an expression which has become proverbial among the Europeans who have travelled there.

There is not an atom of calcareous stone in the whole country: almost all the plants are twisted and thorny. The Monbins are the only species of timber that are met with. The thorny asparagus, A. retrofractus, is found in abundance in the woods; it tears the clothes, and the centaury of Egypt pricks the legs. The most troublesome insects of the neighbourhood are gnats, bugs, and ear-wigs. The monkey, called cynocephalus, plunders the harvests, the vultures attack the sick animals, the striped hyoena and the leopard prowl about the villages during the night; but the cattle are extremely beautiful, and the fish make the sea on this coast boil, and foam by their extraordinary numbers. The hare of the Cape and the gazell are frequently met with. The porcupines, in the moulting season, cast their quills in the fields, and dig themselves holes under the palm trees. The guinea-fowl (Pintada), the turtle-dove, the wood-pigeon are found every where. In winter immense flocks of plovers of various species, are seen on the edges of the marshes, and also great numbers of wild ducks. Other species frequent the reeds, and the surface of the water is covered with geese of different kinds, among which is that whose head bears a fleshy tubercle like that of the cassowary. The fishing nets are made of date leaves; their upper edge is furnished, instead of cork, with pieces of the light wood of the Asclepias.—The sails of the canoes are made of cotton.

Several shrubs, and a large number of herbaceous plants of this part of Africa, are found also in the Antilles. But among the indigenous plants, are the Cape Jessamine, the Amaryllis Rubannee, the Scarlet Hoemanthus, the Gloriosa Superba, and some extremely beautiful species of Nerions. A new species of Calabash, (Crescentia) with pinnated leaves is very common. Travellers appear to have confounded it with the Baobab, on account of the shape of its fruits, the thickness of its trunk, and the way in which its branches grow. Its wood, which is very heavy and of a fallow colour, has the grain and smell of ebony: its Yoloffe name is Bonda, the English have cut down and exported the greatest part of it.

In short, Africa, such as we have seen it either on the banks of the Senegal or the Peninsula of Cape Verd, is a new country, which promises to the naturalist an ample harvest of discoveries, and to the philosophical observer of mankind, a vast field for research and observation. May the detestable commerce in human flesh, which the Negroes abhor, and the Moors desire, cease to pollute these shores! It is the only means which the Europeans have left to become acquainted with the interior of this vast continent, and to make this great portion of the family of mankind, by which it is inhabited participate in the benefits of civilization.

[1] The Medusa was armed en flute, having only 14 guns on board; it was equipped at Rochefort with the Loire.

[2] Equipped at Brent.

[3] Came from L'Orient.

[4] The town of Chassiron is on the point of Oleron, opposite a bank of rocks called Les Antiochats.

[5] The light house of La Baleine is placed at the other end of the Pertuis d'Antioche, on the coast of the Isle of Rhe.

[6] Les Roches Bonnes are 8 or 9 leagues from the Isle of Rhe, their position is not exactly determined on the charts.

[7] Three knots make a marine league of 5556 meters.

[8] These are very large fish which every moment appear on the surface of the water, where they tumble about. They pass with such prodigious rapidity, that they will swim round a ship, when it is going at the rate of nine or ten knots an hour.

[9] The life buoy, is made of cask staves hooped together, and is about a metre (something more than a yard.) in diameter, in the middle of which is a little mast to fix a flag to. It is thrown into the sea, as soon as a man falls overboard, that he may place himself upon it while the operation of lowering a boat down, or heaving the, vessel to, is performed.

[10] We do not know why the government makes its vessels take this route; when one can proceed directly to the Canaries: it is true they are often obscured by mists, but there are no dangers in the principal canals which they form, and they extend over so large a space that it is impossible not to recognise them, with facility. They have also the advantage of being placed in the course of the monsoons; though however, west winds sometimes blow for several days together. We think that vessels going to the East Indies might dispense with making Madeira and Porto Santo, the more so as there are many shoals near these islands; besides the rocks, of which we have spoken above there is another, to the N. E. of Porto Santo, on which many vessels have been lost; by night all these reefs are very dangerous, by day they are recognised by the breakers on them.

[11] This route was not recommended by the instructions, but there was on board an old sea officer, who announced himself as a pilot in these seas; his advice was unfortunately attended to.

[12] A description of the reef of Arguin may be found in the Little Sea Torch.

[13] Besides the instructions given by the Minister, for sailing, after having made Cape Blanco, there was a letter sent some days before our departure from the road of the Isle of Aix, recommending the commander of the expedition not to depend upon the Charts, upon which the reef is very erroneously placed.

[14] Mr. Laperere, the officer on the watch before Mr. Maudet, found by his reckoning, that we were very near the reef; he was not listened to, though he did his utmost, at least to ascertain our situation by sounding. We have mentioned the names of Messrs. Laperere and Maudet, because if they had been attended to, the Medusa would be still in existence.

[15] This was not the long boat of the frigate; it was a boat in no very good condition, which was to be left at Senegal, for the service of the port.

[16] The bottom was besides soft; being sand mixed with grey mud, and shells, the raft, were also put over board: the two lower yards were retained in their place, to serve as shores to the frigate, and to support it, in case it threatened to upset.

[17] This plan was shewn to several persons; we ourselves saw it in the hands of the governor, who sketched it, leaning on the great capstern.

[18] Two officers displayed the greatest activity, they would have thrown into the sea every thing that could be got overboard. They were permitted to proceed for a moment; and the next moment contrary orders were given.

[19] Why was it opposed?

[20] The numbers above mentioned make only three hundred and eighty-three, so that there is an error somewhere. T.

[21] Trois quarts: it is not said of what measure; probably a pint.—T.

[22] The original is n'ayant pas le pie marin, not having a sailors foot.

[23] Our Lady of Laux is in the Department of the Upper Alps, not far from Gap. A church has been built there, the patroness of which is much celebrated, in the country, for her miracles. The lame, the gouty, the paralytic, found there relief, which it is said, never failed. Unfortunately, this miraculous power did not extend, it seems, to shipwrecked persons: at least the poor sutler drew but little advantage from it.

[24] One of the water casks was recovered; but the mutineers had made a large hole in it, and the sea water got in, so that the fresh water was quite spoiled; we, however, kept the little cask as well as one of the wine barrels, which was empty. These two casks were afterwards of use to us.

[25] These fish are very small; the largest is not equal to a small herring.

[26] This plot, as we learned afterwards, was formed particularly by a Piedmontese serjeant; who, for two days past, had endeavoured to insinuate himself with us, in order to gain our confidence. The care of the wine was entrusted to him: he stole it in the night, and, distributed it to some of his friends.

[27] We had all put together in one bag the money we had, in order to purchase provisions and hire camels, to carry the sick, in case we should land on the edge of the desert. The sum was fifteen hundred francs. Fifteen of us were saved, and each had a hundred francs. The commander of the raft and a captain of infantry divided it.

[28] One of these soldiers was the same Piedmontese serjeant of whom we have spoken above; he put his comrades forward, and kept himself concealed in case their plot should fail.

[29] Persons shipwrecked, in a situation similar to ours, have found great relief by dipping their clothes in the sea, and wearing them thus impregnated with the water; this measure was not employed on the fatal raft.

[30] Perhaps a kind of sea-nettle is here meant.

[31] What is called a fish, is a long piece of wood concave on one side, serving to be applied to the side of a mast, to strengthen it when in danger of breaking, it is fastened by strong ropes; hence, to fish a mast.

[32] The conduct of this young man merits some recompense. At the end of 1816, there was a promotion of 80 midshipmen, who were to be taken from the eleves who had been the longest in the service; Mr. Rang was. amongst the first 70, according to the years he had been in the service, and should therefore have been named by right. In fact, it is said that he was placed on the list of Candidates; but that his name was struck out because some young men, (whom they call proteges) applied to the ministry, and were preferred.

[33] This report of a mutiny, among the crew of the long-boat, began to circulate as soon as it joined the line which the boats formed before the raft. The following is what was told us: when the boats had abandoned the raft, several men, in the long-boat, subaltern officers of the troops on board, exclaimed: "let us fire on those who fly;" already their muskets were loaded; but the officer, who commanded, had influence enough to hinder them from executing their purpose. We have also been told that one F. a quarter-master, presented his piece at the captain of the frigate. This is all we have been able to collect concerning this pretended revolt.

[34] The fruit here mentioned, is probably jujubes (ziziphum), in their last stage of maturity. The author of this note, has found in the deserts of Barbary, and the shades of the Acacias, some immense jujubes; but, besides this fruit, the only one of a red or reddish colour which he has remarked in this country, are those of some caparidees, very acid; some icaques before they are ripe; the tampus or sebestum of Africa, and the wood of a prasium, which is very common in most of the dry places: the calyx of which, is swelled, succulent, and of an orange colour, good to eat, and much sought after by the natives.

[35] Is it really maize (zea) which has been observed about this Marigot, in large plantations? This name is so often given to varieties of the Sorgho, or dourha of the negroes, that there is probably a mistake here. In a publication, printed since this expedition, it has been stated, that maize was cultivated in the open fields, by the negroes of Cape Verd, whereas they cultivate no species of grain, except two kinds of houlques, to which they add, here and there, but in smaller fields, a kind of haricot, or French bean, dolique unguicule, which they gather in October, and a part of which they sell at Goree and St. Louis, either in pods or seed. The dishes which they prepare with this dolique, are seasoned with leaves of the Baobab, (Adansonia) reduced to powder, and of cassia, with obtuse leaves, and still fresh. As for the cous-cous, the usual food of the negroes, it is made of the meal of sorgho, boiled up with milk. To obtain this meal, they pound the millet in a mortar, with a hard and heavy pestle of mahogony, (mahogon) which grows on the banks of Senegal. The mahogon or mahogoni which, according to naturalists, has a great affinity to the family of the miliacees, and which approaches to the genus of the cedrelles, is found in India, as well as in the Gulph of Mexico, where it is beginning to grow scarce. At St. Domingo, it is considered as a species of acajou,[36] and they give it that name. The yellow mahogoni, of India, furnishes the satin wood. There is also the mahogoni febrifuge, the bark of which supplies the place of the Peruvian bark. Lamarque has observed that the mahogon of Senegal has only eight stamina; the other kinds have ten.

[36] Acajou is, we believe, generally used for mahogany.—T.

[37] The probity and justice of General Blanchot were so fully appreciated by the inhabitants of St. Louis, that when his death deprived the colony of its firmest support, all the merchants and officers of the government united to raise a monument to him, in which the remains of this brave general still repose. It was a short time after his death that the English took possession of St Louis, and all the officers of that nation joined in defraying the expences of the erection of the monument, on which there is an epitaph beginning with these words: "Here repose the remains of the brave and upright General Blanchot," &c. We think it not foreign to the purpose, to publish a trait which will prove how far General Blanchot carried his ideas of justice; every man, of sensibility, reads with pleasure, the account of a good action, particularly when it belongs to an hero of his own nation.

Some time before Senegal was given up to the English, St. Louis was strictly blockaded, so that all communication with France was absolutely impossible; in a short time the colony was short of all kinds of provisions. The prudent general called an extraordinary council, to which he invited all the chief inhabitants of the town, and the officers of government. It was resolved not to wait till the colony was destitute of provisions; and that, in order to hold out to the last extremity, all the inhabitants, without distinction of colour, or of rank, should have only a quarter of a ration of bread, and two ounces of rice or millet per day; to execute this decree, all the provisions were removed into the government magazines, and the general gave orders that it should be punctually followed. Some days after these measures were taken, the governor, according to his custom, invited the authorities to dine with him; it was understood that every one should bring his portion of bread and of rice; nevertheless, a whole loaf was served up on the governor's table. As soon as he perceived it, he asked his servants who could have given orders to the store-keeper to suspend, in respect to himself, the decree of the general council? All the company then interfered, and said that the council had never had any idea of putting him upon an allowance, and that he ought to permit this exception. The General, turning to one of his aides-de-camp, said: "go and tell the store-keeper, that I put him provisionally under arrest, for having exceeded my orders; and you, gentlemen, know that I am incapable of infringing on the means of subsistance of the unhappy slaves, who would certainly want food, while I had a superfluous supply on my table: learn that a French general knows how to bear privations, as well as the brave soldiers under his command." During the short time of the scarcity, which lasted four months, the General would never permit a larger ration to be given to him, than that which came to the meanest slave; his example prevented every body from murmuring, and the colony was saved. While they were suffering the severest privations the harvest was approaching, and, at length, delivered St. Louis from the scarcity. At the same time, vessels arrived from France, and brought abundant supplies. But soon after, the English returned to besiege St. Louis, and made themselves master of it. Though this note has carried us rather away from our subject, we would not pass over in silence, so honorable a trait; it is a homage paid to the memory of the brave General Blanchot. We may add, that after having been governor, during a long series of years, he died without fortune. How few men do we find who resemble Blanchot?

[38] Every body knows the popular proverb, which very well expresses our idea: "That which is worth taking, is worth keeping."

[39] It will hardly be believed to how many popular reports, these 100,000 francs have given rise. There are people who do not believe that they were ever embarked on board the frigate. How do they explain this supposition? It is by asking how the conduct of persons, who had sold the interest of their country, and their honor, to foreign interests, would have been different from that of certain persons? For our part, we do not doubt but that this report is a fable. The folly, the pride, the obstinacy which conducted us on the bank of Arguin, have no need of having another crime added to them. Besides, if there are, sometimes, persons who sell their honor, there are none who, at the same time, sell their lives; and those whom people would accuse of something more than extreme incapacity, have sufficiently proved in dangers which threatened themselves, that they well knew how to provide for their own safety.

[40] Probably the cross of the legion of honor—T.

[41] These desertions are unhappily too frequent in naval history. The St. John the Baptist stranded in 1760 on the isle of Sables, where 87 poor people were abandoned, in spite of the promises to come and fetch them, made by 320 of the shipwrecked persons, who almost all saved themselves upon the island of Madagascar. Eighty negroes and negresses perished for want of assistance, some of hunger, some in attempting to save themselves upon rafts. Seven negresses and a child who lived there for fifteen years, were exposed to the most terrible distresses, and were saved in 1776 by Mr. de Trommelin, commanding the Dauphine corvette.

The Favorite, commanded by Captain Moreau, fell in with the island of Adu in 1767; he sent a boat on shore with a crew of eight men, commanded by Mr. Riviere, a navy officer, but Moreau abandoned them, because the currents drove him towards the island; and he returned to the isle of France, where he took no step to induce the government to send them assistance. The brave Riviere and all his sailors succeeded in saving themselves on the coast of Malabar, by means of a raft and his boat; he landed at Cranganor, near Calicut.

One may conceive that at the first moment the presence of danger may derange the senses, and that then people may desert their companions on board a vessel; but not to go to their assistance, when the danger is surmounted, not to hasten to fly to their relief, this is inconceivable.

[42] Persons whom we could name, divided the great flag, and cut it up into table-cloths, napkins, &c. we mention with the distinction which they deserve, Sophia, a negress belonging to the governor, and Margaret, a white servant.

[43] They dined almost every day with the English officers; but in the evening they were obliged to return to the fatal hospital, where an infinite number of victims languished: if, by chance, one of the convalescents failed to come, their generous and benevolent hosts sent to the hospital, anxiously enquiring the cause of his absence.

[44] The affair of the coal-mine of Beaujon, as a journalist has well observed, insures lasting celebrity to the name of the brave Goffin, whose memory the French Academy has consecrated by a poetical prize; and the city of Liege, by a large historical picture which has been publicly exhibited.—Doubtless the devotedness of Goffin was sublime; but, Goffin was only the victim of a natural accident, no sentiment of honour and duty, had plunged him voluntarily into an imminent danger, as it had many of those on the raft, and which, several of them might have avoided. Goffin, accusing only fate and the laws of nature, to which we are subject, in every situation, had not to defend his soul against all the odious and terrible impressions of all the unchained passions of the human heart: hatred, treachery, revenge, despair, fratricide, all the furies in short, did not hold up to him their hideous and threatening spectres; how great a difference does the nature of their sufferings, suppose in the souls of those who had to triumph over the latter? and yet, what a contrast in the results! Goffin was honored and, with justice; the men shipwrecked on the raft, once proscribed, seem to be forever forsaken. Whence is that misfortune so perseveringly follows them? Is it that, when power has been once unjust, has no means to efface its injustice but to persist in it, no secret to repair its wrongs, but to aggravate them?

[45] Three men saved from the raft, died in a very short time; those who crossed the desert, being too weak to go to Daccard, were in considerable numbers in this same hospital, and perished there successively.

[46] Major Peddy had fought against the French in the Antilles and in Spain; the bravery of our soldiers, and the reception given him in France at the time of our disasters, had inspired him with the greatest veneration for our countrymen, who had, on more than one occasion, shewn themselves generous towards him.

[47] The Governor, who it seems did not like the sight of the unfortunate, had, however, no reason to fear that it would too much affect his sensibility. He had elevated himself above the misfortunes of life, at least, when they did not affect himself, to a degree of impassibility, which would have done honor to the most austere stoic and which, doubtless, indicates the head of a statesman, in which superior interests, and the thought of the public good, leave no room for vulgar interests, for mean details, for care to be bestowed on the preservation of a wretched individual. Thus, when the death of some unhappy Frenchman was announced to him, this news no further disturbed his important meditations than to make him say to his secretary, "Write, that Mr. such a one is dead."

The governor is, at the bottom, doubtless, a man not destitute of sensibility; for example, he never passed by the king's picture (if any strangers were present) but he shed tears of emotion. But his great application to business, the numerous occupations, the divers enterprises which have agitated his life, have, if we may so express it, so long distracted his thoughts that he has at length felt the necessity of concentrating them wholly in himself.

We cannot here become the historians of the governor; we do not know whether his modesty will ever permit him to publish the memoirs of his life; but the public who know, or easily may know, that having been an apothecary in Bengal, a physician in Madagascar, a dealer in small wares, and land-surveyor in Java, a shopkeeper's clerk in the isle of France and Holland, an engineer in the camp of Batavia, commandant at Guadaloupe, chief of a bureau at Paris, he has succeeded after passing through all these channels, in obtaining the orders of St. Louis, and the Legion of Honor, the rank of colonel, and the command of a colony; the public, we say, will reasonable conclude, that the governor is, without doubt, a universal man, and that it is very natural that so superior a genius should have set himself above many little weaknesses, which would have arrested his flight, and which are proper for none but weak minds, for good people who are made to creep on upon the common route, and to crawl on the ground.

[48] The giving up of the colony did not take place till six months after our shipwreck. It was not till the 25th of January, 1817, that we took possession of our settlements on the coast of Africa.

[49] What would our good Major have said if he had known that our Minister of the Marine, Mr. Dubouchage, had exposed himself in a far greater degree, to the embarrassment of the species of shame, attributed to him here, by confiding seven or eight expeditions to officers who do no more honour to his choice and discernment, than the expedition to Senegal has done.

Besides the Medusa, which was conducted so directly upon the bank of Arguin, by the Viscount de Chaumareys, Knight of St. Louis, and of the Legion of Honour, and in the intervals of his campaigns, receiver of the droits reunis, at Bellac, in Upper Vienne, every body knows that the Golo, bound from Toulon to Pondichery, nearly perished on the coast, by the unskilfulness of the Captain, Chevalier Amblard, Knight of St. Louis, and the Legion of Honour, who, in order not to lose sight of maritime affairs, had become a salt merchant, near Toulon. Neither is the debut of the Viscount de Cheffontaine forgotten, who, on quitting Rochefort, whence he was to sail to the Isle of Bourbon, put into Plymouth to repair his masts, which he had lost after being three or four days at sea. Who does not know that it would be in our power to mention more examples of this kind?

We spare the French reader these recollections, which are always painful; besides, what could our weak voice add to the eloquent expressions which resounded in the last session, in the chamber of deputies: when a member, the friend of his country and of glory, pointed out the errors of the Minister of the Marine, and raised his voice against those shadows of officers whom favor elevated to the most important posts. He represented, with reason, how prejudicial it was to government, that the command of ships and colonies should be given as caprice dictates, and to gratify the pretentions of vain pride, while experienced officers were overlooked, or disdainfully repulsed, condemned to figure on the lists of the half-pay, of the reforms, and even before the time, which would have called them to a necessary, or at least legal repose. How burdensome to the State, are these retraites which render useless, men whose zeal and talents ought to insure no other than their vessel, who wished but to spend their life there in uninterrupted service, who would have found there a tomb, the only one worthy of a French sailor, rather than suffer any thing contrary to duty and honour. Instead of that, we have seen titles take the reward of knowledge, repose of experience, and protection of merit. Men proud of thirty years of obscurity, make them figure on the lists, as passed under imaginary colours, and this service of a novel description establishes for them the right of seniority. These men, decorated with ribbons of all colours, who counted very well the number of their ancestors, but of whom it would have been useless to ask an account of their studies, being called to superior commands, have not been able to shew anything but their orders, and their unskilfulness. They have done more: they have had the privilege of losing the vessels and the people of the State, without its being possible for the laws to reach them; and after all, how could a tribunal have condemned them? They might have replied to their judges, that they had not passed their time in studying the regulations of the service, or the laws of the marine, and that, if they had failed, it was without knowledge or design. In fact, it would be difficult to suppose that they intended their own destruction; they have but too well proved that they knew how to provide for their own safety. And what reply could have been made to them, if they had confined their defence to these two points? We did not appoint ourselves; it is not we who are to blame.

[50] Just as we are going to send this sheet to the press, we learn from the newspapers, that this expedition has failed; that it was not able to proceed above fifty leagues into the interior, and that it returned to Sierra Leone, after having lost several officers, and among them Captain Campbell, who had taken the command after the death of Major Peddy. Thus the good fall and the Thersites live, and are often even honoured. Captain Campbell was one of our benefactors, may his manes be sensible to our regret, and may his family and country permit us to mingle with their just affliction, this weak tribute of respect, by which we endeavour as far as lies in our power to discharge the sacred debt of gratitude!

Among the losses which this expedition has experienced, it is feared that we must reckon that of our excellent companion, the Naturalist Kummer; nevertheless, as no positive information of his death has yet been received of his fate, his numerous friends, in the midst of their fears, still cherish some hopes: May they not be disappointed.

The accounts which inform us of this event, attribute the ill success of the expedition, to the obstacles opposed to it by the natives of the interior, but enter into no details. We learn from geographers, that up the Rio Grande there lives the warlike nation of the Souucsous, whom some call the Fonllahs of Guinea. The name of their capital is Teembo. They are Mahometans, and make war on the idolatrous tribes who surround them, to sell their prisoners. A remarkable institution, called the Pouarh, seems to have a great resemblance with the ancient secret Tribunal of Germany. The Pouarh is composed of members who are not admitted among the initiated till they have undergone the most horrible probations. The association exercises the power of life and death; every body shuns him, whose head it has proscribed. It may be that it was by this species of government, which seems not to want power, that the English expedition was stopped.

[51] This remark on the conduct of one of our companions whom we had known, under more favourable circumstances, had cost us some pain in the first edition: therefore, we did not expressly name the person meant. When we now name Mr. Griffon, we conceive ourselves to be fulfilling a duty, which his present sentiments impose on us.

A man of honor, especially, when in the state of weakness, and of mental and bodily infirmity to which we were reduced, might be misled for a moment; but when he repairs this involuntary error, with the generosity which dictated the following letter, we repeat it, there is no longer any crime in having thus erred, and it is justice, and a very pleasing duty for us to do homage to the frankness, to the loyalty of Mr. Griffon, and to congratulate ourselves, on having found again the heart of the companion of our misfortunes, such as we had known him, and with all his rights to our esteem.

The following is the letter which he has just written to Mr. Savigny, and which is a highly valuable proof of the truth of our accounts.

Extract of a letter from Mr. Griffon to Mr. Savigny.

At present, Sir, I owe you a testimony of gratitude for your attention in anticipating me. I know, that in your eyes I could not merit so much generosity from you: it is noble to forget the ills that have been done us, and to do good to those who have sought to injure us: your conduct towards me is admirable; I confess, that, though my reclamations were just at the first, I have suffered myself to be carried too far by the first impulse of a weak and exalted imagination, which led me to decry my unhappy companion in misfortune, because I fancied, that the account which he had drawn up of our misfortunes might render us odious to all our relations and friends.[52] Such are the reasons which I alledged to you at Rochefort, and you must then have perceived, that I spoke to you with frankness, since I concealed nothing from you. I am not at present without repentance, for not having waited for better information, before I acted against one, whose firmness did not a little contribute to save our lives.

Bourgneuf, January 7, 1818. GRIFFON DUBELLAY.

[52] The same means were employed with Mr. Correard.

[53] I, the undersigned chief of the workmen under the command of Mr. Correard, engineer, geographer, one of the members of the commission appointed by his excellency the minister of the marine and the colonies, to examine Cape Verd and its environs, certify that, in the month of November, 1816, a memorial was presented me to sign, by order of the governor of Senegal; that, at this time, living in the hospital in the island of Goree, to be cured of an epidemic fever, which then raged on Cape Verd; it occasioned temporary fits of delirium; that consequently, this weakening of my moral faculties, and even the state of mental derangement, in which I was caused to sign this piece without reading it: it appears, that it tended, in part, to blame the conduct of Mr. Savigny on the raft, and for which I owe him, only commendations. It appears, also, according to what has been told me, that I have been made to certify, that the tow-rope broke and was not loosened; I declare, that my signature at the bottom of this memorial, having been surreptitiously obtained, is null and void; in testimony whereof, I have delivered the present certificate to serve towards repelling any attack that might be made against Mr. Savigny, on the ground of this memorial.

Done at Paris, November 1, 1817. TOUCHE LAVILETTE.

[54] I, the undersigned, appointed to command the raft of the Medusa frigate, certify, that Mr. Savigny, the surgeon, who embarked in the said raft, has given on all occasions, in the unhappy situation in which we were placed, proofs of the greatest courage and coolness, and that on several occasions, his prudence was of the greatest service to us, in suggesting to us means to maintain good order, and discipline, of which we had so much need, and which it was so difficult for us to obtain.

(Signed) COUDIN.

[55] I, the undersigned, certify, that Mr. Savigny, by his courage and coolness, succeded in maintaining good order upon the raft, and that, his prudent arrangements saved the lives of the fifteen unfortunate persons, who were taken up by the Argus brig.

(Signed) NICOLAS FRANCOIS.

[56] I, the undersigned, certify, to all whom it may concern, that I have refused to sign a memorial drawn up by Mr.———, which was addressed to his excellency the minister of the marine, and tended to disapprove the conduct of Mr. Savigny on board the raft, as well as to refute some parts of the narrative of our shipwreck, inserted in the Journal des Debats, the 13th of September, 1816, besides, the events related in this memorial, appear to me so entirely false, and so contrary to all that we owe to Mr. Savigny, that it was impossible for me to pat my name to it.

(Signed) CORREARD

[57] The Board of Health certifies, that Mr. Jean Baptiste Henry Savigny, has been employed in the character of surgeon, from the 15th of April, 1811, to the 5th of May, 1817, and that in the course of his service, both by sea and land, he has given proofs of zeal, emulation, and good conduct.

It is with regret, that the Board of Health, sees an officer retire from the service, who is so distinguished by his talents as Mr. Savigny.

(Signed) CHASLON, TUFFET, REJOU.

[58] To His Excellency the British Ambassador, at the Court of France.

My Lord,

A Frenchman who, after a shipwreck without parallel, has been fraternally assisted by foreigners whom national interests seemed calculated to estrange from him, is eager to give utterance to the sentiments of gratitude with which he is filled.

This Frenchman, My Lord, is Alexander Correard, an engineer, an honorary member of the commission appointed to examine Cape Verd and its environs, one of the fifteen persons who escaped out of the hundred and fifty individuals shipwrecked, with the raft of the Medusa frigate, of whom only eleven are still living.

It is this want of my heart, which emboldens me to address Your Excellency, the worthy representative in my country of that of my generous benefactors, whose names will be ever memorable in the annals of humanity.

Yes, My Lord, it is a duty delightful to my heart, to declare, that the justest title to the gratitude of all the French has been acquired by Major Peddy, commanding the Expedition to the Interior of Africa, charged to continue the great undertaking of Mungo Park, by the obliging generosity which he shewed to the unfortunate men who escaped from the fatal raft, by bestowing on them linen, clothes, money and admitting them to his table, &c. These attentions were aided by Captain Campbell, the second in command, who never ceased to load me also with his benefits; in short, in imitation of them, all the English Officers, both those of the Expedition, as of the Royal African Regiment in garrison at St. Louis, vied with each other in relieving us, especially Captain Chemme, Lieutenant Hommera, Adjutant-Major Grey, Ensigns Beurthonne and Adams.

May Your Excellency receive with kindness, the sincere expression of gratitude to the English nation, of a French private citizen who has been ruined by this dreadful disaster. Above all, may what he has experienced give his countrymen fresh reason to esteem these brave officers, at the same time that it is a proof of the wisdom of a government, which, among so many enlightened persons, has so well chosen, to finish an immense enterprise, co-operators, whose distinguished talents and social virtues, must ensure success, which promises such great advantages to the universe.

Relying on Your Excellency's generosity, Mr. Correard begs you to be pleased to transmit to him some information respecting his benefactors, and particularly the honorable Major Peddy, to whom he has vowed eternal attachment,

I have the honour to be, &c.

A. CORREARD.

Paris, March 5, 1817.

[59] The flute La Caravane, commanded by Mr. Le Normand de Kergrist, perished in the dreadful hurricane, which was experienced at Martinique and some other Islands, on the 21st and 22nd of October last. Messrs. Fournier Lieutenant, Legrandais, and Lespert Midshipman, and Paulin Boatswain, have received the cross of the Legion of Honor for their conduct on this occasion.—Vide the Moniteur of January 22.

[60] Paris, Sept. 8, 1817.

Sir.—The Memorials which you addressed on the tenth of June last, to the King and to His Royal Highness the Duke of Angouleme, have been referred to my apartment. I have examined the Memorials, as well as the letters which you have written on the same subject to my predecessors. If an opportunity should occur, in which I can serve you, I will readily embrace it.

Receive, Sir, the assurance of my perfect consideration.

The Minister Secretary of State of the Marine and Colonies.

COUNT MOLE.

[61] A kind of crab found on the sea-coast; it is the Cancer cursor of Linnaeus, and the same that is found on the shores of the Antilles.

[62] The Baobab or Adansoia of botanists, is placed in the class Monadelphia polyandria, in the family of malvaceous plants, and has but one species. The first of these trees seen by Adanson, were twenty-seven feet in diameter, about eighty-three feet in circumference. Ray says they have been seen thirty feet in diameter, and Goldberry says he saw one of thirty-four feet. According to the calculations of Adanson, a tree, twenty-five feet in diameter, must have taken 3750 years to acquire these dimensions, which would allow a foot growth in 150 years, or an in inch in twelve years and a half; but an observation of Goldberry's would quite overturn this calculation. He, in fact, measured a Baobab thirty-six years after Adanson, and found its diameter increased by only eight lines. The growth is not therefore uniformly progressive, and must become slower at a certain period of the age of this tree, in a proportion which it is hardly possible to determine. Otherwise, if we admitted that it takes thirty-six years to increase in diameter only eight lines, it would require fifty-four years for an inch, and 648 for a foot, which would make 16,200 years for a tree twenty-four feet in diameter!

[63] These aigrettes or white herons, are found in large flocks in this part of Africa; they follow the cattle to feed on the insects with which they are infested.

[64] The blacks think that all the whites are very rich in their own country.

[65] This lizard was probably a turpinambis. This animal, which is not uncommon at Cape Verd, climbs up trees, frequents the marshy places, and is said to inflict severe wounds if it is not laid hold of with great precaution. The inhabitants of the Mamelles assert that it devours young crocodiles. This species seems to be the same as that which frequents the banks of the Nile. It grows to the length of four feet and uses its tail in swimming.

THE END.