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 réunis_, 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 _début_ 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. Corréard.
[53] I, the undersigned chief of the workmen under the command of
Mr. Corréard, 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 FRANÇOIS.
[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 Débats_, 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) CORRÉARD
[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, RÉJOU.
[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 Corréard, 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. Corréard 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. CORRÉARD.
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 MOLÉ.
[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.