THE SICKNESS AND DEATH OF MADAME PICARD BREAK IN UPON THE
HAPPINESS OF THE FAMILY--M. PICARD TURNS HIS VIEWS TO
COMMERCE--BAD SUCCESS OF HIS ENTERPRISE--THE DISTRACTED AFFAIRS
OF THE COLONY DISGUST HIM--THE CULTIVATION OF THE ISLAND OF
SAFAL--SEVERAL MERCHANTS PROTEST AGAINST M. PICARD APPLYING
HIMSELF TO COMMERCE--DEPARTURE OF THE EXPEDITION TO THE ISLAND OF
GALAM--M. PICARD IS DEPRIVED OF HIS EMPLOYMENT AS ATTORNEY--HIS
ELDEST DAUGHTER GOES TO LIVE IN THE ISLAND OF SAFAL WITH TWO OF
HER BROTHERS.
We were happy enough, at least content, at Senegal, until the sickness
of my stepmother broke in upon the repose we enjoyed. Towards the middle
of July 1817, she fell dangerously ill; all the symptoms of a malignant
fever appeared in her; and in spite of all the assistance of art and the
care we bestowed upon her, she died in the beginning of November of the
same year. Her loss plunged us all into the deepest affliction. My
father was inconsolable. From that melancholy period, there was no
happiness for our unfortunate family: chagrin, sickness, enemies, all
seemed to conspire against us. A short while after her death my father
received a letter from the chemist at Paris, informing him that the
sample of potass which he had sent to France was nothing but marine
salt, and some particles of potass and saltpetre. This news, although
disagreeable, did not affect us, because we had still greater
misfortunes to deplore. About the end of the year, my father finding his
employment would scarcely enable him to support his numerous family,
turned his attention to commerce, hoping thus to do some good, as he
intended to send me to look after the family, and to take charge of the
new improvements in the island, which had become very dear to him from
the time he had deposited in it the mortal remains of his wife and his
youngest child. For the better success of his project, he went into
co-partnery with a certain personage in the colony; but instead of
benefiting his speculations, as he had flattered himself, it proved
nothing but loss. Besides he was cheated in an unworthy manner by the
people in whom he had placed his confidence; and as he was prohibited by
the French authorities from trafficking, he could not plead his own
defence, nor get an account of the merchandise of which they had
defrauded him. Some time after he had sustained this loss, he bought a
large boat, which he refitted at a considerable expense. He made the
purchase in the hope of being able to traffic with the Portuguese of the
island of Cape Verd, but in vain; the governor of the colony prohibited
him from all communication with these islands.
Such were the first misfortunes which we experienced at Senegal, and
which were only the precursors of still greater to come.
Besides all these, my father had much trouble and vexation to endure in
the employment he followed. The bad state of the affairs of the colony,
the poverty of the greater part of its inhabitants, occasioned to him
all sorts of contradictions and disagreements. Debts were not paid, the
ready money sales did not go off; processes multiplied in a frightful
manner; every day creditors came to the office soliciting actions
against their debtors; in a word, he was in a state of perpetual torment
either with his own personal matters, or with those of others. However,
as he hoped soon to be at the head of the agricultural establishment
projected at Senegal, he supported his difficulties with great courage.
In the expedition which was to have taken place in 1815, the Count
Trigant de Beaumont, whom the king had appointed governor of Senegal,
had promised my father to reinstate him in the rank of captain of
infantry, which he had held before the Revolution, and after that to
appoint him to the command of the counting-house of Galam, dependent
upon the government of Senegal. In 1816, my father again left Paris with
that hope, for the employment of attorney did not suit his disposition,
which was peaceable and honest. He had the first gift of the documents
concerning the countries where they were to found the agricultural
establishments in Africa, and had proposed plans which were accepted of
at the time by the President of the Council of State, and by the
Minister of Marine, for the colonization of Senegal; but the
unfortunate events of 1815 having overturned every thing, another
governor was nominated for that colony in place of Count Trigant de
Beaumont. All his plans and proposed projects were instantly altered for
the purpose of giving them the appearance of novelty; and my father
found himself in a situation to apply these lines of Virgil to himself.
"Hos ego versiculos feci, tulit alter honores."
These lines I made, another has the praise.
At first the new governor (M. Schmaltz) was almost disposed to employ my
father in the direction of the Agricultural Establishment of Senegal;
but he allowed himself to be circumvented by certain people, to whom my
father had perhaps spoken too much truth. He thought no more of him, and
we were set up as a mark of every kind of obloquy.
Finding then that he could no longer reckon upon the promises which had
been made to him on the subject of the plans which he had proposed for
the colony of Senegal, my father turned his attention to the island of
Safal, which seemed to promise a little fortune for himself and family.
He doubled the number of his labouring negroes, and appointed a black
overseer for superintending his work.
In the beginning of 1818, we believed our cotton crop would make us
amends for the loss which we had sustained at various times. All our
plants were in the most thriving condition, and promised an abundant
harvest. We had also sown maize, millet, and some country beans, which
looked equally well.
At this period, M. Schmaltz was recalled to France. M. Flauriau
succeeded him; but the nomination of the new governor did not alleviate
our condition. Every Sunday my father went to visit his plantation, and
to give directions for the labours of the week. He had built a large hut
for the overseer, upon the top of a little hill, which was almost
exactly in the centre of the island. It was at a little distance from
the small house which he had raised as a tomb, to receive the remains of
his wife and child, whom he had at first buried in a place to the south
of the cotton field. He surrounded the monument of his sorrow with a
kind of evergreen bean tree, which soon crept over the grave, and
entirely concealed it from the view. This little grove of verdure
attracted, by the freshness of its foliage, a multitude of birds, and
served them for a retreat. My father never left this place but he was
more tranquil, and less affected with his misfortunes.
Towards the middle of April, seeing his plants had produced less cotton
than he expected, and that the hot winds and grasshoppers had made great
havock in his plantations, my father decided to leave upon it but one
old negro, for superintending the day-labourers, whom he had reduced to
four. In the mean time, we learned that some merchants, settled at
Senegal, had written to France against my father. They complained that
he had not employed sufficient severity against some unfortunate persons
who had not been able to pay their debts; and they exclaimed against
some miserable speculations which he had made in the country of Fouta
Toro, for procuring grain necessary for the support of his negroes.
The expedition to Galam making preparations for its departure,[13] my
father, in spite of the insinuations of some merchants of the colony,
was desirous also of trying his fortune. He associated himself with a
person who was to make the voyage; he bought European goods, and
refitted his boat, which again occasioned him loss. Towards the middle
of August 1818, the expedition set off. A month after its departure, my
cousin, whom the country had considerably affected, returned to France,
to our great regret. My sister and myself found ourselves the only
society to enable us to support our sorrows; however, as we hoped to
return to France in a few years, we overcame our disappointment. We had
already in some degree recovered our tranquillity, in spite of all our
misfortunes and the solitude in which we lived, when my father received
a letter from the governor of the colony, announcing to him, that, by
the decision of the Minister of Marine, a new attorney had come to
Senegal, and enjoining him at the same time to place the papers of the
office in the hands of his successor.
[Footnote 13: The voyage from Senegal to the country of Galam is
made but once a year, because it is necessary to take advantage of
the overflowing of the river, either in coming or going. The
merchant boats which are destined to make the voyage, look like a
fleet, and depart in the middle of August, under escort of a
king's ship, commissioned to pay the droits and customs to the
Negro princes of the interior, with whom that colony is
connected.]
Such a circumstance could not fail to affect us much; for the few
resources we possessed made us anticipate an event almost as horrible as
the shipwreck, which exposed our family to all the horrors of want in
the boundless deserts of Sahara. My father, however, having nothing with
which he could reproach himself, courageously supported this new
misfortune, hoping sooner or later to be able to unmask those who had
urged his ruin. He wrote a letter to his Excellency the Minister of
Marine, in which he detailed the affairs of the office of the colony,
the regularity of the accounts, the unfortunate condition to which his
numerous family were reduced by the loss of his employment, and
concluded with these words:--"Broken without being heard, at the end of
twenty-nine years of faithful service, but too proud to make me afraid
of a disgrace which cannot but be honourable to me, especially as it has
its source in those philanthropic principles which I manifested in the
abandoning of the raft of the Medusa, I resign myself in silence to my
destiny."
This letter, full of energy, although a little too firm, failed not to
affect the feeling heart of the Minister of Marine, who wrote to the
governor of Senegal to give my father some employment in the
administration of the colony. But that order had either remained too
long in the office of the minister, or the governor of Senegal had
judged it proper not to communicate the good news to us, as we did not
hear of the order of the minister till after the death of my father,
nearly fifteen months after its date.
When my father had rendered his accounts, and installed his successor
into the colony's office, he told me it would be quite necessary to
think of returning into his island of Safal, to cultivate it ourselves.
He persuaded me that our plantation suffered solely from the want of our
personal care, and that the happiness and tranquillity of a country life
would soon make us forget our enemies and our sufferings. It was then
decided that I should set off on the morrow, with two of my brothers, to
go and cultivate the cotton at the plantation. We took our little
shallop, and two negro sailors, and, by daybreak, were upon the river,
leaving at Senegal my father, my sister Caroline, and the youngest of
our brothers and sisters.