FRESH MISFORTUNES--DESERTION OF THE WORKING NEGROES--RETURN OF M.
SCHMALTZ TO SENEGAL--HOPE DESTROYED--GOVERNOR SCHMALTZ REFUSES
ALL KIND OF ASSISTANCE TO THE PICARD FAMILY--TIGERS DEVOUR THE
HOUSEHOLD DOG--TERROR OF MISS PICARD--BAD HARVEST--CRUEL PROSPECT
OF THE FAMILY--INCREASE OF MISFORTUNES--SOME GENEROUS PERSONS
OFFER ASSISTANCE TO M. PICARD.
Whilst we were thus enjoying in peace our little good fortune, my father
received a letter, desiring him to return to Senegal in all possible
speed. He went, and left me at the head of our establishment, but a
great misfortune happened, which we could not prevent;--six of our
labouring negroes, whom he had hired, deserted during the night, and
took our small boat with them. I was extremely distressed, and instantly
made Etienne swim the river, and go and beg of the President at Babaguey
to take him to my father, who was still at Senegal, to tell him the
melancholy news. That good negro was soon on the other side of the
water, and went to M. Lerouge (the name of the president), who gave him
his canoe. At night, we saw him returning without my father, who went
into the country to search for the fugitive negroes. He spent three
whole days in the countries of Gandiolle and Touby, which lie in the
neighbourhood of our island, but all his labour was in vain. The
deserting negroes had already gained the forests of the interior; and my
father, exhausted with fatigue, returned to Safal. I confess, though I
was deeply distressed at the desertion of these slaves, who were so
necessary to us for realizing our agricultural projects, my heart could
not blame these unfortunate creatures, who only sought to recover that
freedom from which they had been torn.
At this date, that is about the 1st of March 1819, we learned that M.
Schmaltz had returned from France, and was in the Bay of St Louis; and
that the Minister of Marine had approved of all the projects relative to
the agricultural establishment at Senegal. This news revived my father's
hopes. As this establishment had been originally proposed by him, he
flattered himself they would do him justice in the end. In this
expectation, he went to meet with governor Schmaltz, who had to pass our
house on the morrow; but he would not speak with him. On the following
day, my father wrote to him from the hotel at St Louis; four days after
which, we were assured that the governor was very far from wishing us
well, and still farther from doing justice to my father. However, some
of his friends encouraged him to make fresh endeavours, and persuaded
him he would obtain a premium of encouragement for having first set the
example of cultivating cotton at Senegal; they assured him also that
funds had been sent to M. Schmaltz for that purpose. Vain hope! every
claim was rejected, we had not even the satisfaction of knowing whether
the premium which my father sought was due to him or not; we got no
reply. My father wishing to make a last attempt to ward off the misery
which menaced us, went to supplicate the governor to allow us either
money to purchase food, or rations. This last petition was not more
successful than the former. We were abandoned to our unhappy fate,
whilst more than twenty persons, who had never done any service to the
government, received gratis rations every day from the magazines of the
colony. "Very well!" said my father to me, when he found he was refused
that assistance which M. Schmaltz had ordered to the other unfortunate
persons in the colony, "let the governor be happy if he can, I will not
envy his felicity. Behold, my child, behold this roof of thatch which
covers us; see these hurdles of reeds which moulder into dust, this bed
of rashes, my body already impaired by years, and my children weeping
around me for bread! You see a perfect picture of poverty! Nevertheless,
there are yet beings upon the earth more unfortunate than we
are!"--"Alas!" said I to him, "our misery is great; but I can support
it, and even greater, without complaining, if I saw you exposed to less
harassing cares. All your children are young, and of a good
constitution; we can endure misfortune, and even habituate ourselves to
it; but we have cause to fear that the want of wholesome and sufficient
food will make you fall, and then we shall be deprived of the only stay
we have upon earth."--"O! my dear child," cried my father, "you have
penetrated into the secrets of my soul, you know all my fears, and I
will no longer endeavour to conceal the sorrow which has weighed for a
long time upon my heart. However, my death may perhaps be a blessing to
my family; my bitter enemies will then doubtless cease to persecute
you."--"My father," replied I, "break not my heart; how can you,
forgetting your children, their tender affection, the assistance which
you ought to give them, and which they have a right to expect from you,
wish us to believe your death will be a benefit to us?" He was moved
with these words, and his tears flowed in abundance; then, pressing me
to his bosom, he cried, "No, no, my dear children, I will not die, but
will live to procure for you an existence more comfortable than that you
have experienced since we came to Senegal. From this moment I break
every tie which binds me to the government of this colony; I will go and
procure for you a new abode in the interior of the country of the
negroes; yes, my dear children, we will find more humanity among the
savage hordes that live in our neighbourhood, than among the greater
part of those Europeans who compose the administration of the colony."
In fact, some time after, my father obtained from the negro prince of
the province of Cayor, a grant on his estates, and we were to take
possession of it after the rainy season; but Heaven had decided
otherwise.
From this time, my father, always indignant at the manner in which the
governor had acted towards us, resolved to retire altogether to his
island, and to have as little intercourse with the Europeans of the
colony as he could. Nevertheless, he received with pleasure the friends
who from time to time came to visit us, and who sometimes carried him to
St Louis, where they disputed among themselves the pleasure of
entertaining him, and of making him forget his misfortunes by the
favours which they heaped upon him; but the mortifications he had
experienced in that town made him always impatient till he returned to
his island. One day as he returned from Senegal, after having spent two
days at the house of his friends, they lent him a negro mason to build
an oven for us; for till then we had always baked our bread upon the
embers. With this oven we were no longer obliged to eat our millet-bread
with the cinders which so plenteously stuck to it.
One morning, as he was preparing to take the negroes to their labour, he
perceived his dog did not follow him as usual. He called, but in vain.
Then he thought his faithful companion had crossed the river to
Babaguey, as he used to do sometimes. Arrived at the cotton-field, my
father remarked large foot-prints upon the sand, which seemed to be
those of a tiger, and beside them several drops of blood, and doubted
not that his poor Sultan had been devoured. He immediately returned to
the cottage to acquaint us with the fate of his dog, which we greatly
regretted. From that day the children were prohibited from going any
distance from home; my sister and myself durst no more walk among the
woods as we used to do.
Four days after the loss of the faithful Sultan, as we were going to
bed, we heard behind our cottage mewings like those of a cat, but much
louder. My father instantly rose, and, in spite of our entreaties and
fears, went out armed with his sword and gun, in the hope of meeting
with the animal whose frightful cries had filled us with dread; but the
ferocious beast, having heard a noise near the little hill where it was,
made a leap over his head, and disappeared in the woods. He returned, a
little frightened at the boldness and agility of the creature, and gave
up the pursuit till the following night. On the evening of the following
day, he caused some negroes to come from the island of Babaguey, whom he
joined with his own, and putting himself at their head, he thought he
would soon return with the skin of the tiger. But the carnivorous animal
did not appear during all that night; he contented himself with uttering
dismal howlings in the midst of the woods. My father being called to
Senegal by some of his friends, left us on the morrow. Before going, he
strictly enjoined us to keep fast the doors of the house, and to secure
ourselves against ferocious beasts. At night we barricadoed every avenue
to our cottage, and shut up the dog with us, which a friend of my father
had brought to him from the town to supply the place of that which we
had lost. But my sister and myself were but ill at ease; for our huts
being already decayed, we were afraid the tiger would get in, and devour
the successor of poor Sultan. However, Etienne came and quieted our
fears a little, by saying he would make the round of the huts during the
night. We then lay down, having left our lamp burning. Towards the
middle of the night, I was awoke by a hollow noise which issued from the
extremity of our large chamber. I listened attentively; and the noise
increasing, I heard our dog growling and also a kind of roaring like
that of a lion. Seized with the greatest terror, I awoke my sister
Caroline, who, as well as myself, thought a ferocious beast had got into
the cottage. In an instant our dog raised the most terrible barking; the
other animal replied by a hollow, but hideous growl. All this uproar
passed in my father's chamber. Our minds were paralyzed; the children
awoke, and came and precipitated themselves into our arms; but none
durst call Etienne to our assistance. At last my sister and myself
decided we should go and see what occasioned all this noise. Caroline
took the lamp in one hand, and a stick in the other, and I armed myself
with a long lance. Arrived at the middle of the large cottage, we
discovered at the end of my father's study our dog, who had seized a
large animal covered with yellowish hair. The fears which perplexed us
left us no doubt but that it was either a lion or at least a tiger. We
durst neither advance nor retreat, and our weapons fell from our hands.
In a moment these two furious creatures darted into the hut where we
were; the air was rent with their cries; our legs bent under us; we fell
upon the floor in a faint; the lamp was extinguished, and we believed we
were devoured. Etienne at length awoke, knocked at the door, then burst
it open, ran up to us, lighted the lamp, and showed us our mistake. The
supposed lion was nothing else than a large dog from the island of
Babaguey, fighting with ours. Etienne separated them with a stick; and
the furious animal, which had frightened us so much, escaped through the
same hole by which he had entered our house. We stopped up the opening
and retired to bed, but were not able to sleep. My father having
arrived next morning from Senegal, we recounted to him the fright we had
during the night, and he instantly set about repairing the walls of our
cottage.
It was now the beginning of May; our cotton harvest was completely
finished, but it was not so productive as we had hoped. The rains had
not been abundant the preceding year, which caused the deficiency in our
crop. We now became more economical than ever, to be able to pass the
bad season which had set in. We now lived entirely on the food of the
negroes; we also put on clothing more suitable to our situation than
that we had hitherto worn. A piece of coarse cotton, wrought by the
negroes, served to make us dresses, and clothes for the children; my
father was habited in coarse blue silk. On purpose to ameliorate our
condition, he sent on Sundays to Senegal a negro to purchase two or
three loaves of white bread. It was, in our melancholy condition, the
finest repast we could procure.
One Sunday evening, as all the family were seated round a large fire
eating some small loaves which had been brought from Senegal, a negro
from the main land gave my father a letter; it was from M. Renaud,
Surgeon-Major at Bakal in Galam, announcing to us, to complete the sum
of our misfortunes, that the merchandize he had sent to Galam the
preceding year had been entirely consumed by fire. "Now," cried my
unhappy father, "my ruin is complete! Nothing more wretched can touch
us. You see, my dear children, that Fortune has not ceased persecuting
us. We have nothing more to expect from her, since the only resource
which remained has been destroyed."
This new misfortune, which we little expected, plunged all our family in
the deepest distress. "What misfortunes! what mortifications!" cried I;
"it is time to quit this land of wretchedness! Leave it then, return to
France; there only we will be able to forget all our misfortunes. And
you, cruel enemies of my father, whom we have to reproach for all the
misery we have experienced in these lands, may you, in punishment for
all the evil you have done us, be tortured with the keenest remorse!"
It cost all the philosophy of my father to quiet our minds after the
fatal event. He comforted us by saying, that Heaven alone was just, and
that it was our duty to rely upon it. Some days after, our friends from
Senegal came to pay us a visit, and testified for us the greatest
sorrow. They agreed among themselves to engage all the Europeans in the
colony in a voluntary subscription in our behalf; but my father opposed
it by saying, he could not receive assistance from those who were so
truly his friends. The generous M. Dard, director of the French school,
was not the last nor least who took an interest in us. As soon as he
heard of the unfortunate news, he cordially offered my father all the
money he had, and even endeavoured to get provisions for us from the
government stores, but he failed. After the visit of my father's
friends, we were not so unhappy, and yet enjoyed some tranquillity in
our humble cottage. He bought a barrel of wine, and two of flour, to
support us during the rainy season or winter, a period so fatal to
Europeans who inhabit the torrid zone.