ressed, went to
thank our generous host and hostess, Mr and Mrs Kingsley; then went to
see our parents; and afterwards returned to our benefactors, who were
waiting breakfast for us. Our conversation was frequently interrupted
during our meal, as they were but little acquainted with the French
language, and we knew nothing of English. After breakfast we learned
that the English governor had not received any orders for giving up the
colony to the French; and until that took place, the whole of the
French expedition would be obliged to go to the peninsula of Cape Verd,
distant from Senegal about fifty leagues. This information distressed us
much, but our affliction was at its height, when my father came and told
that the French governor, M. Schmaltz, had ordered him to quit Senegal
with all his family, and go and stay at Cape Verd, until farther orders.
Mr and Mrs Kingsley, sensibly affected with the misfortunes we had
already experienced, assured us they would not part with us, and that
they would endeavour to obtain the permission of the English governor.
In fact, on the following day, that gentleman informed us by his
aid-de-camp, that, having seen the wretched condition in which our
family were, he had allowed us to remain at Senegal, and that he had
permitted all the officers of the Medusa to stay. This renewed instance
of the benevolence of the English governor tranquillized us. We remained
comfortably at the house of our benefactors; but a great part of our
unhappy companions in misfortune, fearing if they stayed at Senegal they
would disobey the French governor, set off for Cape Verd, where hunger
and death awaited them. Our family lived nearly twenty days with our
benevolent hosts MM. Artigue and Kingsley; but my father, fearing we
were too great a burden for the extraordinary expenses which they made
each day for us, hired a small apartment, and, on the first of August,
we took possession of it, to the great regret of our generous friends,
who wished us to stay with them till the surrender of the colony. When
we were settled in out new habitation, my father sent a petition to M.
Schmaltz, for the purpose of obtaining provisions from the general
magazine of the French administration; but, angry with the reception we
had met with from the English, he replied he could not give him any
thing. Nevertheless, several French officers, who, like ourselves, had
remained at Senegal, each day received their rations, or, which