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 lef