t 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 th