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 mys