sailing from Curupa
to Cayenne, whither I intended to repair direct. He favoured me with so
polite an answer, that I made no hesitation of quitting my intended
cruise and taking a longer, in order to thank him and pay him my
respects. He received me with open arms, and insisted on my making his
house and table my own during a week that I stopped with him; nor would
he suffer me to depart before he set off himself for St. Louis de
Marinhan, whither he was about to go on his circuit. After his
departure, I remounted the river to Curupa with my canoe, escorted by
one of greater dimensions, sent with me by the commandant of that fort
on my voyage to Para, a city which, as you have justly remarked, stands
on a large river, considered, but improperly, the right arm of the
Amazons, as the river of Para merely communicates with the Amazons by a
channel hollowed by the tides, and called Tagipuru. At Curupa I found
waiting for me, by order of the governor of Para, a large pirogue of
fourteen oars, commanded by a serjeant of the garrison, and destined to
carry me to Cayenne, whither I repaired by Macapa, coasting along the
left of the Amazons to its mouth, without, like you, making tour of the
great island of Joanes, or Marajo. After similar courtesies, unprovoked
by express recommendations, what had I not to expect, seeing his Most
Faithful Majesty had condescended to issue precise orders to expedite a
vessel to the very frontiers of his dominions, for the purpose of
receiving my family on board, and transporting it to Cayenne?

To resume my narrative.--After taking leave of M. de Martel off Cape
D'Orange with those reciprocal salutes common with sailors, I returned
to Oyapok, and thence to Cayenne.

Here I was engaged in a lawsuit. Tristan demanded of me the wages I had
promised him of sixty livres per month. I offered to pay him for
eighteen months, the utmost time the voyage could have required, had he
strictly followed his instructions. The sentence pronounced by the
superior council of Cayenne condemned him to render me an account of
from seven to eight thousand franks, the value of effects I had
committed to his care, deducting one thousand and eighty for the
eighteen months's salary I had offered him; but the wretch, after
dealing treacherously with me as he had done, after causing the death of
eight persons, including the American who was drowned, and all the
misfortunes which befel my wife; in short, after dissipating