olony, it was certainly, useless to alledge that he was in want of
vessels. To the desires of the French governor, he had only to make the
plain and unanswerable objection, that his government had not given him any
orders. It is therefore, by the kind of vacillation which appears in his
answers, that himself, leads us to the opinion which we have formed. But it
will be said, what advantage could the English government derive from this
delay? The following, is what we conjecture on this subject.

The gum trade was on the point of commencing; it was very just that the
English merchants, who were in Senegal, should carry off this crop, which
would have belonged to the French merchants if the colony, had been
restored.

A second motive, not less powerful, is, that we were just at the entrance
of the bad season, and that the English settlements, on the river Gambia,
(to which, a part of the English, garrison were to go) are extremely
unhealthy: diseases that are almost always mortal, prevail during the
winter-season, and generally carry off two thirds of the Europeans, who are
newly arrived. Every year the mortality is the same; because, every year it
is necessary to send fresh garrisons: those who have the good fortune to
resist these terrible epidemics, come, to recover, to the Isle of Goree,
where the air is salubrious. Such are the reasons which, as we think,
caused the delay in the restitution of our settlements on the coast of
Africa.

Without losing ourselves farther in conjectures, we will conclude with one
remark: namely, them on this occasion the English governor was influenced
more by the usual policy of his government than by local and particular
considerations. Let us remember what passed on the restitution of our
colonies at the peace of 1802 and that of 1814; and it will be seen that
the British Government, without giving itself much trouble to assign
reasons, has adopted and faithfully followed the principle, of not
willingly giving up what it possessed.[38]

The shipwreck of the Medusa favoured the designs of the governor; for, what
sensation could be produced by the arrival of an expedition, of which the
principal vessel no longer existed, and the three others appeared one after
the other? If the English had had the intention to restore the colony on
our arrival, the disorder in which we appeared, would alone have sufficed;
to make them conceive the idea of delaying as much as possible to withdraw
from t