ly two months ago, I
was strong, intrepid, capable of braving every fatigue: now, confined to
this horrid abode, my courage is vanished, every thing forsakes me. I have,
in vain, asked some assistance of those who have come to see me, not from
humanity, but from unfeeling curiosity: thus, people went to Liege to see
the brave Goffin, after he had extricated himself by his courage, from the
coal-pit which had fallen in and buried him. But he, happier than I, was
rewarded with the cross of the legion of honour, and a pension which
enabled him to subsist.[44] If I were in France," he continued, "my
relations, my countrymen, would mitigate my sufferings; but here, under a
burning climate, where every thing is strange to me, surrounded by these
Africans, who are hardened by the habitual sight of the horrors produced by
the slave trade, nothing relieves me; on the contrary, the length of the
nights, the continuance of my sufferings, the sight of those of my
companions in misfortune, the disgusting filth by which I am surrounded,
the inattention of a soldier who acts as nurse, and is always drunk or
negligent, the insupportable hardness of a wretched bed, scarcely sheltered
from the inclemency of the air, all announce to me an inevitable death. I
must resign myself to it, and await it with courage! I was less to be
pitied on the raft; then my imagination was exalted, and I scarcely enjoyed
my intellectual faculties! but here, I am only an ordinary man, with all
the weaknesses of humanity. My mind is continually absorbed in melancholy
reflections; my soul sinks under incessant sufferings, and I daily see
those who shared my unhappy fate, drop before me into the grave.[45]"

While he was wholly absorbed in this distressing soliloquy, he saw two
young officers enter the room, followed by three or four slaves, carrying
various effects. These two officers approached, with an air of kindness,
the mournful and motionless Correard, "Accept," said they, "these trifling
presents, they are sent to you by Major Peddy, and Captain Cambpell: we,
sir, have desired the happiness of bringing you this first assistance; we
were commissioned by all our comrades, to obtain from you accurate
information respecting your wants; you are, besides, invited to partake of
our table, all the time we shall pass together: the Major, and all the
officers, beg you to remain here, and not to go to the pestilential camp at
Deccard, where a mortal distemper would c