[ 338 ] [MARCH, 



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JEAN JACQUES TAHDEE. , no9r 



OF the many diversities of men, who compose the great stream of 

 emigration annually setting towards the western world, few compara- 

 tively are natives of France. Whether the love of home be stronger in 

 him than in the men of other lands, or that the land of labour has no 

 charms for the man accustomed to the lighter employments of the vine- 

 yard, the toyshop, and the camp, it is certain that the roadside inquiries 

 of the traveller in the western world are seldom answered by the voice 

 of a Frenchman. Of the few natives of that country, none are in cir- 

 cumstances of laborious poverty ; and, whilst nationality is traced in the 

 crowds from Ireland, toiling as at home in the most degrading employ- 

 ments of human life, the wealthy and intelligent Frenchman is usually 

 encountered at the wharf, the gaming-house, or tavern. 



Of the latter description of men was Jean Jacques Tardee, of whom, 

 during a recent sojourn in the United States of America, I learned the 

 following dark history. He was a native of Paris, and emigrated to 

 America about the year 1816, a dentist by profession, and though pos- 

 sessed of many fine accomplishments of person, manners, and knowledge 

 of languages, he yet preferred, to the steady exercise of a lucrative and 

 useful profession, to grasp at fortune by the most iniquitous means. 

 His first exploit was at Charleston in South Carolina. In that port was 

 a newly-built, fast-sailing, and valuable pilot-boat, the most superb of 

 that class of vessels, the grace of the harbours of America. Jean 

 Jacques there formed the design of carrying off this vessel from the 

 wharf, and having corrupted the negroes employed in the navigation of 

 the boat, a night was appointed when this villain rightly judged, that 

 once unmoored and under way, pursuit was in vain after the fastest 

 sailing vessel in the port, and that the circumstance of a pilot-boat pass- 

 ing out at night, would excite no suspicions from the fortifications at the 

 mouth of the harbour. But slight circumstances often frustrate the 

 most skilful projects of human villany. A mercantile gentleman of 

 Charleston had observed Tardee in conversation with the negroes at- 

 tached to the vessel, and with that watchful spirit which pervades all 

 residents in slave countries, he communicated his suspicions to the 

 master of the boat, when, by a separate examination of the negroes, it 

 was discovered that the Frenchman had prevailed upon them, by pro- 

 mises of liberty, a large sum of money, and a share in his future adven- 

 tures, to carry off the vessel to the island of Cuba. Being resolved to 

 secure the Frenchman in his own toils, the negroes were enjoined, upon 

 promise of forgiveness for the past, to continue apparently to carry on 

 the plot ; and accordingly on a certain night the master was informed 

 that Tardee would arrive at midnight in a wherry from a neighbouring 

 wharf, to which his baggage was already conveyed, for the purpose of 

 eluding the vigilance of the police by night. True to the appointed 

 time, a boat with muffled oars crept stealthily at midnight to the side of 

 the vessel ; its only tenant was Tardee, who handed up a trunk and 

 mounted upon deck. The pilot first met him. Tardee instantly dis- 

 charged a pistol at his breast, but without effect, and was soon over- 

 powered, secured, and conveyed to the guard-house. When taken be- 

 fore the magistrates on the following morning, his fine address did not 

 forsake him, and in answer to the charge, he described himself as a 



