220 



NOTES AND QUEEIES. 



[No. 123. 



Knave. Coral Fishery. 

 ♦' Coral, that beauteous product only found 

 Beneath the water and above the ground, 

 It fish'd for as it ought, from thence might spring 

 A Neptune's palace for a British king." 



Queen. Furnishing Funerals to all Paris of Great 



Britain. 

 " Come all ye sickly mortals, die apace. 

 And solemn pomps your funerals shall grace ; 

 , Old rusty hackneys still attend each hearse. 

 And scarecrows in black gowns complete the farce." 



King. Temple Mills. 

 " By these old mills strange wonders have been done, 

 Numbers have suffer'd, yet they still work on ; 

 Then tell us, which have done the greater ills, 

 The Temple lawyers, or the Temple Mills?" 



Jno. Sudlow. 



BIRTHPIiACB OF THE EMPRESS JOSEPniNE. 



It is commonly believed that the Island of Mar- 

 tinique was the birthplace of Marie Josephine 

 Rose Tascher de la Pagerie, better known as the 

 Empress Josephine. It would seem, however, 

 from the following circumstances, that St. Lucia 

 has a preferable claim to that distinction. By the 

 treaty of Paris (10th February, 1763), St. Lucia, 

 until then one of the neutral islands, was ceded to 

 France, and was made a dependency of Marti- 

 nique. The first step adopted by the local au- 

 thorities on that occasion, was to offer extensive 

 grants of land in St. Lucia to such families in 

 Martinique as might be disposed to settle in the 

 former island ; and among those who took ad- 

 vantage of the proposal was M. de Tascher, the 

 father of Josephiiie. In the course of the year 

 1763 he came over to St. Lucia, and settled with 

 his family on the crest of a hill called Paix-Bouche, 

 within a few miles of the site now occupied by the 

 principal town. Here they continued to reside 

 until 1771, when M. de Tascher, having been se- 

 lected for the office of President of the Conseil 

 Souverain in Martinique, returned with his family 

 to that island, taking with him a child seven years 

 old, to whom Madame de Tascher had given birth 

 at Morne Paix-Bouche on the 24tli June, 1764, 

 and who was destined to become the wife of Bo- 

 naparte and the Empress of France. 



The fact that M. de Tascher and his family 

 settled in St. Lucia after the Treaty of Paris, is 

 too well established to require corroboration. The 

 fact that his residence there extended from 1763 

 to 1771, is no less certain. While collecting ma- 

 terials some years ago for the history of St. Lucia, 

 I met with the most authentic proofs of this cir- 

 cumstance ; but having returned the books and 

 documents to the several parties to whom they 

 belonged, I am unable at this moment to give a 

 special reference under this head. As regards the 



particular date of Mademoiselle De Tascher's birth, 

 I am indebted for a knowledge of it to no less an 

 authority than M. Sidney Daney, the author of a 

 voluminous history of Martinique, who, while as- 

 serting that she was born on the paternal estate 

 in that island, records the date in the following 

 words : 



«♦ Cette annee 1764 fut signalee par la naissance 

 d'une femme qui, tout en parvenant a la plus glorieuse 

 des destinees humaines, devait etre a la fois le symbole 

 le plus doux de cette divine charite. Le vingt-quatre 

 Juin naquit aux Trois-Ilets, sur Thabitatlon de ses 

 parens, Marie Josephine Rose Tascher de la Pagerie." 

 That the claim of St. Lucia to the honour of 

 having given birth to that remarkable woman is 

 no idle dream, no imaginary pretension, now set 

 up for the first time, can be shown by many cir- 

 cumstances. From her coronation in 1 804, to her 

 death in 1814, there were several persons in St.' 

 Lucia who asserted their knowledge of the fact. 

 Some of them were still living in 1825, when the 

 late Sir John Jeremie came to St. Lucia and col- 

 lected information on the subject. In 1831 that 

 able judge published in a local newspaper a shor* 

 historical notice of St. Lucia, in which he gives 

 the following unequivocal testimony on this 

 question. I quote from the St. Lucia Gazette and 

 Public Advertiser of 23rd February, 1831 : 



" On the summit of one of its (St. [>ncia's) highest 

 mountains, the Paix-Bouche (a word which in Negro- 

 French is significantly expressive of silence), on a spot 

 surrounded by trees, apparently the growth of cen- 

 turies, it might be su,)posed that here at least the very 

 name of the extraordinary being who has given an im- 

 pulse to the age of Napoleon had scarcely reached. 

 A few yards from the almost impracticable and fiintly 

 traced path is the mouldering foundation of a decayed 

 cottage. That was the birthplace of Josephine. The 

 inhabitants of Martinique, with whom all the St. Lucia 

 families are connected, lay claim to Josephine as their 

 countrywoman. The fact is, however, as I have stated 

 it; and this was admitted by one of her own family at 

 Martinique to a lady of our island, but with the truly 

 French addition, 'qu'elle n'avait fait qu'y naitre.' 

 The companion of her childhood was Mr. Martin Ra- 

 phael, late a councillor of the royal court, who is still 

 living, and who on visiting France was kindly received 

 by her at Malmaison. Madame Delomel, who died 

 but a few months ago at a very advanced age, knew 

 her well." 



On my arrival in St. Lucia in 1831, an old 

 woman of colour, named Dede, was pointed out t9 

 me as having been in the service of the Taschers 

 at Murne Paix-Bouche. She was then residing 

 with the family of Mr. R. Juge, the President of 

 the Court of First Instance, and that gentleman 

 assured me that nothing was more certain than 

 that Josephine was born in St. Lucia. I after- 

 wards had several conversations with Dede on the 

 subject, and she confirmed Mr. Juge's statement, 

 adding that she was present at the time of Jo- 



