Biogrofhical Memoir of' Baron de Beauvoi^. 7 



ris, and which the Europeans call Oware or Awerri, perhaps 

 from the Portuguese name Don Juan Alfonso d'Aveiro, to whom 

 we owe its discovery. Towards 1784, a captain of a slave ship 

 of the name of Lodolphe *, who acted for the house of Brillan- 

 tais Marion of St Malo, had inspired the king of this country 

 with a desire to see a French factory established in it ; and, for 

 that purpose, the Prince had confided to him one of his subjects 

 named Boudakan, whom he had even given him as his son, and 

 desired him to bring him up in the European manner. Lan- 

 dolphe exhibited this pretended prince some time at Paris, 

 clothed in the dress which people of quality then wore. He was 

 presented to the king of France, and introduced to several re- 

 spectable houses. On the hopes which the promises of this Ne- 

 gro excited, Landolphe obtained permission from the French 

 government to establish a settlement ; and a company of mer- 

 chants supplied him with some funds for this purpose. The 

 captain had formed an acquaintance with M. de Beauvois, and 

 through him with M. de Jussieu, of whom he asked an expe- 

 rienced gardener to superintend his tillage. M. de Jussieu was 

 occupied in looking for one, when, after some days, M. de 

 Beauvois came to him to say, " I have found a man on whom 

 I can rely : it is myself." 



In fact his imagination had been filled with the idea that this 

 hitherto little visited country would present in abundance the 

 new productions which he longed to collect, and that he would 

 not there be left to himself, as in those which he had first in- 

 tended to visit. He found in it the additional advantage, that, 

 being once firmly established on the coast of Africa, he could 

 there procure more certain means of resuming his first plans, 

 and of traversing that part of the world. It may easily be imar- 

 ^ned, that he had no intention of entering into the service of 

 the new company, either as gardener or in any other capacity. 

 So far from accepting any thing, he made, at his own expence, 

 considerable purchases of instruments, books, and furniture, and 

 procured provisions of all kinds for himself and his people. He 



• The Memoirs of this officer have been published by J. S. Quesne, in 

 2 vols. 8vo. Paris, 1823. 



