Biographical Memoir of' Baron de Beauvois. 17 



M. de Beauvois, whom the commissioners had recalled from 

 his mission, arrived from the United States the third day after 

 this event. 



A thick smoke still covered the town. - He traversed it amid 

 ruins and dead bodies, and, what appeared still more frightful 

 to him, amid bands of slaves of both sexes, delivered up to all 

 the madness of drunkenness and debauch. In this manner, he 

 arrived at the burning remains of the abode which he had oc- 

 cupied, and found in it only the ashes of those collections in 

 making which he had consumed so many years, and endured so 

 many sufferings. 



But the state in which, on his return, he found his property 

 and his adopted country, was not the last of his miseries. 



The commissioners, entering the city in triumph, at the head 

 of the men of colour, caused all the whites to be arrested who 

 had been members of the magistracy. The magistrates of the 

 superior council, who were the more particular objects of the 

 vengeance of the mulattoes, on account of the judgment which 

 they had pronounced against Oge, were put in prison. M. 

 de Beauvois, who was one of them, was confined for several 

 days with the dean of the council, an old man of eighty, 

 in a damp cell, where they were devoured by rats and cock- 

 roaches. Incessantly threatened with death, he was so fortu- 

 nate, through the agency of a mulatto woman, who had belong- 

 ed to his uncle, to be only doomed to transportation from the 

 colony ; but he was prohibited from appearing there again, un- 

 til four years after the general peace. He made all haste to 

 flee, reckoning upon yet finding, on board his vessel, the effects 

 which he had brought with him from the United States. Vain 

 hope ! the vessel had sailed for Port-au-Prince, and, on the way, 

 was taken by English privateers. Lastly, to complete his mis- 

 fortunes, the ship, in which he was transported, was itself taken 

 by another English privateer, and the passengers plundered of 

 all that remained to them. All that they left with M. de Beau- 

 vois was a small trunk, in an opening of which he fortunately 

 observed a freemason'*s diploma. It was with this trunk, and 

 ten francs in money, that he returned to Philadelphia. 



The French ministers of this period took care not to receive 

 any of the St Domingo exiles. He could obtain no assistance 



OCTOBER— D£C£MS£B 18^8. B 



