244 MIMS— DIARY OF A VOYAGE [April i8, 



generations many judges to the principal courts of the island. After 

 spending his boyhood days at ^Martinique, the young Moreau, at 

 the age of nineteen, took ship for France to acquire that training 

 in the principles of the law which would fit him to follow in the 

 footsteps of his fathers. 



After his arrival at Paris, he began to study with such rare 

 enthusiasm and success that at the end of fourteen months he sus- 

 stained his thesis in Latin and received the degree of bachelor of 

 law. At the end of three years he won the honor of attaining the 

 rank of avocat an parlement and was prepared to turn his face 

 towards his native island in order to follow his chosen profession. 



At his return to Martinique he found himself an orphan, the 

 fortune of the family in ruins and nothing to rely upon, in making 

 a place for himself in the world, except the training which he had 

 just received. The French colony of St. Domingo, the richest of 

 all the West India islands, seemed to ofifer a more promising future 

 and accordingly he left Alartinique and settled at Cap Frangais (to- 

 day Cape Haiti) in 1772 to begin the practice of law. After eight 

 years of successful practice, he was elected a member of the conseil 

 superieiir of St. Domingo. It was in the discharge of the duties of 

 this ofifice that Moreau began the difficult task of codifying the laws 

 of the island in order that his decision as a judge might be more 

 intelligent and scientific. 



The previous attempts which had been made to codify these laws 

 in 1716, 1738 and 1757 had not been successful. The King had 

 commissioned de la Riviere in 1771 to undertake the task, but his 

 work had been slow and discouraging. Hearing that Moreau was 

 engaged in the same work, de la Riviere gracefully gave way to the 

 younger and more competent man. In preparation for his work 

 Moreau visited all parts of St. Domingo, Martinique, Guadeloupe 

 and St. Lucia, thus laying the basis for that larger and later work 

 of preparing his monumental collection of documents, relating to 

 the history of the French West Indies and to be found today in the 

 Archives Coloniales at Paris — a collection which has made his name 

 immortal among all students of West India history. He received 

 a commission from Louis XVI. to return to Paris in order to com- 



