RECAPITULATION. 383 



up to view the perfons who are the objefls of it. 

 At the time when, unconfcious of having commit- 

 ted the flighteft injury to any one, after an infinity 



of 



by keeping back, with my piftol in my hand, the Houlands, 

 who had juft furprized us, by night, in the poft-houfe, where 

 we made our firfl: encampment, in the midll of the woods. 



I never had the leaft fliadow of recompenfe for either of thefe 

 two pieces of fervice, which coft me a great deal of both time and 

 money. Nay, it is not very long fmce I was aftually in debt, 

 for part of the expenfe of my journey, to my friend M. Hennin 

 then Minifter of France at Warfaw, now Firfl Commiflary for 

 Foreign Affairs at Verfailles, and who has given himfelf much 

 fruitlefs trouble on the fubjeél. Undoubtedly, had M. the Count 

 de Fergennes been at that time Minifler for Foreign Affairs, I 

 fhould have been fuitabiy rewarded, as he has procured for mc 

 fome flight gratuities. I fland, however, to this hour, indebted 

 to the amount of more than four thoufand livres (;^i66 13;-. 4<^.) 

 on that account, to different friends in Rufiia, Poland, and 

 Germany. 



I have not been more fortunate in the Ifle of France, to which 

 I was fent Captain-Engineer of the Colony ; for, in the firfl 

 place, I was perfecuted by the ordinary Engineers, who were 

 ftationed there, becaufe I did not belong to their corps. I had 

 been difpatched to that Country, as to a fituation favourable to 

 making a fortune, and I mufl have run confiderably in debt, had 

 I not fubmitted to live on herbs. I pafs over in filence all the 

 particular diflrefles I had there to undergo. I fliall only fay, 

 that I endeavoured to difiipate the mortification which they coft 

 me, by employing my mind on the fubjed: of the ills which op- 

 prefTed the ifland in general. It was entirely in the view of re- 

 medying thefe, that I publiflied, on my return from thence, in 

 1773, my Voyage to the Kle of France. I confidered mvfclf, 



'firff, 



