LOUISIANA. S23 



I have not ceafed to demand leave to return to 

 France. The mod faithful fubjeds, who will 

 do their duty, are contradicled and difgraced, 

 and their zeal is rewarded with the mofl cruel 

 perfecutions. But without enquiring minutely 

 into the fufFerings of a number of brave officers, 

 moft of them flill alive, I fhall only Ipeak of 

 thofe which M. de Belle-I/le has undergone. This 

 worthy officer, whofe probity and unqueftionable 

 conducl have gained him the good will and ef- 

 tcem of all worthy men, and efpecially of the 

 general officers, fuch as M. de Perier^ M. de Bien- 

 ville^ and the Marquis de Vaudreuil^ &:c. well de- 

 ferves that I ihould tell his ftory to you, having 

 heard it from himfelf with all its circum- 

 ftances. 



I fhall give you an account of what has hap- 

 pened during the forty-five years which heferved 

 the king in this colony *. I fhall fay nothing but 



truth, 



* The hiftory of M. de Belle-IJIe, Chevalier of the «)yal 

 military order of St. Louisy Major of A>w Orleans^ and who 

 has formerly ferved as Major General of the troops of the 

 marine in Louifiana^ has been inferted in a Relation of Loui- 

 Jiana printed at Paris in 1758. The author of it left the co- 

 lony in 1733, has forgotten the moil interefting circumftances, 

 and the fadls he has mentioned, have been difowned by M.. 



de 



