346 
RETURN TO ST. LOUIS AND TO FRANCE. 
to St. Louis, to procure tke clothes necessary for me to enter 
the town. The same evening I had the inexpressible pleasure 
of embracing my friends : most of them concluded that I 
had sunk under the fatigues of a journey which had lasted a 
whole year. But I was particularly rejoiced at seeing M. de 
Fleuriau again ; during my absence he had manifested much 
uneasiness at not receiving any tidings of me ; my death, 
which he considered as nearly certain, made this excellent 
officer repent the encouragement he had given to an enterprize 
which had involved me in destruction. I did not fail to 
acknowledge the important services of Boukari, and solicited 
for him the grant of a piece of land on the island of St. Louis, 
upon which he might build himself a brick house. My 
request was granted ; M. de Fleuriau also made him a present 
of different kinds of merchandize. 
The attentions bestowed upon me by my friends, par- 
ticularly Dr. Calvé and M. Mille, could not restore me to 
health during the month I passed at St. Louis. Fearing that 
I should sink under a disorder which had returned with 
redoubled violence, I embarked in a merchant vessel, La 
Normande, for France. After a short passage I landed at 
Havre, on the 23rd of March, 1819: a few days brought me 
into the bosom of my family at Paris. Here I fondly hoped 
that all my sulFerings were at an end, but my native air did 
not re-establish my health so quickly as I had expected. 
