PREFACE. 
Vil 
The French, who were tlie legitimate proprietors, 
recovered their rights, and regained several of their 
ancient possessions ; but as these events took place 
gradually, and at different periods, 1 shall not here 
describe them, tliough I ought to say, that we main- 
tained for a long time by force of arms, the posses- 
sions which we had acquired from Cape Blanco to 
the Cape of Good Mope ; and that the French have 
always considered that vast extent of coast, as de- 
pendent on their commercial operations. 
It will be equally needless to trace the progress of 
our commercial companies in Africa down, to the 
present period. It is known, that in 1664, the mer- 
chants of Dieppe and llouen sold their establish- 
ments to the West India Company, for the sum of 
150,000 livres ; and that the new owners, by the ex- 
tent of their speculations, had more than they could 
manage, and were crushed beneath the weight of 
their own projects. 
The English captured isle St. Louis and Senegal 
in 1756 ; the French regained them twenty years 
afterwards, and had the possession ensured to them 
by the treaty of peace with England in 1783, which 
also guaranteed to France, the isle of Goree, all the 
coast between Cape Verd and the river Gambia, 
and the factory of Albreda, situated at the mouth of 
that river; which, however, as well as fort James, is 
in the possession of England. 
From the left bank of the river Gambia, which 
forms Cape St. Mary, as far as the river of Sierra 
Leone, the coast belongs exclusively to no foreign 
iiation ; but the French share with the English, the 
Portuguese, and all commercial people, the right of 
frequenting, and that of forming new establish- 
ments on such points as are not occupied. 
Soon after the peace of 1783, it was proposed to 
create a company for the Senegal; when *ig 
granted to the Guiana company the. exclusive privi* 
lege of the gum trade for nine years ; and this com^ 
pan^^ ceded its new privilege in 17S5, to a body of 
