346 SHIPWRECK OF THE MEDUSA. 
At first the new governor (M. Schmaltz) was almost dispos- 
ed to employ my father in the direction of the agricultural 
establishment of Senegal ; but he allowed himself to be cir- 
cumvented by certain people to whom my father had perhaps 
spoken too much truth. He thought no more of him, and 
we were set up as a mark of every kind of obloquy. 
Finding then that he could no longer reckon upon the pro- 
mises which had been made to him on the subject of the plans 
which he had proposed for the colony of Senegal, my father 
turned his attention to the island of Safal, which seemed to 
promise a little fortune for himself and family. He doubled 
the number of his laboring negroes, and appointed a black 
overseer for superintending his work. 
In the beginning of 1818 we believed our cotton crop 
would make us amends for the loss which we had sustained 
at various times. All our plants were in the most thriving 
condition, and promised an abundant harvest. We had also 
sown maize, millet, and some country beans, which looked 
equally well. 
At this period M. Schmaltz was recalled to France. M. 
Flauriau succeeded him ; but the nomination of the new go- 
vernor did not alleviate our condition. Every Sunday my fa- 
ther went to visit his plantation, and to give directions for the 
labors of the week. He had built a large hut for the over- 
seer, upon the top of a little hill, which was almost exactly in 
the centre of the island. It was a little distance from the 
small house which he had raised as a tomb to receive the re- 
mains of his wife and child, whom he had at first buried in a 
place to the south of the cotton field. He surrounded the 
monument of his sorrow with a kind of evergreen bean-tree, 
which soon crept over the grave, and entirely concealed it 
from view. This little grove of verdure, attracted, by the 
freshness of its foliage, a multitude of birds, and served them 
for a retreat. My father never left this place but he was more 
tranquil and less affected with his misfortunes. 
Toward the middle of April, seeing his plants had produ- 
ced less cotton than he had expected, and that the hot wind 
and grasshoppers had made great havoc in his plantations, my 
father decided to leave upon it but one old negro, for superin- 
tending the day-laborers, whom he had reduced to four. In 
the meantime we learned that some merchants, settled at 
Senegal, had written to France against my father. They 
complained that he had not employed sufficient severity against 
some unfortunate persons who had not been able to pay their 
