SHIPWRECK OF THE MEDUSA. 347 
debts ; and they exclaimed against some miserable specula- 
tions which we had made in the country of Fouta Toro, for 
procuring grain necessary for the support of his negroes. 
The expedition to Galam making preparations for its de- 
parture,* my father, in spite of the insinuations of some mer- 
chants of the colony, was desirous also of trying his fortune. 
He associated himself with a person who was to make the 
voyage; he bought European goods, and refitted his boat, 
which again occasioned him loss. Toward the middle of 
August, 1818, the expedition set off A month after its de- 
parture, my cousin, whom the country had considerably af- 
fected, returned to France, to our great regret. My sister 
and myself found ourselves the only society to enable us to 
support oar sorrows; however, as we hoped to return to 
France in a few years, we overcame our disappointment. We 
had already in some degree recovered our tranquility, in spite 
of all our misfortunes and the solitude in which we lived, when 
my father received a letter from the governor of the colony, 
announcing to him, that, by the decision of the minister of 
marine, a new attorney had come to Senegal, and enjoining 
him at the same time to place the papers of the office in the 
hands of his successor. 
Such a circum.sta-nce could not fail to affect us very much ; 
for the few resources we possessed made us anticipate an 
event almost as horrible as the shipwreck which exposed our 
flimily to all the horrors of want in the boundless deserts of 
Sahara. My father, however, having nothing with which he 
could reproach himself, courageously supported this new mis- 
fortune, hopinof, sooner or later, to be able to unmask those 
who had urged his ruin. He wrote a letter to his excellen- 
cy the Minister of Marine, in which he detailed the affairs of 
the office of the colony, the regularity of the accounts, the 
unfortunate condition to v/hich his numerous family were re- 
duced by the loss of his employment, and concluded with 
these words: — "Broken without being heard, at the end of 
twenty-nine years of faithful service, but too proud to make 
me afraid of a disgrace which cannot but be honorable to me, 
* The voyage from Senegal to the country of Galam is made but 
once a year, because it is necessary to take advantage of the over- 
flowing of the river, either in coming or going. The merchant boats 
which are destined to make the voyage look like a fleet, and depart in 
the middle of August, under escort of a king's ship, commissioned tx) 
pay the droits and oustoms to the negro princes of the interior, vvith 
whom that colony is connected. 
