SHIPWRECK OF THE MEDUSA. 359 
had frightened us so much, escaped through the same hole 
by which he had entered our house. We stopped up the 
opening and retired to bed, but were not able to sleep. My 
father having arrived next morning from Senegal, we recount- 
ed to him the fright we had during the night, and he instantly 
set about repairing the wails of our cottage. 
It was now the beginning of May : our cotton harvest was 
completely finished, but it was not so productive as we had 
hoped. The rains had not been abundant the preceding year, 
which caused the deficiency in our crop. We now became 
more economical than ever, to be able to pass the bad season 
which had set in. We now lived entirely on the food of the 
negroes ; we also put on clothing more suitable to our situa- 
tion than that we had hitherto worn. A piece of coarse cotton, 
wrought by the negroes, served to make us dresses, and clothes 
for the children ; my father was habited in coarse blue silk. 
On purpose to ameliorate our condition, he sent on Sundays, 
to Senegal, a negro, to purchase two or three loaves of white 
bread. It was, in our melancholy condition, the finest repast 
we could procure. 
One Sunday evening, as all the family were seated rounrl a 
large fire eating some small loaves which had been brought 
from Senegal, a negro from the main land gave my father a 
letter ; it was from N. Renaud, Surgeon-Major at Bakal, in 
Galam, announcing to us, to complete the sum of our misfor- 
tunes, that the merchandise he had sent to Galam, the prece- 
ding year, had been entirely consumed by fire. " Now," 
cried my unhappy father, '.' my ruin is complete ! Nothing 
more wretched can touch us. You see, my dear children, 
that Fortune has not ceased persecuting us. We have nothing 
more to expect from her, since the only resource which re- 
mamed has been destroyed." 
This new misfortune, which we little expected, plunged all 
our family into the deepest distress. " What misfortunes ! 
what mortifications !" cried I ; "it is time to quit this land of 
wretchedness ! Leave it then ; return to France ; there only 
we will be able to forget all our misfortunes. And you, cruel 
enemies of my father, whom we have to reproach for all the 
misery we have experienced in these lands, ma}^ you, in pun- 
ishment for all the evil you have done us, be tortured with the 
keenest remorse!" 
It cost all the philosophy of my father to quiet our minds 
after the fatal event. He comforted us by saying that Heaven 
alone was just, and that it was our duty to rely upon it. Some 
