864 SHIPWRECK OF THE MEDUSA. 
think that, in spite of our wretchedness, you are a hundred 
times hetter than they who are nothing more than vile traffick- 
ers in human flesh, sons of soldiers without manners, rich 
sailors, or free-hooters, without education and without coun- 
try." 
One day a French negro merchant, whom I will not name, 
having crossed the Senegal to the station of Babaguey, and 
seeing our cottage in the distance, inquired to whom it be- 
longed. He was told it was the father of a family whom mis- 
fortune had forced to seek a refuge in that island. I wish I 
could see them, said the merchant, it will be very drole. In 
fact, a short while after we had a visit from this curieux, who, 
after he had said all manner of impertinences to us, went to 
hunt in our plantation, where he killed the only duck which 
we had left, and which he had the audacity to carry away in 
spite of our entreaties. Fortunately for the insolent thief, 
my father was absent, else he would have avenged the death 
of the duck which even the tigers had spared in the massacre 
of our poultry-yard. 
Since the commencement of winter we had had but little 
rain, when one night we were roused by a loud peal of thun- 
der. A horrible tempest swept over us, and the hurricane 
bent the trees of the fields. The lightning tore up the ground, 
the sound of the thunder redoubled, and torrents of water 
were precipitated upon our cottage. 'The winds roared with 
the utmost fury, our roofs were swept away, our huts were 
blown down, and all the waters of heaven rushed in upon us. 
A flood penetrated our habitation ; all our family drenched, 
confounded, sought refuge under the wrecks of our walls of 
straw and reeds. All our eflects were floating, and hurried 
off by the floods which surrounded us. The whole heavens 
were in a blaze ; the thunderbolt burst, fell, and burnt the 
mainmast of the French brig Nantaise, which was anchored 
at a little distance from our island. After this horrible deto- 
nation, calm was insensibly restored, whilst the hissing of ser- 
pents and howlings of the wild beasts were the only sounds 
heard around us. The insects and reptiles, creeping out of 
the earth, dispersed themselves through all the places of our 
cottage which water had not covered. Large beetles went 
buzzing on all sides, and attached themselves to our clothes, 
whilst the millepedes, lizards, and crabs, of an immense size, 
crawled over the wrecks of our huts. At last, about ten 
o'clock, nature resumed her usual tranquillity, the thunder 
ceased to be heard, the winds instantly fell, and the air re- 
mained calm and dull. 
