XVI 
PREFACE. 
In writing the history of a place, which is not without political 
interests, I had in view principally the advantages of my countrymen, 
the inhabitants of these colonies. I am well acquainted with the critical 
situation which they have for some years experienced : agitated by 
various civil commotions, they could scarcely be said to acknowledge 
any government; while the decree which abolished slavery, not only 
kept them in continual alarm for their property, but even for their 
personal safety ; so that they were compelled to fortify their harbours, 
and prepare for resisting their mother country. Nay, dreading the 
execution of that decree, they had several times been on the point of 
applying to the protection of a foreign power. By their courage, pru¬ 
dence, and energy, they not only prevented the fatal effects which 
would have resulted from the fulfilment of that decree, and repelled the 
force which had been sent, in the time of Robespierre, to subject 
them to it, but had also delivered themselves from the armed and 
seditious banditti, who had threatened, more than once, to drench the 
island with blood. Under these impressions, I felt an additional motive 
to accelerate the publication of this work, from the hope I entertain, 
that the inhabitants of these colonies will thereby be no sooner known, 
than they will be found to deserve friends, as they have proved them¬ 
selves superior to the attempts of their enemies. 
I shall now proceed to lay before my readers, the plan of my work, 
and the arrangements which circumstances have obliged me to adopt 
in the order of it. 
The description of the Isle of France is collected from my father’s 
correspondence; the accounts given or communicated to me by my 
friends, as well as authentic papers which I have been permitted to 
examine, and the printed works of distinguished writers. I experience 
a sensible pleasure in unfolding the observations and important opera¬ 
tions of those eminent persons who have acted their parts on the seas. 
