> 
. 
14 
Pi 
from the English, and, in all the Antilles, 
acquired the esteem of the English, and 
the execration of the colonists. The 
stormy aud unsettled times, in the midst 
of which he lived, has completely revo- 
Jutionized his spirit, and a life of peace 
and tranquillity is to him a sort ef anti- 
cipated death. 
His very namie was dreaded through 
the colony; his arrival was looked upon 
as the coming or a wild beast; ths sounds 
of joy gave place to those of terror and 
cismay. He was so well convinced of 
the odium which attended hin, that 
when he was appointed to the command 
of Cayenne, he got a letter. of recom- 
mendation from Jeannett, who succeeded 
bim at Guadaloupe, which, on his ar- 
rival, he caused copies to be circulated 
is every district., The following is a 
copy of it:—- Ean 
‘< Worthy Inhabitants of Cayenne, 
Jay aside your fears. I know that Citi- 
zen Hugues appears terrible in your 
eyes; he will restore happiness to your 
colony; he asks no more of Fortune; 
he will cause you, by-his clemency, to 
forget the miseries which Guadaloupe ex- 
perienced under his government. It 
will be his chief ambition to deserve your 
confidence and esteem.” 
Most people took this letter for a piece 
of sarcastic irony, and very few, indeed, 
gave faith to it. 
His policy began to manifest itself on 
his arrival. He permitted the banished 
Deputies to visit the Island of Cayenne, 
with proper passports—which was never 
done by former agents. 
sited their hospital. The Government, he 
said, had ordered him to treat them with 
attention, He praised these inhabitants 
who bad done acts of kindness to them. 
He wished, he said, to restore peace and 
order. He made no change In the sys- 
tem of police, as left by Burnel; be- 
cause the Consular Government had only 
appointed him provisionally. He paid 
of the debts of the colony, and correct- 
ed the errors of his predecessor. He 
gave balis and splendid entertainments. 
The troops.which had disembarked along 
with him were a mixture of deserters 
from all nations—men ready to under- 
take any thing, if the thermometer of 
politics should again descend to anareby. 
Whenever prizes were brought in, he had 
their produce slared most equitably. 
He put the black soldiers on the same 
footing as the white; new-modelled 
their discipline, and brought them_ to 
perfection: yet, notwithstanding all this, 
Mistatement in the Life of Miss Seward. 
He even vi-~ 
fAug. 1, 
for the first six months he could gain ne 
friends: he had even the precaution to 
get himself praised in some of the Paris 
journals, that the colonists might see 
how he was respected in France. 
ft would appear difficult to reconcile 
such rigorous measures as he adopted, 
with the good he has done the colony ; 
and still less, with the praises which cer- 
tain journals bestow upon him. He re- 
vived trade and commerce, by making 
himselfa merchant. He opened, in hisown 
name, a mereantile concern, in which 
he sometimes figured as a merchant, 
and sometimes as an agent, to set what 
value he thought proper on the diflerent 
articles. bs - . 
{n the course of his long residence at 
Guadaloupe, he has amassed a consi- 
derable fortune. Some say he is not 
worth less than eighty, or a hundred 
thousand pounds sterling, most part of 
which, it 1s said, he has weil secured in 
“America; dreading, perhaps, were he to 
. ? =? ? 
place it in France, some pretext would 
soon be found to make him disgorge some 
of his ill-gotten wea!th. See 
Yet, in spite of his activity, he has exe 
perienced several losses. Famine has vie 
sited the colony no less than three times 
during his agency. He was never dis- 
concerted: he caused the police to be © 
observed with the utmost severity, and 
kept the negroes in subjection, more by 
the terror of his name, than by his pros 
clamations. 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, - 
UR Magazine has such just cele~ 
¥ brity, that no prudent person 
chooses to have any thing left uncontra- 
dicted in that work, which is murious to 
him, or the public.—In the obituary con- 
taining the Life of Miss Sewarg, in your 
Magazine for June, 1809, it 1s stated, 
p. 516, that 
“ The circle which the Doctor drew 
round him from‘that period (when Miss 
Seward was thirteen, which was in 1756) 
was composed of young men of acknow- 
ledged talents, and of ardent speculative 
minds, whose spirits too buoyant for the 
beaten track of knowledge, soared to ex- 
plore the yet untrodden paths of science, 
and give new systems to an astonished 
world. 5 : 
“< To turn aside the smooth current of 
nature, and to despise established usages, 
were the principles on which they con. | 
ducted their researches; these visionary 
pursuits were'dignified with the appella~ 
- BAR 
