To resume my narrative.—After taking leave of M. de Martel off Cape D'Orange with those reciprocal salutes common with sailors, I returned to Oyapok, and thence to Cayenne.
Here I was engaged in a lawsuit. Tristan demanded of me the wages I had promised him of sixty livres per month. I offered to pay him for eighteen months, the utmost time the voyage could have required, had he strictly followed his instructions. The sentence pronounced by the superior council of Cayenne condemned him to render me an account of from seven to eight thousand franks, the value of effects I had committed to his care, deducting one thousand and eighty for the eighteen months's salary I had offered him; but the wretch, after dealing treacherously with me as he had done, after causing the death of eight persons, including the American who was drowned, and all the misfortunes which befel my wife; in short, after dissipating the whole of the effects I had intrusted with him, proved insolvent; and, for my part, I judged it unnecessary to augment the losses I had already sustained by having to support him in prison.
I conceive, Sir, that I have now complied to the full with your request. The narrative I have given, by recalling the mournful scenes I have depicted, has cost me infinite anguish. The lawsuit with Tristan, and the illness of my wife on reaching Cayenne, a consequence but too natural of the sufferings she had undergone, did not admit of my venturing to expose her earlier than the present year (1773), to so long a voyage by sea. At present she is, with her father, in the midst of my family, by whom they have been tenderly received. M. de Grandmaison had originally no intention of proceeding to France, but merely meant, by his voyage, to see his daughter safe on board the Portuguese vessel; but finding old age creep on apace, and penetrated with the most lively grief at the intelligence of the sad death of his children, he abandoned all, and embarked with her, trusting the care of his property to his other son-in-law, M. Savula, who resides at Riobamba. For my wife, however solicitous all about her to enliven her spirits, she is constantly subject to melancholy, her horrible misfortunes being ever present to her imagination. How much did it cost me to obtain from her the relations requisite for the judges in the course of my lawsuit! I can even readily conceive that, from delicacy, she has abstained from entering into many details, the remembrance of which she was anxious to lose, and which, known, could but add to the pain I feel. Nay she was even anxious that I should not prosecute Tristan, compassionating even that wretch; thus following the gentle impulse of a heart inspired with the purest benevolence, and the genuine principles of religion!
THE END.
Printed by the Heirs
of D. Willison.