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Updated: April 30, 2025
In this manner we escaped the curious and imprudent regards of various young people, who had not yet been tutored by the hand of misfortune. We learned that we were known at Senegal by different names, some calling us The Hermits of the Isle of Safal, others The Exiles in Africa.
I remained insensible for a long while; and, when somewhat recovered, my first care was to pray the people with whom we lived to carry the body of my father to the Isle of Safal to be deposited, agreeably to his request, near the remains of his wife. Our friends accompanied it.
I discovered the country to be much greener since I last saw it; in a word, all nature seemed smiling and beautiful. At last Etienne, to whom we had been calling for a quarter of an hour, arrived with his canoe, into which we stepped, and soon were again in the island of Safal. Arrived at my cottage, I began to examine all the changes my father had made during my illness.
This was the asylum which we chose in the end to withdraw from misery, as will be seen in the sequel. To the east of the island of Safal, is situated the large island of Bokos, the fertility of which is very superior to the three preceding. Here are seen large fields of millet, maize, cotton, and indigo, of the best quality.
The soil of Babagué is more elevated than that of the surrounding islands. At its southern extremity, which is precisely opposite the new bar of the river, there is a very great number of huts of the blacks, a military post with an observatory, and two or three country houses. The Isle of Safal, belonging to Mr. Picard, offers the same advantages.
They wished to dissuade me; but when they saw I had been frequently weeping in private, they no longer withheld me. I went alone to Safal, leaving Caroline to take charge of the children, two of whom were still in a dangerous condition. What changes did I find at our cottage!
In the meanwhile, my father built two new huts in the island, with the intention of going and living there with all his family. But, as his affairs kept him yet some days at Senegal, he was prevented from returning to Safal with the children to continue the collecting of cotton. On the morrow, we all three set off.
Eight days had already elapsed since our return to the island of Safal, when one morning we perceived our shallop upon the river, which we always knew by a signal placed upon the mast-head. It was my father, who brought twelve negroes with him, which he had hired at Senegal, for assisting him in the cultivation of his island.
He spent three whole days in the countries of Gandiolle and Touby, which lie in the neighbourhood of our island, but all his labour was in vain. The deserting negroes had already gained the forests of the interior; and my father, exhausted with fatigue, returned to Safal.
However, the unremitting care we received, as well as the generous medicine of M. Quincey, with the tender concern of my father and my sister Caroline, soon placed us out of danger. I then understood that the flowers I had had the imprudence to collect in the wood of Safal, had been the principal cause of my illness, as well as that of my brothers.
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