The men who formed this camp were soon attacked with the diseases of the country.  They were ill fed, and many of them had just endured long fatigues.  Some fish, very bad rum, a little bread, or rice, such were their provisions.  The chace also contributed to supply their wants; but the excursions which they made to procure game, frequently impaired their health.  It was in the beginning of July that the bad season began to be felt.  Cruel diseases attacked the unhappy French; who being exhausted by long privations, these terrible maladies spread with dreadful rapidity.  Two thirds of them were attacked by putrid fevers, the rapid progress of which hardly allowed the physicians time, to administer that precious remedy, the produce of Peru, of which, by some mismanagement, the hospitals were nearly destitute.[A12] It was in these distressing circumstances that Mr. de Chaumareys came to take the command of the camp.  Other measures were taken, and the hospitals were no longer in want of bark; but dysenteries, which frequently proved mortal, spread every where.  On all sides there were none but unhappy men who gave themselves up to despair, and who sighed after their country:  it was scarcely possible to find men enough for the duty of the camp.  It is remarkable, that the crews of the vessels, which were in the roads of Goree, were hardly sensible of the influence of the bad season:  it is true these crews were better fed, better clothed, and sheltered from the inclemency of the air; it is, besides, pretty certain, that this road is healthy, while the maladies of the country prevail on shore.  Such was the situation of the camp of Daccard, when, on the 20th of November, the French Governor, was authorized, by Mr. Macarty, Governor General of the English settlements, to inhabit, on the former coast of the French possessions, the place which should suit him the best.  Mr. Schmalz chose St. Louis.[48]

As we were neither of us at the camp of Daccard we have not been able to detail all that passed there, and to speak only of things, with which we are perfectly acquainted, we have been obliged to pass over this part of our narrative rather slightly.

Mr. Correard, who had remained at the isle of St. Louis, hastened to pay his respects to the governor, when he came, in consequence of the permission of Mr. Macarty to inhabit that town.  He relates, that on this occasion, the governor received him very well, pitied him much, and protested that if he had not been taken better care of, it was not his fault:  Mr. Schmalz, allowed, that he had been the worst treated of all the shipwrecked persons, a thing which he had long known; “But, added he, your misfortunes are terminated, and henceforward you will want for nothing.  I will send you, every day, very good rations of rice, meat, good wine, and excellent bread; besides, in a short time, I will put you to board with Mr. Monbrun, where you will be extremely well off.”  These last promises were as unavailing as the first