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