LETTER from the Minister to M. the Comte DE BLÉNAC, concerning the practice introduced in the islands of the Gouverneurs demanding duties in kind on the nègres brought there

The Directors of the Compagnie du Sénégal have complained to me that, when one of their ships arrived at the Cap, the sieur Dupaty Mercier demanded on your behalf ten select nègres. When their clerks refused, you sent an order to M. de Barrere to have them delivered willingly or by force, and, if none were found fine enough or of the quality of pièces d’Inde, to have one thousand écus paid over for the profit you might have made on these ten nègres. It appears from the Documents that these Directors submit that their clerk paid this sum to the sieur Dupaty Mercier, your Agent at the Cap, to avoid going to a dungeon, where you had ordered M. de Barrere to put him on bread and water in case of refusal.