LETTER of the King to MM. de Larnage and Maillart, for having the nègres condemned to the Galleys employed on public Works in the Colony

Monsieur the Marquis de Larnage and Monsieur Maillart: I have had a report made to me of the proposal you made to commute the penalty of the Galleys pronounced against enslaved nègres in the cases where they are to be so condemned, and even the penalty of death set by art. XXXVIII of the Code noir against nègres marrons and fugitives for the third time, into the penalty of being branded with a fleur-de-lys on the cheek, chained, and employed for life or for a term, according to the different cases, on the fortifications or other works ordered by me in my Colony of Saint-Domingue. From my examination of the grounds on which you based this proposal, I judged that it could be suitable, both for the usefulness that nègres so condemned could provide and for the impression such a sentence could make on the minds of all the enslaved nègres, who are often held back neither by fear of the Galleys, which they do not know, nor even sometimes by fear of death. I did not wish, however, to issue a Declaration at once ordering this commutation of penalty.