Monsieur, Depuis notre dernière de Bordeaux le 1er Octobre qu'avons l'honneur de vous confirmer, notre Sieur Chauvet est arrivé en bonne santé. Il a de suite pris les renseignements que M. Perier père l'avait prié de prendre de l'habitation de M. le Marquis de le Chapelle à Limonade, en voici le résultat: Sir, Since our last from Bordeaux of which we have the honour to give you confirmation, Mr Chauvet arrived in good health. He immediately sought the information Mr Perier your father had prayed him gather concerning the plantation of the Marquis de la Chapelle at Limonade, and here is the result: le sol est beau et bon elle rend de 300 à 340 milliers de beau sucre elle commence à manquer de force en y mettant 10 nègres par an jusqu'au nombre de 300 et qu'elle fut bien administrée, serait susceptible de 400 milliers de beau sucre <snip> il faudrait 300 têtes de nègres sur cette habitation, ceux qu'il y a sont en assez bon état mais pas assez nombreux. the soil is fine and good [the plantation] yields 300 to 340 "milliers" of high-quality sugar [the plantation] is beginning to lack strength [labour] by putting in 10 negroes a year up to the number of 300 and with good administration, it would be capable of yielding 400 "milliers" of high-quality sugar <snip> 300 head of negroes are needed on this plantation, those there are are in good enough condition but not numerous enough Enfin, c'est une des plus belles habitations que nous avons aux environs du Cap et même des plus lucratives. La caze à nègres est susceptible de quelques réparations mais ce n'est pas conséquent. Finally, it's one of the finest plantations we have around the Cape [Le Cap François, today Le Cap Haïtien, port in northern Haïti] and even one of the most lucrative. The negro cabin calls for some repairs but it is not of great importance.
Sir, Since our last from Bordeaux of which we have the honour to give you confirmation, Mr Chauvet arrived in good health. He immediately sought the information Mr Perier your father had prayed him gather concerning the plantation of the Marquis de la Chapelle at Limonade, and here is the result:
Enfin, c'est une des plus belles habitations que nous avons aux environs du Cap et même des plus lucratives. La caze à nègres est susceptible de quelques réparations mais ce n'est pas conséquent.
Finally, it's one of the finest plantations we have around the Cape [Le Cap François, today Le Cap Haïtien, port in northern Haïti] and even one of the most lucrative. The negro cabin calls for some repairs but it is not of great importance.
The most complicated part of the letter concerns terms of payment of a plantation manager. The "300 head" of human beings don't present a problem at all. They're just commodities, handled as regularly and somewhat less feverishly than barrels of sugar.
This picture below was in the Charlie Hebdo from a few weeks ago. It shows Sarkozy (who passed a "selective immigration" bill recently, and who immediately set course for a few African countries to explain his law to leaders) saying "Computer specialist? Good, give me one dozen".
Unfortunately they don't give dates or a bibliographical source for the letter. I have read other documents of this kind in other books, (which I now unfortunately don't have references to), and the language and tone are typical. What comes through, to me, under the straight business language, is the greed of these people. You know, sugar was like gold to them, and "les nègres" were just a means to the end of bringing in the gold dust.
