One piece of recorded testimony is rather amusing, being to the effect that "Monsieur Smith est un grand vilain coquin." [Footnote: This and most of the other statements for which no authority is quoted, are based on Todd's MS.

"Record Book."] Burning of Negroes Accused of Sorcery.
Yet there are two entries in the proceedings of the Creole courts for the summer of 1779, as preserved in Todd's "Record Book," which are of startling significance.

To understand them it must be remembered that the Creoles were very ignorant and superstitious, and that they one and all including, apparently, even, their priests, firmly believed in witchcraft and sorcery.

Some of their negro slaves had been born in Africa, the others had come from the Lower Mississippi or the West Indies; they practised the strange rites of voudooism, and a few were adepts in the art of poisoning.

Accordingly the French were always on the look-out lest their slaves should, by spell or poison, take their lives.