# Protestant Exiles from France/Volume 2 - Book Third - Chapter 6 - Section I

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Chapter VI.
NEAU, BENEZET, AND REFUGEES IN OUR COLONIES.
I. Le Sieur Elie Neau.
Elie Neau, when only eighteen years of age, that is, in 1679, saw how persecution in France was always advancing to the climax of the extermination of the Protestants. Professor Weiss styles him “the chief of a great family from the principality of Soubise, in Saintonge.” Yet he made up his mind to be a voluntary exile. Being by profession a sailor, he had no dread of the ocean, and his first place of refuge was the island of St. Domingo. At the beginning of the reign of William and Mary he was at New York; and his application for naturalisation as a British subject having been forwarded to London, he was naturalised on the 31st January 1690. His name is in the Patent Rolls of that date; and the reader will find it anglicized into Elias Neau, in the Historical Introduction to this volume, List XVII. About this time he married, and his friends provided him with a trading vessel, in command of which he made a first voyage. But it was also the last; his vessel was unarmed, and had to surrender without resistance to a French privateer. The prisoners were taken to St. Malo; and when it was known that he was a French Protestant he was tried for the crime of disobedience to the Proclamation of Louis XIV., recalling the fugitive Protestants to their native country. He was sent to the galleys, and underwent the severest treatment, of which an account was published in the French language. An abridged account was printed in English, and from the copy in the British Museum my readers are presented with the following transcript of it. It is in the brave martyr’s own words.
It is not out of any vanity that I have been induced to publish the following account of my sufferings while I remained on board the French king’s galleys or in the dungeons of Marseilles. But the Lord out of his infinite mercy having saved me out of my distresses, brought me out of darkness and broken my fetters, some pious persons have thought I should be ungrateful did I not praise the Lord for his goodness, and publish his wonderful works to the children of men.
I left the kingdom of France on account of my religion in the year 1679, being then about eighteen years of age, and went to St. Domingo, and from thence to New York, where I married some time after. As I had been bred to the sea, some friends of mine fitted out a small ship of 80 tons, which they trusted to my care and command, I having been made a free denizen of England by his present Majesty, in the first year of his reign.
I sailed from New York on the 15th August 1692, bound for Jamaica, and was taken on the 29th by a privateer from St. Malo, who was returning home from St. Domingo. I continued two months on board his ship, after which I was put in prison with other seamen and prisoners of war. The judge of the Admiralty, being informed that I was a French Protestant, gave notice thereof to the King’s Attorney, who, having acquainted Monsieur De Pontchartrain with it, received orders to persuade me to change my religion, or, in case I proved obstinate, to condemn me to the galleys. This order was signified unto me; but God was pleased to assist me in such a manner that I was not terrified in the least, and did not hesitate at all to answer that I could not comply with their desire, seeing it was against my conscience.
Their solicitations proving vain, I was brought before the court to be examined, and asked why I was not returned into the kingdom, when the king had, by a proclamation, recalled all his subjects who were in foreign countries. I answered it was because the Gospel commanded me, when I was persecuted in one kingdom to fly into another country. The Judge, being likely a stranger to Scripture maxims and expressions, told me that I blasphemed; but I having desired him to tell me wherein, he would not, and repeated the same word. I replied ​that this was an expression of the Son of God contained in the Bible. Whereupon he inclined his head, looking on the greffier (or clerk of the court), repeating once more that I blasphemed. He examined me also upon several other articles foreign to my purpose, and sent the informations, which he had taken, to court.
I remained four months in the prisons of St. Malo, where I had many temptations to overcome, as, threats and promises; but by the grace of God I was proof against all their artifices. The order of the court having arrived, I was sent to Rennes to appear before the Parliament of Brittany. I was put on horseback bound hand and foot, but, the shaking of the horse causing my arms to swell, the manacles proved then too little, and I felt then a most exquisite pain. An advocate of the parliament who travelled the same road, pitying my condition, desired those who were appointed to conduct me to take off the manacles, but had much ado to persuade them to it. I was then considerably eased, but it was impossible for me to hold a pen to write in a fortnight’s time.
Some days after my arrival at Rennes I appeared before the Great Chamber and was commanded to hold up my hand, and swear to answer truly and directly to the interrogatories which should be made unto me. They asked me first my name and profession, and then why I had settled myself in a foreign country contrary to the king’s orders. I own I was then struck with such a terror that I could hardly speak; but they bid me be assured, and to answer the questions that were put to me. This having revived me, I told them I had left my native country because Jesus Christ, the king of kings, commanded me to fly from that country when I could not enjoy liberty of conscience, and retire into another.
The First President told me that persecution was a great evil, but added that I was not to be ignorant that St. Paul commands to obey kings not only in temporal things but likewise in conscience. I replied that likely St. Paul did not understand that passage in the sense of his lordship; for if he did so, my Lord (said I to the President), why did he not obey Nero?
He asked me afterwards, whether I had fired on the king’s subjects; but understanding that my ship had no guns, or any other offensive arms, he asked me whether I would have fired upon them, if I had been in a capacity to do it. I replied that it was natural for a man to defend his estate and goods; whereupon he interrupted me in these words: It is a great misfortune for you to be born in that religion, and that the Holy Ghost has not enlightened you. Withdraw.
I was remanded to the prison; and two hours after, the attorney-general came to tell me that if I would change my religion, I should have my pardon, and that they would help me to a good employment at Brest I gave him the same answer that I had given to the king’s attorney at St. Malo, namely, that I was ready to lose my life rather than renounce my religion; whereupon he went away, commanding to put me to the chain with some other galley slaves.
It was on the 3d April 1693 that I was tied to the great chain, with fifty-nine other slaves, who were condemned to that dreadful punishment — some for desertion, others for defrauding the king’s duties upon salt, and others for horrid crimes, as robbery, murder, and worse. It rained almost all that month, so that we could hardly travel five leagues a day; and when we arrived at night at any town or village, to lie, they put us as so many beasts in stables, where, though always wet and dirty, we often wanted straw to lie upon. We had 31/2 [sous?] a day for our nourishment; but it often happened that we could find no bread for our money in those villages where we were obliged to lie upon the road. When they put us in these stables, they fastened both ends of the chain to the walls, so that we had only the liberty to lie down, but not to stir at all. That hard fatigue and the coldness of the walls threw me into a being unable to walk. I gave forty livres to our captain to be carried in a cart — happy to find a man whose cruelty could be melted with money!
As we went through all the capital cities of the Provinces that lie between Brest and Marseilles, our number increased apace; for we took sixty other slaves at Saumur and Angers, condemned for various crimes. We recruited also at Tours, Bourges, and Lyons, insomuch that we were upwards of 150 men when we arrived. It is indeed a horrid spectacle, to see such a number of men fastened to a chain, and exposed to so many miseries, that death is not so hard by half as this punishment.
We arrived at Marseilles on the 10th May; and about the same time arrived also 800 slaves from several parts of that kingdom. We were divided into forty lots; and I and several others were sent on board the Magnanimous, commanded by Mr. De Soison. There were on board that galley six persons on account of their religion; and among them were three, very timorous and fearful, who had sometimes the weakness to comply, in some manner, with the idolatries of the mystical Babylon. God was pleased to send me thither to encourage them; and my example and exhortations wrought such an impression upon them, that they resolved to glorify their Saviour openly, and without disguise. One of them told the first-lieutenant of the galley, with a Christian courage and resolution, that he had indeed been so unhappy as to taint under the weight of the persecution, but that he begged God’s pardon for that crime, and that he abhorred the idolatry of the Church of Rome. They told him, in my hearing, that they would make him expire under beating; but he answered that, by the grace of God, he was ready to die. This was enough to kindle the fury of the captain of the galley, who complained that, since I was arrived, that man had discontinued to do his duty (to use his own phrase, for thus they speak of such who have the weakness to go to mass, &c). This incensed ​them so much against me, that they resolved to treat me with a greater severity than the rest of the slaves, and loaded me with two chains, whereas the others had but one.
There happened, sometime after, another thing which considerably increased their rage. A Roman Catholic slave on board the Warlike, for having deserted the king’s service, observing that the officers used more severity towards Mr. Carrieres than any others, and understanding he was there only for refusing to change his religion, had the curiosity to know from him what was the religion he maintained with so much constancy and magnanimity. That faithful confessor explained to him the principles thereof, and gave him a New Testament, translated by Father Amelote. I was informed thereof, and wrote to him some letters to encourage him to go on with the examination of our religion; to which he applied himself with so much sincerity, that, upon Easter Day next following, he refused to worship the host, and had the courage to declare to his captain that he would never own himself any more a Roman Catholic. They loaded him with two chains, and used him with a most barbarous severity. They searched immediately his pockets; and having found therein some of my letters, my persecutors were enraged against me, and made me sufficiently fear the effects of their fury. Their barbarous usage did not fright our new proselyte into any compliance; for God has so strengthened him, that for these five years since, he has been and is still a most glorious confessor of His Name.
When my enemies saw that their chains and other hardships wrought no impression upon me, they writ to court that I spoke English, and was perpetually a-writing. This reason was sufficient for them to obtain an order to transfer me from the galleys into the prisons of the citadel of Marseilles. But before I speak of the cruelties they exercised upon me, I think it may not be improper to give a short account of the hardships the slaves are exposed to.
They are five upon every form, fettered with a heavy chain, which is about ten or twelve foot long. They shave their heads from time to time, as a sign of their slavery, and they are not allowed to wear any hats or periwigs; but the king allows them every year a cap, with two shirts, two pair of drawers of the coarsest linen, a sort of upper coat of a reddish shift and a capot; but it is to be observed that they have of late but one coat and capot every two years, and two pair of stockings every year. They have only beans, and nothing else, for their food, with about 14 ounces of coarse bread a day, and ne’er a drop of wine whilst they are in port. They are devoured in winter by lice, and in summer by bugs and fleas, and forced to lie one upon another, as hogs in a sty. I shall not take notice in this place of the barbarity they are used with by the officers of the galleys, which is beyond imagination. The Protestants are obnoxious to all these miseries, and a great many other besides. They are not allowed to receive any money from their friends and relations, unless very privately. They are everyday threatened and tormented by priests and friars, who, being unable to convince them by reasons, think that severity alone can do it. To this I must add the trouble and vexation a Christian soul is afflicted with, to live with wicked and desperate fellows who never use the name of God but for cursing and swearing.
On the 3d of May, in the year 1694, orders came from court to transfer me into the prison of the citadel, and I was put into the same dungeon wherein Mr. Laubonniere, one of our most illustrious confessors, died seven months before. I was forced to lie upon the stones, for I could not obtain for a year together any bed or even straw to lie upon. There was a strict order to suffer nobody to speak to me nor me to write to anybody, and the aid-major came every night to search my pockets when he had taken his round. Though my condition was as miserable as possible, nobody took pity on me, and the victuals they gave me was hardly sufficient to keep me alive. In the meantime, God, out of his infinite love, afforded me such comforts that I little regarded the miseries I was reduced to.
I remained there about a year without seeing anybody; but about that time the Director of Conscience of the then Governor came to see me as they were bringing me my dinner. He had hardly looked upon me, but he cried out, Lord! in what a condition are you, sir! I replied, Sir, don’t pity me, for could you but see the secret pleasures my heart experiences, you would think me too happy. He told me that the greatest sufferings did not entitle a man to the glory of martyrdom, unless he were so happy as to suffer for truth and justice, which I granted him, but told him withal that the Holy Ghost had sealed that truth in my heart, and that very thought was my comfort in all my afflictions. That priest, taking his leave of me, wished that God would multiply his grace upon me, and sent me a straw bed to lie upon. I continued twenty-two months in that prison without changing my clothes, my beard being as long as the hair of my head, and my face as pale as plaster.
There was just under me a generous confessor whom they had so much tormented that they had turned his brains; but he, having some good intervals, had always reason enough to refuse to comply with their desires. He asked me one morning with a loud voice how I did. This was immediately reported to the governors, whereupon I was immediately removed into another prison, where I continued very little, because of my singing of psalms, though I sung with a very low voice, that I might disturb nobody. I was put on the 20th May 1696 in a subterraneous hole, wherein I remained till the first of July next following, when I was sent, together with the distracted person I have named, by express order from the court, to the Castle of If, about five miles from Marseilles, in the mouth of the harbour.
They had likewise five weeks before sent thither five other persons from the same citadel. We were all at first in different prisons, but as five sentinels were required to keep us, they ​obtained leave from the court to put us together in a secure place, so that on the 20th of August I and the poor gentleman I have spoken of were put in a hole, and the other three in another. The place was so disposed that we were obliged to go down a ladder into a dry ditch, and then to go up by the same ladder into an old tower through a cannon hole. The vault or arch wherein we were put was as dark as if there had been no manner of light in heaven, stinking, and so miserable dirty, that I verily believe there was not a more dismal place in the world. We might have received some money to help us in this great distress, but they would not suffer it, so that all our senses were attacked at once, sight by darkness, taste by hunger, smell by the stench of the place, feeling by lice and other vermin, and hearing by the horrid blasphemies and cursing, which the soldiers (who were obliged to bring us some victuals) vomited against God and our holy religion.
The missionaries, who had flattered themselves that we could not resist much longer, were almost enraged when they saw our firm resolution to die in the profession of our religion, and therefore began to talk of nothing else but the judgments of God. And thereupon I could not forbear one day to tell them that the judgments of God were upon them, for he suffered them to fill the measure of their crimes in insulting over us in our miseries; but that God was just and would not fail to avenge us, and punish them according to their demerits. Having continued six months in that pit, my fellow-sufferer happening to die, I was removed into the other with the other three confessors. As that poor man was in his agony, he heard the soldiers say that it was necessary to send for the chaplain; but he made a sign with his hand to testify his aversion to it and so gave up the ghost unto the Lord.
We continued all four in the other pit for some time without seeing any light at all; but at last they gave us leave to have a lamp while we eat our victuals. The place being very damp, our clothes were rotten by this time; but God was pleased to have mercy upon me, miserable sinner, and upon another of my fellow-sufferers. For on the 3d July the Lord broke our fetters, the Right Honourable the Earl of Portland, then Extraordinary Ambassador to the Court of France, having reclaimed us in his Majesty’s name. We left two of our companions in that dreadful pit, and about 370 others on board the galleys, where they glorify the name of God with an unparalleled courage and constancy.
This is the short but sincere account of my suffering which I have written, at the request of several eminent persons, as a means to comfort, and rejoice in the Lord, the faithful servants of Jesus Christ, and confound the emissaries of Satan, who would fain make the world believe that there is no persecution in France.
Elias Neau.
The above narrative shows that the fact, that he was a naturalised subject of Britain, procured his deliverance, our ambassador having a plain right to demand his release when negotiating the Peace of Ryswick.
With evident propriety the larger memoir was dedicated to the Earl of Portland by Elie Neau’s Pasteur, J. Morin. From this work the following additional details may be interesting. St. Domingo was a French colony, and he did not leave it until compelled by persecution; thus any Frenchman at home who had facilitated his departure would not be chargeable with the offence of promoting emigration to British territory. Boston in America was the “city belonging to the English” which first sheltered him, after flying from the spreading flames of persecution. The vessel which he commanded was the Marquise (80 tons), belonging to Gabriel Le Boiteux, merchant of New York; the date of its capture was 8th September 1692. The vessel was sent back to New York, Elie Neau having promised 3500 livres (£140 sterling) for its redemption. The privateer kept hold of his person as security for payment. And it was not the interest either of the captor or of his partners at St. Milo, that Neau should be regarded by the law of France as a felon, for then the price of their prize would be lost to them. It was therefore in spite of their strenuous endeavours that the religionistic prosecution was insisted on. His sentence was. “To serve the king as a convict (forcat) at the galleys, for life — and that, for having settled in foreign countries without the permission of His Majesty, and contrary to his declaration in 1662 which prohibited his subjects from leaving the kingdom.”
The larger memoir also contains some letters from Elie Neau. Some are addressed to Monsieur Morin, who had been his pasteur in France, and had settled as a refugee in Holland. The following is a part of one written to his sister, Rachel, on 14th September 1696; she, as well as his father and mother, had apostatised from the dread of persecution, a circumstance which the martyr regarded with lamentation and indignation:—
“ . . . . You have pierced my heart with lively grief by the tidings of the death of my very dear mother. I have full in view the beaten path along which ail mankind must pass. . . . Think, my dear sister, of that enormous crime which you have committed at the instigation of those who gave you birth, — that terrible shipwreck which keeps you engulphed in a sea of misery. For these twelve years and more, do not the waves of God’s justice go over ​you? I wish to say, have you not, since the beginning of that period, added crime to crime?”
Another letter is to Pierre Neau, of Amsterdam, his first cousin:—
“Your letter gave me a joyful surprise; for I thus got intelligence not only of a dear cousin to whom I am attached, but also of all his family, and of my dear cousin Henri Neau, whom I love with all my heart. You know well that for seventeen years I have not had the honour of seeing you; hence my surprise arose. I was well aware that you had become a refugee, my dear sister Sason told me so five years ago, when she removed to New England, I having sent for her. There she was married, three years since, to a native of La Tremblade, a remarkably honest man and very steady I am greatly obliged to Monsieur Gorgeon, who (you tell me) enquires about me and my family. I do not deserve such concern from so worthy a gentleman whom I have not the honour to know. My family is not in Europe, my dear cousin; it is in New England; it consists of two little children. The first offspring of our marriage was a daughter, whom God took from us eight days after her birth. When I parted from my dear wife she had only an amiable little boy, eighteen months old, who was beginning to speak; but she was very near her accouchement. For two years I remained without any news from home; but at last the Lord had pity on me, and gave an opportunity, through Messieurs Le Boiteux. I had no ink or paper to write an answer. I was obliged to write to these gentlemen with a pencil which had been left in my possession.”
Some of his cousins probably settled in England, or on British ground. James Neau was naturalised by Royal Letters Patent, dated Westminster, nth March 1700 (see List xxiv). Martin Neau was a lieutenant in Cambon’s; he married Jeanne Priolleau, and his son Elie was born 17th November 1692. Jean Neau was godmother to Jacques Blanchard in 1691 in L’Artillerie French Church. Jean Neau married Madelaine Robardeau, and his son Jacob was baptized in Glasshouse French Church, London, 23d April 1699. On 1st January 1730 Henri Neau married Jeanne Theronde, at the French Church, in St. Martin’s Lane, in the city.
I refer my readers to Professor Weiss’s five chapters on the “Refugees in America.” He mentions that in 1662 some La Rochelle ship-owners were prosecuted for “conveying” French “emigrants to a country belonging to Great Britain.” The information against Neau was that he did not return to France when summoned.