THE BRITISH CHESS MAGAZINE No.11 Vol. LIII (March 1938)

PIERRE CHARLES FOURNIE DE SAINT-AMANT.

By G. H. Diggle.

II.

... In I.L.N., September 7, 1950, Staunton says: "It is we feat too true that M. St.-Amant is about to leave Europe for some years on an expedition to California." And in Bell's Life, April 27, 1951, we read: "St.-Amant has been appointed French Consul for California. Success to the true man!" St.-Amant, however, did not cross the Atlantic until after the great 1851 Tournament in London, at which he was present for part of the time, though only as a spectator.*
St.-Amant spent over a year in California with his headquarters at San Francisco. We next hear of him arriving in New York, homeward bound in the autumn of 1852.

... In Bell's Life, February 13th, 1853, Walker speaks of St.-Amant "at Hyeres on the Mediterranean shore, engaging in literary labours respecting his late voyage to California." From 1853-56 he wrote several books on the French Colonies which according to the Westminster Papers for December, 1872 "were standard works on the subject."**

* The Rev. W. Wayte recollects seeing him there.
** The writer has ransacked France in vain for copies of these books. One was entitled La Guyane Francaise et ses mines d'or. Mr. Adrian Horton of San Francisco informs me that another of St.-Amant's works, Voyages en Californie et dans L'Oregon. (Paris, 1854) is in the San Francisco Public Library. It contains 651 pages and is illustrated.