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- Arrived at Bourbon on a forban ship in November 1695
- VICTOR RIVERAIN known as "Tourangeau", son of Victor Riverain and Hélène Guignon ", was born in Tours around 1661. From a good family, he knew how to read and write, and even Latin; he had learned the trade of engraver, this which required at the time that he know the coat of arms. After leading the life of a filibuster, he landed at Bourbon in November 1695, from an English ship commanded by the pirate Avery. Seven months later, he married the June 12, 1696, with Marguerite Dailleau, who was only fourteen years old, when he was 36. On December 25, 1700, he obtained a concession of land in Rivière-Saint-Jean and built a "house". He resided there in 1705 and cultivated there "wheat, rice, millet, bananas, tobacco and vegetables." He also acquired "another considerable piece of land at Rivière-des-Roches" on the shore. right-currently "Beauvallon" - large enough to breed "1,500 pigs and as many oxen" On August 23, 1706, Victor Riverain sold his property in Rivière-des-Roches to Samson Le Beau "for the price and sum of forty ecus" paid in cash; that was the price of "40 tobacco andouilles" claimed Antoine Boucher. If the "Tourangeau" thus got rid of this immense land at a low price, it was to come and live "at the platform of the Saint-Denis River" - currently "the Redoubt" - for which it had obtained the concession. When the Company, on February 17, 171 wrote to Parat to reserve for the Governors, among other lands "the platform of Saint-Denis" and not to grant it at any cost, Antoine Boucher replied in an enigmatic way, in his Mémoire d 'Observations, that there was "no risk of banishing the owner. We know enough, he said, without me explaining, how this concession was made". It was an ideal place "for raising cattle, and where they are safe from fear of being plundered, and where one is always sure to find them, in need; because this platform, however graceful it is , is steep on all sides ". Moreover, it was "a very fajte fortress", easy to defend, where Antoine Boucher would have liked to place the house of the Governors and the stores of the Company. Victor Riverain, at the "Platform", raised oxen, sheep and horses, reserving his land from the Saint-Jean River to Sainte-Suzanne for crops: rice, corn, bananas, sugar cane , potatoes and tobacco. On May 6, 1708, he made a contract with the Company, represented by the Director Hébert, passing through Bourbon. He undertook to cultivate and fashion tobacco, helped by six slaves that the Company placed at his disposal. He would keep 25% of the production in payment. Victor Riverain set to work on July 1, 1708, but the clearest result of the enterprise was that the slaves, loaned to him, tired of being mistreated, fled by stealing a canoe. The "Tourangeau" had to terminate his contract on August 12 for the benefit of Jean Arnoult who fulfills it until August 1, 1711. Victor Riverain died on March 20, 1713, leaving his wife widowed with three daughters. In the inventory of his property, drawn up on March 23, 1713, are books, including Virgil, the works of Racine and Molière, the Bible. Father BARASSIN
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