A CAREER OF SWINDLING.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VII, Issue 141, 14 June 1872, Page 4

A CAREER OF SWINDLING.

— — - v Galignani reports that a curious case has just been judged by the correctional tribunal of Paris. The prisoner was a good-looking mulatto of about 35. He was born at Port-au-Prince, of humble parents, and in 1857 left his native town for America, whence he passed into England and thence to France. In 1858 he came to Paris, and representing himself to be a lawyer, married the daughter of a well-to-do tradesman. Having spent all ' his wife's portion, he disappeared, but turned up again in 1860, and succeeded in marrying, under another name, the daughter of a rich jeweller, of the Palais Royal. Eighteen months later he was found in London going, through another marriage, which ended like the others in the dissipation of the wife's dowry and the disappearance of the husband. He went to Liverpool, where he gave himself out as the agent of the Government of Hay ti for the purchase of frigates, and succeeded in swindling the tradespeople to a large extent. He then made a tour of Rotterdam, Brussels, Berlin, and other places, and under various high-sounding names cheated everybody he came across. In 1862 he was condemned by the Court of Assizes of the Seine to five years' imprisonment by default. At Geneva, a few years later, he was sentenced to the same punishment, but being set at liberty before the expiration of his term, returned to France. In 1868 he again made his appearance at Nice, but finding himself too closely watched by the Haytian Consul, he went to Brussels, where he was condemned, by default again, to two years' imprisonment for forgery. At the time this sentence was 1 pronounced, this adventurer, whose real name appears to be.^Dorsainville, was at Hamburg, where he passed two months in gaol. His sentence over, he was taken by the police to Cologne to undergo six months' imprisonment there, to which he had been

sentenced some time previously. Having paid that penalty of the law, ho resolved to return to France once more, and there commenced the series of charges brought against him on the present occasion. In the month of March, 1870, Dorsainville was at Nice. He had already lodged several months at the Hotel dv Printemps, kept by Madame Audoli, who, on the faith of his representations, gave him credit, and he also managed to get clothes from a tailor to the value of £100. Dressed out. handsomely, he went to a silk merchant named Wercheni, from whom he got 5890 f worth of silk, with which he absconded, leaviog a bill of lOOOf unpaid at the hotel. On the outbreak of the war, Dorsainviile found himself once more in London. Here he was successful in deceiving the Haytian Charge D' Affaires, M. Maitens, and on the 24th October obtained a passport which represented him as "Count Catalina Nau, •lawyer and Haytian subject, attached to the Legation in France." The war over, he came back to Paris, put up at one of the large hotels, had cards printed, and his letters addressed to the American Embassy. In addition, he sent an " official " note round to the papers to the following effect : — " The union of the Antilles may be considered, in a diplomatic point of view, as an accomplished fact. M. Eugene Nau, deputy-president of the Haytian Corps Legislatif, has been named special plenipotentiary to the United States. The Couut Catilina Nau, future Minister in Paris of Hayf,i, is negotiating with the French Government on the affairs concerning Martinique and G-uadaloupe," &c. Having laid his traps, the Count set to work to get money, and succeeded iv a good many cases, but, eventually, pushing his audacity too far, he found himself once more in the hands of the police. He has now been sentenced to two year's hard labor.