1 827.] Sketches of Hayli. 1 1 5 



raent as his home, and oftener expended its proceeds in his new and 

 adopted country, than stored them up carefully with a view of ultimately 

 enjoying them in his native land. He seemed to have no intention to be 

 an ephemeral visitor, and to amass wealth rapidly at the expense of negro 

 life, in order that he might take his departure the more speedily. This is 

 proved to have been the case, by the costly mansions erected, the money 

 and labour expended in the cultivation of pleasure grounds, and the efforts 

 made to give a permanency and attraction to the establishments, which 

 should dissipate the remembrance of other scenes. Even to this day it is 

 impossible to sail along the shores of the gulf of Hayti, without being 

 struck with the wreck of his designs, and acknowledging that, before the 

 hand of desolation had disfigured them, they must indeed have been beau- 

 tiful. His intercourse with his slaves, especially with those about his per- 

 son, was far more familiar than is that of the English colonist. It was, 

 however, extremely badly regulated, for the negro was one moment treated 

 as the companion of his master, and the next reminded that he was his 

 slave. But this inconsistency was not peculiar to the French colonist, for it 

 has formed a leading feature in the national character of France from time 

 immemorial, and still exists in undiminished vigour. It was, nevertheless, 

 the great vice of the system, and prepared the minds of the negroes for a 

 change, although it cannot be said to have brought about that event. 



Under this system it is evident that the French planter had a double 

 motive to labour for the preservation of his estates; both his property and 

 his home were at stake ; but he found it impossible to withstand the in- 

 trigues of revolutionary France. Long previous to 1791, it was customary 

 for free mulattoes and negroes, of whom there were many, to repair from 

 St. Domingo to France, for the purpose of acquiring education, and when 

 the National Assembly was not content with decreeing that " all men are 

 born and continue free and equal as to their rights," but employed agents 

 to inspirit the people of colour to act upon that doctrine, the planters 

 thought it high time to endeavour to legislate for themselves. Upon this 

 a society was formed in Paris, designated Amis des Noirs, and a just esti- 

 mate may be made of its real character from the fact, that the abhorred 

 Robespierre was one of its chief members. Immediate emancipation was 

 the word ; and an emissary, a mulatto, named Ogee, was despatched to 

 St. Domingo, to light the torch of desolation. The colonists naturally 

 refused to grant emancipation. Massacre and revenge soon commenced 

 their horrid career, and crimes were perpetrated which surpassed the con- 

 ception of even Robespierre himself. The most detestable of cruelties 

 Were practised by either party ; but the planters necessarily endured the 

 greatest miseries. The habits and constitution of the negroes gave them 

 incalculable advantages ; and, in addition, the planters found that those 

 to whom, at other times, they would have appealed for support, their own 

 countrymen, were ranged among their direst foes. It was, therefore, the 

 French revolutionists, and not the planters, who occasioned the first com- 

 motions in St. Domingo ; and the proceedings were stamped with that 

 demon spirit which deluged France. If the following lines, which were 

 Written at the time, are destitute of poetic grace, they, at least, record the 

 truth : 



" Still view in western climes death's palest horse 

 With pestilence and slaughter mark his course j 



Q 2 



