1830.] Four Years in the West Indies. 311 



The recent death of Christophe, and the existence of many of his 

 chief officers, afforded me an opportunity of making many researches 

 into his personal character, and the history of his reign. 



" Henry Christophe was born, according to an official account sanc- 

 tioned by himself, in the Island of Granada, in the year 1769, and came 

 at an early age to St. Domingo. He was not a pure black, but a sombre, 

 or griffe, as it is called. He was the slave of a French gentleman. 

 He afterwards became a waiter at an hotel, then privateer's-man, and 

 then returned to an hotel and gaming-house. It does not appear that he 

 entered the army ; but, in 1801, he was general of brigade and governor 

 of the Cape. * * * During his presidency, and the early part of 

 his reign, he was mild, forbearing, and humane ; but afterwards, his 

 nature seemed to have been completely changed, and he indulged in 

 whatever his uncontrolled passions suggested and they suggested 

 almost every act that can violate the charities of life ; and as he pro- 

 ceeded in his career, he became suspicious and wantonly cruel."* We 

 have no space, however, for a narrative of the shocking cruelties prac- 

 tised by this inhuman monster, who at the very period of these atroci- 

 ties was lauded by Mr. Wilberforce and the " saints" of England as the 

 most humane and pious of potentates ! ! ! 



Mr. Mackenzie visited Sans Souci, formerly the residence of Chris- 

 tophe, a place in which " I believe for a time more unlimited despo- 

 tism had been exercised, than has ever prevailed in any country aspir- 

 ing to Christianity and civilization." It is a large clumsy building, on 

 the side of a mountain, resembling a huge cotton factory. An interest- 

 ing account of the last act of this extraordinary man is given, and of a 

 visit made to La Ferriere, or the citadel, which was formerly the depo- 

 sitory of his treasure. 



Returning to the Cape by a route which enabled him to pass through 

 what had, before the revolution, been one of the finest and best culti- 

 vated districts of this part of the island, he saw in almost every direction 

 ruined buildings, and fields, formerly covered with canes, now overrun 

 with wild guava trees ; and the same abandonment of agricultural 

 industry and destruction of property which we have noted in other 

 places. " The general result of my inquiries was, that some few pro- 

 perties which were in activity in Christophe' s time, were kept up for 

 making syrup, which was mainly converted into tafia."t 



Leaving Cape Haitien, Mr. Mackenzie proceeded towards what may 

 still be considered the Spanish part of the island. He left Port Liberte 

 on the 17th of April, and next day passed the river Massacre, the 

 ancient boundary between the French and Spanish country. 



Travelling as rapidly as was practicable through a region almost in a 

 state of nature, and but very thinly inhabited, he reached St. Jago, one 

 of the oldest cities of Haiti, on the 22d. It had been inhumanly plun- 

 dered, and great part of it destroyed, in 1 805, by a division of the armjr 

 of Clervaux, under the immediate command of the blood-thirsty Chris- 

 tophe, but is yet a fine town, and situated in an interesting country. 

 The climate is salubrious, and the population said to be increasing with 

 unexampled rapidity. The state of society is superior to that on the 

 French part of the island. Mr. Mackenzie made an excursion down, 

 or rather over to Port-au- Plate, on the sea coast, where there is still 



* VoL I. pp. 157 to 169. f Ibid - P- 192 - 



