1830.] Four Years in the West Indies. 313 



au- Prince next day, and during the evening the sorry remnant of his 

 horses arrived twelve out of twenty-one having been left on the road. 



Before quitting Haiti, he had an opportunity of witnessing the execu- 

 tion of four native officers for an alleged conspiracy, originating in the 

 general dissatisfaction created by the pressure of the French indemnity. 

 Mr. Mackenzie deprecates the enforcement by France of the payment 

 of this indemnity upon an impoverished people who can scarcely sup- 

 port themselves ; and justly observes, that " the nominal friends of Haiti 

 in England, France, and the United States, have incurred a fearful 

 responsibility on this point for what purpose they best know; they 

 have represented the progress of the new republic in the most glowing 

 colours : its increasing prosperity has been so often asserted, as to 

 expose any one hardy enough to question it to the certainty of attack 

 and worthless imputation. The necessary consequence has been, that 

 conditions have been imposed that cannot be fulfilled, and even if much 

 reduced, must check the improvement of the country to an indefinite 

 period." This is only one of the evils entailed upon the West Indies, 

 and upon negroes in general, by their pretended friends, here and else- 

 where. 



We will not follow Mr. Mackenzie through his clear and distinct 

 historical sketch of the events which preceded, and which have fol- 

 lowed, the revolution ; neither have we space to trace the vacillating 

 conduct and ignorance of colonial affairs manifested by the French 

 government, which led to the first fatal revolt of the slave population, 

 and to the subsequent cruel massacres perpetrated by them and their 

 bloodthirsty leaders. 



While the names of Santhonax, Polvorel, and other French commis- 

 sioners, will long be remembered in the West Indies, as diabolical insti- 

 gators of sanguinary measures, those of Toussant L'Ouverture, Dessa- 

 lines, and Saint Christophe, will no less stand " for aye accursed," as 

 principal destroyers of their fellow men ! 



Mr. Mackenzie's summary of the matters of leading interest, and 

 the documents by which it is supported, are highly interesting. 



The total decay of commercial prosperity will at one glance be mani- 

 fest by a comparison of the under-noted exports before and after the 

 revolution. 



Viz. Clayed sugar, in 1789, 47,516,531 Ibs. In 1826 nU. 



Muscovado do 93,573,300 do 32,864 Ibs. 



Coffee do. 76,835,219 do 32,189,784 



Cotton do 7,004,374 do 620,972 



Whilst the industrious habits of the negroes have been so completely 

 destroyed, it cannot be supposed that their morals have been improved, 

 or that any degree of religious feeling has been preserved among them. 

 We accordingly find that they have, in general, sunk into a state of 

 gross and miserable barbarism, and that the African's practice of Obeah, 

 and of other pagan superstitions, are reviving : that they can only be 

 induced by the exercise of club-law to make any exertion for their own 

 benefit or that of the state;* that respectable foreigners, even those 

 accredited from friendly powers, are still insulted with impunity : and, 

 in short, that under compulsory and premature emancipation Haiti has 



* Vide the Code Rural, and, more recently, the Port-au-Prince Official Gazettes, where- 

 in instructions to the local commandants to enforce labour are reiterated ! 

 M.M, New Series VOL. X. No. 57. 2 R 



