THE REPUBLIC OF HAITI 293 



ing that he could not stem the tide, he sent his master's 

 family for safety into Cape Haitien and joined the black 

 loyalists. Having a knowledge of simples, he was firsl 

 appointed a surgeon, and Later rose to leadership, ever 

 trying to direct the course of his unruly subjects into legit- 

 imate warfare, and to suppress fcheir savage instincts. He 

 protected to the lasl the lives of the whites, and was even 

 honored by the English, whose assistance had beeu sought 

 by Prance to subdue the fray. "Wheu he once gave his 

 word, he never broke it," it was said; "and he never had 

 any prejudice of color." Even St. John says that "he had 

 a greatness of mind which was really remarkable." Roume 

 described this negro chief as a "philosopher, a legislator, 

 a general, and a good citizen." Bainsford, an English offi- 

 cer, who visited the insurgents disguised as an American, 

 was much struck with Toussaint, and says he "was con- 

 strained to admire him as a man, a governor, and a gen- 

 eral," who "receives a voluntary respect from every 

 description of his countrymen, which is more than returned 

 by the affability of his behavior and the goodness of his 

 heart." 



It should be remembered that this man, a loyal subje 

 of France, was fighting for peace and order, and had it not 

 been for the venality of the French themselves, whose 

 political conditions at home were almost as disturbed as 

 in Haiti, he would have restored it. When he had almost 

 finished his task and proclaimed union and peace in the 

 French colon)', pardoning all those who had been led into 

 the revolution againsl him, keeping his word to his ene- 

 mies by putting into execution a constitution which was 

 a model of liberality, Bonaparte determined to reestablish 

 slavery in Haiti, and sent a French army of invasion to 

 carry out this most infamous attempt. Rochambeau, who 

 led the French troops, shot every prisoner that fell into 

 his hands, justifying retaliation by the Haitians. Be even 

 broughl to the siege two hundred Cuban bloodhounds, that 

 were \'n\ on negro flesh, it is said, to make them the more 



