PLANTER AND MERCHANT 51 



of disaffection and revolt; but also by the National 

 Assembly in France, which by its vacillating policies 

 destroyed every hope of reconciliation. In March, 1790, 

 this Assembly granted to the citizens of Santo Domingo 

 the right of local self-government, but only a year later, 

 on May 15, 1791, tore up this decree and emancipated 

 the mulattoes. When the news reached the island six 

 weeks later, the colony was thrown into the utmost con- 

 sternation; the whites as a class refused point-blank to 

 accept the decision and summoned an Assembly of their 

 own, which met in August. The mulattoes again took 

 up arms, and the blacks, who by this time had been won 

 to their side, started a general revolt which had its origin 

 on a plantation called "Noe," in the parish of Acul, 

 nine miles from Cap Francois. They began by burning 

 the cane fields and the sugar houses and murdering their 

 white owners. Thenceforth Santo Domingan history 

 becomes an intricate and disgusting detail of conspira- 

 cies, treacheries, murders, conflagrations, and atrocities 

 of every description. The only ray of light comes from 

 the first genuine leader of the blacks, the gallant but 

 unfortunate Toussaint, in 1793. 



As has already been intimated, Jean Audubon's 

 Santo Domingo property suffered long after he left the 

 island, and certainly after 1792 when, as we shall soon 

 see, revolutions were demanding his attention and all 

 his energies at home. 



