THE STUDY OF NATURE. 



29 



':.«&'. 



this noble appeal : ' The First of the Blacks to the "; 4' 



First of the Whites ! ' * Permit me to doubt if it were !.^^ 



his. At least, if he conceived it, it was my father Vf^ 



who gave expression to the idea. >J|^\;t 



"He loved my father warmly; he perceived his r^i^' 



■v"-^ frankness, and he trusted him — he, so profoundly mis- w^'^'. 



^y trustful, dumb with his long slavery, and secret as the \'^m^ 



Q\ ' tomb ! But who can die without having one day un- ' l-^j! 



g}»v'? locked his heart ? It was my father's misfortune that i^^ff^; 



i^^, at certain moments Toussaint broke his silence, and .^ptS 



made him the confidant of dangerous mysteries. ^Wk 



Thenceforth, all was over ; he became afraid of the M% 



young man, and felt himself dependent upon him — a \tf." 



new sei-vitude, which could only end with mv father's %M-' 



death. Toussaint threw him into piison, and then, *>?*' 



with a fresh access of fear, would have sacrificed him. ''*/-' 



Fortunately, the prisoner was guarded by gr-atitude ; '^^ 



he had been bountiful to manv of the blacks ; a negress v^s^ 



whom he had protected, warned him of his peril, and iiA- 



assisted him to escape from it. All his life long he /.ri^^i 



sought that woman, to show his gratitude towards her ; ^A'.r 



he did not discover her until some fourteen years after- #;.\t 



wards, on his last voyage ; she was then living in the ■^^^:^^ 



United States. ^4'-' 

 "To return: though out of prison, he was not saved. 



\f^W Wandering astray in the forest, at night, without a 

 guide, he had cause to dread the Maroons, those im- 

 placable enemies of the whites, who would have killed 

 him, in ignorance that they were murdering the best 



* It was with this exordium Toussaint commenced his appeal to 

 Napoleon Bonaparte. 





