THE STUDY OF NATURE. 



29 



Ch(r' 



■<iX\': 



this noble appeal : ' The First of the Blacks to the 

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

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

 who gave expression to the idea. 



" He loved my father warmly ; he perceived his 

 frankness, and he trusted him — he, so profoundly mis- 

 trustful, dumb with his long slavery, and secret as the 

 tomb ! But who can die without havmg one day un- 

 locked his heart ? It was my father's misfortune that 

 at certain moments Toussaint broke his silence, and 

 made him the confidant of dangerous mysteries. 

 Thenceforth, all was over ; he became afraid of the 

 young man, and felt himself dependent upon him- — a 

 new servitude, which could only end with my father's 

 death. Toussaint threw him into prison, and then, 

 with a fresh access of fear, would have sacrificed him. 

 Fortunatel}', the prisoner was guarded by gratitude ; 

 he had been bountiful to many of the blacks ; a negress 

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

 assisted him to escape from it. All his life long he 

 sought that woman, to show his gratitude towards her ; 

 he did not discover her until some fourteen years after- 

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

 United States. 



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

 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 tliis exordium Toussaint commenced his appeal to 

 Napoleon Bonaparte. 



