200] ANNUAL REGISTER, 1814. 



by the body of French represen- 

 tatives, to consider the dictates of 

 policy on this subject, confidently 

 expressed an opinion, that these 

 chiefs would with eagerness re- 

 cognize the sovereignty of Louis 

 XVIII. and submit to his will, 

 events have hitherto entirely con- 

 tradicted this expectation. An 

 extract of a dispatch from the mi- 

 nister secretary of state for foreign 

 affairs to Christophe, now entitling 

 himself Henry king of Hayti, ad- 

 dressed to M. Peltier, London, 

 and dated June 10th, the 1 1th year 

 of independence, was published in 

 September, giving an account of 

 the feelings of his sovereign on 

 being informed of the fall of Buo- 

 naparte, and of the preparations 

 he had been making for the de- 

 fence of his kingdom. In this 

 paper a declaration is made of the 

 king of Hayti^s readiness to re- 

 ceive French merchant ships in his 

 ports, upon the same footing as 

 those of other nations ; but it is 

 clearly specified, that he means to 

 treat with France only as one in- 

 dependent power with another. A 

 private letter from Port au Prince, 

 the seat of Petion's powier, dated 

 August 1st, mentions the deter- 

 mination of that leader also to sub- 

 mit to every extremity rather than 

 yield to an invader. 



It might have been previously 

 mentioned, that the King of 

 Hayti commenced the year with a 

 Fete of independence, in which 

 all the pomp and circumstance 

 that could attend a festival cele- 

 brated by the greatest monarch in 

 the world was closely imitated, 

 and a royal speech was pro- 

 "ttounced, in a style exhibiting a 

 curious mixture of oriental infla- 

 lion, and French gasconade. The 



titles of his nobility and officers 

 of state, and the etiquette of his 

 court, were all copied from Euro- 

 pean examples; and the whole 

 afforded a kind of burlesque of 

 royalty, which might induce a 

 suspicion, that the business would 

 terminate rather in farce than tra- 

 gedy, were not desperate resolu- 

 tion compatible with ostentatious 

 levity in half-savage characters. 



On Aug. 15th, there was pub- 

 lished in the Royal Gazette of 

 Hayti, an address to the people, 

 stating the circumstances in which 

 the country was placed by the de- 

 position of Buonaparte. It pro- 

 fessed a willingness to negociate a 

 treaty of commerce with the king 

 of France, but in the most eiier- 

 getic terms called upon the Hay« 

 tians to make every exertion 

 in defence of their liberty and 

 independence, were arms em- 

 ployed against them. One of its 

 paragraphs was asfollows: "Should 

 certain colonists, our implacable 

 enemies, still persist in their chi- 

 merical projects, and succeed in 

 prevailing upon the actual go- 

 vernment of France to carry on 

 war against us, let them place 

 themselves at the head of the in- 

 vaders: they shall be the first 

 victims of our vengeance! We 

 shall give no quarter — we shall 

 take no prisoners: we desire to be 

 treated in the same way ourselves, 

 and the war must become a war 

 of extermination." On October 

 2nd, was published a manifesto of 

 King Henry, giving a detailed 

 narrative of the events which had 

 produced and accompanied the 

 independence of Hayti, and ex- 

 pressing a firm resolution to main- 

 tain it. This piece was evidently 

 the composition of a practised i»en. 



