4.2 AUDUBON, THE NATURALIST 
to New Orleans, whence he subsequently went to 
France. Investigation of existing records has proved 
that these statements are not in accord with the facts, 
but before entering into further personal details it will 
be well to examine those conditions on the island of 
Santo Domingo which led many into easy fortune only 
to involve them later in a ruin as complete and irre- 
trievable as it was unforeseen and unnecessary. 
For nearly a hundred years the western half of Santo 
Domingo had been held by France, and to every out- 
ward appearance it had enjoyed such unbounded and 
steadily increasing prosperity that it was regarded with 
envy on every side; in fine, it seemed to be one of the 
richest and most desirable colonies in the whole world. 
Historians, said an observer of a later day,” were “never 
weary of enumerating the amount of its products, the 
great trade, the warehouses full of sugar, cotton, coffee, 
indigo and cocoa; its plains covered with splendid 
estates, its hillsides dotted with noble houses; a white 
population, rich, refined, enjoying life as only a luxuri- 
ous colonial society can enjoy it.” Few could then see 
the foul blot beneath so fair a surface, or realize that 
what had been bought by the misery and blood of a 
prostrate race would demand an equivalent, and that a 
settlement might be forced. 
Negroes had been imported into Santo Domingo 
from the African coasts in incredible numbers, first by 
Spain after she had succeeded in exterminating the in- 
offensive native Caribs, and later by France. One hun- 
dred thousand blacks of all ages were entering the col- 
onies each year, and to secure this number of bossals, — 
as the native Africans were called, involved the death 
°See Sir Spencer St. John, Hayti, or the Black Republic, 2d ed. (New 
York, 1889), 
