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 “Noé,” 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. henceforth 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 17938. 
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. 
