194 



A VISIT TO THE EMPEROR OF HAITI. 



drive you to the most sanguinary measures, without in the 

 least troubling themselves about the opinion that will be 

 entertained of you beyond this island.' These last words 

 made the greatest impression on the mind of Soulouque, 

 and the hand of the conqueror, ready to strike the con- 

 quered, was arrested by this appeal to the tribunal of civil- 

 ized nations. Soulouque for the last two years was princi- 

 pally occupied in re-conquering the Spanish part of the 

 island, erected into the Dominican Republic, when, to the 

 surprise of the European press, he was proclaimed Emperor. 

 People have generally agreed in saying that he did not 

 solicit this advancement ; and, at any rate, he did not yoke 

 himself a plagiarist of an idea which has always been 

 attributed to another President. 



" The name of Emperor expresses nothing Napoleon-like 

 at Haiti ; it supposes only an authority better respected 

 than that of President, and recalls to the Haitians the 

 popular recollection of Dessalines, who, in reward to the 

 services rendered to his country, had been proclaimed Em- 

 peror. The following is, in few terms, the way in which 

 the change in the form of government was brought 

 about : — A certain number of military and civil citizens 

 addressed, on the 20th of August, 1849, a petition to the 

 Chamber of Representatives, demanding that the title of 

 Emperor should be conferred on his excellency the Presi- 

 dent Soulouque. General Vil Luban, commandant of the 

 garrison of Port-au-Prince, expressed the same wish, as 

 well as the principal officers present in the capital. On the 

 25th, the Chamber took cognizance of the petition, ap- 

 proved, it, and transmitted it on the same day to the Sen- 



