ii6 THE BRAZILS. 
wall, when tliey find it necessary to call in the aid of slaves to- 
support the cause of slavery ; but drowning men will catch at 
, straws. 
It has frequently been contended that the mind of the 
negro is neither as susceptible nor as retentive of im- 
pressions as that of Europeans ; and that we ought not, 
therefore, to measure their feelings by our own. The validity 
of such an opinion may very fairly be called in question, and 
the point considered as yet undecided whether, among the 
different varieties of the human species, Avhere organization is 
equally perfect and circumstances similar, the mental faculties 
in each of them may not be capable of exerting an equal de- 
gree of energy ? The sudden emancipation of near half a 
million in St. Domingo forms a new eera in the history of man, 
Avhich, in the course of a few 3'ears, will throw more light on 
the true character of the blacks than as many centuries have 
hitherto done. The enormities committed by Dessalines are 
not to be considered as a criterion by which that character is 
to be estimated. If that Black power which, after suffering 
every horrid calamity that perfidy and brutality could inflict, 
wrested at length one of the most fertile countries in tiie 
world out of the hands of its inhuman oppressors, and broke 
the chains of Gallic tyranny, should have been able to com- 
mand its temper and act with moderation, which, had the ' 
virtuous Toussaint escape^l the fangs of Buonaparte, would 
probably have been the case ; — if, in tiie progress of its glo- 
rious struggle for liberty, it should have been fortunate enough 
to avoid those horrors which stained the French subversion, 
(T will not call it by the respectable name of revolution,) 
