I 
THE BRAZILS. ii*. 
how much superior would they have risen in wisdom and hu- 
manity to their late masters, whom they have certainly not ex- 
ceeded either in atrocity or in folly ! Such a conduct, ho^vever, 
could hardly be expected. The first burst of enthusiasm, 
from chains and dark ignorance to the all-cheering ray of 
liberty, is a trying moment ; it is a change pregnant with in- 
finite danger. The civilized French have no excuse for the 
many horrid enormities committed by them in the most 
wanton and unprovoked manner. The savage blacks, not 
insensible of the horrors which have attended their emancipa- 
tion, proclaim to all the world the reasons which compelled 
them to acts of cruelty. " If," says Dcssalines, " any inno- 
" cent persons have perished, their blood will fall on his 
" (Buonaparte's) head ; because, had his barbarous brother- 
" in-law, Le Clerc, never landed in this island, all the white 
" inhabitants would yet have been alive, 60,000 black 
*' citizens few^er murdered, and 30,000 of his armed slaves 
*' would not have breathed their last in this climate. It was 
" his avarice, ambition, atrocity, mid treachery, tliat aroused 
" our greatly oppressed and injured children, and separated 
" us for ever from the mother country." 
The new character, which the ])]acks have lately assumed 
in St. Domingo, cannot fail of being contemplated with a 
lively interest by their brethren in the '\Yest India islands, 
and of greatly influencing their future conduct. What the 
event of it may turn out is at present beyond all human cal- 
culation. The danger, however, v/liich threatens to disturb 
the peace of our colonies is not less certain, whether they as- 
