004 HISPANIOLA, 
de Paix. The fort of l’Acul, hi the vicinity of Leogane, 
was carried on the 19th of February; and the town of 
Port au Prince lurrendered on the 4th of June. But from 
this period tlieBritifli power in Hifpaniola declined; the 
yellow fever broke out among the troops; forty officers, 
and 600 rank and rile, fell victims to its ravages within 
two faonths after the furrender of the garrifon. 
In the mean time the French commiffioners, Santhonax and 
Pol Verel,returned to France; while Rigaud, a mulatto, and 
the negro .chief Touflaint FOuverture, who headed the army 
of the blacks, re-captured Tiburon, Leogane, Jean Rabel, 
Petite Riviere, and retained the whole of the northern pro¬ 
vince, except the Mole, and Fort Dauphin. A reinforce¬ 
ment of 7000 Britifh troops arrived at the Mole of St. Ni¬ 
cholas in May 1796; but a dreadful mortality impeded 
the progrefs of the Britifh arms. The armed negroes com¬ 
menced operations in every quarter round the capital; and, 
at the very time when general Simcoe arrived at St. Do¬ 
mingo to recover' the Britifh character, Ton (Taint received 
the fanflion of the chief command which he had a (Turned, 
by being appointed generaliffimo of the armies in Hifpa¬ 
niola by the French government; who thus re'folved to 
fupplant the Englifli, by pretending to give up the ifland 
to the natives and blacks. General Simcoe, in confe- 
quence, returned to England in Auguft 1797; and gene¬ 
ral Maitland, who arrived at Port au Prince in April 1798, 
withdrew the j-emainder of the Engliffi forces, and eva¬ 
cuated the ifland. 
At this time the force of Touffiaint l’Ouverture, in the 
northern province, amounted to about 40,000 men; but 
In the year 1800 it had increafed to more than double 
that number. He declared the independence of Hifpa- 
siioia, and was proclaimed emperor, on the firft of July 
i8oi. But in the month of December, the fame year, an 
expedition (ailed from France with a force of 20,000 men, 
commanded by general le Clerc, brother-in-law to Bona¬ 
parte, then nrll conful. They arrived in the bay of Sama¬ 
ria, on the eaftern coaft of the ifland, on the 28th of the 
fame month; but, before they entered Cape Frangois, the 
city was laid in allies. On the 17th of February 1802, le 
Clerc commenced his campaign, and fought with varied 
fuccefs until the firft of May, when hoftilities ceafed with 
generals Touflaint and Chriitophe, in confequence of an 
aflfurance that the French would concede to them their 
rights and liberties. But, during this treacherous truce, 
the unfortunate Touffiaint was feized in his plantation, 
and conveyed a prifoner on-board a French veffel, with 
his wife and children. He lingered in a dungeon at Pa¬ 
ris tiil the month of April 1803, when it is generally lup- 
pofed lie was fecretly murdered. 
This celebrated, negro chief, according to his' biogra¬ 
pher Marcus Rainsford, elq. in his “ Account of the Black 
Empire of Hayti,” publiflied in 1806, left a character be¬ 
hind him highly eftimable, whether we regard it for its 
moral tendency, its magnanimity in time of peril and 
danger, or its amiable complacency in domeftic life. “ In 
perfon, (fays Mr. Rainsford,) Touflaint was of a manly 
form, above the middle ftature; with a countenance bold 
and ftriking, yet full of the mod prepoffeffing (uavity—ter¬ 
rible to an enemy, but inviting to the objefts of his 
friendfliip or his love. His manners and his deportment 
were elegant when occafion required, but eafy and fami¬ 
liar in common ; when an inferior addreffed him, lie bent 
with the molt obliging affiduity, and adapted himfelf pre- 
cifeiy, without feeming condefcenfion, to their peculiar 
circumftances. He received in public a general and vo¬ 
luntary refpeft, which he was anxious to return, or ra¬ 
ther to prevent, by the molt pleating civilities. His uni¬ 
form was a kind of bluejacket, with a large red cape fall¬ 
ing over the (boulders ; red cuffs, with eight rows of lace 
on the arms, and a pair of large gold epaulettes thrown 
back; fcarlet waiftcoat and pantaloons, with half-boots; 
round hat, with a red feather, and a national cockade; 
thefe, with an extreme large (word, formed his equip¬ 
ment. He was an aftoniftiing horfeman, and travelled 
•with, inconceivable rapidity.” 
The perfidy of the French conful, in thus violating the 
truce, and putting to death the very “chief with whom he 
juft before affected to form an alliance, only ferved to 
roufe the blacks to a more vigorous oppofition; and ge¬ 
neral Deflalines, who fucceeded to the command of the 
black army, foon began to carry every thing before him, 
notwithftanding that the French had recourfe to the fa- 
vage cruelty of hunting down and deftroying the negroes 
with blood-hounds trained for the purpofe! 
By the middle of Oftober 1802, Fort Dauphin, Port de 
Paix, and feveral other important pofts, were completely 
loft to the French ; and their general in chief, Viflor Ema¬ 
nuel le Clerc, died in the night of the firft of November. 
His fucceffor, Roc.hambeau, continued the war with no 
better fortune until the beginning of 1803, when another 
treacherous ceffation of arms gave place to frefh cruelties. 
During this armiftice, the blacks under Deflalines took 
care to provide great reinforcements; and on its expira¬ 
tion they drove the French in every direftion ; and, on 
the 30th of November 1803, forced them to furrender, 
and evacuate the ifland. To avoid being funk with red- 
hot (hot in the harbour, the French put themfelves under 
the prote&ion of an Englifli fquadron, then cruizing be¬ 
fore the Cape, which conveyed them prifoners to Jamaica.. 
General Rochambeau was fent to England. 
The independence ot Hifpaniola was now again pro¬ 
claimed on the 29th of November 1S03 ; and, to oblite¬ 
rate every remembrance of their former flavery, the chiefs, 
who had thus effected the freedom of the ifland, reftored 
to it, on the firft of January 1804, its original name of 
Hayti: In the beginning of May, general Deflalines was 
inverted with the government of the ifland for life; and 
on the 8th of September he affumed the title of emperor 
of Hayti, by the name of Jaques the Firft. His reign, 
however, was of fliort duration. He fell in a confpiracy, 
in the year 1806, and republican principles revived at his 
death, under the command of the black general Chrifto- 
phe, who, inftead of the title of emperor, affumed that of 
“ prefident of the federal government of Hayti.” Againft 
him one Petion, a Frenchman, revolted ; and a predatory 
war has been carried on between their partifans, with va¬ 
rious fucceis, ever fince ; but without fuftering either the 
French or the Englifli to take advantage of their quarrels, 
or to deftroy the independence of the ifland, which to 
this day continues to trade with the Englifli and the 
Americans. 
Of the viciflitudes which have attended this celebrated 
ifland, the mod remarkable account is given by Mr. Ca- 
pel Lofft, in his Introduction to Rickman’s “ Ode on the 
Emancipation of the Blacks of St. Domingo.” He dates, 
that when Hifpaniola - was firft difeovered by Columbus, 
its inhabitants were computed at a million. It will hardly 
he believed that bigotry, avarice, and the rage of con- 
queft, had reduced them, in fifteen years, to little more 
than a 16th part of that number, or 60,000. In 1788, 
the population was eftimated at 21,808 free people of co¬ 
lour, and 405,528 (laves, with 27,717 white inhabitants : 
making in the whole 49,525 free : the proportion of (laves 
to freemen being about 8| to 1 ; and the total population 
4-55)°53- So that, with continued importation of (laves 
from Africa, with fome acceflion to numbers by emi¬ 
grations from Europe, and with all the advantages of a 
molt favourable air and foil, and a molt fertile climate, 
near three centuries had not half repaired the deftruftion 
produced in about the feventh part of one century. Such 
are the demons of war, rapacity, religious intolerance, 
and the domination arrogated upon the difference of co¬ 
lour by man over his brother man. And fuch the fate of 
an ifland which has nearly half the furface of Great Bri¬ 
tain, lince it contains above 36,000 fquare miles ; and 
which, left to its natural aptitude for increafe of popula¬ 
tion, would probably, in three centuries, have rifen to 
much more than half the population of Great Britain it- 
lelf.” 
Of the natural advantages of this ifland, we cannot 
give a ftronger or more pleafing picture, than by conT 
1 r eluding 
