Encyclopaedia Britannica > Volume 8, DIA-England

ST DOMINGO.
105
Do- At length they approached the town of Port-au-Prince
ingo- with the intention of setting it on fire; and it was with
great difficulty that a treaty was concluded by which the
place was saved from destruction. This treaty was ratified
by the colonial assembly, which also announced its inten¬
tion of granting an extension of privileges to the free peo¬
ple of colour. But in the mean time the national assembly
at home, under an impression of the ruinous consequences
of their rash concessions to the people of colour, had voted
a repeal of the law which gave them the same privileges
as the whites ; and the intelligence of this repeal reached
the colonies at the time when the colonial assembly was
holding out the expectation of general equality and free¬
dom. The mulattoes, therefore, when they heard that
the national assembly had repealed their former conciliat¬
ing act in their favour, imagining that the offer of the
whites was an act of concerted treachery to deceive them
into a false security, knew no bounds to their indignation.
All thoughts of peace were now abandoned; and the ge¬
neral sentiment was that the contest could only be ter¬
minated by the final extermination of one or other of the
hostile parties. The war assumed a diabolical character
of cruelty, each studying to outdo the other in acts of re¬
venge. On both sides all prisoners were either massacred
without mercy, or reserved for the more solemn barbarity
of a public execution.
The national assembly at home, alarmed by the intelli¬
gence of these disorders, sent out three civil commission¬
ers, with full powers to settle all disputes. But their au¬
thority soon fell into disrepute. Other commissioners
were sent, and along with them 8000 troops. Unlike their
predecessors, however, they adopted the most arbitrary
measures ; and about the beginning of the year 1793 they
became absolute masters of the colony. But their severi¬
ties at last provoked resistance to their authority; and
having displaced the governor Galbaud, an officer of ar¬
tillery, and ordered him to France, he, along with his
brother, collected about 1200 seamen, with whom they
landed, and being joined by other volunteers, attacked the
government house, where the commissioners were post¬
ed with their force. A fierce and bloody conflict now
took place, which terminated without any decisive advan¬
tage on either side, and next day the fighting was con¬
tinued in the streets of the town with various success. In
the beginning of these disorders, the commissioners had
sought to strengthen their party by the aid of the revolt¬
ed blacks; and a body of these auxiliaries, amounting to
3000, now entered the place, which immediately became
a horrid and revolting scene of conflagration and slaugh¬
ter. Men, women, and children, were massacred by these
barbarians without distinction. The white inhabitants,
flying to the sea for protection, were met by a body of
armed mulattoes, by whom they were put to the sword
without mercy; the half of the town was consumed by
the flames ; and the commissioners, themselves affrighted
at these disorders, escaped to the sea-shore, whence, under
cover of a ship of the line, they viewed with dismay the
wide-spreading mischief.
Ever since the commencement of these unhappy disor¬
ders, the wdiite inhabitants had emigrated in great num¬
bers to the neighbouring islands, and to the United States
of America; and some of the principal inhabitants having
repaired to Britain, induced the British government, by
their representations, to prepare an armament with a body
of troops to co-operate with such of the inhabitants as
were desirous of placing themselves under its protection.
At this period, according to the accurate information of
Edwards, the military force of St Domingo consisted of
from 14,000 to 15,000 effective troops, and 25,000 free
negroes, mulattoes, and slaves. About 100,000 blacks
VOL. VIII.
had retired to the mountains to enjoy a savage indepen- St Do-
dence, and in the northern districts 40,000 slaves still mingo.
continued in arms. It was in these circumstances that
the island was taken possession of in September 1793 by
a British force. But though the expedition gained some
partial advantages, the climate soon began to make the
most dreadful havock amongst the troops, and prevented
them from achieving any solid success. Toussaint 1’Ou-
verture, who was appointed general in chief of the black
armies of St Domingo in 1797, proved himself an able and
an indefatigable enemy; and at length the British were
obliged to evacuate the country in the year 1798. On
the 1st of July 1801 the independence of St Domingo was
formally proclaimed.
But the war in Europe between Great Britain and
France being by this time concluded by the peace of
Amiens, Bonaparte, now chief consul of France, sent out
an armament consisting of twenty-six ships of the line, and
25,000 troops, under the command of General Leclerc,
his brother-in-law, for the purpose of reducing the revolted
colony of St Domingo. To enter into the details of the
barbarous and bloody war now begun against the unfortu¬
nate inhabitants of St Domingo would not be consistent
with our limits, nor would such a narrative, we are persuad¬
ed, be interesting to our readers. It will be sufficient to ob¬
serve, that the numbers and discipline of the force now land¬
ed, joined to the skill of its leaders, overpowered all open
resistance in the field; so that the blacks, after several ob¬
stinate conflicts, and after burning some of the principal
towns, were finally compelled to retire into the inaccessible
mountains of the interior, whence they carried on, under
their undaunted leader Toussaint, a desultory war against
detached parties of their enemies. Elated by this success,
Leclerc now threw off the mask, and rashly issued an edict
proclaiming the former slavery of the blacks. Toussaint was
not slow to profit by this error. Having effected a junc¬
tion with Christophe, who had still 300 troops under him,
and being joined by the cultivators in great numbers, who
were no longer deaf to his call, he poured with this col¬
lected host like a torrent over the plain ; and having every¬
where forced the French posts, and driven before him
their detached corps, he surrounded the town, to relieve
which the French general was compelled to hasten to the
spot by forced marches with all the troops he could col¬
lect. Here he had recourse to his former arts, and he
was but too successful in cajoling the negro chiefs, wearied
of war, into a suspension of arms. Having watched his
opportunity, he privately seized on Toussaint with his fa¬
mily, and embarked him on board of a frigate for France,
where, being thrown into prison, he expired in April 1803.
~ This act of cruel treachery spread universal alarm among
the black chiefs; and Dessalines, Christophe, and Cler-
veaux soon appeared at the head of considerable bodies of
black troops. This last contest for the possession of St
Domingo was distinguished by a degree of barbarity which
surpasses belief. The whites and the blacks seemed to
vie with each other in deeds of cruelty and revenge. Re¬
taliation was the plea still used to sanction every enormi¬
ty, under which an arrear of vengeance was at length ac¬
cumulated on both sides, which nothing short of the utter
extermination of one of the parties could thoroughly satis¬
fy. The French, however, it was clear, were now gradually
losing ground. About the year 1803 they were confined
within their fortifications by the vigorous movements of
the black armies; and though reinforcements were receiv¬
ed from France, the French general was forced to enter
into a capitulation with Dessalines, by which he agreed in
1803 to evacuate the whole island. On the 30th Novem¬
ber of that year, the standard of the blacks was hoisted in
Cape Francois; and the French troops, amounting to 8000,