was, at his own request, permitted to retire to his estate of Ennery. There he is said to have beheld, with an envious eye, the prosperity of the colony, under the wise and temperate government of Le Clerc; whether he intended to be faithful to the new order of things, or whatever doubts Toussaint might have entertained, his determination was formed by the impolicy of Bonaparte, who had let the word "slavery"* escape his lips. His untimely war with England blasted all his hopes of regaining St. Domingo, and once more deluged the soil in the blood of the innocent victims of his selfish policy. In the month of June, the yellow fever, more rapid in its approaches, and more fatal in its effects, than the plague of Africa, swept off the troops by thousands. Le Clerc, either suspecting Toussaint, or having certain information of his having secretly excited the blacks to take advantage of the fatal epidemic, seized his person, and sent him to France, where he ended his days under suspicious circumstances. Just at this moment some vessels arrived from Guadaloupe and Martinique, and gave the negroes the certain information that slavery was again to be established. These events brought about the third great crisis of the miserable St. Domingo, whose sorrows were all imported from the mother-country, her unnatural parent. In 1791, the Convention excited them to rebellion;

* "In Martinique, slavery continues and will continue.”Thebadeau.

in 1801, Bonaparte roused them to arms against his invading army; and, in less than two years after, the arrest and disappearance of their favourite chief, and the renewal of slavery, completed the last sad catastrophe, and drove the ill-fated people to a great and decisive rebellion; when the negroes, aided by the British navy, finally expelled the French from the island, to which, in all probability, they never will return as settlers, until the present generation shall be swept away.

The month of October saw at once the fatal ravages of the fever, the insurrection of the blacks, and the death of the unfortunate Le Clerc, who fell a victim to the climate. He was succeeded by Rochambeau, the senior general.

While these scenes were passing in St. Domingo, Guadaloupe was in the same state of anarchy, produced by the same causes. An insurrection, headed by a man of colour, named Pelage, had dispossessed the governor, Admiral La Crosse, of his situation, and obliged him to quit the island. A squadron of three sail of the line, and four frigates, under the orders of Admiral Bouvet, sailed from Brest, in April, 1802, for Guadaloupe; they had three thousand troops on board, and eight pieces of artillery: the land forces were under the command of General Richepanse, who had distinguished himself at the battle of Hohenlinden: he arrived in May, and had to act over again the same tragedy which, in 1794, had ended with the death of General Dundas, and his brave associates. It

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must be confessed, that in the suppression of this rebellion, as well as that of St. Domingo, nothing could exceed, in point of valour and discipline, the conduct of the French generals and their armies. In Guadaloupe, the negroes being driven from one part to another, three hundred of them took refuge in a house called Anglemont, set fire to their powder, and blew themselves into the air. General Richepanse, and his men, astonished and horrorstruck for an instant, took advantage of the explosion, pushed on, charged the rebels, and completed their overthrow; and Guadaloupe was once more reduced to obedience and to slavery. The same malady which attacked the Generals Dundas and Le Clerc proved fatal also to Richepanse, immediately after his victory; he died on the 3rd of September, 1802, after having restored Admiral La Crosse to his government. Thus Guadaloupe was regained, but St. Domingo retained its liberty.

Bonaparte made sensible, when too late, of the folly, if not of the cruelty, of his enterprise, had too much pride to acknowledge his error, and still persisted in his attempts, though a war with England prevented the necessary reinforcements from reaching the island. Nine thousand troops were all that remained, besides a national guard, consisting of the white inhabitants, and some faithful blacks and mulattoes; but these last were speedily driven again to rebellion, by the impolicy of Rochambeau and his associate General Darbois, who having arrested one of them named Bardet, caused him

to be drowned, and a few nights after some more of his gallant associates, on some slight suspicion, met the same fate. Bardet had been one of the most faithful adherents of the French, and his death drove all of his colour to join with the negroes, and a new and terrible insurrection broke out. They penetrated to Aux Cayes, and murdered all the whites that fell into their hands. Christophe and Dessalines instantly marched to attack the Cape; took Fort Belair, on the 17th of February, and put the garrison to the sword; but by the exertions of Rochambeau they were beaten and put to flight, and the fort retaken. The arms which the negroes left behind them were found to be English; hence the Count de Dumas infers that they had been recently landed from a British frigate. Nothing could be more improbable, though we will not deny that a British merchant-vessel may have sold them to the blacks; it is however equally probable that they had been left by our army in 1794.

In the month of April, 1803, another squadron arrived from France, under the orders of Rear-admiral Bedout, bringing two thousand more troops; but these were nearly destroyed by the enemy as soon as they landed, and almost without firing a shot.

The Count de Dumas, from whom we copy the greater part of this narrative, insists that the British government afforded protection and sent supplies to the blacks, previously to the declaration of war.

This, we think, has been refuted before, and we shall not attempt it again. The French lost the island by the folly of their government, and wished to impute it to the treachery of ours. racy of the negroes against French commerce,' says the historian," was encouraged by the English."

The pi

This desperate state of affairs was not improved by the arrival of the Indefatigable, French frigate, with orders to the Commander-in-chief to evacuate Port-au-Prince, and unite his forces at Cape François. The report of war with England brought by the same vessel, spread a deep consternation among the planters, who saw with terror the bonfires of the negroes on the mountains, and heard their shouts and yells of joy at the approaching fate of their victims. The certainty of their misfortune was established on the 18th of June, when the British squadron commenced the blockade of Port-au-Prince and Les Cayes. The forces under the command of Sir John Duckworth at this time, consisted of the following ships: