benevolence, some undertaking to save and not to destroy men's lives, the results would have been no less satisfactory than glorious indeed. The terror inspired by Rigaud's successes and ferocity drove the labourers from the fields into the forts; from the forts they were driven into the towns; when one town was taken, they escaped into another. Then they assembled together to concert and make attacks. Thus the country was a desert, the cities overflowed. While agriculture was at a standstill, provisions were often destroyed, and while no supplies came from the country, the dense masses aggregated in the towns experienced want. The want arose to famine in Jacmel, lying on the southern side of the tongue of land which forms the southern department. Jacmel, on the seashore, formed the key of the district. It was under the power of Rigaud, commanded by Birot. Resolved to capture the place, which was capable of affording an obstinate resistance, Toussaint himself sat down before it. With the utmost difficulty were the preparations for the siege made. Women and children were employed to convey ammunition. Bands, amounting to six thousand labourers, drew huge pieces of cannon along frightful precipices, and down roads the most rugged, broken, and dangerous. At length, the troops were collected, and Jacmel was invested, so far as the sea would permit. Soon the harbour also was blockaded. Then the terrors of famine began to be experienced. So intense and various were the sufferings, that the officers at length determined to capitulate. The determination was opposed by the soldiers, who declared resistance still possible. The commander, with two of his staff, embarked in the night and escaped to Cayes. His post was assumed by Gauthier. The siege was pressed with vigour. Post after post was taken. Meanwhile, Rigaud neither came up to aid, nor operated a diversion. Then Petion, apprized of the critical position of the town, determined to assume the perilous command, and, with three vessels and some provisions, succeeded in making his way into the port, under the discharges of firearms from the enemy's posts. Entering into the duties he had voluntarily undertaken, he employed all his ability in the defence. But an enemy was at work over whom he had no

power. The famine reached such a height, that the inhabitants were compelled to eat the horses belonging to the cavalry. Every green thing was torn up and devoured. Those thought themselves happy who, in their search for food, met with a rat or a lizard. In the public highways, famished men scarcely recognised each other. Frenzy and wailing filled every place. Mothers, worn down by want, fatigue, and woe, lay in the streets, with their dead infants on their exhausted breasts. At length Petion, seeing that further resistance was impossible, resolved to cut his way through the besiegers. In order to inspire his soldiers with his own courage, he tore the flags from the staffs, and commanded his men to bind strips of them round their bodies, so that if they perished, they might still be faithful to their colours. Jacmel fell, and its fall was a heavy blow to Rigaud. Having taken possession of Jacmel, Toussaint L'Ouverture addressed to the inhabitants of the southern department the following proclamation :—

“CITIZENS,

“By what fatality is it, that hitherto deaf to my voice, which invites you to order, you have listened only to the councils of Rigaud? How is it possible that the pride of a single person should be the source of your evils, and that to flatter his ambition, you are willing to destroy your families, ruin your property, and bring yourselves into disgrace in the eyes of the whole world.

"I repeat to you for the third and last time, that my quarrel is not with the citizens of the south, but solely with Rigaud, inasmuch as he is disobedient and insubordinate; whom I wish to bring back to his duties that he may submit to the authority of a chief whom he can no longer disown. You ought not to have supported in his misdeeds a proud soldier who evidently raised the standard of revolt. You ought to have left me free to act, since I had a right to reprimand and even to punish him. This Rigaud knew well, but, too haughty to bow before the organs of the law, he has employed every means to seduce you and to retain you as accomplices. Consult your conscience;

You know as well as I, projects, and all he has

put away all prejudices; you will then easily know that Rigaud has desired to drive into revolt all men of colour, in order to make them his partisans and co-operators. I need not remind you of the means he has taken for the purpose, and the resources he has employed to deceive you all. perhaps better than I, his destructive attempted to put them into execution; he pretended to command blacks and whites without being willing to be commanded by them. Yet the law is equal for all. Painful experience ought to have torn from your eyes the veil which hides the brink of the precipice. Give, then, close attention to what you are about to do, and the danger which you still run. Reflect on the perils and the calamities which threaten you, and hasten to prevent them. I am kind, I am humane, I open to you my fatherly arms. Come all of you, I will receive you all, no less those of the south than those of the west and of the north, who, gained over by Rigaud, have deserted your firesides, your wives, your children, to place yourselves at his side. And Rigaud himself, that ambitious man, if he had followed the advice which I gave him, to submit to his lawful superiors, would he not now be tranquil and peaceful in the bosom of his family? would he not be firm and untroubled in the command which was intrusted to him? But mastered by deadly passions, Rigaud has dug a gulf at your feet; he has laid snares which you could not avoid. He wished to have you as partisans in his revolt; and to succeed in his object, he has employed falsehood and seduction. If you carefully examine this artful but very impolitic conduct, you cannot but declare that Rigaud does not love his colour, and that he had rather sacrifice it to his pride and ambition than labour for its happiness by good example and wise councils. And in truth, citizens, the greater number of those whom he has misled, have perished either in battle or on the scaffold. Must not the others who persist in this revolt expect a similar fate, if they abjure not their culpable error? You may be well assured that if humanity did not direct the actions of a chief attached to his country as well as to his fellow-citizens, and more disposed to pardon than to punish, the calamity would be still greater; it

belongs to you to prevent its augmentation. In consequence, I invite you, citizens, to open your eyes and to give serious attention to the future. Reflect on the disasters which may ensue from longer obstinacy. Submit to lawful authority, if you wish to preserve the south untouched. Save your families and your property.

"But if, contrary to my expectation, you continue to support the revolt raised and propagated by Rigaud, in vain will you reckon on the fortifications he has constructed. The army of Toussaint L'Ouverture, led by generals whose bravery you know, will assail you, and you will be conquered. Then, not without grief, and in spite of my efforts, shall I see that you have been the unhappy victims of the pride and ambition of a single man. I will say more; desiring to put an end to the evils which have already too long afflicted this unfortunate colony, and wishing to prove to the French nation that I have done everything for the safety and happiness of my fellow-citizens, if Rigaud -though the author of these troubles-presents himself in good faith, and without stratagem, and acknowledges his fault, I will still receive him. But if Rigaud persists, and if he refuses to profit by my offer-do you, fathers, mothers, families-do you all come; I will receive you with open arms. The father of the prodigal son received his child after he had repented."

This merciful invitation was not without effect on the population of the south. Rigaud himself, however, had gone too far to return. He was committed to the rebellion, and felt both compelled and disposed to abide the result. In order to counteract the loss of Jacmel, and the appeal of Toussaint, he made extraordinary exertions to raise in mass the population under his sway. On his side, L'Ouverture prepared to prosecute his advantages, and terminate the disastrous war,

CHAPTER XIII.

Toussaint endeavours to suppress the slave-trade in Santo-Domingo, and thereby incurs the displeasure of Roume, the representative of France—he overcomes Rigaud-Bonaparte, now First Consul, sends Commissioners to the island -End of the war in the south.

BUT Toussaint L'Ouverture found troubles and hindrances in an unexpected quarter. During the fratricidal war which deluged the south with blood, the horrible traffic of the slave-trade was revived on the east of the island. This commerce, originated by Jean François and Biassou, continued after their disappearance from the political scene, and went on constantly increasing. Young blacks, stolen in the north, were conveyed to the City of Saint Domingo, where they were shipped for Porto Rico and Havannah-there to bear the yoke of slavery. Many of the old officers of Jean François pursued this as their only means of subsistence.

Aware that representations had in vain been made against these barbarities at the court of Madrid, and indignant that slavery, when nearly extinguished in its old form, should be revived in a new, and even worse one, Toussaint wrote (Dec. 25, 1800) from the walls of Jacmel to the agent Roume, urging him, as the only effectual means of putting a stop to the evil, to take possession of the Spanish part of the island, conformably to treaty. Under the pretext that it was necessary to await the arrival of some European troops, Roume postponed the execution of the request. Toussaint was too versed in polities not to be aware that the ostensible postponement was, in reality, a refusal. He also became aware that Roume's adviser was one who owed no good will to himself. That person, being invited to give an account of his conduct, emigrated to Porto Rico-justifying the suspicion