ted States numbered less
than five and a half million souls, and the waters of the Mississippi
rolled in unsullied majesty past a few petty Spanish stations--the
plantations of the West Indies seemed the unfailing mine of colonial
industry and commerce. Under the _ancien regime_, the trade of the
French portion of San Domingo is reported to have represented more
than half of her oceanic commerce. But during the Revolution the
prosperity of that colony reeled under a terrible blow.

The hasty proclamation of equality between whites and blacks by the
French revolutionists, and the refusal of the planters to recognize
that decree as binding, led to a terrible servile revolt, which
desolated the whole of the colony. Those merciless strifes had,
however, somewhat abated under the organizing power of a man, in whom
the black race seemed to have vindicated its claims to political
capacity. Toussaint l'Ouverture had come to the front by sheer
sagacity and force of character. By a deft mixture of force and
clemency, he imposed order on the vapouring crowds of negroes: he
restored the French part of the island to comparative order and
prosperity; and with an army of 20,000 men he occupied the Spanish
portion. In this, as in other matters, he appeared to act as the
mandatory of France; but he looked to the time when France, beset by
European wars, would tacitly acknowledge his independence. In May,
1801, he made a constitution for the island, and declared himself
governor for life, with power to appoint his successor. This mimicry
of the consular office, and the open vaunt that he was the "Bonaparte
of the Antilles," incensed Bonaparte; and the haste with which, on
the day after the Preliminaries of London, he prepared to overthrow
this contemptible rival, tells its own tale.

Yet Corsican hatred was tempered with Corsican guile. Toussaint had
requested that the Haytians should be under the protection of their
former mistress. Protection was the last thing that Bonaparte desired;
but he deemed it politic to flatter the black chieftain with
assurances of his personal esteem and gratitude for the "great
services which you have rendered to the French people. If its flag
floats over St. Domingo it is due to you and your brave blacks"--a
reference to Toussaint's successful resistance to English attempts at
landing. There were, it is true, some points in the new Haytian
constitution which contravened the sovereign rights of France, bu