-au-Prince
and Cap Francais were the pride of the West Indies; and the rocky
fortress, Mole St. Nicholas, dominated those waters as Gibraltar
dominates the Eastern Mediterranean. The population of Hayti was
reckoned at 40,000 whites, 60,000 mulattoes or half-castes, and some
500,000 negro slaves. Its exports (chiefly sugar, coffee, and cotton)
were assessed at upwards of L7,500,000, or more by one third than that
of all the British West Indies. To some extent Jamaica flourished on its
ruin. For in May 1796 an official report stated that two
coffee-planters, refugees from Hayti, who had settled in the mountains
behind Port Royal, were introducing so many improvements as to bring the
exports of coffee up to 6,000,000 lb.; and they would soon amount to
50,000,000 lb.[371]

The colonists of Hayti, who offered this valuable prize to Great
Britain, were far from being unprincipled adventurers. Malouet, on whom
fell the chief responsibility, was an upright and able man; and both he
and his comrades were deputed by representative Assemblies which sought
to save society from sinking into a gulf of unutterable horrors. His
letters to Pitt[372] are instinct with the conviction that the men of
Hayti unanimously desired a British protectorate, and recognized that
the colonists must pay for the support accorded to them. As we were
framing an alliance with Spain, no difficulties were to be anticipated
from the Spanish part of that island. When five or six valuable islands
were to be had, to all appearance with little risk except from the
slaves, Ministers would have been craven in the extreme not to push on
an enterprise which promised to benefit British commerce and cripple
that of France.

Unfortunately, owing to the drain of the Flemish campaign, their action
was tardy. The schisms between Royalists and Republicans at the city of
Cap Francais enabled the negroes to burst in at midsummer of 1793 with
fire and knife and glut their vengeance on some thousands of persons.
Even after these atrocities the Jacobin commissioners continued to make
use of the blacks in order to enforce their levelling decree; and the
year ended amid long drawn out scenes of murder, rape, and pillage. By
these infamous means did democracy win its triumph in the West Indies.

In their despair the French loyalists applied for further aid to
Major-General Williamson, the governor of Jamaica. He sent a force which
received a hearty welcome at the little fortre