St. Domingo was confidered as the moft valuable island in the West Indies. It was discovered by Christopher Columbus, in the year 1492. It is near four hundred miles in length, and one hundred and forty in the broadeft part from north to fouth. The greatest part of this island lately belonged to the Spaniards, and is denominated Hifpaniola. The north-weftern extremity is but a few leagues from the eastern point of the island of Cuba, which is of nearly twice the length of St. Domingo, but was never of half the value. In the peace which the Spaniards made with the Directory of France, they ceded that part of the iland which belonged to his Catholic Majefty; but it was in a bad fate of Cultivation, and could have been of little or no use to France for centuries to come. It was however a fomething in name, and the ceffion of it appealed the refentment and flattered the pride of thofe who governed the new repub lic at that time. This ifland is nearly furrounded by craggy rocks and dangerous fhoals, though it has two good harbours. The town which gives name to the ifland is in that portion of it which was called Hifpaniola; but the new poffeffors of it call the whole by the antique name of Hayti. It is fituated between the tropics, extending from near fixteen to twenty degrees of north latitude, and from fifty-two to fifty-seven weft longitude, and lies between Jamaica to the weft, and Porto Rico to the east. St. Domingo, in common with all the other inlands lying between the two continents of America, is fubject to the two great calamities of deluging rains and destructive hurricanes, the effects of which, perfous who inhabit the milder climate of Europe can form no conception of. Our heaviest rains are but dews compared with the floods which fometimes defcend with incredible impetuofity in thofe regions. The zivers rife in a moment, overfwell their banks, open new channels, form lakes, and lay the low country under water for a confiderable time, The rains make the only diftinétion of feafons in this part of the globe, the verdure of the trees continuing all the year round: the inhabitants know nothing of froft and fnow, ice or cold; and it is but rarely that they have hail: when they have, it is violent, and the hailftones are very great and heavy. The climate of feveral of the Weft India islands is certainly more unhealthy than that of St. Domingo, but the fame quality of the air here dif pofes all kinds of metal to ruft and canker in a very short time. It is afcribed to a fulphureous acid predomi nating in the atmosphere, and this, added to the great heat to near the line, makes the climate of the Welt Indies deftructive to European conftitutions. It is generally in the month of August that the inhabitants are affaulted by dreadful hurricanes. Thefe visitations fometimes deftroy at one ftroke the labours of many years, and proftrate the ripe fruits, and exalted hopes of the planter, juft as he flatters himself all is out of danger. The violent forms of wind are attended with rain, thunder, and lightping, and farther accompanied with a tremendous fwelling of the fea, and fometimes with an awful earthquake. In the general havock occafioned by a conflict of the elements, the labourer fees whole fields of fugar-canes whirled into the air, and fcattered over the face of the country. Large trees are torn up by the roots, and driven before the wind; their strongest windmills are blown down; and their heavy utenuls, fuch as coppers, pans, &c. are battered to pieces; in thort, to complete the ruin and fometimes the deftruction of thefe unhappy people, as their houses are often unroofed, the rain pours in upon them, and, as it frequently rifes four or five feet in an hour, they are drowned in endeavouring to fave their property. The Aborigines have taught the planters how to prognofticate the approach of an hurricane, which comes on either in the quarters or at the full change of the moon, round which is feen a great bur, and fometimes the fun itself has the fame appearance. Thefe appearances, as well as the ftars feeming larger, we can account for by the altered ftate of the atmosphere; but it is not fo eafy to give a reaton for the fea emitting a ftrong finell, unlefs, by its riting into large waves, we may conclude there is a fub-marine earthquake. The antients were unac quainted with this Archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, but they confidered the islands as uninhabitable, from their po fition under a vertical fun; this lumina ry paffes over their heads towards the Borth, and never returns farther from any of them than thirty degrees to the fouth; confequently, they are fubject to fuch extreme heat as would inevitably destroy the human body, if the trade wind, rifing gradually as the fun gathers ftrength, did not blow in upon them from the fea, and refresh and cool the air: again; as the night approaches, a breeze begins to be felt, which is wafted fmartly from the land; and, fingular and unaccountable as it may appear, from the centre towards the fea, and to all points of the compals at once. By a feeming efpecial bounty of Providence, not leis remarkable, it so falls out, that, when the fun has made a great progrefs towards the tropic of Cancer, and becomes in a manner vertical, he attracts fuch a body of clouds as fields the fcorched labourer from his direct and ardent beams; which clouds diffolving in rain, cools the air, and moiftens the country, parched by the long drought which commonly endures from the beginning of January to the middle of May, or longer. Under all the difadvantages and perils which have been enumerated, the philofopher and the man of moderate delires would, with difficulty, believe that any temptation could be ftrong enough to entice the inhabitant of milder climes to become the refident of a fpot fo violently and often fuddenly affailed by turbulent elements, threatening general devaftation and death; but fo powerful is avarice, to overweening the defire of wealth, that there are perfons always ready to venture with their lives and the property they with to increase, in these burning regions. There are,owever, no parts of the earth (the Eaft Indies excepted) in which great fortunes are made or great eitates raised in fo fhort a time. The produce of a few good feafons generally provides against the ill effects of the wort, as the proprietor is fure of a fpeedy and profitable market for his produce, it having a readier and more regular fale than the commodities of any other quarter in the world. The allurements to the adventurer and merchant, therefore, outweigh the diadvantages and the hazards they are expofed to, and they willingly embark in an enterprize at once painful and dangerous, in the view of amaffing a great fortune, which is afterwards to be spent in luxury in the mother country. This has been the cafe with the English, the Spaniards, the Dutch,~ and the Danes, but particularly with the French, Many of the colonists of this latter nation (Americains as they call themselves) poffeffed princely for tunes, made wholly in St. Domingo They, or perhaps their parents, were merely overfeers, with wages of only five or fix hundred livres a year, i. e., from twenty to thirty pounds fterling. From that fituation, where they had the care of thirty or forty negroes, they rofe to be managers, with overfeers under them, having a falary of three thousand livres, or more; and from this they generally became tenants to the proprietors, and hence by frugality and industry acquired eltates themfelves, with the profits of which they would live in fo oftentatious and fplen did a manner, as could not fail to raise defires in bold and ardent imaginations to try the fame courte of fortune with all its inconveniences and dangers, Of thefe latter, that of infurrection among the negroes is the first in contie deration. As, in the bad government of ftates, it is always fome new or growing oppreffion that makes the fubJect hazard his life to free himself from it, aud punith his oppreffors; fo in thefe colonies the petty tyranny and felfith views of overfeers and managers, countenanced by the avaricious difpofition of the owners, have often driven the wretched negro to affociate with his fellow-fufferer, and to plot the de ftruction of the taikinafters. The funmary punishment of hanging them upon trees like dogs, when they have made an ineffectual attempt to gratify their vengeance and obtain their freedom, does not prevent others from giving way to the fame paffions of revenge. The fubfiftence of the negroes be longing to fome of the ftates mentioned is miferable in the extreme. A certain quantity, not over abundant, of Guinea or Indian corn, a falt herring, or perhaps a portion of rufty bacon or pork, each day, compofe the dict of thefe unhappy creatures. The clothing confifts of a cap, a coarfe fhirt, a pair of breeches, and a blanket; and this is all the expence the owner is put to, after the first purchase, in order to enjoy the profit of the endless labour of the flave; unlets, indeed, we charge fo the account the falary given to a furgeon or a doctor. Much is exe pended in this laft article in every part of the Weft Indies, as if bleedings, purgings, and alteratives, could be much wanted among creatures who live fo uniform a life, or as if recourfe to the healing art could counteract or retard the continual deftruction occafioned by hard toil and an unwholefome climate. The negroes of this ifland, more especially thofe belonging to the French, have in fome refpects poffeffed an advantage which thote belonging to other mafters have not.— They have had finall portions of land allotted to them, with a certain time, one day, for inftance, or two in a week, to cultivate it for their fubfiftence. This measure may, in a confiderable degree, have enabled them to raife the ftandard of revolt with more effect. In Jamaica, and fome of the other inlands, they are provifioned chiefly from flores; and thus from day to day, and from hand to mouth, their dependence is more fecured, and they are kept more tame and fubmiffive to their mafters. But bondage, under, whatever alleviating circunftances it may be inflicted, is nevertheless a bondage; and the flave, believing that his owner has no higher confideration for him than for a horte, mule, or other working animal, whofe labour he would obtain at the fmalleft poffible charge, has no room in his breaft for gratitude, and can bear no affection for fuch a mafter. All human nature is impatient under refiraint, but it revolts at ilavery, and is ever ready to feize the opportunity of freeing itfelf. No wonder, therefore, that the whites in the Weft India islands are kept in conftant terror of infurrections and plots, many families retaining twenty and thirty negroes as menial fervants, who are by far the moft dan gerous of the flaves, and, in cafe of infurrection, have it more in their power to firike a fudden and fatal blow. The French revolution proved a quick match to this combuftion, which muft, from its own nature, be ever in a condition to take fire. During the monarchy of France, the government of St. Domingo was one of the best and moft lucrative appointments in the gift of the crown. One of thefe governors, fo appointed, was the Marquis de Blancheland, who, with the rank of Lieutenant-General, had the government in chief of all the French flands in the Weft Indies. In about ten weeks after the decapitation of Lewis XVI, viz. on the 7th of April, 1793, he was guillotined on the Place de la Revolution, by a fentence of the Revolutionary Tribunal, for confpiracy against the Republic. For fom time before the death of the above-mentioned governor, the affairs of this once flourishing inland fell into vaft confufon; and all thofe who profeifed an attachment to royalty, and the antient order of things, incurred great peril. A few men of refilefs difpolition, and of ambitious deligns, by turns directed the predominat.ng ipirit of this populous colony. One among them, of confiderable talents and an undaunted fpirit, like many other prominent figures in the revolution, has ofton retired under a cloud, but, peculiar to his fate, bas re-appeared. More than once has he fallen, as it were, never to rife again; but, frange to behold, by thofe who had their eye on the def tiny or fortune of the chief republican characters of France, this man con trived to fhift the blame of an unfuc cefsful adminiftration on others' fhoul ders. In the precife moment, when the axe was about to fall on the neck of Santhonax, he was not only abfolved, but re-intiated in power as in danger. Thus, while every one confidered it as impoffible that either Santhonax or Polverel, the two first republican commiffioners, fhould efcape the fate of Briffot, their creator and patron, they both lived till their ma ters had mutually fealed the deathwarrant of cach other. Thus, after all the profcriptious of the above eventful period, which can be com pared to none but thofe of Marius and Sylla; one of the above turbulent fpirits (for Polverel died in St. Do mingo) full inhabits the carth, and, in the words of Macbeth, "lives a prof perous gentleman!"-But before we enter upon the political and civil ditfentions of this interefting portion of the French empire, it may not be difagreeable to the reader to learn in what manner it was firft colorifed, and became the property of France. The name St. Domingo is properly applicable to the chief city on the land, which, it has been before ob ferved, belongs to that portion of it lately ceded by the Spaniards, and was named after a Saint of pious and popular memory among the Spaniards.-St. Domingo is about three thoufand five hundred miles from the land's end of England, and its eastern point lies in 18° 20' north latitude, and in 68° 40' well longitude from Greenwich.-This establishment, like many others of the Spanith, was founded on rapacity, and cemented with blood! The first object of the Spanish adyenturers was to ranfack the bowels of the earth for filver and gold, in which purfuit they murdered more than a million of the peaceful and inoffenfive natives! As the mines became exhaufted, a few of the induftrious entered upon the cultivation of cacao, ginger, and fugar; but the majority of the adventurers emigrated upon the difcovery of new mines in Mexico, and left the foil of St. Domingo, deftitute of its proper owners, to be over-run by the animals with which they had stocked it. Thus does the tyranny of man Convert the fruitful habit tions of his fellow-creatures into a w. derness for bealis. Such crimes, fooner or later, bring their own punithmcat, as this d-d. The Spaniards quitting the inland, which did not fatiate their wicked thirit of gold and filver, gave occation to a defperate band of adventurers to refort to it. Thele were the famous Bacaneers; an affociation of men from all countries, and of all deferiptions; but of whom it may be faid, that, if felf-prefervation be a law of nature, the wars which they maintained for above half a century against their opprefiors were more juftitiable and legitimate in their origin than all thofe which the pride and ambition of mo narchs and nations have occafioned from the beginning of the world. The cruelty of the Spaniards compelled thefe men to unite, from a fenfe of common danger; and the blind policy of the faine nation, by ftocking a country of fuch extent as St. Domingo with cattle, afforded them food, and with the tkins they purchated arms, ammunition, and clothing, The condition of tacfe people had been rendered deplorable and defperate by the outrageous barbarity of the Spanish armament, which had expelled them from the ifund of St. Chriflophers. They were chiefly English and French planters; and, as they could not retift fuch a force, they had no alternative from laughter or flavery but flying away in open boats with their families, and poffeffing themselves of the unoccupied iland of Tortuga, lying within a few miles of the northern coalt of St. Do mingo. Here they were joined by a number of Dutch emigrants, whom the like avarice and cruelty of the Spaniards had driven to emigrate from Santa Cruz. Though compoled of different nations, yet, as companions in adversity, they were taught more than mutual forbearance, for they lived in harmony. Finding a country of immeafurable extent to near them abounding in cattle, they betook themselves to hunting, which occupation fupplied them with food, and left them no time for diffentions. Tortuga, however, continued their place of retreat, where their women and young people cultivated fmall plantations of tobacco, the finoaking of which in hot and moift climates is fo much, and, perhaps, fo beneficially practifed. The covetoufnefs of the Spaniard would not allow thefe miferable fugitives any comfort or confolation: an armament was collected to effect their utter extermination. Tyranny has no forelight, or it ought to have known that the neceffity and the defire of hunting would have kept thefe poor creatures for ever quiet and harmless. But the Spanth commander watched the opportunity when the ableft of the men had reforted to the larger inland in their ufual purfuit, made captives of the women and children, the old and the infirm, and malfacred them all!! This bigotted nation prefumed to appropriate every country of America to itself, and claimed the fole right of failing on any part of the man ocean as, in their judgement, conftituted a portion of the new hemifphere. The Bucaniers were therefore compelled to turn upon their implacable puriuers, and wage offenfive war on thofe who were bent upon their deftruction. Hoftility cannot be defended on better ground. The r mode of life inuring them to the climate, and being animated by all the motives and paffions which can inflame the buman mind to great exertions, they became the molt formida ble antagonists which the Spaniards had ever encountered, and difplayed fuch des ds of valouras have never been equalled before or fince. From a party of thefe adventurers (chiefly natives of Normandy) the French colony of St. Domingo originated. It is probable that antong them might be found men who had been forced from Europe by indigent circumftances and defperate fortunes ; or, perhaps, the confcioufnefs of crimes which might have fubjected them to imprisonment and punishment, if they hd fayed at home. The exceffes of this affociation have been branded with infamy, from the facts published about a hundred years ago in a narrative called The Hiftory of the Bucaniers. The original, however, from which fo many authors have largely quoted, as of unquestionable authority, was written in Dutch by John Efquemeling, who confeties that he had been a Bucanier, and was expelled their fociety, The English edition was taken from a Spanish tranflation, and that exposes it to full ftronger fufpicion. The Pere Charlevoix has written a full account of the progrefive purfuits of thefe people, and the maintaining their footing till the French government accepted their fubmiffion, and obtained a formal and final ceffion of the western part of St. Domingo by the peace of Ryfwick. which were divided only by hedges of citrons and limes. This fpot is fuppofed to yield greater returns than any other of the fame extent in the habitable globe. The town of Cape St. Nicholas is fituated at the foot of a high bluff, called the Mole; and, having been a free port, was a place of confiderable trade, efpecially with the Americans. Its barbour is fafe and extenfive, and is justly called the Key of the Windward Paffage; the fortifications towards the fea being accounted the ftrongest in the Weft Indies. Thefe poffeffions were divided into three great departments, called the northern, the western, and the fouthern provinces. The firit of thele extends along the fea-coaft about one hundred and twenty miles, from the river Matfaife to Cape St. Nicholas, and contained twenty-five parishes, including Tortuga. Its population, taken the fame month the Baftille was thrown down in Paris, confifted of 11,996 white inhabitants of all ages, and 164,656 negro flaves. The number of fugar plantations was 288, of which 258 made what is called clayed or foft white fugar, and 30 mufcovado or new fugar. It had 2009 plantations of coffee, 66 of cotton, 443 of indigo, and 215 fmaller establishments, fuch as provifion-polinks, cacao groves, tan pits, potteries, brick-kilns, &c. The chief towns and harbours in this province are Cape François, Fort Dauphin, Port Paix, and Cape St. Nicholas. The firft of thefe was the feat of government in time of war, and for beauty and regularity might have deferved to be ranked in the fecond clafs of European cities. It contained two magnificent (quares, ornamented each with a public fountain. This town grew into opulence chiefly from the commodioufnefs of its barbour, and the extreme fertility of the plain to the eatt, a diftrict of fifty miles long and twelve broad, appropriated to the cultivation of fugar, the plantations of The western province commences at Cape St. Nicholas, and extends along the line of coast which forms the bight of Leogane for upwards of three hundred miles, and terminates at Cape Tiburon. It contained five chief towns, viz, Port au Prince, St. Marc, Leogane, Petit Goave, and Jeremie. The only good harbours in this province are Port au Prince and Gonaive. All the other thipping places are open roads, fometimes much expofed. The former of these towns was confidered as the metropolis of the colony, except in time of war, when the governorgeneral always removed to Cape Fran cois. This town was defiroyed by a fatal earthquake on the Sd of June, 1770, and was never after fully rebuilt. In 1789 it coutained 600 houfes, and 2754 white inhabitants. The free people of colour were estimated at 4000, and the negro flaves at 8000. Its fituation is low and marthy, and con fequently very unhealthy. The fouthern province extends up, wards of one hundred and eighty miles from Cape Tiburon along the fouthern coaft of the inland to L'Ance à Pitre. It has two chief towns, Aux Cayes and Jacmel. There is no fafe harbour in this province, and its roads are dangerous, The fhips that freight at Aux Cayes take refuge, during the hurri cane feafon, at La Bay des Flamands, The whole colony is fubdivided into fifty-one parifhes, of which the fouthern province contains ten, and the weftern fourteen; confequently, the northern contains more than both. Before the revolution, the colony every where exhibited profperity. Cultivation proceeded rapidly. The towns abounded in warehoufes, and were filled with the richest commodities and productions of Europe. In 1787, there were freighted 470. thips, containing |