Page:Haiti- Her History and Her Detractors.djvu/117

Rh The wealthy planters of Saint-Domingue once more held office; they were appointed judges; they secured good positions in the administration. Therefore they were all one in sympathy with Toussaint Louverture. And when, on November 25, 1800, he made his triumphal entrance into Cap-Français these men who, some years ago in their pride, had shown such contempt for the blacks and the mulattoes were again at his feet. A white woman compared him to Bonaparte and placed on his head a crown of laurel leaves. Toussaint Louverture acknowledged the compliment by kissing her. At the municipality he was called "Hercules," "Alexander the Great," etc. None of these flatteries could make him forget that Roume had defied him by cancelling the decree authorizing the occupation of the Spanish portion of Saint-Domingue. The day after his arrival at Cap-Français, on November 26, he ordered that the representative of France be relegated to Dondon until he should be recalled. General Moise was commissioned to carry out this order. At this juncture Toussaint began to feel uneasy concerning Bonaparte's attitude. Consequently he preferred to keep Roume at Saint-Domingue rather than send him to France. And in order to prevent the first Consul from being informed of the events which were taking place in the colony, he decided that in future he alone should sign the passports of those who wished to go abroad. Any persons who left the island without his permission forfeited their properties. With a view of increasing his resources, Toussaint Louverture repealed by an act of December 12, 1800, the taxes on the plantations which were hitherto payable in natural products of the soil, and ordered that all commodities and merchandise exported from or imported into the colony be subjected to a duty of 20 per cent. A tax of 20 per cent was also levied on the renting value of all houses, on the value of all articles for home consumption. Custom-houses were thus established.

However, at the request of the Consul-General of the