Page:Haiti- Her History and Her Detractors.djvu/43



By recognizing the French conquest the treaty of Riswick rid the colonists of Saint-Domingue of their anxieties arising from the vicinity of the Spaniards. The latter even became their allies, the war for the succession of the throne of Spain having just confounded the interests of Louis XIV with those of the heir of Charles II. The eighteenth century began under the happiest auspices; quiet once established, Saint-Domingue was not long in astonishing the world by its prosperity. The ardent tropical heat, however, soon exhausted the vigor of the hired Europeans known as "engagés," whose position resembled that of serfs. The cultivation of sugar-cane and of indigo required hardier constitutions. In consequence the Africans were in favor. Nobody hesitated to participate in the slave-trade. As many as 30,000 blacks were annually imported. In the beginning their position, pitiable as it seemed, was less hard to bear. The first colonists, unsociable and haughty, had however very simple tastes. Their wants up to that time were not numerous and were easily satisfied. In the colony there was a scarcity of white women, and those who had arrived about the beginning of the French occupancy could not be