Page:The History of Slavery and the Slave Trade.djvu/279

 population to arras. The people came out of their houses, accosted and questioned each other, and catching courage from the effect of numbers, their former fear was soon changed to an inspiriting cry for vengeance, which, in their determined infatuation, was principally directed against the mulattoes. These were accused of having instigated the blacks to revolt, and on them it was thought immediate and summary vengeance should fall. In the delirium of the moment, a few of that unfortunate race expiated with their lives the suspicion of their being accomplices with the rebels in the plain. To stop this wicked injustice of murdering the innocent for the crimes of the guilty, the provincial assembly hastened to assign places of refuge for this proscribed caste, who ran thither to put themselves under the protection of the military. They demanded arms, especially the mulatto planters, and expressed an eagerness to march against the common enemy; and such was the blindness of creole prejudice that even the assembly hesitated at first to accept their offer.

The insurrection spread like a stream of electricity, and within four days one-third part of the plain of Cape Francois was but a heap of ashes. Many members of the new colonial assembly, in their journey from Leogane to the Cape, were surprised and killed by the rebels, and a detachment of troops was found necessary to guard the route of the president, secretaries and archives of this body. M. Tousard was dispatched against the rebels with a detachment of troops of the line and national guards, together with some grenadiers and chasseurs of the regiment of the Cape; but nothing, without the courage and veteran skill of this able officer, could have kept the troops in an imposing attitude in such fearful circumstances. On every side, and in every direction, they were beset by swarms of the rebels, who seemed to despise danger and defy the utmost that could be done against them. An order from the governor general, however, recalled the forces of M. Tousard in haste to Cape François, where, from the advance of the negroes on that town, the consternation was heart-rending. The place was now entirely surrounded with blazing plantations, and even the hideous outcries could be heard of those fiends, who were every where triumphant in their march of desolation and massacre. The advance guard established on the plantation Bongars, had been affrighted from its defense of that post, and thus the two most beautiful quarters of the colony, those of Morin and Limonade, were given to the torches of the rebels. They even advanced to the Haut de Cap, and the cannon brought to play upon their huddled masses was scarcely sufficient to check them in their headlong march. The return of Tousard upon their rear dispersed them, but by his retreat they were left in undisputed possession of the country. They immediately extended their ravages-from the sea-shore to the mountains, and when nothing more was left for them to destroy, their headlong tumultuousness began to give place in their leisure to a regular organization and a more systematic warfare. Their continuance in the field, notwithstanding the vast amount of plunder to tempt them from their course, and the celerity and skilfulness of their movements,