Page:The rising son, or, The antecedents and advancement of the colored race (IA risingsonthe00browrich).pdf/192

 were saved from death, it was due to the mercy of the inferior blacks, who dared not to avoid their generosity. Dessalines made a progress through all the towns where there were any French citizens remaining, and while his soldiers were murdering the unfortunate victims of his ferocity, the monster gloated with secret complacency over the scene of carnage, like some malignant fiend glorying in the pangs of misery suffered by those who had fallen a sacrifice to his wickedness.

The massacre was executed with an attention to order, which proves how minutely it had been prepared. All proper precautions were taken, that no other whites than the French should be included in the proscription. In the town of Cape François, where the massacre took place, on the night of the 20th of April, the precaution was first taken of sending detachments of soldiers to the houses of the American and English merchants, with strict orders to permit no person, not even the black generals, to enter them, without the permission of the master of the house, who had been previously informed of all that was about to happen. This command was obeyed so punctually, that one of these privileged individuals had the good fortune to preserve the lives of a number of Frenchmen whom he had concealed in his house, and who remained in their asylum until the guilty tragedy was over.

The priests, surgeons, and some necessary artisans were preserved from destruction, consisting in all, of one-tenth of the French residents. All the rest were massacred without regard to age or sex. The personal security enjoyed by the foreign whites was no safe-*guard to the horror inspired in them by the scenes of misery which were being enacted without. At every