Page:The rising son, or, The antecedents and advancement of the colored race (IA risingsonthe00browrich).pdf/221

 CHAPTER XIX.

PEACE IN HAYTI, AND DEATH OF PETION.

Christophe had now discovered the too palpable truth, that so far from his possessing the means to drive his rival from the government of the South, all his cares and precautions were requisite to maintain the sovereignty over his own subjects of the North. A train of perpetual suspicions kept his jealousy ever alive, and vexed by the tortures of eternal solicitude, his despotic temper grew by the cruelty which had become its aliment. Together with this perpetual inquietude for the safety of his power, which made the new throne of Hayti a pillow of thorns and torture, other considerations had their influence to arrest the hostilities between the two chiefs of the country. The giant power of Napoleon had now extended itself over almost all the thrones of Europe, and with such an infinity of means at his disposal, it was yearly expected that another armament, proportioned to the overgrown power of the French Emperor, would be sent to crush the insurgents of St. Domingo, and restore that island once more to the possession of its ancient colonists.