Towards the end of the 18th century the racial position in Hai was triangular and intense, The white planters (Frenchmen for the most part) were oppressive, the negro slaves resentful of that o pression, and the numerous half-castes jealous and suspicious of the other {wo main groups. To live in Haiti then was to be sitting on a barrel of gunpowder, and, in due course, the fuse was fired by the outbreak of the French Revolution, The Revolution brought freedom to the people of France, but it did not at once bring freedom to the ne-grees of Haiti. One night in August, 1793, the leaders of the black men met in the forest to plan rebel-Vion:—
Thunder muttered down 10 rain Sudden bers of the
Appeared in the midst of the crowded he tenne dant nexete open space. A long knife givamed wet in her upraised: rig! uked body was owls. she hex movements of a dance regulated by rome unheard rhythm within herself. Ie'was a rhythm recoxntaable to all "one "of the secret, unforgotten things of Africa treasured. through the yeara of slavery. She 2404 a some of rhy:'and woods and "now fends' to help er hurt, to be won by course, to be appended with blood. Ae"her' taice™ rene. toa screaming, foam, a tusked boat ran headlong, Hinded "ud confused, into the clear: ing. With a movement so sudden the staring eyes around could scarcely Aiscern ly the priestess flashed her knife down. 'The bone, with a squeal, lashed open, from. throat to groin, ied over dead. Inn. bow) tted quickly: to her the woman caught tieed, With appreps handed It rou men. Each dean andy "ouched the blood, swore iby the name of Tapalol, the' ena fi Yer to the cause of of Africa, that he would give hia later, announced by the rolling of 200 hidden drams, the rebellion of the negroes broke out in all its horror.
There is no space here to follow the fluctuating fortunes of the struggle, which continued for the next 30' years, Now the negroes prevailed. then the expedition sent by Nupeleon, then the negroes. (It ver that prevailed the end over the French expedition.) The greatest of all the negro leaders was Toussaint L/Ouverture, coachman and mighty who was tricked by the French under kidnapped, and sent to France to die in prison near Portarlier, He was followed, "the African slave. ss++ ferocious, unlettered" who himself crowned: Jean Jacques Premier—First Emperor of Haiti, fell into dissolute habits, and wag murdered in the end by mulattoes, And then came Tenn Christophe, the hero of Mr. Vandercook's story black slave boy stable ham, waits er, sergeant in Toussaint's army, and finally the leader and Emperor of his people.
Statesman and'Soldier Henvi was more than barbarian, Emperor at last—he was crowned with barbaric pomp in 1811—he set or ously about programme of con= structive administration. From rope he imported teachers and traders. He eve ated a currency system by declaring every green gourd in northern Haiti the property of the State, collected the crop, and put on each gourd the value of 20 sous. "To this day the standard coin of Haiti called the gourd." He made a commercial treaty with England, "He organized his army to © high point of efficiency. OG the same time he established hima self and his family in pomp and Duilt himself palaces in which the vital of high Court life was rigid ly observed.
'There was in his black heart that' weakness or glitter and, as time proved, the old barbaric streak of cruelty. He became megalomaniag and fearful, and he built himself a mighty fortress on a high hill—fas if instinct told him that he would one day stand at ba nce Christenke, standing on the walls of the Citadel, looked! (rough, Hin telescope and. raw more than nite avery in valley. far he tow him, iyinge sount asleep BY the door of his' mud-walled. rattage The King knew the man. idling during the work: His tipe drew. ick from. is Teeth ina snort of tot gallery where the Due Ihronze cannon were vanced hind their fttie windows inthe wally The soring captain, obedient. bye trembling, took abu. shire "Che tothe the "Labour Grngsing onthe ropes that, turned these obey can eaeriage. ready loaded." Henri Tit the fne and ihe mornin quiet was absttered with i ait tupesby fimaohed him and! Nie" mud) Wot" eaten bull, nupesbiy alm
ether.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.