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"what will my ministers, functionaries, and Medina remained with Christophe. Here officers say to it? they will oppose it with at Cape Town he had the mortification to all their might." They must be won be present while the court sung Te Deum over to acquiesce," replied Montorsier, in public worship, to hear the substance of calmly. his instructions, and the contents of the letHe had scarcely uttered the words, when ter which he had brought, as well as the Christophe rose up, crying aloud, "Here, answer of the national assembly, proclaimofficers! you are to be robbed of your liber-ed at the termination of mass to the troops, ty: I am requested to prevail on you to and beheld himself alone and surrounded break your oath." by the negro army, the object of their fiercest execrations. He soon after disappeared altogether, and was probably assassinated in the confinement to which, we would state, he was doomed when the seizure of his papers afforded evidence that one of the objects of his mission was to foment disturbances. His two companions returned to France.

The officers, in attendance, rushed at once into the room at the voice of the king. Montorsier, awakened from his dream, saw the error he had committed; he trembled from head to foot, turned pale, and stood silent and in the greatest confusion. The officers were for throwing him from the balcony into the street; but Christophe said, "No, let him go quietly; enough that his manœuvres are discovered." Montorsier went; but fell a sacrifice soon after to his too ready compliance with the monarch's wishes.

In conformity with this prelude, and on the 21st of October, 1814, a general council being met, Christophe thus addressed

them from the throne.

"Haytians, we have assembled you, and convoked a general council of the nation, in order to lay before you the papers transmitted through General Dauxion Lavaysse from the French cabinet. Haytians, determine with prudence and consideration as becomes men. Decide on points affecting the interests of the nation you represent, as well as your own prospects as those of your fellow citizens."

So soon as the letter from Dauxion La vaysse had been read by Count Limonade, the assembly unanimously declared them selves ready to perish amongst the ruins of their houses rather than return under the yoke of France and so strong was this feeling in the nation, that, according to Vastey,

We must briefly add, that the French government, no way discouraged by this violence, renewed more than once afterwards its efforts at negotiation, both with Petion and Christophe; and after the death of these two chiefs, with the president Boyer.

No sooner was Petion dead (1818) than Christophe issued a proclamation to induce the South Province to accept himself as their ruler---but in vain. Boyer succeeded Petion, and thus matters stood when our author arrived in the island.

Christophe falling ill in 1820, and being confined to his bed for several weeks, the discontent which his severity and tyranny had excited came to a head. A conspiracy was formed under the auspices of the Duke of Marmalade, governor of Cape Town, and the Prince de Limbé, minister of war.

On the 6th October, says our author, a confused rumour arose about midnight of a revolution at St. Marks. No one knew the details: uneasiness and terror reigned during the following day on every face, for all felt that some catastrophe was at hand, and the whites dreaded a general massacre of themselves. They assembled, and decided on embarking at once on board the "the moment the proceedings were made ships, and slipping anchor and putting to public, the whole people hastened to the sea during the night. They attempted infield. They vowed each to deliver his stantly to put their resolve in execution, but own cabin to the flames so soon as the found to their alarm that guards were posted French should set foot upon the soil. every where along the shore by the goverSome snatched their sabres, some prepa-nor's orders. The intended fugitives conred their muskets, others took up the knap- sequently returned in the greatest constersack. The women were equally resolute, nation to their homes, barricaded the doors, and even the children, actuated by the common feeling, bundled their little pro and, arming themselves as they best could, perty and toys together, and pointed with awaited their doom. their fingers to the mountains as the last refuge from slavery."

Draverman had proceeded in the mean time to the South Province, Dauxion Lavaysse to Petion at Port-au-Prince, while

"About nightfall the alarm increased in the streets; at eleven the trumpets and drums sounded to arms: the clash of weapons, the fearful cries of the negroes; the clattering of cavalry through the streets, and the volumes of fire which

arose from Christophe's residence and plantation to the skies, added fresh terrors to their situation. This state of things lasted till morning.

"Early in the morning, a numerous body of negro troops, headed by an officer, drew up before the house in which we were. The officer handed to M. Hoffman (agent of the Baron von Dietrich) a written order from the governor to give up to their officer what fire-arms, &c. he possessed, and to send also the sum of 1000 Spanish dollars to the governor."

It seems that the Austrian vessel had a cargo of arms and amunition on board, and the money was divided amongst the military.

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Laxavon was bayoneted by the soldiers.
Baron Vastey, the historian of Hayti, was
also murdered.
His body was
thrown into an empty well, where I myself
saw it. * * The corpse of Christo-
phe was interred at Citadelle Henri.”

We believe, however, that Prevost, whom M. Ritter's omits, remained, like Dupuy, with his unfortunate master to the last, and helped to carry him to his quick-lime grave before the rebellious soldiery could arrive to maltreat the body. Sans Souci was given up to plunder, and this whole portion of the island became the prey of anarchy and violence.

"Everywhere was heard the cry 'Liberté! égalité The unfettered negro plundered Any remonstrance under the circum-to his heart's content under this watchstances would have been equally hazard-word; these wild swarms cared for no ous and unavailing; the will of the gover-On the other hand the whites could now laws, all for them was free and privileged.

nor was law. The amount of this exac

tion was subsequently balanced in coffee. travel without passports wherever they "Christophe learned early in the morn- pleased, and without any pledges for their ing at Sans-Souci the events of the pre-security. During this period many ridicuceding evening. He made every effort, lous scenes occurred. Here might be seen and tried every expedient to put down the a half-naked negro with a splendid goldinsurrection. On hearing that the whites laced hat and feather on his head; there had supplied weapons to the insurgents, another, without a shoe on his dirty feet, he issued orders to the governor that they decked out in the full uniform of an officer should be all put to death, but Marmalade, of rank, &c." whose connivance in the rebellion was unknown to him, put us in security. ChrisSuch was the state of affairs till the pretophe placed his guard, of whom there sidency of this part of the island was also were about 1000 at Sans-Souci, under assumed by Boyer. The present president arms, and made them take again the oath is mild and amiable in manners, and rules of fidelity; but as his illness prevented with gentleness. He is a mulatto, and was him from taking the command, he appoint- formerly secretary to Petion on his return ed the Duke of Fort-Royal instead; the from France. He commanded the army crown-prince and other generals accom- of the South Province in the war between panied him. "Meantime the rebels were at Haut-du- the latter and Christophe, as we have alreaCap erecting batteries; the guard advan- dy seen; he is short and spare, and of simced against them, but their attack was fee-ple habits; greatly beloved by the people, ble and some even cried Vive l'indépend- and deservedly so for the excellence of his ance!-vive le Général Richard! They administration. The nobility under his rule then placed white hankerchiefs on their are simply officers on the staff, and have bayonets, and went over to their brethren. Their leaders alone returned in great af- resigned their former titles of princes, dukes, fliction to Sans-Souci to apprise Christo.. &c. The common people are contented phe of the event. His friends and follow-and happy; relieved of the heavy burdens ers now all quitted him, with the exception imposed on them by the tyranny of Chrisof the Baron Dupuy. Christophe said to tophe and his predecessor, "each lives in him, 'Save yourself, my time is expired;' his own house, and cultivates his own land; and, repairing to his bed, ended his life or else—and this is far more often the casewith a pistol. lets it alone altogether."

"On the day of his death, his wives, the Before the French Revolution of 1789, crown-prince, the two princesses, and the whole family, were brought on horseback the population of Hayti, according to some, to the Cape Town amidst the shouts of amounted to 570,000, of whom 40,000 were the populace, the ringing of bells, and the whites, 30,000 free blacks and colored, and thunder of cannon. The females were 500,000 slaves. La Croix states the whole confined in their rooms, but the males of present number at 501,000, of which the the party were thrown into prison. On Republic contained 261,000, and Christothe 9th October Victor Henri, Christophe's

son, was found murdered. He wept bit-phe's portion 240,000 souls (reckoning terly when assassinated. The Duke of 1000 whites, 20,000 coloured, and 480,000 Fort-Royal cried out to the last, Vive blacks); but M. Ritter considers these numHenri Christophe roi d'Hayti.' Duke bers too high; that Christophe's portion

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thus elected.

does not comprise more than 160,000, inclu- [ take place in the church, but his partisans ding the military (15,000 men,) and that who repaired thither were courteously asthe coloured race are also overrated, they sisted to traverse the building to the oppohaving greatly diminished under negro su- site door, for their exit, being entirely repremacy. The males of this part he com-lieved from the labor of giving their putes at but 30,000, there being from 5 to 6 votes. The government candidate was women in every house. The general population of the island since the Union, as he affirms, by later calculation is found to consist of 700,000 souls; this is probably correct, as a medium, but we believe there is great reason to doubt the accuracy of every existing statement on the subject, as they differ from 360,000 to 1,000,000, and there seem to be no means of verifying by census. The military force amounts now by the best accounts to somewhere about 30,000 effective troops, bold, hardy, and fairly trained to arms; the fleet consists, as we learn from the same source, of but a few sloops or schooners, though there are an admiral, a vice-admiral, and captains, lieutenants, &c. in due proportion.

The natural productions of Hayti, and particularly its Flora, are extremely rich; of the latter M. Ritter goes into details, for which we must refer the reader to the volume itself. The plates are slight, and of little value as works of art; but they are from the drawings of a native, and give faithful representations of the scenery.

We may add here a few particulars from other authentic sources than M. Ritter's volume.

The English nation, it appears, is favourably regarded by the Haytians, and indeed looked upon both in the light of a natural ally and a commercial friend; but all European and other nations whatever are prohibited from proprietorship of land there, the 38th article of the Constitution of 1816 expressly excluding aucun blanc, quelle que soit sa nation, from putting foot in the Haytian territory, à titre de maitre ou de propriétaire. A native Albino, we presuine, would be equally excluded; but it seems that all Haytian citizens are to be called blacks, even though some of them are whites.

We add a whimsical illustration of the working of the Ballot system and Universal Suffrage, from a land where they are to be found flourishing in all their glory.

Criminals, idiots, and domestics, are the only persons who cannot give a vote, but it appears that there is a mode of nullifying, or rendering nugatory, this privilege where it is possessed. Some emigrants from America, which supplies Hayti with a reasonable proportion of citizens yearly, wished to elect a Methodist preacher as one of the representatives. The elections

If any thing, however, could give additional strength to the certainty felt in Europe of the purity of ballot votes, it would be, we presume, the fact, that the first government candidate was elected by a majority so satisfactory as to have five more votes than there were voters present; and the phenomenon had the merit of recurrence on a larger scale, the second candidate proposed in the government interest outnumbering his own voters by twenty votes.

We are happy, however, to record the progressive improvement of the natives on various points, since the time that M. Ritter visited them, and even since Mr. Mackenzie. The revolting licentiousness of Christophe and Dessaline had corrupted the inferior classes by the open profligacy of the court; the police was indifferent, education was at a low ebb, the post was signally imperfect, the roads and bridges few, and in the worst possible condition, the press idle, and the newspapers latterly abolished. All this has, by degrees, been ameliorated, though there is far from any approach to perfection at the present day. The free coloured race, too, that had been held by the French absolutely as public property, in spite of their freedom, and in consequence subjected to compulsory service in the militia and militia-police, prevented from bearing the names of their white parents, excluded from the public service and liberal professions, even as apothecaries and schoolmasters, and obliged to pay a tax for repairs of roads, have now assumed a fair station in society, and led the way to much improvement. The historians of the country have sprung from this class, and history is the basis of national elevation.

The position of Hayti is perfectly novel in political history, but its advancement in civilization may not impossibly be retarded by the result and even progress of the negociations now pending with France. On these we must bestow a few words, premising, however, that the tranquillity latterly enjoyed by Hayti is still far from having developed to any extent the sources of her domestic prosperity; and that an utter impossibility of meeting the demands of the mother country may, if these are insisted on, as they seem likely to be, produce a crisis in the island. Notwithstanding their

terror of commotions so deeply recorded in blood in their short but sanguinary annals, the name of France is far from endeared to the Haytians, and their indignation at the terms of the treaty acknowledging their independence is embittered by the recollection of the troubles incurred in achieving it. It is not a little remarkable that the French and Dutch, the one so courteous and urbane, the other so cautious and phlegmatic at home, should so entirely change their national characteristics in their colonies, and run into extremes of so dark and fatal a tendency.

The expedition now preparing under Admiral Mackau for Hayti, and which is reported to take out MM. Maler and Des Cases, as negociators for the payment of the French claims of indemnity which they themselves had arranged with the government of 1820, can scarcely be attended with success if it urge the acquittance to the full amount of so many millions of francs. A very large deduction and a considerable extension of time may enable the Haytians to liquidate a part, but we venture to predict that neither the national resources nor the national feeling will allow the execution of terms so onerous as those proposed by their still hated former masters. Beyond the mischief of coast attacks, the islanders have little to fear; their own obstinate courage, the heat of their climate, and the formidable array of diseases, varying with every month, are the sure safeguards of Hayti from European aggression.

We must here close our notice of this interesting volume, which will probably soon make its appearance in English. Since the authority of Boyer was established over the island, improvement of course has not failed to accompany political emancipation. The black, recovering from his degradation, begins to feel the value of personal independence; cultivation and commerce are making rapid strides, and Hayti promises fairly for civilization; but though the blacks of the other islands may regard its freedom with anticipations of assistance, it must be long before Hayti can pretend to render them any serious aid. At present this is impracticable, and we ourselves know with certainty that the applications secretly made on this head have been entirely discountenanced as hopeless and impossible by the enlightened President.

ART. V-Sanchuniathonis Historiarum
Phanicia libros novem, Grace versos a
Philone Byblio, edidit Latinaque ver-
sione donavit, F. Wagenfeld.
(The
Nine Books of Sanchoniatho's History
of Phoenicia, translated into Greek by
Philo-Byblius; revised and accompanied
with a Latin version by F. Wagenfeld)
Bremæ, 1837.

OUR readers will recollect that, in our 37th
Number, we noticed, with severest censure,
an absurd farrago of ignorant puerilities,
put forth by one Frederick Wagenfeld, of
Bremen, who was, "like Cerberus, three
gentlemen at once," and brought forth his
authentic volume without an authentication,
save the auspicious omen of a hundred ali-
ases, of name, place, &c. Strongly as such
a mode of proceeding might claim our con-
fidence, we were not at the time, disposed
to give it all the credit which the ingenious
discoverer of lost histories demanded for
his bantling. We even asked, as did the
Arab sceptics of Mahommed, a few more
miracles to confirm those already offered to
us. The sequel proves we were not whol-
ly unreasonable, for, En, iterum Crispinus!
the complete work of Sanchoniatho is pre-
sented to our eyes, and affords, not precise-
ly in truth the line of marvels that we had
recommended, but others equally numerous,
impossible, and satisfactory.
What can a
single critic, whose only weapon is his pen,
perform against a host, a joint-stock compa-
uy of Historical Spectres; a partnership
of Ghosts and Men, with wands, jugglers,
snakes, swords, and other things to be swal-
lowed; of Entities and Non-entities, who,
under the firm of Sanchoniatho, Philo-Byb-
lius, Wilde-Wagenfeld, and Company (of
how many we know not,) commence busi-
ness as booksellers of the nineteenth cen-
tury, in some possibly Preadamite Row, and
take out a patent for reviving History her-
self, after the most approved principles of
the Humane Society? With such an array
against us, we must yield of course; recant
conviction, deny proof, abjure reason, and
be satisfied for the rest of our lives to dem-
onstrate falsehood, and feel grateful for those
bland obscurations which so agreeably re-
lieve our aching eyes from the inconveni-
ent radiance of truth. Let us hope that
the present volume is only the precursor of
others similar; that, from their extant frag-
ments, Berosus, Abydenus, Alexander Po-
lyhistor, Manetho, Lysimachus, Hecatæus,
Hanno, and so many other writers whose
loss we deplore, may be completed, restor-
ed, and referred to their proper classes, by
the plastic labours of this German historical

Cuvier; and that, together with the lost | ers of his former statements: to show that portions of Polybius, Tacitus, Herodotus, Germany was not Portugal, nor Bremen Ammianus, &c. &c., a band of heroic sisters may rise, like the resusticated nuns at the will of Robert the Devil, to dance upon the theatre of antiquity in honor of Mr. Frederick Wagenfeld. Or if only the irretrievable and most apocryphal of such works demand the care of the publishing committee aforesaid, we may trust to see the supposed originals of the Mosaic narrative, the possible book in which Job wished his words to be written, the memoranda from which Isaac is imagined to have written that poem, and the letters(?) which Bel lerophon bore from Prætus to Jobates. If, however, it is Egypto-Phoenician narrative alone that we may expect, the books of Thoth and the thirty-six thousand volumes of the Hermesians will satisfy us for the present.

the Convent of Santa Maria Merinhao; nor his native post-office a foreign messenger; nor a modern water-marked paper an ancient roll, (like that of Ezekiel, somewhat bitter of digestion ;) nor Quirl and Son of Osnaburgh still living paper-manufacturers, but extant in the sixth century; nor his own self-contradictions mutual corroborations; nor he himself, instead of a tangible man, a kind of quintiform essence, resolving, as occasion required it, into Sanchoniatho; Philo-Byblius: Joannes Perreiro, Eques; F. Wilde; and Frederick Wagenfeld. It is possible, however, that this multifarious unity suspected the world might arrive at such a conclusion without his assistance. Assuredly he has given none, for thus runs the preface of F. Wagenfeld, of Bremen:

"Last year, when I edited some extracts from the Commentaries on Phonihis native tongue, and rendered by Philo cian History, written by Sanchoniatho in into Greek, some learned men, after proving the authenticity of the original, announced, both in private and public, that the text was the ancient writer's, true and authentic."

We confess we read the German opinions that were published very opposite to this; but of course a native's interpretation

should be more accurate than ours.

He

This reported discovery of the original manuscript of Sanchoniatho naturally created great excitement in the literary world; and the interval suffered to elapse between that discovery and the publication of the volume before us has added, what was probably wished, something of interest to the promised novelty, but not exactly in the shape most calculated to ensure success; for though a high name in German Scholarship ushered the reputed abridgement of the work before the public, yet doubts were every where expressed, and scepticism, as we formerly stated, was rife as to the au- then proceeds to state that the professor we thenticity of the production. The German have alluded to, (and whose name, since his papers devoted to literature avowed their son has made the due amende to the public, disbelief of the story of discovery; those of we need not re-print, though our hero France treated it with contempt; in Eng- makes no delicacy about it,) greatly assistland the tale was scarcely noticed, and an ed him in explaining the more unintelligiEnglishman it was who ascertained the ble, and substantiating the incredible, porfact, that the convent in Portugal reputed tion,-no trifling task, we opine, as the to have preserved the volume, had no exis- matter stands, and deserving not less gratetence whatever. In addition, as we noticed ful mention than certain other assistance to our readers, the son of the professor who from the same quarter, which M. Wagenhad aided the publication itself, gave, al-feld has omitted altogether to refer to. From most contemporarily with its appearance, a the celebrity and talents of his coadjutor, series of letters and documents, including M. Wagenfeld conceives the facts arrayed the judgment of several eminent German scholars, disproving the pretended circumstances, and discrediting the book with the public. The complete work has now appeared however, and, we are bound to say, in a form, and under circumstances, that carry their own conviction. Our readers shall judge for themselves.

against himself to be of no consequence; and sagely, therefore, dispenses with the labour of refuting them, "lest he might seem to waste his oil and his ink!" (ne oleum et operain perdidisse videar;) a conclusion with which we cordially agree.

We are gratified, however, to find that the shade of the departed historian is not insensible to the remonstrances of friendly criticism.

With a knowledge of German and English, extremely praiseworthy in a Phother language existed, Sanchoniatho has nician defunct so many centuries before ei

It was certainly incumbent on M. Wagenfeld, who, during the years 1835 and 1836, figured in as many habitats as a Persian in his non-age, and under as many names as a Japanese in the process of maturity, to make some reply to the impugn-remodeled his veracious narrative, in de

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