Miscellany

I It is a noticenble fací that tlie lieroic ■atruggle by whicli !he inlrabiiants of St. Domingo achieved their freedom and inepeodanco, is ever terined an insrrreclio. A nation consisting of about five hundrtd thousand souls, onversed n wnr fld jiist emerging from Tjarbarism, succrasfully mainiains '.he conflict wilh ihe thirty millions of Fretfeh, and coniei off ▼ ictorious. Ilistory hns few more nobíe deed lo record ; and jet bistory most ungenerously is either afraid úr ashamed to record them. In every war tbere are atrocities comrnilted at vhich hurnanity atniddera. And it was so in this. Siili, nererdid man have a more just cause for war, thin the slaves of St. Domingo ; and in their magnanimous struglge against th mt fearful odds, God helped them to thc Ticlory. The Frencli, almost unresisled, elFeó!ed a landing upon the Island with thirty-five thousand higlily disciplined troops, and all the formidable enginery of war. - Touis'iaat consciuus of his uiter inability to witlisland ilie sieel-clad veterans elated wiih their triumphs over combined Europc, slowly retí red belbre tlie invaders. He left, however, betiind him but a slieel offlime. The conquerors, in their puruit, marched over ihe stnouldering uins of ctties, villages and pluntations, capturing but a deert, smoking as a volcano. At every river's side and every mounuin piss, Touisiant, with tlie energiesof deepair, assailed tliese emissaries of slavery ; tnd disputing thus every inch of round, slowly retired before their resiitlena nuniber. The French soon obUined possession of the whole sea-coast, and the heroic littleband, preferring starYAtion and death toslarery, were driven back into the wild interior, where they were in tome degree sheltered from purauit in dense and tangled foresis, ond in the inaccessible fastnesses of the mounttins. It was impossibln for the French to penétrate these savage regions with thair cavalry, or to drag their arlillery through these pathless wilds. HereTouiiwnt, with indomilable courage and pereerance, took his last stand for t he freedom of his race. The negroes knew their doom, for tha decisión of the French Government to re-establish slavery throughout the whole Island, had been publicly proclained ; and tbeir resrstence was so unexpectedly formidable, that ii was soon foond necessary to send from France a reinforcement of six thousand men, to aid in this meanest and most ignoble of all earthlv work - the enslavement of the free. Le Clerc, the commander-in-chief of th French army, now surrounded the negroes in their fastnesses, and assaüed them in a concentrie attack from al! quarters. This was on the 17th of February, 1602. A most desperate und bloody conflict ensued, which. continued for many weeks. The French were amazed at the bravery of the negroes, and though from superior numbers, armament and dicipline, victorious at all points, their loss was enormous. At the confluence of two hule streams among the mountains, there was the remains of an oíd sione fort. A ltttle band of the retreatine blacks took refuge behind its crumbling wnlls. Two brigndes of the French army mnrohed confidently up to sweep thein away by a coup de main. - But ihey Were soon compeüed lo retreat beforelhe vigor of the fire of these unconquered héroes, leaving hehind lliem seven hundred of their comrads bleeding in dealh. La C!erc concenlra'ted nll liis disposable forces, nnd mnde unother altacfc with the most delëi'miiied fiiry upon this Haytièn Thermopylace. Calmly the brnve hear!s throbbing behind those wal!?; met Ihe onset, and agnin rupulsed their swarming foes with érrible slaugliter. LeCIerc, mortified nnd exasperated; ordered up his heavy artillèry, to carry these feeble deisnees by regular approaclies. He planted his bntlenes. - The walls ere batteried in breach, and everyihing made ready for an assault. But in the stillrmss of the nigln prece3ng the intended assault, the negroés, swörci in hand, rushcd from their detences upotl their sleeping foes, cut their way througli them and escaped, having for three weeks arrestëd ihe whole French nrmy, by the barrier of indomilable henrts. The blacksj defeated but unsubdued, retrealed from poiht to point, making a sland wherever there ivas any opporlunity for successful resisiahce. - Le Clerc, finding it almost impos-iiblej with his Eurnpeon troops to foice his way through these defiles, where from a thousand unseen hands a murderous fire picked ofT his men, had recourse to the most infumous stratageto in order to accomplish his purpose. Touissant,as Governor of St. Domingo, confirmed in his command by the decree of Napoleon, nnd all unconscious of any anticipated invasión of the Island by the French. had sent his two little boys, wliom he loved willi the most intense nfieclinn, to Paris, to be educated. Tliese lads most treacherously were sent back from Franc; as prisoners. to be held by Le Clerc, as the means of coercing the noble father, through his paternal affection, to submission or to treason. Taking these liostagey, so ingloriously obtained, Le Clerc sought nn interview with Touissant, in his retreatamong the mountains. As the 1 ti le boys, aitertheir long absence, were led into the presence of their parents, t e mother, with a ñood cf tears and a bursting hearl, clasped them to her bosoin. The úfmness of Tuuissani was shaken ns he once again eníolded n his arms his long lost children, wiiom he loved with fair more than ordinary purental afieution. Le ClBrc urged upon him the nfamous proposa], that if he would nbandon the struggle nnd surrender his race again to slavery, his sons should be restored to him, and that he shoüld be nvestrd with wealth and rank and power, (t was indeed, in that day of darkness and despair, an ulíurihg bribe.' The rr.other, in the nnguish óf her mntenal afFec!Íon clur.g to her bdvs, and implored the fa1! her, by compliance. lo rescue her chüdren. The children embraced his knees, and nlmost fráhtic wiih the cöntBuding etnotions of hopfe nnd fear, entreated him to save thferii. The conflict, in the Ij som of Touissant, beiween love fur his children and conscientious love of his race. was terrible. . But summoning to his aid all the firmness of his nob!e soul, he spurned the bribe, and with ïirtuewhich would have immortal, ized any of the Emperors of Rome, he resolved to maintain the cause of freedom st every sacrifice. Few of the inhabitants of this globe have ever passed through so fiery an ordeal as he encountered. ns his struggling children were again born from him, and b'orn back as prisoners lo the Frenchcamp ; while he, renouncing nll the wealth and honor which Napoleon eoald con fer, retürnéd a humed fugitive to his starving soldiers,in the barren and rugged defiles af the mounlains. Le Clerc, perceiving the fearftrl violence of ihe struggle between pairiotic duty and paternal love, hoped that a second sight of his sons would overeóme the virtue of ihis most noble cheifiain, and agsin he stnt them to have an interview wiih their father. Touissant happily succeded in rescuing his children, in this interview, from their prefidious captors, and fled ivilh them to hia mountain home. Le Clerc, exasperated beyond measure at being thus folied, proclaimed him a rebel and an outlaw, and prepared to drive the war with unrelenting severity. ïn the confïict that ensued, Touissant displayed the qualities of a general of the first order. Dividing his broken army in'.o little hands, he siationed them in impenetrable hiding places, and watched his powerful foe with sleepless vigilance. Foraging parties were destroyed, supplies cut off, and many a mountain stream was crimsoned with the blood of the invaders. In these determined conflicts, the negroes manifes'.ed a degree of bravery and military skill, which astonished Europe. - The conquerors of Marengo and Hohenlinden were not unfrequtntly defeated, with heavy los-:, by the undisciplined bands whïcli fearlessly encountered them in the defiles of the mountains. Graduallv, however, the highly diciplined and thoroughly fnrnishéd armies of Frnnce began to gain upon Ine blaeks, and famine began to thin their ranks, in theiv barren forest fastnesses. The Ffench soldiers, also, became disgusted wilh the inglorious war. Their minds were imbued with Ihose principies of freedom which Imd overturned the despotsmofFrance. They bëgan to tnurmur loudly nnj indignantly aga'hst thé ign'ominious employment of fighting to rivet the chainsof slavery upon ih'Öss who were nobjy contenditíg' for their freedom. In this einergency, Le Clefc again had recoufse to bribery. The thfeeleaciii.g generáis líndsr Joüissant, Christophe, Dessalines nnd Maurepas, nfter displaying for a long time the courage and energyof Benedict Arnold in fighting the battles of ih'eii' country, also imitated him in treachery and crime. Dislíeártened by defeat, desparing of the possibility of success agaihst such powerful foes, and sufferin fro'm ilie deslitution of all tliings, they were unable '.o resist thé brilliant offers of wealih a'nd rank in the French arm;,-, and went over with many of their followers to the serWctï cf {hé enernyi They were immediately appointed to offices ín the Frer.ch army corrésponcling to those Which they had held in1 their óvn, and with áll thé zeal of new converts as' sailed the cause they had abandoned. - Touissant was thus left with but a few thousand soldiers, to contend against hls own treacherous generáis, who were leading nn invincible army into his retreats. Stil], however, for some time lie noüly continued the hopeless struggle, lili at last, surrounded on every side and assailed at every point, he was compelled to subm'it. But in this hour of defeat, he reiained his dignity and magnanimity unimpaired. The French ofRcers could not withhold their admiration of his heroism and integrity, and they earnesiiy solicited him to nccept office under the governmcnt of Napoleon, either to rule over hisenslaved bréthren, or to lead thé armies of France in the conflic!s of Eui rope. He however, firmly refused to accceptofany rank or emoluments from the toe who had overrun his country, and demandiug -Inily ihepledge of personal pfotection retired, like another Cincinnaius', to thh culture óf his farm.