Toussaint, meanwhile, continues his duties with the negro troops.
Steadily and surely, if not rapidly, he gains strength and influence,
and knowledge of war. He has measured himself with Jean and Biassou,
and is not wanting. His prudence, patience, silent will, and courage,
make him useful to them, and his justice, and determination, and
mercy, make him the idol of the men. The last are often imposed upon
by demagogues, but give them time to _know_ a true, brave, and wise
man, and axes cannot hew them away. The Marquis Hermona, governor of
the Spanish part of the island, made advances to the negro chiefs.
Santhonax, in his extremity, after the destruction of Cap François,
sent Macayo to propose an alliance. They distrusted him—Louis was
beheaded. They said, “We have lost the king of France, but the
king of Spain esteems us and gives us succors.” They declined the
proposals of the Commissioners, and threw themselves on the side of
Spain. Toussaint was loyal to the memory of the king, and followed
François and Biassou. Hermona saw that Toussaint was a man; and while
Jean François was advanced to the first rank, Toussaint was raised to
that of colonel in the Spanish army. He at once applied himself to
his duties, and what he did was always well done. His troops became,
as if by a word, the best disciplined in the army. The reason was
plain—he knew what men ought to do, and what they can do; and the men
knew that he was upright and wise. So these ragged, ignorant, roving
hordes became efficient troops. Confidence begat confidence—the
commander trusted his men, and they relied on him: together they were
strong. Idleness was not Toussaint’s policy. The insurgents, under
Jean François, Biassou, and Toussaint, held strong positions in the
mountains south of Cap François. Brandicourt, the general of the
French troops, was at once trapped and compelled to order his troops
to lay down their arms. Grande Rivière, Dondon, Plaisance, Marmalade,
and Ennery, the most important places in the north, quickly fell into
Toussaint’s hands.
The French Commissioners were getting into straits. The Spanish
troops were against them, the blacks were against them, the remaining
whites were divided—some wore the black cockade, others the white;
the troops and friends of the commissioners, the tricolor; the
mulattoes, the red; war was everywhere, and no man was safe but
with arms in his hands, and in the strongest party. But this was
not enough; some of the planters mounted the English hat and sent
to the English for succor. Even “Perfide Albion” was welcome, if
they might but reëstablish slavery and get again their estates. In
this extremity, Santhonax decided to make friends with the blacks,
and proclaimed at Cap François universal freedom (20th Aug., 1793).
Polverel repeated the proclamation at Port au Prince.[30] The
enthusiasm among the negroes was great, but not universal. Their
leaders were not moved; they distrusted the Commissioners, and they
doubted the stability of the French Republic; so the war went on.
In September, the English landed at Jeremie, in the extreme
southwest. They took possession of St. Nicholas, in the extreme
northwest, and during the year 1794, the whole western coast was in
their possession—St. Nicholas, St. Marc, Jacmel, Tiburon, Jeremie;
and at last, on the 4th of June, Port au Prince, the capital,
yielded. “Twenty-two top-sail vessels,” with their cargoes, worth
400,000 pounds sterling, were a part of the spoil. The mulatto chief,
Rigaud, had taken the side of France. Educated in Bordeaux, he had
followed, in St. Domingo, his trade of a goldsmith, which the whites
thought “too good for a nigger.” He was a brave man, mild in peace,
terrible in war, and, aided by Petion, he kept up a harassing fight
against the English. Shortly after the fall of Port au Prince, a
ship arrived with a requisition for the Commissioners to return to
France; they must answer for their doings there, and General Laveaux
was left as provisional governor. His case, and that of the French,
was desperate. Shut up in Port de Paix, the last stronghold of the
French, he wrote, (24th May, 1794):—“For more than six months we have
been reduced to six ounces of bread a day, officers as well as men;
but from the 13th, we have none whatever, the sick only excepted. If
we had powder we should have been consoled. We have in our magazines,
neither shoes, nor shirts, nor clothes, nor soap, nor tobacco. The
most of the soldiers mount guard barefoot: we have not flints for
the men. But be assured, that we will never surrender; be assured,
too, that, after us, the enemy will not find the slightest trace of
Port de Paix.”[31] Dark was the outlook, but brave was the heart of
General Laveaux.