d
disgusted to no stupid monastery; he returned not to the ease and
degradation of slavery, but was equal to the facts of life, however
hard, and grappled with them and mastered them as a man should. He was
then loyal to the King, and he was loyal to the Church, a devout
Catholic.

In 1792, the three commissioners, sent out from France to "settle" the
affairs of the colony, had been thwarted and finally driven away by the
whites. In September (1792), Santhonax, Polverel, and Ailhaud had
arrived with troops, money, and instructions and a new governor,
Desparbes, in place of Blanchelande. He soon became disgusted, alarmed,
and he fled. The commissioners bestirred themselves to settle the
commotion. The rich planters were for the King; the _Petits Blancs_ were
for the Directory; the mulattoes, under Rigaud, ravaged the West: the
revolted negroes, under Jean Francois, Biassou and others, threatened on
the North. France herself, that ancient kingdom, was now fermenting;
struggling--yet with hope--to realize in the state her unformed faith in
democracy, and with the energy of despair striving to beat back the
waves of bayonets which beat and bristled on her borders. Thus matters
stood in France, thus in Santo Domingo. The slaves in both countries had
risen, and rushed to arms. Their remedy was desperate; so was their
disease.

General Galbaud, a new governor, arrived from France in May (1793). The
commissioners were engaged in the west in fighting Rigaud. They returned
to Cap Francois to fight the Governor whose authority they disputed.
Galbaud held the ships and the arsenals and determined to assert his
authority. His soldiers and sailors entered the town and abandoned
themselves to drunkenness, pillage and brutality. The commissioners
armed the slaves in the town, promised them freedom, and sent for aid to
the negro generals. Jean Francois and Biassou refused; but a chief,
Macayo, at the head of three thousand blacks, entered the town, and the
conflict raged. The whites were driven into the sea and slaughtered.
Madness ruled, and none fiercer than the mulattoes. Galbaud fled, and
half the city was destroyed by fire. At last--for a while--the whites
gave up the hope of recovering their slaves. Thousands fled--some
suppose nine-tenths--and found refuge along the American coasts.

Famine had more than once increased the misery during these three years,
yet the island was fruitful, and cultivation, here and there, went on.