of the children of different mothers (quarrels
often fatal in the fields) disappear in the schools. The reports well
exhibit the history of our expanding system."

"God be thanked!" Toussaint uttered in a low voice.

"Under the religions rule of your excellency," said the young priest,
"enforced by so pure an example of piety, the morals of this colony will
be established, and the salvation of its people secured."

"You," said Toussaint, "the servants of Christ, are the true rulers of
this island and its inhabitants. I am your servant in guarding external
order, during a period which you will employ in establishing your flocks
in the everlasting wisdom and peace of religion. I hold the inferior
office of keeping our enemies in awe, and enabling our people to find
subsistence and comfort. My charge is the soil on which, and the bodies
in which, men live. You have in charge their souls, in which lies the
future of this world and of the next. You are the true rulers of Saint
Domingo; and we bow to you as such."

Every head was immediately bowed, and the priests went out, amidst the
obeisances of the whole assemblage--some of the order wondering,
perhaps, whether every mind there was as sincere in its homage as that
of the Commander-in-chief.

The superintendents of the cultivators came next--negroes dressed in
check shirts, white linen jackets and trousers, and with the usual
Madras handkerchief on the head. They, too, handed in reports; and to
them also did Toussaint address his questions, with an air of respect
almost equal to that with which he had spoken to the priests.

"I grieve," said he, "that you cannot yet fulfil your function
altogether in peace. My generals and I have done what we can to
preserve our fields from devastation, and our cultivators from the
dangers and the fears of ambushed foes; but Rigaud's forces are not yet
subdued; and for a while we must impose upon our cultivators the toil of
working armed in the field. We are soldiers here," he added, looking
round upon his officers, "but I hope there is not one of us who does not
honour the hoe more than the gun. How far have you been able to repair
in the south-eastern districts the interruption in the September
planting?"

The superintendent of those districts came forward, and said that some
planting had been effected in November, the sprouts of which now looked
well. More planting had been done during the early part of the present