We and our families fled--
some to the mountains--some to the woods--and many to foreign lands.
Your voice reached us, inviting us to our homes. We trusted that voice;
we find our lands restored to us, our homes secure, and the passions of
war stilled, like this atmosphere after the storms of December. And to
you do we owe all--to you, possessed by a magnanimity of which we had
not dared to dream!"

"These passions of war, of which you speak," said Toussaint, "need never
have raged, if God had permitted the whites to dream what was in the
souls of the blacks. Let the past now be forgotten. I have restored
your estates because they were yours; but I also perceive advantages in
your restoration. By circumstances--not by nature, but by
circumstances--the whites have been able to acquire a wide intelligence,
a depth of knowledge, from which the blacks have been debarred. I
desire for the blacks a perpetual and friendly intercourse with those
who are their superiors in education. As residents, therefore, you are
welcome; and your security and welfare shall be my care. You find your
estates peopled with cultivators?"

"We do."

"And you understand the terms on which the labour of your
fellow-citizens may be hired? You have only to secure to them
one-fourth of the produce, and you will, I believe, be well served. If
you experience cause of complaint, your remedy will be found in an
appeal to the superintendent of cultivators of the district, or to
myself. Over the cultivators no one else, I now intimate to you, has
authority."

The gentlemen bowed, having nothing to say on this head.

"It may be in your power," continued Toussaint, after applying to his
secretary for a paper from the mass on the table--"it may be in your
power to do a service to the colony, and to individuals mentioned in
this paper, by affording information as to where they are to be found,
if alive; which of them are dead; and which of the dead have left heirs.
Many estates remain unclaimed. The list is about to be circulated in
the colony, in France, and in the United States. If you should chance
to be in correspondence with any of the owners or their heirs, make it
known to them from me that they will be welcome here, as you are. In
the mean time we are taking the best care in empower of their estates.
They must rebuild such of their houses as have been destroyed; but their
lands are cultivated under a commission, a part of the produce