efender to plead his cause; but he
asked in vain. Thirteen of his companions were condemned to the galleys;
more than twenty to the gibbet; and Oge and Chavanne were tortured on
the wheel.

Where rests the guilt in this case? Let those blame Oge, who can. My
heart and conscience both refuse to do it.

_Toussaint L'Ouverture_, the celebrated black chieftain, was born a
slave, in the year 1745, upon the plantation of Count de Noe. His
amiable deportment as a slave, the patience, mildness, and benevolence
of his disposition, and the purity of his conduct amid the general
laxity of morals which prevailed in the island, gained for him many of
those advantages which afterwards gave him such absolute ascendency over
his insurgent brethren. His good qualities attracted the attention of
M. Bayou de Libertas, the agent on the estate, who taught him reading,
writing, and arithmetic,--elements of knowledge, which hardly one in
ten thousand of his fellow-slaves possessed. M. Bayou made him his
postillion, which gave him advantages much above those of the field
slaves. When the general rising of the blacks took place, in 1791, much
solicitation was used to induce Toussaint to join them; but he declined,
until he had procured an opportunity for the escape of M. Bayou and his
family to Baltimore, shipping a considerable quantity of sugar for
the supply of their immediate wants. In his subsequent prosperity,
he availed himself of every occasion to give them new marks of his
gratitude. Having thus provided security for his benefactor, he joined
a corps of blacks, under the orders of General Biassou; but was soon
raised to the principal command, Biassou being degraded on account of
his cruelty and ferocity. Indeed, Toussaint was every way so much
superior to the other negroes, by reason of his general intelligence
and education, his prudence, activity and address, not less than his
bravery, that he immediately attained a complete ascendency over all the
black chieftains. In 1797, Toussaint received from the French government
a commission of General-in-Chief of the armies of St. Domingo, and as
such signed the convention with General Maitland for the evacuation of
the island by the British. From 1798 until 1801, the island continued
tranquil under the government of Toussaint, who adopted and enforced
the most judicious measures for healing the wounds of his country, and
restoring its commercial and agricultural prosperity. His efforts
wo