Proclamation of the First Conful of France to the Inhabitants of St. Inhabitants of St. Domingo, France has been, like St. Domingo, a prey to factions, torn by civil and foreign wars. But all has changed; all people have embraced the French, and have fworn to them peace and amity; all the French have embraced each other allo, and have worn to be all friends and brothers. Come alfo, embrace the French, and rejoice to fee again your friends and your brothers of Europe. The government fends you the Captain-general Leclerc: he has brought with him great forces for protecting you against your enemies, and against the enemies of the republic. If it be faid to you thefe forces are deftined to ravish from you your liberty; anfwer, "The republic will not permit it to be taken away from us.” Rally round the Captain-general. He brings you abundance and peace. Rally all of you around him. Whoever fhall dare to feparate himself from the Captain-general, will be a traitor to his country, and the indignation of the republic will devour him as the fire devours your dried canes. Done at Paris, in the palace of the government, the 17th Go To Citizen Toussaint Louverture, General in Chief of the Army Citizen General, PEACE with England, and all the powers of Europe, which places the republic in the first degree of greatness and power, enables, at the fame time, the government to direct its attention to St. Domingo. We fend thither Citizen Leclerc, our brothers in-law, in quality of captain-general, as first magistrate of the colony. He is accompanied with the neceffary forces to make the fovereignty of the French people be refpected. It is under thefe circumstances that we are difpofed to hope that you will prove to us and to all France the fincerity of the fentiments you have conftantly expreffed in the different letters you have written to us. We have conceived for your esteem, and we with to recognise and proclaim the great fervices you have rendered to the French people. If their colours fly on St. Domingo, it is to you and your brave blacks that they are indebted. Called by your talents, and the force of circumftances, to the first command, you have deftroyed the civil war, put aftop to the perfecutions of fome ferocious men, restored to honour the religion and worship of God, from whom all things come. The conftitution that you have formed, in containing many good things, contains others which are contrary to the dignity and the fovereignty of the French people, of which St. Domingo forms but a part. The circumstances in which you are placed, furrounded on all fides by enemies, without the mother-country being able to fuccour or to feed you, have rendered legitimate the articles of that conftitution, which otherwife could not be fo. But now that circumftances are fo happily changed, you will be the first to render homage to the fovereignty of the nation, which reckons you among the number of the moft illuftrious citizens, by the fervices you have rendered to it, and by the talents and the force of character with which nature has endowed you. A contrary condu would be irreconcilable with the idea we have conceived of you. It would deprive you of your numerous claims to the gra titude and good offices of the republic, and would dig under your feet a precipice, which, while it fwallowed you up, would contribute to the mifery of thofe brave blacks, whofe courage, we love, and whom we should be forry to punifh for rebellion. We have made known to your children, and to their preceptor, the fentiments by which we are animated.-We fend them back to you. Affift with your councils, your influence, and your talents, the Captain-general. What can you defire the freedom of the blacks? You know that in all the countries we have been in, we have given it to the people who had it not, Do you defire confideration, honours, fortune? It is not, after the services you have rendered, the fervices you can ftill render, with the particular fentiments we have for you, that you ought to be doubtful with respect to your confideration, your fortune, and the honours that await you. Make known to the people of St. Domingo, that the folicitude which, France has always evinced for their happiness has often been rendered impotent by the imperious circumitances of war; that men come from the continent to agitate and nourish factions, were the produce of the factions which themfelves deftroyed the country; that, in future, peace,wand the power of the government, enfure their profperity and freedom. Tell them, that, if liberty be to them the first of wants, they cannot enjoy it but with the title of French citizens; and that every act contrary to the interest of the country, the obedience they owe to the government, and the Captain-general, who is the delegate of it, would be a crime against the national fovereignty, which would eelipfe their fervices, and render St. Domingo the theatre of a wretched war, in which fathers and children would maffacre each other. And you, general, recollect; that, if you are the first of your colour colour that attained fuch great power, and distinguished himself by his bravery and his military talents, you are alfo, before God and us, the principal perfon refponfible for their conduct. If there be difaffected perfons, who fay to the individuals that have played a principal part in the troubles of St. Domingo, that we are coming to afcertain what they have done during the times of anarchy, affure them that we fhall take cognizance of their conduct only in this laft circumstance; and that we fhall not recur to the past, but to find out the traits that may have distinguished them in the war carried on against the Spaniards and English, who have been our enemies. Rely without referve on our esteem; and conduct yourself as one of the principal citizens of the greatest nation in the world ought to do. The First Conful, Paris, 17th Brumaire (8th Nov.). BONAPARTE. Letter to General Chriftophe, by the General in Chief of the Army of On board the Ocean. I LEARN.with indignation that you refufe, Citizen General, to receive the French fquadron and the French army, which I command, under the pretext that you have no orders from the Governor General. France has made peace with England, and the government fend to St. Domingo a force capable of quelling rebels, if they find any at St. Domingo. As to you, Citizen General, I own it will coft me fome pain to reckon you among rebels. I inform you, that if to-day you do not furrender Forts Piccolet and Belair, and all the batteries on the coaft, to-morrow at daybreak, 15,000 men fhall be landed :-4000 are landing now at Fort Liberté, 8000 at Port Republicain. You will find annexed my proclamation. It expreffes the intentions of the government; but recollect, that whatever private efteem your conduct in the colony has infpired me with, I make you refponfible for all that fhall happen. LECLERC. Proclamation by General Leclerc, General in Chief of the Army of Head-quarters at the Cape, 28th Pluviofe (Feb. 17). I AM come here in the name of the French government, bearing to you peace and good wishes. I feared to be encountered by obftacles arifing from the ambitious views of the chiefs of the colony, and I am not difappointed. They, who announced their devotion 1 devotion to France in their proclamations, thought of nothing lefs than acting as Frenchmen. If they fometimes fpoke of France, it was because their plans were not fufficiently matured openly to difavow it. Yesterday, their perfidious intentions were unmasked. General Touffaint fent me his children, with a letter, in which he affures me that there was nothing he fo much defired as the profperity of the colony, and that he was ready to obey all the orders that I fhould give him. I ordered him to come before me, and gave him my word that I would employ him as my lieutenant-general: -he did not reply to this order, further than by phrafes which were only defigned to gain time. My orders from the French government are, that I promptly restore profperity and abundance. If I fuffer myfelf to be amufed by crafty and perfidious artifices, the colony will be the theatre of a long civil war. I advance into the country, and am about to manifest to this rebel the force of the French government. It can be no longer neceffary to prove to all good Frenchmen, inhabiting St. Domingo, what an infenfible monfter he is.. I promife liberty to the people of this island-I fhall make them rejoice, and I will refpect their perfons and property. I order as follows: Art. 1. The General Touffaint and the General Christophe are put out of the protection of the law; all citizens are ordered to purfue them, and to treat them as rebels of the French republic. 2. From the day on which the French army fhall occupy a pofition, all officers, whether civil or military, who fhall obey other orders than thofe of the generals of the army which I command, fhall be treated as rebels. 3. The cultivators, who, feduced into error, and deceived by the perfidious infinuations of the rebel generals, may have taken arms, fhall be regarded as children who have ftrayed, and fhall be fent to their plantations, provided they do not feek to excite infurrection. 4. The foldiers of the demi-brigades who fhall abandon the army of Touffaint, fhall be received into the French army. LECLERC. (Signed) General of Divifion, and Chief of the Staff, DUGUA. Admiral Villaret Joyeuse to M. l'Admiral commanding the Forces of his Britannic Majesty at Jamaica, On board 'Ocean, in the Road of Cape Français, 26 Pluviofe (Feb. 15, 1802). M. ADMIRAL, I haften to announce to you, that a fleet of the French republic has entered the ports of St. Domingo. The revolted negroes have received us with fire and fword, and the 1 city of the Cape has been reduced to afhes; but the plain and the neighbouring country have been saved by the activity of the troops, and the precipitate flight of the rebels. A powerful force will at laft re-establish in this colony the form of government prefcribed by the laws of the mother country, and to protect those principles which alone can preferve, and upon which repoles the common intereft of all the European powers in their effablishments in the Antilles, dons1 gáz to zinemasons de di BOLSARU an The importance and utility of thefe views, added to the happy eftablishment of peace between France, and England, give me full affurance, Sir, that the rebels will no where find an afylum, and that the colony being declared in a ftate of fiege, no armed veffel will fhew itfelf before thofe ports which the rebels could occupy. The obftinate refiftance which they oppose to us in different points, in fpite of their continued defeats, is evidently the refult of a plan of general infurrection, confirmed by the events which have occurred at Guadaloupe; and by the intelligence received from, Martinique, Tobago, Grenada, and Dominica, the confequences to all European governments would be equally difaftrous, if the focus of revolt was not fpeedily fmothered. But the French army is already in poffeffion of the Cape, Fort of Liberty, the Port de Paix, La Tortue, and Port Republicain, and is perfectly fure of all the part formerly belonging to Spain, of which the most important points have been conquered; and every thing promifes us complete fuccefs, if, as this army, is entitled to expect, it can find in the event of neceflity that afliftance from her neighbours, which unforeseen circumstances may force it to claim. The difpofition of the cabinet of St. James's, and the known loyalty of your nation, Sir, permit me to hope, that the ports of Jamaica will furnith us (thould circumstances demand it, and hould you be abundantly provided) with provifions and armunition. One of the minifters of his Britannic Majefty has faid, that the peace just concluded was not an ordinary peace, but a fincere reconciliation of the two greatest nations in the world. If it depends on me, Sir, this happy prognoftic will certainly be veri fied; at leaft Lam pleafed to imagine, that our pacific communications will be wonhy of two nations, to whom war has only multiplied the reciprocal reasons which they had to esteem each other; and to give you authentic proof of our confidence, I laya before you a faithfulettatement of our forces in the ports of St. Domingo. Since the 16th Pluviofe (5th Feb.) twenty-five fail of the line have entered thefe ports; five of them, which were Spanish, have already failed for the Havannah. These twenty-five, vellels, amongst which three were entirely transports, and confequently without guns, have brought, with several, frigates, armét en flute, d IX about |