AND   REPUBLIC   OF   HAYTI.                 [171
have flown to the aid, and into the arms, of their breth-
ren and countrymen of the South-west. And could
Pétion and a few vile satellites, partisans of the French,
ranged under the white flag, fighting for slavery and
the subjection of their country, could they have resisted
a whole people ?—an hundred thousand warriors, rallied
beneath their national colours, fighting in defence of
their rights, their lives, and their property, for the
emancipation of their country, beneath the standards
of liberty and independence? Had he fifty thousand
French in his ranks, he would be conquered in the end
and driven into the sea.
In this, as in a multitude of other instances, Pétion
owed his safety to the heroism of the King of Hayti;
,to his energy, his patriotism, and his entire devotion to
the cause of the Haytian people. His faithful attach-
ment to them inspired him with alarm on account oi
the dangers to which his fellow citizens of the South
might be exposed, and his frankness of character led
him to place before their eyes their true interests, at
that important crisis i not, indeed, that the danger he
apprehended was real. It was an evil, formidable in
imagination, but too great and obvious to be realized ;
for what Haytian chieftain, however powerful, could
possibly induce the population of Hayti to resign their
liberty and independence, in order to tubmit again fo
the yoke of slavery and of France. It is a thing morally
and physically impossible. Equally hopeless will be
every attempt that the Ex-colonists may suggest to the
French government to divide, to deceive, to mislead, or
to ensnare us. It is impossible that any such insidious
expedients should succeed, for their object is, in its
nature, impracticable; and, if the French government
persists in following the counsels and the plans of the
Ex-co'.onists, disappointment and disgrace will ever be,
as they have hitherto always been, the results; and all