CHAP. III.]         OR   SAINT   DOMINGO.                        69
the white inhabitants, it is said, was considerable,
exceeding, of all ages, two thousand; besides the
demolition of the buildings of a great many plant-
ations, and the total ruin of many families, who
from a condition of ease and affluence were reduced
to the lowest state of misery and despair, being
driven to the melancholy necessity of supplicating
charity, to relieve the heart-rending calls of their
hungry and naked offspring. The loss of the in-
surgents was however infinitely greater; being ig-
norant of the effects of cannon they were consequent-
ly cut down in masses, while the sword was also ef-
fectually used. It appears that upwards of 10,000
of these sanguinary wretches fell in the field, besides
a very large number who perished by famine, and
by the hands of the executioner; a very just retri-
bution for their savage and inhuman proceedings.
There is every reason to believe that the loss sus-
tained by them in all their engagements must have
been immense, as they seemed to have imbibed a
most extraordinary idea of the effect of artillery:
it is said of them by a writer of repute, that " The
blacks suffered greatly in the beginning of the re-
volution by their ignorance of the dreadful effects
of the guns, and by a superstitious belief, very ge-
nerally prevailing at that time, that by a few mys-
terious words, they could prevent the cannon doing
them any harm, which belief induced them to face
the most imminent clangers."