The Present State of Haiti (Saint Domingo), 1828 by James Franklin

Author:James Franklin [Franklin, James]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, General
ISBN: 9781136269387
Google: Jzy6bqQRv7cC
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2013-01-11T15:55:01+00:00

CHAPTER IX.

Boyer elected president.—His character.—Revolution in the north—annexed to the south.—Revolution in Spanish part.—Union of the whole.—Measures pursued after.—Overtures to France.—Arrival of French fleet.—Negotiation and independence.—Baron Mackau.—Dissatisfaction prevails.—British consul-general.—Further dissatisfaction.—Determination not to pay the indemnity.—Voluntary loan attempted—it fails.—Observations on the inefficiency of government.—State of the military.—Naval force, etc.

JEAN PIERRE BOYER, who succeeded the late president, Petion, and who consequently became chief of the countries of his predecessor and of Christophe united, is a native of Port au Prince, and is about forty-eight or fifty years of age. He is a mulatto, but somewhat darker than the people of that class. His father, a man of good repute and possessed of some wealth, was a store-keeper and a tailor in that city. His mother was a negress of the Congo country in Africa, and had been a slave in the neighbourhood. He joined the cause of the Commissioners Santhonax and Polverel, with whom he retired, after the arrival of the English, to Jacmel, when he joined General Rigaud, whom he accompanied to France, after the submission of the south to the authority of Toussaint. On his voyage thither he was captured by the Americans, during the short dispute between France and the United States, and after the adjustment of the differences between those two powers he was released. Having resided in France some time, he, with many other persons of colour, attached himself to the expedition of Le Clerc, and accompanied that armament for the subjugation of the colony: but on the death of that general, he joined Petion, who successively appointed him to be his aid-de-camp, private secretary, chief of his staff, general of the arrondissement of Port au Prince, and finally named him for his successor in the presidential chair.

Boyer is below the middle size, and very slender; his visage is far from being pleasing, but he has a quick eye, and makes a good use of it, for it is incessantly in motion. His constitution is weak, and he is afflicted with a local disease, which compels him to be exceedingly abstemious. He is fond of parade and exterior ornaments, as is the custom of the country, but he does not display his propensities for them, except in compelling those of his staff and household to appear in all their embellishments. He is but little seen among his people, except on a Sunday, when he appears at the head of his troops, and after reviewing them he rides through the city, attended by a cortége of officers and guards. He is exceedingly vain of his person, and imagines that it is attractive and captivating, and that his manners are irresistible.

I shall now proceed to notice a few of the proceedings of Boyer after his elevation to the supreme command in the republic.

I remarked in the last chapter, that the commander of the troops of Christophe at St. Marc, on finding that his soldiers had determined on a revolt, had sent to inform Boyer of the circumstance, and invited him to proceed to that place and take possession of it.

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