REIGN OF DESSALINES.
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ascertained that, notwithstanding the strictness of his orders and his search, several had escaped discovery. To these he now offered forgiveness and protection, provided they would publicly appear to receive his assurances. Many of them, hoping that some remains of sincerity might still exist in the heart of this savage ; and knowing that at best, their lives were in continual danger, appeared on the appointed spot at the time specified. He was waiting their arrival, surrounded by the companions of his cruelty ;—when, instead of the promised assurance of protection and safety, he caused them all to be shot. Happily few are called to be the witnesses of such deeds;—few could summon up sufficient resolution to endure the sight. The simple relation of such transactions must excite our sympathy for the sufferers, and the utmost detestation towards the author of their fate. But those who have visited the spots on which these murders were perpetrated, who have had occasion to reside in the houses in which they took place, and have heard the account of them related by the natives, must necessarily feel a deeper impression of their horror; while they regard the character of the man who planned and conducted them, with a degree of abhor-