nothing to communicate. They were made free for military purposes only;
and we have no clue whereby we can find out what became of them
afterwards.

With respect to those who were emancipated next in the South, and those
directly afterwards in the West, by the proclamation of Polverel, we are
enabled to give a very pleasing account. Fortunately for our views,
Colonel Malenfant, who was resident in the island at the time, has made
us acquainted with their general conduct and character. His account,
though short, is quite sufficient for our purpose. Indeed it is highly
satisfactory[6]. "After this public act of emancipation," says he, (by
Polverel,) "the Negroes _remained quiet_ both _in the South and in the
West_, and they _continued to work upon all the plantations_. There were
estates, indeed, which had neither owners nor managers resident upon
them, for some of these had been put into prison by Montbrun; and
others, fearing the same fate, had fled to the quarter which had just
been given up to the English. Yet upon these estates, though abandoned,
the Negroes _continued their labours_, where there were any, even
inferior, agents to guide them; and on those estates, where no white men
were left to direct them, they betook themselves to the planting of
provisions; but upon _all the plantations_ where the Whites resided, the
Blacks _continued to labour as quietly as before_." A little further on
in the work, ridiculing the notion entertained in France, that the
Negroes would not work without compulsion, he takes occasion to allude
to other Negroes, who had been liberated by the same proclamation, but
who were more immediately under his own eye and cognizance[7]. "If,"
says he, "you will take care not to speak to them of their return to
slavery, but talk to them about their liberty, you may with this latter
word chain them down to their labour. How did Toussaint succeed? How did
I succeed also before his time in the plain of the Cul de Sac, and on