they went and "fought valiantly; and returned to Saint Domingo covered
with glory." Madiou, another Haytian historian of the highest
respectability says: "A crowd of young men, black and colored,
enlisted with the French troops and left for the continent. They
covered themselves with glory in the siege of Savannah, under the
orders of Count D'Estaing."

What effect this experience had upon these volunteers may be inferred
from their subsequent history. Robin says: "These men who contributed
their mite toward American independence, had still their mothers and
sisters in slavery; and they themselves were subject to humiliating
discriminations. Should not France have expected from that very
moment, that they would soon use in their own cause, those very arms
which they had learned so well to use in the interests of others?"
Madiou says: "On their return to Saint Domingo they demanded for their
brothers the enjoyment of political rights." Beauvais went to Europe
and served in the army of France; but returned to fight for liberty in
Hayti, and was Captain-general in 1791; Rigaud, Lambert and Christophe
wrote their names--not in the sand. These are the men who dared to
stir Saint Domingo, under whose influence Hayti became the first
country of the New World, after the United States, to throw off
European rule. The connection between the siege of Savannah and the
independence of Hayti is traced, both as to its spirit, and
physically, through the black legion that on that occasion saved the
American army. How this connection is traced to the republics of South
America, I will allow a Haytian statesman and man of letters, honored
both at home and abroad, to relate. I translate from a work published
in Paris in 1885:

"The illustrious Bolivar, liberator and founder of five republics in