This return of the old slaveholders excited some uneasiness among the black laborers. But Toussaint, who often spoke to them in simple parables, sprinkled a few grains of rice into a vessel of shot, and shook it. "See," said he, "how few grains of white there are among the black."

At that time General Napoleon Bonaparte had become very famous by his victories, and had recently been made ruler of France. There were many points of resemblance between his career and that of the hero of St. Domingo; and it was a common thing for people to say, "Napoleon is the First of the Whites, and Toussaint l'Ouverture is the First of the Blacks." If General Toussaint had known the real character of Napoleon, he would not have felt flattered by being compared with such a selfish, tyrannical, and treacherous man. But, like the rest of the world, he was dazzled by his brilliant reputation, and felt that it was a great honor to him to be called the "The Black Napoleon." The vainest thing that is recorded of him is that on one of his official letters to Bonaparte he wrote, "To the First of the Whites, from the First[65] of the Blacks." It was a departure from his usual habits of dignity, and was also poor policy; for Bonaparte had been rendered vain by his great success, and he was under the influence of aristocratic planters from St. Domingo, who would have regarded it as a great insult to couple their names with a negro. General Toussaint soon had reason to suspect he had been mistaken in the character of the famous man, whom he had so much admired. He wrote several deferential letters to Bonaparte, on official business; but the First Consul never condescended to make any reply. It was soon rumored abroad that proprietors of estates in St. Domingo, residing in France, were urging him to send an army to St. Domingo to reduce the blacks again to Slavery. Governor Toussaint could not believe that the French government would be persuaded to break the solemn promises it had made to the colony. But when he sent General Vincent to Paris to obtain Bonaparte's sanction to the new constitution, the wicked scheme was found to be making rapid progress. In vain General Vincent remonstrated against it as a measure cruel and dangerous. In vain he represented the contented, happy, and prosperous state of the island. In vain did many wise and good men in Paris urge that such a step would be unjust in itself and very disgraceful to France. The First Consul turned a deaf ear to all but the haughty old planters from St. Domingo. The Legislative Assembly in France, though still talking loudly about liberty and the rights of man, were not ashamed to propose the restoration of Slavery and the slave-trade in the colonies; and the wicked measure 

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