Terre Napoleon | Page 6

valley. President
Jefferson, recognising that the perpetuation of the new situation "would
have put us at war with France immediately," sent James Monroe to
Paris to negotiate. As Bonaparte plainly saw at the beginning of 1803
that another war with Great Britain was inevitable, he did not wish to
embroil himself with the Americans also, and agreed to sell the
possession to the Republic for eighty million francs. Indeed, he
completed arrangements for the sale even before Monroe arrived.
Some efforts had also been made, at Bonaparte's instance, to induce
Spain to give up the Floridas, East and West, but European
complications prevented the exertion of pressure in this direction; and
the whole of Florida became part of the United States by treaty signed
in 1819. The sale of Louisiana lowered the French flag on the only
remaining portion of American territory that acknowledged the
tricolour, except the pestilential fragment of French Guiana, on the
north-east of South America, where France has had a footing since the
beginning of the seventeenth century, save for a short interval (1809 to
1815) when it was taken by the British and Portuguese. But the
possession has never been a profitable one, and a contemporary writer,
quoting an official publication, describes it as enjoying "neither
agriculture, commerce, nor industry."* (* Fallot, L'Avenir Colonial de
la France (1903) page 237.)
In the West Indies, France had lost Martinique and Guadeloupe during
the naval wars prior to Bonaparte's ascension to supreme authority.

These islands were restored to her under the Treaty of Amiens; were
once more captured by the British in 1809 to 1810; and were finally
handed back to France under the Treaty of Paris in 1814. Tobago and
St. Lucia, taken from France in 1803, were not restored.
The large island of San Domingo (the present republic of Haiti, the
Espanola of Columbus, and the first seat of European colonisation in
the west) had been occupied by French, Spanish, and British planters
prior to 1796. The French had been there officially since Richelieu
recognised and protected the settlements made by filibusters early in
the seventeenth century. The decree of the revolutionary Assembly
freeing the slaves in all French possessions led to widespread
insurrections. There were scenes of frightful outrage; and above the
storm of blood and horror rose to fame the huge figure of the black
hero, Toussaint L'Ouverture. At the head of a negro army he at first
assisted the French to overturn Spanish rule; but having attained great
personal power, and being a man of astonishing capacity for controlling
the people of his own race, and for mastering military and
governmental problems, he determined to use the opportunity to found
an autonomous state under the suzerainty of France. By January 1801
Toussaint L'Ouverture was in possession of the capital. But Bonaparte
would not tolerate the domination of the black conqueror, and
despatched an expedition to San Domingo to overthrow his government
and establish French paramountcy. The result was disastrous. It is true
that Toussaint was captured and exiled to France, where he died
miserably in prison at Besancon in 1803; but the white troops under
General Leclerc perished of yellow fever in hundreds; the blacks retired
to the mountains and harassed the suffering French; whilst the vigilance
of British frigates, and the requirements of European policy, obviated
all possibility of effective reinforcements being sent. Gallic authority in
San Domingo ended ingloriously, for the negroes in 1803 drove the
debilitated chivalry of France in defeat and disaster to the sea, and
chose to be their ruler one who, like themselves, had commenced life as
a slave. Napoleon said at St. Helena that his attempt to subjugate San
Domingo was the greatest folly of his life.
In the Indian Ocean the French possessed the Isle of France (now, as a

British colony, called Mauritius) and Reunion. They had not yet
established themselves in Madagascar, though there was some trade
between the Mascareignes and the colonists of the Isle of France.
Bonaparte during the Consulate contemplated making definite attempts
to colonise Madagascar, and, early in 1801, called for a report from his
first colonial minister, Forfait. When he obtained the document, he sent
it back asking for more details, an indication that his interest in the
subject was more than one of transient curiosity. Forfait suggested the
project of establishing at Madagascar a penal colony such as the British
had at Port Jackson;* (* Prentout, L'Ile de France sous Decaen, 302.)
but subsequent events did not favour French colonial expansion, and
nothing was done.
The British captured Pondicherry and the other French settlements in
India in 1793, but agreed to restore them under the Treaty of Amiens.
For reasons which will be indicated later, however, the territories were
not evacuated by British troops, who continued to hold