The king was soon informed that his guards had declared against him, and that the forces of the insurgents were already in the immediate vicinity of his palace. At this astounding intelligence he exclaimed in despair, “Then all is over with me!” and seizing a pistol, shot himself through the heart.
Thus perished a man who had succeeded in maintaining his authority over the blacks for a longer time than any of the chiefs of the revolution. This he accomplished through the single agency of the extraordinary energy of his character. The unshrinking boldness and decision of his measures made terror the safeguard of his throne, until his excessive cruelty drove his subjects to a point at which fear is changed into desperation. His policy at first was that of Toussaint, but he carried it to an access of rigor which made his government a despotism. Like his great predecessor, he possessed such intimate knowledge of the African character, as enabled him to succeed completely in controlling those placed under his sway, and, in spite of the national propensities, to make his plans effectual for developing the resources of the country. While the territory was still a neglected waste, and its population poor, the lands of Christophe were in a condition of high productiveness, and the monarch died, leaving millions in the royal treasury.
But the salutary restraints imposed upon his disorderly subjects at the commencement of his reign, had been augmented by degrees to correspond to the demands of an evergrowing jealousy, until they had become changed to a rigorous severity of discipline, or vengeance, such as has been practised in few countries upon the globe. The dungeons of the Citadel Henry were almost as fatal to human life as the Black Hole at Calcutta, and it has been asserted, that amidst the pestiferous exhalations and suffocative atmosphere of these abodes of misery, the prisoners were almost sure to perish after a short confinement. With less truth it has been alleged, that fifty thousand persons lost their lives in these living tombs, while thirty thousand others perished of fatigue, hunger, and hardship of those who had been condemned for offences of a lighter nature, to labors upon the public works of the kingdom, all of which were performed under the lash and bayonet of the soldiery.[41]
These estimates are probably beyond the truth, though the number is incredible of those who perished under the severe exactions of Christophe’s tyranny, by hardship, imprisonment, military execution, or the infliction of sudden death, executed amidst a burst of ferocious vengeance in the despot. Christophe failed of giving perpetuity to his government through the mere abuse of his power.
The king was fifty-three years of age at his death, having reigned nine years. With a mind little capable of continuous thought, Christophe possessed a strong and obstinate will. When once he had gained an elevated position, he manifested great energy of character. Anxious to augment by commerce the material strength of his dominions, and to develop its moral power by education, he imposed on the emancipated people a labor not unlike that of the days of their servitude. Many hundreds of lives were sacrificed in erecting the palace of Sans Souci, and grading its grounds. The schools put in operation in his time, surpassed anything of the kind ever introduced in that part of the Island before or since.
FOOTNOTE:
[41] Malo.