In the first week of the year 1803 Napoleon received the news of Leclerc's death and the miserable state of the French in St.Domingo; and as the tidings that he now received from Egypt, Syria, Corfu, and the East generally, were of the most alluring kind, he tacitly abandoned his Mississippi enterprise in favour of the oriental schemes which were closer to his heart.

In that month of January he seems to have turned his gaze from the western hemisphere towards Turkey, Egypt, and India.

True, he still seemed to be doing his utmost for the occupation of Louisiana, but only as a device for sustaining the selling price of the western prairies.
When the news of this change of policy reached the ears of Joseph and Lucien Bonaparte, it aroused their bitterest opposition.

Lucien plumed himself on having struck the bargain with Spain which had secured that vast province at the expense of an Austrian archduke's crown; and Joseph knew only too well that Napoleon was freeing himself in the West in order to be free to strike hard in Europe and the East.

The imminent rupture of the Peace of Amiens touched him keenly: for that peace was his proudest achievement.