At the earlier date, when the name Australia was unknown, and the half-starved settlement in and around Sydney represented the sole wealth of that isle of continent; when the Cape of Good Hope was looked on only as a port of call; when the United States numbered less than five and a half million souls, and the waters of the Mississippi rolled in unsullied majesty past a few petty Spanish stations--the plantations of the West Indies seemed the unfailing mine of colonial industry and commerce.

Under the _ancien regime_, the trade of the French portion of San Domingo is reported to have represented more than half of her oceanic commerce.

But during the Revolution the prosperity of that colony reeled under a terrible blow.
The hasty proclamation of equality between whites and blacks by the French revolutionists, and the refusal of the planters to recognize that decree as binding, led to a terrible servile revolt, which desolated the whole of the colony.

Those merciless strifes had, however, somewhat abated under the organizing power of a man, in whom the black race seemed to have vindicated its claims to political capacity.

Toussaint l'Ouverture had come to the front by sheer sagacity and force of character.