he afterward distributed the native troops among the various regiments arrived from France; and he ordered the disarmament of all the cultivators. Upon his summons, a Colonial Council met at Cap-Français. The colonists who were in this body, with no restraining influence over them, went so far as to request the restoration of slavery in the presence of Christophe, who shouted in reply to their demand: "If there is no liberty, there will be no colony!" Leclerc thought that the surest way to keep the natives on the plantations was to prevent them from acquiring real estate; to this end he instructed the public notaries not to authorize any sale of land of less than fifty "carreaux." The cultivators were prohibited to marry women who were not on the plantations to which they belonged; and they were not permitted to go from one place to another without a permit ("cartes de sûreté"). The gendarmerie had the right to sabre all those who were found without these "cartes de sûreté." To crown the situation, Bonaparte adopted, on the 2d of July, 1802, a decree forbidding the blacks and mulattoes to set foot on the territory of France.
These blundering tactics exasperated the indigenes. General Leclerc did not scruple to hang and to drown the imprudent persons who voiced their complaints too loudly. The disarmament principally caused the greatest discontent. The cultivators felt that, by taking from them the arms they had used for the defense of the colony against the English and the Spanish, the French were depriving them of the surest means of protecting their liberty. In consequence they were unwilling to obey General Leclerc's orders. Dessalines, Pétion, Christophe, etc., were determined not to miss this opportunity to prepare the people for the anticipated struggle by showing them that they would henceforth be at the mercy of those who thought of restoring slavery. In consequence they were very active in carrying out the mission intrusted to them. Thus the quantity of confiscated rifles so pleased the Captain-General that he left for Tortuga Island, feeling sure of having
