CHAPTER XVIII.
CHRISTOPHE AS KING, AND PETION AS PRESIDENT OF HAYTI
Christophe, now enthroned as the sovereign of the
North, seized upon the leisure which was afforded him
after perfecting the internal details of his new government,
to attempt a peaceable union of the blacks
of the South with those who were already the loyal
subjects of what he considered the legitimate authority
of the Island. For this purpose a large deputation
was dispatched from his capital, to proceed into
the territory of the republic as the envoys of the
black king, who proposed the union of the whole population
in one undivided government, secured under
the form of an hereditary monarchy, both from the
revolutions and weakness of one, the structure of which
was more popular. These emissaries, sent to declare
the clemency and peaceful intentions of the monarch
of the North, were taken from among the prisoners
who had fallen into the power of Christophe by the
capitulation of the Mole St. Nicholas, and who had
been adopted into the royal army, and made the
sharers of the royal bounty of the black king. To
