CHAPTER XXIII.
SOULOUQUE AS EMPEROR OF HAYTI.
General Riche, a griffe, or dark mulatto, was selected
to fill the place left vacant by the flight of
Boyer; and his ability, together with the universal confidence
reposed in him by all classes, seemed to shadow
forth a prosperous era for the republic. He had, however,
done little more than enter upon his arduous duties,
when he was carried off by a sudden malady, universally
regretted by the entire population.
The Senate, whose duty it was to elect the president, gave a majority of their votes for Faustin Soulouque, on the first of March, 1847, and he was inaugurated into the position the same day.
Soulouque was a tall, good-natured, full-blooded negro, who, from the year 1804, when he was house-*servant for General Lamarre, had passed through all the events of his country without leaving any trace of himself, whether good or bad. With no education, no ability, save that he was a great eater, he was the last man in the republic that would have been thought of for any office, except the one he filled.
True, in 1810, while his master, General Lamarre,
