June, 1793, and styled himself "General of the King's Army." He followed Jean-François and Biassou when they espoused the Spanish cause. But they became jealous of his success at the head of the army he had organized; and Biassou affected to treat his former secretary as if he were still his subordinate. Relying on his influence over his companions and profiting by the prestige resulting from Ms victories over the French, Toussaint threw off the control exercised over him by his former chiefs and declared that he would henceforth receive orders from no one but the representatives of the King of Spain. The conflict became so acute that his soldiers attacked Biassou's. The latter sent a petition to the Governor of the Spanish portion of Saint-Domingue in which the French emigrants who were at Fort Dauphin denounced Toussaint Louverture as a murderer and a traitor; they even requested that he should be put to death. Don Cabrera[1] went so far as to arrest his whole family, including his nephew Moise. The arrest of his relatives showed Toussaint that, in spite of the great services he had rendered them, the Spaniards were inclined to believe that the charges brought against him were not without foundation. At any moment he might be dismissed, imprisoned, and put to death. These considerations perhaps largely influenced him in deciding to join the cause of France; but they were assuredly not the only reasons which determined his decision; the general freedom granted to the slaves, the political rights which blacks and mulattoes enjoyed under the French and which were
- ↑ Spanish commander-in-chief of the South and West.
