In 1779 the French colony of Saint Domingo was in a state of peace, the population then consisting of white slave-holders, mulatto and black freedmen (affranchis), and slaves.  Count D’Estaing received orders to recruit men from Saint Domingo for the auxiliary army; and there being no question of color raised, received into the service a legion of colored freedmen.  There had been for years a colored militia in Saint Domingo, and as early as 1716, the Marquis de Chateau Morant, then governor of the colony, made one Vincent the Captain-general of all the colored militia in the vicinity of the Cape.  This Captain Vincent died in 1780 at the reputed age of 120 years.  He was certainly of great age, for he had been in the siege of Carthegenia in 1697, was taken prisoner, afterwards liberated by exchange and presented to Louis XIV, and fought in the German war under Villars.  Moreau de St. Mery, in his description of Vincent, incidentally mentions the Savannah expedition.  He says:  “I saw him (Vincent) the year preceding his death, recalling his ancient prowess to the men of color who were enrolling themselves for the expedition to Savannah; and showing in his descendants who were among the first to offer themselves, that he had transmitted his valor.  Vincent, the good Captain Vincent, had a most pleasing countenance; and the contrast of his black skin with his white hair produced an effect that always commanded respect.”

[Illustration:  Hutchinson Island.]

The Haytian historian, Enclus Robin, says when the call for volunteers reached Saint Domingo:  “eight hundred young freedmen, blacks and mulattoes, offered themselves to take part in the expedition;” that they went and “fought valiantly; and returned to Saint Domingo covered with glory.”  Madiou, another Haytian historian of the highest respectability says:  “A crowd of young men, black and colored, enlisted with the French troops and left for the continent.  They covered themselves with glory in the siege of Savannah, under the orders of Count D’Estaing.”

What effect this experience had upon these volunteers may be inferred from their subsequent history.  Robin says:  “These men who contributed their mite toward American independence, had still their mothers and sisters in slavery; and they themselves were subject to humiliating discriminations.  Should not France have expected from that very moment, that they would soon use in their own cause, those very arms which they had learned so well to use in the interests of others?” Madiou says:  “On their return to Saint Domingo they demanded for their brothers the enjoyment of political rights.”  Beauvais went to Europe and served in the army of France; but returned to fight for liberty in Hayti, and was Captain-general in 1791; Rigaud, Lambert and Christophe wrote their names—­not in the sand.  These are the men who dared to stir Saint Domingo, under whose influence Hayti became the first country of the New World, after the United States,