The expedition left the ports of France on the 14th of December 1801, and arrived off Cape St. Domingo on the 1st of February 1802.  The fatal result of the enterprise is well known, but we are never to be cured of the folly of such absurd expeditions.  In the instructions given to Leclerc everything was foreseen; but it was painful to know that the choice of one of the youngest and least capable of all the generals of the army left no hope of a successful result.  The expedition to St. Domingo was one of Bonaparte’s great errors.  Almost every person whom he consulted endeavoured to dissuade him from it.  He attempted a justification through the medium of his historians of St. Helena; but does he succeed when he says, “that he was obliged to yield to the advice of his Council of State?” He, truly, was a likely man to submit a question of war to the discussion of the Council of State, or to be guided in such an affair by any Council!  We must believe that no other motive influenced the First Consul but the wish, by giving him the means of enriching himself, to get rid of a brother-in-law who had the gift of specially annoying him.  The First Consul, who did not really much like this expedition, should have perhaps reflected longer on the difficulties of attempting to subdue the colony by force.  He was shaken by this argument, which I often repeated to him, and he agreed with it, but the inconceivable influence which the members of his family exercised on him always overcame him.

Bonaparte dictated to me a letter for Toussaint, full of sounding words and fine promises, informing him that his two children, who had been educated in Paris, were sent back to him, offering him the title of vice-governor, and stating that he ought readily to assist in an arrangement which would contribute to reconnect the colony with the mother-country.  Toussaint, who had at first shown a disposition to close with the bargain, yet feeling afraid of being deceived by the French, and probably induced by ambitious motives, resolved on war.  He displayed a great deal of talent; but, being attacked before the climate had thinned the French ranks, he was unable to oppose a fresh army, numerous and inured to war.  He capitulated, and retired to a plantation, which he was not to leave without Leclerc’s permission.  A feigned conspiracy on the part of the blacks formed a pretence for accusing Toussaint, and he was seized and sent to France.

Toussaint was brought to Pains in the beginning of August.  He was sent, in the first instance, to the Temple, whence he was removed to the Chateau de Joux.  His imprisonment was rigorous; few comforts were allowed him.  This treatment, his recollection of the past, his separation from the world, and the effects of a strange climate, accelerated his death, which took place a few months after his arrival in France.  The reports which spread concerning his death, the assertion that it was not a natural one, and that it had been caused by poison, obtained no