H I S T O R Y
2 CHAP. I.
O F
mon parlance they are collectively called mulattoes) and it muft be attributed, I prefume, to the greater difcountenance which the married ftate receives from the national manners, that in all the French iflands thefe people abound in far greater pro portion to the whites than in thofe of Great Britain. In Jamaica, the whites out-number the people of colour as three to one. In St. Domingo, the whites were eftimated at 30,000, the mulattoes at 24,000, of whom 4,700 were men capable of bearing arms, and accordingly, as a diftinct people, actuated by an efprit de corps, they were very formidable. Of the policy which it was thought neceffary in St. Domingo to maintain towards this unfortunate race, I fhall prefently treat; but it feems proper, in the firft place, to give fome account of the fubordination in which, before the revolution of 1789, the parent country thought fit to hold the colony at large. government w a s exercifed by a Governor General, and an officer called Intendant, both of whom were nominated by the crown, on the recommendation of the minifter of the marine, and generally confidered as eftablifhed in their refpective offices for three years. Their powers, in fome cafes, were adminiftered jointly ; in others, they poffeffed feparate and diftinct authority, •which each of them exercifed without the concurrence or par ticipation of the other. THE
IN their joint adminiftration their powers were unlimited ; comprehending every part of colonial government, and extend ing even to detail, in the minuteft branches of finance and police. They enacted the laws, nominated to all vacant offices, and