Gonaïves. Toussaint returns there.

Toussaint left the Cap and went to Le Gros-Morne. There he assembled all the cultivators of the commune, together with the drivers of the plantations, and himself read them Governor Laveaux’s proclamations. He then preached them a sermon on Jesus Christ and the Holy Cross. He strove to humiliate the people of color so that they might let fall some words for which he could have them shot. But they had enough self-command to restrain themselves. He nevertheless had a few of them imprisoned who had rejoiced at the arrest of Laveaux and Perroud; and he drove from his presence the women who came to ask him for their pardon. He returned to Les Gonaïves on 13 April. In that town he received several denunciations against the people of color of the Cap, who sought only, so he was written, to destroy him. He wrote to Laveaux: “They will do well to take good aim at me, for if they miss me, I shall not miss them; and if they succeed, my ashes will be doubly avenged by those who must naturally succeed me.” He denounced to Laveaux the secret meetings being held at the Cap at Chanlatte’s house, and urged him to send Chanlatte and his accomplices to him at Les Gonaïves.