Le Cap. Leclerc issues his proclamation of 17 February from his headquarters here.

Headquarters, Le Cap, 28 Pluviôse, Year 10 (17 February 1802). Inhabitants of Saint-Domingue, I came, in the name of the French government, to bring you peace and happiness; I feared that I would meet obstacles in the ambitious designs of the chiefs of the colony: I was not mistaken. These chiefs, who proclaimed their devotion to France in their proclamations, thought of nothing less than of being French; if they sometimes spoke of France, it was because they did not believe themselves in a position to disown her openly.

Today their perfidious intentions are unmasked. General Toussaint has sent back his children with a letter in which he gave assurance that he desired nothing so much as the happiness of the colony, and that he was ready to obey every order I might give him. I ordered him to come to me; I gave him my word that I would employ him as my lieutenant general: he has answered this order with nothing but phrases; he seeks only to gain time.

I have orders from the French government to establish prosperity and plenty promptly; if I allowed myself to be beguiled by cunning and perfidious evasions, the colony would become the theater of a long civil war.

I am taking the field, and I shall teach this rebel what the strength of the French government is. From this moment he must be, in the eyes of all good Frenchmen who live in Saint-Domingue, nothing but a senseless monster.

I have promised the inhabitants of Saint-Domingue liberty; I shall know how to make them enjoy it; I shall cause persons and property to be respected.

I order as follows:

Article 1. General Toussaint and General Christophe are declared outlaws, and all citizens are ordered to hunt them down and to treat them as rebels against the French Republic.