Louisiana. Its pirates denounced in Christophe’s proclamation to the neutral powers

Amid so many internal difficulties, Christophe did not lose sight of our foreign relations. As provisional head of the government he addressed to the neutral powers, on 24 November 1806, a proclamation whose principal provisions were as follows: “All our attention is now turned to the cultivation of valuable produce. Our industry has amply rewarded us for our labors; our warehouses, filled with all the produce of the Antilles, await only the arrival of your fleets to exchange the goods you seek for those we need. If a system unfavorable to the progress of commerce has until now kept it from prospering among us, that disastrous influence will soon cease. The present government is so far from wishing to put obstacles in the way of commerce that it offers you advantages that no other government could grant. Under whatever flag you appear, the government pledges itself to watch attentively over your personal safety and your interests. The duties will be proportioned to the difficulties you may meet in reaching our ports. Your vessels will be dispatched with the greatest promptness. The government has already ordered the abolition of exclusive consignments, of the tax on the price of goods, of the privileges granted for the sale of coffee, and of the prohibition on taking cargoes of sugar, and so on. Everyone will be free to sell and to buy on the terms he thinks most advantageous. The old regulations, born of ignorance, will no longer obstruct your ventures; you will no longer be forced to give your confidence to individuals who were strangers to you and who did not even understand the interests of their own country. Your goods will remain in the hands of your friends and your own agents, and the government pledges itself to grant them all the protection they may desire. The horrors that too long marked the beginning of a tyrannical reign will never be repeated. Come and trade in our ports with entire confidence: come and exchange the fruits of your industry for our riches, and be assured that you will never have cause to repent of having trusted our promises.

“But if the government makes every effort to procure you the advantages of a flourishing commerce, it requires of your agents the same loyalty and the same good faith. It hopes also that the infamous conduct of the pirates of Louisiana will find no imitators.