and could not therefore quit these joys, but with the keenest regret. There was, however, no alternative: his conduct would not justify his patron in keeping him longer in a place where so many temptations are daily offered to the youthful and unwary. Hovey was therefore obliged to leave the enchantments of the city for the dull realities, of the woods.

Previous however to his departure from New-York, where he remained in the whole but a few months, he executed those few paintings, which entitle him to the character of an artist. The last of these will bear the test of correct criticism, and will not shrink from a comparison with any work painted under similar circumstances. It has frequently been called "wonderfully fine" by men of the first taste and most correct judgment in the art of painting. These pictures are in oil, and when it is considered how few they are in number, and that the only instruction he received towards their completion, was in the mixture of colours, it must excite our astonishment that in so short a time and with so few advantages, he has painted so well. All these pictures, five or six in number, are in the possession of the gentleman already mentioned. The first is only remarkable as a first attempt, and as such evinces genius. In the others he made a progressive improvement. His last and best painting is from an original brought from Europe. The subject is a Spanish shepherd or goatherd at his devotions: an aged figure, with his hands in a supplicating posture, a fleece thrown carelessly over his shoulders, and his scrip suspended. The execution is really exquisite, the colouring fine; perhaps the greatest painter would not have disdained to be thought the author of this piece. It is sufficient to say that Hovey's copy is little inferior to the original, and when placed together a difference can scarcely be perceived, so that connoisseurs often mistake the one for the other.

Little is known of Hovey since his return home; the last account stated that he still continued painting, and occasionally took the portraits of his neighbours, probably earning by this means a precarious subsistence. Literary history is full of the names of those whose lives were spent in want, who er led them in wretchedness, yet whose works while they are the delight of posterity, serve also as a reproach to the age in which they lived. While we hope that this stigma may not be affixed to the American character, it is too much to be feared that Hovey is doomed to add another name to the list of unfortunate genius, and neglected merit.

BAYARD.

VOL. I.

3 N

MEMOIRS OF HAYTI-FOR THE PORT FOLIO.

LETTER II.

The Cape, January 31st, 1804.

THE proceedings of the black army during the seige of the Cape together with some letters, written to Dassalines by the French Commanders, were officially published after the evacuation, in a small pamphlet in the style of a bulletin, by the Indigene General. I send you a translation of it, that you may have an opportunity of forming some opinion of the state of the military art among the Haytians.

After the embarkation of the French, Dessalines with his troops entered the town of the Cape in triumph, attended by a large concourse of white inhabitants, who had gone out to meet him, and to welcome his arrival. Orders were immediately issued to the soldiers that the whites should not be molested, but on the contrary, treated in the most kind and friendly manner, as they had placed themselves under the protection of the Indigenes, and had manifested an implicit reliance on their good faith. These orders were not agreeable to the soldiers, who were half starved, naked and poor, and who had been waiting with eager impatience for this opportunity to plunder. They were, however, better obeyed than could have been expected from so-unprincipled a band of ruffians.

Business was for a considerable time suspended, and the whites were too much terrified to open their stores. It was even dangerous for them to appear in the streets, for when they did so, they were robbed of their hats, watches, and whatever else they had of value about them. This want of confidence existed about three weeks, when a man of the name of Benard, finding that no outrages of a sanguinary nature had been committed, ventured to open his store. The sight of his property proved an irresistible temptation to destroy him. On the following morning he was discovered with his wife and child assassinated in bed, and his store completely plundered. This barbarity was without doubt perpetrated by some of the soldiers, but the offenders were not discovered, and perhaps never inquired after by their commanders. Mr. Benard, a Frenchman by birth, was, it is said, a naturalized citizen of the United States, and had but lately removed to the Cape from Boston.

The number of whites that remained in the Cape, confiding in the assurances of safety and protection, solemnly made by Dessalines, may be estimated at about three thousand. They consisted chiefly of merchants, tradesmen, and artizans, two or three priests, several physicians, and many families, of whom a considerable number were females, who had formerly been wealthy proprietors, but were now in

reduced circumstances, and probably preferred death itself, to wandering over the world in poverty and distress. There also remained a number of white soldiers, who had deserted from the French army, mostly Poles, and several designing sycophants, who by their talents as intriguants, expected to obtain important and lucrative offices under the government. Among these, Rimet, the French adjutant of the place, and a Mr. A—, a private citizen, were very conspicuous. The former apparently as a reward for his reliance on the protection of the blacks, was nominally invested with the office of commandant de la place, but in fact only for the purpose of supplying Richard, the real commandant, an ignorant negro, with a tutor to instruct him in the duties of his station. Mr. A was appointed Interpreter, an office which afforded many opportunities for fraudulent gain.

The sick and wounded soldiers, mentioned in the 5th article of the capitulation, who had been left by the French under the guardianship of the Indigenes, were soon despatched, but whether by drowning or shooting was not publicly known, and the physician that had remained with them, was taken into the service of the negro army.

Immense quantities of cannon, mortars, muskets, swords, shot, balls, and every species of arms and ammunition, were left in the arsenal by the French, and there found by the blacks. It is a little singular that the French did not make use of some of their wonted caution on this occasion, and destroy or render useless, which they might have done, many of these articles.

The blacks being now entire masters of the French part of the Island, the declaration of its Independence was immediately proclaimed, and every regulation for the establishment of tranquillity made without delay.

The first important step now to be pursued after the establishment of their Independence by the new dynasty, was the selection of a form of government best adapted to the nature and disposition of the subjects, and for this purpose a grand convention of the chiefs from the different parts of the Island was assembled. The result of their deliberations, was, the appointment of their commander in chief, Jean Jacques Dessalines, governor-general of the Island, a title rather unassuming in its pretensions, while in fact, he was invested with the most despotic power. The convention perhaps knew, that before the effects of a republican enthusiasm had subsided, there might be some objection among the people to those titles which are generally appropriated to an extensive degree of power, but they also knew, that nothing but an iron hand would be capable of governing a race of men, unaccustomed to liberty, and wholly ignorant of the import of the

term.

Among the acts of this assembly, it was resolved, that the name of the Island should be changed to Hayti, its original name, when discovered. The French calendar was abolished. The name of Port an Prince, which during the democracy of the French revolution, had been altered to Port Republican, was restored. Cape François was permitted to retain only the appellation of The Cape. The names of streets and places, which bore any relation to the French were changed. Even the use of the French language was considerably discouraged, and the Creole obtained more general currency. Dassalines never spoke a word of French, nor would he permit himself to be addressed in that language. He has been known to say to an American, who began to converse with him in French," speak Creole, I am not a white man!"

The Island was divided into several departments, each commanded by a general of division. Subdivisions of these districts were then allotted to the command of brigadier generals, and of these again the towns and parishes, were placed under the authority of commandants. The seat of government was established at Gonaives, a small town, in the bite of Leogane, the first day of January was declared to be the commencement of the era of their independence, and on that day was published an official paper, purporting to be a solemn abjuration of the French nation. Clervaux, a man of colour, was invested with the office of general in chief, the title of the second in command.

These, and many other arrangements being established, the chiefs retired to their respective places of residence, to attend more immediately to the government of their districts.

R.

FOR THE PORT FOLIO.

MARRIAGE IN GREECE.

(From the Memoirs of Anacreon. MS.)

THE sun had just begun to gild the summits of the mountains as I entered the delicious valley of Padion, which is watered by the various streams of the Пlyssus, the Eridan and the Cæphisus. The numerous forests of olive trees were now in full bloom, and appeared like a white veil sustained by branches of dark green. The birds which migrated to more genial climes to avoid the rigours of the past season, were re

turning; and, in gayest notes of transport they expressed the joy with which they revisited their former abodes. I journeyed many weary miles on the meandering banks of the Ilyssus, and breathed incessant prayers to the gods and the muses who preside over its sacred waters* to favour my undertaking with their auspicious influence. The placid undulations of the waves afforded a striking contrast with the tumultuous agitation of my breast; and though the birds awakened their sweetest melody, they infused no harmony into my soul. However Wit may riot in the successes of the convivial board, or Wisdom boast its superior dignity, they afford no solace to the mind of the lover whose breast is disturbed by doubt. To him no eye sparkles but that of her for whom he sighs, and no rules excite his meditations but those which are taught by the son of the cerulean goddess. His soul though unappalled by the all dangers of contention, is softened to tenderness by the influence of female attractions; sensibility usurps the place of courage, and man, with all his pride, is more timid than the fawn which flies before the mountain breeze.

Alternately cheered by the hopes of success and dismayed by the fears of disappointment, with a heart throbbing under all those conflicting emotions which agitate the reflections of a youthful lover, I arrived on the evening of the third day, at the mansion of Telesicles, the uncle of Myrilla. As I passed, with timid steps, through the groves that shaded the house, I saw her seated on a gentle eminence, which was denominated Ida. A mild breeze wantoned through the ringlets of her hair, and as it wafted the delicious odours of the violets upon I which she reclined, it bore also the soft sounds of her melodious voice. But oh! what rapture thrilled my veins when I recognised in those tones, which I almost feared to hear, the music of one of my own songs. It was that last adieu, which breathed the despondency of a hopeless mind, when I believed her to be devoted to another. An expression of melancholy stole over her face, and her blue eye glistened with the tear of sadness as she feebly struck the unwilling strings. The scene was too affecting. I ran to her, and in an instant she was encircled in my arms.

Blessings on thee, oh Ida! thou witness of the most delicious moment of my existence. May the Graces select thee as the scene of their disportings, and the Muses celebrate thy beauties in the sweetest songs of praise. May the luxuriant lentiscus and the blooming rose diffuse their odours through thy romantic shades in perennial vigour, and the

The Athenians are of opinion that the Ilyssus is sacred to other gods and the muses. Paus. Att. lib. 1, cap. 18.