[    i6   ]
Had we been counter-revo'utioniits, is it to the National Affembly
we fhould have addreffed fuch fentiments ?
It is afferted, it is printed and published, that we wifhed to offer
ourfelves to Great Britain. — Our reply to this falfehood is very fhi-
ple., it is written in every page of our verbal procefs. There we have
manifefted our principles, and, we can fafely affirm, the full perfor-
mance of our duty.
But we will go yet farther : permit us an hypothefis, which our fitua-
tion, Angular in the recoids of hiftory, authorifes us to ftate.
At the moment of the infurrection breaking out, all the inhabitants
cf the town of the Cape were anxious to difcover the caufe of an event
fo horrible.
A journalift had printed the decrees of the 13th and 15th of May
laft, with the fpecch of M. Monneron, deputy of the ITe of France.
The firft depofitions ftated, that thefe papers, with all thofe of the pre-
tended philanthropifts, were read and commented upon, by a mu-
latto upon Normand's plantation, in the nocturnal affemblies where
the negro-drivers met, who are now the ring-leaders of the rebels.
We learnt that the town of the Cape was to be included in the con-
flagration, and that within that town were lurking thofe who were?
to fet it on fire and maiTacre all its inhabitants. Immediately a cry or)
rage and defpair arofe on all fides. The philanthropifts, France itfelf,
were accufed of this dreadful plot: diffra&idn and fury were impreffed
on every countenance ; every heart was in agitation; everything me-
naced a'horrible butchery, a general confufion. Already the report
of mufquets was heard ! Negroes and mulattoes received their contents
at the very door of the General Affembly. Some affirmed a white
cockade, fome loudly called for the protection of the Fnglifh, fome affu-
med a black cockade. Thofe words, The Nation, i'.f Law, and the
Kin?, difappeared from the hall which was preparing for the Genera'
Aflemblyj' a hand, bewildered by rage, obliterated them. Exclama--
rions were heard, that the government at home had yielded us to tj»
murderer's fword, to the torch of incendiaries ! that, in fhort, they
had delivered us over to every human crime in one day, believed to
be the laft of the colony ! Furious voices blafphemed againfl: a country,
to whom they were indebted — not for their protection — but their
death!                                                                                   -,          .   ,
In the midft of this frenzy, of which no power could reprefs the
firft effufion, tlie General Affembly was yet attentive to meafures of
fecurity. The moments were precious. A proclamation was^ifiued,
forbidding, under pain of death, any one to take away another's life.
Four of the members made it public even whilft it was writing. 1 hefe
commiffioners carried it from place to place ; and met, in every pWe,
mobs, and fhouts, and even infults ; but they fucceeded in favmg this
mulattoes, who, being accufed, would otherwife have been maflacred;
and their care and their intreaties fufpended the fury of the people.
\The remaining part in our next. The original French may be had.at the
European Magazine Warehoufe, No. 32, Cornhill; and another
interefling Jratl on th:s fubjeel, intitled Sur les Troubles des_ Glonm, et
l'unique Moyen d'affurer la Tranquillité, la Profpérité, et la Fvlefh V
. ces Dépendances de l'Empire, en Réfutation des deux Difcours de OU
Brifjot des 1er et yr.e Décembre, 1791, par M. Dumonierf]