At this, my last
conference with them, I recommended moderation and forbearance, as the
best gifts I could leave them; and I entreated them rather to give up
their seats in the Assembly, than on that account to bring misery on
their country; for that with patience their cause would ultimately
triumph. They replied, that I had prescribed to them a most difficult
task; they were afraid that neither the conduct of the white colonists
nor of the National Assembly could be much longer borne; they thanked
me, however, for my advice. One of them gave me a trinket, by which I
might remember him; and as for himself, he said he should never forget
one, who had taken such a deep interest in the welfare of his mother[A].
I found, however, notwithstanding all I said, that there was a spirit of
dissatisfaction in them, which nothing but a redress of their grievances
could subdue; and that, if the planters should persevere in their
intrigues, and the National Assembly in delay, a fire would be lighted
up in St. Domingo, which could not easily be extinguished. This was
afterwards realized: for Oge, in about three months from this time, left
his companions, to report to his constituents in St.
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