Christophe

Christophe, Henri, king of Hayti, was of negro blood, and was born in Grenada in 1767. First as a slave and then as an emancipated servant he appears to have done his duty faithfully in a hotel at Cape Francois, St. Domingo, till Toussaint l'Ouverture's outbreak in 1790. Christophe, a man of colossal stature, and considerable force of character, gained the chief's confidence, and received the command of the north of the island. In 1802 he held Cape Town vigorously against Leclerc, but was forced to evacuate, joining Toussaint with the garrison. When the latter was seized and imprisoned, Christophe kept up the struggle under Dessaline, whom he succeeded after a period of confusion as king of part of the island. He was crowned in 1812 as Henri I., and set up a very respectable imitation of the French court, ruling with remarkable sagacity, encouraging education and the press, and drawing up a code of laws. In 1820, whilst he was ill, a republican revolt, headed by the "Duc de Marmalade," abolished the monarchy, and Christophe shot himself.