It is not necessary to trace in detail the history of the island; but I may notice that in 1507 the population was estimated at 60,000, which shows that the original reckoning must have been greatly exaggerated, as not even these early apostles of the religion of charity could have thus wiped out the population by millions. The story of what one called the early exploits of the Spaniards in Santo Domingo has been so often related that it is useless to tell it over again, especially as it would present but a sequence of sickening events, of murders, executions, robbery, and lust, with but few traits of generosity and virtue to record. These foreign settlers soon saw that the island would be useless to them without population, so they early began to introduce negroes from Africa, as well as families from the neighbouring isles. The Coral Indians were not spared, and the Spanish historians themselves are the chroniclers of this record of infamy. Now not a descendant of an Indian remains. Santo Domingo, deprived of population, with its mineral wealth, for want of hands, no longer available, and agriculture neglected, rapidly degenerated, and little was left but the city of Santo Domingo and in the interior a population of herdsmen. Then the famous buccaneers appeared to inflict on the Spaniards some of the misery they had worked on the Indians. Notwithstanding every effort to prevent them, the French adventurers gradually spread through the western end of the island, and began to form towns and settlements. In 1640 Levasseur was sent from France as Governor of these irregularly-acquired possessions, and from that time the French may be said to have established themselves firmly in the western part of Santo Domingo--which hereafter I may call by its present name, Hayti, to simplify the narrative--but their rule was not recognised by Spain until the year 1697. From this date to the breaking out of the French Revolution the colony increased in prosperity, until it became, for its extent, probably the richest in the world. Negroes were imported by thousands from the coast of Africa, and were subjected to as harsh a slavery as ever disgraced the worst system of servitude. Two events occurred during this period of prosperity which were worthy of being noted: First, the fearful earthquake which destroyed Port-au-Prince in 1770, when for fifteen days the earth trembled under repeated shocks, and left the city a heap of ruins.[3] The second was the war in which France engaged to aid our colonists to acquire their independence. To increase their forces the French commanders permitted the free blacks and mulattoes to enlist, and they did good service; and when they returned to their country, they spread widely a spirit of disaffection, which no ordinances could destroy.