The Senate again met in Port-au-Prince in 1806 to elect a President, and their choice fell on Pétion, who, of all the influential men in the west and south, certainly appeared the most deserving. He had scarcely been installed, when his generals began to conspire against him, and the war with Christophe absorbed most of the resources of the country. No event, however, of any great importance occurred till the year 1810, when Rigaud, having escaped from France, arrived in Hayti, and was received with much enthusiasm. Pétion apparently shared this feeling for his old chief, and imprudently gave him the command of the southern department. Rigaud was too vain to remain under the authority of Pétion, his former subordinate, and therefore separated the south from the west. The President would not attempt to prevent this by war, and accepted the situation, so that the island was divided into five states,--Christophe in the north, the old Spanish colony in the east, Pétion in the west, Rigaud in the south, and Goman, a petty African chief, in the extreme west of the southern department. Christophe in 1811 proclaimed himself King and created a nobility. Rigaud died, and soon after the south rejoined the west, which was menaced by a new invasion from the north. In 1812 Christopher’s army advanced to besiege Port-au-Prince; but finding their attacks frustrated, the soldiers, weary of the war, began to desert to Pétion, and had not the King hastened to raise the siege, it is probable his army would have gone over to the enemy. King Henry I., as he was called, appears then to have abandoned himself to his savage temper, and his cruelties might be compared to those of Dessalines, and prepared the way for that union of the whole island which followed. Pétion, though rather an incapable ruler, was not cruel, and attached the people to his government. In 1814, the fall of Napoleon brought about peace in Europe, and the French Government hastened to send agents to Hayti to claim submission to the mother country. Pétion refused, whilst offering an indemnity to the colonists; but Christophe, having secured the secret instructions of the French agent, did not hesitate to execute them. These proceedings of the French made the rival chiefs forget their own dissensions and prepare to receive another French expedition. Orders were given that on its appearance off the coast every town and village should be burnt down, and that the inhabitants should retire to the mountains. The old planters were urging their Government to destroy all the inhabitants of Hayti and repeople it from Africa; but a discovery of their projects produced so great an effect in England, that public opinion forced the Congress of Vienna to declare that the slave-trade was for ever abolished.