Although the complete evacuation of the Island by the forces of the French, and the ceaseless employment of the armies of Napoleon in the wars of Europe, had left the blacks of St. Domingo in the full possession of that Island, Dessalines lived in continual dread that the first moment of leisure would be seized by the conqueror of Europe to attempt the subjugation of his new empire. The black chief even alleged in excuse for the massacre which he had just accomplished, that the French residents in the Island had been engaged in machinations against the dominion of the blacks, and that several French frigates then lying at St. Jago de Cuba had committed hostilities upon the coast, and seemed threatening a descent upon this land. Influenced by this perpetual solicitude, Dessalines now turned his attention to measures of defence, in case the French should again undertake the reduction of the country. It was ordered that at the first appearance of a foreign army ready to land upon the shores of the Island, all the towns upon the coast should be burnt to the ground, and the whole population be driven to the fastnesses of the interior. He also built fortifications in the mountains as places of refuge in the event of foreign invasion. Always violent and sanguinary, when there remained no whites upon whom to employ his ferocity, his cruelty was lavished upon his own subjects. For the slightest causes, both blacks and mulattoes were put to death without mercy and without the forms of trial. The sight of blood awakened within him his desire of slaughter, and his government became at length a fearful despotism, against the devouring vengeance of which none, not even those of his own household, was safe. The generals Clervaux, Geffrard, and Gabart died suddenly and mysteriously; and the aggressions of Dessalines, directed particularly against the mulattoes, soon awakened the vengeance of that jealous class, who were already displeased at their insignificance in the State, and at the exaltation of the black dynasty which seemed about to become permanent in the country. A secret conspiracy was accordingly planned against the black monarch, and when, on the 17th of October, 1806, he commenced a journey from St. Marks to Port au Prince, the occasion was improved to destroy him. A party of mulattoes lying in ambuscade at a place called Pont Rouge, made an attack upon him, and he was killed at the first fire. Thus closed the career of Dessalines, a man who had commenced life as a slave, and ended as an emperor; a man whose untiring energy, headlong bravery, unsurpassed audacity, and native genius made him to be feared by both blacks and whites, and whose misdeeds have furnished to the moralists more room for criticism than any other man whose life was passed in the West Indies.