The successes of Christophe in his late campaign against his rival at Port au Prince, had encouraged him with the hope of obtaining a complete conquest over him when he had strengthened and confirmed his power over the blacks of the North. The greater part of this province had already declared for him, and refused to acknowledge the new president at Port au Prince, who had been taken from among the mulattoes of the South. In this state of public feeling, Christophe proceeded to issue a series of proclamations and addresses to the people and the army, encouraging them to hope for a better era about to arise under his auspices, in which the evils of foreign invasion and the disaster of intestine disturbance were to cease, and the wounds of the country to be healed by the restoration of peace and tranquillity. He manifested a desire to encourage the prosperity of commerce and agriculture; and by thus fostering individual enterprise, to ensure the happiness of the people under his rule. To support the credit of his government among the commercial nations abroad, he dispatched a manifesto to each of them, with a design to remove the distrust which had begun to be entertained in the mercantile world of the new governments of Hayti. It was announced in these dispatches that the storehouses and magazines of the Island were crowded and overflowing with the rich productions of the Antilles, awaiting the arrival of foreign vessels to exchange for them the produce and fabrics of other lands; that the vexatious regulations and ignorant prohibitions of his predecessor no longer existed to interfere with the commercial prosperity of the Island; and that protection and encouragement would be granted to commercial factors from abroad, who should come to reside in the ports of the country.