The administration of Pétion was mild, and he did all that he could for the elevation of the people whom he ruled. He was the patron of education and the arts; and scientific men, for years after his death, spoke his name with reverence. He was highly respected by the representatives of foreign powers, and strangers visiting his republic always mentioned his name in connection with the best cultivated and the most gentlemanly of the people of Hayti. The people of the republic, without distinction of color or sect, regarded Pétion’s death as a great national calamity; and this feeling extended even into Christophe’s dominion, where the republican president had many warm friends amongst the blacks as well as the mulattoes. Pétion was only forty-eight years of age at his death. He was a man of medium size, handsome, as were nearly all of the men of mixed blood, who took part in the Haytian war. His manners were of the Parisian school, and his early military training gave him a carriage of person that added dignity to his general appearance. CHAPTER XX. BOYER THE SUCCESSOR OF PÉTION IN HAYTI. Boyer, the new president, was peaceably acknowledged by the people of the republic as their lawful chief, and no other general of the army manifested any disposition to establish an adverse claim to the vacant dignity. Boyer, finding himself tranquilly seated in power, and placed beyond any danger from the hostile enterprises of the rival dynasty, devoted himself to the encouragement of agriculture and commerce within his territory. He made a tour of inspection through all the different districts, and in each of them the due observance of the laws was enjoined, and the citizens were urged to abandon their idle habits, and for the good of the State, if not for the promotion of their individual interests, to employ themselves in the development of the great resources of the country. Within a few months after his elevation to power, the new president formed the resolution to disperse the hordes of banditti that infested Grande Anse, and kept the whole South in perpetual alarm. Conscious of the importance there existed of depriving his great competitor of a lodgment within the very heart of the republic, such as to expose its very capital to the danger of an attack both in front and rear, Boyer determined to fit out a sufficient force to sweep the mountains of La Hotte, and if possible, to capture Gomar within the very fastnesses which had been for so many years his natural citadel.