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Page:Haiti- Her History and Her Detractors.djvu/42

34 were terrible foes. The Spaniards made vain efforts to exterminate them. A new and relentless war began; the island once more became a battlefield. The English thought they had now a good opportunity to take possession of the country. A fleet sent by Cromwell threatened Santo Domingo in 1655. Fortunately for the French the expedition failed and the English proceeded to Jamaica, which they seized, thus depriving Spain forever of that colony. The struggle at Saint-Domingue continued therefore between the French and the Spaniards only; it was a stubborn and bloody contest. The French not only held their own, but even managed to gain a surer footing.

Emboldened by their success they now assumed the offensive; they desired the entire possession of the island. In their first campaign against Santiago they stormed the city, which they afterward abandoned upon receiving a ransom (1669).

At the first opportunity the Spaniards retaliated. They invaded Petit-Goave, which they completely destroyed. In 1691 they took possession of Cap-Français, which they set on fire and whose inhabitants they massacred. On leaving the ruined city they took with them a great number of women, children, and slaves. The French for a while were in a desperate state. Besides the Spaniards, the English also were threatening their settlement. And the black slaves, whose hope of liberty was only slumbering, began to cause some anxiety. In 1678 Padrejean had roused them to rebellion. In 1697, in the Quartier-Morin, 300 Africans took up arms again. Fortunately for the French the timely peace of Riswick put an end to the hostilities. By the treaty signed in 1697 Louis XIV acquired a clear title to the possession of the western part of the island, the limits of which were established from Cap-Rose in the north to La Beate in the south.

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Page:The prophetic books of William Blake, Milton.djvu/65

 The Spectre of Satan stood upon the roaring sea & beheld

Milton within his sleeping Humanity: trembling & shudd'ring

He stood upon the waves a Twenty seven fold mighty Demon

Gorgeous & beautiful: loud roll his thunders against Milton:

Loud Satan thunder'd, loud & dark upon mild Felpham shore,

Not daring to touch one fibre he howl'd round upon the Sea.

I also stood in Satan's bosom & beheld its desolations:

A ruin'd Man: a ruin'd building of God, not made with hands:

Its plains of burning sand, its mountains of marble terrible:

Its pits & declivities flowing with molten ore & fountains

Of pitch & nitre: its ruin'd palaces & cities & mighty works:

Its furnaces of affliction, in which his Angels & Emanations

Labour with blacken'd visages among its stupendous ruins,

Arches & Pyramids & porches, colonades & domes,

In which dwells Mystery, Babylon, here is her secret place,

From hence she comes forth in the Churches in delight,

Here is her cup fill'd with its poisons, in these horrid vales,

And here her scarlet Veil woven in pestilence & war;

Here is Jerusalem bound in chains in the Dens of Babylon.

In the Eastern porch of Satan's Universe Milton stood & said:

Satan! my Spectre! I know my power thee to annihilate,

And be a greater in thy place, & be thy Tabernacle,

A covering for thee to do thy will, till one greater comes

And smites me as I smote thee & becomes my covering.

Such are the Laws of thy false Heav'ns: but Laws of Eternity

Are not such: know thou! I come to Self Annihilation.

Such are the Laws of Eternity, that each shall mutually

Annihilate himself for others' good, as I for thee.

Thy purpose & the purpose of thy Priests & of thy Churches

Is to impress on men the fear of death; to teach

Trembling & fear, terror, constriction: abject selfishness.

Mine is to teach Men to despise death & to go on

In fearless majesty annihilating Self, laughing to scorn

Thy Laws & terrors, shaking down thy Synagogues, as webs.

I come to discover before Heav'n & Hell the Self righteousness

In all its Hypocritic turpitude, opening to every eye

These wonders of Satan's holiness, shewing to the Earth

The Idol Virtues of the Natural Heart, & Satan's Seat

Explore in all its Selfish Natural Virtue & put off

In Self annihilation all that is not of God alone: 41