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To the Reader

Émeric Bergeaud dedicated the sad hours of a long exile to the writing of this book. It was in working for his fellow countrymen that he hoped to ease the severities of his position and the ennui of being so far from his native land, from the nation that his venerated father helped to found for an entire race of men oppressed for centuries!

In 1857, feeling the approach of a disease that put his life in danger, he came to Paris to seek the aid of science. It was, alas, unhelpful. In the certain hope that he would be healed, Bergeaud brought along his manuscript to be printed, but when his condition did not improve, he gave the manuscript to me.

Once he returned to the country where he resided, Bergeaud welcomed his final hour with the calm of an irreproachable spirit, with the resignation of a Christian who submits to the will of the Almighty, yet he hoped that the goodness of God would provide happier times for Haiti. I dare say that, after he expressed these premonitions to me, a new order of things came into being, thanks to the pious devotion of a courageous general who recently satisfied the wishes of the nation.

Today I fulfill the promise that I made to my dear departed friend to publish his book when I judged the moment right. I dare hope that our country will welcome with sympathy this work whose patriotism reveals itself on every page, and that it will know how to do justice to the feelings of a virtuous citizen who, lost on foreign soil, deserved his country’s esteem.

Haiti will, without a doubt, see in this literary composition that exile nevertheless held charms for this elite soul, because there a constant desire for the happiness and prosperity of the nation was planted and grew. This happiness and prosperity can be achieved but through the sincere unity of all its children.

May the respectable widow and the family of my friend find in the reception of this patriotic work gentle consolation for the unhappiness that they have experienced!

B. Ardouin

Paris, the 10^th of May 1859

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