A passenger arriving by ship from France in the late eighteenth century would generally journey along the coast, first of Spanish Santo Domingo, and then of the French colony. If it was night there would be lights shining from the plantation houses and flames dancing in the mills, where, wrote Moreau, “the sugar crystals that are the principal richness of the colony, and which bring us so much enjoyment, are being prepared.”

Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ …, loc. 45