CHRISTOPHE, HEINE', king of Hayti, b. Oct. 6, 1767, was at one period a slave and Lavern-cook in Cape Town, St. Domingo, and afterwards overseer of a plantation. In 1790, he joined the black insurgents against the French, aud, from his gigantic stature, energy, and courage, soon became a leader among them. By Toussaint'Louverture, he was appointed brig.gen., and employed to suppress an insurrection headed by Moyse or Moses, his nephew. C. captured the latter, and on his execution, succeeded him as governor of the northern province of French St. Domingo. In 1802, he gallantly defended Cape Town when gen. Leclerc arrived there with a French army destined for the reduction of the blacks, and effected his retreat with 3,000 men, after having burned the greater part of the town. The perfidious seizure of Toussaint he amply revenged, and durino. the short-lived government of Dessalines, who was slain by a military con spiracy in Oct., 1806, C. was gen.-in-chief of the Haytian army. In Feb., 1807, he was
appointed president of Hayti for life. A republic being, about the same time, organized at Port-au-Prince, with Petion at its head, civil war commenced between them. On Mar. 28, 1811, C. was proclaimed king of Hayti, by the name of Henri I., and solemnly crowned, June 2, 1812. In 1814, he and Petion suspended hostilities, and by his power and skill, C. was enabled to counteract the attempts made by France to regain its authority in the island. His avarice and cruelty led to an insurrection, which was aided by gen. Boyer, who had succeeded Petion in 1818; and the rebellion having spread to Cape Town, C.'s deposition was proclaimed, at the head of the troops, by the duke of Marmalade, one of the first dignitaries in the kingdom. Deserted by his body-guard and all his nobles, he shot himself, Oct. 8, 1820. He left a code of laws, which he called the " Code Henri," in imitation of the Code Napoleon.