.y^- I? ^7 CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME OF THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND GIVEN IN 1 85 1 BY HENRY WILLIAMS SAGE Cornell University Library F 1921.S14 1889 Hayti, or, the Black republic. 3 1924 021 174 564 HAYTI THE BLACK REPUBLIC. ■SaHantEite Jprtsg BALLANTYNE, HANSON AND CO. EDINBUKGH AND LONDON i^..';.X i.--^^^.\. =f =™% ,,,£c A MAP OF VC\feJ4i 1889. r A -A — 71" _ syiLn^'liihMllfS nngitlltlt Cornell University Library The original of tliis book is in tlie Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924021174564 H AYTI THE BLACK REPUBLIC. SIR SPENSER ST. JOHN, K.C.M.G. FORMERLY HER MAJESTY'S MINISTER RESIDENT AND CONSUL-GENERAL IN HAYTI, NOW HER MAJESTY'S ENVOY EXTRAORPINARY AND MINISTER PLENIPOTENTIARY TO MEXICO. ' Haiti, Haiti, pajtjde barbares." ■^ Napole APOLEON III. SECOND EDITION. NEW YORK: SCRIBNER & WELFORD, 743 AND 745 BROADWAY. i88q. CONTENTS. CHAP. vyi. 1. III. l^IV. A / VI. t'VII. \/viii. IX. X. XI. GENERAL DESCRIPTION- OF HATTI HISTORY BEFORE INDEPENDENCE HISTORY SINCE INDEPENDENCE . THE POPULATION OF^HAYTI VAUDOUX-WORSHIP AND CANNIBALISM CANNIBALISM .... THE GOVERNMENT RELIGION, EDUCATION, AND JUSTICE. THE ARMY AND POLICE LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE AGRICULTURE, COMMERCE, AND FINANCE y PAGE I 28 76 130 187^ 258 z' 277/ 308-/ 340/ 358- INTRODUCTIOK Whilst living in Port-au-Prince, Don Mariano Alvarez, my Spanish colleague, remarked to me, " Mon ami, if we could return to Hayti fifty years hence, we should find the negresses cooking their bananas on the site of these warehouses." This judgment is severe, yet from what we saw passing under the Salomon Ad- ministration it is more than probable — unless in the meantime influenced by some higher civilisation — that this prophecy will come true. In fact, the negresses are already cooking their bananas amid the ruins of the best houses of the capital. My own impression, after personally knowing the Haytian Eepublic above twenty-five years, is, that it is a country in a state of rapid decadence. The revolution of 1843 that upset President Boyer commenced the era of troubles, which have continued to the present day, and the people have since been steadily falling to the rear in the race of civilisation. The civil war (1867- 1869) during the Presidency of General Salnave destroyed a vast amount of property and rendered living in the country districts less secure, so that there has been ever since a tendency for the more civilised inhabitants to agglomerate in the towns and leave the rural communities to fetish-worship and VIU INTRODUCTIOIT. cannibalism. Fires, most of them incendiary, have swept over the cities; in the commercial as well as in the residential quarters of Port-au-Prince it would now be difl5cult to find any houses which existed in i860, and the fortunes of all have naturally greatly suffered. When I first arrived in Hayti (January 1863) the capital possessed several respectable public and private buildings. The palace, though without any architec- tural beauty, was large and commodious and well siiited to the climate; the Senate, the House of Ee- presentatives, the dwellings occupied by several of the Ministers, the pretty little theatre, were features which have now disappeared, and nothing equal to them has taken their place. The town of Pdtionville or La Coupe, the summer and health resort of the capital, where the best families sought a little country life during the great heats, was almost entirely destroyed during the revolution of 1868, and the proprietors are still too poor to rebuild. Society also has completely changed. I saw at balls given in the palace in 1863 a hundred well-dressed, prosperous families of every shade of colour ; now political dissensions would prevent such gatherings, even if there were a building in the city which could receive them, and poverty has laid its heavy hand more or less on all. It is the same in a greater or lesser degree in every other town of the republic. Agriculture in the plains is also deteriorating, and the estates produce much less than formerly, except of their staple product, rum, to stupefy and brutalise the barbarous lower orders. INTRODUCTION. IX Toreigners, nearly ruined by their losses during the constant civil disturbances, are withdrawing from the republic, and capital is following them ; and with their withdrawal the country must sink still lower. The best of the coloured people during the Salomon regime also left, as they shunned the fate reserved for them by those who had already slaughtered the most pro- minent mulattoes. In fact, the coloured element, which is the civilising element in Hayti, is daily becoming of less importance ; internal party strife has injured their political standing, and constant intermarriage is causing the race to breed back to the more numerous type, and in a few years the mulatto section will have made disastrous ap- proaches to the negro. The only policy which could have saved the mulatto would have been to encourage the whites to settle in their country ; yet this course of action the coloured men have blindly resisted. In spite of all the civilising elements around the Haytians, there is a distinct tendency to sink into the state of an African tribe. It is naturally impossible to foretell the effect of all the influences which are now at work in the world, and which seem to foreshadow many important changes. We appear standing on the threshold of a period of great discoveries, which may modify many things, but not man's nature. The mass of the negroes of Hayti live in the country districts, which are rarely or never visited by civilised people; there are few Christian priests to give them a notion of true religion ; no superior local officers to preyent them practising their worst fetish ceremonies. And that these are not confined to the lower classes is X INTKODUCTIOK. testified by La VdriU of October i6, 1886, the Haytian religious journal published in Port-au-Prince. In an article on the country districts near the capital it says : — " We have many well-to-do people (jgens ais6s), but les services, les harriboulas (ceremonies connected with the Vaudoux), and above all the manner of trans- mitting property, joined to concubinage, do not permit great fortunes to be accumulated. But these well-to- do people, in what do they employ their capital ? In amusing themselves in the orgies of the Vaudoux" This is Haytian testimony. In treating of the black and the mulatto, as they appeared to me during my residence among them, I fear I shall be considered by some to judge harshly ; such, however, is not my intention. Brought up under Sir James Brooke, whose enlarged sympathies could endure no prejudice of race or colour, I do not remem- ber ever to have felt any repugnance to my fellow- creatures on account of a difference of complexion. I have dwelt above forty years among coloured people of various races, and am sensible of no prejudice against them. Por twelve years I lived in familiar and kindly intercourse with Haytians of all ranks and shades of colour, and the most frequent and not least honoured guests at my table were of the black and coloured races. All who knew me in Hayti know that I have no prejudice of colour; and if I place the Haytians in general in an unfavourable light, it is from a strong conviction that it is necessary to describe the people as they are, and not as one would wish them to be. The black and coloured friends who gathered round me INTEODUCTION. XI during my long residence in Port-au-Prince were not free from many of the faults -which I have been obliged to censure in describing these different sections of the population, but they had them in a less degree, or, as I was really attached to them, I perhaps saw them in a dimmer light. I have read with the deepest interest Proude's " Eng- lish in the West Indies," and I can but join with him in protesting against according popular governments to those colonies. I know what the black man is, and I have no hesitation in declaring that he is incapable of the art of government, and that to entrust him with framing and working the laws for our islands is to con- demn them to inevitable ruin. What the negro may become after centuries of civilised education I cannot teU, but what I know is that he is not fit to govern now. There are brilliant exceptions doubtless, as the black Chief -Justice of Barbadoes, but we must judge them as a race, and as a race they are incapable. Our colonies should remain crown colonies, and then, with due encouragement from home, they would again lift their heads. The most difficult chapter to write was that on " Vaudoux- worship and Cannibalism." I have en- deavoured to paint them in the least sombre colours, and no one who knows the country will think that I have exaggerated ; in fact, had I listened to the testi- mony of many experienced residents, I should have described rites at which dozens of human victims were sacrificed at a time. Everything I have related has been founded on evidence collected in Hayti, from Haytian official documents, the press of Port-au-Prince, Xll JNTEODUCTION. from trustworthy officers of the Haytian Government, my foreign colleagues, and from residents long estab- lished in the country, — principally, however, from Haytian sources. It may be suggested that I am referring to the past. On the contrary, I have been informed on trustworthy testimony that in 1887 cannibalism was more rampant than ever. A black Government dares not greatly inter- fere, as its power is founded on the goodwill of the masses, ignorant and deeply tainted with fetish-worship. A Haytian writer lately remarked in print, " On se plaisit beaucoup de ce que le Vaudoux a reparu grandiose et s^rieux." The fetish-dances were forbidden by decree under the Government of General Boisrond-Canal, but on his fall that decree was repealed, and high officers attended these meetings, and distributed money and applauded the most frantic excesses. General Salomon, who was in power until 1888, lived for eighteen years in Europe, married a white French- woman, and knew what civilisation was. He pro- bably, on his first advent to the Presidency, possessed sufficient infiuence in the country to have checked the open manifestations of this barbarous worship ; but the fate of those of his predecessors who attempted to grapple with the evil was not encouraging. It was hoped, however, that he would make the attempt, and that, grasping the nettle with resolution, he might suffer no evil results ; but many doubted not only his courage to undertake the task, but even the will ; and they, I fear, judged correctly. Whether General Salomon was or was not a member of the Vaudoux sect has been much discussed ; he was INTEODUCTION, xiii accused by the New Ym-h World's correspondent of having, during a visit to Fort Libert^, joined in the fetish practices of the sect ; ^ and M. Laroche, a Haytian, in a letter to the Paris Tem;ps of February 21, 1885, after declaring that the details published in the first edition of this work were absolutely correct, adds, that General Salomon gave this sect " an open and culpable protection," and forwarded an extract from the Haytian paper Le Feuple of September 24, 1884, showing that the Vaudoux dances were openly permitted in Port-au- Prince. It is too soon to decide this question, but it is highly probable that General Salomon, seeing how infected his people and army were with Vaudousism, did not attempt to discourage it. As my chapters on Vaudoux-worship and canni- balism excited considerable attention both in Europe and the United States, and unmitigated abuse in Hayti, I decided again to look into the question with the greatest care. The result has been to convince me that I underrated its fearful manifestations ; I have there- fore rewritten these chapters, and introduced many new facts which have come to my knowledge. " Out of thy own mouth will I condemn thee, thou wicked servant," might well be addressed to the people of Hayti, as it is principally to Haytian sources that I can now appeal to prove the miserable state into which the republic has fallen. Whether it be the spread of Vaudoux-worship among the well-to-do people (j/ens ais6s) of the country, or cannibalism, or the brutality of the police, or the infectious state of the prisons, I 1 The World, December 5, 1886. XIV INTRODUCTION. have but to quote the Haytian papers to prove that I had written my first account with rose-water instead of with black indelible ink. The practice of eating young children and digging up freshly buried corpses for brutal ceremonies or for food increased so greatly that even General Salomon's Government was forced to interfere, and a few men and women received trivial punishments. The Hay- tians endeavour to excuse these peculiar practices by quoting horrible crimes committed in France and else- where. Doubtless horrible crimes are committed in other countries, but in what country nominally Christian would they find a hundred men and women assemble for the express purpose of killing one of their own children and deliberately cooking and eating its flesh in what they consider savoury dishes ? " And who had a better right to eat them ? Did I not beget them ? " as the Petionville prisoner exclaimed. I think it important to quote the opinion of an impartial observer who came to the West Indies with the full belief that I had misstated the facts relating to Vaudoux-worship, or that I had drawn wrong con- clusions. However, Mr. Proude is a man of experience and observation, and not likely to allow a preconceived opinion to influence his judgment. This is the result of his inquiries as published in 1888: — "But behind the immorality, behind the religiosity, there lies active and alive the horrible revival of the West African superstitions ; the serpent - worship, and the child- sacrifice, and the cannibalism. There is no room to doubt it." ^ ^ The English in the West Indies, Chap. xx. INTRODUCTION. XV Whenever all the documents which exist on this subject are published, my chapter on cannibalism will be looked upon as but a pale reflection of the reality. With regard to the history of the country, materials abound for writing a very full one, but I do not think it would prove interesting to the general reader, as it is but a series of plots and revolutions, followed by barbarous military executions. A destructive and exhausting war with Santo Domingo and civil strife during the Presidency of General Salnave did more to ruin the resources of the country than any amount of bad government. The enforced abandonment of work by the people called to arms by the contending factions introduced habits of idleness and rapine which have continued to the present day ; and the material losses by the destruction of the best estates and the burning of towns and villages have never been fully repaired. From the overthrow of President Geffrard in 1867 the country has been more rapidly going to ruin ("Depuis 1868 I'abaissement commence"^). The fall was slightly checked during the quiet Presidency of Nis- sage-Saget ; but the Government of General Domingue amply made up for lost time, and was one of the worst, if not the worst, that Hayti had seen ; with the Sectaries of the Vaudoux in power, nothing else could have been expected. In the first edition I brought my sketch of the history of Hayti down to the fall of President Boisrond- Canal in 1879, and did not touch on the rule of the President of Hayti, General Salomon, a black ; events 1 La ViriU, October 16, 1886. XVI INTEODCrCTIOlT. are too recent for me to do so now. I may say, how- ever, that he was the determined enemy of the coloured section of the community; was credited with being the chief adviser of the Emperor Soulouque in all his most disastrous measures ; and the population is said to be now sunk into the lowest depths of poverty. " The misery (of the people) is great, immense, intense. There are families who are literally dying of hunger. If one wishes to know it, one has but to walk through the streets at night, as one is certain to be approached by the shame-faced poor, who from under a shawl hold out the hand. Eemove this shawl and you will see people but lately fortunate."^ Probably the widows and orphans of those shot under the late despotic rule. The civil war which devastated the country during 1883 and 1884 was marked by more savage excesses than any previously known in Haytian history, the black authorities hesitating at no step to gain their object, which was utterly to destroy the educated coloured class. They cared not for the others ; as they say, " Mulatte pauvre, li n^gue." A few months after the publication of this work I met a young married coloured Haytian lady, who said to me, "I hear you have written a book about my country and called it a ' pays de barbares ; ' " she paused, and continued with much emotion, "I do not know what you have written, but nothing you can have said will have done us any injustice." I was struck by her earnest yet sad manner, and wrote to my friend, William Maunder, at Port-au-Prince for an explanation. He ^ Le Peuple, August 12, 1887. INTRODUCTION. XVU answered, " During the late insurrection, Salomon deter- mined to awe the capital, and sent his soldiery and the rabble to attack the houses of the principal mulattoes. After firing grape-shot into one, the soldiers rushed in and dragged out the proprietor, his wife, daughter, and son-in-law. The proprietor they murdered before his family, the daughter they stripped naked, and she was violated several times by the negroes in the presence of an approving and grinning staff of Salomon's officers." This was the civilised government which this black President introduced into his country. These horrors were only stopped when the foreign agents threatened to land men from their ships of war and attack the rabble. A few words as to the origin of this book. In 1867 I was living in the hills near Port-au-Prince, and having some leisure, I began to collect materials and write rough drafts of the principal chapters. I was interrupted by civil war, and did not resume work until after I had left the country. It may have been the modifying effects of time, but in looking over the chapters as I originally wrote them, I thought that I had been too severe in my judgments on whole classes, and I have therefore softened the opinions I then expressed ; and the greater experience which a further residence of seven years gave me enabled me to study the people more and avoid too sweeping condemna- tions. In my Preface to the French edition of this work, I mentioned the way in which it had been received in Hayti ; by the press with an outburst of wrath, simu- lated, 'tis true, in order to please the black Government ; h XVm INTRODUCTION. but by the upper classes, whose opinion is of value, it -was judged to be "la dure v^rit(5, mais la vdritd." Gradually violent anger has been followed by reaction ; the book has been quoted in the Senate without pro- test, and some of the papers already begin to allow that it contains much which is true, whilst the best- informed Haytians promised to send me corrections of a few errors, but they have failed to find them. Since even this Introduction was rewritten, Salomon has been driven from power, and is dead. The time has not yet arrived when one can fairly judge of the effects of his eight or nine years' rule, but I can do his memory no injustice when I say, that one of his principal objects was to wreak his vengeance on the coloured class. An incident in his youth raised his anger against them, and various occurrences which took place during his long life inflamed his passions, and when he seized despotic power he proceeded to exercise it. Under various pretexts he arrested the most prominent mulattoes, sent them before an abject tribunal, and had them shot. Many of the most meritorious and gallant young men of the capital and principal cities suffered this fate, whilst others sought refuge in exile, until, maddened by the news of the execution of their friends, they threw themselves, sword in hand, on their enemies, and ultimately perished almost to a man. The gallant stand made by this noble band of patriots, defending an open town for many months against the whole army of Hayti, may well be considered to atone for their pre- vious political errors. In truth, I may well repeat that, like the well-known Spanish Marshal, Salomon on his deathbed could have INTRODUCTION. XIX Lad but few enemies to forgive, for lie had already shot all who had come within his reach. Ever since the reign of Soulouque the Haytian Government has engaged French writers to publish rose-coloured accounts of the Black Eepublic, but twenty-four hours in any one of its towns would dissipate any illusions which might be entertained. Let those who doubt read Froude's graphic description of his landing in Port-au-Prince. A series of very interesting articles on Hayti appeared in the Science Sociale, the last of which, January 1887, devoted to the present state of negro society, is especi- ally worthy of attention, as it compares the life led by the blacks in Hayti with that of their brethren on the western shores of Africa. The author of these articles, M. A. de Pr^ville, finds " une ressemblance saisissante " between these dwellers "des deux cot^s de I'Atlantique." Those who cannot visit the West Indies should read Froude's book,^ as then the picture of those beautiful islands will remain for ever engraven on their memo- ries. And I would recommend also the chapters which Captain Kennedy has devoted to Hayti,^ where the reader will find reference to horrors connected with cannibalism of which I was formerly not convinced, but which recent trials and incidents in Hayti have fully proved. It is scarcely worth while to notice what the ignorant writers of the French press may say about England, but whilst the English Government was demanding a settlement of the claims against Hayti, several articles ' The English in the West Indies. 2 Sport, Travel, and Adventures, by Captain Kennedy, R.N. XX INTKODUCTION. appeared in Paris journals which exceeded their usual license. One under the title of " La Grande Voleuse " came out in L'autoriU; it was remarkable for its ignorance and stupidity, accusing the English of seeking to seize a strategic point on Haytian territory. The state- ment would not be worth noticing had not this absurd accusation been repeated in every republic in America, and did not people continue to repeat it even to the present day. When M. de Cassagnac says : — " Tout le monde pense que I'Angleterre est essentiellement in- solente et lS.che," we smile at his presumption and think that he appears to have forgotten history ; it is almost comic to hear a Frenchman calling the English cowards. He continues, " Cette nation detestable et detestee ; " it is a pity he was not in Madrid during the Eranco-German war, or he would have heard shouts which would have wounded his delicate sensibilities. Although Haytians, like others, are hurt by any reflection on their conduct, I will express a hope that if a really enlightened coloured or black man succeed to the Presidency, he, supported by the public opinion of the civilised world, will attempt a radical reform in the habits of the lower orders, and thus render unnecessary any further reference to their peculiar institution. Mexico, October iS88. P.S. — In my Introduction I have stated tliat no Haytian had come forward to answer any of the charges contained either in the first edition of this work or in the Erench translation. Yesterday, how- INTEODUCTION. XXI ever, I received, presumably from the author, a pamphlet entitled " line conference sur Haiti. En r^ponse aux d^tracteurs de ma race , notamment k Sir Spenser St. John, Ministre Pldnipotentiaire de S. M. Bau Mexique. Par Arthur Bowler, . Avocat. Paris, Dentu, (Septembre) 1888." I was very pleased to receive this brochure, which, instead of being an answer, confirms by its silence all my important statements, that remain still uncontra- dicted by any one, as my readers will notice when I refer to the trifling objections which M. Bowler makes to a few paragraphs. I may remark, however, that, as far as I can remember, I had never previously heard of this gentleman, who, if a Haytian, is evidently not familiar either with his own country or its press, and but lightly skims over a few paltry details with a poor attempt at persiflage. M. Bowler's first correction is, that I am mistaken in stating that La Selle, &c., are the highest mountains in Hayti, as there are higher in Santo Domingo, about which republic I was not writing. 2. He refers to a story told at page 164 of a mother teaching her son to cheat. In answer to his doubt, I may inform him that I overheard the conversation myself. In his comments on this anecdote he shows how little he knows of the value of paper money. 3. " That the negro has a great propensity for pilfer- ing." That is what the blacks say of each other, and my thirteen years' experience of Hayti confirms the saying. It was an old sojourner in Hayti, M. Faton, who declared, in joke we will suppose, " that no negro ever left a room without looking round to see that he XXll INTKODUCTION. had not forgotten something." This story was told me with great glee by a black President of the municipality of Port-au-Prince, who added, that those who had plantations in the hills suffered much from this pro- pensity. Let M. Bowler ask the peasantry why they never allow their fruit to ripen on the trees. It would be as well for M. Bowler not to quote the testimony of French authors paid by the Haytian Government to give a rose-coloured picture of the Black Eepublic. 4. I am afraid that M. Bowler's knowledge of either English or French is defective when he translates, " God spoilt them, and God will repair them " — " Dieu I'a salie, Dieu la nettoiera." Another proof of his want of familiarity with Hayti is the remark that no native would address a foreigner in Creole, when nine- tenths of the inhabitants can speak no other language, and in familiar intercourse the upper classes seldom speak French. 5. M. Bowler objects that I have not introduced into my book any reference to a certain banquet given to me in Port-au-Prince, but I have as far as possible avoided anything which might be considered personal to myself, or I should have had many a story to relate- The principal idea of the book was to depict the manners of the popular and the untravelled classes, as those of the upper are much the same in most countries. My impression is, that the civilised portion of the in- habitants, although annoyed at the necessary publicity, were pleased that some one had the courage to expose the barbarous customs of the people, in the hope that the hostile criticism would rouse the governing classes to an effort to improve the customs as well as the INTRODUCTION. XXlll education • of- Jjhe people. It was left to a narrow- minded " avocat " to put down to hate the performance of a duty which would be considered sacred by any enlightened lover of mankind. 6. M. Bowler protests against my assertion that, as a rule, the mulatto detests the white. Not always the individual, but the race. That he despises the black, and in return is disliked by him, is too true. This does not prevent individual friendships. The lower orders, however, consider a rich, well-educated black as a mulatto, whilst a poor mulatto is looked upon as a negro. The popular saying runs : — " Nfegue riche, 11 mulatte ; Mulatte pauvre, 11 nfegue." Probably M. Bowler never heard that saying. If the history of Hayti under Soulouque, Domingue, and Salomon, with all its blood-stained incidents, will not convince him of the detestation with which these two sections of the community generally regard each other, nothing will. When I wrote my description of the population of Hayti, I described what I knew to be true. 7. M. Bowler had better consult Blackstone's Com- mentaries before he ventures again to state what the old common law of England was, and to aid his re- searches I will direct him to Book I. Chapter xv. : — " Any contract made, per verba de prsesenti, or in words of the present tense, . . . between persons able to contract, was before the late Act deemed a valid marriage," &c., &c. And these are all the supposed erroneous statements XXIV INTRODUCTION. which M. Bowler has been able to find in this work, and I may add not one of them is in the least erroneous. He does not even hint a denial of the Vaudoux-worship, or the cannibalism which accompanies it, the eating of children, the digging up of corpses for food or fetish rites, the professional poisoners, or the child-stealers ; nor does he say a word to disprove my account of the brutality of the police, the fearful state of the prisons, the corruption of the judges, or the cruelties practised on, and by the soldiers, and the barbarous military executions. Knowing how useless it was to deny the truth of these statements, acknowledged as true by all the best of his countrymen, M. Bowler has let judgment go by default, and he has been wise in his generation. Mexico, November 13, 1S88. HAYTI OB, THE BLACK KEPUBLIC. CHAPTEK I. GENERAL DESCEIPTION OF HAYTI. Standing on one of the lofty mountains of Hayti, and looking towards the interior, I was struck with the pertinence of the saying of the Admiral, who, crumpling a sheet of paper in his hand, threw it on the table before George III., saying, " Sire, Hayti looks like that." The country appears a confused agglomeration of mountain, hill, and valley, most irregular in form; precipices, deep hollows, vales apparently without an outlet ; water occasionally glistening far below ; cottages scattered here and there, with groves of fruit-trees and bananas clustering round the rude dwellings. Gra- dually, however, the eye becomes accustomed to the scene ; the mountains separate into distinct ranges, the hills are but the attendant buttresses, and the valleys 2 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF HAYTI. assume their regular forms as tlie watershed^ of the system, and the streams can be traced meandering gradually towards the ocean. If you then turn towards the sea, you notice that the valleys have expanded into plains, and the rushing torrents have become broad though shallow rivers, and the mountains that bound the fiat, open country push their buttresses almost into the sea. This grand variety of magnificent scenery can be well observed from a point near Kenskoff, about ten miles in the interior from the capital, as well as from the great citadel built on the summit of La Perri^re in the northern province. Before entering into particulars, however, let me give a general idea of the country. Tlie island of Santo Domingo is situated in the West Indies between i8° and 20° north latitude and 68° 20' and 74° 30' west longitude. Its greatest length is four hundred miles, its greatest breadth one hundred and thirty-five miles, and is calculated to be about the size of Ireland. Hayti occupies about a third of the island — the western portion — and, pushing two great promontories into the sea, it has a very large extent of coast-line. It is bounded on the north by the Atlantic Ocean, on the east by the republic of Santo Domingo, on the south by the Caribbean Sea, and on the west by the passage which separates it from Cuba and Jamaica. Its most noted mountain ranges are La Selle, which lies on the south-eastern frontier of Hayti ; La Hotte, near Les Cayes; and the Black Mountains iu the GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF HAYTI. 3 northern province; but throughout the whole extent of the republic the open valleys are bounded by lofty elevations. In fact, on approaching the island from any direction, it appears so mountainous that it is diffi- cult to imagine that so many smiling, fertile plains are to be met -with in every department. They are, however, numerous. The most extensive are the Cul-de-Sac, near Port-au-Prince, the plains of Gonaives, the Artibonite, Arcahaie, Port Margot, Leog§,ne, that of Les Cayes, and those that follow the northern coast. Hayti has the advantage of being well watered, though this source of riches is greatly neglected. The principal river is the Artibonite, which is navigable for small craft for a short distance ; the other streams have more the character of mountain torrents, full to over- flowing during the rainy season, whilst during the dry they are but rivulets running over broad pebbly beds. The lakes lying at the head of the plain of Cul-de- Sac are a marked feature in the landscape as viewed from the neighbouring hills. They are but little visited, as their shores are marshy, very unhealthy, and unin- habitable on that account, while the swarms of mos- quitoes render even a temporary stay highly disagree- able. The waters of one of them are brackish, which would appear to indicate salt deposits in the neigh- bourhoiid. There are a few islands attached to Hayti, the prin- cipal. La Tortue on the north, Gonave on the west, and L'lsle-k-Vache on the south coast. Some attempts 4 GENERAL DESCRIPTION' OF HAYTI. have been made to develop their natural riches, but as yet with but moderate success. The first two named are famous for their mahogany trees, and at La Gonave fish abound to so great an extent, that a very important industry might be established there. The principal towns of the republic are Port-au- Prince, the capital, Cap Haitien in the north, and Les Cayes in the south. Jacmel, J^r^mie, Miragoane, St. Marc, and Gonaives are also commercial ports. Port-au-Prince is situated at the bottom of a deep bay, which runs so far into the western coast as almost to divide Hayti in two. It contains about 20,000 in- habitants, and was carefully laid out by the French. It possesses every natural advantage that a capital could require. Little use, however, is made of these advantages, and the place is one of the most unpleasant residences imaginable. I was one day talking to a French naval officer, and he observed, " I was here as a midshipman forty years ago." "Do you notice any change ? " I asked. " Well, it is perhaps dirtier than before." Its dirt is its great drawback, and appears ever to have been so, as Moreau de St. Mery com- plained of the same thing during the last century. However, there are degrees of dirt, and he would pro- bably be astonished to see it at the present day. The above paragraph was first written in 1867; since that it has become worse, and when I last lauded (1877), I found the streets heaped up with filth. It does not appear to have improved, as the following extract from GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF HAYTI. 5 " The English iu the West Indies " by Froude (chap. XX.) -will prove : — "After breakfast we landed. I had seen Jacmel, and therefore thought myself prepared for the worst which I could find. Jacmel was an outlying symptom ; Port-au- Prince was the central ulcer. Long before we came to shore, there came off whiffs, not of drains as at Havana, but of active dirt fermenting in the sunlight. Calling our handkerchiefs to our help, and looking to our feet carefully, we stepped up upon the quay and walked forward as judiciously as we could. With the help of stones we crossed a shallow ditch, where rotten fish, vegetables, and other articles were lying about promis- cuously, and we came on what did duty for a grand parade. We were in a Paris of the gutter with boule- vards and places, fiacres and crimson parasols. The boulevards were littered with the refuse of the houses and were foul as pigsties, and the ladies under the parasols were picking their way along them in Parisian boots and silk dresses. I saw a fiacre broken down in a black pool, out of which a blacker ladyship was scrambling." The capital is well laid out, with lines of streets running parallel to the sea, whilst others cross at right angles, dividing the town into numerous islets or blocks. The street are broad, but utterly neglected. Every one throws out his refuse before his door, so that heaps of manure, broken bottles, crockery, and every species of rubbish encumber the way, and render both riding 6 GEKEEAL DESCRIPTION OF HAYTI. and walking dangerous. Building materials are per- mitted occasionally to accumulate to so great an extent as completely to block up the streets and seriously impede the traffic. Mackenzie, in his notes on Hayti, remarks on the impassable state of the streets in 1 826 ; torn up by tropical rains, they were mended with refuse (generally stable-dung to fill up the holes, and a thin layer of earth thrown over), only to be again de- stroyed by the first storm.^ Ask Haytians why they do not mend their streets and roads ; they answer, " Bon Dieu gat^ li ; bon Dieu pare li " (God spoilt them, and God will mend them). Then, as now, the roads were in such a state in wet weather that only a waggon with a team of oxen could get through the muddy slough. On first entering the town, you are struck with the utter shabbiness of the buildings, mean cottages and grovelling huts by the side of the few decent-looking dwellings. Most of the houses are constructed of wood, badly built, with very perishable materials, im- ported from the United States or our Northern colonies. " II est un systfeme detestable chez nous pour la reparation des rues. XTne voie publique, est-elle defonc^e ? Vite de la paille du fumier et des detritus de toutes sortes pour la combler. Le niveau des rues, est-il altere ? On essayera de la r^tablir en jetant quelques brouettees de paille h I'endroit inoins eiev^. Enfin, I'eau d'une rigole, ohange-t- elle son lit et envahit-elle la voie ? On ne trouvera rien de mieux pour en arreter le coulement que de mettre dans la marre des tas de furaier. Qu'arrive-t-il ? Au moindre grain de pluie, toutes ces paiiles entrent en decomposition et comme elles sont mdiees avec des matieres ani- nnales, il s'y degage outre I'aoide carbonique, des acides, des odeurs de toutes sortes qui ne sont pas predsement f aJtes pour donner de la sante." — La Verity, June iS. GENERAL DESCEIPTION OF HAYTI. 7 The idea that originally prevailed in the construction of the private houses was admirable ; before each was a broad verandah, open to all passers, so that from one end of the town to the other it was intended that there should be cool, shady walks. But the intolerable stupi- dity of the inhabitants has spoilt this plan ; in many streets the level of the verandahs of each house is of a different height, and frequently separated by a marshy spot, the receptacle of every species of filth ; so that you must either walk in the sun or perform in the shade a series of gymnastic exercises exceedingly inconvenient in a tropical climate. On either side of the street was a paved gutter, but now, instead of aiding the drainage, it is another cause of the accumulation of filth. , The stones which for- merly rendered the watercourses even have been either removed or displaced, and the rains collecting before the houses form fetid pools, into which the servants pour all that in other countries is carried off by the drains. In a few of the more commercial streets, where foreigners reside, some attention is paid to cleanliness, but still Port-au-Prince may bear the palm away of being the most foul-smelling, dirty, and consequently fever-stricken city in the world. The port is well protected, but is gradually filling up, as the rains wash into it not only the silt from the mountains, but the refuse of the city, and no effort is made to keep it open. As there is but little tide, the accumulations of every species of vegetable and 8 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF HAYTI. animal matter render the water fetid, and when the sea- breeze blows gently over these turbid waves, an efflu- via is borne into the town sickening to all but native nostrils. The most remarkable edifice of Port-au-Prince was the palace, a long, low, wooden building of one storey, supported on brick walls : it contained several fine rooms, and two halls which might have been rendered admirable for receptions ; but everything around it was shabby — the stables, the guard-houses, the untended garden, the courtyard overrun with grass and weeds, and the surrounding walls partially in ruins. This spa- cious presidential residence was burnt down during the revolutionary attack on Port-au-Prince in December 1869, and no attempt has been made to rebuild it.^ The church is a large wooden building, an over- grown shed, disfigured by numerous wretched paint- ings which cover its walls ; and, as an unworthy con- cession to local prejudice, our Saviour is occasionally represented by an ill-drawn negro.^ The senate-house was the building with the most architectural pretensions, but its outer walls only re- mained when I last saw it, fire having destroyed the roof and the interior wood-work. There is no other edifice worthy of remark ; and the private houses, with 1 President Salomon built a smaller residence near the former site of the palace. "^ " Above the market was the cathedral, more hideous than even the Mormon temple at Salt Lake." — Froude, chap. xx. GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF HAYTI. 9 ■perhaps a score of exceptions, are of the commonest order. The market-places are large and -well situated, but ill-tended and dirty, and in the wet season muddy in the extreme. They are fairly supplied with provisions. I may notice that in those of Port-au-Prince very superior meat is often met with, and good supplies of vegetables, including excellent European kinds, brought from the mountain gardens near Fort Jaques. The supply of water is very defective. During the reign of the Emperor Soulouque a bright idea occurred to some one, that instead of repairing the old French aqueduct, iron pipes should be laid down. The Emperor had the sagacity to see the advantage of the plan, and gave orders for the work to be done. As an excep- tion to the general rule, the idea was to a certain extent well carried out, and remains the only durable monument of a most inglorious reign. Had the iron pipes been entirely substituted for the old French work, the inhabitants would have enjoyed the benefit of pure water ; but when I left, in i ^iTJ, the people in the suburbs were still breaking open the old stone- work to obtain a source of supply near their dwell- ings ; and pigs, children, and washerwomen congregated round these spots and defiled the stream. The amount of water introduced into the town is still most inadequate ; and though numerous springs, and one delightful stream. La Eiviere Froide, are within easy distance of the port, no sufficient effort has been made 10 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF HAYTI. to increase the supply. La Eivi^re ]Froide — name redo- lent of pleasant reminiscences in a tropical climate — could easily fill a canal, which would not only afford an inexhaustible supply for the wants of the town and shipping, but, by creating an outward current, would carry off the floating matter which pollutes the port. Since my departure an Englishman commenced some works to afford the town a constant supply of water, but these, I understand, have as yet only been partially carried out. I am informed, however, that the spring at Marquessant has also been utilised, and now aids the inadequate amount which flows from Tourjeau. The cemetery is situated outside the town. I never entered it except when compelled to attend a funeral, and hastened to leave it as soon as possible, on account of an unpleasant odour which pervaded it. It is not kept in good order, though many families carefully attend to the graves of their relatives, and there are several striking tombs. People of all religions are buried here ; but it is on record that a brawling Irish priest once attempted to disinter a Protestant child. His brawling subsequently led to his banishment. I noticed on my first arrival in Port-au-Prince two marble cof&ns, very handsome, lying neglected on the ground outside the palace. I was told they had been brought from abroad in order that the remains of Petion and Boyer, two of their best Presidents, should repose in them ; but for many years I saw them lying empty on the same spot, and I never heard what became of them. GENERAL DESCEIPTION OF HAYTI. 11 The curse of Port-au-Prince is fire. Every few years immense conflagrations consume whole quarters of the town. Nothing can stop the flames but one of the few brick-houses, against which the quick-burning fire is powerless. During my residence in Port-au-Prince five awful fires devastated the town, and on each occasion from two to five hundred houses were destroyed. And yet the inhabitants go on building wretched wooden match-boxes, and even elaborate houses of the most in- flammable materials. Companies should be carefal how they insure property in Port-au-Prince, as there are some very well-authenticated cases of frauds practised on them both by Europeans and natives. Port-au-Prince, on my first arrival in 1863, was governed by a municipality, over which presided a very honest man, a Monsieur Eiviere, one of those Protes- tants to whom I have referred in my chapter on reli- gion. As. a new arrival, I thought the town suSiciently neglected, but I had reason to change my opinion. It was a pattern of cleanliness to what it subsequently became. The municipality, when one exists, has for its principal duties the performance or neglect of the regis- tration of all acts relating to the "etat civil," and to divide among its members and friends, for work never eflieiently carried out, whatever funds they can collect from the city. At the back of the capital, at a distance of about five miles, is the village of La Coupe, the summer resi- dence of the wealthier families. As it was situated 12 GENERAL DESCEIPTION OF HAYTI. about 1 200 feet above the level of the sea and was open to every breeze, it afforded a delightful change from the hot, damp town ; but during the civil war of 1 868 the best houses were destroyed and never recon- structed. There is a natural bath there, the most picturesque feature of the place; it is situated under lofty trees, that cast a deep shade over the spot, and during the hottest day it is charmingly cool. Cap Haitien is the most picturesque town in the republic ; it is beautifully situated on a most com- modious harbour. As you enter it, passing Fort Picolet, you are struck by its safe position — a narrow entrance so easily defended. My first visit was in H.M.S. Gcdatea, Captain Macguire; and as we expected that we might very possibly be received by the fire of all the batteries, our own crew were at their guns, keeping them steadily trained on Fort Picolet, whose artillery was distant about a couple of hundred yards. Having slowly steamed past forts and sunken batteries, we found ourselves in front of the town, with its ruins overgrown with creepers, and in the background the rich vegetation sweeping gracefully up to the summit of the beautiful hill which over-shadows Cap Haitien. Cap Haitien never recovered from the effects of the fearful earthquake of 1842, when several thousands of its inhabitants perished. To this day they talk of that awful event, and never forget to relate how the country- people rushed in to plunder the place, and how none lent a helping-hand to aid their half-buried country- GENERAL DESCRIPTION' OF HAYTI. 13 men. Captain Macguire and myself used to wander about the. ruins, and we could not but feel how little energy remained in a people who could leave their pro- perty in. such a state. It was perhaps cheaper to build a trumpery house elsewhere. One of those who suffered the most during that visitation wrote, before the earth had ceased trembling, " Against the acts of God Almighty no one com- plains," and then proceeded to relate how the dread earthquake shook down or seriously injured almost every house; how two-thirds of the inhabitants were buried beneath the fallen masonry; how the bands of blacks rushed in from mountain and plain, not to aid in saving their wretched countrymen, whose cries and groans could be heard for two or three days, but to rob the stores replete with goods ; and — what he did complain of — how the officers and men of the garrison, instead of attempting to keep order, joined in plundering the small remnants of what the surviving inhabitants could save from the tottering ruins. What a people ! The most striking objects near Cap Haitien are the remains of the palace of Sans Souci, and of the citadel constructed by King Christophe, called La Ferrifere. It requires a visit to induce one to believe that so elaborate, and, I may add, so handsome a struc- ture, could exist in such a place as Hayti, or that a fortification like the citadel could ever have been constructed on the summit of a lofty mountain, five 14 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF HAYTI. thousand feet, I believe, above the level of the sea. Some of the walls are eiglity feet in height and six- teen feet in thickness, where the heavy batteries of English guns still remain in position. All is of the most solid masonry, and covering the whole peak of the mountain. "We were really lost in amazement as we threaded gallery after gallery where heavy fifty-six and thirty- two pounders guarded every approach to what was intended to be the last asylum of Haytian inde- pendence. Years of the labour of toiling thousands were spent to prepare this citadel, which the trem- bling earth laid in ruins in a few minutes. "What energy did this black king possess to rear so great a monument ! But the reverse of the medal states that every stone in that wonderful building cost a human life. It is a popular idea in Hayti that the superiority of the northern department, and the greater industry of its inhabitants, date from the time of King Christophe, and some express a belief that his iron system was suitable to the country ; but the fact is that Moreau de St. Mdry, writing in the last century, insists on the superior ad- vantages of the northern province, its greater fertility, the abundance of rain, and consequently the number of rivers, as well as the superior intelligence and industry of the inhabitants, and their greater sociability and polish. They are certainly more sociable than in the capital, and people still seek northern men to work GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF HAYTI. 15 on their estates. As for Christophe's system, no amount of increase of produce could compensate for its brutality. Gonaives is a poor-looking town, constantly devas- tated by revolutions and fires, with a few broad, un- finished streets, and some good houses among the crowds of mean buildings. This neighbourhood is famous for what are called white truffles, which are dried and sent to the different parts of the republic. St. Marc, though not so scattered as Gonaives, is a small place. It was formerly built of stone, and a few specimens of this kind of building still remain. Jacmel has a very unsafe harbour, but possesses importance as one of the ports at which the royal mail-steamers call, and has a large export trade in coffee. Les Caves, J^remie, and other smaller ports I have only seen at a distance, but I hear they are much like the other cities and towns of the republic. Maclienzie says that the city and environs of Les Cayes are described as " tr^s riantes," and that in his time it was kept in better order than the capital. Tliis is said still to be the case. My last long ride in Hayti was from Cap Haitien to Gonaives, and nestling in tlie hills I found some very pretty villages, planted in lovely sites, with cool, babbling streams, and fruit groves hiding the inferior- looking houses. The place I most admired was, I think, called Plaisance. There was a freshness, a brightness, a repose about the village that made me regret it was situated so far from the capital. 16 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF HAYTI, Wherever you may ride in the mountains, you can- not fail to remark that there is scarcely a decent-look- ing house out of the towns. The whole of the country is abandoned to the small cultivators, whose inferior cottages are met with at every turn, and, as might be expected from such a population, very dirty and devoid of every comfort, rarely any furniture beyond an old chair, a rickety table, a few sleeping-mats, and some cooking utensils. There is no rule, however, without an exception, and I remember being much struck by seeing at Kenskoff, a small hamlet about ten or twelve miles direct from Port-au-Prince, a good house, where there were some chairs, tables, and bedsteads, and around this dwelling several huts, in which the wives of our host lived separately. Now and then a peasant will build a larger house than usual. We met with one, the last we slept in ou our ride to the mountain La Selle, whose proprietor had really some ideas of comfort, and before whose dwelling coffee-bushes were growing, trimmed to the height of six feet, placed separate from one another, perfectly clean, and covered with indications of an abundant crop. They had been planted there in former days by an intelligent proprietor, and the peasant had the merit of not neglecting them. The plain qf Cul-de-Sac, adjoining the north side of Port-au-Prince, was one of the richest and most cul- tivated during the time of the French; and as all regular cultivation depends on the amount of water GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF HAYTI. 17 available, their engineers had constructed the most careful system for the storage and distribution of the supplies. Properly managed, all the large estates could receive the quantity necessary for their lands ; but for many years the stone- work was neglected, and the grand barrage was becoming useless, when President Gef- frard placed the affair in the hands of an able French engineer, who efficiently restored the main work, but had not funds to complete the canals for distribut- ing the waters. As usual in all enterprises in that country, the money voted had to pass through so many hands, that before it reached the engineer it had diminished to less than half. The soil of the plain is most fertile, and only appears to require water to give the most promising crops of sugar-cane. There are some very extensive estates, that could afford work for a large population, but the ever-increasing disturbances in the country render capital shy of venturing there. As might readily be supposed, the roads are greatly neglected, and during the rainy season are almost impassable. They are composed simply of the sur- rounding soil, with a few branches thrown into the most dangerous holes. The bridges are generally avoided; it is a saying in Hayti, that you should go round a bridge, but never cross it, and the advice is generally followed. For the main streams there are fords. An attempt was once made to bridge over La 18 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF HAYTI. Grande Eivifere du Cul-de-Sac, but the first freshet washed away all the preliminary work. In the mountains there are only bridle-paths, though occasionally I came across the remains of old French roads and good paths. On the way to Kenskoff there is a place called L'Escalier, to escalade the steepest side of the mountain. The horses that are used to it manage well, but those from the plains find the steps awk- ward. On the road from Gonaives to the northern pro- vince there is a very remarkable paved way, the work so well done that it has resisted the rain during a hun- dred years of neglect. Some of the bridle-paths in the north are exceedingly good, and are admirably carried up the sides of hills, so as to avoid the most difficult spots. In the range above Tourjeau I came across a very pretty grassy bridle-path, and near it I found the remains of a large French country-house, evidently the residence of some great proprietor. The tradition in the neigh- bourhood is that there was an indigo-factory adjoining, but I could scarcely imagine the site suitable. Wher- ever you may go in Hayti, you come across signs of decadence, not only from the exceptional prosperity of the French period, but even of comparatively recent years. After the plundering and destruction of 1868 and 1869, few care to keep up or restore their devas- tated houses, and it is now a hand-to-mouth system. Cul-de-Sac is a glorious plain, and in good bands would be a fountain of riches ; and the same may be GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF HAYTI. 19 said of the other splendid plains that abound through- out the island. Every tropical plant grows freely, so that there would be no limit to production should the country ever abandon revolutions to turn its attention to industry. About three-fourths of the surface of the plains are occupied by scrub, a prickly acacia, that invades every uncultivated spot. The mounta,ins that bound these plains and extend to the far interior present magnificent sites for pleasant residences ; but no- civilised being could occupy them on account of the difficulty of communication, and the doubtful character of the population. Up to the time of the fall of President Gefifrard it was possible ; now it would be highly imprudent. In one of the most smiling valleys that I have ever seen, lying to the left whilst riding to the east of Kenskoff, a friend of mine possessed a very extensive property. The place looked so beautiful that I proposed to him a lengthened visit, to which he acceded. Delay after delay occurred, and then the civil war of 1865 prevented our leaving Port-au-Prince.. In 1869, there were arrested in that valley a dozen of the worst cannibals of the Vaudoux sect, and the police declared that the whole popula- tion of that lovely garden of the country was given up to fetish-worship. It was probably a knowledge of this that made my friend so long defer our pro- posed visit, as the residence of a white man among them might have been looked upon with an evil eye. 20 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OP HAYTI. I have travelled in almost every quarter of the globe, and I may say that, taken as a whole, there is not a finer island than that of Santo Domingo. No country possesses greater capabilities or a better geo- graphical position, or more variety of soil, of climate, and of production, with magnificent scenery of every description, and hill-sides where the pleasantest of health-resorts might be established. And yet it is now the country to be most avoided, ruined as it has been by a succession of self-seeking politicians, without honesty or patriotism, content to let the people sink to the condition of an African tribe, that their own selfish passions may be gratified. The climate of Hayti is of the ordinary tropical character, and the temperature naturally varies accord- ing to the position of the towns. Cap Haitien, being exposed to the cooling influence of the breezes from the north, is much more agreeable as a residence than Port-au-Prince, which is situated at the bottom of a deep bay. In summer, that is, during the months of June, July, August, and September, the heat is very oppressive. The registered degrees give one an idea of the disagree- ableness of the climate. In my house at Tourjeau, near Port-au-Prince, 600 feet above the level of the sea, I have noted a thermometer marking 97" in the drawing- room at 2 P.M. in July, and 95° in the dining-room on the ground-floor ; and in a room off a court in the town GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF HAYTI, 21 I have heard of 103" — no doubt from refraction.^ At the Petit S^minaire the priests keep a register, and I notice that rarely is the heat marked as 95°; generally 93.2° is the maximum; but the thermometer must be kept in the coolest part of the college, and is no criterion of what is felt in ordinary rooms. The nights also are oppressively warm, and for days I have noticed the registering thermometer seldom marking less than 80° during the night. In August the heat is even greater than in July, rising to 97° at the Petit S^mi- naire, whilst in September the maximum is registered as 91.5°; and this heat continues well on into November, the maximum being the same. I have not the complete returns, but generally the heats of September are nearly equal to those of August. In what may be called winter, the thermometer rarely marks over 84°, and the nights are cool and pleasant. In fact, I have been assured of the thermometer having fallen as low as 58° during the night, but I never saw it myself below 60°. It is a curious fact that foreigners generally suffer from the heat, and get ill in consequence, whilst the natives complain of the bitter cold of the winter, and have their season of illness then. Port-au-Prince is essentially unhealthy, and yellow- fever too often decimates the crews of the ships of war that visit its harbour. In 1 869, on account of the ^ Mackenzie states that he noticed the thermometer marking 99° every day for considerable periods. 22 GENERAL DESCEIPTION OF HAYTI. civil convulsions, Prench and English vessels remained months in harbour. The former suffered dreadfully; the Zimier, out of a crew of io6 men and eight officers, lost fifty-four men and four officers, whilst the D'Udr^ and another had to mourn their captains and many of their crew. Who that ever knew him can forget and not cherish the memory of Captain De Varannes of the B'EsMs, one of the most sympa- thetic of men, a brilliant officer, and a steady upholder of the French and English alliance? De Varannes was an Imperialist, an aide-de-camp of the Empress, and thoroughly devoted to the family that had made his fortune. When the medical men announced to him that he had not above two hours to live, he asked the French agent if he had any portraits of the Imperial family ; they were brought and placed at the foot of the bed where he could see them. He asked then to be left alone, and an hour after, when a friend crept in, he found poor De Varannes dead, with his eyes open, and apparently fixed on the portraits before him. I should add that both these vessels brought the fever tp Port-au-Prince from Havana and Martinique. The English ships suffered less, as our officers are not bound by the rigid rules that regulate the French commanders, who would not leave the harbour without express orders from their Admiral, though their men were dying by dozens. Captain Hunter of the Vestal and Captain Salmon of the Defence knew their duty GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF HAYTI. 2',i to their crews too well to keep them in the pestilential harbour, and as soon as yellow-fever appeared on board, steamed away ; and the latter went five hundred miles due north till he fell in with cool weather, and thus only lost three men. A French officer told me that when the sailors on board the Limier saw the De- fence steam out of harbour, they were depressed even to tears, and said, " See how the English commanders are mindful of the health of their men, whilst ours let us die like flies." Captain Hunter of the Vestal never had due credit given him for his devotion to his crew whilst suffering from yellow-fever. He made a hospital of his cabin, and knew no rest till he had reached the cool'harbours of the north. Merchant seamen in certain years have also suffered dreadfully from this scourge, both in Port-au-Prince and in the neighbouring port of Mirago§,ne. Two- thirds of the crews have often died, and every now and then there is a season in which few ships escape with- out loss. Yellow-fever rarely appears on shore, as the natives do not take it, and the foreign population is small and mostly acclimatised. The other diseases from which people suffer are ordinary tropical fevers, agues, small- pox, and the other ills to which humanity is subject. But although Port-au-Prince is the filthiest town I have ever seen, it has not yet been visited by cholera. In the spring of 1882 small-pox broke out in so viru- lent a form that the deaths rose to a hundred a day. 24 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF HAYTI. This dreadful visitation continued several months, and it is calculated carried off above 5000 people in the city and its neighbourhood. If Hayti ever becomes civilised, and if ever roads are made, there are near Port-au-Prince summer health- resorts which are perfectly European in their climate. Even La Coupe, or, as it is ofttcially called, P^tionville, about five miles from the capital, at an altitude of 1200 feet, is from ten to twelve degrees cooler during the day, and the nights are delicious ; and if you advance to Kenskoff or Furcy, you have the thermometer marking during the greatest heats 75" to Jj", whilst the mornings and evenings are delightfully fresh, with the thermometer at from 57° to 68°, and the nights cold. On several occasions I passed some months at P^tion- ville, and found the climate most refreshing after the burning heats of the sea-coast. The regular rainy season commences about Port-au- Prince during the month of April, and continues to the month of September, with rain again in November under the name of " les pluies de la Toussaint." After several months of dry weather one breathes again as the easterly wind brings the welcome rain, which comes with a rush and a force that bend the tallest palm-trees till their branches almost sweep the ground. Sometimes, whilst dried up in the town, we could see for weeks the rain-clouds gathering on the Morne de I'Hopit'al within a few miles, and yet not a drop would come to refresh our parched-up gardens. GENERAL DESCRIPTION OE HAYTI. 25 During the great heats the rain is not only welcome as cooling the atmosphere, but as it comes in torrents, it rushes down the streets and sweeps clean all those that lead to the harbour, and carries before it the accumulated filth of the dry season. In very heavy rains the cross streets are flooded ; and one year the water came down so heavily and suddenly that the brooks became rushing rivers. The floods surprised a priest whilst bathing, swept him down to the Champs de Mars, and threw his mangled body by the side of a house I was at that moment visiting. That evening, as I was already wet, I rode home during the tempest, and never did I see more vivid lightning, hear louder thunder, or feel heavier rain. As we breasted the hill, the water rushing down the path appeared almost knee-deep ; and to add to the terror of my animal, a white horse, maddened by fear, came dashing down the hill with flowing mane and tail, and swept past us. Seen only during a flash of lightning, it was a most picturesque sight, and I had much dif&culty in preventing my frightened horse joining in his wild career. The rainy season varies in different parts of the island, particularly in the north. I am surprised to observe that the priests have found the annual fall of rain to be only 117 inches. I had thought it more. Perhaps, however, that was during an exceptionally dry year. The great plain of Cul-de-Sac is considered healthy. 26 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OP HAYTI. although occasionally intensely warm. It is, however, freely exposed not only to the refreshing sea-breezes, but to the cooling land-winds that come down from the mountains that surround it. There is but little marsh, except near La Eivi^re Blanche, which runs near the mountains to the north and is lost in the sands. On the sugar-cane plantations, where much irrigation takes place, the negro workmen suffer somewhat from fever and ague, but probably more from the copious libations of new rum, which they assert are rendered necessary by the thirsty nature of the climate. I had often read of a clap of thunder in a clear sky, but never heard anything like the one that shook our house near Port-au-Prince. We were sitting, a large party, in our broad verandah, about eight in the even- ing, with a beautiful starlight night, — the stars, in fact, shining so brightly that you could read by their light, — when a clap of thunder, which appeared to burst just over our roof, took our breath away. It was awful in its suddenness and in its strength. N"o one spoke for a minute or two, when by a common impulse we left the house and looked up into a perfectly clear sky. At a distance, however, on the summits of the mountains, was a gathering of black clouds, which warned my friends to mount their horses, and they could scarcely have reached the town when one of the heaviest storms I have known commenced, with thunder worthy of the clap that had startled us. Though all of GENEKAL DESCKIPTION OF HAYTI. 27 US were seasoned to the tropics, we had never been so impressed before. In the wet season the rain, as a rule, comes on at regular hours, and lasts a given time. Though occa- sionally it will continue through a night and longer, rarely does it last above twenty -four hours without a gleam of sunshine intervening. ( 28 ) CHAPTEE IT. HISTOEY BEFORE INDEPENDENCE. I DO not doubt but the discovery of America by Columbus was good in its results to mankind; but when we read the history of early Spanish colonisation, the predominant feeling is disgust at the barbarities and fanaticism recorded in almost every page. We generally pass lightly over this view of the subject, being dazzled by pictures of heroic deeds, as set forth in the works of Prescott and Eobertson — heroic deeds of steel-clad warriors massacring crowds of gentle, almost unresisting natives, until despair, lending energy to their timid natures, forced them occasionally to turn on their savage persecutors. In no country were the Spaniards more notorious' for their cruelty than in the first land in America on which Columbus established a settlement. The population was then differently estimated, the numbers given vary- ing between 800,000 and 2,000,000, the former calcu- lation being the more probable. They were indeed a primitive people, the men moving about entirely naked, and the women wearing but a short petticoat. They are said to have been good-looking, which, if true, would HISTORY BEFOEE INBEPENDENCB. 29 mark them as a people distinct from any other in the New World, as the Indians, who still remain by millions in North and South America, are as a race the most ill-favoured natives I have seen in any portion of the globe. That was my impression when I travelled in their country, though I have seen among the young women who followed the Indian regiments to Lima a few who might almost be considered handsome, but these by their appearance were probably of mixed breed. Columbus only stayed two months in Santo Domingo, but left behind him forty of his companions in an entrenched position, who immediately after his de- parture began to commit excesses; and hearing that a cacique in the interior had a large store of gold, penetrated to his town and robbed him of his riches. This roused the population against them ; they were pursued and killed in detail. In the meantime Columbus had revisited Spain, been received with honour, and seventeen vessels, laden with every kind of store and domestic animal, as well as a lai^e force, were placed at his disposal. On his arrival his first thoughts were for gold, and he marched in search of the mines, which being pointed out to him, were soon in full work, the Indians by force being compelled to this task. The conduct of these white men appears to have been so wantonly cruel, that the population rose en masse, and a hundred thousand of the aborigines are said to have marched to attack the Spaniards, two hundred and twenty of whom put this 30 HISTORY BEFORE INDEPENDENCE. crowd to flight without the loss of a single man. These are the heroic deeds we are called upon to admire. It has often been declared impossible that such, on one side, bloodless encounters could take place ; but I am well-assured that two hundred well-armed Englishmen could in the present day march through any number of the Land Dyaks of Borneo, and defeat them with- out loss. It is not necessary to trace in detail the history of the island; but I may notice that in 1 507 the population was estimated at 60,000, which shows that the original reckoning must have been greatly exaggerated, as not even these early apostles of the religion of charity could have thus wiped out the people by millions. The story of what are called the early exploits of the Spaniards in Santo Domingo has been so often related that it is useless to tell it over again, especially as it would present but a sequence of sickening events, of murders, executions, robbery, and lust, with but few traits of generosity and virtue to record. These foreign settlers soon saw that the island would be useless to them without population, so they early began to introduce negroes from Africa, as well as families from the neighbouring isles. The local Indians were not, however, spared, and the Spanish historians themselves are the chroniclers of this record of infamy. Now not a descendant of an Indian remains. Santo Domingo, deprived of population, with its comparatively unimportant mineral wealth, for want of HISTORY BEFORE INDEPENDEXOE. 31 hands, no longer available, and agriculture neglected, rapidly degenerated, and little was left but the city of Santo Domingo and in the interior a population of herdsmen. Then the famous buccaneers appeared to inflict on the Spaniards some of the misery tliey had worked on the Indians. Notwithstanding every effort to prevent them, the French adventurers gradually spread through the western end of the island, and began to form towns and settlements. In 1640 Levasseur was sent from France as governor of these irregularly acquired possessions, and from that time the French may be said to have established them- selves firmly in the western part of Santo Domingo — which hereafter I may call by its present name, Hayti, to simplify the narrative — but their rule was not recog- nised by Spain until the year 1697. From this date to the breaking out of the French Eevolution the colony increased in prosperity, until it became, for its extent, probably the richest in the world. Negroes were imported by thousands from the coast of Africa, and were subjected to as harsh a slavery as ever disgraced the worst system of servitude. Two events occurred during this period of prosperity which were worthy of being noted: first, the fearful earthquake which destroyed Port-au-Prince in 1770, when for fifteen days the earth trembled under repeated shocks, and left the city a heap of ruins.^ The second ^ It is a well-known fact that the noise of the approach of an earth- quake is generally heard ; but in Port-au-Prince there is a curious 32 HISTORY BEFORE INDEPENDENCE. ■was the war in whicli France engaged to aid our Worth American colonists to acquire their independence. To increase their forces the French commanders permitted the free blacks and mulattoes to enlist, and they did good service ; but when they returned to their country, they spread widely a spirit of disaffection, which no ordinances could destroy. When England in 1785 was forced to acknowledge the independence of the United States, how despotic France and Spain rejoiced over the downfall of the only country where liberty was known ! The results were, for France, the Eevolution, which, with all its crimes, did unspeakable good, and deprived her of the finest colony that any country ever possessed. To Spain it brought the loss of world-wide possessions, and a fall in power and prestige which until lately she has shown but few signs of recovering. On the eve of the great Eevolution, France possessed, as I have said, the finest colony in the world. Her historians are never weary of enumerating the amount of its products, the great trade, the warehouses full of sugar, cotton, coffee, indigo, and cocoa; its plains covered with splendid estates, it hillsides dotted with noble houses ; a white population, rich, refined, enjoy- phenomenon which I have never known explained. A subterranean noise is frequently heard approaching from the plains, and appears to pass under the town without any movement of the earth being per- ceptible. The Haytians call it "le gouffre," or "le bruit du gouffre,'' and many fancy the whole of that portion of the island to be under- mined, «nd predict a fearful fate for the capital. HISTORY BEFORE INDEPENDENCE. 33 ing life as only a luxurious colonial society can en- joy it; the only dark spot, then scarcely noticed, the ignorant, discontented mass of black slavery, and the more enlightened disaffection of the free mulattoes and negroes. It has often been a subject of inquiry how it was that the Spaniards, who were the cruellest of the cruel towards the Indians, should have established negro slavery in a form which robbed it of half its terrors, whilst the French, usually less severe than their southern neighbours, should have founded a system of servitude unsurpassed for severity, cruelty, nay, ferocity. To this day the barbarous conduct of the Marquis of Caradeux is cited as a justification for the savage retaliation of the insurgent negroes. I think that the explanation of the different conduct of the Spanish and French slave-owner may be, that the former is indolent and satisfied with less, whilst the latter, in his fierce struggle to be rich, cared not how he became so, and worked his negroes beyond human endurance, and then, to keep down the inevitable effects of discontent, sought to terrorise his slaves by barbarous punishments. The true history of Hayti commences with the French Eevolution, when, amid the flood of impracti- cable and practicable schemes, a few statesmen turned their generous thoughts towards the down-trodden African, and firing assembled France with their enthu- siasm, passed laws and issued decrees granting freedom c 34 HISTOEY BEFORE INDEPENDENCE. to the black ; but before these had any practical effect, Hayti had to pass through scenes which have left blood-stains that nothing can wash away. When reading the different accounts which have been written of the state of Hayti when France was upsetting the accumulated wrongs of ages, I have often desired to disbelieve them, and place to exaggerated feelings of sympathy the descriptions of the prejudices of the planters and the atrocities committed under their influence. But I have lived long in the West Indies, and know that there are still many whites born in our colonies, even among the clergy, who not only look upon the negro as of an inferior species — which he may be — but as fit only for servitude, and quite un- worthy of freedom, and on an alliance with a coloured person as a disgrace which affects a whole family. They speak of a mulatto as they would of one affected with leprosy. If in these days such sentiments exist, we can readily believe that they existed even in a greater degree before, awakened to a feeling of justice, civilised nations formally abolished slavery, and let the black and the coloured man have an equal chance in the struggle of life. For some years before the meeting of the States- General in France, philanthropists who had inquired into the condition of the slave had had their compas- sion aroused, and, to give direction to their efforts to ameliorate it, had founded in Paris a society called " The Friends of the Blacks." HISTORY BEFORE INDEPENDENCE. 35 The summoning of the States- General in Prance created much enthusiasm throughout Hayti ; the plan- ters now thought that justice would be done, and that a share would be accorded them in the government of the colony; the lower class of whites had a vague idea that their position must be improved, and hailed the movement as the promise of better times — though in truth these two Classes had little of whicli to com- plain ; the former were rolling in wealth, and the latter were never in want of highly-paid employ- ment. Another class felt even greater interest — that of the free black and coloured men ; they thought that no change could occur which would not better their condition, which was one of simple toleration ; they might work and get rich, have their children educated in France, but they had no political rights, and the meanest white considered himself, and was treated, as their superior. The slaves, although discontented, were only formidable from their numbers. Exaggerated expectations were naturally followed by disappointment. The planters, finding that the French Government had no intention of employing them to administer the colony, began to think of independence ; whilst the lower whites, passionately attached to the dream of ec[uality, thought that that should com- mence by an apportionment among them of the estates of the rich. A third party consisted of the Government employes, whose chiefs were Eoyalists under the leadership of Penier, the Governor-General, 36 HISTORY BEFORE INDEPENDENCE. and Mauduit, colonel of the regiment of Port-au- Prince. The Colouial party, or rather that of the planters, in order to increase their power, which had hitherto been disseminated in local assemblies, determined to have the law carried out which authorised a General Assembly. This was elected, and held its first meet^ ings in St. Marc in March 1790. The leaders soon commenced to quarrel with the Government autho- rities, and dissensions rose to such a height that both parties began to arm ; and on the Assembly decreeing the substitution of another Governor for Penier, he was roused to resistance, and in a brief struggle he forced the General Assembly to dissolve, a portion of the members seeking refuge on board of a ship of war, whose crew they had induced to mutiny and sail with them to France. The white population thus set the example of inter- nal strife, and in their struggle for mastery called in the aid of the freedmen, and then after victory insulted them. These, however, began gradually to understand the advantages they possessed in being able to support the climate, and the persecutions and cruelties of the French made them feel that those who would be free themselves must strike the blow. Among the educated and intelligent mulattoes who had gone to France to urge on the National Assembly the rights of their colour was Ogd. He naturally thought that the time had arrived for justice to be HISTORY BEFORE INDEPENDENCE. 37 done when the President of the " Constituant" had declared that " aucune partie de la nation ne r^cla- mera vainement ses droits aupres de I'assemblee des representants du peuple fran^ais." He visited the Club Massiac, where the planters held supreme sway, and endeavoured to enlist their sympathy, but he was coldly received. He then determined to return to Hayti to support the rights of his caste, which, though ambiguously, had been recognised by the Legislature ; but unexpected obstacles were thrown in his way by the Colonial party, and an order to arrest him was issued should he venture to embark for his native land. By passing through England and the United States he eluded these precautions, and landed privately at Cap Haitien. When the news of his arrival on his property at Dondon reached the authorities, they endeavoured to capture him ; then he, with some hundreds of his colour, rose in arms ; but after a few skirmishes they dispersed, and Og^ was forced to seek refuge in the Spanish settlement of Santo Domingo. There he was arrested, and, on the demand of the Governor of the French colony, handed over to his enemies. He was tried as a rebel and broken on the wheel, together with three companions; others were hung, the rest sent to the galleys. Oge's armed resistance had encouraged the men of colour in the south to demand their rights; but they were easily dispersed, and their chief, Eigaud, taken prisoner. These isolated and irresolute outbreaks 38 HISTORY BEFOEE IXDEPEIfDENCE. rendered the division between the coloured and the white population more marked than ever; the latter despised the former for their wretched resistance, while the coloured men were indignant at the cruel and unsparing executions which marked the close of Oge's career. Monsieur Blanchelande was then Governor, a weak man at the head of the Eoyalist partj^, who had not the courage to follow the energetic counsels of Colonel Mauduit. By his vacillation all discipline was lost both in the army and in the fleet, and the revolutionary party rose in arms in Port-au-Prince, murdered Colonel Mauduit, and drove tlie pusillanimous Grovernor to seek refuge in the plain of Cul-de-Sac. Thus the whites were everywhere divided, but were still strong enough to disperse any assembly of the freedmen. The news of the troubles in Hayti produced a great effect in Paris, and the Constituent Assembly deter- mined to send three commissioners to restore tran- quillity ; but they prefaced this measure by decreeing (May 15, 1791) that every man of colour born of free parents should enjoy equal political rights with the whites. On the planters declaring that this would bring about civil war and the loss of the colony, the famous phrase was uttered, "Perish the colonies rather than a principle," which phrase has not been forgotten by those amongst us who would sacrifice India to the perverse idea of abandoning our high political status in the world. HISTORY BEFOEE INDEPENDENCE. 39 When the substance of this decree reached Hayti, it roused to fury the passions of the whites ; all sections united in declaring that they would oppose its execu- tion even by force of arms, and a strong party was formed either to declare the independence of the colony, or, if that were not possible, to invite England to take possession. The coloured men, on the other hand, determined to assert their rights, and held secret meetings to bring about an accord among all the members of their party; and when they heard that Governor Blanchelande had declared he would not execute the decree, they summoned their followers to meet at Mirebalais in the western department. The whites in the meantime determined that the second Colonial Assembly should be elected before the official text of the dreaded decree of the 1 5th May should arrive ; and so rapidly did they act, that on the ist August 1 79 1 the Assembly met at Leogane, and was opened under the presidency of the Marquis de Cadusch, a Eoyalist. They called Governor Blanchelande to the bar of the House, and made him swear that he would not carry into effect the law giving equal rights to the freedmen. As Cap Haitien had become in reality the capital of the colony, both the Governor and the Assembly soon removed there. The Eoyalist party, headed by the Governor, found their influence gradually declining, and, to strengthen their hands against both the Colonial Assembly with its traitorous projects and the violence of the lower 40 HISTORY BEFORE INDEPENDENCE. part of the white population, are accused of having first thought of enlisting the blacks to further their schemes and to strengthen their party. It is said that they proposed to Toussaint, a slave on the Breda estates, to raise the negroes in revolt in the name of the King. This account I believe to be a pure invention of the coloured historians, and the conduct of the blacks clearly proved that they were not moved by French officers. Whoever was the instigator, it is certain that the negroes in the northern province rose in insurrec- tion, put to death every white that fell into their liands, began to burn the factories, and then rushed en masse to pillage the town of Cap Haitien. Here, how- ever, their numbers availed them little against the arms and discipline of the French troops, and they were driven back with great slaughter, and many then retired to the mountains. It would naturally be sus- pected that the coloured people were the instigators of this movement, were it not certain that they were as much opposed to the freedom of the blacks as the most impassioned white planter. The insurgent slaves called themselves " Les Gens du Eoi," declaring that he was their friend and was per- secuted for their sake ; they hoisted the white flag, and placed an ignorant negro, Jean Francois, at their head. The second in command was a Papaloi or priest of the Vaudoux, named Biassou. He encouraged his followers to carry on the rites of their African religion, and when under its wildest influence, he dashed his bands to the HISTOEY BEFORE INDEPENDENCE. 41 attack of their civilised enemies, to meet their death in Hayti, but to rise again free in their beloved Africa. The ferocity of the negro nature had now full swing, and the whites who fell into their hands felt its effects. Prisoners were placed between planks and sawn in two, or were skinned alive and slowly roasted, the girls violated and then murdered. Unhappily some of these blacks had seen their companions thus tor- tured, though probably in very exceptional cases. De- scriptions of these horrors fill pages in every Haytian history, but it is needless to dwell on them. On either side there was but little mercy. The Governor at length collected 3000 white troops, who, after various skirmishes, dispersed these bands with much slaughter ; but as this success was not fol- lowed up, Jean Francois and Biassou soon rallied their followers. In the meantime the coloured men at Mirebalais, under the leadership of Pinchinat, began to arouse their brethren ; and having freed nine hundred slaves, com- menced forming the nucleus of an army, that, under the leadership of a very intelligent mulatto named Bauvais, gained some successes over the undisciplined forces in Port-au-Prince, commanded by an Italian adventurer, Praloto. The Pioyalists, who had been driven from the city by the mob, had assembled at " La Croix des Bouquets " in the plains, and to strengthen their party entered into an alliance with the freedmen. This alarmed the inhabitants of Port-au-Prince, and 42 HISTOKY BEFORE INDEPENDENCE. they also recognised the existence of Pinchinat and his party by entering into a regular treaty with them. Tlie Haytians, as I may call the coloured races, began now to understand that their position must depend on their own courage and conduct. When everything had been settled between the chiefs of the two parties, the Haytians returned to Port-au- Prince, and were received with every demonstration of joy; they then agreed to a plan which showed how little they cared for the liberty of others, so that they themselves obtained their rights. Among those who had fought valiantly at their side were the freed slaves previously referred to. For fear these men should excite ideas of liberty among those blacks who were still working on the estates, the coloured officers con- sented that they should be deported from the country. In the end, they were placed as prisoners on board a pontoon in Mole St. Nicolas, and at night were for the most part butchered by unknown assassins. And Bauvais and Pinchinat, the leaders and the most intel- ligent of the freedmen, were those that agreed to this deportation of their brethren in arms who had the misfortune to be lately slaves ! I doubt if the blacks ever forgot this incident. The coloured men gained little by this breach of. faith, as shortly after news arrived that the French Assembly had reversed the decree of May 15, which gave equal rights to the freedmen ; and then dissensions broke out, and the coloured men were again driven from HISTORY BEFORE INDEPENDEJS^CE. 43 Port-au-Prince with heavy loss. This was the signal for disorders throughout the whole country, and the whites and the freedmen were skirmishing in every district. Praloto and the rabble reigned supreme in Port-au- Prince, and soon made the rich merchants and shop- keepers feel the effects of their internal divisions, They set fire to the town, and during the confusion plundered the stores, and exercised their private vengeance on their enemies. The whole country was in the greatest disorder when three commissioners sent by the Prench Government arrived in Hayti. The Colonial Assembly was still sitting at Cap Haitien and the insurgent negroes were encamped at no great distance. The three commis- sioners were Mirbeck, St. Leger, and Eoume ; they im- mediately endeavoured to enter into negotiations with the revolted slaves, which had little result, on account of the obstinacy of the planters. Finding that their influence was as nought, the former two returned to Prance, whilst Eoume went ultimately to Santo Domingo. The state of the colony may be imagined when it is remembered that the whites were divided into three distinct sections. Tlie coloured men, jealous of each other, did not combine, but were ready to come to blows on the least pretext ; while the blacks, under Jean Pranqois, were massacring every white that fell into their hands, and selling to the Spaniard every negro or coloured man accused of siding with the Prench. The 44 HISTORY BEFORE INDEPENDENCE. planters wanted independence or subjection to England j the poorer whites anything which would give them the property of others ; the coloured were still faithful to France, whilst the blacks cared only to be free from work ; yet among them was Toussaint, who already had fermenting in his brain the project of a free black State. It would interest few to enter into the details of this history of horrors, where it is difficult to feel sym- pathy for any party. They were alilie steeped in blood, and ready to commit any crime to further their ends. Murder, torture, violation, pillage, bad faith, and treach- ery meet you on all sides ; and although a few names arise occasionally in whom you feel a momentary inte- rest, they are sure soon to disgust you by their utter incapacity or besotted personal ambition. The ISTational Assembly in Paris, finding that their first commissioners had accomplished nothing, sent three others, two of whom, Sonthonax and Polverel, are well known in Haytian history. They had full powers, and even secret instructions, to do all they could to give freedom to the slaves. These two commissioners were of the very worst kind of revolutionists, talked of little- but guillotining the aristocrats, and were in every way unsuited to their task ; they dissolved the Colonial Assembly, and substituted for it a commission, consisting of six whites of the stamp suited to them and six freedmen. Tliey decided to crush the respectable classes, whom they JIISTOEY BEFORE INDEPENDENCE. 45 called Eoyalists, because they would not join in re- volutionary excesses, and the massacre commenced at the Cape. Polverel appears to have had some idea of the re- sponsibility of his position, though both cruel and faith- less; Sonthonax, however, was but a blatant babbler, with some talent, but overwhelmed by vanity. He caused more bloodshed than any other man, first setting the lower white against the rich, then the mulatto against the white, and then the black against both. Well might the French orator declare on Sonthonax's return to France that " il puait de sang." The third commissioner, Aillaud, thinking, very justly, that his .companions were a couple of scoundrels whom he could not control, embarked secretly and left for home. Whilst these commissioners were employed in destroy- ing the fairest colony in the world, France, in a moment of excited fury, declared war against the rest of Europe, and a new era opened for Hayti. Many of the more influential and respectable inha- bitants of all colours, utterly disgusted by the conduct of the different parties, thought that the war between England and France would give them some chance of rest from the excesses of the insurgent blacks and from the factious freedmen, supported by that foii furieux, Sonthonax, sent to Jamaica to invite the Governor to interfere and take possession of the colony. England did interfere, but in her usual way, with small expeditions, and thus frittered away her strength ; 46 HISTORY BEFORE INDEPENDENCE. but the resistance made was in general so contemptible, that with little effort we succeeded in taking J^r^mie in the southern province, and then St. Marc, and subse- quently Port-au-Prince. Had we sent a large army, it is equally possible that we should not have succeeded, as the intention was to reimpose slavery. As the garrison of Jamaica could only furnish detachments, the British authorities began to enlist all who wished to serve, irrespective of colour, and being supported by those who were weary of anarchy and revolutionary fury, were soon able to present a very respectable force in the field. The Spaniards, aided by the bands of re- volted negroes, overran most of the northern province ; in this they were greatly aided by Toussaint L'Ouver- ture, who now began to come to the front. Sonthonax, ■whose idea of energy was simply to massacre and destroy, ordered that every place his partisans were forced to evacuate should be burned. At the same time he thought that a little terror might be of service, so he erected a guillotine in Port-au-Prince ; and having at hand a Frenchman accused of being a Eoyalist, he thought he would try the experiment on him. An immense crowd of Haytians assembled to witness the execution ; but when they saw the bright blade descend and the head roll at their feet, they were horror-stricken, and rushing on the guillotine, tore it to pieces, and no other has ever again been erected in Hayti. Curious people ! they who never hesitated to destroy the whites, guilty or innocent, or massacre, simply HISTOEY BEFORE INDEPENDENCE. 47 because they were white, women and children, down to the very babe at the breast, who invented every species of torture to render death more hideous, were horrified because a man's head was chopped off instead of his being destroyed in a fashion to which they were accustomed, and this at a time when white, coloured, and black were vying with each other in acts of blood- thirsty cruelty ! The whole country was in terrible confusion ; the French had not one man who had the talent or influ- ence to dominate their divided factions ; the coloured were represented by such respectabilities as Pinchinat, Bauvais, and Eigaud, but without one of incontestable superiority; the blacks were as yet led by such men as Jean Frangois and Biassou, who must even make respectable negroes blush to acknowledge that they were of the same race ; yet, as I have said, there was one man coming to the front who was to dominate all. Amid the many heroes whose actions the Haytians love to commemorate, Toussaint L'Ouverture does not hold a high rank ; and yet the conduct of this black was so remarkable as almost to confound those who declare the negro an inferior creature incapable of rising to genius. History, wearied with dwelling on the petty passions of the other founders of Haytiau independence, may well turn to the one grand figure of this cruel war. Toussaint was born on the Breda estate in the northern department, and was a slave from birth ; it has. been doubted whether he was of 43 HISTORY BEFORE INDEPENDENCE. pure negro race. His grandfather was an African prince, but if we may judge from the portraits, he was not of the pure negro tvpe. Whether pure negro or not, there is no doubt of the intelligence and energy of the man. Though but a puny child, by constant exercise and a vigorous will he became as wiry and active as any of his companions, and, moreover, gave up much of his leisure time to study. He learned to read French, and, it is said, in order to understand the Prayer-Book, a little Latin ; but he never quite mastered the art of writing. He was evidently trusted and kindly treated by his master's agent, who gave him charge of the sugar-mills. There is an accusation con- stantly brought against Toussaint, that of being a religious hypocrite, but his early life shows that it is unfounded. Whilst stUl a slave, his principles would not allow him to foUow the custom of his companions and live in concubinage; he determined to marrv, though the woman he chose had already an illegitimate son named Placide, whom he adopted. It is pleasing to read of the happy domestic life of Toussaint, and it is another proof of that affectionate disposition which made those who served him devoted to him. When the insurrection broke out in the northern province, Toussaint remained faithful to his master, and prevented any destruction on the estate: but finding ultimately that he could not stem the tide, he sent his master's family for safety into Cap Haitien, and joined the insurgents. He was at first appointed surf^eon to HISTORY BEFORE INDEPENDENCE. 49 the army, as among his other accomplishments was a knowledge of simples, which had given him great in- fluence on the estate, and was now to do so in the insurgent forces. He liked this employment, as it kept him free from the savage excesses of his com- panions, who were acting with more than ordinary barbarity. The three leaders of the insurgents were then Jean Francois, a negro, about whom opinions differ. St. Eemy says he was intellectual, though the general idea is the more probable one, that he was an energetic savage. Biassou was sensual and violent, as cruel as man could be, and an avowed leader of the Vaudoux sect, and apparently a Papaloi; but the vilest of the three was Jeannot. He loved to torture his white prisoners, and drank their blood mixed with rum ; but he was as cowardly as he was cruel, and the scene at his execution, when he clung to the priest in frantic terror, must have afforded satisfaction to the friends of those whom he had pitilessly murdered. Jeannot was also a great proficient in Vaudoux practices, and thus gained much influence with the ignorant slaves ; it was this influence, not his cruelties, which roused the anger of Jean Fran9ois, who seized and summarily shot him. It is curious to read of the projects of these negro leaders. They had no idea of demanding liberty for the slaves ; they only wanted liberty for themselves. In some abortive negotiations with the French, Jean Frangois demanded that 300 of the leaders should be 50 HISTORY BEFOEE INDEPENDENCE. declared free, whilsfc Toussaint would only have bar- gained for fifty. The mulattoes, however, were most anxious to preserve their own slaves, and, as I have related, gave up to death those blacks who had aided them in supporting their position ; and a French writer records that up to Le Clerc's expedition, the mulattoes had fought against the blacks with all the zeal that the interests of property could inspire. The blind infatuation of the planters prevented their accepting Jean Frangois' proposition; they even rejected it with insult, and savagely persecuted the negroes who were living in Cap Haitien. Biassou then ordered all his white prisoners to be put to death ; but Toussaint, by his eloquent remonstrances, saved them. Other negotiations having failed, Biassou attacked the French lines, and carried them as far as the ramparts of the town. The planters had brave words, but not brave deeds, with which to meet their revolted bonds- men. All the black prisoners taken by the insurgents were sent over the frontiers and sold as slaves to the Spaniards. Toussaint remonstrated against this vile traffic, but never shared in it. The new Governor, Laveaux, at this time nearly stifled the insurrection, dispersing all the insurgent forces ; but, as usual, not following up his successes, allowed the negroes again to concentrate. No strength of position as yet enabled the blacks successfully to resist the white troops. When the negro chiefs heard of the death of Louis XVI., they thought they had lost a friend, and HISTORY BEFORE INDEPENDENCE. 51 openly joined the Spaniards in their war on the French Eepublic. At this time Sonthonax and Polv^rel acted as if they intended to betray their own country, by remov- ing the chief white officers from command and in- trusting these important posts to mulattoes. It was not, however, treachery, but jealousy, as such a man as General Galbaud could not be made a docile instru- ment in their hands. Then finding that power was slipping from them, they proclaimed (1793) the liberty of all those slaves who would fight for the Eepublic. In the meantime Toussaint was steadily gaining influence among his troops, and gradually freeing him- self from the control of Biassou, whose proceedings had always shocked him ; and some successful expedi- tions, as the taking of Dondon, added to his prestige. Whilst fighting was going on throughout the northern provinces, Sonthonax and Polverel were solemnising pompous fites to celebrate the anniversary of the taking of the Bastile. It is singular what a passion they had for these childish amusements. Eigaud, a mulatto, in future days the rival of Toussaint, now appears prominently upon the scene, being appointed by the commissioners as chief of the southern department. Toussaint continued his successes, and finding that nothing could be done with the estates without the whites, appeared anxious to induce them to return to superintend their cultivation, and he succeeded in 62 HISTORY BEFORE IXDEPENDEK'CE. persuading many hundreds to reside in their devastated homes. Alarmed by the continued advance of Toussaint, Sonthonax proclaimed in August 29, 1793, the liberty of all, which, under the circumstances, may be con- sidered the only wise act of his administration. The people of the north-west, however, were weary of the tyranny of the commissioners, and being pro- bably privately informed of Toussaint's intentions, sur- rendered Gonaives to him, and the rest of the neigh- bouring districts followed. A new enemy, however, now appeared in the shape of the English, who took posses- sion of St. Marc with seventy-five men, — so like our system! In June 1794 Port-au-Prince surrendered to the English after a faint resistance, the commissioners retiring to Jacmel, from whence they embarked for Prance, to answer for their conduct. At that time Port-au-Prince was in a fair state for defence ; but Captain Daniel of the 41st took the famous fort of Bizoton by storm with sixty men, and then the English advanced on the town. The effect of having replaced the French officers by untrained mulattoes was here apparent: though everything had been pre- pared to blow up the forts, nothing was done ; the garri- son fled, leaving to our forces 131 cannon, twenty- two laden vessels, with 7000 tons more in ballast, and all their stores and ammunition. At this time Jean Francois, became suspicious of Toussaint and arrested him, but he was delivered by HISTORY BEFORE INDEPENDENCE. 53 3iassou. Toussaint had for some time been meditating o a bold stroke. The procl3,mation by Sonthonax of the freedom of the blacks probably worked on him, and he determined to abandon the party of the King of Spain, which was that of slavery, and join the French Ee- public. He did so, proclaiming at the same time the freedom of the slaves. His soldiers sullied the change by massacring two hundred white planters, who, con- fiding in the word of Toussaint, had returned to their estates. The new general of the republic now acted with energy against Jean Fran9ois, drove him from the plains, and forced him to take refuge with his followers in the Black Mountains. Success followed success, until Toussaint found himself opposite St. Marc; but his attack on that town was easily repulsed by its garri- son in English pay. His activity was incessant, and he kept up constant skirmishes with all his enemies ; he appeared ever unwearied, whatever might be the fatigue of his companions. Toussaint had naturally observed that, however his men might succeed against the undisciplined hordes of Jean Franqois, they could do nothing against a discip- lined force. He therefore, in 1795, formed four regi- ments of 2000 men each, whom he had daily drilled by French soldiers, his former prisoners ; and, I may notice here, with such success, that English officers were sub- sequently surprised at their proficiency. Eigaud had, in the meantime, with his usual boasting, 54 HISTORY BEFORE INDEPENDENCE. marched on Port-au-Prince, declaring he would expel the English, but was repulsed. Toussaint assembled all his army for another attack on St. Marc, and for three days, from the 2Sth to 27th July 1795, tried by repeated assaults to capture the town; but English discipline prevailed, and the small garrison foiled every attempt. It is noticed by St. Eemy that Toussaint, when once he gave his word, never broke it, which was a new experience among these unprincipled leaders ; and it is added, that he never had any prejudice of colour. An important event for the French in 1795 was the peace made between France and Spain, by which Santo Domingo was ceded to the former. The year 1796 was ushered in by various English expeditions and skirmishes, and their failure to take Leog§,ne. Some of the Haytian accounts are amusing. Potion defended the fort of ^a-ira against the whole English fleet until the fortifications were demolished. Fifteen thousand English bullets were showered into the place, and yet only seven Haytians were killed. It looks as if the garrison had quietly retired and left us to batter away at the earthworks. One is often surprised, in reading Haytian accounts of the war, at the defeats of the English, which make one wonder what could have become of the proverbial courage and steadiness of our men ; but a little closer inquiry shows that in most of these instances there were few or no English present, only black and coloured men in our pay, or planters who had taken our side in HISTORY BEFORE INDEPENDENCE. 55 the war, none of whom were more than half-hearted in our cause. The French were also weakened by internal dissen- sions. General Vilatte, a mulatto, incited a revolt in the town of Cap Haitien, arrested the French governor, Laveaux, and threw him into prison. The latter called on Toussaint to aid him, and the black general had the supreme satisfaction of marching into the town and freeing the white governor. With what curious sensa- tions must Toussaint have performed this act of autho- rity in a place that had only known him as a slave ! Laveaux received him with enthusiasm, and promoted him from the grade of general of brigade, to which the French Government had named him, to be lieuten- ant-general of the Government, April r, 1796. This successful movement confirmed the ascendancy of the blacks in the north, and Vilatte had shortly to sail for France, from whence he returned with the expedition sent to enslave his countrymen. Sonthonax and a new commission now arrived at Cap Haitien, to find Eigaud almost independent in the south, and Toussaint master in the north. Both ■ Laveaux and Sonthonax are accused of endeavouring to set the blacks against the mulattoes. Laveaux having returned to France as deputy for the colony, Sonthonax remained at the head of affairs, and one of his first acts was to name Toussaint general of division. Toussaint was in the meantime organising his army and working hard at its drill: he then started to the 56 HISTORY BEFOEE INDEPENDENCE. attack of Mirebalais, a post occupied by a French planter in our service, the Count de Bruges, who appears to have retired, with numerous forces, without much resistance, as he probably could scarcely trust his raw levies. Sonthonax was so pleased with this im- portant success that he named Toussaint commander- in-chief of the army in Santo Domingo, which step displeased Eigaud, who was thus placed under the orders of a black general. Toussaint appears to have felt a justifiable distrust of Sonthonax ; he saw that he desired to set black against coloured, that he was even talking of the independence of the island, perhaps only to test Toussaint's fidelity ; but he had no difficulty in assuring himself that wher- ever Sonthonax was, mischief was sure to be brewing. He therefore had him elected deputy, and sent him to follow Laveaux. Sonthonax did not like this step, and made some show of opposition, but Toussaint informed him that if he did not embark immediately he would fall on Cap Haitien with 20,000 men. This irresistible argument made Sonthonax give way. As he went down to the boat that was to take him on board, the streets were lined by crowds of all colours, but not one said, " God bless him," as he had betrayed every party in turn ; and his one wise act of proclaiming the liberty of the slaves was simply a political expedient, wrung from him by the circumstances of the hour. He was a boast- ing, bad man, whose history is written in the blood of thousands of every colour. HISTORY BEFOEB INDEPENDENCE. 57 The Directory, alarmed at the growing influence of Toussaint, sent out General H^douville as pacificator of the island, and, to produce harmony, gave him authority to deport Eigaud. On his arrival at Cap Haitien he summoned the rivals to confer with him, and Eigaud and Toussaint, meeting at Gonaives, went together to the capital. Hddouville, jealous of the power of the latter, gave all his attention to the former, whilst the newly arrived French ofBcers laughed at the negro and his surroundings. Toussaint, suspecting a plot to arrest him and send him off to France, and probably very jealous of the superior treatment of his rival, withdrew from the city and returned to his army. The English had now become convinced that it was useless to attempt to conquer the island; their losses -from sickness were enormous, and the influence of the planters was of no avail. Their black and coloured mercenaries were faithless and ready to betray them, as at St. Marc, where the English governor had to shoot a number of traitorous mulattoes who would have betrayed the town into the hands of the blacks. They therefore determined to treat with Toussaint, and after some brief negotiations evacuated St. Marc, Port-au- Prince, and L'Arcahaye. He thus gained at one stroke what no amount of force could have procured for him. Toussaint, with a greatness of mind which was re- markable, agreed to allow those French colonists who had sided with us to remain, and promised to respect their properties ; and as it was known that this mag- 58 HISTORY BEFORE INDEPENDENCE. nanimous black ever kept his word, no important exodus followed our retreat. Admiral Maitland had arranged for the surrender of the Mole with General Hedouville, but on finding his hostility to the French planters, whom he insisted on Toussaint expelling the country, our naval chief made a new settlement with the black general and handed the Mole over to him. ]\Iaitland invited Toussaint to visit him, and reviewed before him the English army collected from the rest of the country. He was exceedingly pleased by the treatment he received from our people, and ever after showed a kindly feeling towards them. One can scarcely understand why the English gave up the Mole, which a small garrison could have de- fended, and the importance of the position in naval warfare is indisputable. If we wanted to gain Tous- saint and induce him to declare the island independent, we should have held it until that desirable event had happened.^ Toussaint treated the old colonists with distinction, and left many of them in the commands they had held under the English. HMouville protested against this good treatment of his own countrymen, and annoyed Toussaint so much, that he began to consider ' Our unsuccessful attempt to conquer Hayti does not merit to be recorded in detail, but it is humiliating to read of the stupidity of our chiefs at Port-au-Prince, who made our soldiers work at fortifica- tions during the day and do duty at night. No wonder that we find a regiment 6oo strong losing 400 in two mouths, and the Sad landing 950 men, to be reduced in six weeks to 350. HISTORY BEFORE INDEPENDENCE. 59 whether it would not be prudent to send Hddouville to follow Sonthonax. H^douville was not the only one who objected to the good treatment of the planters ; his opinion was shared by the black general Moise, then commanding in the northern department. To show his displeasure at Toussaint's humanity, he caused some white colo- nists to be murdered in the plains near Cap Haitien. H^douville, frightened by the practical result of his teaching, summoned Toussaint to his aid ; but doubtful of his general, he escaped on board a vessel in harbour. In order to do all the mischief he could before leaving, he wrote to Eigaud, saying he was no longer to obey Toussaint, but consider himself the governor of the southern department, adding that Toussaint was sold to the English and the dmigrds. It was H^douville who thus laid the foundation of that civil war which degenerated into a struggle of caste. The agents sent by France proved each worse than the other. Eigaud, with the true spirit of a mulatto, also wrote to Toussaint to drive out the white planters, and when his teaching had incited his soldiers to murder his white countrymen, all Eigaud could say was, " Mon Dieu, qu'est que le peuple en fureur ? " On the departure of Hddouville, Toussaint invited Eoume to leave Santo Domingo and come and reside at Port-au-Prince, where they met in January 1799. Eoume appears to have had a profound admiration for Toussaint. We find him writing to General Kerverseau 60 HISTOEY BEFORE INDEPENDENCE. as early as February 1795, and describing the negro chief as a philosopher, a legislator, a general, and a good citizen. Eoume had a difficult part to play. He was most anxious to bring about concord among the different generals, and therefore invited Eigaud and Bauvais to meet Toussaint on the fete of the 4th of February to commemorate the memorable day when the National Convention proclaimed full liberty to the slaves. A little outward concord was obtained, but soon after, Toussaint, suspecting a plot, arrested some mulattoes. A slight disturbance among the negroes taking place at Corail, thirty were captured and died in prison, from " the effect of the gas created by white-washing the building." This remarkable excuse did not satisfy Toussaint, who believed the men to have been assassi- nated by Eigaud's of&cers. Toussaint and Eoume had in the meantime left for Cap Haitien, where they appear to have negotiated a com- mercial treaty with the Americans, and some arrange- ment was also, it is said, made with Admiral Maitland. It was during this year that Captain Eainsford visited Cap Haitien. As we were at war with France, our officer passed as an American, and soon after landing was met by Toussaint in the street, who came up to him to ask the news. He next saw him at a restaurant where all classes dined, and he sat down at a long table with a drummer-boy nest him, and the general not far off. The latter used to say that except HISTORY BEFOEE INDEPENDENCE. 61 ou service he did not see the necessity of making dis- tinctions. In the evening Captain Eainsford played billiards with Toussaint at the public tables. Eainsford appears to have been as much struck with Toussaint as Eoume. He says he was constrained to admire him as a man, a governor, and a general. He describes him as perfectly black, then about fifty- five years of age, of a venerable appearance, and pos- sessed of uncommon discernment and great suavity of manners. He enters fully into a description of his dress. The general wore as a uniform a kind of blue spencer, with a large red cape falling over his shoulders, and red cufis, with eight rows of lace on the arms, and a pair of huge gold epaulettes, a scarlet waistcoat, pantaloons and half-boots, a round hat with red feather and national cocade, and an extremely large sword was suspended from his side. Eainsford adds : " He receives a voluntary respect from every description of his countrymen, which is more than returned by the affability of his behaviour and the goodness of his heart." The vessel in which Eainsford was a passenger was next driven by stress of weather into Fort Liberte. Arrested as a spy, he was condemned to death; but Toussaint would not permit the sentence to be carried into effect. He dismissed him with a caution not to return without passports. There is much exaggeration in the account given by Eainsford of what he saw and heard at Cap Haicien. He talks of 62,000 inhabitants leaving the city after 62 HISTORY BKFORE INDEPENDENCE. the great fire, and of Toussaint reviewing his army of 60,000 men and 2000 officers. He was a better judge probably of their manoeuvres. He says that the soldiers went through their exercises with a degree of expert- ness he had seldom before witnessed. At the signal of a whistle, a whole brigade ran forward three or four hundred yards, and then separating, threw themselves on the ground, keeping up a heavy fire from every kind of position. The complete subordination and discipline astonished him. Eigaud having evidently decided to carry out Gene- ral Hedouville's instructions and defy both Toussaint and Eoume, it became necessary to subdue him. Ten thousand men were collected at Port-au-Prince, whilst Eigaud concentrated his army at Mirago§,ne, and com- menced the war by seizing Petit Goave, and there, without the slightest excuse, murdered all the white inhabitants. It is singular to contrast the conduct of the two generals : Toussaint, without the slightest pre- judice of colour, and Eigaud, the mulatto, the son of a Prenchman, showing "how he hated his father and despised his mother" by murdering the whites and refusing to obey a black. Eoume published a proclamation, calling on the north and west to march against the south to restore unity of command ; but before entering on the campaign, Toussaint had to return to the north to repress some movements, and on his journey back almost fell into two ambuscades, from which he was saved by the fleet- HISTORY BEFORE INDEPENDENCE. 63 ness of his horse. Toussaint shot those who were con- cerned in these conspiracies, whether black or coloured ; but the stories told by St. Eemy of his ordering i8o young mulatto children to be drowned at L'Arcahaye, is so contrary to everything we know of his character, that we may set this fable down to caste hatred. That he was severe with his enemies is no doubt true. Then began the wearisome civil war in the south by Dessalines driving back Eigaud's army, and by the siege of Jacmel, which lasted four months. Pdtion greatly distinguished himself in the defence, and con- ducted the evacuation. It appears unaccountable that while the main body of Toussaint's army was thus engaged, Eigaud remained passive; it can only be explained by mean jealousy, which was his character- istic to the last year of his life. But his principal fault was boasting, shown by his proclamation, saying, " Let the enemy appear and I'll slay them," which was answered by another from Toussaint offering pardon and peace. Toussaint's army in the south was commanded by Dessalines and Christophe, or, in other words, by two ferocious blacks, to whom pity was unknown. Dessa- lines soon forced the strong position near Miragoane, and defeated Eigaud and Potion, driving them before him towards Les Cayes. Eigaud ordered his officers to burn and destroy everything in their retreat, which naturally roused the inhabitants against these measures of defence, and they became clamorous for peace. 64 HISTOEY BEFORE INDEPENDENCE. In the meantime the Consular Government at Paris sent out officers to Hayti, among whom was Colonel Vincent. Toussaint was confirmed in his position as general-in-chief, but the war in the south was dis- approved. Colonel Vincent was enabled to tell him of all the changes that had taken place in France, but the black chief could readily see that he was suspected by the French Government. He, however, sent Vincent and other officers to Les Cayes to offer peace. It is amusing to read the account given of Eigaud. He went to see the French officers, a blunderbuss on his shoulder, pistols in his belt, a sword on one side, and a dagger on the other. On hearing that his conduct did not meet with the support of the French Government, he drew his dagger as if to stab himself, but did not do so ; he preferred making a truce and embarking for France, together with his principal officers. Toussaint entered Les Cayes on the ist August 1800, and showed the grandeur of his character by impli- citly carrying out his original decree. He again pro- claimed union and peace, and pardoned aU those who had been led into rebellion against him; and, to the astonishment of his enemies, he kept his word and behaved with great magnanimity. Even his worst opponents were then constrained to allow that, when once given, he never broke his word. If Toussaint was clement, Dessalines was the re- verse ; and the mulattoes declare that he killed upwards of ten thousand of their caste, which is probably HISTORY BEFORE INDEPENDENCE. 65 more of that colour than the southern province ever contained. Whilst this campaign was at its height, Eoume com- mitted the indiscretion of trying to raise a revolt in Jamaica, His agents were taken and hung ; and as a punishment the English captured one of Toussaint's convoys destined for Jacmel. The General, very angry ■with Eoume, sent for him ; he refused to come, upon which Toussaint went to Cap Haitien, and after re- proaching him, insisted on his giving him an order to invade the eastern end of the island. He refused at first, but ultimately yielded to the menaces of General Moise. When the southern campaign was over, Toussaint began to prepare for the occupation of Santo Domingo, but finding that Eoume was inclined to withdraw his permission, he arrested him and sent him back to Trance. Toussaint's prestige was now so great in the island, that little resistance was made, and he occupied the city of Santo Domingo almost without a shot being fired, and established his brother Paul as governor. The whole of the island being now under one chief, Toussaint decided to put into execution a constitution which he had already promulgated. It was certainly a model of liberality. It placed all colours equal before the law ; employments might be held by black, white, or coloured ; as much freedom of trade as possible ; a governor to be named for five years, but on account of the eminent services of Toussaint, he was to occupy 6Q HISTORY BEFORE INDEPENDENCE. that post for life, with power to name his successor. He sent this constitution to Buonaparte for approval ; but evidently it was too much or too little. Had he boldly proclaimed the independence of the island, he might have saved the country from great misfor- tunes. Peace being now re-established over all the island, Toussaint began his civil administration. All accounts are unanimous in declaring that he himself governed admirably, but the instruments he had to employ were too often utterly unworthy. He organised the country into districts, and appointed inspectors to see that all returned to their work, and decreed that a fifth of the produce should be given to the labourers. Dessalines was appointed inspector-in-chief; and if a man without any sentiment of humanity was re- quired for that post, surely Dessalines was a good choice, as he was ready to beat to death any man, woman, or child whom he chose to accuse of idleness. Toussaint, looking to difficulties ahead, continued to pay the greatest attention to his army, organised it with care, and preserved the strictest discipline. The stick appears to have been as popular in that day as it is now. Toussaint was very friendly to the whites, and was most anxious to encourage them to aid in developing the country. This excited the jealousy of some of his generals ; among others, of Moise, his nephew, who to thwart his uncle's projects incited a movement in the HISTORY BEFORE INDEPENDENCE. 67 north to massacre the French. Several having fallen victims, Tonssaint hastened to the spot, and finding that Moise was the real instigator of the murders, sent him before a court-martial. He was sentenced to death, and very properly shot on the 26th November 1800. Had Toussaint connived at these crimes, he would Lave upset all confidence in his trusted word. All was now progressing on the island ; the govern- ment was regularly administered, the finances were getting into order, and agriculture was beginning to raise its head, when Buonaparte, having secured peace in Europe, determined to recover the Queen of the Antilles and restore slavery. The story of this attempt may be told in a few words. General Leclerc started with 30,000 men to subdue the island, and although the evident intention of the French Government was to restore slavery, the principal mulatto officers accom- panied him, chief among whom were Eigaud, Petion, and Vilatte. It is true the mulattoes had not yet frankly accepted the full freedom of the blacks. General Leclerc did all he could to cause an armed resistance, as a peaceful solution would have given him no military glory ; therefore, instead of sending Tous- saint his children and the letter he bore from Buona- parte, he tried to surprise Cap Haitien. But General Christophe, before retiring with its garrison, set fire to the town and almost destroyed it ; and Toussaint gave instructions to his other generals to follow this example. Leclerc, mortified by the result of his first attempt, now 68 HISTORY BEFORE INDEPENDENCE. thought of writing to Toussaint, and sent him his two boys. Toussaint behaved with great nobility of char- acter, and asked naturally, " Why words of peace but acts of war ? " Finding that he could not circumvent his black opponent, Leclerc published a decree in February 1802, placing both Toussaint and Christophe "hoTs la loi." This was followed by the burning of the towns of St. Marc and Gonaives, and a retreat of the black troops towards the interior. Whenever you see a fortress in Hayti, you are sure to be told that it was built by the English; among others thus known was La Crete k Pierrot. The French general Debelle, treating with contempt these negro troops, attacked this fort with an inefficient force and was beaten ; then Leclerc made an assault in person, but he also was beaten, and was forced to lay siege to it. The attack and defence were conducted with sin- gular courage, particularly the latter, considering the quality of the men, who had never before been mea- sured with real white troops; however, after having repulsed several assaults, the garrison evacuated the forts. Petion commanded a portion of the French artillery in this attack on his countrymen struc^lin" for freedom. If he loved France but little, he hated Toussaint more. Even the enemies of the great black general are full of admiration of the courage displayed by him during all this important struggle, and especially dwell on his devotion to his wounded officers. I may here HISTOEY BEFORE INDEPENDENCE. 69 remark that the French general Eochambeau distin- guished himself for his cruelties, and shot every prisoner that fell into his hands ; which fully justified the retaliation of the Haytians. Discouraged by a series of reverses which followed the loss of La CrSte k Pierrot, where it was amply proved that negro soldiers, even among their moun- tains, were no match for the disciplined troops of France, some of the black generals, as Christophe, began to make terms with the French ; and Toussaint, iinding himself thus abandoned, wrote to Leclerc offering submission. As it was accepted, he went to Cap Haitien to meet the commander-in-chief, and was received and treated with much distinction. He then returned to the village of Marmalade, and there issued orders to all his officers to cease opposition and acknow- ledge the French authorities, and peace was established throughout the island. General Leclerc was but temporising with these black leaders ; his secret orders were, not only to arrest Toussaint, Dessalines, and Christophe, but to re-establish slavery. He found, however, the last two so zealous in carrying out his instructions to disarm the popula- tion, that he preserved them in their commands. Toussaint himself, having ever kept his word, could not believe that the French commander-in-chief would not keep his, and therefore, in spite of all warnings that treachery was meditated, stayed quietly on his estate at Ennery. He there received a letter from General 70 HISTORY BEFOEE INDEPENDENCE. Brunet, asking for an interview at a certain spot; Toussaint went, and was immediately arrested under circumstances of the greatest treachery. He was bound ■with cords and embarked on board the French ship Creole; then put on board the Heros with all his family and sent to France. When received on board by Savary, chef de division, he said to him, "En me renversant on n'a abattu k Saint Domingue que le tronc de I'arbre de la Uberte des noirs ; il repoussera, parceque les raeines en sont profondes et nombreuses." When reading this account bf the capture of Toussaint, we can scarcely credit that we are recording the acts of Trench officers, wliose plighted word was thus broken.^: On Toussaint's arrival in Trance he wrote to the French Chief Consul; but he might as well have written to Dessalines as expect either mercy or justice from the despot who then ruled France. He was separated from his family and hurried off to the Chateau de Joux in the Alps, where his rival Eigaud was already confined. Here he died from cold and neglect, under circumstances which raised the suspi- cion that the close of this illustrious life was hastened by unfair means. It is some satisfaction to remember that his executioner died also a prisoner in exile, though surrounded by every comfort that the generous English Government could afford him. We have all heard or read something of Toussaint ^ St. Eemy, speaking of Toussaint's capture, sajs, " Embarquement ar les blancs." How like a mulatto not to say "par les fran9ais !" HISTOEY BEFORE INDEPENDENCE. 71 L'Ouverture, and been taught to think well of him. I ■was therefore the more surprised, on my arrival at Port-au-Prince, to hear his memory so depreciated. I do not remember any Haytian having voluntarily spoken of him, though they never wearied of talking of Dessalines, Christophe, and Eigaud. I at first thought that Toussaint's never having unnecessarily shed the blood of the whites, whilst the others may be said to have rejoiced at the sight of it, was one of the chief causes ; but the real reason why the histo- rians and biographers of Hayti would lower Toussaint's memory is the energy with which he acted against the rebellious mulattoes, and his firm determination that all colours should be equally respected by the law, and that all should have equal rights. It is impossible not to be struck with almost the unanimous opinion favourable to Toussaint which has been recorded by all parties, even by his enemies. The Marquis d'Hermonas says that " God in this terrestrial globe could not commune with a purer spirit ; " the French general Pamphile Lacroix records that "Nul n'osait I'aborder sans crainte, et nul ne le quittait sans respect." We have seen the opinion of Eoume and Eainsford, that Toussaint was " a philosopher, a legis- lator, a general, and a good citizen," and that the latter was compelled to admire him as '' a man, a governor, and a general." He was personally brave, and being a splendid rider, loving from his earliest childhood to be on horseback, 72 HISTOEY BEFORE INDEPENDENCE. he never appeared fatigued even after the greatest exertions. As a general he is thought to have shown much skill; and, what proves his sense, but does not add to his popularity among Haytians, he did not believe that his men were fitted to cope with the trained bands of France. He constantly said that they must trust to climate and yellow-fever as their best allies. As an administrator, he had much capacity, and his influence being unbounded, he would probably have restored its old prosperity to Hayti, had not Leclerc's expedition arrived to throw the whole island into confusion. Toussaint's personal qualities appear to have been equal to his public : his word was sacred, he was humane on most occasions, yet with a firmness and decision which astonished his enemies. In his family relations he showed the most tender affection for wife and children ; his fine nature was apparent on all occa- sions in his solicitude for his wounded officers and soldiers, and the thoughtful care of the prisoners that fell into his hands. His affectionate treatment of ani- mals was also greatly noticed, and whenever he came upon fugitive women and children of any colour, his first thought was for their comfort. Our Consul-General Mackenzie (1827) often talked to the black officers of Toussaint ; they described him as stern and unbending, but just, and intimately acquainted with the habits of the people and the best interests of his country. HISTORY BEFORE INDEPENDENCE. 73 The one mistake of his life appears to have been his refusal, when urged to do so by England, to declare the independence of Hayti. Had he accepted the English proposals and entered into a treaty with us and with the Americans, it is not likely that Buonaparte would have ever attempted an expedition against him, and the history of Hayti might have been happier. There is one fact which strikes the reader of the histories of these times, and that is, the soldiers are described as veritable sansculottes, without pay and without proper uniforms, and yet all the chiefs, as Toussaint, Dessalines, and Christophe, were living in splendid houses in the greatest luxury. Toussaint is recorded to have lent the Trench Treasury 600,000 livres, an enormous sum for a slave to possess after a few years of freedom. Gragnon-Lacoste, who published a Life of Toussaint L'Ouverture in 1877, founded on family papers, says that this general had a marble house in Cap Haitien, elegantly furnished, and that he kept up the same style in all his plantations. His descendants in late years claimed about the fourth of Hayti as the estates of the black general.^ ^ This biography, as well as the others I have seen, is full of absur- dities ; talks of Toussaint advancing with an imposing army, which turns out to be of 950 men. At the battle of Verretes 1500 blacks drive 3500 English troops from their entrenchments, and then 6000 English are defeated and cut to pieces by a few squadrons. As far as I can learn, Brisbane had eighty English soldiers and some untrust- worthy black and coloured allies, mixed with Erench planters. Even a moderately sensible Haytian could not accept so absurd a biography. 74 HISTORY BEFORE INDEPENDENCE. Toussaint was also a fervent Roman Catholic, and was greatly attached to the priesthood ; he did all he could to repress the Vaudoux, and he published a strong proclamation forbidding all fetish rites.^ The treachery of Leclerc towards Toussaint had its reward; it could not but excite suspicion among the black leaders, as the previous deportation of Eigaud had done among the mulattoes. And now the most fearful epidemic of yellow-fever fell upon the French army, and almost annihilated it. Forty thousand are reported to have been lost during the years 1802 and 1803; among the victims were Leclerc and twenty other French generals. The Haytians saw their oppor- tunity, and Dessalines, Christophe, and Potion aban- doned the invaders, and roused their countrymen to expel the weak remnants of the French army. War had now been declared between France and England, and our fleets were soon off the coasts. The French were driven from every point, and forced to concen- trate in Cap Haiten. Eochambeau, who had succeeded Leclerc, did all that man could do to save his army ; but besieged by the blacks to the number of 30,000, ' I am glad to be able to notice that M. Robin (mulatto), in his "Abr^g^ de I'Histoire d'Haiti," remarks in relating Toussaint's sad death : — " Ainsi fut r^compens^ de ses longs et ^minents services oet illustre enfant d'Haiti, qui pouvait bieu se dire le premier des noirs," &c. &o. Dessalines appears to have encouraged Leclerc to arrest Toussaint, and then dishonourably betrayed Ch£^^Ies Belair (black), "ephew to Toussaint, and his wife into the hands of the French, who shot Belair and hung his wife. HISTOEY BEFOBE INDEPENDENCE. 75 and blockaded by our fleet, pinched by hunger, and seeing no hopes of reinforcements, he surrendered to the English and embarked for Europe. Thus ended one of the most disastrous expeditions ever undertaken by France, and ended as it deserved to end. Its history was sullied by every species of treachery, cruelty, and crime; but we cannot but admire the splendid bravery of the troops under every dis- couragement, in a tropical climate, where the heat is so great that the European is unfitted for continued exer- tion, and where yellow-fever and death follow constant exposure. ^•^Mm— — -"""'^ CHAPTER III. HISTORY SINCE INDEPENDENCE. "Que deviendra notre pays quand il sera livre a la vanity et k I'ignorance," exclaimed Bauvais, one of the leaders of the mulatto party. I am afraid this sketch of the history of Hayti since the war of independence will show what are the results to a country when governed by vanity and ignorance. Having driven out the French by deeds of unques- tionable valour and energy, and with a cruelty which the infamous conduct of Eochambeau could palliate, if not justify, the Haytians determined to throw off all allegiance to Trance and establish an independent gevernment. At Gonaives, on the ist January 1 804, General Dessalines assembled all his military chiefs around him, and had read to them the Act of Independence, which terminated with the words, " for ever to renounce France, and to die rather than live under her dominion." In a proclamation, Dessalines was careful to declare that it was not their mission to disturb the tranquillity of neighbouring islands, but in unmistakable language he called upon the people to put to death every French- HISTORY SINCE INDEPENDENCE. 77 man who remained in the island. , This was followed by a declaration signed by the chief generals choosing Dessalines as Governor- General of Hayti for life, with power to name his successor, and to make peace or war. He was thus invested with arbitrary power, and proceeded to exercise it. His first act was the one on which his fame rests, and which endears his memory to the Haytians. He in fact officially decreed that all the French who were convicted or suspected of having connived at the acts of the expelled army, with the exception of certain classes, as priests and doctors, should be massacred; and this applied not only to those suspected of guilt, but to their wives and children. Fearing that some of his generals, from interest or humanity, might not fully carry out his decree, he made a tournie through the different departments, and pitilessly massacred every French man, woman, or child that fell in his way. One can imagine the saturnalia of these liberated slaves enjoying the luxury of shedding the blood of those in whose presence they had formerly trembled ; and this without danger ; for what resistance could those help- less men, women, and children offer to their savage executioners? Even now one cannot read unmoved the records of those days of blood. Dessalines, like most of those who surrounded him, was in every way corrupt ; he is said to have spared no man in his anger or woman in his lust. He was avari- cious, but at the same time he permitted his friends 78 HISTORY SINCE INDEPENDENCE. to share in the public income by every illicit means. His government was indeed so corrupt, that even the native historians allow that the administration was distinguished " for plunder, theft, cheating, and smug- gling." Dessalines, when he appointed an employ^, used to say, " Plumez la poule, mais prenez garde qu'elle ue crie," — the rule by which the Government service is still regulated. The tyranny exercised by Dessalines and his generals on all classes made even the former slaves feel that they had changed for the worse. There were no courts to mitigate the cruelty of the hard taskmasters, who on the slightest pretext would order a man or woman to be beaten to death. In the month of August 1804 news arrived that Buonaparte had raised himself to the imperial throne ; Dessalines determined not to be behindhand, and im- mediately had himself crowned Emperor. His generals were eager that a nobility should be created, but he answered, "I am the only noble in Hayti." As the eastern portion of the island was still occupied by the French, he determined to drive them out ; but he was unable to take the city of Santo Domingo, and retired again to the west. In June 1805 he published a constitution, which had been drawn up without consulting his generals, and which created great discontent. A conspiracy was organised ; a rising in the south followed a visit from Dessalines, where he had given full scope to his brutality. HISTORY SINCE INDEPENDENCE. 79 and the insurgents marched forward and seized Port-au- Prince. When the Emperor heard of this movement, he hastened to the capital, fell into an ambuscade, and was shot at Pont Eouge, about half a mile from the city. The only good quality that Dessalines possessed was a sort of brute courage ; in all else he was but an African savage, distinguished even among his country- men for his superior ferocity and perfidy. He was incapable as an administrator, and treated the public revenue as his own private income. He had concu- bines in every city, who were entitled to draw on the treasury to meet their extravagance ; in fact, the native historians are in truth utterly ashamed of the conduct and civO. administration of their national hero.^ The death of Dessalines proved the signal of a long civil war. A National Assembly met at Port-au-Prince, voted a constitution prepared by General Potion, by which the power of the chief of the state was reduced to a minimum, and then elected Christophe as first President of the republic. He in some respects was another Dessalines, and resented this effort to restrain his authority. He marched on the capital of the west with twelve thousand men, but after various combats failed to capture the city ; then retired to Cap Haitien, and there had a constitution voted by a local congress, and he was proclaimed President of Hayti. The Senate again met in Port-au-Prince in 1806 to ^ It waa left for General Salomon to raise a statue to this favourite of the Haytian people. 80 HISTORY SINCE INDEPENDENCE. elect a President, and their choice fell on Potion, who, of all the influential men in the west and south, cer- tainly appeared the most deserving. He had scarcely been installed, when his generals hegan to conspire against him, and the war with Christophe absorbed most of the resources of the country. No event, how- ever, of any great importance occurred till the year 1 8 lo, when Eigaud, having escaped from France, arrived in Hayti, and was received with much enthusiasm. Potion apparently shared this feeling for his old chief, and imprudently gave him the command of the southern department. Eigaud was too vain to remain under the authority of Potion, his former subordinate, and therefore separated the south from the west. The President would not attempt to prevent this by war, and accepted the situation, so that the island was divided into five states, — Christophe in the north, the old Spanish colony in the east, Potion in the west, Eigaud in the south, and Goman, a petty African chief, in the extreme west of the southern department. Christophe in i8ii proclaimed himself King and created a nobility. Eigaud died, and soon after the south rejoined the west, which was menaced by a new invasion from the north. In 1812 Christophe's army advanced to besiege Port-au-Prince ; but finding their attacks frustrated, the soldiers, weary of the war, be^an to desert to Potion, and had not the King hastened to raise the siege, it is probable his army would have gone over to the enemy. HISTORY SINCE INDEPENDENCE. 81 King Henry I., as he was called, appears then to have abandoned himself to his savage temper, and his cruelties might be compared to those of Dessalines, and prepared the way for that union of the whole island which followed. Potion, though rather an in- capable ruler, was not cruel, and attached the people to his government. In 1 8 14, the fall of Napoleon brought about peace in Europe, and the French Government hastened to send agents to Hayti to claim submission to the mother country. Pdtion refused, whilst offering an indemnity to the colonists; but Christophe, having secured the secret instructions of the French agent, did not hesitate to shoot him. These proceedings of the French made the rival chiefs forget their own dissensions and pre- pare to receive another French expedition. Orders were given that on its appearance off the coast every town and village should be burnt down, and that the inhabitants should retire to the mountains. The old planters were urging their Government to destroy all the inhabitants of Hayti and repeople it from Africa ; but a discovery of their projects produced so great an effect in England, that public opinion forced the Con- gress of Vienna to declare that the slave-trade was for ever abolished. In 18 16 Pdtion named a commission to revise the constitution ; the principal alterations were to elect a President for life and to add to the Senate a Chamber of Deputies. Pdtion, however, did not long enjoy his 82 HISTORY SINCE INDEPENDENCE. new dignity; he died in 1818, at the early age of forty- eight, it is said of fever, but the opinion is still prevalent in Hayti that he died of weariness of life, brought on by the loss of all his illusions and the constant public and private annoyances to which he was subjected. During his illness he is said to have refused all restora- tives, and even to have rejected food. Potion, though not a great man, sincerely loved his country, and devoted his energies to govern it well; but he was feeble in his measures, and from love of popularity allowed every kind of abuse to flourish in the financial administration. M. Eobin, however, says truly that he was " the most popular and humane chief that Hayti ever possessed." Boyer, through the energetic intervention of the military, was unanimously chosen by the Senate Pre- sident of the republic, and commenced his long career as chief of the state in March 1818. Though he com- mitted many faults, he appears to have been the most energetic and honest of the series of Haytian rulers. His first care was to establish order in the finances ; and if his only errors were not to have erected a statue to his predecessor or founded an hospital for beggars, with which M. Eobin appears to reproach him, his friends may still be permitted to admire him. Fortune, or rather his energy, everywhere favoured him. In 18 19 he put down the long-neglected insurrection of Goman in the far west, and then prepared to move against King Henry, whose sayage rule had alienated the HISTORY SINCE INDEPENDENCE. 83 affection even of . his own guards. Struck down by apoplexy, tlie chief of the northern department was deserted by all, and sought refuge from anticipated indignities in suicide. The north almost unanimously determined to rejoin the rest of the republic, and Boyer marched on Cap Haitien, to be received there with enthusiasm as the first President of United Hayti. Christophe was no doubt a very remarkable man, with indomitable energy, who saw the necessity of developing his country, but whose despotic nature cared not for the means, so that the end was attained. In spite of many admitted atrocities, however, there is no doubt he acquired a marked ascendancy over the minds of the people, which even to this day is not completely lost. Discussions still continue as to the rival systems of Potion and Christophe, but if to secure the greatest happiness to the greatest number be the object of the government, the laisser-aller system of the former was more suited to Haytian nature than the severity of the latter. As far as material prosperity was concerned, there was no comparison between the two departments, though the productiveness of the north was founded on the liberal application of the stick. On many of the large estates, a certain number of lashes was served out every morning as regularly as the rations. Boyer's fortune continued. In 1822 Santo Domingo separated from Spain and placed herself under the 84 HISTORY SINCE INDEPENDENCE. command of the President of Hayti, who was welcomed in the Dominican capital with every demonstration of joy. In the next important event of his Presidency, Boyer was not so fortunate. From the year 1814 France had been continually tormenting the Government of Hayti with the claims of her colonists, and negotiations were carried on by the two parties without much success till 1825, when Baron de Mackau was sent with a fleet to enforce the acceptance of French terms. Though the wording of the royal ordinance was mortifying to the Haytians, and the indemnity demanded (;£^6,ooo,ooo) out of the power of that little country to pay, yet Boyer and the senate thought it better to acquiesce, to avoid the evils of a blockade which would have fol- lowed refusal. The indemnity was so enormous, that although it was subsequently reduced to ^3,600,000, it has not yet been completely discharged. The terms of the royal ordinance created great indignation amongst the people, and the French Government acting evasively added to the excitement, and a plot was formed to overthrow Boyer. But he showed his usual energy; arrested four conspirators and sent them before a court- martial, which, with thorough Haytian disregard of justice, allowed no defence, as a pure waste of time, and condemned them to death. They were shot under circumstances of even unusual barbarity. These negotiations with France continued to un- settle the country until 1838. M. Dupetit Thouars HISTORY SINCE INDEPENDENCE. 85 had visited Port-au-Prince, and being convinced that Hayti was really unable to pay this great indemnity, induced his Government to reconsider the matter ; and a fresh mission was sent, consisting of Baron de Lascases and Captain Baudin. Two treaties were negotiated — one political, by which Prance acknowledged the com- plete independence of the republic ; the second financial, by which the balance to be paid of the indemnity was reduced to ;^ 2,400,000. As thirty years were allowed for this payment, in annual instalments on an average of ;^ 80,000, no doubt Hayti could have paid it had the country remained tranquil. The acknowledgment of ihis debt, however, was seized on by the political enemies of Boyer to undermine his position, and the cry was raised that he had sold the country to the whites. The continued necessity of sending Prench naval expeditions to enforce the payment of the arrears of this debt has been injurious to the interests of all Europeans, has increased the unpopularity of foreigners, and helped to support the policy of those who wish to keep the white man out of the country. Among the people, the popular song "Blancs francais viennent demander Targent," implies that they have unfairly made use of their naval strength in order to extract money which was not due to them from a people incapable of effectual resistance. This wretched debt to Prance has been the cause of half the misfortunes of Hayti. 86 HISTORY SINCE INDEPENDENCE. The Government of General Boyer had certainly the merit of preserving tranquillity, and if ever population should have increased in Hayti, it "was during this tran- quil epoch, when for above twenty years no blood was shed in warlike operations, and very little in repressing conspiracies. In 1825 England formally acknowledged the republic of Hayti by entering into relations with her, sending Mr. Mackenzie as Consul-General. His reports and writings drew considerable attention to the country. In March 1836 Dr. England negotiated a concordat by which the Pope was acknowledged head of the Haytian Church, with the power of confirming the nomination of bishops. However, this arrangement had little practical effect, as the clergy remained without control, and were a scandal to every true Catholic. I am quite unable to reconcile the reports made of the state of affairs in Hayti at this time. After a twenty years' peace, the country is described as in a state of ruin, without trade or resources of any kind ; with peculation and jobbery paramount in all the public offices; an army supposed to consist of 45,000 men, according to the Budget — in reality, few soldiers, but many officers, among wliom the appropriations were divided. I feel as if I were reading of more modern times instead of the halcyon days of Haytian history. Another of the evils which arose from the indem- nity question was the special position which it gave to French agents, who, even after the independence of the HISTORY SINCE INDEPENDENCE. 87 republic had been recognised, affected to treat Hayti as a dependency until all the debt should have been paid. The most conceited of these agents at this time threw the whole country into commotion on account of an article in a newspaper, and continued to harass the Government on every possible occasion with his absurd pretensions. The close of Boyer's career was as unfortunate as its commencement had been the reverse. To the humilia- tions inflicted by the French Consul-General was now added the necessity of saluting the Spanish flag under threat of bombardment. Throughout Haytian history these affairs are continually recurring; no people are more ready to insult foreigners, nor more humiliated by the necessary reparation. The greatest calamity, however, was the earthquake of 1842, which injured every :city in the northern de- partment, and almost annihilated Cap Haitien. I have referred to this event in a previous chapter, when the pea- santry from the plains and mountains, and the officers and soldiers of the garrison, vied with each other in plundering the city, whilst 5000 of their countrymen were buried in the ruins, the cries of many of whom could for days be heard imploring that help which might readily have been afforded, but whose supplica- tions were unheeded by the brutal populace. This calamity in the north was followed by another in Port-au-Prince, where a large portion of the city was burnt down. These extensive fires appear to be as HISTOKY SINCE INDEPENDENCE. incendiary, as they almost always occur at moments of political excitement. The humiliations inflicted on President Boyer by the French and Spaniards, and the discontent that followed the great losses in the northern department, encouraged the ill-affected, and early in 1843 an insur- rection broke out in the south under Herard-Eiviere, a fair mulatto. After a brief show of resistance, Boyer abdicated in March, thus closing a Presidency of twenty- five years. General Boyer showed considerable talent during bis administration, but he was essentially narrow-minded, and full of prejudice against foreigners. During the last ten years of his rule he had conceived the project of expelling them from Hayti in a legal manner by refusing any fresh licenses to trade; but though he in some measure succeeded, he increased the discon- tent against him, as his countrymen are only capable of conducting with success a retail business, and re- quire foreigners for the larger operations of commerce. Boyer had the rare quality of being honest, and left in the treasury, on his departure, the sum of ;£'20O,00O, the first and last chief who was ever guilty of so un- accountable a weakness. His time is still remembered as one of repose, and the troubles which followed his departure soon made even his enemies regret his fall. Her Majesty's corvette Scylla had the honour of con- ducting General Boyer and his family to Jamaica. It will be noticed hereafter that almost every President HISTORY SINCE INDEPENDENCE. 89 has died prematurely, or claimed the hospitality of a foreign ship of war to bear him into exile. When the popular army entered Port-au-Prince, it was hailed as the precursor of better days, but scarcely had a Provisional Government been organised than the blacks began to conspire, as they wanted a President of their own colour. General Dalzon went so far as to propose that they should put to death every mulatto. However, the latter had now the upper hand, and the General was taken, and disappeared from the scene. The most serious result of the overthrow of General Boyer was the separation of the eastern end of the island and its formation into a distinct republic. The brutality of the Haytian ofiScers and soldiers who gar- risoned that part of the country no doubt hastened this secession. I have often listened to President Geffrard when he was describing his own conduct and that of others towards the Dominicans, and my only wonder was that they did not separate before. On December 30, 1843, the Constituent Assembly finished their new constitution, and then elected Gene- ral Herard-Eivi^re President of Hayti; contemporary accounts say " with much enthusiasm." He soon found it was not a bed of roses. M. Barrot arrived with the object of obtaining a monopoly of the Hay- tian trade for Prance, by relieving the Government of the immediate payment of the instalments due on the indemnity. But the President was more anxious to subdue the Dominicans than to negotiate, and on 90 HISTORY SINCE INDEPENDENCE. their proclaiming their independence in February 1844, he collected an army, it is said of from 24,000 to 30,000 men, and marched to attack them. The numbers must be greatly exaggerated ; but whatever they were, they did nothing, and after many skirmishes they only pene- trated as far as Azua, and there the President halted, complaining that he was harassed by French intrigues in favour of the Dominicans. How Boyer must have smiled when he heard, within a twelvemonth of his departure, that the Government of his successor was considered more arbitrary and was more unpopular than his own. In April, after four short months of power, H^rard-Eivifere was deposed, amidst even greater enthusiasm than marked his acces- sion, and banished. General Guerrier was elected in his place, and died after twelve months of debauchery. In his political acts he appears to have managed fairly well, and he had to contend against the French agents, who were working for either a protectorate, or, if that were not possible, exclusive commercial advantages for their country. They made themselves so unpopular that their naval officers and men were insulted in the streets, and their almost open support of the Dominican revolt rendered them obnoxious to the Government. As the popular wish for a black President had been unmistakably expressed at the election of Guerrier, an incapable black of the name of Pierrot was chosen to succeed him ; but his Government was upset in less than a twelvemonth, and President Rich^, another HISTORY SINCE INDEPENDENCE. 91 black, was chosen by the troops at St. Marc, who did not wish to march against the Dominicans (March i, 1846). In almost every encounter the Haytian troops had been defeated by a handful of their enemies ; they had no heart in the war, and the exaggerated stories of the peculiarly objectionable mutilations from which their prisoners suffered, and the arrival of some of these unfortunates, spread a panic in the Haytian army, and the soldiers would not march. Eiche has left a very good reputation as a President, which may partly be accounted for by his judicious choice of Ministers. He had Celigny-Ardouin and Dupuy among them, and both these men were con- sidered capable administrators, and both will again appear upon the scene. The black mob in the south rose in arms against Eichd, but after some resistance the movement was suppressed. Unfortunately for the country, this Pre- sidency did not last a twelvemonth, as Eichd died on the 27th February 1847. He was sincerely regretted, as, although an ignorant man, he was capable of choos- ing good advisers. He left the country perfectly tran- quil, with reduced expenditure, order in the finances, and his firm hand had been felt throughout the republic. He protected foreigners, without whom he saw there was no prosperity possible. During the time of Guerrier and Pierrot there was a perfect mania for public em- ployment, and every officer appeared to wish to live in luxury at the expense of the state ; but Eiche's prudent 92 HISTORY SINCE INDEPENDENCE. management checked this infatuation. His Govern- ment restored the constitution of 1816, which, though it included Article 7, directed against foreigners acquir- ing real property, yet assured freedom of worship. He too is said to have died at an advanced age from the effects of debauchery. On March 2 the enlightened Ministers of the late General Eich4 chose as President of the republic a black captain of the guards of the name of Soulouque. He was an ignorant, stupid man, completely unfit for any public employment, but it is said that he was chosen as an instrument that could be easily handled by his Ministers. He was known to be given up to fetish-worship, and soon after his election he began to fear that some wanga or poison might be given him. He put aside Eich^'s Ministers, to supply their places with nonentities, and advanced to the first rank the most ignorant blacks of the army. He excited hatred against the men of colour, whom he feared for their in- telligence ; but, alarmed by his growing unpopularity, he dismissed his incapables and restored Dupuy and others to power. Soulouque had placed in command of his guards a general of the name of Similien, who was the black the most notorious for his hatred of the mulattoes that he could find. During the absence of the President in the north, this man refused to obey the orders pf the Govern- ment, seized the palace, and threatened to massacre the mulattoes, but this result was deferred for a short time. HISTORY SINCE INDEPENDENCE. 93 A curious affair occurred towards the end of 1847. A senator of the name of Courtois had written an article in a newspaper at which the President took offence ; though Courtois was a scurrilous writer who had been previously tried for an insolent article, but who had been triumphantly acquitted when it was found he only insulted the foreign community, had on this last occasion written some reasonable comments on the atti- tude assumed by General Similien and his followers. The Senate, to please the President, sentenced Courtois to a month's imprisonment. But when Soulouque heard of this, he went into one of his ungovernable passions, assembled his generals, called out his troops, and condemned Courtois to death, and ordered the immediate execution of the culprit. The sentence would certainly have been carried into effect, had not our agents. Consul Ussher, Vice-Consul Wyke, and the Trench Consul-General Eaybaud interfered, and per- suaded Soulouque to pardon him ; he was, however, ban- ished. And Senator Courtois owed his life to foreigners, whom he had spent his best energies in abusing ! Throughout the spring of 1849 an uneasy feeling appears to have pervaded the country that some cala- mity was about to take place. On the 9th April the rabble assembled round the palace and demanded that the respectable Ministry then in power should be dis- missed. As this movement was evidently encouraged by Soulouque, they resigned; but all were assembled at the palace on the i6th April, when suddenly the 94 HISTORY SINCE INDEPENDENCE. guards, who had been drawn up before it, opened fire upon the crowd in the galleries and rooms, and a sauve qui peut followed. General Dupuy told me that in a moment he comprehended that a massacre of the mulattoes was meant ; he sprang on a horse, and dashed for the high iron railings that surrounded the palace gardens, jumped down, and although closely pursued, managed to get over these high rails, how he knew not, and escaped. Celigny-Ardouin, less fortunate, was severely wounded, and as he lay on a sofa was reviled by the President, who said he should be shot. Consul Ussher was present in the palace during this scene, and acted admirably, with his colleague of France, in trying to save those who had not been able to put themselves under their direct protection. He ran the greatest personal dangers, and narrowly escaped being shot by the excited soldiery. From the palace the massacring passed on to the town, where every mulatto who showed himself was murdered; many assembled in groups to defend themselves, but only hastened their fate, whilst hundreds ran for refuge to the Consulates. The news spread to the southern department, and murder and plunder followed in every district, and the property of the mulattoes was given to the flames. A few black generals who tried to preserve order were shot as accomplices of the mulattoes in their supposed conspiracy. The President was delighted with the energy of his supporters in the south, and went in person to thank them. On his return he pardoned six HISTORY SINCE INDEPENDENCE. 95 innocent men, and thus gained a little popularity among his cowed adversaries. It is pleasant to know how our Acting-Consul Wyke ^7orked to save those menaced with death. But even he had little influence over the faithless President, who would grant a pardon at his intercession, and then shoot the pardoned prisoner. After General Desmaril and Edmond Pelix had been executed in 1849 in the market-place, and died after receiving twenty discharges, Soulouq^ue went with his staff to inspect their mangled bodies and gloat over the scene. Naturally Celigny-Ardouin did not escape ; he was shot, but Wyke was enabled to save many others and send them out of the country. In fact, the chiefs of the mulatto party who escaped death had all to go into exile. In 1849, I may notice, Soulouque abolished the Ministry, and named as Secretary-General Dufrfene, and as Minister of Finance Salomon, until lately President of Hayti ; and in April, invigorated by his massacre of the mulattoes, invaded Santo Domingo with a numerous army. He had some success at Azua and St. Jean, but he was surprised at Ocoa by General Santana, and the whole Haytian army fled before 500 Dominicans. And these were the descendants of the men who fought so bravely against the French. It was after this defeat that Soulouque returned to his capital, and, full of anger at his discomfiture, committed the judicial murders pre- viously recorded. All black chiefs have a hankering after the forms as 96 HISTOKY SINCE INDEPENDENCE. well as the substance of despotic power, and Soulouque was no exception to the rule. He therefore decided to foUow in the footsteps of Dessalines, and was elected Emperor, August 26, 1 849. A fresh constitution was naturally required, and this was a strange medley of republican and aristocratic institutions. Soulouque did not disappoint his generals, and created a nobility : four princes and hfty-nine dukes headed the list, followed by innumerable marquises, counts, and barons. This contented the chiefs, and quiet reigned for a short time. In 1850, England, France, and the United States united to oppose diplomatically the war with Santo Domingo ; during these long negotiations the Haytian Government appeared influenced by the conviction that to concede independence to Santo Domingo would introduce the foreign element into the island, and, by the development of the eastern province, end in rob- bing Hayti of its independence. A year's truce was obtained, however, in October 185 1. The negotiations were admirably conducted by our agent, Consul-General Ussher. One of the difficulties against which the diplo- matists had to contend was the personal feelings of the Emperor, which had been outraged by the Dominicans calling him a rey de farsa, an opera-louffe king. There is no doubt but that they really did look for assistance abroad, owing to the poverty of the country arising from their eight years' war with Hayti, and the inter- nal dissensions which always follow national financial pressure. HISTORY SINCE INDEPENDENCE. 97 Oa the 1 8th April 1852 Soulouque was crowned Emperor under the title of Patistin I. He had no fear of exciting discontent by lavish expenditure. He paid ;£'2000 for his crown, and spent ^30,000 for the rest of the paraphernalia. He was liberal to his nobility, and had few internal troubles after he shot his Grand Judge Francisque and four companions for supposed conspiracy, and had condemned Prince Bobo for some imprudent words. Soulouque, it is fair to say, gained the good opinion of many of our countrymen on account of the protec- tion which he generally accorded to foreigners, and a supposed predilection for the English, which the manly and conciliatory conduct of our agents had greatly fostered, and which contrasted with that of the French agents, who brought a fleet to Port-au-Prince under Admiral Duquesne to threaten to bombard the capital (1853). No events occurred worthy of record, except the interminable negotiations to induce the Emperor to conclude peace with Santo Domingo, which occupied 1853 and 1854. The year 1855 was enlivened by a very comic quarrel between the Haytian Government and the Spanish agent. The Emperor had decided that every one that passed the palace should show his respect for his of&ce by raising his hat. It appears that a Spanish employ^ did not observe this formality, and was stopped by the guard, who insisted on his complying with it. The Emperor, attracted by the altercation, .put his head out 98 HISTORY SIKCE INDEPENDENCE. of a window of the palace and cried, " Qui moun-qa sacr^ f blanc qui veut pas saluer mou palais> f ? " The Spanish agent had a long discussion with the Haytian Foreign Office, and would not accept the denial by the Emperor of his having used these words ; in fact, there was much ado about nothing. In spite of all the efforts of the foreign Consuls, Soulouque in December 1855 marched with all his forces to attack the Dominicans — those under his personal command numbering, it is said, 15,000 men. But in January 1856 he was disgracefully beaten by the enemy. His ti'oops fled at the first volley, and losing their way in the woods, fell into the hands of their enemies, who did not spare them. The Emperor, furious at his defeat, shot several superior officers for treachery or cowardicpi, and then returned with the re- mains of his army to his capital, where he was received in mournful silence, amid the scarcely-concealed mur- murs of the people ; the muttered curses of the women at the loss of their relatives being particularly remarked. This dissatisfaction could not escape the notice of the Emperor, and to assuage his outraged feelings he shot sixteen men in Les Cayes, amid such circumstances of barbarity that even Haytians of all classes were moved by feelings of indignation and disgust. But Soulouque cared not ; he shot three others and condemned 'above fifty to his dungeons, where little more was heard of them; in fact, they are said to have been beaten or starved to death. HISTOKY SINCiE INDEPENDENCE. 99 After renewed efforts on the part of foreign agents, a truce of two years was negotiated with. Santo Do- mingo. The fall of the empire was now a mere matter of time. The people were disgusted with the losses incurred during the last invasion of the eastern pro- vince, which had been more disastrous than all the former attacks ; the finances were in the greatest dis- order ; peculation and pillage were the order of the day ; a great incendiary fire in Port-au-Prince occurred in 1857, and in 1858 heavy commercial failures followed a wild speculation in bills and coffee. Discontent was rife, and all turned their eyes to General Geffrard as the only man who could rescue them from this disas- trous condition of affairs. He had gained great popu- larity in the army during the last invasion of Santo Domingo, when he commanded the rear-guard during' the retreat, and it was acknowledged that liis bravery and devotion had saved the remnants of the troops from destruction. The Haytians had had four black rulers in succession, and thought they could not be less pros- perous under the rule of an intelligent mulatto. The Emperor kept a watch on Geffrard, but he be- haved with so much prudence that there was no excuse to imprison him. At last, in December 1858, the order for his arrest was given; but warned by a friend, he embarked during the night in an open boat with a few followers, and on his amval at the town of Gonaives proclaimed the deposition of the Emperor and the re- establishment of the republic. He was received " with 100 HISTORY SINCE INDEPENDENCE. enthusiasm," and in a few days all the north and north-west adhered to the revolution, and he began his march on Port-au-Prince with an army of about 6000 men. On hearing of this insurrection, the Emperor moved out to meet his opponent, but with only 3000 discon- tented soldiers, who, after a skirmish with the in- surgents, retreated, and Soulouque re-entered Port-au- Prince with his forces reduced by desertion to 1500. Finding that the whole country had declared against him, the Emperor abdicated on the 15th January 1859, and retired for safety to the French Legation. On his re-entry into the city on the loth, Soulouque, furious with his rival, ordered Madame Geffrard and her daughters to be put to death, but yielded to the inter- cession of our agents. However, the populace of all colours were so united against the ex-Emperor and some of his chiefs, that fears were entertained that they would break into the French Legation and kill all the refu- gees. The attitude of the tumultuous crowd became so menacing, and the indifference of the Haytian guard so marked, that M. Mellinet appealed to our acting Consul-General Byron for protection. Hearing of the danger to which all foreigners were exposed in Port-au-Prince, the captain of an English transport, the Melbourne, with the consent of Captain M'Crea, who commanded a detachment of artillery on board, steered for the capital and arrived at a critical moment. Seeing that the French Legation was about to HISTORY SINCE INDEPENDENCE. 101 be invaded, Byron took the bold resolution of calling oil Captain M'Crea to land his artillerymen and protect the refugees. This they did, and, strange to say, the mob, instead of resenting this armed interference, were delighted at the magnificent appearance of the men and their perfect discipline, and cheered them more than ever they cheered one of their own regiments. This movement saved the Emperor ; he and his fol- lowers were subsequently embarked on board the MelhouTTie, and followed Boyer and Hdrard-Eivifere to Jamaica. Too much credit cannot be given to this bold pro- ceeding of Mr. Byron and of Captain M'Crea ; it had an admirable effect, and for years after, the landing of these fine men was a subject of conversation among the people. All felt that more had been saved than the French Legation and the lives of the refugees, as once pillage had commenced it would have been diffi- cult to prevent its spreading through the town. Thus closed the ignoble reign of Soulouque, one of the most contemptible rulers that ever existed even in Hayti. Peculation on the one hand, and cruelty and cowardice on the other, marked almost every event of these disastrous twelve years of misgovernment. As a trait of Haytian manners, I may notice the curious way in which his sable Majesty acquired a wife. There was in Soulouque's regiment a private soldier who was "placi" with a good-looking negress who took the officer's fancy, so the latter sent a sergeant to represent 102 HISTORY SINCE INDEPENDENCE. to the husband the desirability of his giving up his wife to his superior iu rank. This he did, and when this lady became Empress she did not forget him, and often sent him into the imperial kitchen to be sup- plied with a plentiful meal. Her child was adopted by Soulouque, and was afterwards called the "Princess Olive," a lady-like pleasant woman, who was popular with all who knew her. When ignorance ceased to govern, vanity appeared to follow. Judging after the events, it seems clear that General Geffrard might have avoided many of the dif- ficulties of his Presidency had he called good men to his councils and listened to their advice. He, however, would do all himself, and treated his Ministers as if they were but head-clerks. He really thought he knew more than any of those who surrounded him, and per- haps he did. The revolution was conducted with exemplary mo- deration, and the great and small plunderers of the preceding reign succeeded in securing their ill-gotten wealth ; for though the properties of certain persons were sequestrated, it had little practical effect. I have seen a trustworthy paper of the amounts taken by the Emperor and his followers, and they were so enor- mous as to surpass belief. Geffrard's difficulties were great, as he had to conci- liate the black party and appoint as Ministers certain foremost generals of that colour, and their ignorance and stupidity were almost beyond anything that can be HISTORY SINCE INDEPENDENCE. 103 conceived ; and this is the President's best excuse for having tried to govern himself. And yet the extreme section of the party was not satisfied, and soon after Geffrard's advent to power began to conspire against him, and to raise the cry that lie was about to sell the country to the whites. As soon as a coloured chief displays the slightest desire to modify any legislation hostile to foreigners, this cry is raised, and prevents many improvements. To show of what a negro conspirator is capable, I must enter into a few particulars of what was called the conspiracy of General Prophete. In September of 1859, the year of Geffrard's advent to power, a section of the blacks determined to murder him. They knew that he was a most affectionate father, and accustomed to visit every evening Madame Blanfort, his newly- married daughter; they therefore laid an ambush for him behind a ruined wall that skirted the street that led to her house. The usual hour having passed for the evening visit, the conspirators began to fear that their project might fail that night and be discovered, so they moved quietly towards Madame Blanfort's residence, and looking through the window, saw the young bride seated reading, evidently awaiting her father's arrival. The conspirators held a hurried con- sultation, and decided to murder the daughter, in the expectation that Geffrard, on hearing of what had occurred, would rush out. They therefore returned to the window, and a negro named Sarron raised his 104 HISTORY SINCE INDEPENDENCE, blunderbuss, fired at the girl, and killed her on the spot. Geffrard heard the shot, and rushing to the palace door, would have fallen into the ambush had not some friends seized and detained him. Fortunately these conspirators were as stupid as they were brutal, and the whole of them were taken. The chief of the political conspiracy was allowed to depart, whilst the others, to the number of sixteen, were executed. It was stated at the time that too many suffered, but they were all equally guilty, for although all had not been consulted as to murdering the daughter, all meant to assassinate the father. These conspirators were most of them aides-de-camp to the President, and belonged to what are called the best families of the capital. What is a President to do with such people ? In ]\Iarch i860 a concordat was signed with the See of Eome, an account of which, as amended, is given in another chapter. In September there was a fresh conspiracy to murder Geffrard, in which a man named Florosin was implicated, and therefore the plot was called after him. In the following year Hayti reaped the fruit of her obstinacy in refusing to acknowledge the independence of the eastern province. Discouraged by the continual state of tension in their relations with the black republic, the Dominicans decided to return to their allegiance to Spain, and in March 1861 Santo Domingo was declared a Spanish colony, with the Dominican General Santana as first Governor-General. Geffrard thus found himself face to face with a new HISTORY SINCE INDEPENDENCE. 105 danger, as every question remained unsettled, including the important one of boundaries. The annexation to Spain had been brought about by Santana and his party, but was opposed by another faction, who crossed over into Hayti, and there being secretly furnished with arms and money by the autho- rities, invaded the Spanish colony and commenced a guerilla warfare. They were beaten, and twenty-one being taken, were summarily shot by Santana. Proofs having then been obtained of the coinplicity of the Haytian Government in this movement, Spain determined to punish these intermeddlers. A fleet was sent to Port-au-Prince, with orders to demand an indemnity of ;£'4o,ooo to be paid in forty-eight hours, and a salute, which was not to be returned. The money was not to be had at so short a notice, and the discontented blacks threatened to upset the Govern- ment and massacre the whites if a salute were fired first. At that time the chief representative of the foreign powers was Mr. Byron, our acting Consul-General, and on him fell the sole responsibility of effecting an amicable arrangement and preventing the threatened bombardment. He saw the Spanish Admiral Eubal- cava, of whom he ever spoke in the highest terms, explained the difficulties of Geifrard's position, and obtained important concessions — first, as to the pay- ment of the indemnity, which was ultimately reduced to ;£'5000, and, second, that the Haytian salute should be returned. He then went to the palace, smiled at 106 HISTORY SINCE INDEPENDENCE. their fears of the rabble, and gave the resolute advice to brave them and fire the salute. This was done, and all passed off as well as he had predicted. Throughout their history, the Haytians have been thus beholden to the agents of England and France. In November 1861, General Legros fk.re conspired to upset the Government, but these mild plotters were only banished or imprisoned. This abortive move- ment was followed (1862) by an attempted insurrec- tion of the Salomon family in the south. This conspi- racy, the third in which they were accused of being engaged, was a complete fiasco, but it cost the lives of fourteen of the plotters. One of the promises made by the new Government was a reform in the finances and a reduction of useless expenditure ; but Geffrard's incapable or corrupt Minis^ ters had not fulfilled that promise. The Chambers were naturally curious as to the disappearance of mil- lions of dollars (paper) without any explanation being forthcoming, and forced two incapables to resign, and General Dupuy, the Minister of Eiche, was summoned from London to take charge of the finances. He was a very intelligent man, quite worthy of the post, and his appointment inspired confidence; but the Opposi- tion in the Chambers continued their attacks on the Government, and at last Geffrard was forced to dis-r solve and order fresh elections. There can be no doubt that so many abuses were protected as to justify much discontent, but the Opposition might have beeii HISTORY SINCE INDEPENDENCE. 107 more moderate considering the difficulties of the situa- tion, the insurrection in the east against the Spaniards, and the continued conspiracies of the blacks. Geffrard and Dupuy were both anxious to modify Article 7 of the constitution, aimed against foreigners, but the proposition was so badjy received that it was withdrawn. Another rising (May 1 863) of the Legros family fol- lowed in Gonaives. As they had been the principal instruments of the revolution in favour of Geffrard, their defection can only be accounted for by unsatisfied ambition and the desire to secure the spoils of office. It failed, and eight were shot. In September 1863 Monseigneur Testard de Cosquer was named Archbishop of Port-au-Prince. He was one of the most agreeable men I have ever met, remarkably eloquent, and of fine presence; he did not, however, arrive at the capital until June of the following year. Disgusted with what was passing in his country, General Dupuy resigned his position as Minister of Finance and Foreign Affairs, and was succeeded by M. Auguste Elie, than whom a better choice could not have been made. The year 1864 was distinguished for its conspiracies. In May a Colonel Narcisse denounced four coloured men of the best position in the capital as being en- gaged in a plot. The proofs of an active conspiracy were wanting. As I have given details of the trial jn another chapter, I need only say that they were 108 HISTORY SINCE INDEPENDENCE. condemned to death, but their sentence was commuted at the intercession of the diplomatic corps. In July there was- a conspiracy at Cap Haitian by General Longuefosse, but the people not joining, he was taken and shot, with three of his companions. This was followed by another, in which Salnave, afterwards a revolutionary President of Hayti, first made liis appear- ance in rather an interesting manner. General Philip- peaux. Minister of War, had been sent by Geffrard to Cap Haitien to restore order after Longuefosse's abortive "plot, when a conspiracy was formed in an ■artillery corps to murder Philippeaux, and Salnave was chosen to carry it into execution. One evening the Minister of War was sitting playing cards in a ver- andah, when Salnave, ensconced behind a neighbour- ing tree, raised Ids carbine and fired at him ; the ball struck Philippeaux above the temple and glanced off. Not even the solid skull of a black could have resisted the bullet, had not the Minister, at the moment when Salnave fired, slightly turned his head. I may notice that in 1865 Spain abandoned Santo Domingo, and the Dominican republic was restored. If ever the true history be written of that temporary resuscitation of a colony, Spaniards themselves will be astonished at the revelations of iniquity and fraud that brought about the revolution against them. The year 1865 was an unfortunate one for Hayti. First a great fire burnt down three hundred and fifty houses in the best part of the capital ; then there was HISTORY SINCE INDEPENDENCE, 109 a movement in the soutli ; then one in the north, where Sulnave, invading that department from Santo Domingo, found all ready to receive him. The regiments in the northern garrisons joined him or dispersed; but the rapid movement of Geffrard's troops under Generals Morisset and Barth^Iemy, both of whom were killed fighting, disconcerted the conspirators, and they were soon driven from the country districts and forced to take refuge in Cap Haitien. Had not many of the chiefs of Geffrard's army been traitors to his cause, the whole affair might have been over in a month. A siege commenced, which appeared likely to endure long, when an incident occurred which forced on foreign inter- vention. Salnave was a bold, unscrupulous man, who had been put forward by some discontented deputies and others to do their work ; but his main reliance was on the mob. Those of Geffrard's friends who could not escape from the town took refuge with the Consuls, and the English and American naval officers had constantly to interfere, even by landing men to prevent the violation of the Consulates. Captain Heneage, of H.M.S. Lily, con- spicuously distinguished himself. At last Geffrard left the capital to command the army, but he found he could do little among his intriguing officers: he, however, certainly showed want of dash on this occasion. Then came the Bulldog incident. Captain "Wake had excited the ire of the insurgents by protecting a British vessel; and to show their anger, under the no HISTORY SINCE INDEPENDENCE. direction of Delorme, Salnave's principal adviser, they rushed down to our Consulate, and took by force certain persons who were under the protection of our flag. The Bulldog steamed into harbour to obtain redress, and ran aground. A combat ensued, and find- ing he could not get his vessel off. Captain Wake blew her up, and retired with the crew in his boats. All the persons taken from our Consulate had in the meantime been murdered. On hearing of these transactions, I went up in H.M.S. Galatea with the Lily, and being unable to obtain any adequate satis- faction, the outer forts were bombarded. Geffrard's army rushed in, and the insurrection was at an end. Salnave and his followers escaped in the United States ship Desoto, after leaving orders to burn down the town, which his men only partly effected. I may notice that the right of asylum under foreign flags is considered so sacred in Hayti, that it was once introduced as an article of the constitution. All parties are equally interested in its observance, as only thus can they hope to escape the first fury of their adver- saries, and give time for passions to cool. If 1865 was a disastrous year for Hayti, 1866 was worse. A great fire broke out in Port-au-Prince, and eight hundred houses are said to have been destroyed, I again noticed the apathy of the negroes, whether official or otherwise. They came and looked on, but did nothing either to check the flames or arrest the incendiaries. Whilst we were working to save our Legation from the HISTORY SINCE INDEPENDENCE. Ill fire, which was already scorching its walls, my porter called my attention to some negroes that had entered with torches ill concealed under their coats. I had to seize a revolver and hold it to a man's head before I could force them to retire. Had our brick house taken fire, they knew the rest of the town' must go. Few except the Europeans cared to exert themselves, and when they brought out a fire-engine, the mob instantly cut the hose and gave themselves up to pillage. The French chargi d! affaires asked a man why he did not assist in putting out a fire burning before him ? His answer was, " My house is already burned : why should I aid others ? " Geffrard could not but notice, in his opening speech to the Chambers, that the northern insurrection had created so great an expenditure that all progress was checked ; but it had no effect. Another effort at revolu- tion was made at Gonaives, where the mob plundered and burnt about fifty houses, to be followed by further troubles and incendiary fires at Cap Haitien, Port-au- Prince, and St. Marc. The arsenal in the capital was blown up in September; two hundred houses were overthrown, and the guard killed, besides many of the inhabitants. One little boy whom I knew had one of his ears taken off by a piece of shell without further injury. During these occurrences, bands of negroes were wandering through the south burning and pillag- ing, unchecked by the local authorities. It was asked, how could a people exist under such circumstances ? 112 HISTORY SINCE INDEPENDENCE. But people must eat ; the majority do not join in these disorders, and all the women and children work. The following years showed to what a country can submit from the perverse conduct of interested politicians. It was now evident that Geffrard must give up power, as, rightly or wrongly, people were dissatisfied with him, and wanted a change. In February 1867 there was a hostile movement on the part of some com- panies of Geffrard's favourite troops, the tirailleurs, the only disciplined battalions that I ever saw in Hayti; and though this was suppressed by their companions, the Government was irretrievably shaken. The com- paratively bad provision crops of 1865 and 1866 were said to be the fault of the authorities, and no amnesties or changes in the Ministry could satisfy the discon- tented. Geffrard determined therefore to abdicate, and on March 13, 1867, he embarked for Jamaica. He had convoked the Senate for the i6th in order to give over the reins of power to them, but his timid friends per- suaded him to go at once, as the north was in insur- rection. The Spanish charg6 d'affaires was with him throughout these scenes, and Geffrard's last words were, " Poor country ! what a state of anarchy will follow my departure ! " In my chapter on the Mulattoes, I have given a sketch of Geffrard, and I need not repeat it here. I was not blind to his faults, but of all the rulers of Hayti, he was certainly the most enlightened, and the most thoroughly devoted to his country. Had he been HISTOEY SINCE INDEPENDENCE. 113 as perfect a ruler as the world could produce, he would never have satisfied his countrymen. The blacks wanted a black, the mulattoes wanted any one else, so that there was a change. And yet I believe the mass of the people cared little except for tranquillity.^ A committee was formed to revise the constitution, but Salnave had landed in Cap Haitien, assumed power, and proceeded to exercise it. He arrested some chiefs of the negroes dwelling in the Black Mountains, and instantly shot them ; their friends took up arms, and, under the name of the " Cacos," were a thorn in the side of the new rdgime. He then marched on Port-au-Prince, seized the government, and arrested General Montas, who had commanded in the north under Geffrard. Tired of the delays of a Constituent Assembly, he sent a mob to frighten them. They took the hint, voted the constitution the next day, and, I'epie a la gorge, elected Salnave President of Hayti, June 1 6, 1867. In July a treaty was signed between Hayti and Santo Domingo, thus ending the long war. The Chambers met in the autumn, and Madame Montas presented a petition on the subject of the imprisonment of her husband. On some deputies in- sisting on an explanation, Delorme, the Chief Minis- ter of Salnave, sprang on the table and denounced 1 During the next three years I held a most difficult position. Having by the action of our navy expelled Salnave and his partisans from Cap Haitien in 1865, they, on their return in 1867, treated me as their deadliest enemy. H 114 HISTORY SINCE INDEPENDENCE. these deputies as enemies of Government. Pistol- shots were fired; Salnave advanced at the head of his guards, and the assembly dispersed. Eiots followed. The Government attempted to arrest five prominent members of the Opposition, but they escaped and re- turned home to their constituents, and constitutional government ceased to exist. Soon after General Montas died in prison, under most suspicious circumstances.^ The movement of the Cacos in the Black Mountains now began to alarm the Government, and Salnave started for the north to put himself at the head of the army operating against the insurgents. There were many skirmishes, that at Mombin Crochu being the most important, where Salnave lost heavily. I do not think it necessary to do more than briefly notice the events of Salnave's Presidency of thirty months. It was one- long civil war. Disgusted at the treatment of their deputies, the towns began to de- clare against the Government. The uprising was accele- rated by the meeting of the Chambers being postponed and Salnave being declared Dictator. In April 1868, Nissage-Saget took up arms in St. Marc; the south was in movement, and the insurgents marched towards the capital, where a crowd of young men armed with swordsticks and pocket-pistols made a feeble attempt at insurrection, but dispersed at the first fire. In the ^ "lis passferent ensemble et discuterent c6te-?i-c6te la mort de Leon Montas, mort ^toufie, affirrae-t-on dans la prison du Cap." — Le Pevple, Avril 21, 1888. HISTORY SINCE INDEPENDENCE. 115 midst of this commotion Salnave came into the harbour with five hundred men, to whom he gave permission to plunder the Eue de Erontsforts, where the princi- pal retail dealers live. The phrase of their colonel on this occasion has become a proverb : " Mes enfans, pillez en bon ordre." Only the vigorous remonstrances of the diplomatic corps prevented further outrages. De- lorme, accused by Salnave of having shown weakness whilst in charge of the Government during his absence in the north, retired from office and left the country. The insurgent armies closed in round Port-au-Prince, but as the town did not capitulate at their martial aspect, they did nothing, whilst the garrison was only waiting for the excuse of an attack in order to disperse. This delay was fatal ; the chiefs, instead of confronting the common enemy, were quarrelling as to the choice of the future President, each thinfcng himself the most worthy, when the negroes of the mountains, encouraged by the Government, rose in arms to attack the towns, and forced the besieging army to retire to protect their own families and property. These bands of negroes, under the name of "Piquets," were only formidable from their numbers, but the destruction they committed in the south has not been repaired to this day. The insurgents raised the siege of the capital in August; and in September, to prevent further dissensions, Kis- sage-Saget was chosen President for the north at St. Marc, and Domingue at Les Cayes for the south. The year 1869 was the most disastrous I have 116 HISTORY SINCE INDEPENDE^^CE. known in Haytian history. Fighting was going on in every district. In the north the insurgents were besieging Cap Haitien ; in the south the Government was vainly attacking Jacmel, Jeremie, and Les Cayes. In the beginning of the year President Salnave had the advantage of commanding the seas with his steamers, and, surrounding Les Cayes on every side, he vigorously pressed the siege. When it was about to fall. General Monplaisir-Pierre assembled a small force, cut his way through the besieging army, and arrived just in time to save Domingue and his Govern- ment, who were preparing to embark for Jamaica. This was one of the few dashing actions of the war. Another was General Brice's splendid defence of J^remie when attacked by superior forces and bom- barded by vessels purchased by Salnave in America. In July 1869 the insurgents obtained a couple of steamers, and the aspect of the war changed. They were enabled thus to relieve the south by capturing the vessels that blockaded Les Cayes ; and then, returning north, excited the fears of the Government partisans. Gonaives surrendered to the insurgents under conditions, and General Chevalier arrived with its garrison to increase the confusion at the capital. The Ministry resigned under his tlireats, and only the sudden arrival of Salnave from the south prevented Chevalier from usurping his place. From this time forward the fortunes of Salnave paled. Cap Haitien surrendered to the insurgents; HISTORY SINCE INDEPENDENCE. 117 the President's army under Chevalier besieging Jacmel went over to the enemy; and suddenly, on the i^th December 1870, the insurgents made the most gallant dash of the whole war. Before daylight, two vessels laden with troops steamed quietly into the harbour, surprised a new gunboat belonging to the Government, and then immediately landed about a thousand men. The leaders of this expedition were Generals , Brice and Boisrond-Canal. It was a splendid coup, as Sal- nave's garrison consisted of over three thousand soldiers. Some sharp fighting occurred, and the insurgents could just hold their own, when General Turenne-Carrid arrived by land with strong reinforcements, and ren- dered the combat more equal. Whilst the fighting was going on, an urgent appeal was made by the chiefs of both parties to the diploma- tie corps to interfere and try to save the town, which was menaced with destruction. The representatives of France, England, and the United States therefore went to the palace, but could do no more than effect a truce till the next morning. Salnave, however, hoping to take his enemies off their guard during this truce, made a sudden onslaught on them ; but after about two hours' fighting, his men were repulsed with heavy loss. Early in the morning, the gunboat that had been surprised in harbour opened fire upon the palace under the direction of the in- surgents, and its heavy shell falling in the courtyard -began to disperse the garrison, when another pitched 118 HISTORY SINCE INDEPENDENCE. on the main building, ignited a small powder-magazine, and a severe explosion took place. As great stores of powder existed in the burning palace, every one near fled. Salnave and his troops retired to the moiintains via La Coupe, and soon after another terrific explosion shook the town, followed by one still more severe. Fortunately the fire did not reach the great magazine, or few houses would have resisted the concussion. Before leaving, Salnave ordered fire to be set to the capital to retard pursuit. Our men were disembarked from H.M.S. Defence under the present Admiral, Noel Salmon, and greatly contributed to prevent the spread of the flames ; but it was calculated that at least a thousand houses and huts were destroyed. I have passed rapidly over the events of this year, but it was certainly the most trying I have ever known. The diplomatic corps was continually forced to inter- fere to check the arbitrary conduct of the authorities, who seized our ships, arrested our subjects, insulted us in the streets, and to awe the disaffected employed bands of villanous negroes and negresses to parade the town, who murdered those selected by their enemies, wantonly killing a young Frenchman and many others. Nothing was safe from them, neither our mail-bags nor our property. Fortunately we were well supported by our naval of&cers, and we were thoroughly well backed by the French marine. Admii-al Mequet and Captain De Varannes of the D'Estres were con- HISTOKY SINCE INDEPENDENCE. 119 spicuous for their friendly feeling ; and as Admiral Phillimore was at that time commodore in Jamaica, the English were sure of receiving all the support that it was in his power to give. I think we owed our lives to the aid we received from the presence of our ships, commanded by Captains Kelly, M'Crea, Glynn, Murray Aynesley, Carnegie, Lowther, Hunter, Alington, and many others. I may conclude my account of Salnave by saying that he attempted to reach Santo Domingo city, but was stopped on the frontiers by the Dominican insur- gent Cabral, who took him and his followers prisoners, and sent them to Port-au-Prince. Six chiefs were shot as insurgents taken with arms in their hands, whilst Salnave was brought into the capital, tried by a mili- tary commission under General Lorquet, condemned to death for incendiarism and murder, and shot that same evening at sunset. He behaved with consider- able coolness and calmness, and when he heard the sentence pronounced, asked for a quarter of an hour's respite, and then wrote his wishes as to the disposition of his property, and a few words to his family. Salnave was in every respect unfitted to be a ruler ; he was ignorant, debauched, and cruel; loved to be surrounded by the lowest of the low, who turned the palace into a rendezvous where the scum of the negresses assembled to dance and drink, so that no respectable person ever willingly entered it. He attended the meetings of the Vaudoux, and is accused of joining in 120 HISTOEY SISCE INDEPENDENCE. their greatest excesses. He first brought himself pro- minently forward by attempting to murder General Philippeaux, and during his Presidency shot his enemies without mercy. I do not think that he had a redeem- ing quality, except a certain amount of determination, ond perhaps bravery, though he was never known to expose himself to personal danger. General Nissage - Saget was elected President of Hayti on the 19th March 1870, and four years of peace followed. The country was so exhausted by the long civil war, that although there was some discontent among the followers of Salnave and the extreme black party, no movement had a chance of success. The Chambers occasionally quarrelled with the executive, but their title to esteem rests on their efforts to restore the currency. They decided to withdraw the depre- ciated paper notes and introduce silver dollars, and in this they completely succeeded. It caused some suffer- ing at first, but on the whole it was a sound measure, wisely carried out. Nissage-Saget, though incapable in many respects, generally adhered to the constitution. However, in 1872 he created some commotion by pardoning all political prisoners at the demand of the army, though legally such a measure required the previous assent of the Chambers ; but Hay tians like their Presidents to show authority. In 1873 there was a formal qiiarrel in the Chambers which led to all the subsequent disasters. A question HISTORY SINCE IKDEPENDENCE. 121 arose as to the validity of the election of Boyer- Bazekis, deputy for Port-au-Prince. It was decided in his favour by forty-four to twenty-one, upon which the minority retired, and left the House without a quorum, As the Government sided with the minority, no steps "were taiven to fill vacancies, but a session was called for the month of July. The real question at issue was a serious one. The Opposition wished to elect as the next President Gene- ral Monplaisir-Pierre, a respectable black, whilst the Government favoured General Domingue, an igno- rant and ferocious negro, born in Africa, whose party had rendered itself notorious by the massacre of all the political prisoners confined in the jail in Les Cayes in 1869. The Senate and Chambers met in July, and it was evident that a great majority were hostile to the Government. Boyer-Bazelais, rendered imprudent by the strong party he led, passed a vote of want of confidence in two Ministers, and refused to receive their Budgets, upon which the President adjourned the session to April 1874. He did this to prevent the public discussion of the scandalous jobbery of his Mini- sters and to aid Domingue in his candidature. When the Congress met in April 1 874, there was no doubt as to the feeling of the people being hostile to Dominigue and his nephew, Septimus Eameau, the most grasping and unpopular jobber that the country had ever seen. The Government had used all its influence 122 HISTORY SINCE INDEPENDENCE. and had employed the military to support Domingue candidates, but in spite of this pressure his opponents had been returned. But the Government persevered, and Nissage retired May 15, handing over power to a Council of Ministers that named Domingue com- mander-in-chief. A Constituent Assembly was called for June 10, which was q^uite unconstitutional, and under violent military pressure Government nomi- nees were chosen, who unanimously elected General Domingue President of Hayti. As soon as this Government was in power, it was clearly seen that all the constitutional leaders had better go into exile, as their death was certain if they remained. Many prudently retired to the neighbouring islands, but the three gallant leaders of the war against Salnave, Monplaisir-Pierre, Brice, and Boisrond-Canal remained, and turned their attention to industrial pursuits. I could not but warn Brice that I knew for certain that if they remained they would fall victims, but they had a better opinion of their rulers than I had. Naturally a new constitution was voted, by which the President was chosen for eight years ; the Senate was to be selected from a list sent in to Government ; the executive had power to dissolve the Chambers and to establish a Council of State to aid the Government. Power was also given for one year to change the judges and magistrates, thus to fill the bench with their own creatures. HISTORY SINCE INDEPENDENCE. 123 The Government was not slow to show its intentions. The first was to endeavour to render the residence of foreigners impossible by passing a law of license to trade which would have been prohibitive ; but through the interference of the diplomatic corps the application of this law was postponed. At the head of the Ministry was Domingue's nephew, Septimus Eameau, who con- sidered that " the whites had no rights which the blacks were bou'nd to respect." His own friends had foretold an age of peace and enlightenment when Septimus came to power, but of all the narrow-minded negroes with vast pretensions to superiority, none equalled this man. As a rule, the abler a negro is, the more wicked and corrupt he appears. But we could never discover this much-vaunted ability, though the wickedness and cor- ruption were manifest to all. The only wise act by which Domingue's Govern- ment will be known was the signing of a treaty of peace, friendship, and commerce with Santo Domingo ; and this was brought about by English aid, which smoothed down the difficulties raised by the intolerable pretensions of the Haytian Ministers. As usual, when there was political discontent, the year 1875 was ushered in by a great fire at Port-au- Prince. On May i, taking advantage of an assembly of troops to celebrate the " Fete de V Agriculture," Eameau ordered an attack to be made on the three rivals he most feared. General Brice was sitting writing in his office when the soldiers sent to murder him appeared ; 124 HISTORY SINCE INDEPENDENCE. bis bravery, however, was so well known, tbat tbey dreaded to approach bim, but firing at a distance, gave bim time to seize bis arms and defend bunself. But having only revolvers, he thought it prudent to en- deavour to take refuge in the English Legation. He was wounded fatally in doing so, and died, notwith- standing the care bestowed upon bim by the Spanish Consul Lopez and his wife, who were then residing there. Monplaisir- Pierre was also attacked in his own house, but being better armed, he made a long defence ; he killed seventeen soldiers, wounded thirty-two, mostly mortally, and could only be subdued by the employ- ment of artillery. Then finding he could do no more, as, severely wounded, it was not possible to escape, he put an end to his existence. General Lorquet com- manded this attack of the garrison of Port-au-Prince on two veritable heroes. The third destined to death by the Government was Boisrond-Canal. Whilst defending himself Brice had thought of his friend, and had sent his clerk to warn him of his danger. On the approach of the soldiers he and his friends readily put them to flight, but then were forced to disperse. Canal taking refuge with the American Minister, Mr. Bassett, who, after five months of tedious correspondence, was enabled to embark him in safety. Decrees followed banishing forty-three eminent citi- zens, and later on seventeen were condemned to death HISTORY SINCE INDEPENDENCE. 125 for a pretended conspiracy. Thus Eameau thought to clear the country of his enemies or rivals. The Government finding that the amount received in taxes would not satisfy their cupidity, decided to raise a loan in Paris of about ;^2,Soo,ooo. The history of this scandalous transaction is about the worst of its kind. A portion of the money was raised and divided among the friends of the Government; but the details are not worth recording. The murder of Brice and Monplaisir-Pierre made a profound impression on the country, as it justified all previous apprehensions; and the conduct of the Government was such, that it appeared as if it were guided by a madman. Decrees against the trade carried on by foreigners, hatred of the whites shown by Domingue, Eameau, and Boco, then insults in the ofiBcial journal, in which even foreign agents were not spared, followed by the illegal expulsion of Cuban refugees, at length roused the country, and a general movement commenced. Domingue and Eameau were furious : an order was given to murder all the political prisoners confined in the prison, but the chief jailer escaped with them to a Legation, and leaving the gates open, three hundred and fifty malefactors got away at the same time. Then the Government tried to rouse the masses, and issued orders to fire the town and pillage it, and murder the whites and coloured; but even the lowest negroes felt that these were the decrees of a madman. Find- 126 HISTORY SINCE INDEPENDENCE. ing that the Government cpuld not hold its own in Port-au-Prince, Eameau determined to retire to Les Cayes; but being unwilling to leave behind him the money destined to form the capital of a National Bank, he sent it down to the wharf to be embarked. This at length roused the population, and a tumult ensued. Abandoned by all, Domingue abdicated, and the French Minister De Verges and the Spanish Consul Lopez went to the palace to try and save the President and his Chief Minister. The crowd was large and threat- ening, but the two brave diplomats took these despi- cable chiefs under their protection and endeavoured to escort them to the French Legation; but the crowd was so excited against these murderers, that Eameau was killed in the streets and Domingue was seriously wounded. Geheral Lorquet had been sent at the head of a force to check the advance of the northern insurgents ; but, as might have been expected, he joined them and marched at their head to take possession of the Govern- ment. But no sooner had he entered the town than a murmur arose. The friends of those whom he had murdered, as Monplaisir-Pierre, Brice, and Chevalier, began to collect. Lorquet fled to his house, but was pursued and attacked, and killed whilst trying to hide in a closet. Thus fell the very worst Government that even Hayti had ever seen. Cruel and dishonest, it had not a re- deeming quality. Domingue, brutal and ignorant, was HISTORY SINCE INDEPENDENCE. 127 entirely dominated by his nephew, Septimus Eameau, whose conduct has been only excused by his friends on the ground of insanity. There was too much method in his madness for that plea to be accepted. His hatred of foreigners may be partly accounted for by his being a member of the Vaudoux ; it is even asserted that he was a Papaloi or priest of the sect. When Domingue fell there was a struggle for the succession between Boisrond-Canal and Boyer-Bazelais, but the former was preferred on account of his energy and courage. He had a difficult task, as the dilapida- tions of the late Government had ruined the finances, and France insisted that the Domingue loan should be recognised before she would acknowledge the new President. Boyer-Bazelais, although, like Boisrond-Canal, a man of colour, bitterly resented his rival being chosen President, and created every difficulty possible for the new Government. These events, however, are too recent for me to dwell on them. I may, however, notice that the principal attention of both Govern- ment and Opposition was directed to the finances, and that in 1879 the French Government forced Hayti to acknowledge the Domingue loan. In July 1879 a disturbance took place in the House of Eepresentatives, and it was adjourned amidst much tumult. Boyer-Bazelais and his party retired to his house and took up arms, they said, to defend them- selves. Their opponents attacked them, and a desperate 128 HISTORY SINCE INDEPENDENCE. fight ensued. Fire was put to the adjoining houses, and amidst this fierce conflict our acting Consul- General Byron and the French Chancellor Huttinot intervened, and at the greatest personal risk rescued the ladies from the burning houses and took them to a place of safety. A sauve qui pent soon followed, and Boyer-Bazelais' party was dispersed with heavy loss, two of his brothers being killed in the fight. The insane ambition of what was called the Liberal party thus ruined the most honest Government that Hayti had seen since the days of Boyer., These dis- orders in the capital were followed by others in the provinces; and Boisrond-Canal, disgusted with the treat- ment he had received from those who should have supported him, resigned, and left the country with his chief Ministers, July 17, 1879. Great sympathy was shown him by the people, who cheered him as he left the wharf. As usual, he was embarked by a foreign officer, Commander Alington of H.M.S. Bcxer. What would these exiled Presidents do without the foreign element ? Boisrond-Canal, though not a brilliant ruler, was thoroughly honest, and if. he had been supported instead of being opposed by the Liberal party, his four years' Presidency would have been a happy one. His coloured opponents used to call him a. patate or sweet potato — in fact, a King Log. They soon had a chance of comparing his Government with that of a King Stork. Boyer-Bazelais' party now thought that they would HISTORY SINCE INDEPENDENCE. 129 have all their own way, but they soon found that the country would have none of them. The blacks were again in the ascendant, and after some feeble attempts at revolution, the Liberal chiefs had to take the path of exile, and be thankful that it was no worse. The mob of Port-au-Prince, wearied by the long debates, forced the Assembly to close its discussions, and General Salomon was elected President of Hayti, October 23, 1879, and in December of the same year a twelfth constitution was promulgated, by which the chief of the state was chosen for seven years. Illegal military executions, murder, and pillage, en- couraged by the authorities, were the principal episodes of the history of the next few years. After reading this narrative, can we be surprised at the mot of a distinguished English diplomatist. Sir Charles Wyke, once banished to Port-au-Prince ? Walking up and down the filthy wharfs, he was heard to exclaim, " Confound Christopher Columbus ! if he had not discovered America, I should not have been here." ( 130 ) CHAPTEE IV. THE POPULATION OF HAYTI. The amount of the population in Hayti is not accu- rately known, as no census has been taken since the country became independent. At the close of the last century the inhabitants were found to consist of — Whites 46,000 Freedmen, black and coloured . . . 56,666 Slaves of both colours . . . . 3091642 612,308 In giving these figures, Mr. Madiou adds ("Histoire d'Haiti," vol. i. p. 29) that the planters, in order not to have to pay the full capitation-tax, omitted from their return of slaves all the children, as well as those over forty-five years of age, so that at least 200,000 should be added to those in servitude, among whom were 15,000 coloured of both sexes. Up to 1847 Mr. Madiou considered that the population had neither increased nor decreased. Deducting the whites, there would remain about 750,000. Mr. Mackenzie, in his "Notes on Hayti," voL ii., discusses the question of population, but the tables he THE POPULATION. 131 inserts ia his work vary so greatly tliat no reliance can be placed on them. In one, the population in 1824 of the French portion of the island is stated to be 351,716; in another, given in fnll detail as to each district, it is put at 873,867, whilst he adds that Piacide Justin had previously estimated the population at 700,000, and General Borgella, a good authority, stated it at a million. It is evident that no one had very precise data on which to found an estimate. During tlie struggle between the French and the coloured races, the whole of the whites were either driven out of the country or killed, and some slaves were exported to Cuba and the United States. What remained, therefore, of the two other sections consti- tuted the population of the empire of Dessalines. During the Presidency of General Geffrard (1863), I heard him remark, that, from the best official infor- mation he could obtain, the population had increased to over 900,000. This estimate must be largely founded on conjecture. The negro race is undoubtedly prolific, and in a hundred years ought to have more than doubled — nay, in so fertile a country, with unlimited supplies of food, more than quadrupled its population. The losses during the war of independence were con- siderable, as there was no mercy shown by either side, and the sanguinary strife lasted many years. The long civil war between Potion and Christophe was kept up during the whole reign of the latter, but probably did not cost the country so many lives as 132 THE POPULATION. the building of the great mountain-fortress of La Ferriere and the handsome palace of Sans Souci. Dur- ing the Presidency of Boyer, lasting twenty-five years, there was peace, and ample time was given for the population to make up for all previous losses ; but after his departure came the wars with Santo Domingo and civil strife. All these causes, however, would only have slightly checked population. If you ask a Haytian how it is that his country remains comparatively so thinly peopled, he will answer that the negresses take but little care of their children, and that at least two- thirds die in infancy. After reading tlie chapter on Vaudoux-worship and cannibalism, I fear some of my readers may come to another conclusion. I cannot, however, think that these fearful excesses can be car- ried to the extent of greatly checking the increase of population. That the negresses are careless mothers is highly possible, and in the interior there are few, if any, medical men to whom they can apply in case of need. After carefully examining every document on the subject which came before me, and noting the state of those portions of the country through which I have passed, and comparing all the information I received during my twelve years' stay, I have come to the conclusion that the population has greatly increased, probably doubled, since 1825. All the old residents appear to be of the opinion that the Haytian is lazier THE POPULATION. 133 thaa ever, and many intelligent natives decidedly hold that view ; and yet we find that the exports and imports have doubled in quantity during this period, which can only be accounted for by a very great increase in the population. It is possible, however, that the aug- mentation is much less than it should have been. Either on account of losses from warlike operations, or more probably by diseases produced from the greater excesses of the men, the female population is much larger than that of the male. Some go so far as to say there are three women to one man ; others, two-thirds females. I am myself inclined to fix it at about three- fifths. The great disproportion in the amount of the women has often been observed among the negro tribes on the coast of Guinea. In Hayti there is no emigra- tion to account for the disproportion ; in fact, the move- ment of population has been the other way, and many male recruits arrive from the United States and the European colonies in the West Indies. The population is generally supposed to consist of at least nine-tenths black to one-tenth coloured, and that the coloured is decidedly more and more approach- ing the black type. It is natural that, continually breeding in and in, they should gradually assimilate to the more numerous race. As a rule, the coloured popu- lation may be said to reside chiefly in the towns and villages. Mackenzie speaks of some Maroon negroes who lived in the mountains near La Selle in the south-eastern 134 THE POPULATION. distiict of Hayti, and held no intercourse ■with the other inhabitants, but fled at their approach. They •were doubtless the descendants of fugitive slaves. When vce paid a visit to tlie mountain above referred to, we heard tlie peasantry speaking of these people, but it appeared more of a tradition than an ascertained fact. They call them the Vien-viennent, from their cry on seeing strangers. Trom what is told of their being seen in the deep woods at midnight dancing and going through certain ceremonies, it is probable that these strange people were only sectaries of the Vau- doux-worship practising their African rites. The vexed question as to the position held by the negroes in the great scheme of nature was continually brought before us whilst I lived in Hayti, and I could not but regret to find that the greater my experience the less I thought of the capacity of the negro to hold .in independent position. As long as he is influenced by contact with the white man, as in the southern portion of the United States, he gets on very well. But place him free from all such influence, as in Hayti, and he shows no signs of improvement ; on the contrary, he is gradually retrograding to the African tribal customs, and without exterior pressure will fall into the state of the inhabitants on the Congo. If this were only my own opinion, I should hesitate to express it so positively, but I have found no dissident voice amongst experienced residents since I first went to Hayti in January 1863, I now agree with those who deny that the negro THE POPULATION. 135 could ever originate a civilisation, and that with the best of educations he remains an inferior type of man. He has as yet shown himself totally unfitted for self- government, and incapable as a people to make any progi'ess whatever.' To judge the negroes fairly, one must live a considerable time in their midst, and not be led away by the theory that all races are capable of equal advance in civilisation. The mulattoes have no doubt far superior intelli- gence, and show greater capacity for government, but as yet they have had no marked success. It is pitiable to read their history, and see how they are almost ever swayed by the meanest impulses of personal interest and ambition, and how seldom they act from patriotic motives. During the twenty-six years which have elapsed since I first became acquainted with the country, what a dreary succession of meaningless con- spiracies, from the abortive attempt of General Legros in 1863, to the disastrous civil strife between two sections of the mulatto party, led by Boisrond-Canal and Boyer-Bazelais, when the latter completed the ruin of those of his own colour, and let in their enemies, the worst of the blacks, who had dreamed for twenty years of their extermination (1879). Scarcely one of these plots and insurrections, by which the country has been bathed in blood, but was founded on the hope of office and the consequent spoils. The thoughts of the conspirators are concentrated on the treasurv and the division of its contents. " Prendre 136 THE POPULATION. I'argent de I'etat ce n'est pas vole," is the motto of all parties, of every shade of colour. Politically speaking, the Haytians are a hopeless people, and the most intelligent and best educated among them are more and more inclined to despair of the future of their country when they see the wreck that follows each wave of barbarism which every few years passes over their republic. President Geffrard, on going into exile in 1867, remarked to my Spanish colleague, that, putting aside all personal feelings and regrets, he could only foresee for his country a disas- trous series of convulsions. He spoke prophetically ; for Hayti has never recovered from the effects of the civil war which followed his expulsion, and he must have observed, from his secure retreat in Jamaica, how the leaders of every section of his enemies were, one by one, executed, killed in battle, or sent into exile. I will now attempt to examine some characteristic traits of the Haytian negro and mulatto. THE NEGEO. A French admiral once asked me, " Est-ce que vous prenez ces gens au s^rieux ? " And at first sight it is impossible to do so in Hayti ; but after the eye becomes used to the grotesque, the study of the people is both interesting and instructive. To a foreigner accustomed to regard the negro as he is depicted by our latest travellers, a half-naked savage, brutal and brute-like. THE NEGEO. 137 it is not possible to contemplate as otherwise than incongruous a black general with heavy gold epaulettes and gorgeous uniform galloping on a bedizened steed, surrounded by a staff as richly apparelled, and fol- lowed by an escort of as ragged a soldiery as ever Falstaff was ashamed to march with. The awkward figure, the heavy face, the bullet head, the uncouth features, the cunning blood-shot eyes, seen under the shade of a French officer's cocked hat, raise the hilarity of the newcomer, which is not lessened when he dis- covers that this wretched imitation of a soldier declares himself the most warlike of a warlike race. But put- ting aside the absurdities which appear inherent to the blacks, you soon discover that there is something sym- pathetic in that stolid being. In treating of the Haytians, one must carefully sepa- rate the lower-class negro as he appears in a large commercial town from the black who lives in the plains or mountains. The former, brought into constant con- tact with the roughest of the white race, as represented by an inferior class of merchant seamen, is too often insolent and dishonest, whilst the countryman, who only sees a select few of the whites, appears to have an innate idea of their superiority, and almost always treats them with respect and deference, and with a hospitality and kindness wliich is not found in the cities.^ ^ There is a, law in Hayti that no peasant may enter the town except on market-days, or to fulfil his military duties. A brea«h of this law may send him to prison. 138 THE POPULATION. Whilst the civilised Haytian is essentially inhospi- table towards foreigners, the contrary is sometimes the case among the country population. They have the virtues as well as the vices of wild races ; and although their long intercourse with their more civilised com- patriots has given them a species of Prench varnish, yet they are essentially an African people removed from their parent country. Circumstances, however, have naturally modified their character. After the departure of the French, their estates ultimately fell into the hands of the coloured freedmen and enfranchised slaves. Many of the latter squatted among the coffee plantations, regardless of the nominal proprietor, and there gathered, and sold the crops without paying much attention to the rights of the owner. With the thirst, however, to he the real possessor of the land, so characteristic of all peasantry, as soon as the negro acquired a little capital from savings, his first thought was turned to secure the tenure of his household, and in many parts the land has been mor- selled out amonsr them. President Petion encouraged this system by the action of Government. The popular stories current in Hayti of the dif- ference between the races that inhabit it are rather characteristic. It is said that a white man, a mulatto, and a negro were once admitted into the presence of the Giver of all good gifts, and were asked what they wished to possess. The first-named desired to acquire a knowledge of the arts and sciences ; the second THE NEGEO. 139 limited his pretensions to fine horses and beautiful ■women ; the third, on being asked, shuiSed about and said that he had been brought there by tlie mulatto, but being pressed to answer, replied he should like a bit of gold lace. They say again, Mark the difference of the three when arrested and thrown into prison : the white man demands paper and ink in order to draw up a protest ; the second looks about for the means of escape; whilst the third lies down and sleeps twenty-four liours at a stretch ; then waking up, he grumbles a little, but soon turns on the other side and sleeps a second twenty-four hours. Another curious saying among them is : — " Nfegue riche li miilatte, Mulatte pauvre li iiegue.'' These trifles indicate the opinion the different sections of the people have of eacli other, and there is much truth in the estimation. The politeness of the country negro is very remark- able, and you hear one ragged fellow addressing another as monsieur, fr^re, or compere ; and this civility is very pleasing, as it gives promise of better things whenever education sliall be extended to the country population. The town negro rarely, however, equals the peasant in manners, though among each other there is not much left to be desired. Both classes, at the same time, are infinitely superior in this respect to our colonial 140 THE POPULATIOJr. negroes, who are in Port-au-Prince proverbial for their insolence. Every one who mixes in Haytian society is struck by the paucity of black gentlemen to be met with at balls, concerts, or the theatre, and the almost total absence of black ladies. At some of the largest parties given by the late President Geffrard, I have counted but three black ladies to perhaps a hundred coloured; and although the gentlemen were more numerous, it was evident that their presence arose from their official positions, and not from a desire to mix with the society. There is a marked line drawn between the black and the mulatto, which is proba bly the most disastrous circumstance for th e future prosperity of the coun trj. A faithful historian, after carefully studying past events, can come to no other conclusion than that the low state of civilisation which still obtains in the island arises principally from this unmeaning quarrel . The black hates the mulatto, the mulatto despises the black ; proscriptions, j udicial murders, massacres have arisen, and will continue to arise as long as this deplorable feeling prevails. There is no sign of its abatement ; on the contrary, never was it so marked as at the present day. A black Minister once said to me, "We blacks and whites like and respect each other, because we are of pure race, but as for those mulattoes " I remember, on my arrival in Port-au-Prince in 1863, having a conversation with a young mulatto lady, no THE NEGRO. 141 longer in the freshness of youth, on the subject of intermarriage ; and having faintly indicated that I thought she had been unwise in refusing the hand of one of the best-mannered, best-educated, and richest blacks in the country, I received a reply which com- pletely surprised me, " Sir, you insult me to imagine I ■would marry a black. No, I will never marry any one but a white." I soothed her as well as I could, but looking at her faded charms, her unhealthy-looking skin, and her heavy under-jaw, I thought with reason that she might wait long ; and, poor girl, she waited in vain till death released her. This contempt of the black is felt by nearly every coloured girl, and is bitterly resented. I have seen young mulatto women refusing to dance with blacks at a ball, and the latter, in fury, threatening to call out the father or brother of the offending beauty. Yet \yhat can be more absurd that such a pretension or prejudice, when, but two generations removed, their mothers were African slaves ! I have heard coloured women talking about their families and their aristo- cratic connections, when I have known that in a back- room, slowly fading away, was some black " mamselle," the grandmother of the proud beauties. The blacks naturally feel and resent this childish insolence, and when they get the upper hand, as in the time of Soulouque and Salomon, they unfortunately quench in blood their outraged feelings. Towards the white man, whatever jealousy he may 142 THE POPULATION. feel on account of former political questions, the blagk is usually both respectful and cordia l, and in return is liked by them. I heard a black magistrate say, " My father came from Africa. He was apparently a respect- able man in the kingdom of Congo, because he was not only treated with distinction by his countrymen on board the slaver, but on landing was taken into confi- dence by a white planter, who ultimately made him his partner. That is the history of my family." Certainly as respectable as any other in Hayti; Notwithstanding all the interested denials of the mulattoes, there is no doubt but that the lower-class negro, in particular, respects the white man as a superior being, and therefore respects his religion as superior to his own; but, as I shall show in my chapter on the Vaudoux, although he follows the white man's re- ligion to a certain extent, he does not in consequence forsake his serpent-worship, which appeals to his traditions, to the Africa of his nursery-tales, and, above all, to his pleasures and his passions. The Vaudoux priest encourages lascivious dancing, copious drinking, and the indiscriminate intercourse of the sexes, but he at the same time inculcates the burning of candles in the Eoman Catholic churches. He keeps a serpent in a box in his temple, whilst the walls are covered with the pictures of the Virgin Mary and the saints. 'No other brain but that of a negro could accept such a juxtaposition of opposing beliefs. Occasionally a negro will say to a white in an in- THE NEGRO. 146 Solent manner, "Nous sommes tous dgaux ici;" b,ut he does not believe it, and shows he does not believe it by soon sneaking away with his invariable oath, "F ." The crowd may grunt acquiescence, and though they may appear amused by the fellow's insol- ence, they are still more amused by his slinking off. Burton, speaking of the people on the coast pf, Arica, says that a negro will obey a white man more readily than a mulatto, and a mulatto more so than one of his own colour. Among the black gentlemen you find some of polished manners and cultivated minds, as my friend Alexander Delva and the late M. Paul, or a genial companion like Lubin, the son-in-law of the late Emperor Sou- louque. Yet, notwithstanding these exceptions, and the more remarkable ones I have noticed in my his- torical chapters, there can be no doubt that the blacks have not yet arrived at that state of civilisation which would enable one to compare them favourably with any other civilised race, or to say that they are competent to govern a country. During the reign of Soulouque, Chancellor Delva and General Salomon were considered great statesmen, but between them they managed to exhaust the country, and no monument remains of their rule. Bat when an example is required of a man who applies his of&cial position to his own benefit, it is said, " He will become as rich as Chancellor Delva." Another negro who was expected by his own party 144 THE POPULATION. to show himself a great statesman was Septimus Eameau, of Les Cayes. i When, however, he obtained unlimited power under his doting uncle, President Domingue, he proved himself a mere visionary, incap- able of a single sensible measure, and turning every ^project into a fresh means of plundering the State. Whilst the people were sinking daily into greater poverty, and the public service was starved for want of funds, he ordered an expensive Pantheon to be con- structed, in which should be erected statues to Hayti's famous men ; and for fear posterity should be oblivious of his own merits, he ordered a statue of himself, which, however, was never erected, as before it arrived he had, by a violent death, paid the penalty of his crimes. During my twelve years' residence in Hayti, no black statesman appeared who was capable of managing with credit any important official position, with the exception of General Lamothe, a talented and agreeable man ; but I fear that the charity which beings at home so pre- dominated in him, that the interests of his country were sometimes forgotten. Though very unwilling to meet death on the field of battle when a loophole to escape is at hand, yet no one faces it more courageously than the Haytian, both black and coloured, when at the place of execution. He stands dauntless before the trembling soldiers, who, shutting their eyes or turning away their heads, fire at random, and who too often only wound, and have to charge and recharge their muskets before their prisoner THE NEGRO. 145 dies. The soldiers have a superstitious dread of shoot- ing any particular man in cold blood, and fancy that his spirit will haunt that individual whose bullet has sent him into the other world. The black in his family relations is in general kindly, though few of the lower orders go through any civil or religious marriage ceremony ; in fact, it was at one time the custom of all classes to be "flaci" and only since the priests have regained some of their ancient influence have those who are considered respectable consented to go to church. The first daring innovators were almost stoned by the people, and even such men as Presidents Pdtion and Boyer were only "placed," the latter succeeding to the authority and " placi" of the former. Yet the children of these unions are by Haytian law legitimate, as the agreement to live together, as in our old common law, was considered equivalent to marriage. In the interior a well-to-do black lives openly with several women as wives,^ and I have seen the patriarch sitting at the door of the central house, with huts all around in which his younger wives lived, as they could not be made to dwell under the same roof. On Friday evenings he descends to market on a horse or mule, per- haps holding in his arms the latest born, while follow- ing in his train are a dozen women and sturdy children, 1 " On nous ^orit de Port-de-Paix, qu'il est mort derni^rement un commandant d'arrondissement non loin de lb,, qui avait de 14 ii 15 femmes, concubines, un peu partout." — La Viriti, Juillet 16, 1887. K 146 THE POPULATION. either carrying loads or driving beasts of burden. No one is mounted but himself. The French priests attempted to alter this state of things, but they did not succeed, as the wives, surrounding the intruders, asked them what was to be their position if the husband selected one among them and abandoned the rest. The priests have for the most part wisely decided not to meddle with the present, but rather endeavour to act upon the minds of the younger generation. They can hardly expect success as long as the number of women greatly exceeds those of the men. The blacks, though in general kind to their children, neglect them, and the mortality is said to be great. They are, however, very passionate, and in their anger they use in correction the first thing that comes to hand. A Spanish friend with a tender heart was riding one day in the country when his attention was drawn by the piercing shrieks of a child. He turned his head, and saw a black woman holding a little boy by the arm and beating him with a broomstick. He rode up, and catching the next blow on the handle of his whip, said, " Don't beat the child in that manner." The woman looked up surprised at the interference, and coolly re- plied in their patois, " Consite, li nfegue ; li pas fait li mal" (" Consul, it is a negro ; it will do him no harm "). Another day he saw a gigantic black beating with his club an interesting-looking young negress, giving blows that only a black could stand without being maimed. Again he interfered, but both set upon him. THE NEGRO. 147 first with foul words, and then with such menacing gestures, that he was too glad to put spurs to his horse and gallop away. He found he had been interfering in a domestic quarrel. The brutal use of the cocomacaque or club is uni- versal, as I shall have to notice when describing the police. Under Toussaint's regulations the use of the whip, as an unpleasant memento of slavery, was abo- lished, but the club was introduced. Dessalines, as Inspector-G-eneral of Agriculture, brought it into vogue. At Les Cayes he one day ordered a woman to be beaten for neglecting some agricultural work ; she was far advanced in pregnancy, and her child was prematurely born whilst the punishment was being inflicted. When- ever Dessalines' name is mentioned, it is associated with some act of fiendish cruelty. As might be expected, few marriages take place between the whites and blacks ; the only instance of which I heard was a German clerk who married the daughter of a Minister in the hope of making his for- tune through the contracts he expected to obtain from his unscrupulous father-in-law ; but within a fortnight of the marriage the Minister was expelled from office. Contrary to general expectation, the German boldly faced his altered prospects, and the marriage appeared to have turned out more happily than could have been anticipated from so ill-assorted a union. Whilst travelling in Hayti one is often surprised at the extraordinary difi'erence in the appearance of the 148 THE POPULATION. population, many being tall, fine men with open counte- nances, whilst others are the meanest-looking gorillas imaginable. Then their colour : some have shiny skins, that look as if blacking and the blacking-brush had been conscientiously applied, whilst others have the skin completely without lustre, looking almost as if disease were there. Again, others are of the deepest black, whilst their next neighbours may be of a reddish tinge. During my residence in Hayti I only saw one very handsome negress, and she was a peasant girl of La Coupe near Port-au-Prince : her features were almost perfect, and she might well have said — " Mislike me not for my complexion, The shadowed livery of the burnished sun, To whom I am a neighbour and nigh bred." She was not misliked, but she apparently stood the test of every temptation that her white admirers could offer. She had soft pleasant ways and a sweet voice, and talked her jargon of a language in so pretty a manner as almost to make one inclined to admit the Creole into the list of things civilised. But such a girl must be rare indeed, for I saw no other. In general they are very ugly, having no point of beauty. The marked, difference in the appearance of the negroes in Hayti doubtless arises from their origin, as they were brought from every tribe in Africa, not only from those freq^uenting the coast, but also as prisoners from' the THE NEGRO. 149 interior. From all I have read of the African negro, the Haytian must be far advanced from that low type. It is a curious trait that the negro has a shy dislike of monkeys ; he has an uneasy feeling that the whites imagine that there is no great difference between a very ugly negro (and there are ugly ones) and a hand- some gorilla. The first evening I went to the theatre in Port-au-Prince, I was startled by the exclamation of my companion, " Qui est ce monstre africain ? " I turned, and saw in the President's box a perfect horror; but use reconciled me even to this man. An Italian once came to the capital with a dancing-monkey. Crowds followed him everywhere. One day he stopped before a German merchant's, and a fair little girl came out. The monkey would not dance, whereon the dis- appointed child said to her father in Creole, " Faut-il batte petit n^gue 1^." The mob were furious at the mistake, and the father was too glad to hurry in with his daughter to escape a shower of stones. There are still many negroes in Hayti who were born in Africa, being principally the remains of certain cargoes of slaves which English cruisers captured and landed among their free brethren. One whom I knew, had been taken, then freed by an English officer, sent to England, and educated at the expense of our Govern- ment. When of age he was asked what he would desire to do. He replied, "I should wish to go to Hayti." When I knew him he was an old man, and had risen to occupy the position of Minister of Justice. 150 THE POPULATION. The principal trouble to the female negro mind is her unfortunate wool. How she envies her more favoured sisters their long tresses! how she tries to draw out each fibre, and endeavours to make something of it by carefully platting it with false hair ! Even the smallest negro servant will spend hours in oiling, brushing, and tending this poor crop, whose greatest length will only compass three or four inches. It is only when women are more than half white that the wool turns into hair, and even then it has sometimes a suspicious crispy wave, which, however, looks well. Of late years chignons have been a regular importation from France, and the little negresses are delighted with them. The negroes have a very curious habit of talking aloud to themselves. You will hear them in the streets or in the country roads carrying on apparently a long conversation, repeating all they have said or intended to say on a certain occasion, and in a very loud voice ; every other sentence is varied by a grunt or guttural ejaculation. Sometimes they are evidently excited, and are enacting a violent quarrel. They are apparently oblivious that all their remarks are heard ; or may be, they are delighted to take so many people into their confidence. It is a general observation that in nine cases out of ten the subject of which they are treating is money. Another curious habit is that noticed in " Tom Cringle's Log ; " a negro seldom points with his finger ; almost invariably it is with his chin. It has often been remarked what curious names are THE NEGRO. 151 affixed to negroes, as Casar, Lord Byron, Je-crois-en- Dieu. This doubtless arose from a rule which existed during the French occupation, that no slave could be given a name which was used by their masters, so that the latter were driven to very curious expedients to find appellations for their bondsmen ; this rule applied in a lesser degree to the freedmen. Blanc pas trompi n&gue is the name given by the Haytians to common blue shirting. I may notice another peculiarity of the negresses. They object to carrying anything in their hands — they will invariably poise it on their heads. I have often seen them carrying a bottle thus, talking, laughing, run- ning, without having the slightest fear of its falling. The negroes have very singular words of insult, and I remember seeing a man roused to fury by a little black servant of mine, who, after exhausting every offensive word in her vocabulary, suddenly said in Creole, " Nfegue mangd chien." The black fellow darted at her, and had she not made a precipitate retreat into the house, she would have felt his club on her shoulders. It is an offensive custom among people of all classes in Hayti to repeat, as a sort of ejaculatory oath, a rather dirty Creole word. Men educated in a former generation cannot get rid of the habit, and many of the lower orders appear to use it at the close of every sentence. When Soulouque was Emperor he often consulted our Acting Consul-General, the present Sir 152 THE POPULATION. Charles Wyke, lately Minister in Lisbon, as to the usages of the Courts of St. James's and Hanover, and it is said that our agent gave him a hint that habitual swearing was certainly contrary to courtly usages. Soulouque took this hint in good part, and thought that he would try his hand on an old General notorious for this habit. So the Emperor watched his oppor- tunity, and the first time his victim swore, he called him up and said, " General, I have decided that no one who comes to court can be permitted to use that offen- sive word with which you interlard your conversation." The General looked surprised, and answered, " Emperor, f , of course I will obey, f , your commands, f ." " There, you see," replied his ' Altesse,' " you have used the forbidden word three times." The poor General now completely lost his head, and answered, " F , Emperor, f , if, f , I am not allowed, f , to use the word f , I will cease, f , from coming to court, f ." The Emperor could not but laugh, and troubled the General no more, for the habit was too engrained. I should have treated this story as an exaggeration had not I myself heard an old officer equally profuse in his ejaculations. The Emperor Soulouque was a very ignorant man, and a good story is told in illustration. The French Consul-General, Eaybaud I believe, went once to plead some cause before his Majesty, and wound up by say- ing that if he did what was required he would be con- sidered " plus grand qu'Annibal." " Comment, Consite," THE NEGRO. 153 replied the startled Emperor," inou4 cannibal ! " And it required all the Frenchman's tact to explain his refer- ence. As Soulouque was known to be affiliated to the Vaudoux sect, the illustration was not happy in its sound. The negroes and mulattoes are very fond of queer expressions, and their odd noises in conversation quite disconcert a stranger. Assent, dissent, anger, playful acquiescence, are all expressed by the variety in which 'ng-'ng are sounded, though a modified or even a musical grunt can scarcely be expressed on paper. The un- travelled ladies in Hayti are very proud of thus being able to express their sentiments without having re- course to words. The negroes of the lower orders are, like all other inhabitants of hot countries, very fond of bathing, but they are careless as to the cleanliness of their clothes. This I also noticed among the Malays and Dyaks of Borneo; they would bathe several times a day, and then return to their dirty garments. The dress of the peasantry in Hayti is often but an imitation of their European neighbours, though the females generally keep to a long white chemise, covered over with a blue cotton dress that reaches to their bare feet, and is drawn in round the waist. They wear a coloured handkerchief on their heads. On feast days and other gala occasions the young negresses dress in white, which makes a pleasant contrast of colour. Markets used formerly to be held on Sundays. 154 THE POPULATION. When this custom was abolished the. female peasantry hegan to frequent the churches, and the comparison between their blue cotton gowns and the silk dresses of the ladies created envy. But when, in 1863, the price of cotton trebled, the peasantry had the means placed at their disposal to vie with the rich in Gonaives and St. Marc, and many availed themselves of it to go to church richly dressed. This fashion, however, lasted but a short time, and certainly did not survive the great fall in prices which followed the conclusion of the civil war in the United States. The upper classes dress exactly like European ladies, but they never look well in fashionable Parisian hats, while their tignon, or handkerchief tied gracefully round the head, is most becoming. A white tignon is a sign of mourning. There is nothing of which a Haytian lady is more proud than the amount of her personal and household linen. Her armoires are gene- rally full of every kind, and the finer in quality, the more they are esteemed; and the blacks are, if any- thing, more particular than the coloured in securing the most expensive underclothing. How they plume them- selves on the condition of their best bedroom. It is fitted up expensively, in order that people may see it, but it is very seldom used, except when they receive their lady friends. Then they bring out with great pride the treasures of their armoires, and show how well supplied they are with that of which they do not make a general use. THE NEGRO. 155 There is one thing for which all Haytians are equally remarkable — their love of "rem&des." For every- thing, from a toothache to yellow-fever, they have a variety of prescriptions, which are probably well suited to the country, but which a foreigner should be wary in taking. I have not yet forgotten a remide, consist- ing partly of the juice of the sour orange, which a good old lady gave me on my first arrival in the country. It was my first and my last experience. The natives like being physicked, and apothecary shops appear to thrive in every town and village. I remember a Haytian doctor, educated in Paris, telling me how he lost his patients when he first commenced practice by not dosing them enough. The lower orders in Hayti have been accused of great incontinence, and the higher classes have not escaped the same accusation ; but in no tropical country are the lower orders continent. People affect to say that it is the effect of climate, but I have never thought so. You have bnt to put your hand on the skin of a negro or of any tropical race, to find it as cold as that of a fish, and their blood is but little warmer. Their food of vegetables would alone prevent their having the fiery blood of a well-fed people. The fact is, that continence is not considered a virtue by the lower orders in the tropics, and love- stories are told by mothers before their young daughters in all their crudest details, and no effort whatever is made to keep the minds or bodies of the young girls 156 THE POPULATION. chaste.^ The consequence is, that in early life, particularly among relatives', intercourse is almost promiscuous. As amusements are very scarce, young and old give themselves up to gallantry; but it is constant opportunity and the want of occupation and amusement which are the causes of incontinence, not their warm blood. There are two things on which both negroes and mulattoes pride themselves : their fine ear for music and their proficiency in dancing. A talented French bandmaster told me, that if taken young, he thought he could train his Haytian pupils to be excellent musicians ; and as they are fond of the study and practice, he had no difficulty whatever in keeping them to their classes; and many of the military bands in Port-au-Prince played fairly well, though, from ineffi- cient and irregular instruction under native teachers, much was still to be desired. The drum, however, was a very favourite instrument, and the noise produced ^ " Nous ne croyons pas nous tromper de beaueoup en affirmant que la regrettable promiscuity qui existe malheureusement dans tant de families est una des causes de ce profond relSchement de nos moeurs. Les enfants, le p&re, la rahre couohent le plus souvent pele-mele dans la m^me piece. Les parents parlent de tout, tiennent les propos les plus testes devant les miuches qu'ils ne croient pas en mesure de com- prendre oe qui se dit ou se fait. Cependant I'enfant est un grand observateur." — La YiriU, Avril 30, 1887. When friends or relatives arrive at a house, and there are not bed- rooms enough for the whole party, mattresses are spread on the floor, ofte'ii of the drawing-room, and father, mother, children, female servants and others retire to rest pell-mell together. I have seen this myself on many occasions. THE NEGRO. 167 was sometimes startling. The travelled wife of a President used to say that she thought no music in Paris equal to the Haytian, especially the dmms. The dancing of the upper classes is much the same in all countries, though in Hayti the favourite dance is a special one called " Carabinier." Among the people, however, are still to be observed the old dances they brought from Africa. Moreau de St. Me^ry, in his admirable work on Santo Domingo during the French colonial days (new edition, p. 52), has described the dances of the slaves as he saw them previous to 1790, and his words might be used to depict what occurs at the present day. With the negroes dancing is a passion, and no fatigue stands in the way of their indulging in it. The announcement that a dance will take place brings people from surprising distances, and the sound of the drums acts like a charm, and all fatigue is forgotten. Young and old, although they may have walked twenty miles, with heavy burdens for the next day's market, join in it with enthusiasm. But the most interesting dances are those performed by the professionals. Generally they consist of a couple of men to beat the drums, a very fat woman as trea- surer, and three or four younger women noted for their skill. Soon after President Salnave came into power I was a guest at a picnic at a place where some famous dancers had summoned the young men of the district to come and meet them. 158 THE POPULATION. Our hosts had heard of this affair, and invited us to go down to the spot, where a large space was covered in with the leaves of the palm tree, as even these seasoned performers could not stand the burning mid-day sun. The two men with the drums were there, coarse instru- ments made out of a hollowed piece of wood, one end open, the other closed with the skin of a goat or sheep, on which the men play with their knuckles, one slowly and the other faster; calabashes with pebbles or Indian-corn in them are shaken or stricken against the hand, and the spectators intone a chant. Then the master of the ceremonies and the chief of the band calls out a name, and one of the professionals stands forth and begins to perform. Any man from the crowd may come and dance with her, holding his hand raised over his head with a small sum in paper money, worth perhaps a penny. When she wishes a change she takes this money in her hand, and one of the impatient lookers-on cuts in and supplies the place of the first ; other performers arise, until the whole shed is full. As the excitement grows, some of the young girls of the neighbourhood also join in. I noticed that every note collected was religiously handed to the treasurer, to be employed in supporting the b&,nd and paying for the dresses, which, however, did not appear expensive, as the women were clothed in white gowns, coloured head- dresses, and handkerchiefs always carried in their right hands. I remarked, however, that what could be seen of their under-linen was remarkably fine. THE NEGRO. 159 The dance itself is not striking or interesting, but they keep time very exactly. To show how African it is, I may mention that an officer from our West Coast squadron was one day passing near these per- formers, when he was suddenly seized with a desire to dance, and struck in before the prettiest negress of the band. His dancing was so good that gradually all the blades sat down, and left these two performers in the midst of an interested crowd, who by shouting, clapping their hands, and singing urged on the pair to renewed exertions ; and I have heard several who were present say that never had they seen anything equal to this dancing in Hayti. Our friend had learnb the art on the coast of Africa, and was as strong as a lion and as active as a gazelle; he was called "the pocket Hercules." To return to our party. After some very insigni- ficant dancing, a new tune was struck up, and the performers began to go through something more attrac- tive to the crowd. This dance was called Chica, but popularly I have heard it named Bamhoula, from the drum, which often consists of a hollow bamboo ; so it is said. This lascivious dance is difficult to describe. I think I wiU let Moreau de St. Mery do it for me : — " Cette danse a un air qui lui est sp^cialement con- sacrd et ou la mesure est fortement marquee. Le talent pour la danseuse est dans la perfection avec laquelle elle pent faire mouvoir ses hanches et la partie inf^rieure de ses reins, en conservant tout le reste du 160 THE POPULATION. corps dans une espece d'immobilite, que ne lui font meme pas perdre les faibles agitations de ses bras qui balancent les deux extr^mites d'un mouchoir ou de son jupon. Un danseur s'approcbe d'elle, s'elance tout-a- coup, et tombe en mesure presque k la toucher. II recule, il s'elance encore, et la provoque k la lutte la plus seduisante. La danse s'anime, et bientot elle offre un tableau dont tous les traits, d'abord voluptueux, deviennent ensuite lascifs. II serait im- possible de peindre le chica avec son veritable carac- tere, et je me bornerai h, dire que I'impression qu'U cause est si puissante que TAfricain ou le Creole de n'importe quelle nuance, qui le verrait danser sans emotion, passerait pour avoir perdu jusqu'aux dernieres ^^tin- celles de la sensibilite." I matched its effect on the bystanders of all colours, and St. Mery has not exaggerated ; the flushed faces, the excited eyes, the eager expression, the looks of ill- concealed passion, were fuUy shared by all No modest woman ■would be present at such a scene ; but the young females of the neighbourhood were delighted. Drink was flying freely about, and all the performers appeared half -intoxicated : the dance grew fast and furious ; as night came on a few candles were Ut, and then all are said to give themselves up to the most unreserved debauchery. I ought to add that few respectable girls of the peasant class even would care to be seen at one of these dances, where the professionals, without shame, perform regardless of appearances. THE NEGRO. 161 The hamhoula, as practised among the peasantry, is more quiet, but sufficiently lascivious.^ I was once witness of a rather curious scene. A French opera company arrived at Port-au-Prince with a couple of ballet-girls. On the opening night of the theatre they commenced dancing; the pit, crowded with negroes, was at first quiet. The untravelled Hay- tian could not at first understand it ; but shortly the applause became uproarious; shouts filled the house; the unaccustomed sight of two white girls thus exhibit- ing themselves provoked the sensuality of the negro nature to such a degree that it was almost impossible to keep them quiet, and their admiration was so warmly 1 The remark has been again and again made, " You are describing the past, not the present." The following is from the Haytian uewn- paper ie Peuple ot August 20, 1887 : — "Dimanche, 14 Courant. — La ville ^tait presque d^serte, et tout le monde avait gagn^ la campagne afin de passer deux jours au frais, qui sous un manguier prfes d'uue source limpide et claire, qui au bord de la mer aux ondes onduleuses et bleutt^es, qui dans un bamboula d'autant plus anim^ que n^gresses, mulatresses et griffonnes par leur souplesse lascive y ajoutaient un charme rdel. Les unes arrivaient pimpantes et fibres au devant d'un cavalier qui tenait k la main un sou de cuivre, et au moment oh il croy- ait saisir la main de la fifere orijole, celle-ci pirouette sur elle-mSme et va tendre la main au galant qui avait 20 ou 50 centimes entre les doigts. Una autre tapait de la pointe du pied le gazon mouvant et appelait k elle les beaux cavaliers accourus de la ville pour se distraire et les deux s'enlagant dansaient avec un entrain le plus entrainant. On prenait force cocktails et grogs, et plus les vapeurs montaient au cerveau des danseurs, plus la danse s'animait et plus on dansait licencieusement. Cela durait tant que les forces des danseurs les leur permettaient, alors on se jettait sur des nattes et prenait le repos n^cessaire, et gros bouillon avec force piment ravivait les convives qui se jetaient de nouveau dans les tourbillons de ces bamboulas charmants," L 162 THE POPULATIOSr. expressed as even to frighten the girls, who turned pale with astonishment mingled with fear. This kind of applause made the foreigners feel uncomfortable, and we were not sorry when the ballet ended. I have not noticed any particular ceremonies at the birth of children, nor at marriages. In the latter, some are striving to imitate the upper classes, and have the ceremony performed in church, but the mass of the people are still not regularly married. I have noticed, however, their great fondness for a display of jewellery on these occasions, and if they do not possess enough themselves, they borrow among their friends, and every one who lends is sure to attend the wedding, as much to keep an eye on their cherished property as to join in the amusements inherent to these occasions. Though I have attended many funerals of the upper classes, I have had no occasion to be present at one of the peasantry, though I have seen the body being carried at night from the town to the house of the deceased in the hills. One evening, at about ten, we heard a roar of voices in the distance; presently we saw torches flashing in the road, and soon after a crowd, perhaps of a hundred people, swept by at a running pace, all screaming, yelling, or shrieking at the top of their voices. Those who led this awful din were hired mourners, who pass the night near the corpse, making it hideous with their professional lamentations. These are regular wakes, at which eating and drinking are permitted, and drunkenness not prohibited. All classes THE NEGRO. 163 in Hayti, like their brethren on the Guinea Coast, love pompous funerals, and it is quite a passion among the female portion of the community to attend them, as it is only at funerals and at church that the ladies can see and be seen in their most careful toilettes. The most curious wake I ever saw was at Santo Domingo city. . I was walking about after dark, when my attention was drawn to a house where music and dancing were going on. I approached, and looking through a window, saw a most singular sight. In a high chair was placed in a sitting position the corpse of a child, dressed up in its very best clothes, as if a spectator of the scene. The music was playing briskly, and a regular ball appeared to be going on, in which the mother of the child took the principal part. I inquired of my companion what this meant, and he said that the people explained it thus : — The priests had taught them not to weep, but rather rejoice, at the death of a child, as it passed directly to heaven. They took this teaching literally, and danced and made merry. " Whom the gods love, die young." The negroes, as a rule, live to a good old age, and bear their age well ; they also keep their magnificent white teeth to the last, which they ascribe to diligent cleanliness and the crushing of the sugar-cane under their strong grinders : their hair also preserves its colour much later than that of the white. In fact, it is difficult to guess the age of a negro. 164 THE POPULATION. The negro is rarely seriously ill, though he often fancies himself so; he suffers most from his indul- gences and the indifferent skill of those who under- take his cure. He bears pain exceedingly well, which may partly arise from his nerves not being highly strung. The negro is distinguished for his (for want of a better word I may call) insouciance. _ It is a most provoking characteristic, and one of the causes of his want of progress. The general impression is that serious crime is rare in Hayti, except that which is connected with the Vaudoux-worship. This, however, is a mistake ; crime is treated with too much indifference, and professional poisoners are well known to the police. Before the civil war of 1868 and 1869 crimes of violence were more rare ; that civil strife, however, demoralised the population. Pilfering is their great failing, and it is said a negro never leaves a room without looking round to see that he has not forgotten something. They have much superstition with regard to zomlis, revenants, or ghosts, and many will not leave the. house after dark; yet the love of pleasure often overcomes this, and the negro will pass half the night hieing to his trysting-place. Of their pleasures, smoking is one equally enjoyed by every class, and quietly by most women after a certain age. The cheapness of tafia or white rum has an evil effect on the male population, who as a rule drink to excess. THE NEGRO. 165 The black Haytians resent being spoke of by foreigners as negroes, though they use the word freely among them- selves. They prefer being called gens de couleur, as both the expressions ndgres and muldtres are considered as implying contempt. During the tiresome quarter of an hour before dinner, my friend Villevaleix (coloured) turned round to a Minister of State (black) and said, "What do you think the French charge d'affaires re- marked when he first saw you ? — ' Quel beau n^gre ! ' " The blood rushed to the face of the Haytian, and his cheeks became of a deeper black; and we were all thankful that at the moment dinner was announced. I doubt whether the Minister ever forgave the author or the repeater of the remark. Froude in his "Eng- lish in the West Indies " relates the following : — " The American Consul told me a story of a ' nigger ' officer with whom he had once got into conversation in Hayti. He had inquired why they let so fine an island run to waste ? why did not they cultivate it ? The dusky soldier laid his hand upon his breast and waved his hand. ' Ah ! ' he said, ' that might do for English or Germans or Franks ; we of the Latin race have higher things to occupy us ! '" The negro has the greatest, in fact, an almost super- stitious, reverence for the flags of foreign nations. A well-known partisan chief, Acaau, came once to the English Consulate at Les Cayes, and demanded that all the refugees there should be given up to him to be shot. Our Acting Vice-Consul, Charles Smith, refused, 166 THE POPULATION. and as Acaau insisted, the Vice-Consul took up tlie Union Jack, and placing it on the staircase, said to the chief, " If any of you have the courage to tread on that flag, he may go upstairs and seize the refugees." Acaau looked at the flag a moment, and then said, " Not I," and walked away, followed by his men. This ■was not from fear of material consequences, although there were two English ships of war in harbour, as, when one of the captains threatened to bombard the town if foreigners were molested, Acaau answered, " Tell me with which end you will begin, and I will commence to burn the other." He was a mountaineer, who would have been delighted to have seen the whole place destroyed. Many years afterwards, to avoid being executed by the Government, he perished by his own hand. ~ I must add an anecdote to mark the respect shown by the negro to the white. In April 1866, on account of a quarrel between an officer on board a steamer and some blacks, the mob determined to revenge them- selves. Watching their opportunity, they seized an English sailor belonging to the ship and bound him to a log. Hundreds of excited negroes surrounded him with drawn razors and knives, threatening to cut him to pieces ; when Mr. Savage, an English rnerchant, happening to be passing by, inquired the cause of the disturbance, and hearing what had happened to his countryman, forced his way through the mob, and when he reached the sailor, drew a penknife from his THE MULATTOES. 167 pocket, and, despising the yells and threats of the crowd, cut the cords, freed the man, and walked him down to the steamer's boat. The cool courage shown hy Mr. Savage perfectly awed the mob. As the Haytian police who were present had not interfered to prevent this outrage, a hundred pounds indemnity was demanded of the Haytian Government, which was paid, and subsequently transmitted to the sailor. I will conclude with noticing that the description of the apathy and listlessness of the Haytians, given by Mackenzie in 1826, might apply to the present day, as well as his reference to the lean dogs and leaner pigs which infest the capital. He heard an English- man say, "D these Haytians; they can't even fatten a pig." THE MULATTOES. "They hate their fathers and despise their mothers," is a saying which is a key to the character of the mulatto. They hate .the whites and despise the blacks, hence their false position. That they are looked down upon by the whites and hated by the blacks is the converse truth, which produces an unfortunate effect upon their character. They have many of the defects of the two races, and 'but few of their good qualities. Those who have never left their country are too often conceited, and presumptuous to a degree which is scarcely cre- dible ; whilst many who have travelled appear but little influenced by bright examples of civilisation, or by 168 THE POPULATION. their intercourse with European nations, retaining but the outward polish of a superficial French education. Foreigners who casually meet Haytians are often only struck by their agreeable manners, but to understand their real character one must live among them, hear their talk among themselves, or read the newspapers published for local circulation. Travel, indeed, has little outward effect on the majo- rity, and they return to their own' country more pre- sumptuous than ever. It has struck many attentive observers that this outward parade of conceit is but a species of protest against the inferior position they occupy in the world's estimation, and that with their advance in civilisation and education they will rise in the opinion of others, and thus lose the necessity for so much self-assertion. I believe this to be highly probable, but until the mulattoes are convinced of their present inferiority, the improvement must be slow indeed. . It may be remarked, however, that those who have been educated in Europe from their earliest years show few or none of those defects which are implanted in them by their early associations. I have known coloured men whose first real knowledge of their own country was acquired in manhood, who were in every respect equal to their white companions, as manly and as free from absurd pretensions, and naturally without that dislike of foreigners which is instilled into home- educated mulattoes. These men, knowing the con- THE MDLATTOES. 169 sideration ia which they were held by all, had no necessity for any self-assertion. The early training in Hayti is much at fault ; their mothers, generally uninstructed, have themselves but few principles of delicacy to instil into their children's minds. I will mention a case in illustration. A lady was asked to procure some article for a foreign visitor. She readily undertook the commission, and sent her son, a boy of ten, to seek the article. He returned shortly afterwards and said to his mother, " Our neighbour has what you want, but asks twenty-seven paper dollars for it." " Go and tell our friend that you have found it for forty, and we will divide the difference between us." A mutual acquaintance heard of this transaction, and subsequently reproached the lady for the lesson of deceit and swindling she had taught her child ; she only laughed, and appeared to think she had done a very clever thing. The subsequent career of that boy was indeed a thorn in her side. Their financial morality is very low indeed. A friend of mine expressing his surprise to one of the prettiest and most respectable girls in Port-au-Prince that such open robbery of the receipts of the custom-house was permitted, received for answer, "Prendre I'argent de r^tat, ce n'est pas vole " (" To take Government money is not robbery ")} With such ideas instilled into the 1 "TJn juge d'instruct.ion nous disait qu'il ftait effray^ du nombre de plaintes qu'U avait regues centre les employ& publics pour escro- querie, abus de confiance, stellionat, &c. Jamais le niveau moral du 170 THE POPULATION. minds of all from their earliest youth, if is scarcely to be wondered at that the Haytians grow up to be completely without financial honour. Truth is an- other virtue which appears to be rarely inculcated by parents, and this perhaps may be accounted for by their origin. Slaves are notoriously given to false- hood, and this defect has been inherited by succeeding generations, and can scarcely be eradicated untH a higher moral teaching prevails. I was struck by an anecdote told me by a French gentleman at Port-au-Prince : it is a trifle, but it shows the spirit of the Haytian youth. A trader, in very moderate circumstances, sent a half-grown son to finish his education in Paris, and as the father had no friends there, he said to my informant, "Will you ask your family to pay my son a little attention ? " In conse- quence, a lady called at the school and took the youth for a walk in the Luxembourg Gardens. Approaching the basins, she said, " I suppose you have none like these in Hay ti ? " " Oh," was his reply, " my father has finer ones in his private grounds ; " the fact being, that he had nothing there but a bath a few feet square. This miserable pretence is one of the causes of the slow peuple n'a 6t6 si abaiss^ et le vol en redingote si commun. . cureurs qui doivent d^fendre les int^rSts publics ; des g^^S^de, 1% justice qui doivent maintenir I'ordre; des instituteurs qtd dl^veut^ la jeunesse, n'h&itent plus k sacrifier leur honneur et leur repu- tation. . . . Les h6nnetes gens n'ont plus la foi et les coquins n'en sent que plus audacieux et plus dangereux." — La Viriti, Octo- bre i6, 1886. THE MULATTOES. 171 improvement in Hayti; they cannot or they will not see the superiority of foreign countries. A late Secretary of State was present at a review in Paris, when ten thousand splendid cavalry charged up towards the Emperors of Trance and Eussia. " It is very fine," he said ; " but how much better our Haytian soldiers ride ! " Another gentleman, long employed as a representative at a foreign court, returning home, could find nothing better to say to President Geffrard than, "Ah ! President, you should send some of our officers to Paris, that their superiority of tenue may be known in Europe.'' I wish I could present some photographic illustrations of a Haytian regiment in support of this assertion. I am, in fact, doubtful whether travel as yet has done much good to the general public, as they see their young men returning from Europe and America, after having witnessed the best of our modern civilisation, who assure them that things are much better managed in Hayti. Their self-importance may be illustrated by the following anecdote of another ex-Secretajy of State. He went with a friend to see the races at Longchamps. They had their cabriolet drawn up at a good spot, when presently an acquaintance of the driver got up on the box-seat to have a better view. " I must tell that man to get down," said the ex-Minister. " Leave him alone," answered his French friend. "It is all very well for y.ou, a private individual, to say that ; but 172 THE POPULATION". I, a former Secretary of State, what will the people say to my permitting such familiarity?" and he looked uneasily around, thinking that the eyes of the whole Parisian world were bent on their distinguished visitor. I once saw some hoxes addressed thus : — " Les demoi- selles , enfants de M. , ex-SecrMaire d'Etat." Of the profound dislike of the genuine coloured Haytian for the whites I will relate an instance. "We were invited to a school examination given by the Sisters of Cluny, and naturally the official guests were put in the front rank, with the officers of a French gunboat, from which position we assisted at a distribu- tion of prizes, and some little scenes acted by the pupils. The next day a Haytian gentleman, one who was an ornament to his country for his extensive knowledge and legal erudition, made this remark-rr " When I saw those whites put into the front row, it reminded me of the time when the ancient colonists sat arms akimbo watching the dances of their slaves." As he said this before a party of white gentlemen, we may imagine what were his utterances before his own countrymen. Moreau de St. M4ry gives a table of the different combinations of colour among the mixed race, amount- ing to one hundred and twenty, which produce thirteen distinct shades between the pure white and the pure black. Each has a name, the most common of which are : " Quateron, white and mulatto ; mulatto, white and black; griffe, black and mulatto. These were THE MULATTOES. 173 the original combinations, but constant intermarriages have produced a great variety of colour, even in the same families, some breeding back to their white, others to their black forefathers. It appears as if the lighter shades of mulatto would die out, as many of this class marry Europeans, and leave the country with their children, and the others marry Haytians more or less dark, and the tendency is to breed back to their black ancestors. There are too few whites settled in the country to arrest this backward movement. In Santo Domingo, however, the stay for a few years (1859-64) of a large Spanish army had a very appreciable effect on the population. The personal appearance of the coloured Haytians is not striking. Being in general a mixture of rather a plain race in Europe with the plainest in Africa, it is not surprising that the men should be ugly and the women far from handsome. Of course there is a marked distinction between the men who have more dark blood in their veins and those who approach tlie white ; in fact, those who are less than half-European have in general the hair frizzled like a negro's, the forehead low, the eyes dark in a yellow setting, the nose flat, the mouth large, the teeth perfect, the jaw heavy; whilst as they approach the white type they greatly improve in appearance, until they can scarcely be distinguished from the foreigner, except by the dead colour of the skin and some trifling peculiarities. Of the women it is mgre difficult to speak ; they are 174; THE POPULATION. rarely good-looking, never beautiful. As they approach the white type, they have long, rather coarse hair, beautiful teeth, small fieshless hands and feet, deli- cate forms, and sometimes graceful movements, due apparently to the length of the lower limbs. Their principal defects are their voices, their noses, their skins, and sometimes the inordinate size of the lower jaw. Their voices are harsh, their skins blotchy or of a dirty brown, their noses flat or too fleshy, and the jaw, as I have said, heavy. Occasionally you see a girl decidedly pretty, who would pass in any society, but these are rare. In general they are very plain, par- ticularly as you approach the black type, when the frizzled hair begins to appear. There is one subject necessary to mention, though it is a delicate one. Like the negroes, the mulattoes have often a decided odour, and this is particularly observable after dancing or any violent exercise which provokes perspiration, and then no amount of eau de cologne or other scents will completely conceal the native perfume. The griffes, however, are decidedly the most subject to this inconvenience, and I met one well-dressed woman who positively tainted the air. With the exception of those who have been sent abroad, the Haitiennes have had until lately few chances of education, and are therefore little to be blamed for their ignorance. This want of instruction, however, has an ill effect, as time necessarily hangs heavy on their hands, and they can neither give those THE MULATTOES. 175 first teachings to their children .which are never for- gotten, nor amuse themselves with literature or good music. It is the fashion in Hayti to vaunt the goodness and tenderness of their women in sickness ; but what women are not good and tender under similar circumstances ? I have received as much kindness in suffering from the Malays when wandering in Borneo as any one has perhaps ever received elsewliere. The fact is, that these qualities are inherent to women in general. Perhaps the greatest praise that can be given to the Haytian ladies is, that they do not appear inferior to others who reside in the tropics in the care of their children, or in the management of their households, or in their conduct towards their husbands. They have their ways in public and their ways in private, but their greatest defect is their want of clean- liness, which is observable in their houses, their chil- dren, and their own clothes. Without going so far as to say, with the naval ofiScer, that " their customs are dirty, and manners they have none," I may say that they have habits which are simply indescribable ; and when not dressed to receive company they are veritable slatterns, sauntering about their houses all day in dirty dressing-gowns, and too often in unchanged linen. Their bedrooms have a close stuffy smell, the conse- quence of the above referred to indescribable habits^ which is highly displeasing to a stranger, and induced an American gentleman to remark that their rooms had 176 THE POPULATION. the smell of a stable. They are also very careless in another way, and will go into their kitchens even in their silks, and aid in preparing sweetmeats ; and the stains on their clothes from this cause reminded me of a young Malay lady cooking a greasy curry whilst dressed in a rich gold brocade, and upsetting half of it over her dress in an endeavour to conceal herself or her work. The conduct of the Haytian ladies who are married to foreigners is much to their credit, as rarely a case occurs to draw the attention 'of the public to their private life ; and almost the same may be said of their married life in general, and this in defiance of the de- bauchery of their Haytian husbands. This virtue was, perhaps, unfairly ascribed by a French diplomatist to their slugglish temperaments and their want of imagi- nation. But, whatever may be the cause, it appears to exist to a considerable extent. The habit of having no regular hours for meals appears to prevail in most tropical countries; and in Hayti, though there are fixed times for the husband and the other males of a family, who can only return from business at certain hours, yet the ladies of the family prefer cakes, sweetmeats, and dreadful messes at all periods of the day, and only sit down to the family meal pro formd. ISTo wonder they are ever complaining of indigestion, and taking their wonderful remkdes. From my own observation, and that of many of my friends, I may assert with confidence as a general pro- THE MULATTOES. 177 position, that the Haytian black or mulatto is more given to drink, and to a forgetfulness of his duty to his family, than any other people with whom we were acquainted. With some marked, and I should add numerous exceptions, after his early coffee the Haytian -begins the day with a grog or cocktail, and these grogs and cocktails continue until, at mid-day, many of the young men are slightly intoxicated, and by night a large minority at least are either in an excited, a sullen, or a maudlin state. It appears also to be a rule among them, that, whether married or not, a Haytian must have as many mistresses as his purse will permit him ; these are principally drawn from the lower classes. This practice is not confined to any particular rank ; from the Presi- dents downwards, all are tainted with the same evil. The mistresses of the first-named are always known, as •they are visited publicly, often accompanied by a staff or a few select officers. I have met them even at dinner in respectable houses, and have been asked to trace a resemblance between their children and the reputed father. Wo one seeks to conceal it, and the conversation of married ladies continually turns on this subject. One excuse for it is that many of the ladies whom you meet in society were only married after the birth of their first children. However, accord- ing to French law, that ceremony renders them all legitimate. Some of those admitted into society are not married M 178 ' THE POPULATION. at all, but their daughters being married, prevents notice being taken of the false position of the mother. An excuse has been made for the debauchery of the Haytians. It is said that there are three women to every two men, which is probably true, and that there- fore the latter are exposed to every kind of temptation, which is also true. I have already referred to the want of financial honour observable in Hayti ; but what is equally per- nicious is their utter forgetfulness of what is due to their military oath. As I shall have to notice in my remarks on the army, scarcely a single name can be cited of a superior officer who under President Geffrard did not forget his duty, and either conspire against him or betray him to the enemy. This was particularly observable during the siege of Cap Haitien in 1865. And yet were these officers who were false to their military honour looked down upon by their country- men ? On the contrary, their only title to considera- tion was their treachery to their former superior, who in turn is accused of having betrayed every Government he had served. A Frenchman once wittily said, that when Geffrard was made President, being no longer able to conspire against the Government, he conspired against his own Ministers. It .is the whole truth in a few words. No encouragement is given to those who hold firmly to their duty; and an officer who did not desert a tottering Government would be sure to be -THE MULATTOES. 179 neglected, perhaps even punished, by those who suc- ceeded to power. One reason for the dislike entertained by the mulatto for the white man is the evident partiality of their fair countrywomen for the latter. It is well known that the first dream or heau idial of the young Haitienne is a rich, and if possible a good-looking European, who can place her in a respectable position, give her the prospect of occasional visits to Europe, with the ulti- mate expectation of entirely residing there. Few young girls lose the hope of securing this desirable husband, particularly among those who have received their education in Europe, until their charms begin slightly to fade, when th'ey content themselves with the least dark among their countrymen. It is unfortunate that this should be the case, as those who are most enlightened among the Haytian ladies are thus with- drawn from the civilising influence they would other- wise naturally exert. This preference for the white to the coloured man was also very conspicuous during the French occupation ; and all things considered, it is not to be wondered at, as the whites make much better husbands. The young mulatto, seeing this evident partiality for the foreigner, naturally resents it, but instead of trying to put himself on an equality of position with his rival by the exercise of industry and by good conduct, ex- pends his energies in furious tirades in the cafds or by low debauchery. 180 THE POPULATION. The Haytians are distinguished for what the Trench call jadance, a better word than boasting. Mackenzie tells the story of a mulatto colonel saying to him, " Je vous assure, monsieur, que je suis le plus brave de tous les mul^tres de ce pays-ci." He was lost in admi- ration of his own noble qualities. At the fortress of La Ferri^re, during Mackenzie's visit, a Captain Elliot said about some trifle, "N'ayez pas peur ?" Imme- diately the ofiScers of the garrison clapped their hands ■to their swords and talked five minutes of inflated nonsense. My friend D. was not free from this failing. He said one day, " If a revolution broke out, I and half- a-dozen of my companions would sally forth into the streets with our carbines and put it down." Fighting in the streets did commence, but my friend D. was not there with his carbine, but in the innermost room of his house, green with emotion and fright. I remember a Haytian general once calling upon me in London, and asking me to get inserted in the daily papers a long account of the battles in which he had been engaged, and of his personal exploits. He was anxious that the English people should know what a hero they had among them. As he was really a brave fellow, and a man whom I liked, I was very desirous that he should not make himself ridiculous by publishing a pompous account of battles which were but skirmishes among the peasantry. I therefore gave him a letter of introduction to an editor, who, I was sure, would explain THE MULATTOES. 181 to him that the English public would not be interested in the affair. I heard no more of it, but my friend was persuaded that since Napoleon no greater general than he had arisen. As an ideal type of the better class of mulatto, I would take the late President Geffrard ; he had all the qualities and defects of the race, and was one whom I had the best opportunity of studying. In a report which for some reason I never forwarded, I find myself thus sketching his portrait when almost in daily inter- course with him (1866) : — "I am loth to analyse the character of President Geffrard, but as he is the Govern- ment itself, it is necessary to know him. In manner he is polished and gentle, almost feminine in his gen- tleness, with a most agreeable expression, a winning smile, and much fluency in conversation. But the im- pression soon gains possession of the listener that, with all his amiable qualities, the President is vain and presumptuous, absorbed in himself and in his own superiority to the rest of mankind. He imagines himself a proficient in every science, although he is as ignorant as he is untravelled. There is not a subject on which he does not pretend to know more even than those whose studies have been special, as lawyers, doctors, architects, and engineers. He seriously assures you that he discovered the use of steam by inde- pendent inquiries, and that he is prepared to construct a machine which shall solve the problem of perpetual motion ; and he, who has not ridden anything larger 182 TJSE POPULATIOJT. than a middle-sized pony, imagines he could give hints in riding to our Newmarket jockeys." Geffrard, like many other coloured men, was much distressed by the crispness of his hair and his dark colour, and having a half-brother very fair, he per- sisted in assuring us that he had been born nearly white, with straight hair, but that having unfortunately bathed in the streams of Sal Trou during many months, the water, being deeply impregnated with iron, had curled his hair and darkened his skin. In any other man I should have suspected a jest. One of the things which contributed to the unpopu- larity of the Emperor Soulouque was the waste of the public finances and the extravagance of his court. General Geffrard, who lived in penury before becom- ing President, promised to reform this ; but instead of doing so, he gradually raised his own allowance to ;^ 10,000 a year; he also had the sole control of ;^'4000 a year for secret service, and another ;^40OO a year for the encouragement of the arts and sciences. The grate- ful country had also presented him with two large estates, the expenses of which were largely borne by the State, whilst the profits were Geffrard's. As nearly every one of his countrymen would have acted in the same manner if he had had the oppor- tunity, Geffrard's conduct excited envy rather than blame. Even in the smallest details of the household there was a mean spirit; the expenses of the meat of the family were put down to the tirailleurs, whilst THE MULATTOES. 183 some exquisite champagne purchased of a colleague was charged to the hospital. Geffrard was certainly- one of the most distinguished of his race, yet he sullied his good name by all these patty meannesses. I once asked a Haytian friend why she and others were always running down Geffrard and his family. She answered, " Because when I knew them intimately, they were as poor as myself, but now Madame Geffrard insults me by calling on me in a carriage. What right has she to a carriage more than I ? " Geffrard was personally brave, which characteristic is not Aoo common among his countrymen, who are rather wanting in martial qualities. He had no idea of true liberty, nor of freedom of discussion. A son of a black Minister wrote a pamphlet in favour of strict protection for the manufactures of Hayti, in order to encourage native, industry. A young mulatto replied, demolishing with ease the absurd idea that manufac- tures could be readily established in a tropical country, which could only be made to prosper by encouraging agriculture. The father was offended by this liberty, and, to soothe his wounded feelings, Geffrard had the young mulatto arrested, put as a common soldier into a regiment, and set to work to carry on his head barrels of powder to a village five miles in the mountains. The argument was unanswerable, and it is no wonder that the pamphleteer became a protectionist, though I be- lieve that subsequently, when he was made a senator, he was inclined to return to his primitive views. 184 THE POPULATION. If I wished to describe a clever mulatto of the most unscrupulous type, I should have selected the late General Lorquet, but I have already referred to him. There are among the mulattoes men eminently afjree- ablCj and perhaps the one who best pleased me was Au