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Title: Hayti; or, The black republic.

Author: Sir Spenser St. John

Release date: July 23, 2022 [eBook #68592]
                Most recently updated: October 18, 2024

Language: English

Original publication: United Kingdom: Smith, Elder, & Co

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HAYTI; OR, THE BLACK REPUBLIC. ***

                            Ballantyne Press
                       BALLANTYNE, HANSON AND CO.
                          EDINBURGH AND LONDON

[Illustration:

  A MAP OF
  HAYTI
  1884]




                                 HAYTI
                                  OR
                          THE BLACK REPUBLIC.

                                   BY
                     SIR SPENSER ST. JOHN, K.C.M.G.
      FORMERLY HER MAJESTY’S MINISTER RESIDENT AND CONSUL-GENERAL
          IN HAYTI, NOW HER MAJESTY’S SPECIAL ENVOY TO MEXICO.

                   “Haïti, Haïti, pays de barbares.”
                             NAPOLEON III.

                                LONDON:
                SMITH, ELDER, & CO., 15 WATERLOO PLACE.
                                 1884.




INTRODUCTION.


Whilst in Port-au-Prince, a Spanish colleague once 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.” Although this judgment is severe, yet from what
we have seen passing under the present Administration, it is more
than probable--unless in the meantime influenced by some higher
civilisation--that this prophecy will come true. The negresses are
in fact already cooking their bananas amid the ruins of the best
houses of the capital. My own impression, after personally knowing
the country above twenty 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.
The country has since been steadily falling to the rear in the race of
civilisation.

The long civil war (1868-1869) under President 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 districts to fetish worship and cannibalism. Fires, most of them
incendiary, have swept over the cities; in the commercial quarters of
Port-au-Prince, it would be difficult to find any houses which existed
in 1863, and the fortunes of all have naturally greatly suffered.

When I reached Hayti in January 1863, the capital possessed several
respectable public buildings. The palace, without any architectural
beauty, was large and commodious, and well suited to the climate; the
Senate, the House of Representatives, the dwellings occupied by several
of the Ministers, the pretty little theatre, were all features which
have now entirely disappeared.

The town of Pétionville 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 nothing has taken its place. People are still
too poor to afford to rebuild.

Society also has completely changed. I saw at balls given in the palace
in 1863 a hundred well-dressed prosperous families of all colours; 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, though their staple produce is rum,
to stupefy and brutalise the barbarous lower orders.

Foreigners, 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 are also leaving, as they shun
the fate reserved for them by those who have already slaughtered the
most prominent mulattoes.

In fact, the mulatto 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 element will have made disastrous approaches to the negro.
The only thing which could have saved the mulatto would have been to
encourage the whites to settle in their country; yet this step the
coloured men have blindly resisted.

In spite of all the civilising elements around them, 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
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 ever visited by civilised people; there are few Christian
priests to give them a notion of true religion; no superior local
officers to prevent them practising their worst fetish ceremonies.

In treating of the Black and the Mulatto as they appeared to me during
my residence among them, I fear that 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 remember ever to have felt any repugnance to
my fellow-creatures on account of a difference of complexion.

I have dwelt above thirty-five years among coloured people of various
races, and am sensible of no prejudice against them. For 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 had no prejudice of colour; and
if I place the Haytian in general in an unenviable 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 band of black
and coloured friends who gathered round me 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 lesser degree, or, as I was really
attached to them, I perhaps saw them in a dimmer light.

The most difficult chapter to write was that on “Vaudoux Worship
and Cannibalism.” I have endeavoured to paint it in the least
sombre colours, and none who know the country will think that I
have exaggerated; in fact, had I listened to the testimony 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, from trustworthy officers of the Haytian Government, my
foreign colleagues, and from respectable residents--principally,
however, from Haytian sources.

It may be suggested that I am referring to the past. On the contrary,
I am informed that at present cannibalism is more rampant than ever. A
black Government dares not greatly interfere, as its power is founded
on the good-will of the masses, ignorant and deeply tainted with
fetish worship. A Haytian writer recently remarked in print, “On se
plaisit beaucoup de ce que le Vaudoux a reparu grandiose et sérieux.”
The fetish dances were forbidden by decree under the Government of
President Boisrond-Canal. That decree has been since repealed, and high
officers now attend these meetings, and distribute money and applaud
the most frantic excesses.

President Salomon, who is now in power, lived for eighteen years in
Europe, married a white, and knows what civilisation is. He probably,
on his first advent to the Presidency, possessed sufficient influence
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, have judged correctly. Whenever all the documents which exist on
this subject are published, my chapter on Cannibalism will be looked
upon but as 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. 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 parties, 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. The fall was slightly checked during the
quiet Presidency of Nissage-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 has ever seen. With the sectaries of the Vaudoux
in power, nothing else could have been expected.

I have brought my sketch of the history of Hayti down to the fall
of President Boisrond-Canal in 1879, and shall not touch on the
rule of the present President of Hayti, General Salomon. I may say,
however, that he is the determined enemy of the coloured section of
the community; is credited with having been the chief adviser of the
Emperor Soulouque in all his most disastrous measures; and the country
is said to have sunk into the lowest depths of misery. The civil war,
which by last accounts was still raging in Hayti, has been marked by
more savage excesses than any previously known in Haytian history, the
black authorities, hesitating at no step to gain their object, which is
utterly to destroy the educated coloured class. They care not for the
others; as they say, “Mulatte pauvre, li negue.”

A few words as to the origin of this book. In 1867 I was living in
the country 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 the civil war, and did not resume work until
after I had left the country. It may be the modifying effect of
time, but on looking over the chapters as I originally wrote them, I
thought that I had been too severe in my judgments on whole classes,
and have therefore somewhat 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
condemnations.

I have not attempted to describe the present condition of the republic
of Santo Domingo, but from all I can hear it is making progress. The
Dominicans have few prejudices of colour, and eagerly welcome foreign
capitalists who arrive to develop the resources of their country.
Already there are numerous sugar estates in operation, as well as
manufactories of dyes, and efforts are being successfully made to
rework the old gold-mines. The tobacco cultivation is already large,
and only requires hands to develop it to meet any demand. I hear of a
railway having been commenced, to traverse the magnificent plain which
stretches from the Bay of Samana almost to the frontiers of Hayti.

       *       *       *       *       *

After having written the chapter on Vaudoux Worship, my attention was
called to a communication which appeared in _Vanity Fair_ of August 13,
1881, by a reply published in a Haytian journal. It is evident that
the writer in _Vanity Fair_ was a naval officer or a passing traveller
in the West Indies, and he probably carefully noted the information
given him. He was, however, too inclined to believe what he heard, as
he gravely states that a Haytian told him that the kidneys of a child
were first-rate eating, adding that he had tried them himself; and
the writer remarks that the Haytian did not seem to think it strange
or out of the way that he had done so. No Haytian would have ever
stated seriously that he had eaten human flesh. Probably, amused by
the eagerness of the inquirer, he told the story to test his powers of
belief, and must have been diverted when he found his statement was
credited. Cannibalism is the one thing of which Haytians are thoroughly
ashamed.

This communication makes mention of the herb-poisonings and their
antidotes; of the midwives who render new born-babes insensible,
that are buried, dug up, restored to life, and then eaten. In May
1879 a midwife and another were caught near Port-au-Prince eating a
female baby that had been thus treated; he adds that a Haytian of
good position was discovered with his family eating a child. In the
former case the criminals were condemned to six weeks’ imprisonment,
in the latter to one month. (I may notice that I never heard of a
respectable Haytian being connected with the cannibals.) The light
punishments inflicted were due to the fear inspired by the Vaudoux
priests. In January 1881 eight people were fined for disinterring and
eating corpses. An English medical man purchased and identified the
neck and shoulders of a human being in the market at Port-au-Prince.
In February 1881, at St. Marc, a cask of so-called pork was sold to
a foreign ship. In it were discovered fingers and finger-nails, and
all the flesh proved to be that of human beings. An English coloured
clergyman at Cap Haïtien said that the Vaudoux did away with all the
effect of his ministry; and that his wife was nearly purchasing in the
market human flesh instead of pork. Four people were fined in that town
for eating corpses. When the writer arrived at Jacmel he found two men
in prison for eating corpses, and on the day of his arrival a man was
caught eating a child. Near the same town nine thousand people met at
Christmas to celebrate Vaudoux rites. At Les Cayes a child of English
parents was stolen, and on the thieves being pursued, they threw it
into a well and killed it.

These are the statements made by the writer in _Vanity Fair_, and
nearly all are probable. If correct, the open practice of Vaudoux
worship and cannibalism must have made great strides since I left
Hayti, and shows how little a black Government can do, or will do,
to suppress them. The digging up and eating of corpses was not known
during my residence there.

This communication to _Vanity Fair_ provoked a reply in a journal
published at Port-au-Prince called _L’Œil_, October 1, 1881. It denies
everything, even to the serious existence and power of the Vaudoux
priests, and spends all its energies in abuse. The article is quite
worthy of the editor,[1] who was one of the most active supporters of
President Salnave, whose connection with the Vaudoux was notorious. It
is in this angry spirit that the Haytians generally treat any public
reference to their peculiar institution.


 MEXICO, _January 1884_.




CONTENTS.


  CHAP.      PAGE

     I. GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF HAYTI              1

    II. HISTORY BEFORE INDEPENDENCE              26

   III. HISTORY SINCE INDEPENDENCE               74

    IV. THE POPULATION OF HAYTI                 127

     V. VAUDOUX WORSHIP AND CANNIBALISM         182

    VI. THE GOVERNMENT                          229

   VII. RELIGION, EDUCATION, AND JUSTICE        247

  VIII. ARMY AND POLICE                         276

    IX. LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE                 299

     X. AGRICULTURE, COMMERCE, AND FINANCE      315




HAYTI;

OR,

THE BLACK REPUBLIC.




CHAPTER I.

GENERAL DESCRIPTION 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. Gradually, however, the eye
becomes accustomed to the scene; the mountains separate into distinct
ranges, the hills are but the attendant buttresses, and the valleys
assume their regular forms as the watersheds 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 flat, 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 Ferrière in the northern
province. Before entering into particulars, however, let me give a
general idea of the country.

The island of Santo Domingo is situated in the West Indies between
18° 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 in the 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 difficult 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, Arcahaye, Port
Margot, Leogâne, 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
overflowing 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
uninhabitable on that account, while the swarms of mosquitoes render
even a temporary stay highly disagreeable. The waters of one of them
are brackish, which would appear to indicate more salt deposits in the
neighbourhood.

There are a few islands attached to Hayti, the principal, La Tortue, on
the north, Gonaives on the west, and L’Isle-à-Vache on the south coast.
Some attempts have been made to develop their natural riches, but as
yet with but slight success. The first two named are famous for their
mahogany trees.

The principal towns of the republic are Port-au-Prince, the capital,
Cap Haïtien in the north, and Les Cayes in the south. Jacmel, Jérémie,
Miragoâne, 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 inhabitants, 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. Méry
complained of the same thing during the last century. However, there
are degrees of dirt, and he would probably 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 landed (1877), I found the
streets heaped up with filth.

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 streets 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 and walking dangerous.
Building materials are permitted 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 1826; 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
destroyed by the first storm. Ask Haytians why they do not mend their
streets and roads, they answer, “Bon Dieu, gâté li; bon Dieu, paré 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, imported from the United
States or our Northern colonies. 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 stupidity of the inhabitants has spoilt
this plan; in most 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 formerly rendered the watercourses even are 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 sewers. In a few of the more commercial streets,
where foreigners reside, more 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 animal matter
render the water fetid, and when the sea-breeze blows gently over these
turbid waves, an effluvia 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 spacious 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 overgrown shed, disfigured by
numerous wretched paintings which cover its walls; and, as an unworthy
concession 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 remained 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 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 luminous 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 exception 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 1877, the
people in the suburbs were still breaking open the old stone-work to
obtain a source of supply near their dwellings; 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 Rivière
Froide, are within easy distance of the port, no effort has been made
to increase the supply. La Rivière Froide--name redolent 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 a Mr.
Stephens commenced some works to afford the town a constant supply of
water, but these, I understand, have as yet only been partially carried
out. If ever finished, they will afford to the inhabitants a great boon.

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 pervades 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 coffins,
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
Pétion 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.

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. 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 inflammable
materials. Companies should be careful how they insure property in
Port-au-Prince, as there are some very well-authenticated stories 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
Rivière, one of those Protestants to whom I have referred in my
chapter on religion. As a new arrival, I thought the town sufficiently
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
registration of all acts relating to the “état civil,” and to divide
among its members and friends, for work never carried out, whatever
funds they can collect from the city.

At the back of the capital, at a distance of about five miles, was the
village of La Coupe, the summer residence of the wealthier families. As
it was situated about 1200 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 1868 the best houses were destroyed
and never reconstructed. 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 Haïtien is the most picturesque town in Hayti; it is beautifully
situated on a most commodious 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. “Galatea,” 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 overshadows Cap Haïtien.

Cap Haïtien 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 countrymen. 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 property
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 complains,” 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 plunder 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 rest of the inhabitants could save from the
tottering ruins. What a people!

The most striking objects near Cap Haïtien are the remains of
the palace of Sans Souci, and of the citadel constructed by King
Christophe, called La Ferrière. It requires a visit to induce one to
believe that so elaborate, and, I may add, so handsome a structure,
could exist in such a place as Hayti, or that a fortification such
as the citadel could ever have been constructed on the summit of a
lofty mountain, five thousand feet, I believe, above the level of the
sea. Some of the walls are eighty feet in height, and sixteen 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 independence. Years
of the labour of toiling thousands were spent to prepare this citadel,
which the trembling 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 Christophe, and some express a belief that his iron system
was suitable to the country; but the fact is that Moreau de St. Méry,
writing in the last century, insists on the superior advantages 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 on their estates. As for
Christophe’s system, no amount of increase in produce could compensate
for its brutality.

Gonaives is a poor-looking town, constantly devastated by revolutions
and fires, with a few broad, unfinished streets, and some good houses
among the crowds of poor-looking buildings. This neighbourhood is
famous for what are called white truffles. They 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; 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 Cayes, Jérémie, 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. Mackenzie says that the city and
environs of Les Cayes are described as “très riante,” and that in his
time it was kept in better order than the capital. This is said still
to be the case.

My last long ride in Hayti was from Cap Haïtien to Gonaives, and
nestling in the hills I found some very pretty villages, planted in
lovely sites, with fresh, 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.

Wherever you may ride in the mountains, you cannot fail to remark that
there is scarcely a decent-looking 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 on our ride to the mountain, La Selle,
whose proprietor had really some ideas of comfort, and before whose
dwelling coffee-plants were growing, trimmed to the height of six feet,
planted 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 of Cul-de-Sac, adjoining the north side of Port-au-Prince,
was one of the richest and most cultivated during the time of the
French; and as all regular cultivation depends on the amount of water,
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 Geffrard placed the affair in
the hands of an able French engineer, Mons. Ricard, who efficiently
restored the main work, but had not funds to complete the canals for
distributing 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 surrounding 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 to be followed. For the main streams there are
fords. An attempt was once made to bridge over La Grande Rivière 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 awkward. On the road
from Gonaives to the northern province there is a very remarkable
paved way, the work so well done that it has resisted the rain during
a hundred 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 I found the remains of a large French
country-house, evidently the residence of some great proprietor. The
tradition in the neighbourhood is that there was an indigo factory
adjoining, but I could scarcely imagine the site suitable. Wherever 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 devastated houses, and it is now a
hand-to-mouth system.

Cul-de-Sac is a glorious plain, and in good hands would be a fountain
of riches; and the same may be said of the other splendid plains that
abound throughout the island. Every tropical production 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 wood or
prickly acacia, that invades every uncultivated spot.

The mountains 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 Geffrard 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 population 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 proposed visit, as the residence
of a white man among them might have been looked upon with an evil eye.

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 geographical position, or more variety of soil, of climate,
or 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 according to the position of the
towns. Cap Haïtien, 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 disagreeableness of the climate. In my house at
Tourjeau, near Port-au-Prince, 600 feet above the level of the sea, I
have noted a registering 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 I have heard of 103°--no doubt from
refraction.[2] At the Petit Séminaire 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
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
Séminaire, 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
1869, on account of the civil convulsion, French and English ships
remained months in harbour. The former suffered dreadfully; the
“Limier,” out of a crew of 106 men and eight officers, lost fifty-four
men and four officers, whilst the “D’Estrés” 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
“D’Estrés,” one of the most sympathetic 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 to 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 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 “Defence” steam out of harbour, they were depressed even to tears,
and said, “See how the English officers 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 suffered dreadfully from this
scourge, both in Port-au-Prince and in the neighbouring port of
Miragoâne. Two-thirds of the crews have often died, and every now and
then there is a season in which few ships escape without 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 virulent a form that the deaths rose to a hundred a day. 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 officially
called, Pétionville, 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 heat of the day 75°
to 77°, 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 Pétionville, 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
bends the tallest palm-tree till its 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 l’Hôpital within a few miles, and
yet not a drop would come to refresh our parched-up gardens.

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 flood 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 headed 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 rushing 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 difficulty
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, 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 Rivière 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
evening, with a beautiful starlight night,--the stars, in fact, shining
so brightly that you could almost 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. No 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 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 occasionally it will continue through a
night and longer, though rarely does it last above twenty-four hours
without a gleam of sunshine intervening.




CHAPTER II.

HISTORY 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 overlook much of
this, being dazzled by pictures of heroic deeds, as set forth in the
works of Prescott and Robertson--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 variously estimated, the numbers
given varying between 800,000 and 2,000,000, the former calculation
being the more probable. They were indeed a primitive people, the men
moving about entirely naked, the women wearing a short petticoat. They
are said to have been good-looking, which, if true, would mark them as
a people distinct from any other in America, as the Indians, who still
remain by millions in South America and Mexico, 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 among them, 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. They now began to
commit excesses; and hearing that a cacique in the interior had a
large store of gold, they 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 large 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 Indians are said
to have marched to attack the Spaniards, two hundred and twenty of
whom put this 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 without loss.

It is not necessary to trace in detail the history of the island; but I
may notice that in 1507 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 population by millions. The story of what one
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 Coral
Indians were not 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 mineral wealth, for
want of 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 they 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 themselves 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 recognised by Spain
until the year 1697.

From this date to the breaking out of the French Revolution 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.[3] The second was
the war in which France engaged to aid our 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; and
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 Revolution, 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 to this day she shows but few signs
of recovering.

On the eve of the great Revolution, 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, its hill-sides dotted with noble houses; a white
population, rich, refined, enjoying life as only a luxurious colonial
society can enjoy 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 discontent, sought to
terrorise his slaves by barbarous punishments.

The true history of Hayti commences with the French Revolution,
when, amid the flood of impracticable and practicable schemes, a few
statesmen turned their generous thoughts towards the down-trodden
African, and firing assembled France with their enthusiasm, passed laws
and issued decrees granting freedom 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 many whites born
in our colonies, who not only look upon the negro as of an inferior
species--which he may be--but as fit only for servitude, and quite
unworthy 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, most European 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,
philanthropists who had inquired into the condition of the slave had
had their compassion aroused, and to give direction to their efforts to
ameliorate it, had founded in Paris a society called “The Friends of
the Blacks.”

The summoning of the States-General in France created much enthusiasm
throughout Hayti; the planters now reckoned 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 which
to complain; the former were rolling in wealth, and the latter were
never in want of high-paid employment. 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 equality, thought that that should commence by an
apportionment among them of the estates of the rich. A third party
consisted of the Government employés, whose chiefs were Royalists under
the leadership of Penier, the Governor-General, and Mauduit, colonel of
the regiment of Port-au-Prince.

The Colonial 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 meetings in
St. Marc in March 1790. The leaders soon commenced to quarrel with the
Government authorities, 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 internal 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
Ogé. He naturally thought that the time had arrived for justice to
be done, when the President of the “Constituant” had declared that
“aucune partie de la nation ne réclamera vainement ses droits auprès
de l’assemblée des représentants du peuple français.” 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 Haïtien. When the news of
his arrival on his property at Dondon reached the authorities, they
endeavoured to capture him; then he, with a few hundreds of his colour,
rose in arms, but after a few skirmishes they dispersed, and Ogé 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.

Ogé’s armed resistance had encouraged the men of colour in the south
to demand their rights; but they were easily dispersed, and their
chief, Rigaud, taken prisoner. These isolated and irresolute outbreaks
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 Ogé’s career.

Monsieur Blanchelande was then Governor, a weak man at the head of
the Royalist party, 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 the
pusillanimous Governor 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 determined to send three commissioners to
restore tranquillity; 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.

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 execution 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 15th May should arrive; and so rapidly did they act, that on the
1st August 1791 the Assembly met at Leogâne, and was opened under the
presidency of the Marquis de Cadusch, a Royalist. 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 Haïtien had become in reality the capital of the colony, both the
Governor and the Assembly soon removed there.

The Royalist 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 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 insurrection,
put to death every white that fell into their hands, began to burn
the factories, and then rushed _en masse_ to pillage the town of Cap
Haïtien. Here, however, 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 suspected 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 Roi,” declaring
that he was their friend, and was persecuted for their sake; they
hoisted the white flag, and placed an ignorant negro, Jean François,
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 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 tortured, though probably in very
exceptional cases. Descriptions 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 followed up, Jean François 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, commenced 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 Royalists, 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 they also recognised the existence of Pinchinat and his party by
entering into a regular treaty with them. The 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 incite ideas of liberty among those blacks who were still
working on the estates, the coloured officers consented 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 intelligent 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 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 shopkeepers 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 the three
commissioners sent by the French Government arrived in Hayti. The
Colonial Assembly was still sitting at Cap Haïtien, and the insurgent
negroes were encamped at no great distance. They immediately
endeavoured to enter into negotiations with them, which had little
result, on account of the obstinacy of the planters. The three
commissioners were Mirbeck, St. Leger, and Roume. Finding that their
influence was as nought, the former two returned to France, whilst
Roume 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. The 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 François, were
massacring every white that fell into their hands, and selling to the
Spaniard every negro or coloured man accused of siding with the French.
The planters wanted independence or subjection to England; 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 sympathy for any party.
They were alike steeped in blood, and ready to commit any crime to
further their ends. Murder, torture, violation, pillage, bad faith,
and treachery meet you on all sides; and although a few names arise
occasionally in whom you feel a momentary interest, they are sure soon
to disgust you by their utter incapacity or besotted personal ambition.

The National Assembly in Paris, finding that their first commissioners
had accomplished nothing, sent three others, two of whom, Sonthonax and
Polvérel, 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. They decided to crush the respectable
classes, whom they called Royalists, because they would not join in
revolutionary excesses, and the massacre commenced at the Cape.

Polvérel appears to have had some idea of the responsibility of his
position, though both cruel and faithless; but Sonthonax 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 destroying 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 inhabitants 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 the
factious freedmen, supported by that _fou 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; but the resistance made was
in general so contemptible, that with little effort we succeeded in
taking Jérémie in the south, and then St. Marc, and subsequently
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 revolted negroes,
overran most of the northern province; in this they were greatly
aided by Toussaint L’Ouverture, 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 burnt. 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 Royalist, 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 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 arts of bloodthirsty
cruelty!

The whole country was in terrible confusion; the French had not one man
who had the talent or influence to dominate their divided factions;
the coloured were represented by such respectabilities as Pinchinat,
Bauvais, and Rigaud, but without one of incontestable superiority; the
blacks were as yet led by such men as Jean François and Biassou, who
must even make the 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
Haytian 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 pure negro race. His grandfather was an African prince, but if
we may judge from the portraits, he was not of the pure negro type.
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 learnt 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 constantly
brought against Toussaint, that of being a religious hypocrite, but
his early life shows that it is unfounded. Whilst still a slave, his
principles would not allow him to follow the custom of his companions
and live in concubinage; he determined to marry, 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 Haïtien, and joined the
insurgents. He was at first appointed surgeon to the army, as among his
other accomplishments was a knowledge of _simples_, which had given him
great influence 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 companions, who were acting with more than ordinary
barbarity.

The three leaders of the insurgents were then Jean François, a negro,
about whom opinions differ. St. Remy says he was intellectual, though
the general idea is more probable, 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 François, 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
François demanded that 300 of the leaders should be declared free,
whilst Toussaint would only have bargained for fifty. The mulatto
leaders, 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
François’ proposition; they even rejected it with insult, and savagely
persecuted the negroes who were living in Cap Haïtien. 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 bondsmen. 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 openly joined the Spaniards in their war on
the French Republic.

At this time Sonthonax and Polvérel acted as if they intended to betray
their own country, by removing the chief white officers from command
and entrusting 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 instrument 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 Republic.

In the meantime Toussaint was steadily gaining influence among his
troops, and gradually freeing himself from the control of Biassou,
whose proceedings had always shocked him; and some successful
expeditions, as the taking of Dondon, added to his prestige. Whilst
fighting was going on throughout the northern provinces, Sonthonax and
Polvérel were solemnising pompous _fêtes_ to celebrate the anniversary
of the taking of the Bastile. It is singular what a passion they had
for these childish amusements.

Rigaud, a mulatto, in future days the rival of Toussaint, now appears
prominently upon the scene, being appointed by the commissioners as
chief of the northern 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
inducing many hundreds to reside in their devastated homes.

Alarmed by the continued successes of Toussaint, Sonthonax
proclaimed in August 29, 1793, the liberty of all, which, under
the circumstances, may be considered the only wise act of his
administration.

The people of the north-west, however, were weary of the tyranny
of the commissioners, and, being probably privately informed of
Toussaint’s intentions, surrendered Gonaives to him, and the rest of
the neighbouring districts followed. A new enemy, however, now appeared
in the shape of the English, who took possession 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 France, 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 prepared to blow up
the forts, nothing was done; the garrison fled, leaving 131 cannon,
twenty-two laden vessels, with 7000 tons more in ballast, and all their
stores and ammunition.

At this time Jean François became suspicious of Toussaint and arrested
him, but he was delivered by Biassou. Toussaint had for some time been
meditating a bold stroke. The proclamation 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 Republic. 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, confiding in the word of Toussaint, had returned
to their estates.

The new General of the republic now acted with energy against Jean
François, 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 garrison 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 François, they could do
nothing against a disciplined force. He therefore, in 1795, formed
four regiments 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 subsequently surprised at their
proficiency.

Rigaud had, in the meantime, with his usual jactancy, marched on
Port-au-Prince to expel the English, but was repulsed. Toussaint
assembled all his army for another attack on St. Marc, and for three
days, from the 25th 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. Remy 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 Leogâne. Some of the Haytian
accounts are amusing. Pétion defended the fort of Ça-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 the war, none of whom were more than
half-hearted in our cause.

The French were also weakened by internal dissensions. General
Vilatte, a mulatto, incited a revolt in the town of Cap Haïtien,
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 sensations must Toussaint have performed
this act of authority 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, in which the French Government had confirmed
him, to be Lieutenant-General of the Government, April 1, 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 Haïtien, to find
Rigaud 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 attack of Mirebalais, a port occupied
by a French planter in our service, the Count de Bruges, who appears
to have retired, with numerous forces, without much resistance. He
probably could scarcely trust his raw levies. Sonthonax was so pleased
with this important success that he named Toussaint Commander-in-Chief
of the army in Santo Domingo, which step displeased Rigaud, 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
wherever 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 Haïtien 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
boasting, bad man, whose history is written in the blood of thousands
of every colour.

The Directory, alarmed at the growing influence of Toussaint,
sent out General Hédouville as pacificator of the island, and, to
produce harmony, gave him power to defeat Rigaud. On his arrival at
Cap Haïtien he summoned the rivals to confer with him, and Rigaud
and Toussaint, meeting at Gonaives, went together to the capital.
Hédouville, jealous of the power of the latter, gave all his attention
to the former, whilst the newly-arrived French officers 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
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 really remarkable, 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
magnanimous black ever kept his word, no important exodus followed our
retreat. Admiral Maitland had arranged for the surrender of the mole
with General Hédouville, 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. Maitland 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 defended, and the importance of the position
in naval warfare is indisputable. If we wanted to gain Toussaint and
induce him to declare the island independent, we should have held it
until that desirable event had happened.[4]

Toussaint treated the old colonists with distinction, and left many
of them in the commands they had held under the English. Hédouville
protested against this good treatment of his own countrymen, and
annoyed Toussaint so much that he began to consider whether it would
not be prudent to send Hédouville to follow Sonthonax.

Hédouville was not the only one who objected to the good treatment
of the planters; his opinion was shared by the black general, Moïse,
then commanding in the northern department. To show his displeasure at
Toussaint’s humanity, he caused some white colonists to be murdered in
the plains near Cap Haïtien. Hédouville, 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 Rigaud, 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 _émigrés_.

It was Hédouville 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. Rigaud, with the true spirit of a mulatto,
also wrote to Toussaint to drive out the white planters. When his
teaching had incited his soldiers to murder his white countrymen, all
Rigaud could say was, “Mon Dieu, qu’est que le peuple en fureur?”

On the departure of Hédouville, Toussaint invited Roume to leave
Santo Domingo and come and reside at Port-au-Prince, where they met
in January 1799. Roume appears to have had a profound admiration for
Toussaint. We find him writing to General Kerverseau as early as
February 1795, and describing the negro chief as a philosopher, a
legislator, a general, and a good citizen.

Roume had a difficult part to play. He was most anxious to bring about
concord among the different generals, and therefore invited Rigaud
and Bauvais to meet Toussaint on the _fête_ 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 prison.” This remarkable excuse did not satisfy
Toussaint, who believed the men to have been assassinated by Rigaud’s
officers.

Toussaint and Roume had in the meantime left for Cap Haïtien, where
they appear to have negotiated a commercial treaty with the Americans,
and some arrangement was also, it is said, made with Admiral Maitland.

It was during this year that Captain Rainsford visited Cap Haïtien.
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 next him and
the general not far off. The latter used to say that except on service
he did not see the necessity of making distinctions. In the evening
Captain Rainsford played billiards with Toussaint at the public tables.

Rainsford appears to have been as much struck with Toussaint as Roume.
He says he was constrained to admire him as a man, a governor, and a
general. He describes him as a perfect black, then about fifty-five
years of age, of a venerable appearance, and possessed 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
cuffs, 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 cockade, and an extremely large sword
was suspended from his side. Rainsford 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 Rainsford was a passenger was next driven
by stress of weather into Fort Liberté. Arrested as a spy, he was
condemned to death; but Toussaint would not permit the sentence to be
carried out. He dismissed him with a caution not to return without
passports.

There is much exaggeration in the account given by Rainsford of what he
saw and heard at Cap Haïtien. He talks of 62,000 inhabitants leaving
the city after the great fire, and of Toussaint reviewing his army of
60,000 men and 2000 officers. He was a better judge probably of their
manœuvres. He says that the soldiers went through their exercises with
a degree of expertness he had seldom before witnessed. At the signal of
a whistle, a whole brigade ran 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.

Rigaud having evidently decided to carry out General Hédouville’s
instructions and defy both Toussaint and Roume, it became necessary to
subdue him. Ten thousand men were collected at Port-au-Prince, whilst
Rigaud concentrated his army at Miragoâne, and commenced 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 prejudice of colour,
and Rigaud, the mulatto, the son of a Frenchman, showing “how he
hated his father and despised his mother” by murdering the whites and
refusing to obey a black.

Roume 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 fleetness of his horse. Toussaint
shot those who were concerned in these conspiracies, whether black
or coloured; but the stories told by St. Remy of his ordering 180
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 Rigaud’s army, and by the siege of Jacmel, which lasted four
months. Pétion greatly distinguished himself in the defence, and
conducted the evacuation. It appears unaccountable that while the main
body of Toussaint’s army was thus engaged, Rigaud remained passive; it
can only be explained by mean jealousy, which was his characteristic to
the last year of his life. But his principal fault was jactancy, 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. Dessalines soon forced the strong position near Miragoâne,
and defeated Rigaud and Pétion, driving them before him towards Les
Cayes. Rigaud 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.

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
disapproved. 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 Rigaud. 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 1st August 1800, and showed the
grandeur of his character by implicitly carrying out his original
proclamation. He again proclaimed union and peace, and pardoned
all 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 reverse; and the mulattoes
declare that he killed upwards of ten thousand of their caste, which is
probably more of that colour than the southern province ever contained.

Whilst this campaign was at its height, Roume committed 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
Roume, sent for him; he refused to come, upon which Toussaint went to
Cap Haïtien, and after reproaching 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 Moïse.

When the southern campaign was over, Toussaint began to prepare for
the occupation of Santo Domingo, but finding that Roume was inclined
to withdraw his permission, he arrested him and sent him back to
France. 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 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 misfortunes.

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 required 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 Moïse, his nephew,
who to thwart his uncle’s projects incited a movement in the north
to massacre the French. Several having fallen victims, Toussaint
hastened to the spot, and finding that Moïse 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 have upset all confidence in his
trusted word.

All was now progressing on the island; the government 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 accompanied him, chief among whom were
Rigaud, Pétion, 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 Toussaint his children and the letter he bore from
Buonaparte, he tried to surprise Cap Haïtien. But General Christophe,
before retiring with its garrison, set fire to the town and almost
destroyed it; and Toussaint sent instructions to his other generals
to follow this example. Leclerc, mortified by the result of his first
attempt, now thought of writing to Toussaint, and sent him his two
boys. Toussaint behaved with great nobility of character, 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 “hors 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 Crête à
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
singular courage, particularly the latter, considering the quality of
the men, who had never before been measured with real white troops:
however, after having repulsed several assaults, the garrison evacuated
the forts. Pétion commanded a portion of the French artillery in this
attack on his countrymen struggling 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
remark that the French general Rochambeau distinguished 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 Crête
à Pierrot, where it was amply proved that the negro soldiers, even
among their mountains, 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, finding himself thus abandoned, wrote
to Leclerc offering submission. As it was accepted, he went to Cap
Haïtien 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 acknowledge 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
population, 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 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 ropes and embarked on board the French ship “Creole;”
then put on board the “Héros” 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 à Saint Domingue que le tronc de l’arbre
de la liberté des noirs; il repoussera, parceque les racines en sont
profondes et nombreuses.” When reading this account of the capture of
Toussaint, we can scarcely credit that we are recording the acts of
French officers, whose plighted word was thus broken.[5]

On Toussaint’s arrival in France 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 Château de Joux in the Alps,
where his rival Rigaud was already confined. Here he died from cold
and neglect, under circumstances which raised the suspicion that the
close of this illustrious life was hastened by unfair means. It is
some satisfaction to think 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 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 Rigaud. I
at first thought that Toussaint never having unnecessarily shed white
blood, 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 historians
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 l’aborder sans crainte, et
nul ne le quittait sans respect.” We have seen the opinion of Roume and
Rainsford, that Toussaint was “a philosopher, a legislator, 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, 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 occasions 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 animals 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.

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
_sans-culottes_, 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 French 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 Haïtien, 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.[6]

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.[7]

The treachery of Leclerc towards Toussaint had its reward; it could
not but excite suspicion among the black leaders, as the previous
deportation of Rigaud 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 opportunity, and
Dessalines, Christophe, and Pétion abandoned 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
concentrate in Cap Haïtien. Rochambeau, 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, 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 discouragement,
in a tropical climate, where the heat is so great that the European
is unfitted for continued exertion, but where yellow fever and death
follow constant exposure.




CHAPTER III.

HISTORY SINCE INDEPENDENCE.


“Que deviendra notre pays quand il sera livré à la vanité et à
l’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 unquestioned valour and
energy, and with a cruelty which the infamous conduct of Rochambeau
could palliate, if not justify, the Haytians determined to throw off
all allegiance to France and establish an independent government.

At Gonaives, on the 1st January 1804, 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 them to put to death
every Frenchman 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 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 all their wives and children. Fearing that
some of his generals, from interest or humanity, might not fully carry
out his decree, he made a _tournée_ 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 helpless men, women, and children offer to their
savage executioners? Even now one cannot read unmoved the records of
those days of horror.

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 avaricious, but at the same time he permitted his friends
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
smuggling.” Dessalines, when he appointed an employé, used to say,
“Plumez la poule, mais prenez garde qu’elle ne 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 immediately 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 was worked out
without consulting his generals, and created discontent among them. A
conspiracy was organised; a rising in the south followed a visit from
Dessalines, where he had given full scope to his brutality, 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 Rouge, 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 countrymen for his superior ferocity and perfidy. He was
incapable as an administrator, and treated the public revenue as his
own private income. He had concubines 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 civil
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 Pétion, 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 Haïtien, and there had a
constitution voted which proclaimed him President of Hayti.

The Senate again met in Port-au-Prince in 1806 to elect a President,
and their choice fell on Pétion, who, of all the influential men in
the west and south, certainly appeared the most deserving. He had
scarcely been installed, when his generals began to conspire against
him, and the war with Christophe absorbed most of the resources of the
country. No event, however, of any great importance occurred till the
year 1810, when Rigaud, having escaped from France, arrived in Hayti,
and was received with much enthusiasm. Pétion apparently shared this
feeling for his old chief, and imprudently gave him the command of the
southern department. Rigaud was too vain to remain under the authority
of Pétion, 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,
Pétion in the west, Rigaud in the south, and Goman, a petty African
chief, in the extreme west of the southern department.

Christophe in 1811 proclaimed himself King and created a nobility.
Rigaud died, and soon after the south rejoined the west, which was
menaced by a new invasion from the north. In 1812 Christopher’s
army advanced to besiege Port-au-Prince; but finding their attacks
frustrated, the soldiers, weary of the war, began to desert to Pétion,
and had not the King hastened to raise the siege, it is probable his
army would have gone over to the enemy.

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. Pétion, though rather an incapable ruler, was not
cruel, and attached the people to his government.

In 1814, 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. Pétion refused, whilst offering an
indemnity to the colonists; but Christophe, having secured the secret
instructions of the French agent, did not hesitate to execute them.
These proceedings of the French made the rival chiefs forget their own
dissensions and prepare 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 Congress of Vienna to declare that the slave-trade
was for ever abolished.

In 1816 Pétion 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. Pétion, however, did not long enjoy
his 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 subject.
During his illness he is said to have refused all restoratives, and
even to have rejected food. Pétion, 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. Robin,
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 President of the republic, and
commenced his long career as chief of the state in March 1818. Though
he committed 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. Robin appears to reproach him, his friends
may still be permitted to admire him. Fortune, or rather his energy,
everywhere favoured him. In 1819 he put down the long-neglected
insurrection of Goman in the far west, and then prepared to move
against King Henry, whose savage rule had alienated the affection even
of his own guards. Struck down by apoplexy, the 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 Haïtien, 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 were 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 Pétion and Christophe, but if to secure the greatest
happiness to the greatest number be the object of 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 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 Governments 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 (£6,000,000)
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 followed 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 unsettle the country
until 1838. M. Dupetit Thomars had come to 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 France acknowledged
the complete 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 quiet. The acknowledgment of this 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 French 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 français viennent demander l’argent”

implies that they have unfairly made use of their naval power in order
to extract money which was not due to them from a people incapable of
effectual resistance. This wretched debt to France has been the cause
of half the misfortunes of Hayti.

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 tranquil 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 whom 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 indemnity question was the
special position which it gave to French agents, who, even after the
independence of the republic had been recognised, affected to treat
Hayti as a dependency until all the debt should have been paid. The
most pretentious 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 humiliations 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 department, and almost annihilated
Cap Haïtien. I have referred to this event in a previous chapter, when
the peasantry 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 could
readily have been afforded, but whose supplications 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 incendiary, as they almost always occur at moments of
political disturbance.

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 insurrection broke out under Hérard-Rivière, 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 his 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 discontent against him, as his countrymen are only
capable of conducting with success a retail business, and require
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 £200,000, the first and last chief who was ever guilty of
so unaccountable 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 conducting General Boyer and his family to Jamaica. It will
be noticed hereafter that almost every President 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 officers and soldiers
who garrisoned 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 is that they did not separate before.

On December 30, 1843, the Constituent Assembly finished their new
constitution, and then elected General Hérard-Rivière 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 Haytian trade for France, 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 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 penetrated 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, Hérard-Rivière was deposed, amidst even greater
enthusiasm than marked his accession, and banished. General Guerrier
was elected in his place, and died after a twelvemonth 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, commercial advantages for
their country. They made themselves so unpopular that their 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 Riché, another black, was
chosen by the troops at St. Marc, who did not wish to march against
the Dominicans (March 1, 1846). In almost every encounter the Haytian
troops were 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
they would not march!

Riché has left a very good reputation as a President, which may
partly be accounted for by his judicious choice of ministers. He
had Celigny-Ardruin and Dupuy among them, and both these men were
considered capable administrators, and both will again appear upon the
scene.

The black mob in the south rose in arms against Riché, but after some
resistance the movement was suppressed. Unfortunately for the country,
this Presidency did not last a twelvemonth, as Riché died on the 27th
February 1847. He was sincerely regretted, as, although an ignorant
man, he was capable of choosing good advisers. He left the country
perfectly tranquil, 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 employment, and every officer appeared to wish to live in luxury
at the expense of the state; but Riché’s prudent management checked
this infatuation. His Government restored the constitution of 1816,
which, though it included Article 7, directed against foreigners
acquiring 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 Riché 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 Riché’s
Ministers, to supply their place 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 intelligence; 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 of the Government,
seized the palace, and threatened to massacre the mulattoes, but this
result was deferred for a short time.

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, and had on this last occasion written some reasonable
comments on the attitude 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 French
Consul-General Raybaud interfered, and persuaded Soulouque to pardon
him; he was, however, banished. And Senator Courtois, who owed his life
to foreigners, had spent his best energies in abusing them!

Throughout the spring of 1848 an uneasy feeling appears to have
pervaded the country that some calamity 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 dismissed. As this
movement was evidently encouraged by Soulouque, they resigned; but
all were assembled at the palace on the 16th April, when suddenly the
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-Ardruin, 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 shot; 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 innocent men, and thus gained a little
popularity among his cowed adversaries. It is pleasant to know how our
acting Consul Wyke worked 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 Felix had been executed in 1849 in
the market-place, and died after receiving twenty discharges, Soulouque
went with his staff to inspect their mangled bodies and gloat over the
scene. Naturally Celigny-Ardruin 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 January 1849, I may notice, Soulouque had abolished the Ministry
and named as Secretary-General Dufrène, and as Minister of Finance
Salomon, the present 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 previously recorded.

All black chiefs have a hankering after the forms as well as the
substance of despotic power, and Soulouque was no exception to the
rule. He therefore decided to follow in the footsteps of Dessalines,
and was elected Emperor, August 26, 1849. 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 fifty-nine dukes headed the
list, to be 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 robbing Hayti of its independence. A
year’s truce was obtained, however, in October 1851. The negotiations
were admirably conducted by our agent, Consul-General Ussher. One of
the difficulties against which the diplomatists 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 bouffé_ 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 internal dissensions which always follow national
financial pressure.

On the 18th April 1852 Soulouque was crowned Emperor under the
title of Faustin 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 protection 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 office by
raising his hat. It appears that a Spanish employé 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 of
a window of the palace and cried, “Qui moun-ça sacré f---- blanc qui
veut pas saluer mon palais, f----?” The Spaniard 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 agents, 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 troops 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 cowardice, and then returned with the remains of his army
to his capital, where he was received in mournful silence, amid the
scarcely-concealed murmurs 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 more 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.

After renewed efforts on the part of foreign agents, a truce of two
years was negotiated with Santo Domingo. 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 province, which had
been more disastrous than all the former attacks; the finances were in
the greatest disorder; 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 that could rescue them from this disastrous
condition of affairs. He had gained great popularity in the army
during the last invasion, when he commanded the rear-guard, and it was
acknowledged that his 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 prosperous under the
rule of an intelligent mulatto.

The Emperor kept a watch on Geffrard, but he behaved 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 arrival at the town of Gonaives proclaimed the deposition of the
Emperor and the re-establishment of the republic. He was received “with
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 discontented men, who, after a skirmish
with the insurgents, 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 first arrival on the 10th, Soulouque, furious with his rival,
ordered Madame Geffrard and her daughters to be put to death, but
yielded to the intercession 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 refugees. The attitude of the tumultuous
crowd became so menacing, and the indifference of the Haytian guard so
marked, that M. Mellines 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 be invaded, Byron
took the bold resolution of calling on 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 followers
were subsequently embarked on board the “Melbourne,” and followed Boyer
and Hérard-Rivière to Jamaica.

Too much credit cannot be given to this bold proceeding 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 difficult to prevent it spreading through the town.

Thus closed the ignoble reign of Soulouque, one of the most
contemptible 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.

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 difficulties 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 perhaps he did.

The revolution was conducted with exemplary moderation, 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 enormous as to surpass belief.

Geffrard’s difficulties were great, as he had to conciliate 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 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 he was about
to sell the country to the whites. As soon as a coloured chief shows
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 Prophète. 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 consultation, and decided to murder the daughter, in the
expectation that Geffrard, on hearing what had occurred, would rush
out. They therefore returned to the window, and a negro named Sarron
raised his 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 shot. 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 March 1860 a concordat was signed with the See of Rome, 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 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
authorities, 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 complicity 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 £40,000, 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
Government 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 Rubalcava, of
whom he ever spoke in the highest terms, explained the difficulties of
Geffrard’s position, and obtained important concessions--first, as to
the payment 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 the 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 _père_ conspired to upset the
Government, but these mild plotters were only banished or imprisoned.
This abortive movement was followed (1862) by an attempted insurrection
of the Salomon family in the south. This conspiracy, the third in which
they were accused of being engaged, was a complete fiasco, but it cost
the lives of fourteen of their members.

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 Ministers had not fulfilled that promise. The
Chambers were naturally curious as to the disappearance of millions
of dollars without any explanation being forthcoming, and forced two
incapables to resign, and General Dupuy, the Minister of Riché, 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 Opposition in the Chambers continued their attacks
on the Government, and at last Geffrard was forced to dissolve 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
been more moderate considering the difficulties of the situation, 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
badly received that it was withdrawn.

Another rising (May 1863) of the Legros family followed 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 engaged in a plot. The proofs of an active conspiracy
were wanting. As I have given details of the trial in another chapter,
I need only say that they were condemned to death, but their sentence
was commuted at the intercession of the diplomatic corps. In July there
was a conspiracy at Cap Haïtien 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 his appearance in rather an interesting
manner. General Philippeaux, Minister of War, had been sent by Geffrard
to Cap Haïtien 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 verandah, when Salnave,
ensconced behind a neighbouring tree, raised his 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 a movement in the south; then one in the
north, where Salnave, invading that department from Santo Domingo,
found all ready to receive him. The regiments joined him or dispersed;
but the rapid movement of Geffrard’s troops under Generals Morisset
and Barthélemy, 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 Haïtien. 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
intervention.

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,” conspicuously 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 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
finding 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
satisfaction, the outer forts were bombarded. Geffrard’s army rushed
in, and the insurrection was at an end. Salnave and 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 adversaries,
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 fire, which was already scorching its
walls, my servant 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 _chargé 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 revolution was made at Gonaives, where the mob plundered and burnt
about fifty houses, to be followed by further troubles and incendiary
fires at Cap Haïtien, 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 his ear taken off by a piece of shell
without further injury. During these occurrences, bands of negroes
were wandering through the south burning and pillaging, unchecked by
the local authorities. It was asked, how could a people exist under
such circumstances? 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, find wanted a change.
In February 1867 there was a hostile movement on the part of some
companies 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 comparatively bad 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 discontented. Geffrard determined therefore
to abdicate, and on March 13, 1867, he embarked for Jamaica. He had
convoked the Senate for the 16th in order to give over the reins of
power to them, but his timid friends persuaded him to go at once, as
the north was in insurrection. The Spanish _chargé 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 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 Haïtien, 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 _régime_. 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, _l’epée à
la gorge_, elected Salnave President of Hayti, June 16, 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
insisting on an explanation, Delorme, the Chief Minister of Salnave,
sprang on the table and denounced these deputies as enemies of
Government. Pistol-shots were fired; Salnave advanced at the head of
his guards, and the Assembly dispersed. Riots followed. The Government
attempted to arrest five prominent members of the Opposition, but they
escaped and returned home to their constituents, and constitutional
government ceased to exist.

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
declare against the Government. The uprising was accelerated 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 marching 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 midst of this commotion Salnave came into the harbour with
five hundred men, to whom he gave permission to plunder the Rue de
Frentfort, where the principal 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. Delorme, accused by Salnave of having shown
weakness whilst in charge of the Government during his absence, 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 thinking 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
injuries they did in the south have not been repaired to this day. The
insurgents raised the siege of the capital in August; and in September,
to prevent further dissensions, Nissage-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 known in Haytian history.
Fighting was going on in every district. In the north the insurgents
were besieging Cap Haïtien; in the south the Government was vainly
attacking Jacmel, Jérémie, 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 army around him, cut his way through the besieging
forces, and arrived just in time to save Domingue and his Government,
who were preparing to embark for Jamaica. This was one of the few
gallant actions of the war.

Another was General Brice’s splendid defence of Jérémie when attacked
by superior forces and bombarded 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 the garrison to increase the confusion at the capital. The
Ministry resigned under his threats, 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 Haïtien
surrendered to the insurgents; the President’s army under Chevalier
besieging Jacmel went over to the enemy; and suddenly, on the 18th
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 Salnave’s garrison consisted of over three thousand men.
Some sharp fighting occurred, and the insurgents could just hold
their own, when General Turenne-Carrié arrived by land with strong
reinforcements, and rendered the combat more equal.

Whilst the fighting was going on, a strong appeal was made by chiefs
of both parties to the diplomatic 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 surprise his enemies 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 insurgents, and its heavy shell falling in
the courtyard began to disperse the garrison, when another pitched on
the palace ignited a small powder-magazine, and a severe explosion took
place. As great stores of powder existed there, every one near fled.
Salnave and his troops retired to the mountains _viâ_ La Coupe, and
soon after another terrific explosion took place that 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 town 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 interfere 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 saved from them, neither our mail-bags nor our property.
Fortunately we were well supported by our naval officers, and we were
thoroughly well backed by the French marine. Admiral Mequet and Captain
De Varannes of the “D’Estrés” were conspicuous by 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, Allington, 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 insurgent 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 military commission under General Lorquet,
condemned to death for incendiarism and murder, and shot that same
evening at sunset. He behaved with considerable 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 their greatest excesses. He first brought himself
prominently forward by attempting to murder General Philippeaux,
and during his Presidency shot his enemies without mercy. I do not
think that he had a redeeming quality, except a certain amount of
determination, and 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 depreciated paper notes
and introduce silver dollars, and in this they completely succeeded.
It caused some suffering 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 Haytians like their Presidents to show authority.

In 1873 there was a formal quarrel in the Chambers which led to all
the subsequent disasters. A question arose as to the validity of the
election of Boyer-Bazelais, 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 taken 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 General Monplaisir-Pierre, a respectable
black, whilst the Government favoured General Domingue, an ignorant
and ferocious negro born in Africa, whose party had rendered itself
notorious by the massacre of all the 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
Ministers and to aid Domingue in his candidature.

When the Congress met in April 1874, there was no doubt as to the
feeling of the people being hostile to Domingue and his nephew,
Septimus Rameau, the most grasping and unpopular jobber that the
country had ever seen. The Government had used all its influence 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 commander-in-chief. A Constituent
Assembly was called for June 10, which was quite unconstitutional, and
under violent military pressure Government nominees 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
colonies, 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.

The Government was not slow to show its intentions. The first was
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 Rameau, who considered that “the whites had no rights which
the blacks were bound 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 corruption were manifest to all.

The only wise act by which Domingue’s Government will be known was
the signing of a treaty of peace, friendship, and commerce with Santo
Domingo; and this was brought about by foreign 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 in Port-au-Prince. On May 1, taking
advantage of an assembly of troops to celebrate the “_Fête de
l’Agriculture_,” Rameau 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; his bravery, however,
was so well known, that they dreaded to approach him, but firing at
a distance, gave him time to seize his arms and defend himself. But
having only revolvers, he thought it prudent to endeavour to take
refuge in the English Legation. He was wounded fatally in doing so, and
died, notwithstanding the care bestowed upon him 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
employment of artillery. Then finding he could do no more, as, severely
wounded, he could not escape, he put an end to his existence. General
Lorquet commanded 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, who, after
five months of tedious correspondence, was enabled to embark him in
safety.

Decrees followed banishing forty-three eminent citizens, and later on
seventeen were condemned to death for a pretended conspiracy. Thus
Rameau 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
£2,500,000. 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, Rameau, and Boco, then insults
in the official 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 Rameau were furious: an order was given to murder all the
political prisoners confined in the jail, 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. Finding that the
Government could not hold its own in Port-au-Prince, Rameau 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 Vorges and the Spanish Consul Lopez went to the palace to
try and save the President and his Chief Minister. The crowd was large
and threatening, but the two brave diplomats took these despicable
chiefs under their protection and endeavoured to escort them to the
French Legation; but the crowd was so excited against these murderers,
that Rameau was killed in the streets and Domingue was seriously
wounded.

General Lorquet had been sent at the head of a force to check the
advance of the northern insurgents; but, as might be expected, he
joined them and marched at their head to take possession of the
Government. But no sooner had he entered the town than a murmur arose.
The friends of those 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 cupboard.

Thus fell the very worst Government that even Hayti had ever seen.
Cruel and dishonest, it had not a redeeming quality. Domingue, brutal
and ignorant, was entirely dominated by his nephew, Septimus Rameau,
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
dilapidations 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 Government 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 Representatives,
and it was adjourned amidst much tumult. Boyer-Bazelais and his party
retired to his house and took up arms, they said, to defend themselves.
Their opponents attacked them, and a desperate fight ensued. Fire was
put to the adjoining houses, and amidst this fierce conflict our acting
Consul-General Byron and the French Chancellor Hullinot 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 peut_ 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 disorders in the capital were followed by others in the
provinces; and Boisrond-Canal, disgusted with the treatment 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 Allington
of H.M.S. “Boxer.” 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 _putate_ 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 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, encouraged by the
authorities, have been the principal episodes of the history of the
last four years.




CHAPTER IV.

THE POPULATION OF HAYTI.


The amount of the population in Hayti is not accurately known, as no
census has been taken since the country became independent. At the
close of the last century the population was found to consist of--

  Whites                           46,000
  Freed men, black and coloured    56,666
  Slaves of both colours          509,642
                                  -------
                                  602,308

In giving these figures, Mr. Madion adds (“Histoire d’Haïti,” 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. Madion 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 inserts in his work vary so
greatly that 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 full detail as to each district, it is put at
873,867, whilst he adds that Placide 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 the 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 constituted the
population of the empire of Dessalines.

During the Presidency of General Geffrard (1863), I heard him remark,
that from the best official information he could get, 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 considerable, as there
was no mercy shown by either side, and the sanguinary strife lasted
many years. The long civil war between Pétion and Christophe was kept
up during the whole reign of the latter, but probably did not cost the
country so many lives as the building of the great mountain-fortress
of La Ferrière and the handsome palace of Sans Souci. During 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 the 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 carried 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 than 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 augmentation 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
emigration to account for the disproportion; in fact, the movement of
population has been the other way, and many 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 approaching 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 population 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 north-eastern district of Hayti, and held no
intercourse with the other inhabitants, but fled at their approach.
They were doubtless the descendants of fugitive slaves. When we paid
a visit to the mountain above referred to, we heard the 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. From 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 Vaudoux
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 an
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 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 progress
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 intelligence, 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 years
which have elapsed since I first became acquainted with the country,
what a dreary succession of meaningless conspiracies, 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 worst enemies, 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 treasury and the division of its contents. “Prendre l’argent de
l’état ce n’est pas volé,” 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 disastrous 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 NEGRO.

A French admiral once asked me, “Est-ce que vous prenez ces gens au
sérieux?” 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, 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 followed 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 bloodshot eyes, seen under the shade of a French officer’s
cocked hat, raise the hilarity of the newcomer, which is not lessened
when he discovers that this wretched imitation of a soldier declares
himself the most warlike of a warlike race. But putting aside the
absurdities which appear inherent to the blacks, you soon discover that
there is something sympathetic in that stolid being.

In treating of the Haytians, one must carefully separate 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 contact 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 which is not found in the cities.

Whilst the civilised Haytian is essentially inhospitable towards
foreigners, the contrary is 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 compatriots has given
them a species of French 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 be
the real possessor of 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 morselled out among them. President Pétion encouraged
this system by the action of Government.

The popular stories current in Hayti of the difference 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 limited his pretensions to fine horses and
beautiful women; the third, on being asked, shuffled about and said
that he had been brought there by the 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 hours 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:--

   “Nègue riche li mulatte,
    Mulatte pauvre li nègue.”

These trifles indicate the opinion the different sections of the people
have of each other, and there is much truth in the estimation.

The politeness of the country negro is very remarkable, and you hear
one ragged fellow addressing another as monsieur, frère, or confrère;
and this civility is very pleasing, as it gives promise of better
things whenever education shall 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 to our colonial 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 probably the most disastrous circumstance for the future prosperity
of the country. 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, judicial 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 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 completely 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 on 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 what can be more
absurd than 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 aristocratic 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 since, they
unfortunately quench in blood their outraged feelings.

Towards the white man, whatever jealousy he may feel on account of
former political questions, the black is usually both respectful and
cordial, and in return is liked by them. I heard a black magistrate
say, “My father came from Africa. He was apparently a respectable
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 confidence 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 religion 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 Roman 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 insolent manner, “Nous
sommes tous égaux içi;” but 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 insolence, they are still more amused by his slinking
off. Burton, speaking of the people on the coast of Africa, 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
Soulouque. Yet, notwithstanding these exceptions, and the more
remarkable ones I have noticed in my historical chapter, 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. But when an
example is required of a man who applies his official 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 to show himself a great
statesman was Septimus Rameau, of Les Cayes. When, however, he obtained
unlimited power under his doting uncle, President Domingue, he proved
himself a mere visionary, incapable 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 constructed, 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 begins at home so
predominated 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 on 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 dies. The soldiers have a superstitious dread of
shooting 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 “_placé_,”
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 Pétion and Boyer were only “placed,”
the latter succeeding to the authority and “_placée_” 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, perhaps holding in his arms
the latest born, while following in his train are a dozen women and
sturdy children 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 intruder, asked him 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 numbers of women greatly
exceed 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 the handle of a broom. 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 replied in their patois, “Consite, li nègue;
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,
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 universal, 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 abolished, but the club was introduced. Dessalines,
as Inspector-General 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. Whenever
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 fortune
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
difference in the appearance of the population, many being tall, fine
men with open countenances, 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 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 frequenting the coast, but also as
prisoners from the 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 handsome gorilla. The first evening I went to the theatre in
Port-au-Prince, I was started 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
disappointed child said to her father in Creole, “Faut-il batte petit
nègue là.” The mob were furious at the mistake, and the father was too
glad to hurry in with his child 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 the 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 Government. 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.

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.

It has often been remarked what curious names are affixed to negroes,
as Cæsar, 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 trompé nègue_ 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, running, 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-negro, “Mangé 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 Charles Wyke, now our 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 opportunity, 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 offensive 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, Raybaud, I believe, went
once to plead some cause before his Majesty, and wound up by saying
that if he did what was required, he would be considered “plus grand
qu’Annibal.” “Comment, Consite,” replied the startled Emperor, “moué
cannibal!” And it required all the Frenchman’s tact to explain his
reference. 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 untravelled ladies in
Hayti are very proud of thus being able to express their sentiments
without having recourse 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. When this custom was
abolished the female peasantry began 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 generally full of every kind, and the finer they are in
quality the more they are esteemed; and the blacks are, if anything,
more particular than the coloured in securing the most expensive
underclothing. How they plume themselves 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 to receive their lady friends in.
Then they bring out with great pride the treasures of their _armoires_,
and show how well supplied they are with what they do not make a
general use of.

There is one thing for which all Haytians are equally remarkable--their
love of “_remèdes_.” For everything, 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 _remède_, consisting 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
but 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 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
band in Port-au-Prince played fairly well, though, from inefficient
and irregular instruction under native teachers, much was still to
be desired. The drum, however, was a very favourite instrument, and
the noise produced 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 drums._

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 St. Mèry, 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 treasurer, and three or four younger woman
famous 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
invited the young men of the district to come and meet them.

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 there seasoned performers could not stand the burning
mid-day sun. The two men with the drums were there, coarse instruments
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 band and paying for the dresses, which, however, did not
appear expensive, as the women were clothed in white gowns, coloured
headdresses, and handkerchiefs always carried in their right hands.
I noticed, however, that what could be seen of their under-linen was
remarkably fine.

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 performers,
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 blacks 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 learnt 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 insignificant dancing, a new
tune was struck up, and the performers began to go through something
more attractive to the crowd. This dance was called _chica_, but
popularly I have heard it named _bamboula_, from the drum, which often
consists of a hollow bamboo: so it is said. This lascivious dance is
difficult to describe. I think I will let Moreau St. Méry do it for
me:--

“Cette danse a un air qui lui est spécialement consacré et où la
mesure est fortement marquée. Le talent pour la danseuse est dans
la perfection avec laquelle elle peut faire mouvoir ses hanches et
la partie inférieure de ses reins, en conservant tout le reste du
corps dans une espèce d’immobilité, que ne lui font même pas perdre
les faibles agitations de ses bras qui balancent les deux extrémités
d’un mouchoir ou de son jupon. Un danseur s’approche d’elle, s’élance
tout-à-coup, et tombe en mesure presque à la toucher. Il recule, il
s’élance encore, et la provoque à la lutte la plus séduisante. La
danse s’anime, et bientôt elle offre un tableau dont tous les traits
d’abord voluptueux, deviennent ensuite lascifs. Il serait impossible
de peindre le chica avec son véritable caractère, et je me bornerai
à dire que l’impression qu’il cause est si puissante que l’Africain
ou le Créole de n’importe quelle nuance, qui le verrait danser sans
émotion, passerait pour avoir perdu jusqu’aux dernières étin celles de
la sensibilité.”

I watched its effect on the bystanders of all colours, and St. Méry
has not exaggerated: the flushed faces, the excited eyes, the eager
expression, the looks of ill-concealed passion, were fully 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 lit, 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 would care
to be seen at one of these dances, where the professionals, without
shame, perform regardless of appearances. The _bamboula_, 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 Haytian could not at first
understand it; but shortly the applause became uproarious; shouts
filled the house; the unaccustomed sight of two _white_ girls thus
exhibiting 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 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 ceased.

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 marry 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. There are regular wakes, at which eating and drinking
are permitted, and drunkenness not prohibited. All classes 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.

The negro is rarely seriously ill, though he often fancies himself
so; he suffers most from his indulgences and the indifferent skill
of those who undertake 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 the
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 _zombis_, _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 lusting-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 black Haytians resent being spoken of by foreigners as negroes,
though they use the word freely among themselves. They prefer being
called _gens de couleur_, as both the expressions _nègres_ and
_mulâtres_ are considered as implying contempt. During the tiresome
quarter of an hour before dinner, my friend Villevalein (coloured)
turned round to a Minister of State (black) and said, “What do you
think the French _chargé d’affaires_ remarked when he first saw
you?--‘Quel beau nègre!’” 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.

The negro has the greatest, in fact, an almost superstitious, 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, and as Acaau insisted, the
Vice-Consul took up the Union Jack, and placing it on the staircase,
said to the chief, “If any of you dare 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 troubled, Acaau answered, “Tell me
which end you will begin with, and I will commence to burn the other
end.” He was a mountaineer, who would have been delighted to burn and
destroy the whole place. Many years afterwards, to avoid being shot 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
themselves. 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 merchant, 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 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 by Mr.
Savage perfectly awed the mob. As the Haytian police who were present
had not interfered to prevent this outrage on the sailor, 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 apathy and listlessness of the
Haytians, mentioned 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 Englishman say one day, “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 few of their good qualities.
Those who have never left their country are too often conceited, and
presumptuous to a degree which is scarcely credible; whilst many
who have travelled appear but little influenced by bright examples
of civilisation, or by their intercourse with civilised 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 majority; and they
return to their own country more presumptuous 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 consideration in 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 l’argent
de l’état, ce n’est pas volé.”--“To take Government money is not
robbery.” With such ideas instilled into the minds of all from their
earliest youth, it is scarcely to be wondered at that the Haytians
grow up to be completely without financial honour. Truth is another
virtue which appears to be rarely inculcated by parents, and this
perhaps may be accounted for by their origin. Slaves are notoriously
given to falsehood, and this defect has been inherited by succeeding
generations, and can scarcely be eradicated until 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 be educated 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 consequence, 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 Hayti?” “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 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 France and
Russia. “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-Secretary 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 you, a private individual, to say that; but 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 boxes addressed thus:--“Les demoiselles ----, enfants de
M. ----, _ex-Secrétaire d’Etat_.”

Of the profound dislike of the genuine coloured Haytian for the whites
I will give 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 distribution 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--“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. Méry gives a table of the different combinations of
colour among the mixed race, amounting 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 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 breeding 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 the 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 more difficult to speak; they are rarely
good-looking, never beautiful. As they approach the white type, they
have long, rather coarse hair, beautiful teeth, small fleshless
hands and feet, delicate 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, particularly when 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 Haïtiennes
have had until lately but few chances of education, and are therefore
little to be blamed for their ignorance. This want of instruction,
however, has an ill effect, as the time necessarily hangs heavy on
their hands, and they can neither give those first teachings to
their children which are never forgotten, 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 elsewhere. 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 cleanliness, which is observable in
their houses, their children, and their own clothes. Without going so
far as to say, with the naval officer, 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 consequence 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 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 debauchery of
their Haytian husbands. This virtue was, perhaps, unfairly ascribed by
a French diplomatist to their sluggish temperaments and their want of
imagination. But, whatever may be the cause, it appears to exist to a
considerable extent.

The habit of having no fixed 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 hours, and only sit down to
the family meal _pro formâ_. No wonder they are ever complaining of
indigestion, and taking their wonderful _remèdes_.

From my own observation, and that of many of my friends, I may assert
with confidence as a general proposition, 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 Presidents 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. No 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,
according to French law, that ceremony renders them all legitimate.

Some of those admitted into society are not married 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 therefore 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 pernicious 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 Haïtien in 1865. And
yet were these officers who were false to their military honour looked
down upon by their countrymen? On the contrary, their only title to
consideration was their treachery to their former superior, who in turn
is said to have 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
neglected, perhaps even punished, by those who succeeded 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 _beau ideal_ of the
young Haïtienne 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 ultimate 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
they 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 withdrawn from
the civilising influence they would otherwise 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, expends his energies in furious tirades in the _cafés_ or
by low debauchery.

The Haytians are distinguished for what the French call _jactance_,
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 mulâtres de ce pays-ci.” He was lost in admiration
of his own noble qualities. At the fortress of La Ferrière, during
Mackenzie’s visit, a Captain Elliot said about some trifle, “N’ayez pas
peur?” Immediately the officers of the garrison clapped their hands to
their swords and talked five minutes of inflated nonsense.

I remember a Haytian general once calling upon me, and asking me to get
inserted in the daily London 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 anxious
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 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 intercourse with him
(1866):--“I am loth to analyse the character of President Geffrard,
but as he is the Government itself, it is necessary to know him. In
manner he is polished and gentle, almost feminine in his gentleness,
with a most agreeable expression, a winning smile, and much fluency
in conversation. But the impression 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
independent 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 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 persisted in assuring us that he had been born nearly
white, with straight hair, but that having unfortunately bathed in
the streams of Sal Tron 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 unpopularity of the Emperor
Soulouque was the waste of the public finances and the extravagance
of his court. General Geffrard, who lived in penury before becoming
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 £4000
a year for the encouragement of the arts and sciences. The grateful
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 opportunity, 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 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 petty 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 quality is not too 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
manufactures 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
believe that subsequently, when he was made a senator, he was inclined
to return to his primitive views.

If I wished to describe a 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 agreeable, and perhaps the
one who best pleased me was Auguste Elie, at one time Minister for
Foreign Affairs. He had been brought up in France, was highly educated,
and had an astonishing memory. My Spanish colleague and myself used
to visit him almost every evening, and pass a pleasant hour in varied
conversation. One day my friend remarked, “I am often surprised at the
knowledge shown by Auguste Elie, and the elegance of the language in
which it is expressed.” I replied, “This evening turn the conversation
on agriculture in the South of France.” He did so, and he was again
struck by the minute knowledge shown and the manner in which it was
conveyed. On our return home, I opened the last number of “La Revue des
Deux Mondes,” and showed him paragraph after paragraph which Auguste
Elie had repeated almost word for word. I knew that he read the review
regularly, and was persuaded he had not missed reading the article on
the agriculture of that part of France which interested him most, and
his memory was so exact that he had forgotten nothing. I had often
remarked his quotations, but he could digest what he read as well as
remember. A few men like Auguste Elie would have given a better tone to
Haytian society.

A strong desire to appear what they are not is a defect from which the
best-known Haytians are not free. A French colleague once called upon
a Secretary of State, whose _writings have been compared to those of
Plato_, and found him, book in hand, walking up and down his verandah.
“Ah! my friend, you see how I employ my leisure hours. I am reading
Demosthenes in the original.” But the sharp Frenchman kept his eye on
the volume, and soon found that it was an interlinear translation.

Every Haytian appears fully persuaded that his countrymen never seek
office except for the purpose of improving their private fortunes, and
the most precise stories of official robbery were falsely made against
Auguste Elie and M. Bauce, both Secretaries of State. At Auguste Elie’s
death there was little left for the family, and Madame Bauce declined
the succession to her husband’s effects, as the debts were not covered
by the inheritance. Liaulaud Ethéart and M. Darius Denis, though long
Secretaries of State, afterwards honourably supported their families,
the one in retail trade, the other by keeping a school.

Perhaps, as a rule, the accusation is well founded, and nearly all,
black and coloured, believe in the saying, “Prendre l’argent de l’état,
ce n’est pas volé.”

When I first arrived in Port-au-Prince a small club was formed among
the foreigners, and one of the first rules was, “No Haytian to be
admitted.” I asked why, and was answered, that they introduced politics
into every place they entered. I soon found, however, that the real
reason was that their society was disliked; and one day, after
listening for an hour or two to the criticism on the people--and be it
remembered that half those present were married to Haytian ladies--I
could not help remarking, “If I had such an opinion of this race, I
would not have sought my wife among them.” The married men looked
foolish, the bachelors laughed, and one of the former observed, “The
women are so superior to the men.”

The following story shows some delicacy of feeling; it is told by
Mackenzie, and I have heard it repeated. When the decree was issued
by Dessalines that mulatto children should inherit the estates of
their white fathers, two young men met, and one said to the other,
“You kill my father and I will kill yours;” which they accordingly
did, and took possession of their estates. On another occasion, the
Emperor Dessalines said to a young man who claimed to be a mulatto, “I
don’t believe it, but you can prove it by going and poniarding your
French friend.” The man did not hesitate, and was accepted as a Haytian
citizen. A negro general, grandfather of a lady I knew in Hayti, went
to Dessalines after the appearance of the decree to murder all the
white French left in the island and said, “Emperor, I have obeyed
your decree: I have put my white wife to death.” “Excellent Haytian,”
answered he, “but an infernal scoundrel. If ever again you present
yourself before me I will have you shot,”--the only saying of his that
I have seen recorded showing any humane feeling.




CHAPTER V.

VAUDOUX WORSHIP AND CANNIBALISM.


When the news reached Paris of the massacres in Port-au-Prince of the
mulattoes by orders of the black President Soulouque in April 1849, it
is said that Louis Napoleon took the opportunity of saying at a public
reception, in presence of the sable representative of Hayti, “Haïti,
Haïti! pays de barbares.” Had he known all the particulars relating
to Vaudoux worship and cannibalism, he would have been still more
justified in so expressing himself.

There is no subject of which it is more difficult to treat than Vaudoux
worship and the cannibalism that too often accompanies its rites. Few
living out of the Black Republic are aware of the extent to which it
is carried, and if I insist at length upon the subject, it is in order
to endeavour to fix attention on this frightful blot, and thus induce
enlightened Haytians to take measures for its extirpation, if that be
possible.[8]

It is certain that no people are more sensitive to foreign public
opinion than the Haytians, and they therefore endeavour to conceal by
every means this evidence of the barbarism of their fellow-countrymen.
It is, however, but the story of the foolish ostrich over again; every
foreigner in Hayti knows that cannibalism exists, and that the educated
classes endeavour to ignore it instead of devising means to eradicate
it.

The only Governments that endeavoured to grapple with the evil were
those of President Geffrard and President Boisrond-Canal, and probably
they in some measure owe their fall to this action on their part.

The first question naturally asked is, “Who is tainted by the Vaudoux
worship?” I fear the answer must be, “Who is not?” This does not
necessarily imply that they are tainted with cannibalism, as I shall
hereafter explain. It is notorious that the Emperor Soulouque was a
firm believer, and that the mulatto general Therlonge was one of its
high priests, and in his younger days used to appear in a scarlet robe
performing antics in the trees. A late Prime Minister, whose bloody
deeds will be an everlasting reproach to his memory, was said to be a
chief priest of the sect, and many others whom I will not at present
indicate.

If persons so high placed can be counted among its votaries, it may
be readily believed that the masses are given up to this brutalising
worship. During the reign of Soulouque, a priestess was arrested for
having performed a sacrifice too openly; when about to be conducted to
prison, a foreign bystander remarked aloud that probably she would be
shot. She laughed and said, “If I were to beat the sacred drum, and
march through the city, not one, from the Emperor downwards, but would
humbly follow me.” She was sent to jail, but no one ever heard that she
was punished.

President Salnave (1867), inclined at first to court the support of
the educated classes, kept clear of the Vaudoux. But when he found his
advances repulsed, for the gross debauchery at the palace prevented
any respectable person from ever willingly entering it, and when the
fortunes of the civil war that then raged began to turn against him
(1869), he, from some motive or other, whether superstition or the
desire to conciliate the mass of his ignorant troops, went to consult
a well-known priest living near Marquissant, in the neighbourhood of
Port-au-Prince, and there went through all the ceremonies that were
required. He bathed in the blood of goats, made considerable presents
to the priests and priestesses, and then feasted with the assembly,
who all gave themselves up to the lowest debauchery, and kept up these
festivities so long that even the iron frame of the President gave way,
and he was confined to his bed for many days after.

The fortunes of war still continuing adverse, he again consulted the
Papaloi or priest, who insisted that he must now go through the highest
ceremony; that the “goat without horns” must be slain, and that he
must be anointed with its blood. If he agreed to this, then the priest
assured him of certain victory over his enemies.

Whether Salnave gave in or not I cannot say positively. His enemies
of all classes declared he did; his friends among the lower orders
confirmed the story; but the few respectable people who adhered to his
cause naturally denied the truth of the accusation. I think the weight
of evidence was more against him than for him.

To explain the phrase of “the goat without horns,” I must notice that
there are two sects which follow the Vaudoux worship--those who only
delight in the blood and flesh of white cocks and spotless white goats
at their ceremonies, and those who are not only devoted to these, but
on great occasions call for the flesh and blood of the “goat without
horns,” or human victims.

When Hayti was still a French colony Vaudoux worship flourished, but
there is no distinct mention of human sacrifices in the accounts
transmitted to us. In Moreau de St. Méry’s excellent description of
the colony, from whose truthful pages it is a pleasure to seek for
information, he gives a very graphic account of fetishism as it existed
in his day, that is, towards the close of the last century.

After describing certain dances, he remarks that the Calinda and
the Chica are not the only ones brought from Africa to the colony.
There is another which has been known for a long time, principally
in the western part of the island (Hayti), and which has the name of
Vaudoux.[9] But it is not merely as a dance that the Vaudoux merits
consideration; at least it is accompanied by circumstances that give it
a rank among those institutions in which superstition and ridiculous
practices have a principal part.

According to the Arada negroes, who are the true sectaries of the
Vaudoux in the colony, who maintain its principles and its rules,
Vaudoux signifies an all-powerful and supernatural being, on whom
depend all the events which take place in the world. This being is
the non-venomous serpent, and it is under its auspices that all those
assemble who profess this doctrine. Acquaintance with the past,
knowledge of the present, prescience of the future, all appertain to
this serpent, that only consents, however, to communicate his power
and prescribe his will through the organ of a grand priest, whom the
sectaries select, and still more by that of the negress whom the love
of the latter has raised to the rank of high priestess.

These two delegates, who declare themselves inspired by their god, or
in whom the gift of inspiration is really manifested in the opinion
of their followers, bear the pompous names of King and Queen, or the
despotic ones of Master and Mistress, or the touching titles of Papa
and Mama. They are during their whole life the chiefs of the great
family of the Vaudoux, and they have a right to the unlimited respect
of those that compose it. It is they who decide if the serpent agrees
to admit a candidate into the society, who prescribe the obligations
and the duties he is to fulfil; it is they who receive the gifts and
presents which the god expects as a just homage to him. To disobey
them, to resist them, is to disobey God himself, and to expose oneself
to the greatest misfortunes.

This system of domination on the one hand, and of blind obedience on
the other, being well established, they at fixed dates meet together,
and the King and Queen of the Vaudoux preside, following the forms
which they probably brought from Africa, and to which Creole customs
have added many variations, and some traits which betray European
ideas; as, for instance, the scarf, or rich belt, which the Queen wears
at these assemblies, and which she occasionally varies.

The reunion for the true Vaudoux worship, for that which has least
lost its primitive purity, never takes place except secretly, in
the dead of night, and in a secure place safe from any profane eye.
There each initiated puts on a pair of sandals and fastens around
his body a number, more or less considerable, of red handkerchiefs,
or of handkerchiefs in which that colour predominates. The King of
the Vaudoux has finer handkerchiefs and in greater number, and one
that is entirely red, with which he binds his forehead as a diadem. A
girdle, generally blue, gives the finishing-stroke to the tokens of his
resplendent dignity.

The Queen, dressed with simple luxury, also shows her predilection for
the red colour,[10] which is generally that of her sash or belt.

The King and Queen place themselves at one end of the room, near a kind
of altar, on which is a box where the serpent is kept, and where each
adept can see it through the bars of its cage.

When they have verified that no curious stranger has penetrated
into the place, they commence the ceremony by the adoration of the
serpent, by protestations of being faithful to its worship and
entirely submissive to its commands. They renew, holding the hands of
the King and Queen, the oath of secrecy, which is the foundation of
the association, and it is accompanied by everything horrible which
delirium could imagine to render it more imposing.

When the followers of the Vaudoux are thus prepared to receive the
impressions which the King and Queen desire them to feel, they take the
affectionate tone of a tender father or mother; vaunt the happiness
which is the appanage of those who are devoted to the Vaudoux; they
exhort them to have confidence in him, and to give him the proofs of it
by taking his counsel in all the most important circumstances of their
lives.

Then the crowd separates, and each one who may desire it, and according
to his seniority in the sect, approaches to implore the aid of the
Vaudoux. Most of them ask for the talent to be able to direct the
conduct of their masters. But this is not enough: one wants more money;
another the gift of being able to please an unfeeling one; another
desires to reattach an unfaithful lover; this one wishes for a prompt
cure or long life; an elderly female comes to conjure the god to end
the disdain with which she is treated by the youth whose love she
would captivate; a young one solicits eternal love, or she repeats the
maledictions that hate dictates to her against a preferred rival. There
is not a passion which does not give vent to its vow, and crime itself
does not always disguise those which have for object its success. At
each of these invocations the King of the Vaudoux appears absorbed in
thought. The spirit seizes him; suddenly he takes hold of the box in
which the serpent is confined, places it on the ground, and commands
the Queen to get on it. As soon as the sacred ark is beneath her feet,
the new Pythoness is filled by the spirit of their god; she trembles,
all her body is in a state of convulsion, and the oracle speaks by her
mouth. Now she flatters and promises happiness, now she bursts into
reproaches; and according to her wishes, her interest, or her caprice,
she dictates as decrees without appeal everything which she is pleased
to prescribe, in the name of the serpent, to this imbecile crowd, that
never expresses the slightest doubt of the most monstrous absurdity,
and that only knows how to obey what is despotically dictated to it.

After all these questions have received some kind of an answer from the
oracle, many of which are not without ambiguity, they form a circle,
and the serpent is again placed on the altar. Then his followers bring
as tribute the objects they think most worthy, and that no jealous
curiosity shall raise a blush, the offerings are placed in a covered
hat. The King and Queen then promise that the offerings shall be
accepted by their god. It is from this collection that the expenses
of the meetings are paid, that aid is afforded to absent members,
or to those present who may be in want, or to others from whom the
society may expect something in favour of its glory or renown. They
now propose and settle their future plans, they consider what is to be
done, and all this is declared by the Queen the will of the god; often
enough these plans have not for object either good order or public
tranquillity. A fresh oath, as execrable as the first, engages each one
to be silent as to what has passed, to aid in what has been settled;
and sometimes a vase, in which there is the blood of a goat, still
warm, seals on the lips of those present the promise to suffer death
rather than reveal anything, and even to inflict it on any one who may
forget that he is thus so solemnly bound to secrecy.

After these ceremonies commences the dance of the Vaudoux.

If there should be a new candidate, it is by his admission that the
_fête_ commences. The King of the Vaudoux, with some black substance,
traces a large circle, and in this the novice is placed; and in his
hand he puts a packet of herbs, horsehair, pieces of horn, and other
trifling objects. Then lightly touching him on the head with a slight
wooden wand, he thunders forth an African song, which is repeated in
chorus by those who stand around the circle; then the new member begins
to tremble and to dance, which is called to practise Vaudoux. If,
unhappily, excess of excitement makes him leave the circle, the song
immediately ceases, the King and Queen turn their backs to avert the
evil omen. The dancer recollects himself, re-enters the circle, again
trembles, drinks, and arrives at length at so convulsive a state, that
the King orders him to stop, by striking him lightly on the head with
his wand, or, should he think it necessary, with a heavy _kurbash_. He
is taken to the altar to swear, and from that moment he belongs to the
sect.

This ceremony over, the King places his hand or his foot on the
box in which the serpent is confined, and soon becomes agitated.
This impression he communicates to the Queen, and from her it gains
the whole circle, and every one commences certain movements, in
which the upper part of the body, the head and shoulders, appear to
be dislocated. The Queen above all is a prey to the most violent
agitation. From time to time she approaches the serpent in order to
add to her frenzy; she shakes the box, and the hawkbells attached to
it sound like a fool’s bauble, and the excitement goes on increasing.
This is augmented by the use of spirituous liquors, which the adepts
do not spare. With some, fainting fits follow, with others a species of
fury; but a nervous trembling seizes them all, which they appear unable
to master. They go on spinning round, and in their excitement some tear
their clothes, others bite their own flesh; then again many fall to the
ground utterly deprived of sense, and are dragged into a neighbouring
dark apartment. Here in the obscurity is too often a scene of the most
disgusting prostitution.

At length lassitude puts an end to these demoralising scenes, to be
renewed again at a date which is carefully settled beforehand.

In reading this account, freely given from Moreau de St. Méry, I have
been struck how little change, except for the worse, has taken place
during the last century. Though the sect continues to meet in secret,
they do not appear to object to the presence of their countrymen who
are not yet initiated. In fact, the necessity of so much mystery is not
recognised, when there are no longer any French magistrates to send
these assassins to the stake.

Notwithstanding their efforts to keep strangers far from their
sacrifices, two Frenchmen succeeded in being present on different
occasions.

At a dinner at which I was present, I heard the Archbishop of
Port-au-Prince give the following account of what had occurred the
preceding week (in 1869). A French priest who had charge of the
district of Arcahaye, had the curiosity to witness the Vaudoux
ceremonies, and he persuaded some of his parishioners to take him to
the forest, where a meeting of the sect was to be held. They were very
unwilling, saying that, if discovered, he and they would be killed;
but he promised faithfully that, whatever happened, he would not
speak a word. They blacked his hands and face, and disguising him as
a peasant, took him with them. In Salnave’s time the Vaudoux priests
were so seldom interrupted, that few precautions were taken against
surprise, and the neighbouring villagers flocked to the ceremony.
With these the Catholic priest mixed, and saw all that went on. As in
the previous description, the people came to ask that their wishes
should be gratified, and the priestess stood on the box containing
the serpent. At first she went into a violent paroxysm, then, in a
sort of half-trance, she promised all that they could desire. A white
cock and then a white goat were killed, and those present were marked
with their blood. Up to this point, it appeared as if Monseigneur were
repeating some pages from Moreau de St. Méry, but it soon changed. He
continued:--Presently an athletic young negro came and knelt before the
priestess and said, “O Maman, I have a favour to ask.” “What is it, my
son?” “Give us, to complete the sacrifice, the goat without horns.” She
gave a sign of assent; the crowd in the shed separated, and there was a
child sitting with its feet bound. In an instant a rope already passed
through a block was tightened, the child’s feet flew up towards the
roof, and the priest approached it with a knife. The loud shriek given
by the victim aroused the Frenchman to the truth of what was really
going on. He shouted, “Oh, spare the child!” and would have darted
forward, but he was seized by his friends around him, and literally
carried from the spot. There was a short pursuit, but the priest got
safely back to the town. He tried to rouse the police to hasten to the
spot, but they would do nothing. In the morning they accompanied him to
the scene of the sacrifice. They found the remains of the feast, and
near the shed the boiled skull of the child.

The authorities at Arcahaye were exceedingly incensed with the priest
for his interference, and, under pretence that they could not answer
for his safety, shipped him off to Port-au-Prince, where he made his
report to the Archbishop.

Another Frenchman, who resided in a village in the southern department,
witnessed the whole ceremony, and, as he remained silent, was
undiscovered; but on its being rumoured that he had been present, his
wife’s Haytian family insisted on his leaving the district, as his life
was in danger.

I have frequently heard similar details from educated Haytians, and a
proof will presently be given.

I may notice that the Haytians have corrupted the compounds Papa Roi
and Maman Roi into Papaloi and Mamanloi.

The temples of the Vaudoux, called Humfort, are to be found in every
district of the country. They are in general small, though one I
visited in the interior was spacious, and was papered with engravings
from the _Illustrated London News_, and the walls were hung with the
pictures of the Virgin Mary and of various saints. I may notice that
in every one I entered I found similar pictures. In the largest one, a
Catholic priest had often said mass during his inland tours. Though he
could not prove it, he shrewdly suspected that the Vaudoux worship was
carried on there during his frequent absences. He showed me some very
curious polished stones of various forms, which he had induced some of
his disciples to give up. One was a stone axe in shape of a crescent;
and the negroes said that they had been brought from Africa, and formed
part of the relics they worshipped. I believe my informant obtained
these stones from a young negress during the absence of her husband,
who was very indignant on discovering their loss. The French priest
destroyed them, to prevent their falling again into the hands of his
congregation.

Beside various Christian emblems, I found in one of the temples a flag
of red silk, on which was worked the following inscription:--“Société
des Fleurs za Dahomïan,” whatever that may refer to. This flag was
said to have been the gift of the Empress, the consort of the Emperor
Soulouque.

Once whilst strolling with a friend in the mountains at the back of
La Coupé, about six miles from Port-au-Prince, I was shown another
small temple. As the guardian was a sort of dependant of the Haytian
gentleman who was with me, we were allowed to enter, and were shown
a box under a kind of altar, in which we were told the serpent was
confined, but we could not induce the man to let us see it, as he
feared the anger of the Papaloi.

I have remarked that the temples are generally small. To accommodate
the crowd, however, permanent or temporary sheds are erected near,
and there is generally the guardian’s house besides, in which to take
shelter or carry on their debauch.

The Papalois may generally be distinguished by the peculiar knotting of
their curly wool, which must be a work of considerable labour, and by
their profusion of ornaments. We noticed the former peculiarity at the
trial of some sorcerers, whilst the jailers probably had relieved them
of the latter. I have frequently remarked these knotted-headed negroes,
and the attention they received from their sable countrymen.

In general, when incidents are spoken of in society in Hayti relating
to the Vaudoux worship, Haytian gentlemen endeavour to turn the
conversation, or they say you have been imposed upon, or the events
have been exaggerated. But the incidents I am about to relate formed
the subject of a trial before a criminal court, and are to be found
detailed in the official journal of the period, and I was present
during the two days that the inquiry lasted.

It occurred during the Presidency of General Geffrard, the most
enlightened ruler that that unfortunate country possessed since the
time of President Boyer; it too plainly proved that the fetish worship
of the negroes of Africa had not been forgotten by their descendants,
nor to be denied by any one, and the attention of the whole country was
drawn to the subject of cannibalism. As the case greatly interested
me, I made the most careful inquiries and followed it in its most
minute particulars. It is worth while relating the whole story in its
disgusting details, as it is one of the truth of which there is not a
shadow of a doubt.

A couple of miles to the west of Port-au-Prince lies the village of
Bizoton, in which there lived a man named Congo Pellé. He had been a
labourer, a gentleman’s servant, an idler, who was anxious to improve
his position without any exertion on his own part. In this dilemma he
addressed himself to his sister Jeanne, who had long been connected
with the Vaudoux--was, in fact, the daughter of a priestess, and
herself a well-known Mamanloi--and it was settled between them that
about the new year some sacrifice should be offered to propitiate the
serpent. A more modest man would have been satisfied with a white cock
or a white goat, but on this solemn occasion it was thought better to
offer a more important sacrifice. A consultation was held with two
Papalois, Julien Nicolas and Floréal Apollon, and it was decided that a
female child should be offered as a sacrifice, and the choice fell on
Claircine, the niece of Jeanne and Congo.

This was the account given in court; but it appears also to be an
undoubted fact that human sacrifices are offered at Easter, Christmas
Eve, New Year’s Eve, and more particularly on Twelfth Night, or _Les
Fêtes des Rois_.

On the 27th December 1863, Jeanne invited her sister, the mother of
Claircine, to accompany her to Port-au-Prince, and the child, a girl
of about twelve years of age, was left at home with Congo. Immediate
advantage was taken of the mother’s absence, and Claircine was
conducted to the house of Julien, and from thence to that of Floréal,
where she was bound, and hidden under the altar in a neighbouring
temple. In the evening, the mother, returning home, asked for her
child, when her brother Congo told her it had strayed away; a pretended
search was made by those in the plot, and another Papaloi was
consulted. This man told the mother not to be uneasy, as the Maître
d’Eau, or the spirit of the water, had taken her daughter, but that in
a short time her child would be restored to her. The woman believed, or
pretended to believe, this story, and, by the papa’s recommendation,
burnt candles before the altar of the Virgin Mary for the prompt return
of her offspring,--another proof of the strange mingling of Catholicism
and Vaudoux worship.

On the evening of the 31st of December a large party assembled at the
house of Jeanne to await the arrival of the child, who had remained for
four days bound under the altar. When the chief members of the plot
came to the temple to bring her out, she, guessing the fate reserved
for her, gave two or three piercing shrieks, which were soon stifled,
and, gagged and bound, she was carried to Jeanne’s house, where
preparations were made for the human sacrifice. She was thrown on the
ground, her aunt holding her by the waist, whilst the Papaloi pressed
her throat, and the others held her legs and arms; her struggles
soon ceased, as Floréal had succeeded in strangling her. Then Jeanne
handed him a large knife, with which he cut off Claircine’s head, the
assistants catching the blood in a jar; then Floréal is said to have
inserted an instrument under the child’s skin, and detached it from
the body. Having succeeded in flaying their victim, the flesh was cut
from the bones, and placed in large wooden dishes; the entrails and
skin being buried near to the cottage. The whole party then started for
Floréal’s house, carrying the remains of their victim with them. On
their arrival Jeanne rang a little bell, and a procession was formed,
the head borne aloft, and a sacred song sung. Then preparations were
made for a feast.

Roused by the noise caused by the arrival, a woman and girl sleeping in
another chamber looked through some chinks in the wall and saw all that
passed,--Jeanne cooking the flesh with Congo beans, small and rather
bitter (_pois congo_), whilst Floréal put the head into a pot with yams
to make some soup. Whilst the others were engaged in the kitchen, one
of the women present, Roséide Sumera, urged by the fearful appetite of
a cannibal, cut from the child’s palm a piece of flesh and ate it raw
(this I heard her avow in open court).

The cooking over, portions of the prepared dish were handed round, of
which all present partook; and the soup being ready, it was divided
among the assistants, who deliberately drank it. The night was passed
in dancing, drinking, and debauchery. In the morning the remains
of the flesh were warmed up, and the two witnesses who had watched
the proceedings were invited to join in the repast: the young woman
confessed that she had accepted the invitation, but the girl did not.

Not satisfied with this taste of human flesh, the priests now put the
young girl, who had watched their proceedings from a neighbouring room,
in the place of Claircine, and she was bound in the temple, to be
sacrificed on Twelfth Night. It came out in evidence that she had been
decoyed to the house for that purpose, and that the young woman who was
sleeping in the same room was in reality in charge of her.

Fortunately for her, the inquiries which Claircine’s mother had made
on her first arrival home and the disappearance of the second girl
had roused the attention of an officer of police, and a search being
made, the freshly-boiled skull of the murdered girl was found among the
bushes near Floréal’s house, where careless impunity had induced the
assassins to throw it. A further search led to the discovery of the
girl bound under the altar and the other remains of Claircine.

Fourteen persons were arrested, against eight of whom sufficient
evidence could be obtained, and these were sent to prison to answer for
their crime before a criminal court. The trial commenced on the 4th
of February 1864, and lasted two days. Incidents were related in the
course of the evidence which showed how the lower classes are sunk in
ignorance and barbarity, and renewed the proofs, if any fresh proofs
were required, that the Vaudoux worship is associated by them with the
ceremonies of the Catholic religion, even the Papalois recommending the
burning of tapers in the Christian churches, and the having crosses and
pictures of the Virgin Mary strangely mingled on their altars with the
objects of their superstition.

In the dock we saw the eight prisoners, four men and four women, with
faces of the ordinary Haytian type, neither better nor worse. Their
names were: men--Julian Nicholas, a Papaloi; Floréal Apollon, another
Papaloi; Guerrier François and Congo Pellé: the women--Jeanne Pellé,
a Mamanloi, Roséide Sumera, Neréide François, and Beyard Prosper.
Some had been servants to foreigners, others had been gardeners and
washerwomen. The French procedure is observed in all trials in Hayti,
and to an Englishman the procedure, as practised in that republic,
is contrary to the first principles of justice. The prisoners were
bullied, cajoled, cross-questioned, in order to force avowals, in fact,
to make them state in open court what they were said to have confessed
in their preliminary examinations. I can never forget the manner in
which the youngest female prisoner turned to the public prosecutor and
said, “Yes, I did confess what you assert, but remember how cruelly I
was beaten before I said a word;” and it was well known that all the
prisoners had at first refused to speak, thinking that the Vaudoux
would protect them, and it required the frequent application of the
club to drive this belief out of their heads. That prisoners are
tortured to make them confess is known to be a common practice in Hayti.

However this may have been in the present case, there, on a table
before the judge, was the skull of the murdered girl, and in a jar the
remains of the soup and the calcined bones; and the avowals of the
prisoners in court and the testimony of the witnesses were too clear
and circumstantial to leave a doubt as to their criminality.

As I have remarked, I was in court during the two days’ trial, and I
never was present at one where the judge conducted himself with greater
dignity. His name was Lallemand, and he was one of the few magistrates
who had the courage to do justice, even when political passion would
have condemned victims unheard.

Among those who gave their evidence was the young girl who witnessed
the ceremonies, and for whom was reserved the fate of Claircine. The
judge called her up to his side, and gently asked her to tell the court
what she had seen; but, with a frightened look, she started and burst
into tears, and the judge, looking up sharply, saw the prisoners making
the most diabolical grimaces at the poor child. He then turned round
to the jury and said, in view of the intimidation attempted, he would
do what was not strictly regular; the child should whisper the story to
him, and he would repeat it to the court. He placed her with her back
to the prisoners, and putting his arm round her, drew her gently to
him, and said in a soft voice, “Tell me, _chère_, what occurred.” The
girl, in a very low tone, began her testimony, but the silence in court
was so profound, that not a word she uttered was lost, and, almost
without faltering, she told her story in all its horrible details; but
her nerves then gave way so completely, that she had to be taken out
of court, and could not be again produced to answer some questions the
jury wished to ask.

Then the young woman, her companion of that night, was called, and
she confirmed the account, and confessed that in the morning she had
joined in the feast; the mother’s testimony followed, and that of
numerous other witnesses. The guilt of the prisoners was thus fully
established, when one of the female prisoners, Roséide, in the hopes
perhaps of pardon, entered into every particular of the whole affair,
to the evident annoyance of the others, who tried in vain to keep her
silent. Her testimony was the most complete, and left not a doubt of
the culpability of the whole of the prisoners. I did in consequence
suggest that her life should be spared, but President Geffrard reminded
me that it was she who had confessed, in open court, that she had eaten
the palms of the victim’s hands as a favourite morsel.

Jeanne, the old woman, though she showed the utmost coolness during
the trial, did at length appeal for mercy, saying she had only been
practising what had been taught her by her mother as the religion of
her ancestors. “Why should I be put to death for observing our ancient
customs?”

They were all found guilty of sorcery, torture, and murder, and
condemned to death.

I asked the public prosecutor if he thought that the mother had been
really ignorant of the fate reserved for her child. He replied, “We
have not thought proper to press the inquiry too closely, for fear
that we should discover that she partook of the feast; we required her
testimony at the trial.” After a pause, he added, “If full justice were
done, there would be fifty on those benches instead of eight.”

The execution took place on Saturday, February 13, 1864, the
authorities wisely selecting a market-day, in order that the example
might have the greater effect. The following particulars relating to
it I received from the American Commissioner, Mr. Whiddon, who was
present at this last scene. The prisoners, men and women, were all
clothed in white robes and white headdresses, the garments reserved for
parricides, and were drawn in carts to the place of execution, and all
but one had a sullen look of resignation, and neither uttered a word
nor a complaint, whilst the eighth, the young woman Roséide, kept up a
continued conversation with the crowd around her.

Every effort was made by the Government to give solemnity to the
occasion; the troops and National Guard were summoned, for even the
word “rescue” had been pronounced; the principal authorities attended;
and thousands of spectators gathered round the spot. The prisoners,
tied in pairs, were placed in a line, and faced by five soldiers to
each pair; they fired with such inaccuracy, that only six fell wounded
on the first discharge. It took these untrained men fully half an
hour to complete their work, and the incidents were so painful, that
the horror at the prisoners’ crimes was almost turned into pity at
witnessing their unnecessary sufferings. As usual, the prisoners
behaved with great courage, even the women standing up unflinchingly
before their executioners, and receiving their fire without quailing,
and when at last they fell wounded, no cry was heard, but they were
seen beckoning the soldiers to approach, and Roséide held the muzzle of
a musket to her bosom and called on the man to fire.

The Vaudoux priests gave out, that although the deity would permit the
execution, he would only do it to prove to his votaries his power by
raising them all again from the dead. To prevent their bodies being
carried away during the night (they had been buried near the place
of execution), picquets of troops were placed round the spot; but in
the morning three of the graves were found empty, and the bodies of
the two priests and the priestess had disappeared. Superstitious fear
had probably prevented the soldiers from staying where they had been
posted, and as most of the troops belonged to the sect of the Vaudoux,
they probably connived at, rather than prevented, the exhumation.

Among those who attended the trial were the Spanish _chargé
d’affaires_, Don Mariano Alvarez, and the Admiral, Mendez Nuñez, but
they were so horrified by the sight of the child’s remains on the
judge’s table and the disgusting evidence, that they had precipitately
to leave the court. For years Congo beans were forbidden at our table.

Mr. Alvarez had a great liking for Haytian society, and lived much with
certain families, and was very familiar with what was occurring in the
country. I therefore asked him if he had any objection to give me some
extracts from his official reports on the subject of the Vaudoux; he
freely consented, and authorised me to publish the same in any way I
pleased. I propose to insert some extracts in this chapter, as they
confirm my own inquiries.

I have elsewhere remarked, but I may repeat it, that all prisoners
condemned to death in Hayti, whether their crimes be political or
otherwise, are shot, and as but two or three soldiers are told off to
each prisoner, the consequence is that almost every execution that
takes place resembles, instead of a solemn warning, a frightful and
pitiable butchery.

President Geffrard behaved with great courage on this occasion, for
though continued appeals were made for pardon, he remained firm. He
was warned that such an execution would sap the attachment of the
masses, but he insisted that the condemned should be put to death. The
example probably deterred others from openly committing such crimes, or
from committing them near civilised centres; but when Geffrard quitted
power, the sect again raised its head, and human sacrifices became
common. We, however, heard little of these dreadful rites after the
fall of Salnave. It can scarcely be said that civilisation is making
progress; it is more probable that the authorities, absorbed in their
petty intrigues to maintain power, did not care to inquire too closely
into the disappearance of children.

I believe that the latter is the true explanation, and that instead
of there having been any amelioration, the subject is only ignored,
as one likely to give trouble. Instead of the country advancing in
civilisation since the fall of Geffrard, it has retrograded. Civil
wars and the imbecile Government of Nissage-Saget followed, and then
again insurrections and civil war. It cannot be supposed that under the
Government of General Domingue (1874 and 1875) the Vaudoux worship was
discouraged, when it was openly stated and believed that one of his
Ministers was a Papaloi, and head of the sect in the southern province.
His brutal character and love of bloodshed would add to the suspicion.
Under the next President (1876-78), Boisrond-Canal, a decree was issued
forbidding any Vaudoux dances, as, under cover of these, other rites
were carried on; but that decree has, I hear, been since repealed. Who
is to think of the improvement of the masses whilst struggling to
maintain a precarious tenure of power?

Mr. Alvarez’s account of the Claircine incident differs only in a few
trifles from mine, but he had not the opportunities I had fully to
investigate it. He says:--“I have previously reported on the subject
of the fetish sect of Vaudoux, imported into Hayti by the slaves
coming from the tribes on the western coast of Africa, and mentioning
the crimes of these cannibals. To-day I enclose an extract from the
official _Moniteur_, in which they have commenced to publish the
process against four men and four women, who were shot near this
capital on the 13th instant, convicted on their own confession of
having eaten, in Bizoton, near Port-au-Prince, on the night of the 10th
of December last, a young child of six years old, called Claircine,
whose own aunt delivered her to these anthropophagi, and for having
another child that they were feeding up to sacrifice and eat on the
first days of January, in commemoration of the feast of the King of
Africa. I assisted at the trial, and there appeared to have been no
doubt that if the public prosecutor had desired to verify the case
minutely, not only the witnesses, but even the mother of the victim,
merited the same fate as the cannibals who were proved to have eaten
her.”

“President Geffrard, who is not afraid of the Vaudoux, although all the
mountains and plains of the republic are full of these anthropophagi,
with an energy which does him honour has caused the authorities
to throw down the altars, collect the drums, timbrels, and other
ridiculous instruments which the Papalois use in their diabolical
ceremonies, and in the district of Port-au-Prince has imprisoned many
individuals of both sexes, who, on being interrogated, confessed what
had been the fate of other children who had disappeared from their
homes, and whose whereabouts were unknown.”

As an instance of what occurred in the time of the Emperor Soulouque,
I may again seek the testimony of Mr. Alvarez. In 1852, in consequence
of a denunciation, Vil Lubin, governor of Port-au-Prince, arrested in
the neighbourhood of that city about fifty individuals of both sexes.
On examining the house in which human sacrifices were offered, packages
of salted human flesh were found rolled up in leaves. These were thrown
into the sea. During the examination of the prisoners, they declared
that among the members of the best families of the city were many
associates of the society of the Vaudoux, and that if the authorities
desired to be satisfied of this assertion, let them be permitted to
beat the little drum. They would present themselves even to the Emperor
Soulouque himself, for among the Vaudoux worshippers no one under peril
of his life would be wanting to his engagements. This case was allowed
to drop.

In part proof of the above statement, Mr. Alvarez tells the following
story:--One of the principal ladies of Port-au-Prince, rich, and of
good family, was found late at night by General Vil Lubin stretched
out at the door of the Catholic cathedral, wearing only the blue dress
of the country negresses, without shoes, and going through certain
incantations called _wanga_. The governor accompanied this lady to her
house. I knew the person to whom Mr. Alvarez alludes, and certainly she
was one of the last women whom I should have suspected to have belonged
to the Vaudoux.

I add some further observations of Mr. Alvarez, as they give the view
held by a Catholic who represented a Catholic power:--“1862.--The
delegate of his Holiness, Monseigneur Testard du Cocquer, has left,
much disgusted with this country on account of the corruption of its
customs, the dearth of religion among the sectaries of the Vaudoux,
and the opposition and want of confidence with which he met in what is
called in Hayti civilised society. In order that you may appreciate
the accuracy of the incidents which pass here, a simple narration of
some of a very recent epoch will be sufficient to show the powerful
influence exercised on the inhabitants by the sect or the society of
the Vaudoux, so spread throughout the country; this, with other causes
inherent in the race, to which it would be tiresome to refer, prove
that Hayti is, of all the republics in America, the most backward and
the most pernicious in every point of view. From the same motive, I
will not stop to speak of the origin of the fetish religion of the
Vaudoux, or the worship of the serpent, imported from the tribes of the
west coast of Africa by the slaves coming from that country, and I now
pass to facts.

“In the month of August past (1862) there died, in the section called
Belair, a negro, and his body was taken to the Catholic church.
The defunct belonged to the society of the Vaudoux. The men and
women who accompanied the corpse began in the temple to scream like
those possessed, and they commenced a scene such as might occur in
Mid-Africa. The Abbé Pascal tried to re-establish order; his requests
that they should respect the sacred precincts were useless; and
the Abbé having refused, on account of this scandalous conduct, to
accompany the body to the cemetery, the mourners fell upon him, seized
him by the collar, and he had to fly to the sacristy, the interference
of a foreigner alone saving him from further ill-treatment; but the
tumult was so great that even the cross which is used at funerals was
broken to pieces. Two women were taken out fainting, and the rabble
marched off to the cemetery to bury the body; some arrests were made,
but it is not known what punishment was inflicted, as the tribunals
always leave unpunished the misdemeanours of the sectaries of the
Vaudoux, as I am going to prove.”

Mr. Alvarez then tells a horrible story, to which I shall refer farther
on, as it belongs to a different section of this chapter.

“In February 1862 a negro was taken prisoner at Ouanaminthe for having
assassinated his father. He was condemned to death by the tribunals;
but he defended himself by saying that he had done no more than follow
the orders of the serpent. In a few months he was set at liberty.

“It is not long since that in one of the streets of Port-au-Prince
was found at early morn the body of an unknown youth, of about twenty
years of age, who had a weapon piercing his heart, and attached to
that a thin hollow cane. It was supposed that he was assassinated in
order to suck his blood. I might cite many other facts of which I have
taken note, but what I have related appear sufficient for the object I
have proposed to myself. The disappearance of children is frequent at
certain epochs or seasons, and it is supposed that they are eaten by
the cannibals of this society.

“In the secret ceremonies of the Vaudoux the drink in use is the
blood of animals mixed with white rum, and the Papaloi, either from
the immoderate use they make of alcohol mixed with blood, or from the
handling of the poisons they use in their devil craft, die in general,
although at an advanced age, covered with leprosy and incurable sores.”
I myself heard this stated whilst in Hayti, but I fear that a few
exceptions have in this case made the rule.

“The people endure every possible oppression from the Papaloi, and if
you ask them why they permit these vexations and the abuses which are
committed against one another, they answer, ‘We are indeed obliged,
unhappy that we are: if we denounced our neighbours, certainly we
should quickly die.’ From which it may be inferred that they tolerate
this conduct because they fear, and they fear because they know each
other.” This fear of one another is noticed by all foreign residents
in Hayti: it extends to the higher classes.

“The society of the Vaudoux, although now (1862, time of Geffrard) not
so preponderant as in the time of Soulouque, who was one of its most
believing followers, is very extended in all the republic, but there
are few initiated into the secrets; they have their signs and symbols,
and the society meddles in the politics of every Government which has
existed in Hayti; they sometimes sustain them, as in certain cases they
will act as a secret police, and the Vaudoux is looked on as one of the
firmest props of the independence of the country.”

I may notice that the Papaloi lead the most depraved lives. They are
feared by all, and the fear inspired is so great, that few women among
the lower orders would resist their advances. It may probably be looked
upon as an honour. Unlimited drink is the next idea of happiness to a
negro, and in this the offerings of their followers enable the priests
to indulge to their hearts’ content.

After studying the history of Hayti, one is not astonished that the
fetish worship continues to flourish. The negroes imported from the
west coast of Africa naturally brought their religion with them,
and the worship of the serpent was one of its most distinguishing
features. St. Méry speaks of the slaves arriving with a strange
mixture of Mohammedanism and idolatry, to which they soon added a
little Catholicism. Of Mohammedanism I have not myself observed
a trace. When they found the large, almost harmless, serpent in
Hayti, they welcomed it as their god, and their fetish priests soon
collected their followers around them. The French authorities tried
to put down all meetings of the Vaudoux, partly because they looked
upon them as political, but they did not succeed in their object.
Many of the tribes in Africa are to this day cannibals, and their
ancestors imported probably this taste into the French colony. It was
difficult at that epoch to indulge in it, as all the children of the
slaves were carefully registered, and their disappearance would have
been immediately remarked; they may, however, have made use of the
expedients for producing apparent death, to which I will presently
refer.

Many persons appear to think that cannibalism is a later importation,
and came with the Africans freed by our cruisers. If it were so, the
seed fell on good ground, as the practice has spread to every district
of the island. This opinion, however, can scarcely be correct, as
Moreau de St. Méry, in naming the different tribes imported into
Hayti, says:--“Never had any a disposition more hideous than the last
(the Mondongues), whose depravity has reached the most execrable of
excesses, that of eating their fellow-creatures. They bring also to
Santo Domingo those butchers of human flesh (for in their country there
are butcheries where they sell slaves as they would calves), and they
are here, as in Africa, the horror of the other negroes.”

This is a fitting introduction to the second part of this chapter,
in which I must refer to the great knowledge of herbs as poisons and
antidotes shown by the Papaloi--which, though possibly exaggerated
by some inquirers, is no doubt very great--and to cannibalism as not
connected with religious rites.

In the following passages from Mr. Alvarez’s notes, the first
impression will be that there must be gross exaggeration. I thought so
when I first read them, but the more my inquiries extended, the less I
was inclined to doubt them. If not exactly true, it is the firm belief
of all classes of society that they are so. During thirteen years,
I had the best opportunities of hearing the opinion of Presidents,
intelligent Secretaries of State, the principal members of the medical
profession, lawyers, merchants, both foreign and native, as well as
other residents, who had passed a lifetime in the republic, and the
testimony was more or less unanimous as to the profound knowledge of
the use of herbs possessed by the Papaloi.

“The human imagination cannot conceive anything more absurd, more
barbarous, or more ridiculous than the acts committed by these
ferocious sectaries, who are called Papaloi, Papa Boco, or other names
as stupid as they are ill-sounding. They produce death--apparent, slow,
or instantaneous--madness, paralysis, impotence, idiocy, _riches or
poverty_, according to their will.

“It has happened on occasions that persons have retired to bed in
the possession of their senses to awaken idiots, and remain in
that state in spite of the aid of science, and in a few days to be
completely cured, when the causes which have produced the alienation
have ceased. One individual struck another; the latter threatened him
with impotency. At the end of fifteen days he was paralytic in all
his members.[11] Following the counsels of a friend, he consulted a
Papaloi, who had the coolness to confess that he had himself sold to
his enemy the philter that had reduced him to that state, but for the
sum of about £20 he would cure him. In fact, in a few days, by means
of the remedies of the Papa, he was completely restored to health.
And if it be doubted that these individuals, without even common
sense, can understand so thoroughly the properties of herbs and their
combinations, so as to be able to apply them to the injury of their
fellow-creatures, I can only say that tradition is a great book, and
that they receive these instructions as a sacred deposit from one
generation to another, with the further advantage that in the hills and
mountains of this island grow in abundance similar herbs to those which
in Africa they employ in their incantations.”

One case occurred in 1860, which was really so remarkable, and drew so
much attention at the time, that there was no possibility of doubting
it. It was supported by ample testimony. It was first told me by one
of the most eminent medical men in Port-au-Prince, and confirmed by
another, who had been an eyewitness of some of the details, and pledged
his word as to its truth. I one day mentioned the story in the French
Legation, as I was still somewhat sceptical, when, to my surprise, I
found that it had been made the subject of an official report. Count
Mégan, at that time _chargé d’affaires_ (1867), offered to give me an
extract relating to that crime, with permission to publish it in any
book I might write.

The following are the particulars:--“The police having been informed
that some shrieks had been heard at night in the cemetery of
Port-au-Prince, went there in the morning, and found a grave disturbed,
and near it an open coffin, and lying at the side the body of a lady
that had been buried on the previous day. A dagger had been thrust into
her bosom, and as blood covered her burial clothes, it was evident that
she had been buried alive. Many arrests took place, but the affair
was hushed up. It was currently reported, however, that the husband
had a mistress, whom he neglected after marriage, and that this woman
applied to a Mamanloi for aid. She received a sleeping potion which she
contrived to give to the lady during her first confinement, and she
was hurriedly buried, to be restored to consciousness in the graveyard
at dead of night, with her rival armed with a dagger before her. Her
shrieks drew the attention of some Jamaica negroes, who ran towards
the spot shouting, but whom superstition prevented from entering the
cemetery. Their shouts, however, caused the murderers to fly, and leave
the corpse where it was found next morning.” This is the story as told
me by my medical friends, and it was universally believed to be true,
and in fact was true, and was never denied by those in authority with
whom I conversed on the subject.

The accounts given by my French and Spanish colleagues were more
complete, and probably more exact, as they were both in Port-au-Prince
when this tragedy occurred. My previous French colleague (the Marquis
de Forbin Janson) wrote, 2d August 1860:--

“Deux jours après mon arrivé à Port-au-Prince, une femme endormie au
moyen d’un narcotique et enterrée le soir au cimetière de la ville, fut
exhumée dans la nuit; elle respirait encore, on la tua, puis on enleva
la cervelle, le cœur et la foi de la victime, dont on retrouva de
débris près de la tombe: le lendemain matin une enquête fut ordonnée,
on fit plusieurs arrestations, entre autres celle d’une prêtresse du
Vaudoux (Mamanloi). Cette femme fit des révélations y, offrit même de
livrer à la justice les auteurs du meurtre et de la profanation en
les attirant à la prison par une puissance irresistible ou ballant
de son tambour d’une manière particulière. La justice et la police,
déjà effrayées du nombre et de l’importance des personnes compromises,
reculèrent devant cette nouvelle épreuve. On ordonna aux journaux de
se taire et l’affaire fut étouffée. On croit que la principale mobile
du crime fut un sentiment de vengeance, mais on tient pour certain
que les parties mutilées ont été destinées à la célébration de quelque
mystère Vaudoux du fetichisme africain encore pratiqué, quoiqu’on dise,
par la grande majorité des Haïtiens.”

I think this case of so much importance, that, at the risk of
repetition, I will give the report made by Mr. Alvarez:--

“In July of 1860 there was committed in Port-au-Prince a horrible,
almost an incredible crime. A young woman died suddenly, and was buried
on the following day. At night several individuals of both sexes went
to the cemetery, dug up the coffin, and opened it. What they actually
did is not known, but what is positive is that the unburied began to
shriek and shout for help. The guard near the cemetery, composed of
Jamaicans, Louisianians, and Creoles, approached, and saw the woman
sitting in the coffin, and various persons--a torch in one hand and a
dagger in the other--vociferating words they could not understand. The
Creole soldiers of the country fled dismayed, but the Louisianians,
as soon as they had overcome the first feeling of terror, ran to the
succour of the unburied; already it was too late, they found her dead
from the stroke of a dagger, and her heart and lungs torn from her
bosom. The assassins escaped, but subsequently some prisoners were
made. In a few days the prisoners were at liberty; and it is related
that the lungs and the heart had been cooked and eaten in one of the
country-houses in Bizoton.”

My friend, Auguste Elie, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs,
deplored but could not deny the truth of this story; and having no
Vaudoux prejudices himself, having been born and bred in France,
conversed freely on the subject, and told us many particulars that had
come to his knowledge.

Of the truth of the following story I had the testimony of ocular
witnesses. A lady hearing that a child near her house was ill, went
down to see it. She found it lying stupefied in the mother’s lap. Her
suspicions were aroused, and she sharply questioned the mother as to
what had been done to the child. Her answers were so unsatisfactory,
yet mournful, that the lady determined to keep a watch on the case. She
called in the evening, and was told the child was dead. She insisted
on seeing the corpse, and found that though the heart was still and
the pulse had ceased to beat, yet that the child did not look dead,
and made the remark to the bystanders, but they answered, “Yes, it is
dead.” She told the mother she was not satisfied, and that she would
return in the morning with her husband, and that in the meantime the
body must not be buried. Next day she and her husband walked down to
the house, and asked to see the body. The mother replied that the
neighbours having insisted, she had allowed them to bury her child,
and pointed out the grave. The French gentleman called to some of his
labourers, and had the grave opened. There they found the coffin, but
the child’s body was absent. Arrests were made, but nothing came of
it. It is supposed that it was by this means that the Papalois were
enabled to obtain victims during the French colonial period.

It is useless to multiply instances of these horrors; but that they are
practised all over the island more or less under every government that
has existed in Hayti is certain.

You often hear the expression used in Hayti, “Li gagné chagrin,” which,
though, referring occasionally to a known cause, often applies to a
sort of anæmia of the mind, when a person appears to care for nothing,
or for what becomes of him. I have inquired as to what had been done to
the man, and the answer, if in company, was, “We don’t know;” if you
asked a person privately, he would probably reply that somebody had
given him _wanga_, a generic word for poisons, philters, and charms.

The remark I made when I first began to inquire into this subject may
naturally be repeated by others. If the majority of Haytians be tainted
by the Vaudoux, who is it that denounces these horrible crimes, and how
could a remedy be found? The answer is, that there are in Hayti, as I
have before noticed, two sects of Vaudoux worshippers; one, perhaps
the least numerous, that indulges in human sacrifices, the other that
holds such practices in horror, and is content with the blood of the
white goat and the white cock. At one time the police took no notice
of the latter, and permitted them to carry on their ceremonies in
Port-au-Prince in a large courtyard adjoining a house in which a
friend of mine lived. To preserve as much secrecy as possible, the
courtyard was hung round with cloth hangings, and watchmen placed to
keep prying eyes at a distance; but my friend, though not curious,
occasionally got a glimpse of the proceedings. They were much as those
described by Moreau de St. Méry. In the country districts the Catholic
priests say this sect calls themselves, “Les Mystères,” and that they
mingle Christian and Vaudoux ceremonies in a singular manner. The name
probably refers to the rites they practise. I have been assured by many
gentlemen connected with the Haytian police, that if the followers of
this sect did not secretly denounce to them the crimes committed by the
others, it would be almost impossible for them to keep the assassin
sect in check. It is probable that, acting with these comparatively
harmless savages, the Haytian Government might be able to do much, if
ever it seriously desires to put an end to the shedding of human blood.

I have been told that, besides the goat and cock, the Vaudoux
occasionally sacrifice a lamb; this idea they have probably taken from
the Catholic Church--the paschal lamb; it is carefully washed, combed,
and ornamented before being sacrificed.

All that I have hitherto related refers more or less to human
sacrifices as connected with religion; but there is another
phase--cannibalism as practised for the sake of the food which the
slaughtering of human beings affords to a vile section of the community.

In Mr. Consul Hutchinson’s paper on the traits of African tribes,
published in the “Transactions of the Ethnological Society,” New
Series, vol. i. p. 338, he states: “I have during the last year seen
it stated in a Sierra Leone newspaper, on the authority of Mr. Priddy,
a missionary of the Countess of Huntingdon’s Connection in that
colony, not that _he had heard of_, but _that he had seen_ hampers of
dried human flesh carried about on men’s backs, to be sold for eating
purposes, in the progress of a recent civil war between the Soosoo and
Tisnney tribes.”[12] This is very similar to what was seen by a lady of
my acquaintance in Hayti.

A lady, the widow of a missionary, was forced to stay in the interior
of Hayti (north-east of Gonaives), after the death of her husband, on
account of the civil war in the surrounding districts in the years 1868
and 1869, and she related some horrible incidents which were of her own
knowledge. She declared that human sacrifices were constant, that human
flesh was openly sold in the market. One would willingly have believed
in exaggeration; but similar incidents, which occurred during the reign
of Soulouque, related to me by one so intelligent and truthful as
Auguste Elie, compelled me to accept as veritable the horrible stories
she told in full detail.

Monsieur Desjardins, an eminent French merchant in Port-au-Prince,
remarked to me that, walking near Cap Haïtien, he met a party of
soldiers beating a man with their clubs; he inquired the reason, and
they told their prisoner to open his basket, and there he saw the body
of a child cut up into regular joints.

Auguste Elie told me he knew the following incident as a fact,
which occurred during the reign of Soulouque. A man with whom he
was acquainted was visiting in the plains with his wife, when she
complained of feeling unwell, and they mounted their horses to return
to town. At sunset, a violent storm coming on, they determined to halt
at a cottage they saw near. They entered, and found two men and a woman
there; his wife becoming worse, he determined to seek help, but was a
long time before he could find any one to accompany him. On his return
to the house, he inquired for his wife, and the people said that,
becoming uneasy at his long absence, she had followed him. He rode away
without saying a word, and calling at the next police station, induced
the men to follow him; they surrounded the cottage, arrested the three
inmates, and on searching the premises, found the body of the woman,
already dismembered, in a cask in an outhouse. A thick layer of salt
had been thrown over the remains. The only punishment these assassins
received was that administered by the clubs of the police whilst
conducting them to prison.

The Haytians occasionally publish accounts of these crimes. I read the
following in one of their local papers. At Jacmel, on the southern
coast, an old woman, a midwife, was lying on her death-bed surrounded
by her neighbours, and they were somewhat surprised at her long
struggles and loud groaning. At last she said, “I cannot die in peace;
put aside the bed and dig underneath;” and on doing so, great was their
astonishment to come on numerous small skeletons, which the old fiend
acknowledged were the remains of children she had eaten. After this
confession they say she died quietly. One cannot but be reminded of
the horrible picture in the Wiertz Gallery in Brussels of the woman
cutting up and cooking the infant. It must have been painted under the
influence of nightmare.

That the practice of midwives slaying children for the purpose of
eating them is an old one in Hayti is proved by the following story,
related by Moreau de St. Méry:--

“On a eu à Saint Domingue (Haïti) des preuves que les Mondongues y
avait gardé leur odieuse inclination, notamment en 1786, dans une
negresse accoucheuse et hospitalière sur une habitation aux environs de
Jérémie. Le propriétaire ayant remarqué que la plupart des negrillons
périssait dans les huit premiers jours de leur naissance, fit épier la
matrone; on l’a surpris mangeant un de ces enfans récemment inhumé, et
elle avoua qu’elle les faisait périr dans ce dessin.”

As late as 1878, the last year of which I propose to treat, two women
were arrested in a hut near Port-au-Prince. They were caught in the
act of eating the flesh of a child raw. On further examination it was
found that all the blood had been sucked from the body, and that
part of the flesh had been salted for later use. In 1869 the police
arrested, in that beautiful valley to which I have referred in my first
chapter, about a dozen cannibals, and brought them bound to La Coupe.
They had been denounced by the opposing sectaries of the Vaudoux. From
the time they were taken from their houses they were beaten in the
most unmerciful manner, and when thrown into prison they were tortured
by the thumbscrew and by tightened cords round their foreheads, and
under the influence of these they made some fearful avowals, in which,
however, little confidence could be placed. A French priest, with whom
I was on intimate terms, hearing of their arrest, had the curiosity
to go and see them. At first they would not converse with him, but
when they found him protesting against the inhumanity with which they
had been treated, and threatening the jailer that he would officially
report him should such conduct continue, they placed more confidence
in him. He visited them nearly every day, and had many conversations
with them in private. They confessed to him that their avowals under
torture were true; and when the priest, horrified by the details, said
to a mother, “How could you eat the flesh of your own children?” she
answered coolly, “And who had a better right,--est-ce que ce n’est pas
moi qui les ai fait?”[13]

One of these prisoners died under the torture of the cord tightened
round his forehead.

Though the Haytians believe in the mythical “_loup garou_,”
they have also the fullest faith in his counterpart among their
fellow-countrymen. It is the _loup garou_ who is employed by the
Papaloi to secure a child for sacrifice in case the neighbourhood does
not furnish a suitable subject; and they are supposed to hang about
lonely houses at night to carry off the children. I have often heard
my young Haytian servants rush into my country-house laughingly saying
that they had seen a _loup garou_--their laugh, however, tinged with
a sort of dread. They have often said that these human monsters prowl
about the house at night, and that nothing but the presence of my dogs
kept them in respect. I have occasionally seen the object of their fear
in an ill-looking negro hanging about the gate, but the sight of my
dogs was enough to induce him to move on. The negroes have fortunately
an almost superstitious terror of dogs.

There is no doubt that these _loup garous_ do carry off many children,
not only for the priests, but for cannibals. They generally look only
for native children, and I have only heard of one instance in which
they attempted to carry off a white girl. She was snatched from the
arms of her nurse, whilst walking on the Champs de Mars, by a huge
negro, who ran off with her towards the woods, but being pursued by two
mounted gentlemen who accidentally witnessed the occurrence, he dropped
the child to save himself.

One of my Haytian friends who had studied botany informed me that the
number of poisonous plants to be found on the island is very great,
and that it was absolutely certain that the Papalois made use of them
in their practices. I believe in some French botanical works lists of
these plants have been published, and their medical value would appear
to merit further study. It is not more remarkable that the Papalois
should know the properties of the plants in Hayti than that the Indians
of Peru and Bolivia should have discovered the properties of the
cinchona bark and the coca-leaf.

If it be remembered that the republic of Hayti is not a God-forsaken
region in Central Africa, but an island surrounded by civilised
communities; that it possesses a Government modelled on that of France,
with President, Senate, and House of Representatives; with Secretaries
of State, prefects, judges, and all the paraphernalia of courts of
justice and of police; with a press more or less free; and, let me add,
an archbishop, bishops, and clergy, nearly all Frenchmen,--it appears
incredible that sorcery, poisonings for a fee by recognised poisoners,
and cannibalism, should continue to pervade the island. The truth is,
that except during one year of Geffrard’s Presidency, no Government
has ever cared resolutely to grapple with the evil. If they have not
encouraged it, they have ignored it, in order not to lose the favour of
the masses.




CHAPTER VI.

THE GOVERNMENT.


The government of Hayti[14] is in form republican, but is in fact
a military despotism, all power being concentrated in the hands of
the President, who carries out or ignores the laws according to his
pleasure. There are Secretaries of State, a Senate, and House of
Representatives; but in General Geffrard’s time the Ministers had
no power in their respective departments, but were simply clerks to
register the will of the chief of the state. The Senate was very
humble, whilst the House of Representatives, when it showed any signs
of independence, as in the memorable session of 1863, was summarily
dismissed, and a packed Chamber substituted.

During the time of the next President, General Salnave, the civil war
prevented the Congress meeting regularly. The Chambers met once; but
drawn swords, pistol-shots, and yelling mobs caused the deputies to
understand that with Salnave as chief of the State constitutional
government had disappeared. “In revolutionary times, revolutionary
measures,” said Salnave’s Chief Minister; “we must return to the
immortal principles of 1793.” He talked much of cutting off heads,
but, to his credit be it said, whilst Minister he never shed a drop of
blood. Enough had been done of that during the revolution of 1865.

The presidency of Nissage-Saget followed. Though the shooting of
General Chevalier showed that he could act as illegally as any of
his predecessors, yet he was a quiet man, who would have worked with
the House of Representatives if they had connived at some of his
peccadilloes, and been blind to those of his Ministers, who were often
most unhappily chosen. But they were of more than Roman sternness
with their friends in power. However, both the Senate and the Chamber
of Deputies certainly influenced the Government; but as the majority
was generally in opposition, quarrels with the executive followed,
and Nissage-Saget, in revenge, connived at the illegal appointment of
General Domingue to the presidentship in the spring of 1874. From this
time forward Hayti has been going from bad to worse, until revolution
after revolution has brought the old Finance Minister of Soulouque into
the Government, and General Salomon is now President of Hayti.

It may be seen from the above sketch that constitutional government
is not likely to be favourably developed in such a soil as that of
Hayti. The mass of the population, being ignorant Africans, wish to
be governed by a despotic chief, and not by what they irreverently
call a “tas de voleurs.” No constitutional checks are sufficiently
strong to overcome the popular will, and as yet few Presidents have
been able to resist the desire of the people for personal government.
They themselves seldom show any disposition to thwart this national
predilection.

I have known Hayti for upwards of twenty years, and I must confess that
one by one my illusions have passed away, and my opinions are very
changed indeed from what they were during my first year’s residence in
that country. I then knew a number of enthusiastic young lawyers and
others, deputies and government employés, who talked admirably of their
projects of reform, and of their desire to see the country advance in
civilisation. I believed in this party, and was eager to see it arrive
at power; but when it did have a chance of having a Government united
with the Legislature in carrying out judicious reforms, it proved a
most lamentable failure. Boisrond-Canal was President, a man full of
good intentions, honest, who had fought gallantly against the savage
tyranny of Salnave, and whose conduct then had merited the eulogium
passed on him of a man “sans peur et sans reproche.” No sooner was this
chief in power, than his former friends, jealous of his advancement,
fell away from him, raised opposition in the Chambers, thwarted every
project of Government, and at last, by their plots and an appeal to
arms, brought on a revolution, which ultimately swept Boisrond-Canal
and all his mean plotting and scheming opponents out of the country,
and brought in General Salomon. The question of “What will he do with
it?” is anxiously watched; and there are many who believe that a
paternal despotism is the best solution, and may give the country some
years of comparative peace.

The Government of General Salomon has had its baptism of blood, and
dozens of those whom I well knew have been shot since its advent.
The Government accuse these gentlemen of having conspired. Their
friends declare that General Salomon wished to revenge private wrongs
of old standing, and imitate General Soulouque in terrifying the
coloured population by wholesale massacres. Septimus Rameau, under
President Domingue, followed this policy. He selected three of his
most formidable adversaries to murder; succeeded with two, and drove
many of the coloured population into exile. This is what is termed
energetic action. It appears the starting-point for black Presidents,
who know that no sooner are they installed in power than the coloured
population begin to conspire. How far there is any truth in the charge
of conspiracy against those gentlemen who were then residing in Hayti,
I will not at this distance of time attempt to determine; but it is
probable that their deaths may be somewhat laid at the door of those
who, from their secure retreat in Jamaica, launched their pamphlets
against the new Government.

Constitution-making is almost the necessary result of any change of
government in Hayti. In 1805 Dessalines issued the first constitution,
which was revised next year by President Pétion. In the northern
province Christophe had his own constitution as President, which he
also had to revise in 1811 when he became King. In the western and
northern provinces under Pétion, the constitution was also changed in
1816, and had a long life, as it lasted till the expulsion of President
Boyer in 1843, when the successful insurgents determined to have a
fresh constitution, which, however, did not last long, as President
Riché returned in 1846 to that of Pétion of 1816, only somewhat
revised. In 1849 Soulouque, becoming Emperor, had a new constitution
to suit the occasion, which lasted till his expulsion. Geffrard did
not attempt to construct a new social pact; but the revolution under
Salnave voted one in 1867, which was set aside in 1874 by Domingue.
The last constitution is that which was voted in 1879 under General
Salomon, and is the one now in force in Hayti.

On the 23d October 1879, General Salomon was elected President for
seven years, and the constitution is dated 18th December 1879. It
consists of 205 Articles.

Article 1. “The republic of Hayti is one and indivisible; its territory
and the dependent islands are inviolable, and cannot be alienated by
any treaty or convention.” This is a very favourite formula in America,
and was the pretext for continuing a useless war on the Pacific coast,
as both Peru and Bolivia declared that their constitutions forbid a
cession of territory. That its territory should remain inviolable
depends on its own conduct and the will of others, and is therefore
rather superfluous.

The articles relating to Haytians and their rights have been somewhat
modified, and are more liberal than in former constitutions. Article
4 declares that every African or Indian and their descendants are
capable of becoming Haytians; and a concession is added, that, on the
proposition of the President of Hayti, any foreigner fulfilling certain
conditions may became a citizen.

Article 6 declares that only a Haytian can become the possessor
of real property. This is less offensive than the form of the old
article:--“Aucun blanc quelque soit sa nation ne pourra mettre le pied
sur ce territoire à titre de maître ou de propriétaire.” It would be
better for their prosperity to allow every one to acquire property
in their country, but one is not surprised that their fear of the
interference of foreign Governments should make them exclusive.

Articles 8 to 13 contain the civil and political rights of the
citizens. Article 8 in the constitution of 1874 is omitted. It declared
the right of asylum (in legations and consulates) to be sacred and
inviolable, a curious subject to mention in a constitution.

Articles 14 to 40 are devoted to public right.

Article 14. Haytians are equal before the law, but a naturalised
foreigner is not admissible to legislative and executive functions.

Article 16. “Individual liberty is guaranteed.” This article has never
been attended to by any Government. Every petty official thinks he
has a right to “flanqué en prison” any one he pleases; and the next
article, Art. 17, that he must be sent before the judge named by the
constitution is also forgotten, and people have been kept years in
prison without redress. Art. 18. Every house in Hayti is an inviolable
asylum.

Article 24 declares “en matière politique elle (la peine de mort) est
abolie, et remplacée par la détention perpétuelle dans une prison.”
Nothing could better illustrate the absurdity of Haytian laws and
Haytian constitutions. The pen was scarcely dry that signed this
constitution than political proscriptions commenced, and there is
scarcely a city in Hayti that is not red with the blood of men accused
or suspected of conspiring against the Government of General Salomon.

Article 25. “Every one has the right to express his opinions on every
subject, and to write, print, and publish his thoughts,” &c. &c.,--full
liberty of the press. This is on a par with Article 24.

Article 26. Liberty of worship. This is carried to its full extent, and
every religion, African and Christian, is free.

Article 30. “Instruction is free. Public instruction is free and
gratuitous. Primary instruction is obligatory and gratuitous.” This is
for the future. In Hayti to decree the establishment of anything is
supposed to be sufficient for its fulfilment.

Article 31. Trial by jury is established in all criminal and political
cases.

Article 35. “The secrecy of letters is inviolable.” In President
Salnave’s time, the letters were taken to the Prefect of Police, opened
and read, and then delivered without any attempt to close them; the
letters addressed to foreigners were not respected.

Article 40. “Public debts are guaranteed and placed under the safeguard
of the loyalty of the nation.” When General ---- went to a famous
banker in Paris to contract a debt for Hayti, the capitalist asked
him what security he proposed to offer. The Minister replied, “La
constitution place les dettes publiques sous la sauvegarde de la
loyauté de la nation.” The banker looked fixedly at him for a moment
and then coolly said, “I have _business_ to attend to,--good morning.”

Articles 41 to 49 are on the sovereignty and the exercise of the powers
therefrom derived. Art. 41. The national sovereignty resides in the
universality of the citizens. Art. 42. The exercise of that sovereignty
is delegated to three powers. The three powers are the legislative,
the executive, and the judicial. They form the government of the
republic, which is essentially democratic and representative. Art. 44.
The legislative power is exercised by two representative chambers,--a
chamber of deputies and a senate. Art. 45. These two can be united in a
National Assembly according to the constitution.

Article 46. The executive power is delegated to a citizen, who takes
the title of President of the republic.

Article 47. Affairs which exclusively relate to the communes are
regulated by the communal councils, under the control of the executive
power.

Article 48. The judicial power is exercised by a court of cassation,
civil courts, courts of appeal, of commerce and of police.

Article 49. Individual responsibility is distinctly attached to every
public function.

Articles 50 to 56. Representatives are elected by the primary
assemblies of each commune. Representatives must be twenty-five years
of age, and are elected for five years, and are paid £60 a month,
during the duration of the session.

Articles 57 to 66 treat of the Senate: it consists of thirty members
elected for six years. The senators are elected by the Chamber of
Deputies from two lists of candidates, one presented by the electoral
assemblies, and the other by the executive power. A senator must
be thirty years of age; the Senate is renewed by thirds every two
years. The Senate can only meet during the legislative session, save
in exceptional cases: on adjournment it leaves a standing committee
composed of five members. The salary of each senator is £360 a year.

Articles 67 to 69 refer to the National Assembly, or union of the
Senate and House of Representatives in one chamber. The National
Assembly meets at the opening of every session. The prerogatives of
the National Assembly are:--To elect a president, to declare war,
to approve treaties, which will have no effect until so approved,
to authorise the contraction of loans, the establishment of a
national bank, to change the capital of the republic, to revise the
constitution, to give letters of naturalisation.

Articles 70 to 100 refer to the exercise of the legislative power.

Article 71. The Legislature meets by full right on the first Monday in
April of each year.

Article 73. The President, with the consent of two-thirds of the
Senate, can dissolve the Chambers.

Article 77. Every member takes an oath to maintain the rights of the
people, and to be faithful to the constitution.

Article 79. Money bills must originate in the Commons. The rest of the
articles refer to the duties and the rights of the members.

Articles 101 to 123 refer to the President. He is elected for seven
years, and not immediately re-eligible--must be forty years of age and
proprietor of real estate. The President is called upon to swear the
following oath:--“Je jure devant Dieu, devant la nation, d’observer,
de faire observer fidèlement la constitution, et les lois du peuple
Haïtien, de respecter ses droits, de maintenir nationale et l’intégrité
du territoire.” I wonder whether any President, when he took that oath,
really intended to observe it. For example--

Article 24. On the non-punishment with death of political offences.
General Salomon must have suffered greatly on this account.

Articles 110 and 111. The President commands the forces by sea and
land, and confers rank in the army according to law, and appoints as
well all civil functionaries.

Article 112. He makes treaties.

Article 114. He has the right of amnesty and pardon.

Article 115. Every measure must be submitted to a council of
Secretaries of State, and (Art. 116) every act countersigned by one of
them.

Article 120. The Chamber can impeach the President before the Senate.

Article 122. Salary of President, £5000 a year.

Articles 124 to 131 treat of the Secretaries of State, who must
be thirty years of age; they form a council presided over by the
President; they have free entry into both Chambers, to institute
measures or to oppose others; they can be called before the Chambers
to answer interpellations, which they must answer in public or in
secret session; they are responsible for all acts they may sign or
countersign; their pay is £1200 a year.

Articles 132 to 135 relate to communal institutions. Each commune
has an elective council, of which the paid head, under the title of
communal magistrate, is named by the President of the republic.

Articles 136 to 158 refer to the judicial authority.

Article 138 is especially important in Hayti: “No extraordinary
tribunals can be created under any denomination whatever, particularly
under the name of courts-martial.” A court of cassation is established
in the capital; five courts of appeal are established, one for each
of the departments. Each commune has at least a justice of the peace;
civil courts are established for one or more arrondissements. All
judges are appointed by the President; they are immovable, and cannot
be transferred without their own consent. Tribunals of commerce are
also established. No political or press offences can be judged in
secret session. The other articles relate to the usual functions of
judges.

Articles 159 to 165 treat of primary and electoral assemblies. Every
citizen over twenty-one has the right to vote, voting being by ballot.
At one election at Port-au-Prince, the Government were very desirous
to defeat the popular candidate, and therefore placed soldiers round
the polling-booth armed with clubs, who demanded from each elector for
whom he was going to vote. Whenever a known supporter of the candidate
approached, he was beaten or hustled away by the soldiers; the
Government finding that, in spite of these precautions, the election
was going against them, occupied the booth and stopped the voting,
under the plea of disturbance of the peace.

Articles 166 to 178 refer to the finances. No imports can be levied
except according to law; taxes are voted yearly; no emissions of money
without legal sanction; no pensions, gratifications, &c., except
according to law; no plurality of functions; every minute precaution is
taken to ensure the most careful management of the finances, including
audit of accounts; no money can be coined abroad or bear any effigy but
that of the republic. I understand, however, that all the new dollars
were coined abroad.

Articles 179 to 188 relate to the armed forces. The army must not
deliberate; no privileged corps; no one but a soldier can be promoted
to a military grade. In my time the majority of officers had never been
soldiers. The National Guard is composed of those citizens who are not
in the active army.

Articles 189 to 205 refer to miscellaneous subjects. The national
colours are blue and red, placed horizontally. The white was long ago
banished from the flag. The arms of the republic are the palm-tree
surmounted by the cap of liberty and adorned by a trophy of arms, with
the motto, “L’union fait la force.”

Article 192. “_No Haytian or foreigner can claim damages for losses
incurred during civil troubles._” A most ridiculous article, to which
no foreign Government would pay the slightest attention.

Article 194. The national _fêtes_ are those of the independence of
Hayti and its heroes, the great hero being Dessalines, who decreed
the massacre of every defenceless man, woman, or child of white
French parentage to be found in the republic, and who was perhaps,
without exception, one of the vilest of men. January 1st is given up
to his memory, and the Haytians glory in his bloodthirsty deeds. The
second national _fête_ is to agriculture--May 1st, which is one of
the most ludicrous imaginable in its surroundings. A few cultivators
are collected with bunches of bananas and other products, and
prizes are distributed by the President, surrounded by hundreds of
sneering officers. Even they can but smile at the absurdity called
“encouragement to agriculture.”

Article 197. No state of siege can be declared except during times of
civil trouble, and then the decree must be signed by the President and
all the Secretaries of State.

Article 200. The constitution cannot be suspended, in whole or in part,
on any excuse whatever. It can, however, be revised under certain
conditions.

Article 204. This is a very remarkable article. It suspends those
articles for a year which proclaim the immovability of the judges, in
order that the President may raise the magistracy to the height of its
mission.

Although this constitution appears very elaborate and proclaims great
principles, it leaves all details to be settled by special laws, which
are seldom passed, and never acted on unless it may suit the pleasure
of the chief of the State.

With the habits of the country, the framers of this constitution must
have known that, in making the President of Hayti swear to observe it,
they were forcing him to commit perjury by anticipation. The President
swore to it, but has not kept it, and probably never intended to keep
it. Article 24, which abolishes the punishment of death in political
cases, has been completely set aside, and dozens of coloured men of
mark have been sentenced to death and shot.

As the Russian Government is said to be a despotism tempered by
assassination, so the Haytian Government may be called a despotism
tempered by revolution and exile, and occasionally by death.

Their first ruler, Dessalines, was shot. Christophe committed suicide
to escape a worse fate. Pétion died President after twelve years of
power. Boyer was exiled after a Presidency that lasted for twenty-five
years. Hérard-Rivière was proclaimed President on December 30, 1843,
amid much enthusiasm, but on May 7, 1844, following he was deposed
amid greater enthusiasm, and exiled, and General Guerrier was named
President. Within less than a year he died, April 15, 1845, and General
Pierrot was elected by the Council of State, March 1, 1846. The
troops at St. Marc proclaimed Riché President, and Pierrot abdicated.
On the 27th February following (1847) Riché died, and on the 2d
March Soulouque was elected President. He soon tired of this form of
government, and proclaimed himself Emperor in August 1849, and held
that position till January 1859, when he was upset by General Geffrard
and exiled.

Geffrard restored the republic, and held the Presidency till February
1867, when he also went into exile, to be succeeded by General Salnave
in April 1867. In January 1870 the latter was overthrown and shot.

The only President who carried through his term of office, and was
neither exiled nor shot, was Nissage-Saget. At the completion of
his four years, he retired on a pension to his native city, and I
believe still lives. After Saget, General Domingue seized the reins
of government, but was expelled in 1876, and sent wounded into exile.
Boisrond-Canal followed. In the third year of his Presidency he was
overthrown and banished, and in October of the same year (1879) General
Salomon was elected for seven years.

It will thus be seen that two only of all these rulers completed their
terms of office.

As was natural in an old French colony, the divisions of the country
are French. It is divided into departments, arrondissements, and
communes, and the governing machinery is most elaborate. There are no
lack of candidates for every post. The general of the department and
the general of the arrondissement are the officers in whom all power is
really delegated, and they are generally absolute in their districts.
The Government often, however, trust more to their general of
arrondissement than to that of the department, as they fear to render
the latter too powerful. They are veritable despots as a rule, and ride
roughshod over every law at their pleasure, and are seldom called to
account by the supreme authority.

The republic of Hayti is divided as follows:--

  Departments.  Chief Cities.  Arrondissements. Communes.

  North         Cap Haïtien           7             18
  North-West    Port de Paix          2              5
  Artibonite    Gonaives              3              9
  West          Port-au-Prince        5             14
  South         Les Cayes             6             21
                                     --             --
                                     23             67

The department of the north is generally the most troublesome, from the
separatist ideas of the inhabitants. King Christophe carried out that
idea, and kept them independent for many years; and in 1865 Salnave
tried the same project, but failed. They are, however, always restless,
and dislike the other departments of the republic.

The department of the south is, on the whole, the most backward of all,
and has been generally neglected, but the present holder of power,
being a native of Les Cayes, may aid its progress.

All the other departments are jealous of that of the west, as in it
are the capital, the seat of Government, and the Treasury, to which
contributions flow from the other departments. Their object is always
to divert to local wants as much of the general revenue as possible,
and they think that if they could form separate republics, they would
have their whole income to spend.

To sum up: At the head of the Government is a President chosen for
seven years. He is supported by four or five Secretaries of State,
who, when the chief is strong, are but his head clerks. A legislative
body exists, consisting of a Senate of thirty paid members, generally
very tractable; of a Chamber of Representatives of sixty members, also
paid, who, under a chief who has the power of life and death, give
him but little trouble. His main reliance, however, as also his main
danger, is the army. General Salomon pays particular attention to that
institution; has it strongly recruited, and, as long as its chiefs are
satisfied, may defy the isolated revolutionary attempts of his enemies.
The army is generally composed of blacks, and they look on a black
President as their rightful head. They obey a coloured chief, but it is
not willingly, and murmur at his punishments, whilst a black general
might have a man beaten to death without exciting any dissatisfaction
among his comrades.




CHAPTER VII.

RELIGION, EDUCATION, AND JUSTICE.


RELIGION.

During the long Presidency of General Geffrard, the concordat with
Rome was carried out in some of its most essential points. Until then
the Roman Catholic clergy in Hayti were a byword and a reproach to
every one who respected religion. There were few priests who were not
the expelled of other countries, and even adventurers had assumed the
clerical garb to obtain an easy and lucrative living. There was one
priest in the south, who was considered a _bon enfant_ and inclined to
luxurious cheer, who turned his attention to money-making, and every
week he sallied forth from the town of Les Cayes to forage in the
country districts. So that he was paid his fees, it was immaterial to
him what he was called upon to bless; he would indifferently sprinkle
holy water on a new house or a freshly built temple dedicated to the
Vaudoux worship. The simple inhabitants would bring out their stone
implements, imported in former days from Africa and used in their
fetish rites, and the priest would bless them; then he would return to
town in a jovial mood and chuckle over his gains. In comparatively a
few years that man remitted to Europe through an English house the sum
of twelve thousand pounds sterling.

Another, whom I knew personally, lived in a town not far from the
capital, and his amours somewhat scandalised the Archbishop. He tried
in vain to have him removed from his parish. The priest was popular,
had influence in Government circles, and defied his superior. He might
have defied him to the end had he not mixed in politics; but having
embraced the losing side, he was ultimately banished.[15]

In the same neighbourhood there lived another priest whom the
Archbishop had dismissed for living in the same house with his large
family, and for engaging in commerce; and Monseigneur also applied
to the Government to have him expelled from the republic. The curé
appealed for protection to the French Legation, saying that he should
be completely ruined if forced suddenly to abandon the country. The
representative of France, thinking he ought to have time granted him to
settle his affairs, stated the case to the Haytian Minister of Public
Worship, who agreeing with him, remarked, “Il est peut-être mauvais
prêtre, mais bon père de famille.”

There was a priest who formerly lived at La Coupe, the summer resort
of the inhabitants of Port-au-Prince--a dapper Parisian--who was
perfectly astonished by the accounts the peasantry gave of one of his
predecessors; and I could gather from him that, short of being present
at human sacrifices, the man would join in any feast given by the
negroes in a district as full of Vaudoux worshippers as any in the
island, and his immorality equalled his other qualities.[16]

Several of these ignoble priests were Corsicans who had been driven
from their country on account of crime. For fear, however, any one
should consider these statements to be exaggerated, I will add to the
testimony given by the Archbishop an extract from a speech of M. Valmy
Lizaire, Minister of Public Worship (1863):--

“N’éprouve-t-on pas un sentiment pénible et douloureux en contemplant
l’état de notre église depuis sa naissance jusqu’à ce jour, en
voyant la dignité du saint ministère souvent menacée et compromise
par des inconnus sans qualités, par quelque moines la plus part du
temps échappés de leur convents et venant offrir jusqu’à chez nous
le dangereux spectacle de leurs dérèglements? Je ne ferai point
l’horreur à plaisir en essayant de retracer içi tout ce que nos annales
religieuses renferment de désordres et d’excès. Il suffit de dire que
nulle part, peut-être dans la chrétienté, le clergé n’a profané autant
qu’en Haïti le sacerdoce dont il est revêtu.”

At length the scandal became so intolerable that the Government of
Hayti determined to negotiate a concordat at Rome, and after many
difficulties had been overcome, it was signed in 1860, and the Pope
sent as his delegate Monseigneur Testard de Cosquer to bring it into
practice. He was one of the most pleasing of men, handsome, eloquent,
and the romantic but terrible episode related of him as the cause of
his leaving the army and entering into holy orders rendered him an
object of great interest to the fair sex. He brought with him a body of
French clergy, whom he gradually installed in the different parishes of
the republic, not, however, without a difficult struggle with those who
formerly held possession and disgraced the Church.

The concordat consisted of seventeen articles and two additions, which
provided first for the special protection of the Catholic religion;
the establishment of an archbishopric at Port-au-Prince, and as soon
as possible other dependent bishoprics, paid by the State; nomination
by the President of three bishops subject to the approval of the
Holy See,--the clergy to take an oath of fidelity to the Government;
establishment of seminaries and chapters; nomination of priests by
the bishops of persons approved of by the Government, and a few other
arrangements of lesser importance.

The Roman Catholic Church, however, although the religion of the
State, has never been popular in Hayti. Amongst the upper classes,
disbelief, among the lower the influence of the Vaudoux, and the
fanatical opposition of the Catholic priesthood to Freemasonry, have
combined to prevent the Church from gaining either the confidence or
the affection of the nation. Even over the women the priests exercise
less influence than in other countries.

Although the Roman Catholic religion is that of the State, all others
are tolerated, and many Haytian Ministers have felt inclined to
encourage the Protestants, not only to counterbalance any political
influence of the priests, but with the object of creating a rivalry
in the performance of their missionary duties. These passing fits of
enlightenment, however, have been but of short duration, and little has
been done to encourage any form of religion.

At present Hayti is divided into five dioceses; but at the time of
the last report I have seen, there were only one archbishop and two
bishops; these were aided by four vicars-generals.

Port-au-Prince, being the capital, is the seat of the archbishopric,
where Monseigneur Guilloux still worthily holds sway, and he is aided
in his duties by a vicar and chapter. He has always had a difficult
part to play, and during the civil war of 1869 ran many risks, and was
nearly expelled the country.

The budget makes allowance for one archbishop at £800 a year; two
bishops at £480 a year; the vicar of Port-au-Prince at £160 a year;
three other vicars at £120 a year; and sixty-seven parish priests at
£48 a year.

Besides this regular pay, the Government is bound to furnish the clergy
with suitable residences. The Archbishop has a very comfortable and
spacious house, sufficiently furnished for the climate, and situated in
the healthiest quarter of the town. The clergy receive also many fees,
the amount for baptisms, marriages, and funerals having been fixed by
arrangement with the Government. When I was in Port-au-Prince there
was a very warm discussion as to whether the fees were to be employed
towards the payment of salary, each party accusing the other of wishing
to violate the concordat.

After the expulsion of President Geffrard, the revolutionary party
desired to upset all his arrangements, even to the concordat.
Monseigneur Guilloux published a strong defence of that treaty, taking
very high ground, and claiming a great deal for the Church.

This pamphlet called forth the following epigram from General Alibé
Féry:--


LES DEUX ENCLOS.

    César ne doit au Christ rien soustraire à la vigne
    Dit notre bon prélat plus absolu qu’un czar.
    D’accord; mais ce gardien d’un végétal insigne
    Doit-il parfois glaner dans le champ de César?

This was a much-admired specimen of Haytian wit.

As I have previously observed, Hayti has never quite reconciled
herself to the clergy, and therefore the influence exercised by the
priest is less than in other Catholic countries. There are two patent
causes: first, the hold that the Vaudoux worship has on the mass of
the people, and, second, the pertinacious opposition of the Church to
Freemasonry.

It is the fashion to extol the intelligence and far-sightedness of the
Church of Rome, but certainly the opposition shown to Freemasonry, that
harmless institution in Hayti, has done more to injure the influence
of the Catholic clergy among the educated classes than any other
cause. All who know what Freemasonry is, know that its objects are to
promote good-fellowship, with a modicum of charity and mutual aid. The
exercise of ancient rites, which, though a mystery, are as harmless,
and perhaps as childish, as the scenes of a pantomime, never deserved
the opposition of a serious clergy.

The Haytians are devoted to Freemasonry, and love to surround the
funerals of their brethren with all the pomp of the order. I was once
invited to a masonic funeral, and we marched through the town with
banners displayed, each member wearing the insignia of his rank;
but I noticed that as soon as the church was reached, everything
pertaining to the order was removed from the coffin, and the members
pocketed their insignia. We then entered the sacred building. The
funeral was one that greatly touched us all, as it was that of a young
officer who had that morning been killed in a duel, under peculiarly
unfortunate circumstances. The priests came forward,--suddenly they
stopped, and with signs of anger retreated up the church. A gentleman
followed to inquire the cause. The abbé answered that until all signs
of Freemasonry were removed he would not perform the ceremony. What
signs? He replied that all the mourners had little sprigs in their
button-holes, which was a masonic sign. We had all to conceal the
sprigs until the ceremony was over. It was a trifle, but it excited the
utmost anger among the mourners present.

My deceased friend, Seguy-Villevalien, wrote me an account of what
occurred on another occasion. A general and high officer in the
brotherhood died, and the Freemasons determined to give him a grand
funeral, and President Domingue signified his intention to be present.
A great procession was organised, and was preparing to start for the
cathedral, when a messenger arrived from the vicar to say that he would
not allow the funeral to enter the church unless the masonic procession
was given up. The President was furious, and being a very violent man,
was ready to order a battalion to force a way for the funeral, when a
prudent adviser said to Domingue, “The Protestants do not object to
Freemasonry; let us send for Bishop Holly, and ask him to perform the
service for us.”

Bishop Holly willingly consented, and the procession started for the
Protestant cathedral, where the funeral service was performed, with
banners displayed, and every other masonic sign in full view. Nearly
every man present was a Roman Catholic, and probably for the first
time in Hayti had a President, his ministers, his aides-de-camp and
followers been present in a Protestant church.

The strongest feeling, however, against the Church arises from the
prevalence, not only of the Vaudoux worship, but of its influence.
There are thousands who would never think of attending one of its
ceremonies who yet believe in and fear the priests of this fetish
worship. The Papalois, however, as I have stated in Chapter V., do
not disdain to direct their followers to mix up with their own the
ceremonies of the Christians. They will burn candles before the church
doors; will place on the cathedral steps all the rubbish of hair and
bone which are religious emblems with them; and will have in their
temples pictures of the Virgin Mary and of Jesus Christ. In former
times they would gladly pay heavily to the degenerate priests of the
ante-concordat days to sprinkle with holy water the altars of the
temples under which their slimy god was held confined.

When it is remembered how imbued Haytian society has been with this
degrading worship, it is perhaps not a matter of surprise how small is
the influence of the clergy among the rural population. The Catholic
priests are also comparatively few in number, dislike heartily the
life in the interior, and are paid by the State. There is also little
enthusiasm awakened by that rivalry which a successful Protestant
Church would have brought forth.

There is no doubt but that the conduct of the clergy has been very
much criticised in Hayti, and none, from the Archbishop downwards,
have escaped the attention of the teller of merry anecdotes; but, as
far as I could myself observe, their moral conduct, with very few
exceptions indeed, was all that could be desired. At the same time they
showed little enthusiasm, cared little for their congregations, were
inclined to domineer, and preferred the comfort of their town-houses
to missionary toils in the interior, and were persistently opposed to
every liberal measure. Whilst I was in Port-au-Prince, a priest slapped
a lady’s face in church for some error in ceremonial.

The priests of the ante-concordat period no doubt rendered the task
of the new clergy as difficult as possible, first by their pernicious
example, and then by their opposition; but Archbishop Guilloux has
now completely cleared the island of them, and has established a
respectable clergy in their place. His friends say that their influence
is daily increasing throughout the republic.

The Protestants have not had much success in Hayti. The Episcopalians
are represented by a bishop. Mr. Holly, a convert from Romanism and
a black, was the first representative of that Church whom I met
with in Port-au-Prince. He had many of the qualities which ensure a
good reception. He had pleasant manners, was well educated, and was
thoroughly in earnest; but the pecuniary support he received was so
slight that he never could carry out his views. I believe that those
who attend the Anglican services in the whole of Hayti number less than
a thousand, and the majority of these are probably American and English
coloured immigrants.

The Wesleyans had for their chief pastor Mr. Bird, who was an
institution in Hayti. He had a very good school, and was highly
respected. There are several chapels in different parts of the island,
and I notice, in a recent consular return, that as many as 1400 attend
the services. With other denominations combined, the Protestant
population may be considered to amount to between 3000 and 4000.

When I first arrived in Hayti, and was curious as to the character
of certain individuals, I was often struck by the reply, “Oh! he is
an honest man, but then he is a Protestant,”--and this from Roman
Catholics!

The Protestants are not yet in any way sufficiently numerous or
influential to be a counterpoise to the Catholic clergy, and do not,
therefore, incite the latter to exertion. I did suggest that the
Protestant clergy should all join the Freemasons’ lodges, and be ready
to perform the religious ceremonies required at funerals. It would have
greatly increased their popularity and influence in the country; but I
believe my advice was considered too worldly.

Divorce is another bone of contention between the Catholic clergy and
the people. By the civil law divorce is recognised, and cases occur
every year. The clergy denounce those who re-marry civilly as living in
a state of concubinage, and much ill-feeling is the result.

Although, as I have before remarked, the Catholic clergy have greatly
improved in conduct since the concordat, yet, in popular estimation,
there is still something wanting. I have not forgotten the excitement
caused by a song which a young Haytian (black) wrote on the subject.
A very good-looking priest had at all events been indiscreet, and the
Archbishop decided to banish him from the capital to a rural district.
A deputation of females, early one morning, waited on Monseigneur to
remonstrate, but he was firm, and then the song declared:--

   “Il fallait voir pleurer les mulâtresses,
    En beaux peignoirs et les cheveux au vent;
    Il fallait voir sangloter les négresses
    Tout ce tableau par un soleil levant.
                Bon voyage,
                Cher petit blanc!
        Tu vas troubler l’église et le ménage.
                Bon voyage,
                Saint petit blanc!
        Que de regrets, O mon sacré galant!”

As there was a certain amount of truth in the scandalous stories
afloat, Monseigneur was very irritated with the author, and imprudently
applied to Government to have him arrested. He was arrested, but
his influential relatives soon procured his release, but under the
condition of suppressing the song. Of course he was the hero of the
hour, and his verses had a greater success than ever.

Although “the complete ascendancy of the Church of Rome is incompatible
with liberty and good government,” yet it is a matter of regret that
in Hayti the Roman Catholic priests have had so little success. Their
task is no doubt difficult, and, under present circumstances, almost a
hopeless one. They cannot cope with so vast a mass of brutal ignorance
and gross superstition, and one of the best men among them used often
to complain of the little assistance they received from what might be
considered the enlightened classes. My friend Alvarez, the Spanish
_chargé d’affaires_, was very indignant at the idea presented by a
French author, Monsieur Bonneau, that Catholicism was incapable of
contending with the Vaudoux worship; but there is no doubt that as yet
nothing has had much influence in suppressing it.

The Roman Catholic Church, however, has been greatly reinforced since I
left Hayti in 1877. It now counts as many as seventy priests, and had
above 64,000 Easter communicants in 1863. How many of these were in
secret followers of the Vaudoux?

To afford a special supply of priests for Hayti, the Archbishop Testard
de Cosquer established in 1864 a Haytian seminary in Paris, to the
support of which the Chambers in Port-au-Prince voted 20,000 francs a
year. This allowance being irregularly paid, the seminary was closed,
but was reopened by Monseigneur Guilloux, who obtained a yearly sum of
10,000 francs from the Haytian Government. It is perhaps needless to
say that even this small amount is generally greatly in arrear.

There can be no doubt that Monseigneur Guilloux and his clergy are
fighting a good fight in the cause of civilisation, but with such a
Government and such a people their progress must be slow.


EDUCATION.

The following anecdote aptly illustrates the saying, Who shall teach
the teachers? It is a custom in Hayti that in all schools, public as
well as private, there shall be once a year a solemn examination in the
presence of a commission appointed by Government. M. Seguy-Villevalien
kept the best private school or college that Port-au-Prince had
ever seen, and on the appointed day for the public examination the
official commission arrived, and having been duly installed in the
seats of honour, teachers and pupils presented themselves, and the
work commenced. All went well till the exercises in orthography were
nearly over, when unfortunately M. Villevalien turned to the president
of the commission, a negro of the deepest dye, but a high Government
functionary, and said, “Would you like to try the boys yourself?”
“Certainly;” and various words were given, which were written down
on the black-board to the satisfaction of all. At last the president
gave the word “Pantalon,” and a smart boy carefully chalked it up.
“Stop!” cried the sable chief, “there is a mistake in that spelling.”
The master, the teachers, and the boys carefully scanned the word, and
could detect no mistake. The black had a smile of conscious superiority
on his lips. At length the master said, “I see no mistake, president.”
“You don’t! Do you not know that it is spelt with an _e_--‘pentalon’?”
After a severe glance at his pupils to prevent an explosion of
laughter, my friend, perfectly equal to the occasion, answered, “It
used to be spelt so, president, but the Academy has lately changed the
mode, and it is now spelt with an _a_.” The courtesy and gravity of M.
Villevalien’s manner was such that the president of the commission was
quite satisfied and pleased with himself. He wrote a favourable report
on the condition of the school. Had the almost uncontrollable laughter
of the boys burst forth, what would have been the report? And yet
this man was a leading spirit in his country, and thought fit for the
highest offices, though he was as stupid as he was ignorant.

I arrived at the college just too late for this scene, but in time to
hear the cheerful laughter of the boys, who, after the departure of the
commission, made the playground ring with their merry jokes.

President Geffrard, whose term of office extended from January 1859 to
February 1867, did more than any other chief to encourage education,
and yet, even in his time, not more than one in ten of the children of
school-age attended the educational establishments.

Major Stuart, in his report on Hayti for the year 1876, gives some
statistical tables which show the state of these establishments in
the year 1875, and little has changed since, so that his figures will
sufficiently serve the purpose required. There were--

  4 lyceums                with    543 pupils.
  6 superior girl schools   ”      563   ”
  5 secondary schools       ”      350   ”
  165 primary schools       ”   11,784   ”
  200 rural schools         ”    5,939   ”
  1 school of medicine      ”       25   ”
  1 school of music         ”       46   ”
                                ------
                                19,250   ”

To these may be added the pupils in the private schools and in those of
the Christian Brothers and the Sisters of Cluny.

It is very difficult to test the results attained at the official
schools, but I think, judging from my own experience in Hayti, that
they are small indeed. Some of the commissions appointed to examine
the scholars report favourably, but, after the example of Monsieur
Pentalon, I put but little faith in these judgments.

In the official report for the year 1878 there is much shortcoming
confessed, and the feeling after reading it is, that the majority of
the teachers are incompetent, as all negligently-paid service must
be. Good teachers will not remain in employment with salaries often
six months in arrear, and only those who can find nothing else to do
will carry on the schools. Negligence is the result, and negligence in
the masters acts on the scholars, and their attendance is irregular;
and the means of teaching are often wanting, as the money voted for
the purchase of books goes in this revolutionary country for arms and
powder. Parents, particularly negro parents, rarely appreciate the
value of the knowledge to be acquired in schools, and are apt to send
their children late and take them away early, in order to aid in the
family’s support.

The best school in the country is the Petit Séminaire, conducted
by priests--Jesuits, it is said, under another name. The head of
the college in my time, and, I believe, to the present day, was
Père Simonet, a very superior man, quite capable of directing the
institution aright; and I have been informed that the favourable
results of their system of education have been very marked. In
September 1883 this establishment was directed by fifteen priests of
the Congregation of the Holy Spirit, and contained as many as 300
pupils.

The Sisters of Cluny have also an establishment near Port-au-Prince,
where the daughters of the chief families of the capital receive
their education, and their institution is well spoken of. I attended
one of their examinations and school exhibitions, when recitals and
acting by the young girls were the amusements afforded us. Some of the
pupils appeared to be remarkably bright, and they acquitted themselves
of their tasks in a very pleasing manner. Since I left Hayti, these
establishments for girls have greatly increased in importance. There
are now as many as sixty sisters, and twenty others called “Filles de
la Sagesse,” who have established schools throughout the country, which
in 1883 were attended by about 3000 pupils.

The Christian Brothers have also many schools dispersed throughout the
country, principally, however, in the larger towns, which are fairly
well attended. They are reported to have had also in 1883 as many as
3000 boys under tuition.

It is generally thought that the teaching in all these schools is not
such as to develop the intellect of the pupils. As might have been
expected, too much time is given to trifling with religious subjects,
as teaching the girls an infinity of hymns to Mary, and to the study
of the lives of the saints. Such, at least, was the complaint made to
me by the relatives of the girls. Nothing appears to be able to avert
the evil influence of the immodest surroundings of these schools. A
gentleman told me that, entering a room where his nieces were sitting
sewing, he heard them singing a most indecent song in Creole, probably
quite innocent of the real meaning, and they told him that they had
learnt it from the native servants at the school; whilst the pupils at
the Petit Séminaire have often suffered from the utter depravity of
some of the lower portion of the population.

In one of the official reports on the principal lyceum, the Minister of
Public Instruction remarks:--“As regards studies, discipline of pupils
and teachers, the national lyceum has fallen into a shameful state.
It is to the superior direction that this abasement of the lyceum is
in part to be attributed. It so far forgets itself, as to give to
professors and pupils scandalous spectacles, which attest the disregard
of propriety and of the most ordinary reserve that a teacher ought to
observe in presence of early age and youth.”

By this account it would appear that the pupils have often but a poor
example to imitate. I should have set down to political feeling this
strong censure had I not known the lyceum in my time to have fallen
very low indeed in public estimation.

Poor, however, as the education is that is given in Hayti, it is
nevertheless an advance; and if ever revolutions cease and peace be
kept for a few years, the Government may yet turn its attention to
founding educational establishments on a solid basis. Of this, however,
there is very little hope.

There are several private schools in Hayti. The best, as I have
previously observed, was kept by the late M. Seguy-Villevalien. He had
a very high opinion of the capacity of Haytian boys to learn, and he
turned out some excellent scholars. His school, however, deteriorated
in late years from his inability to secure superior teachers, arising
first from parents not paying their school-bills, and secondly from
the Government omitting to settle their accounts with him for the
bursars. I mention this to show what a people the Haytians are. During
the civil war in 1868 and 1869, M. Villevalien spent all his capital
in supporting some dozens of boarders, whose parents were among the
insurgents, and by his energy saved them from being drafted into the
army. Yet when the war was over, few, if any, paid him what was due, or
did it in depreciated paper, which was almost equivalent to not paying
at all.

Education in Hayti is too often sacrificed to political exigencies, and
a master of a high school is not chosen for his capacity, but for his
political leanings.

We all noticed what has often been remarked in Africa, that negro
boys, up to the age of puberty, were often as sharp as their coloured
fellow-pupils; and there can be no doubt that the coloured boys of
Hayti have proved, at least in the case of one of their number, that
they could hold their ground with the best of the whites. Young Fénélon
Faubert obtained the “prix d’honneur au grand concours” at Paris
in rhetoric, “discours latin,” and only missed it the next year by
unpardonable carelessness.

Some of the Haytian lads have the most extraordinary memories. M.
Villevalien mentioned one to me who came to his school rather over the
usual age. My friend took up a book on rhetoric and asked him a few
questions, which were answered in the words of the author without an
error; curious as to the extent of his proficiency, the schoolmaster
kept turning page after page, and found, to his surprise, that the boy
knew nearly the whole volume by heart. He then began to converse with
him, and found, that although he could repeat his lesson perfectly, he
did not really understand the sense of what he was repeating.

Whilst I was at Port-au-Prince the following affecting incident
occurred:--Many families who have accumulated a certain amount of
wealth by retail trade are desirous of having their children well
educated, and therefore send them to France. A Haïtienne of this
description placed her daughter at the Convent of the Sacré Cœur in
Paris. After seven years’ residence there, she passed a few months
with a French family, and saw a little society in the capital. She
then returned to Port-au-Prince, was received at the wharf by a rather
coarse-looking fat woman, whom her affectionate heart told her was
her mother, and accompanied her home. Here she found a shop near the
market-place, where her mother sold salt pork and rum by retail; the
place was full of black men and women of the labouring class, who were,
as usual, using the coarsest language, and who pressed round to greet
her as an old acquaintance. Traversing the shop, she found herself in a
small parlour, and here she was destined to live. Her mother was doing
a thriving trade, and was always in the shop, which was a receptacle
of every strong-smelling food, whose odours penetrated to the parlour.
There the young girl sat within earshot of the coarse language of the
customers. What a contrast to the severe simplicity of the convent,
the kindness of the nuns, the perfect propriety! and add to this the
recollection of the society she had seen in Paris! She was but a tender
plant, and could not stand this rude trial, and sickened and died
within the first two months. At her funeral many speeches were made,
and the doctor who had attended her, whilst declaring that she died of
no special malady, counselled parents not to send their children to
be educated in Europe, unless, on their return, they could offer them
a suitable home. No wonder, under these circumstances, that every
educated Haytian girl desires to marry a foreigner and quit the country.

The well-known lawyer, Deslandes, objected to Haytian children being
sent to Paris for their education, as likely to introduce into
the country French ideas and sympathies, and thus imperil their
independence.

At the present time education must be completely neglected, as the
whole attention of the country is devoted to mutual destruction.


JUSTICE.

My first experience of a court of justice in Hayti was a political
trial. Four of the most respectable and respected inhabitants of
Port-au-Prince were to be tried for their lives on a charge of
conspiracy against the government of President Geffrard. My colleagues
and I decided to be present. On approaching the courthouse, we saw
a considerable crowd collected and some military precautions taken.
Forcing our way through to some reserved seats, we found ourselves in a
perfectly plain room,--a dock on the left for the prisoners, opposite
to them the jury seats, behind a table for three judges, and a tribune
for the public prosecutor.

After a few preliminaries, the trial began with a violent denunciation
of the accused by the public prosecutor--a stuggy, fierce-looking negro
with bloodshot eyes, named Bazin, who thought he best performed his
duty by abuse. As one of the prisoners was a lawyer, all the bar had
inscribed their names as his defenders, and they showed considerable
courage in the task they had undertaken. On the least sign of
independence on their part, one after the other was ordered to prison,
and the accused remained without a defender.

The principal judge was Lallemand, of whom I have elsewhere spoken
as combining gentleness with firmness; but he could scarcely make
his authority respected by Bazin, the military termagant who led the
prosecution. He browbeat the witnesses, bullied the jury, thundered at
the lawyers, and insulted the prisoners. He looked like a black Judge
Jeffreys. At last his language became so violent towards the audience,
of whom we formed a part, that the diplomatic and consular corps rose
in a body and left the court. I never witnessed a more disgraceful
scene.

I may add that the prisoners were condemned to death; but we
interfered, and had their sentence commuted to imprisonment, which did
not last long; whilst their black persecutor, seized by some insurgents
the following year, was summarily shot.[17]

This experience of the working of the trial-by-jury system did not
encourage frequent visits to the tribunals, and afterwards I rarely
went, except when some British subject was interested.

In the capital are the court of cassation, the civil and commercial
courts, and the tribuneaux de paix; and in the chief towns of the
departments similar ones, minus the court of cassation. In fact, as far
as possible, the French system has been taken as a model. The form is
there, but not the spirit.

The statistical tables connected with this subject have been very
fully worked out in Major Stuart’s very interesting Consular Reports
for 1876 and 1877. Here I am more concerned in describing how justice
is administered. I may at once say that few have any faith in the
decisions of the courts; the judges, with some bright exceptions, are
too often influenced by pecuniary or political considerations, and
the white foreigner, unless he pay heavily, has but slight chance of
justice being done him.

In the police courts they know their fate beforehand. During my stay
in Port-au-Prince foreigners avoided them, but sometimes they had
unavoidably to appear. An elderly Frenchman was summoned before a
_juge de paix_ for an assault upon a black. The evidence was so much
in favour of the white that even the Haytian magistrate was about to
acquit him, when shouts arose in different parts of the court, “What!
are you going to take part with the white?” and the Frenchman was
condemned. So flagrant an abuse of justice could not be passed over,
and the authorities, afraid to have the sentence quashed by a superior
tribunal, allowed the affair to drop without demanding the fine.

An American black came one day to Mr. Byron, our Vice-Consul, and said
he had been accused of stealing a box of dominoes from his landlady,
and asked him to accompany him to court to see justice done him. Mr.
Byron, knowing the man to be respectable, did so. The accuser stated
that whilst sitting at her door talking to a neighbour, she saw her
lodger put the box of dominoes into his pocket and walk off with it.
She made no remark at the time, but next day accused him. The man
denied having touched the box. The magistrate, however, observed, “She
says she saw you; you can’t get over that,”--and had not Mr. Byron
remarked that the prisoner’s word was as good as the accuser’s, being
at least as respectable a person, he would instantly have been sent to
prison.

A remarkable trial was that of two brothers, who were accused of having
murdered a Frenchman, their benefactor. The evidence against them
appeared overwhelming, and their advocate, a thorough ruffian, was at
a loss for arguments to sustain the defence. At last he glanced round
the crowded court, and then turned to the jury with a broad grin and
said, “Après tout, ce n’est qu’un blanc de moins.” The sally produced a
roar of laughter, and the prisoners were triumphantly acquitted by the
tribunal, but not by public opinion; and the people still sing a ditty
of which the refrain is, I think, “Moué pas tué p’tit blanc-là,”--“I
did not kill that little white man.”

In 1869, among about fifty political refugees that lived for months
in the Legation was one of the accused. I was standing watching him
play draughts with another refugee, who did not know the name of his
opponent, and he kept humming the song about the murder, and every time
he made a move he repeated the refrain, “Moué pas tué p’tit blanc-là.”
I noticed his opponent getting paler and paler. At last he pushed aside
the board, started to his feet, and said, “Do you wish to insult me?”
We were all surprised, when a friend called me aside and told me the
story of the trial.

Though more attention has since been paid to words, the spirit of the
old saying remains--that the whites possess no rights in Hayti which
the blacks are bound to respect.

In civil cases bribery of the judges is notorious, and the largest or
the most liberal purse wins. Most persons carefully avoid a lawsuit,
and prefer submitting to injustice.

The judges, curiously enough, are rarely selected from among the
lawyers. The Government can appoint any one it pleases, and as these
posts are awarded for political services, those selected consider that
the appointments are given to enable them to make their fortunes as
rapidly as possible. As the pay is small, their wives often make it an
excuse to keep shops and carry on a retail trade; but the fact is that
the Haïtienne is never so happy as when behind a counter.

The active bar of Port-au-Prince is composed of very inferior men.
I often heard my friend Deslandes address the courts. He was at the
summit of his profession, and to have him for your advocate was
popularly supposed to secure the success of your cause. And yet I heard
this eloquent and able advocate, as he was called, whilst defending an
Englishman charged with having criminally slain an American negro, drop
the legitimate argument of self-defence, and weary his audience for a
couple of hours trying to prove that the Englishman was an instrument
of Divine Providence to rid the world of a ruffian. Naturally the
Englishman was condemned.

Whilst in court the lawyers surround themselves with heaps of books,
and continually read long extracts from the laws of the country,
or--what they greatly prefer--passages from the speeches of the most
celebrated French advocates; whether they explain or not the subject
in hand is immaterial. I have often heard my French colleagues say
that they have tried in vain to discover what these extracts had to do
with the case in point. Few of these lawyers bear a high character,
and they are freely accused of collusion, and of other dishonest
practices. Unhappy is the widow, the orphan, or the friendless that
falls into their hands. Many of my Haytian friends have assured me
that, though they had studied for the bar, they found it impossible to
practise with any hope of preserving their self-respect. No doubt the
bar of Hayti contains some honest men, but the majority have an evil
reputation.

The laws of Hayti are not in fault, as they are as minutely elaborate
as those of any other country, and the shelves of a library would groan
beneath their weight. Had M. Linstant Pradine been able to continue the
useful publication he commenced--a collection of the laws of Hayti--it
was his design to have united in a regular series all the laws and
decrees by which his country was supposed to be governed.

Though a few young men of good position have studied for the legal
profession in France, yet the majority of the members of the bar are
chosen among the lawyers, clerks, and others who have studied at home.
A board is appointed to examine young aspirants. It consists of two
judges and three lawyers; and if the young men pass, they each receive
a certificate of qualification, countersigned by the Minister of
Justice. After this simple process they can open an _étude_ on their
own account.

One of the greatest difficulties of the diplomatic and consular
officers in all these American republics is to obtain prompt and legal
justice for their countrymen. Although the _juge d’instruction_ ought
to finish his work at the utmost in two months, prisoners’ cases drag
on, and as the law of bail is unknown, they may be, and have been,
confined for years before being brought to trial.

The President of the republic names the justices of the peace and
their deputies, the judges of the civil and criminal courts, the
courts of appeal, and the members of the court of cassation. All but
the first-named judges are irremovable according to the constitution;
but revolutionary leaders are not apt to respect constitutions, and
during President Domingue’s time his Ministers upset all the old
legal settlements. The last constitution, that of 1879, permitted the
President to remove judges for the space of one year, in order that the
friends of the Administration should be appointed to carry out their
destined work.

It would be perhaps useless to describe in detail the other legal
arrangements in Hayti, as they are founded on French precedents.




CHAPTER VIII.

ARMY AND POLICE.


THE ARMY.

A large portion of the revenues is spent in keeping up a nominally
numerous army, but in reality the most undisciplined rabble that
ever were assembled under arms. With the exception of a few hundred
tirailleurs, who were, in the time of President Geffrard, disciplined
by an intelligent officer, Pétion Faubert, a man who had seen service
in the French army, the regiments have been always composed of the
peasantry, without any discipline, and officered by men as ignorant
as themselves. I have seen a battalion on parade numbering thirteen
privates, ten officers, and six drummers--the rest of the men thinking
it unnecessary to present themselves except on pay-day.

A French admiral asked permission to see a Sunday morning’s review.
On approaching a cavalry regiment equally low in numbers with the
battalion mentioned above, the President gravely turned to the
Frenchman and said, “Beaucoup souffert dans la dernière guerre.”

A more motley sight can scarcely be imagined than a full regiment
marching past. Half the men are in coats wanting an arm, a tail, or
a collar, with a broken shako, a straw or round hat, a wide-awake, or
merely a handkerchief tied round the head; officers carrying their
swords in their right or their left hands according to caprice; the
men marching in waving lines, holding their muskets in every variety
of position; whilst a brilliant staff, in all the uniforms known to
the French army, gallops by. President Geffrard used to look on with a
smile of satisfaction on his face, and gravely ask you whether there
were any finer troops in the world. As I have elsewhere related, the
Treasurer-in-chief, who had passed some time in Paris, assured him
that although the soldiers there were more numerous, they had not the
_tenue_ of the Haytian, and suggested that it would be as well for the
President to send some of his officers to France as models for the
French army to imitate. This is no exaggeration. I have myself heard
similar observations. The negro is generally an ill-made shambling
fellow, who rarely looks well in uniform and detests the service; but
in order to render the work less fatiguing for the poor fellows, the
sentries are provided with chairs!

It was after watching such a march-past as I have described above that
a French naval officer asked me, “Est-ce que vous prenez ces gens au
serieux?” And yet they look upon themselves as a military nation, and
constantly boast that they drove the English and French out of the
island; forgetting the part taken by their most potent allies, climate
and yellow fever; and until disease had carried off the mass of their
oppressors, and the renewal of the war in Europe enabled the English to
lend their aid, they were crushed under the heel of the French.

The Haytian army has greatly varied in numbers. In the early years
(1825 to 1830) of General Boyer’s Presidency it was calculated at
30,000 men, with only a fair proportion of officers. Some months after
the fall of General Geffrard (1867) an account was published stating
that the army in round numbers consisted as follows:--

  General officers and staff      6500
  Regimental officers             7000
  Soldiers                        6500
                                ------
                                20,000

It is never possible to say what is the exact force of the army; in a
late return it is stated at 16,000, and among the non-effectives are
about 1500 generals of division. However, the old system continues,
and to most of the battalions the President’s observation, “Beaucoup
souffert dans la dernière guerre,” could be aptly applied. As Gustave
d’Alaux somewhere remarks, “Tout Haïtien qui n’était pas général de
division était au moins soldat.”

The cause of the great superabundance of general officers arises from
nomination to a superior grade being a form of reward for political
services which costs little. Every successful revolution brings with
it a fresh crop of generals and colonels, as a lesser rank would be
despised. I know a general who kept a small provision shop, and have
seen him selling candles in full uniform. A counter-revolution made him
fly the country, and for some time after he was acting as groom in some
French seaport.[18] A Minister of War wishing to please a courtesan,
gave her a commission in blank, which she sold for about five pounds.

President Salnave raised a common workman to the rank of general of
brigade. As he had no money to buy a uniform, he began by stealing a
pair of gold-laced trousers from a tailor’s shop, but did not do it
unobserved. Chase was given, and the culprit fled to the palace, and
took refuge in Salnave’s own room, who, however, handed him over to the
police. The stolen trousers were then fastened round his neck and a
rope secured to one ankle, and in this manner the new general was led
round the town, receiving every now and then blows from the clubs of
the soldiers. When he was quite exhausted, they mounted him on a donkey
with his face to the tail, a placard with the word “Thief” fixed on his
breast, and the gold-laced trousers still tied round his neck.

The great majority of the officers are in reality civilians, without
any military training whatever, but they have a hankering for wearing a
uniform, which is partly excusable on account of the respect with which
the lower classes regard an officer.

The blacks laugh a little at their own love of gold lace. One day,
whilst entering the cathedral with the diplomatic and consular corps
in full uniform, I heard a negro say to his companions, “Gardé donc,
blancs là aimé galon too!” (“Look, the whites also like gold lace!”),
and a grunt of acquiescence showed that they were not a little pleased
to find that the whites shared their weakness. “Too,” by the way, is
almost the only English word which remains to testify to our former
presence in the island.

Military honour has never been a distinguished feature in the Haytian
army,--I mean that military honour which implies fidelity to the
Government that they have sworn to serve. This was most marked in
the revolution which broke out at Cap Haïtien in 1865 under Salnave
and Delorme. Nearly every superior officer appeared more or less to
have betrayed General Geffrard; but as they hated Salnave more, their
treachery consisted in plots, in preventing successes, but not in
aiding the enemy. Geffrard knew this, and so put over the army General
Nissage-Saget, an ex-tailor, I believe, who was utterly incapable and
as unsuccessful as the rest. Salnave could not have held his position
a week had the officers done their duty; but they appeared to think
only of how their personal interests could be best served, and never of
the honour or dignity of the Government and country. Some entered into
a conspiracy to murder the President, but being discovered, the most
compromised fell on his knees before Geffrard and pleaded for mercy,
which was somewhat contemptuously granted, with the remark, “You are
not of the stuff of which conspirators should be made.”

There was no want of personal courage shown by the chiefs during the
long civil war between civilisation and barbarism in 1868 and 1869, and
some officers showed conspicuous dash and bravery, as Monplaisir-Pierre
(negro) and Brice (coloured), (who subsequently were foully murdered by
order of their then ally, Septimus Rameau), and Boisrond (coloured),
who really merited the epithet of _sans peur et sans reproche_ which
was given him at a banquet at Port-au-Prince.

Traits of individual courage were constantly occurring, as during the
defence of the town of Les Cayes, when young Colonel Lys distinguished
himself. He, as all the bravest and best, has lately fallen a victim
to the ferocity of the negro authorities; The Haytian, however, is
not a fighting animal. Roused to fury by the excesses of his French
masters, the negro of the time of the Revolution fought well, but
since then many of his military qualities have departed. He is still a
good marcher, is patient and abstemious; but Soulouque’s ignominious
campaigns in Santo Domingo showed that the Haytian soldier will not
fight. There has been little or no real fighting since; overwhelming
numbers would sometimes endeavour to capture a post, but no battle
took place during the civil war of 1869. The only really daring act
performed by numbers was the surprise of Port-au-Prince in December
of that year, and the chiefs of the expedition were Brice and
Boisrond-Canal, supported by a land force under General Carrié.

The ignorance of the officers often leads them into ludicrous mistakes.
A general commanding at Port-au-Prince saw a boat entering the harbour
with the Spanish flag flying, and he instantly went down to the
wharf. “Who are you?” said he to the officers. “Spaniards,” was the
reply. “Paniols!” exclaimed he, “then you are enemies!” and proceeded
to arrest them, under the mistaken idea that all Spaniards must be
Dominicans, with whom Hayti was at war. It required the most vigorous
language, and some emphatic gestures with his foot on the part of the
French Consul-General, to prevent the Spanish officers being thrust
into the common jail. The negro had never heard of Spain, although Cuba
is within sight of Haytian shores.

An English admiral came into the harbour of the capital, and President
Salnave sent an officer on board to welcome our naval chief. This
was a black general, who, when he got on board, was so tipsy that he
commenced making formal bows to the mainmast, under the mistaken idea
that it was the admiral, who, hearing of his maudlin state, came to
receive him on deck, and soon dismissed him. I heard that he afterwards
declared he had seen two admirals on board. I knew this man well, and
though a tipsy savage, was intrusted with a most important military
command.

The army is legally recruited by conscription, the term of service
being seven years, though volunteers serve only four; this, however,
is purely nominal. During my stay, the invariable practice was for
a colonel of a regiment to send out parties of soldiers, who seized
in the streets any man whom they thought would suit. As this only
occurred in times of danger, or when the President’s body-guard had to
be completed, these captured volunteers had the greatest difficulty in
getting free from the clutches of the recruiting sergeant. I have seen
even deputies and senators walked off to the barracks.

As soon as it is known that the recruiting parties are about, men
begin to stay at home, and only women come in from the country. This
brutal system of enlistment was one of the causes of the fall of
President Geffrard. To punish the inhabitants of Cap Haïtien for their
unsuccessful insurrection in 1865, the President had recruiting parties
sent out into that town, and the respectable young men were captured by
dozens, transferred to Port-au-Prince, and forcibly incorporated into
the battalions of tirailleurs. It was they who in 1867 gave the signal
for those revolutionary movements which finally upset the President.
The brutality shown by these recruiting parties is revolting, as the
men are armed with clubs, and permitted to use them at discretion.

General Geffrard used to harangue these unhappy volunteers as if they
were burning with enthusiasm to join the army, whilst, bleeding,
tattered, and torn, they listened sulkily to his words, all the time
carefully guarded by their brutal captors. Their chief pretended not to
see their state.

This reminds me of an incident which occurred during the late war
between Chili and Peru. Some hundreds of Indians had been lassoed
in the interior, and brought down to Lima to fill up the regiments.
President Prado was urged to address them, and they were collected
under one of the windows of the palace. The general approached with
his staff, and leaning out of window began--“Noble volunteers,” when
he perceived that the men were tied together, and that a dozen pairs
were secured by a long rope. He drew back hastily and said, “Noble
volunteers indeed. I cannot lend myself to such a farce;” and no
persuasion would induce him to return to continue his speech. President
Prado has been deservedly criticised for his conduct during this war;
but had his countrymen listened to his advice, there would have been no
war between Chili and Peru.

The pay of the Haytian army is nominally as follows:--

  General of division         £140 a year.
  General of brigade           105   ”
  Adjutant-general              75   ”
  Colonel                       40   ”
  Commandant or major           20   ”
  Captain                       12   ”
  Lieutenant                    10   ”
  Sub-lieutenant                 7   ”
  Non-commissioned   from £3 to £5   ”
  Private                    £2 10   ”

The rations of a foot-soldier on duty are about two shillings a week,
whilst that of a cavalry-man are three shillings. As the soldiers not
on duty are allowed to work, they receive no rations. The President’s
guard, consisting of several battalions, was composed principally of
the mechanics and respectable labourers of the town and neighbourhood,
who often paid the colonels so much per week to be exempt from active
service.

The ordinary battalions are recruited among the country people, and
these rarely present themselves except on pay-day. Even for this there
is little encouragement, as if they do not present themselves at the
appointed time, the officers divide the balance of the pay amongst
themselves. If any man persistently comes to receive his dues, he is
detained to do active duty for a month or two, which effectually checks
his zeal and his love of dollars.

When the pay of officers is so trifling, it is to be supposed that the
better classes do not enter the army as a profession. The higher grades
are generally named for political services, whilst the lower are filled
by men raised from the ranks. Except in a few special cases, it is rare
for a man to have gone through all the grades of officer.

The generals are a power in the State, and have to be conciliated. The
most ignorant blacks, as I have mentioned, are given the most important
commands, from their supposed influence among the lower orders, whom
they perfectly resemble in everything but uniform. They supplement
their inadequate pay by every illegitimate means.

President Geffrard had really a desire to form an army, but the
materials at hand were poor. His lower officers were as usual taken
from the ranks, and inclined to pilfering. A captain was detected in
the act of robbing the custom-house. As he had charge of the guard, the
President determined to make an example. I find the incident recounted
in my journal written at the time, and as the incidents are very
characteristic of the people, I will tell the whole story. The danger
of not knowing the connections of those to whom you are speaking may be
exemplified by the following:--During the inevitable quarter of an hour
before dinner, I was sitting next a charming Haytian lady, educated in
England and married to an Englishman, when she began to tell me the
news of the day. At the parade that morning the President had ordered
the epaulettes of an officer to be torn off his coat on account of a
petty theft he had committed at the custom-house. After he had given
the order, the President turned away his head, but presently remarked,
“Is he dead yet?” “Dead! your Excellency,” exclaimed an aide-de-camp.
“Yes, dead. I thought that an officer of my army so publicly disgraced
would instantly have put an end to his existence.” The lady’s anecdote
produced a hearty laugh, first at the acting of the President, and then
at the idea of any Haytian officer having a notion of such delicate
honour. I remarked to my companion that the President would have done
better, instead of only punishing the petty thieves, to lay a heavy
hand on the great robbers, as for instance Mr. ----. The lady quietly
turned to me and said, “I am sure you do not know that Mr. ---- is my
brother.” The start I gave convinced her that I did not; but I felt
uncomfortable until, during dinner, with a nod and a smile, she asked
me to take wine with her. Mr. ---- had been engaged with some others
in a _détournement_, as it was delicately called, of about seventy
thousand dollars, but when I knew him afterwards, he was Secretary of
State for Foreign Affairs, and a more unworthy man it would have been
difficult even for Hayti to produce.

President Salnave had a favourite regiment that he kept up to its full
strength, and the men were fairly well disciplined. They were the only
men in his pay who really looked like soldiers, but they were most
insolent and overbearing. In order to strike terror into the town,
Salnave ordered their colonel to march them down to the “Rue des Fronts
Forts,” where the retail shopkeepers live, and there gave them leave
to plunder. His little speech on this occasion has become a proverb
in Hayti--“Mes enfans, pillez en bon ordre.” Whenever there were any
political executions, the shooting squad was chosen from among them,
and they have the discredit of having been employed to murder all the
political prisoners confined in the jail at Port-au-Prince in December
1869.

The only battalions which, in time of peace, are kept up to their full
strength, are those which are sent from their own districts to garrison
distant towns, where those not actually on duty are allowed to look for
work.


THE POLICE.

Of all the institutions in Hayti, the police is certainly the
worst conducted. There are regular commissaries employed under the
prefects, but ordinary soldiers do the work of constables. In my
time they went about the streets with a thick stick of heavy wood in
their hands called a _cocomacaque_, and they used it in such a way
as to confirm the remark that cruelty is an innate quality with the
negro. Never did I see a Haytian of the upper classes step forward to
remonstrate--probably he knew his countrymen too well--whilst the lower
orders simply laughed and enjoyed the sight of punishment.

Every one arrested accused of a crime is immediately treated as if he
were guilty, and the _cocomacaque_ is brought to play on his head and
shoulders. As an observer remarked, “In Hayti no prisoner has any right
to be considered innocent.” A woman was arrested near my house accused
of having killed the child of a neighbour from motives of jealousy.
They said she was a _loup garou_, and as soon as the soldiers seized
her they began to beat her. Before she reached the prison she was
covered with wounds, and a relative who endeavoured to interfere shared
the same fate.

One day, whilst at the American Consulate, I heard a disturbance
outside. I took no notice at first, but presently looking out, saw
the police raising a prostrate man. He had been insolent to his
overseer, and a passing general ordered him to be taken to prison by
the soldiers who were following him. They fell upon the man, and in a
few moments he was a mass of bruises, and died before he reached his
destination. A few weeks after, I saw a body of a negro lying near the
same spot; this was that of a thief, on whom the police had executed
summary justice with their clubs.

An English merchant saw two soldiers arrest a man accused of murder.
As he resisted, they tied his feet together and dragged him along
the streets, his head bumping against the stones. The Englishman
remonstrated, but he was threatened with the same treatment. A negro
arrested for stealing fowls had his arms bound behind him and a rope
attached to one ankle, which was held by a policeman, while another
kept close to the prisoner, beating him with his club, and as he
darted forward to avoid a blow, the other would pull the rope, and the
unfortunate accused would fall flat on his face. And all this done in
public before the authorities, both civil and military, and no man
raising his voice to stop such barbarous work! I have myself seen so
many of these brutal scenes that I feel convinced that no account can
be exaggerated.

As detectives these soldier-police are quite useless, and crime, unless
openly committed, is rarely detected. Robbers have continued in their
profession for years though perfectly well known, and no attempt has
been made to capture them. There was one who was notorious for the
impunity with which he had committed a long series of crimes. When he
entered a house he intended to rob, he stripped, rubbed his body with
oil, and crawled in, knife in hand. Unluckily for him, one night, being
disturbed in his operations, he stabbed his assailant, who proved to be
a Senator. It was all very well to rob and stab common people, but a
Senator could not be thus treated with impunity; and the man, fearing
no pursuit, was quietly captured in bed. The commissary of police,
thinking that the fellow had had rope enough given him, and being sure
that he would again escape from prison if sent there, had him taken out
of town, and he was promptly shot, under pretence of having attempted
to escape--_la ley de fuga_, as the Spaniards call it.

General Vil Lubin was, during the time of the Emperor Soulouque, in
command of the arrondissement of Port-au-Prince; he proved efficient
in his post, but he was a hard man, and one day ordered two soldiers
to be beaten. Their comrades carried out the order so effectually that
in a short time two bruised corpses were lying at the barrack door.
Soulouque heard of it, and, furious at the treatment of two of his own
guard, bitterly reproached Vil Lubin, and for months could not meet him
without using the expression, “Rendez-moi mes soldats.” Yet how many
hundreds met their death by his order! In both the civil and military
administration brutality is the rule, not the exception.

There has been much talk of establishing a rural police, but nothing
effective has come of it.

The Government rely for the detection of conspiracies more upon
informers than on the police, and as they are to be found in all ranks,
friendship is often used for the purpose of obtaining information.
President Geffrard sometimes referred to conversations to which members
of the diplomatic corps had been parties, and perhaps too often, as,
on comparing notes, they were enabled to fix on their communicative
friends, and were thus free to let the President hear their real
opinion about his measures, only so far, however, as it suited their
purpose. Under Soulouque the system was carried to a greater extent,
and his suspicious mind made him treat as truth every assertion of a
spy. One day an old beggar-woman, passing before the palace, asked alms
of some officers who were conversing together; on being refused, she
ran under the Emperor’s window and began to shout, “Emperor, they are
conspiring against you!” and made so great a disturbance that the guard
turned out. The officers were too happy to get rid of the old woman by
giving her money; she went off laughing, with her hands full of notes.

Under Salnave and Domingue the spy system was much employed, and it
appears likely that, under the present Government, it is rampant, if we
may judge by the series of military executions which have marked this
Presidency.

The jails, as might be expected in such a country, are filthy places.
I have often visited that of Port-au-Prince; it is a cluster of low
buildings, surrounded by a wall perhaps ten feet in height, so insecure
that no European could be kept there a night except by his own
good-will. The ordinary negro prisoner, however, has no enterprise,
and, rather liking the lazy life, lies down to sleep out his sentence.

Prisoners condemned to death, and too often political suspects, are
confined in cells, and are manacled to a bar running across the room. I
looked into one, and saw five men fixed to the same bar. As I knew that
there were only four condemned to death, I asked what was the crime of
the fifth. “Oh, he is a military defaulter, and we did not know where
else to put him.”

In President Geffrard’s time a little attention was paid to the
cleanliness of the jails, but during Soulouque’s reign and after
Geffrard’s time everything was neglected. A friend once visited the
prison, to find nine negroes manacled to the same bar, lying naked on
the floor on account of the stifling heat, and the jailer admitted that
he had not freed them from the bar for above a week, nor had he thought
of having the cell cleaned out. The horrible odour issuing from the
place when the door was opened fully confirmed the latter assertion.

I knew a general, still living, who had been confined from political
motives in one of these cells, I believe for seven years, and his
manacles were only occasionally secretly removed by the jailer.
Murderers serving out their sentences, thieves, unimportant political
prisoners, imprisoned sailors, are all indiscriminately confined in
regal rooms opening on a court, and receive their food from friends or
relatives. Unhappy would be the wretch who had no one to care for him,
as the pitiful allowance for the prisoners, irregularly paid, rarely if
ever reaches them.

Female prisoners are confined in the same building, but their rooms
open on a separate court. The wife of a revolutionary general was
imprisoned there in 1869. She was for a long time kept in irons, but
at length heed was given to our remonstrances, and her irons were
removed. She was a handsome negress, and took the jailer’s fancy,
who tried to violate her, but the powerful woman thrust him from her
cell. He threatened vengeance; but a few nights after she escaped
from prison, and fled to our Legation, where she remained over three
months, and it required the vigorous remonstrances of Lord Clarendon
to enable us to embark her for Jamaica. On the day that we did so, as
we approached the wharf, we noticed a crowd of negroes assembling with
the object of insulting their countrywoman, but on my giving my arm to
the black lady, an old negro remarked in their jargon, “Consite specté
negresse-çi-là” (“The Consul shows respect to that negress”), and
allowed us to pass without a word. This lady was from Cap Haïtien, and
I may add that she was the only refugee out of many hundreds that I can
remember who ever showed any gratitude for the services rendered them.

All the members of the diplomatic corps, since the first acknowledgment
of the independence of Hayti, have at various times attempted to
persuade successive Governments to look to their prisons, but never
with much result. The prisons are indeed thoroughly bad, as might be
expected among such a people. The worst on the island, however, is
probably at Puerto Plata, in the Dominican republic.

Murder is sometimes punished with death, but that punishment is
generally reserved for political opponents. I remember an instance
which is worth relating, as it displays the Haytian character in the
form it assumes when excited by political passion. In the autumn
of 1868, five merchants of the southern province were captured and
brought to Port-au-Prince. As they were connected with members of the
revolutionary party then in arms, the mob clamoured for their lives,
and they were ordered by President Salnave, to be shot. As we knew that
these men were perfectly innocent, the French, Spanish, and English
representatives made an effort to save them, and called on the Foreign
Minister to ask him to accompany us to the palace to see the President.
We were told that he was ill in bed, and could not accompany us. We
insisted upon seeing him, and found this functionary covered up and
trembling, not with ague, but fear. We begged him to get up, but he
obstinately refused, declaring he was too unwell. We could not waste
further time, as the execution was to take place within an hour. So we
left, but I could not refrain from saying to this bedridden gentleman,
“In such times as these, sir, a Minister has no right to be ill.” He
never forgave me.

We went to the palace, but were refused admittance, and only got back
to the French Legation in time to see the five prisoners pass to
execution. Presently one returned whom the President had pardoned.

When the procession arrived at the place of execution, there was a
mob collected of several thousand spectators, principally ferocious
negresses. A shout arose, “We were promised five! where is the fifth?”
and the crowd closed in on the procession, with knives drawn and
pistols ready. The cowardly officers replied, “The fifth is coming,”
and sent word to President Salnave. He, unwilling to disappoint his
most faithful followers, looked over the list of those in prison, and
finding that there was a parricide, whom he had pardoned but the day
before, ordered him to execution. In the meantime, the four others had
been kept waiting, exposed to the insults of the people--particularly
one prisoner, whose long white beard and hair and white skin made him
particularly obnoxious.

The arrival of the fifth prisoner pacified the crowd. The five were
clumsily shot, and then the spectators rushed in with their knives and
mangled the bodies under every circumstance of obscenity. Such are the
negresses when excited by political leaders, and such are evidently the
most devoted followers of President Salomon, if we can place any faith
in the accounts of the fearful atrocities perpetrated by them during
the massacres of September 1883.

The chief of this ferocious band was a young negress who went by
the name of Roi Petit Chout, to whom President Salnave gave a
commission as general. She used to come in front of the Legation with
some of her companions, knife in one hand and pistol in the other,
and utter ferocious threats, on account of our having received some
political refugees. These women were used as a high police to keep
down disaffection, and horrible stories are told of the murders and
cruelties practised by these wretches. When the revolution triumphed,
Roi Petit Chout was arrested, but though murder could readily have been
proved against her, she was soon restored to liberty.

As all the police department is most inefficiently paid, its members
are generally open to bribes, and are accused of levying black-mail on
the poorer inhabitants. During the time of Salnave they were unbridled
in their savage acts, and every man they met in the streets, foreign or
native, was liable to be seized and sent to the forts as a recruit. As
regular police commissaries accompanied these groups, these arrestments
were made in a spirit of wanton mischief; at other times it was to
obtain a pecuniary recompense for their good-nature in letting a
foreigner go.

To show how ordinary police affairs are managed in Hayti, I must
give an account of an incident which occurred to the Spanish _chargé
d’affaires_ and myself. A dishonest servant forced open the window of
our wine-cellar and stole eighteen dozen of claret, and then fled.
We gave notice to the police, who were very energetic in taking up
the case, and every now and then brought us information of their
proceedings. At last they recovered some of the wine, and in triumph
brought us two dozen and seven bottles. A few days passed, and a
Haytian friend happening to breakfast with us, took up a claret bottle
and saw the mark, “Château Giscours, De Luze, Bordeaux.” He laughed and
said, “Now I understand a remark made by the Minister of the Interior,
when he said what capital wine the English Minister imported.” On
further inquiry, we found that the police had recovered fourteen dozen
of our wine (the other four had been bought _knowingly_ by our most
intimate friend), and that they had divided eleven dozen and five
bottles among various high officials. The only observation my colleague
made was, “Quel pays!” but I felt inclined to agree with the people
when they say of the officials, “Quel tas de voleurs!” The robber was
afterwards arrested for another offence, and I could not but pity
him, when I saw him tied, bleeding and stumbling under the blows of a
policeman’s club.

During the siege of Port-au-Prince in the civil war (1868) my French
and Spanish colleagues and I were walking through the town, when we
were startled by the sound of firing in the next street. On arriving
at the spot, we found that the police had arrested a young Frenchman.
As he objected that he was a foreigner and not liable to conscription,
a crowd soon assembled, and a follower of Roi Petit Chout’s band, a
ferocious negro, raised his carbine and shot the lad through the body,
and my French colleague had barely time to catch his last words before
he expired.

Nothing that the French representative could say had any effect on
the Haytian Government; the murderer was promoted to be a sergeant,
and sent to the army to get him out of the way; but he soon came back
to Port-au-Prince, to be more insolent than ever. We had, however,
the satisfaction of knowing that, when the revolution triumphed, this
man was condemned to death for his other crimes and shot, my French
colleague taking care to be present at the final ceremony, to see that
the sentence was not evaded. For killing a white he would never have
been executed.

It must not be supposed, because I generally refer to my own
experiences, that things mended afterwards. Probably during the
presidencies of Generals Nissage-Saget and Boisrond-Canal the police,
though as dishonest, were less insufferable; but under Domingue and
Salomon they were worse than ever, as they always are under the
government of the black section of the community.

Under the present regime neither the white nor the coloured man has any
rights which the black is bound to respect.




CHAPTER IX.

LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE.


There are two languages spoken in Hayti, French and Creole. French is
the language of public life and of literature, whilst Creole is the
language of home and of the people. President Geffrard, among other
eccentricities, used to extol the Creole as the softest and most
expressive of languages, and his countrymen are unanimously of his
opinion; but no Frenchman can accept as a language this uncouth jargon
of corrupt French in an African form.

No doubt, African languages, like those of other savages, are very
simple in their construction, and the negroes imported into Hayti
learned French words and affixed them to the forms of their own
dialects. Mr. J. J. Thomas of Trinidad has published a very painstaking
grammar of the Creole language as spoken in that island. I gather from
it that this patois is much the same as that spoken in Hayti; but in
our colony it holds the position of the Saxon in the Norman period, and
interpreters are required in our law-courts to explain the language of
the people. It shows also that in the French colonies of Martinique and
Guadaloupe, as in our French-speaking colonies, wherever the negroes
attempt to speak French, they do so in the same way that the Creole is
spoken in Hayti. I may add that the patois of the inhabitants of the
interior is so corrupt and African, that those who can converse freely
with the negroes of the coast are often puzzled when they visit the
mountains, and require an interpreter.

As this Creole language is spoken by about a million and a half
of people in the different islands of the West Indies, it merits
the attention which Mr. Thomas has bestowed upon it; and I would
refer those curious on the subject to this elaborate work, in which
everything possible is done to raise the status of a patois which
remains still, in my opinion, but an uncouth jargon.

There is naturally no Creole literature, but there are many songs and
proverbs, some of which may serve to show the kind of language spoken
by the Haytians.

The only songs which I can quote are written by persons familiar with
the French language, and therefore do not sufficiently represent the
pure Creole. The proverbs, however, are genuine, and are therefore the
reflex of popular ideas.

Moreau de St. Méry, who lived in Hayti during the latter part of last
century, quotes a song written about the year 1750, which, though often
reprinted, I will insert here, with a translation made by a Creole some
years later. St. Méry has all Geffrard’s admiration for the Creole
language, and thinks that the inarticulate sounds, which cannot be
rendered on paper, are the most admirable part of the language of the
Haytians, and perhaps it may be so:--

           CREOLE.                              FRENCH.

  Lisette quitté la plaine,           Lisette tu fuis la plaine,
  Mon perdi bonheur à moué,           Mon bonheur s’est envolé,
  Gié à moin semblé fontaine,         Mes pleurs en doubles fontaines
  Dipi mon pas miré toué.             Sur tous tes pas out coulé.
  La jour quand mon coupé canne,      Le jour moissonnant la canne
  Mon songé zamour à moué,            Je rêve à tes doux appas,
  La nuit quand mon dans cabane       Un songe dans ma cabane
  Dans dromi mon quimbé toué.         La nuit te met dans mes bras.

  Si to allé à la ville               Tu trouveras à la ville
  Ta trouvé geine candio,             Plus d’un jeune freluquet,
  Qui gagné pour trompé fille         Leur bouche avec art distille
  Bouche doux passé sirop.            Un miel doux mais plein d’apprêt.
  To va crér yo bin sincère           Tu croiras leur cœur sincère,
  Pendant quior yo coquin ho,         Leur cœur ne veut que tromper:
  C’est serpent qui contrefaire       Le serpent sait contrefaire
  Crié rat, pour tromper yo.          Le rat qu’il veut dévorer.

  Dipi mon perdi Lisette,             Mes pas loin de ma Lisette
  Mon pas souchié Calenda,            S’éloignent du Calenda,
  Mon quitté bram bram sonnette,      Et ma ceinture à sonnette
  Mon pas batte bamboula.             Languit sur mon bamboula.
  Quand mon contré lant’ négresse     Mon œil de toute autre belle
  Mon pas gagné gié pour li,          N’aperçoit plus le souris,
  Mon pas souchié travail pièce       Le travail en vain m’appelle
  Tout qui chose à moin mourri.       Mes sens sont anéantis.

  Mon maigre tant com ’guon souche,   Je péris comme la souche,
  Jambe à moin tant comme roseau,     Ma jambe n’est qu’un roseau,
  Mangé na pas doux dans bouche,      Nul mets ne plaît à ma bouche,
  Tafia même c’est comme dyo.         La liqueur se change en eau.
  Quand mon songé toué Lisette,       Quand je songe à toi, Lisette,
  Dyo toujours dans gié moin,         Mes yeux s’inondent de pleurs,
  Magner moin vini trop bête          Ma raison, lente et distraite,
  A force chagrin magné moin.         Cède en tout à mes douleurs.

  Liset’ mon tardé nouvelle,          Mais est-il bien vrai, ma belle,
  To compté bintôt tourné,            Dans pen tu dois revenir:
  Vini donc toujours fidèle,          Ah! reviens toujours fidèle,
  Miré bon, passé tandé.              Croire est moins doux que sentir.
  N’a pas tardé davantage,            Ne tarde pas d’avantage,
  To fair moin assez chagrin,         C’est pour moi trop de chagrin,
  Mon tant com ’zozo dans cage,       Viens retirer de sa cage
  Quand yo fair li mouri faim.        L’oiseau consumé de faim.

It will readily be remarked that every word is a corruption of a French
one, and as no standard of spelling can exist in what may be called an
unwritten language, every writer has a distinct system of representing
Creole sounds. The seductive beauty of this language can only be for
the initiated, as the beauty of the native women is rarely remarked
except by those who have made a long voyage, and have almost forgotten
what beauty is. The versified translation of the song does not give an
exact idea of the construction of the Creole sentence, I may therefore
insert one verse with an interlined literal translation:--

    Lisette, quitté la plaine,
   _Lisette, quitta la plaine,_
    Mon perdi bonheur à moué,
   _Je perdis mon bonheur,_
    Gié à moin semblé fontaine
   _Mes yeux semblaient une fontaine_
    Dipi mon pas miré toué.
   _Depuis je ne te vois pas._
    La jour quand mon coupé canne
   _Le jour quand je coupe la canne_
    Mon songé zamour à moué;
   _Je pense à mes amours;_
    La nuit quand mon dans cabane
   _La nuit quand je suis dans ma cabane_
    Dans dromi mon quimbé toué.
   _Dans un songe je te tiens._

It is very difficult to find any very definite rules of grammar in this
song--

  Lisette quitté (Lisette has left or left),  Past.
  Mon coupé canne (I cut the cane),           Present.
  Si to allé (if thou shouldst go),           Subjunctive.
  Ta trouvé (thou wilt find),                 Future.
  Qui gagné (who possess),                    Present.

Absolutely the same form is preserved in all tenses and moods, and in
conversation various expedients are adopted to render the meaning clear.

A. M. L’Hérison, a Haytian, has written a song, which is quoted in Mr.
Thomas’s grammar, and as it represents the _cultivated_ Creole of the
present day, it is worth while inserting it:--


BADINEZ BIEN AVEC MACAQUE.

    Grand ’maman moïn dit: nans Guinée
    Grand mouché rassemblé youn jour
    Toute pêpe li contré nan tournée
    Et pis li parlé sans détour:
    Quand zôt allez foncer nan raque
    Connain coûment grand moune agi
    Badinez bien avec Macaque,
    Mais na pas magnié queue à li
    Grand ’maman moïn, dit moïn bon qui chose
    Lô li prend bon coup malavoume.
    Li dit moin you ça, “Mourose,”
    Nan tout ’grand zaffaires faut dit “Houme”
    Mais peut-on flanqué moin youn claque
    On pilôt terminer ainsi;
    Badinez bien avec Macaque
    Mais na pas magnié queue à li.

To get the true ring of popular Creole it is necessary to examine
their proverbs. M. J. J. Audain, a well-known Haytian, whose first
literary efforts brought him into trouble, has published a collection
which is very complete.[19] As Hayti becomes older as a nation and
loses its French element, we may have a distinct Creole literature.
There are many proverbs in M. Audain’s collection that would be quite
incomprehensible to an untravelled Frenchman:--

   16. Soufflé fatras pou ou bonais d’lo.
   17. Bonais d’lo, ranne couie.
  124. Quand digdale vernis piquée, cale basse vide douée pringa corps li.

The following are easy enough to understand:--

  174. Bouré empile pas allé avec piti figu.
       (Too much hair does not suit a little face.)

   60. Gé ouait, bouche pé.
       (The eyes see, the mouth speaks.)

   73. Chique pas jaimain respecté pié grand mouché.
       (Jiggers never respect the feet of the gentry.)

Some are so simple that they do not require translation, as--

  Moune qui rond pas capable vini carré zafaire mouton, pas zafaire
      cabrite.
  Calle pouésson, pas l’agent.
  Toute bois cé bois, main mapon pas cajou.
  Cé soulier qui connain si chanssons gangnain trou.
  Quand ravette fait dause li pas janmain invité poule.
  Pas janmain couri deux chimins à la fois.
  Toute pouésson mangé moune, cé requin seul qui pôté blâme.
  La fimée pas janmain lévée sans difé.

M. Audain’s collection contains one thousand and eleven proverbs; they
are constantly quoted by the people, who interlard their conversations
with them as much as ever Sancho Panza did. When speaking of a very
talkative person, they say, “Bouche li pas gagné dimanche” (his mouth
has no Sunday or day of rest).

It is scarcely necessary to multiply specimens of Creole proverbs or
translations. The former certainly convey a better idea of the language
spoken by the negroes than the latter, though, as written, it is much
more easily understood than when it is spoken. The negroes appear often
to clip their sentences, and leave it to the intelligence of the hearer
to divine their meaning.

Official documents are always written in French, more or less correct;
it is therefore unnecessary to refer particularly to them; but I may
remark that they have a set stock of phrases which are constantly
repeated. I will, however, quote a short official letter which amused
us.

A Haytian had committed, or was supposed to have committed, a crime,
and instead of being arrested and tried, he was ordered to be banished.
The letter addressed to him was as follows:--


  LIBERTÉ, ÉGALITÉ, FRATERNITÉ.
  RÉPUBLIQUE D’HAÏTI.

  No. 392.                           QUARTIER-GÉNÉRAL DE PORT-AU-PRINCE,
                                               _Le 30 Avril 1867,
                                            An 64ᵉ de l’Independance_.

 Le Général de Division, Chef d’éxécution de la volonté du peuple
 souvrain, et de ses résolutions, et Vice-Président du Governement
 Provisoire,

  AU CITOYEN JULES C----.

MONSIEUR,--Dès la présente reçue, vous aurez à chercher une occasion
pour les plages étrangères, afin que vous partiez du pays qui a reconnu
en vous l’homme qui cherche à pervertir la société haïtienne.--Je vous
salue.

                                              (Signed)  V. CHEVALIER, G.


This Monsieur Chevalier had been educated in France, and was shrewdly
suspected of having had a hand in drawing up the _Acte de déchéance_
launched by the revolutionary committee of St. Marc in 1867 against
President Geffrard. Amongst the different articles are the following:--

 “Attendu que le Général F. Geffrard assassine et empoisonne les
 citoyens les plus éminents d’Haïti: attendu qu’il entretient à
 l’étranger un très grand nombre d’espions et d’empoisonneurs _à un
 prix exorbitant_: attendu que toutes les écoles de filles de la
 république, notamment celles de Port-au-Prince, ont pour maîtresses
 des femmes d’une vie dissolue, afin de faire de ces établissements des
 maisons de séduction à son profit,” &c., &c.

A Frenchman inquired, “Etait-il indispensable pour incriminer Geffrard
sur ce dernier chapître de faire tort à toutes les demoiselles du pays?”

Among the most remarkable works published in Port-au-Prince may be
noticed the History of Hayti by Thomas Madiou (clear mulatto). As
it was written in the republic by a Haytian for Haytians, it may be
judged from that point of view. I have read it with great care and
with considerable interest, and some of the descriptions have been
much admired, as the detailed account of the attacks of the French
on the Crête-à-Pierrot. As an historical production it is a work
of considerable value and merit, for although full of prejudiced
statements, and with a strong leaning against foreigners, there is,
as far as local politics are concerned, an apparent desire to be
impartial. This, however, is not the general opinion. St. Rémy, in his
Life of Toussaint L’Ouverture, speaking of Madiou’s history, says, “Du
reste qu’il soit dit en passant que tout le livre de Monsieur Madiou
n’est qu’un tissu de faits érronés et de fausses appréciations.” The
French condemn it as a false account of the war of independence, and
resent the implied defence of Dessalines’ massacres. His partiality
may be proved by his asserting that the French Governor Blanchelande
was the instigator of the black insurrection. Madiou wrote his history
whilst in Hayti, and after searching for materials among the old
survivors of the war, whose prejudices were still warm. No doubt he was
influenced by them, but the industry shown is undoubted. The friends
and admirers of Toussaint had, however, a right to complain of the
evident wish to depreciate the qualities of almost the only black
Haytian who rose above mediocrity.

Occasionally M. Madiou’s style is very extravagant, as in the
description of a battle (see below[20]) which took place between the
coloured men of Jacmel and their black antagonists. Never was there
such desperate fighting since the days when--

    “For Witherington needs must I wayle,
        As one in doleful dumps,
    For when his legs were smitten off,
        He fought upon his stumps.”

M. Madiou is a mulatto, who has played a prominent part in the history
of his country, and his leanings are evidently in favour of his own
colour, and, as I have observed, he is severe on Toussaint L’Ouverture
for his endeavours to crush the attempts at independent command made by
Rigaud.

Another work of inestimable value for the students of Haytian history
is the one written by M. Beaubrun-Ardouin (fair mulatto). It is
entitled “Études sur l’Histoire d’Haïti.” M. Ardouin attempted to
collect in this work all the documents that could illustrate the
history of his country, and, at the time of his death, ten volumes
had already been published. He was for many years Haytian Minister
in Paris, which gave him full opportunities for examining the French
archives. I only knew him slightly; he was evidently a man of talent
and industry, but as he was justly credited with a prejudice against
the whites, he was generally avoided by them.

A Monsieur St. Rémy of Les Cayes wrote a Life of Toussaint, which is
but a poor production, and is full of prejudice and virulence against
both black and white.

A Frenchman, M. Edgar la Selve, has published a work called “L’Histoire
de la Littérature Haïtienne.” It is a volume of some interest,
containing as it does a collection of poetry written by natives, but it
is considered to be inferior in point of style and extravagant in its
appreciations. When you find M. La Selve ranking the crude productions
of a rude school with the writings of the most distinguished among
ancient and modern authors, one may readily feel that this work is an
offering to the vanity of acquaintances.

It is to be regretted that a person like M. La Selve should have
undertaken this task, as, instead of real criticism, which might have
proved of value, he puffs up the vanity and presumption of Haytian
writers by such observations as the following:--“Rapelle l’invotion
de Pindare”--“La grande éloquence et la magnificence des images”--“Sa
plume magique”--“La délicatesse de Charles Dovalle combinée avec la
grâce de Lamartine”--“Le nom modestement glorieux”--“Esprit vraiment
prodigieux et universel”--“Trois génies supérieurs”--“Cet autre
Augustin Thierry”--“Comparer aux dialogues de Platon.”

What more could be said of the best classics? No wonder this work was
unable to command any attention.

In the collection of poetry, it will be noticed that although there are
some very pretty verses, there are none of any remarkable merit. It is
not a special literature; there is seldom much local colouring: it is
rather a reflection of French productions where Lamartine holds the
place of honour.

It has been remarked by a French critic that the further we recede
from the time of the Declaration of Independence the worse the poetry.
The expressions become less exact, the phraseology common, the style
incorrect, with less cadence in the verses. The versification is seldom
accurate throughout any of these poems. It is but another proof of what
I have elsewhere stated, that Hayti is in a state of decay.

I may mention a few pieces that have struck a French friend as being
among the best. I prefer his judgment to my own, as I am one of those
who believe that no one can appreciate fully the poetry of another
nation; but as, in this case, my own opinion agrees with that of my
friend, I can take the responsibility of the judgment.

Coriolan Ardouin (mulatto) has written a very charming piece called
“Alaïda,” beginning thus:--

   “Sur la natte de jonc qu’aucun souci ne ronge,
    Ses petits bras croisés sur un cœur de cinq ans,
    Alaïda someille, heureuse, et pas un songe
      Qui tourmente ses jeunes sens.”

There is no local colour in this sonnet beyond, perhaps, the _natte de
jonc_. Only in the tropics are children to be seen sleeping on mats.

Dupré has written a patriotic hymn which might pass muster among
many others of the same kind. It closes with the following ferocious
sentiment:--

   “Si, quelque jour, sur tes rives
    Osent venir nos tyrans,
    Que leurs hordes fugitives
    Servent d’engrais à nos champs.”

Pierre Faubert (mulatto) has written several pieces which might be
quoted:--


LA NEGRESSE.

    Le suis fier de te dire, O négresse, je t’aime,
    Et la noir couleur me plaît, sais-tu pourquoi?
    C’est que nobles vertus, chaste cœur, beauté même
    Sont ce qui charme enfin, le ciel a mis en toi.

These lines might have been addressed to the pretty negress of
Pétionville of whom I have elsewhere spoken.

Another, “Aux Haïtiens,” is an appeal to union among blacks and
coloured.

There is a pretty song by Milscent (mulatto), in the style of Béranger,
commencing:--

   “J’entends en mainte occasion
    Prêcher contre l’ambition;
    Mon âme en est ravie--(_bis_.)
    Mais ceux qui nous parlent si bien
    Regorgent d’honneurs et de biens
    Cela me contrarie”--(_bis_.)

Ignace Nau (mulatto) contributes a very attractive piece called “Le
‘Ttchit’ et l’Orage:”--

   “Voici, voici l’orage,
    Là bas dans le nuage;
    Voici le vent, le vent
    Tourbillonnant au champ,
    Et disant au feuillage
    Repliez votre ombrage.
    Au lac, à ses bambous,
    ‘Roulez, agitez vous.’
    Au parfum ses délices
    ‘Refermez vos calices;’
    Au palmier haut dans l’air,
    ‘Gardez-vous de l’éclair.’
    Pauvre tchit égaré, chétif oiseau des champs!
    Le mont a disparu sous les rideaux de pluie.
    Hâte-toi, cher oiseau; viens t’abriter du temps,
    Déjà l’eau du lac est ternie.”

And many more verses equally good.

Perhaps the most poetic piece in the collection is that written by
a Haïtienne, Virginie Sampeur, “L’Abandonnée,” which I will quote
entire:--

   “Ah! si vous étiez mort, de mon âme meurtrie,
    ferais une tombe, où, retraite chérie,
    Mes larmes couleraient lentement, sans remords:
    Que votre image en moi resterait radieuse.
        Ah! si vous étiez mort.[21]

    Je ferai de mon cœur l’urne mélancolique
    Conservant du passé la suave rélique,
    Comme ces coffres d’or qui gardent les parfumes;
    Je ferais de mon âme une riche chapelle
    Où toujours brillerait la dernière étincelle
        De mes espoirs défunts.

    Ah! si vous étiez mort, votre éternel silence
    Moins âpre qu’en ce jour aurait son éloquence,
    Car ce ne serait plus le cruel abandon.
    Je dirais, il est mort, mais il sait bien m’entendre;
    Et peut-être en mourant n’a-t-il peut se defendre
        De murmurer:--Pardon.

    Mais vous n’êtes pas mort! Oh! douleur sans mesure,
    Regret qui fait jaillir le sang de ma blessure:
    Je ne puis m’empêcher, moi, de me souvenir,
    Même quand vous restez devant mes larmes vraies
    Sec et froid, sans donner à mes profondes plaies
        L’aumône d’un soupir.

    Ingrat! vous vivez donc, quand tout me dit vengeance!
    Mais je n’écoute pas! à defaut d’espérance
    Une fantôme d’idole est mon unique port,
    Illusion, folie, ou vain rêve de femme,
    Je vous aimerais tant, si vous n’étiez qu’un âme.
        Ah! que n’êtes vous mort.”

There is something superior in the tone and sentiment of this piece,
the only one of the author that M. La Selve publishes. I may notice
that Virginie Sampeur is a lady of colour. As she is still living,
I will only add that her poem tells her own story. As a rule, these
Haytian poets express fairly well all tender sentiments, but they are
wanting in a careful literary education, and they have not a very exact
appreciation of the genius of the French language.

In miscellaneous literature there are many publications of merit. Emile
Nau wrote an interesting book called “Histoire de Casiques,” although a
critic might fail to discover in it “une mine immense d’érudition.” It
is seldom that a Haytian writer dedicates himself to anything useful,
so that the efforts of Eugène Nau to bring superior agriculture into
vogue have a double merit. He is best known for his two productions,
“L’influence de l’Agriculture sur la Civilisation des Peuples” and
his “Flore Indienne.” I knew Eugène Nau very well. He was married to
a very charming woman, a sister of Auguste Elie, and no one who has
passed a few days at their estate in the plains of Cul-de-Sac will ever
forget the pleasant gaiety that reigned in that house. Civil war has,
however, devastated that portion of the country, and I fear that even
the inexhaustible spirits of Eugène Nau will scarcely be able to bear
him through such accumulated misfortunes. The small diplomatic corps
were ever welcome guests at Digneron, and I recall with pleasure the
evenings spent there with my French and Spanish colleagues. He had
a fund of intelligence and good sense; and his steady advocacy of a
metallic currency did honour to his perspicacity.

As might have been anticipated, the black portion of the population has
shown no literary aptitudes. Occasionally an Edmond Paul has written
a political essay which has fallen flat, or a Salomon has indited a
vigorous defence of his policy; but, as a rule, the coloured portion of
the population has produced the historians and poets of Hayti.




CHAPTER X.

AGRICULTURE, COMMERCE, AND FINANCE.


AGRICULTURE.

M. Eugène Nau, in his pamphlet on the influence of agriculture on
civilisation, endeavoured to bring his countrymen to look with favour
on the principal source of prosperity in all tropical countries; but
the seed he sowed fell on revolutionary soil, and agriculture is more
neglected than ever.

And yet in all the wide world there is not a country more suited to
agriculture than Hayti; not one where the returns for labour are more
magnificent; a rich, well-watered soil, with a sun which actually
appears to draw vegetation towards itself with such energetic force
that the growth of plants, though not actually visible to the eye, may
be almost daily measured.

The system of cultivation varies greatly. In the north an effort was
made by King Christophe to keep up large estates, whilst in the west
and south President Pétion encouraged the division of the land among
peasant proprietors. Large estates still remain, however, in these
provinces, which are cultivated under different arrangements, to which
I will hereafter refer. The general rule is that large estates obtain
mostly in the plains, whilst in the mountains the land is practically
in the hands of the peasantry, though many large estates exist
nominally.

In 1877 a law was passed for regulating the management of the State
domains, for selling them or leasing them for nine years. A longer
lease would require a special authorisation of the Legislature. This
last clause is principally aimed at foreigners, whom the Haytians
desire to keep away from all interest in land.

The national estates lie in different parts of the country, and the
extent of them in the aggregate is but imperfectly known, owing to
careless administration. According to an official return published in
1877, there were under lease 2105 farms of national land, containing
about 230,000 acres, let on an average at the rate of two shillings per
acre.

The laws on the tenure of real estate are, with some modifications, the
same as the agrarian laws that were framed by the French during their
possession of the country, and are remarkable for that minute accuracy
and definition of right which characterise French laws in general.

For the better elucidation of the subject a few retrospective notices
are necessary.

Going back to 1804, the year of independence, one of the first acts
of Dessalines was to create a national domain out of the following
elements:--

All the real estate which constituted the State domains during the
French period.

All the real estates of the whites which had not been legally
transferred.

All land without owners.

Confiscated lands.

In furtherance of his project to get the best part of the land into
the hands of Government, Dessalines is accused of resorting to every
kind of arbitrary and cruel act, and did not even disdain to encourage
forgery in order to dispossess those proprietors who stood firm to
their rights. This attack on private property was one of the main
causes of the successful plot against his life.

Of the national estate thus formed a great part was subsequently
parcelled out by Pétion in donations to those who had deserved well in
the war of independence, whilst other lots were sold in fee-simple.

Of the class of large proprietors created under the republic of Pétion,
but few undertook the cultivation of their own lands. The usage at once
came into favour of letting them out in small lots to working men on
the Metayer system, the landlord to receive half the produce, on the
condition of furnishing, on sugar-cane estates, the mill and the other
necessary appliances. With regard to produce, there are two classes
recognised and kept distinct by law, namely, “la grande culture” (large
farming) and “la petite culture” (small farming). The first consists in
the cultivation of sugar-cane and similar articles; the second in the
cultivation of provisions for the market. As in the “grande culture”
half went to the proprietor, the tendency has been for some years
to encroach with the “petite culture” on the lands reserved for the
former. Each peasant is allowed a patch of ground near his portion of
the cane-field on which to grow vegetables, and it has been found that
his attention is more directed to this than formerly. As long as the
sugar-cane is reserved for the manufacture of cheap rum to keep the
population in a continued state of intoxication, the falling off in
its culture is not to be regretted. In fact, the “great” and “little”
culture did very well when anything exportable was cultivated, but now
are of little practical importance, as they do not so much affect the
great stay of the country, the coffee crop.[22]

I may repeat that the first thing in point of importance in Haytian
agriculture is the coffee-tree, which grows almost wild in every
mountainous part of the country and around the cottages of the
peasantry at elevations of from 500 to 7000 feet above the level of the
sea--wild in the sense that the plants appear to spring from the seeds
that have fallen from the parent trees, though occasionally I have seen
them carefully planted round the cottages.

There is a notion in Hayti that the coffee crop will come to an end
by the old trees dying out. I was told this twenty years ago, and
the story is still repeated; but any one who observantly travels in
the interior would find the old trees surrounded by younger ones
that spring from the teeming soil from seeds scattered by the wind or
rain. The idea, also prevalent among many foreigners in Hayti, that
the coffee collected now is taken from the original trees planted by
the French, is untenable. As soon as the civil war caused by King
Christophe’s assumption of power ceased (1820), a marked progress took
place in the production of coffee. There is another fact which is also
forgotten; coffee-plants in wet tropical countries generally bear from
twenty to twenty-five years; therefore their age may be taken at about
thirty years. If this statement be correct, the trees must have been
renewed three times since the old colonial days. Most of the coffee
plantations I saw in Hayti contained shrubs that have seldom exceeded
from seven to ten feet in height, though on the way to Kenskoff I
noticed many from twelve to fifteen feet. At Furcy and at La Selle we
saw some very good plants, properly cleaned and attended to, and kept
at a suitable height for picking the berries. Mackenzie noticed, in
1827, whole sides of mountains covered with coffee-trees of spontaneous
growth, two-thirds of the produce being lost for want of hands to
gather it. So prolific, he says, were the bushes, that many which were
carefully tended produced from five to six lbs. and some were known to
give nine lbs.

I have never noticed the peasantry use more than the _mauchette_, a
sort of chopper almost as long as a sword, whilst cleaning their coffee
plantations. They simply cut down the weeds and creepers, but never
stir the soil around the roots with a hoe. The use of manure is unknown.

The only preventable cause for any decline in the coffee crop would
be the neglect following the withdrawal of the peasantry to take part
in civil wars and revolutions, and the lazy habits engendered by camp
life. When riding through coffee plantations after the civil wars of
1868 and 1869, I noticed a marked deterioration from 1864. Creepers
of every description were suffered to grow over and almost choke
the plants, and poor crops were sometimes the result. In Geffrard’s
time, though the cultivation was slovenly, efforts were made to keep
the plants clean, and during the quiet four years of Nissage-Saget’s
presidency the peasantry returned to their old habits.

Notwithstanding this occasional neglect, there appears no progressive
falling off in the crops; they vary as before, but on the whole keep up
to the average.

The quality of Haytian coffee is excellent, but its price in the market
is low, from various causes. Sometimes the crop is gathered hastily,
and ripe and unripe seeds are mixed; and then it is dried on the bare
ground, regardless of the state of the weather; and when swept up into
heaps, it is too often intermingled with small stones, leaves, and
dirt; and fraudulent cultivators or middle-men add other substances to
increase the weight. I have known carefully-selected parcels sent to
France marked Mocha, and there realising full prices. Nowhere is coffee
made better than in Hayti; it is roasted to a rich brown, ground and
prepared with a sufficient allowance of the material, all on the same
day, and the result is perfect.

As with other crops in the world, there are good years and bad years;
but with neglected plants, the bad come oftener than they would if due
attention were paid to their cultivation.

In 1789, when the French possessed the island, the amount produced
greatly exceeded anything seen since, with the exceptions of 1863,
1875, and 1876. In those years above 71,000,000 lbs. passed through
the custom-house, and it is calculated that about 15,000,000 lbs. were
smuggled.

The variations have been as follows:--

                 Lbs.
  1789        88,360,502
  1818        20,280,589
  1824        46,000,000
  1835        48,352,371
  1845        41,002,571
  1860        60,514,289
  1861        45,660,889
  1863        71,712,345
  1864        45,168,764
  1873        64,786,690
  1874        54,677,854
  1875        72,637,716
  1876        72,289,504
  1877        52,991,861
  1878        63,255,545
  1879        47,941,506
  1880        55,562,897

This striking increase in the amount of coffee produced since the great
war would appear somewhat to contradict the theory of the degeneracy
and idleness of the Haytians, but it must be remembered that the women
and children are very hard-working; that the women are in a majority,
and that the work is mostly done by Nature; the men, also, are not
very light-handed taskmasters. If a space be cleared round the bushes
with a _mauchette_--easy work that a child can do--the increase in a
plantation will continue, as I have remarked, by the beneficent hand
of Nature; the heavy rains knock off the ripe berries and scatter them
down the mountain-sides, and give rise to those matted undergrowths of
coffee-bushes whose fecundity often surprises the traveller. It is not
likely that the produce of the coffee-plants will decrease.

During the French colonial days the principal product was sugar,
and in the year 1789 they exported 54,000,000 lbs. of white sugar
and 107,000,000 lbs. of brown. As the slaves left the estates, so
production decreased, and was fast disappearing when Christophe in the
north forced the people by severe measures to resume its manufacture.
He gave the great estates of the old colonists to his generals and
courtiers, with an order that they should produce a certain amount of
sugar under pain of forfeiture. As they had the population under their
command, and an unrestrained use of the stick, they succeeded fairly;
but as soon as this pressure was removed, the manufacture of sugar
ceased, and it is no longer found in the list of exports, except as a
fancy article to obtain bounties.

In 1818 the export of sugar had fallen from 161,000,000 to 1,900,000
lbs., and in 1821 to 600,000 lbs., then to disappear from the
custom-house lists.

The prejudice against sugar-making is still strong, though, could
the owners of estates prove to their people that large profits would
accrue to them from its manufacture, it is very probable that the
prejudice would die out. A friend of mine tried to persuade one of his
cultivators to aid him in a sugar-making project, but the man answered
sulkily, “Moué pas esclave” (“I’m not a slave”), and walked away. The
negroes do not like a bell to be used to ring them to work, as it
reminds them of colonial days, but some bold innovators have introduced
and continued the practice, without producing any other effect than
occasional grumbling.

Sugar-cane, however, is still very extensively cultivated, and succeeds
admirably, the soil appearing peculiarly adapted to it. The cane is
now grown for making tafia or white rum, and for molasses, which
the people use instead of sugar. Most of the factories built by the
French were destroyed, and inferior buildings have been erected in
their stead. Watermills are generally used, as being economical, and
the never-failing streams from the hills afford abundant power. A few
proprietors have put up extensive machinery for sugar-making, but their
success has been so doubtful as not to encourage others. A Haytian
knows that during a revolution his property would not be respected,
and, if a defeated partisan, would be either confiscated or destroyed:
so no encouragement is held out to agricultural enterprise; and, what
adds to his difficulties, a dangerous spirit of communism has spread
among the people, and in many districts the peasantry begin to regard
the estates as their own.

Of cotton 8,400,000 lbs. were exported in 1789. This amount, however,
soon decreased under independent rule:--

  In 1835 there were exported     1,649,717 lbs.
  ”  1842      ”       ”            880,517 ”
  ”  1853      ”       ”            557,480 ”
  ”  1859      ”       ”            938,056 ”
  ”  1860      ”       ”            688,735 ”

to rise, on the outbreak of the civil war in the United States, to--

  In 1861                         1,139,439 lbs.
  ”  1862                         1,473,853 ”

increasing until 1865, when the crop was over 4,000,000 pounds; but
the fall of prices, occasioned by the collapse of the civil war in
the States, from 2s. 6d. to 11d. in the course of a few months,
discouraged the agriculturists, and cotton was again neglected. In the
last commercial reports the amount of cotton exported from the whole
republic is not given.

During the Great Exhibition held in London in 1862, the report on the
cotton exhibited there by Hayti mentioned very favourably the two bales
which were sent as specimens, and it remarked that England required
at least 2,000,000 bales of each of the qualities exhibited. It has
been calculated that there is sufficient suitable land in Hayti to
furnish half the quantity required. This, however, appears to me an
over-estimate.

President Geffrard was fully aware of the importance of taking
advantage of the opportunity offered by the civil war in the United
States, and supported two measures to encourage cotton cultivation. The
first was the immigration of free blacks from America, and the next the
offer of bounties.

The immigration was badly managed, as blacks from the North were sent,
instead of Southern cultivators. Most of those who arrived, being
unfitted for field-labour in a tropical climate, added but little to
the production of cotton. A few kept to the work, but many died, and
most of the others either migrated to the towns or left the country. As
might have been expected, the Haytian arrangements were as bad as they
could be. Settlers were given ground without any water, but were told
that a canal should some day be cut; food and money were distributed
irregularly, and malversation added to the other difficulties.

Bounties were scarcely required, as the price rose from 4d. in 1859
to 1s., 1s. 2d., and 1s. 5d. in 1863, and 2s. 6d. in 1864; and many
Haytians tried to do something in order to win a portion of this
harvest. Field-hands, however, were scarce, and in order to get in
their crops the proprietors had to offer half the amount to those who
would come and gather it for them. One peasant proprietor, in 1863,
managed with his family to secure 8000 lbs. of cotton, which he sold
for £500, a sum to which he was wholly unaccustomed. The comparative
large amounts to be received would have had a very great effect on the
prosperity of the country had there been the necessary hands ready to
take advantage of the opportunity offered. The industrious, however,
were few, and many proprietors had to leave a portion of their crop to
rot on the plants.

When the prices rose to three or four times the former value, the
Government abolished the system of bounties, and imposed a tax of one
penny a pound, but had to abolish it in 1865 on the sudden fall in
prices. The cultivation is now again neglected, as Haytian cotton has
returned to its old level in price, and the land must be more valuable
for provision crops. With the uncertainty which characterises the
supply of labour in Hayti, it is not likely that cotton will again
become an important export.

The French appear to have paid but little attention to the cultivation
of the cacao-tree, and in 1789 only exported 600,000 lbs. Even this
small quantity decreased, and the amount that passed through the
custom-house in 1821 fell to 264,792 lbs. The crops have since much
varied, but the export rose gradually, until, in 1863, the amount was
2,217,769 lbs. As far as I have been able to ascertain, no subsequent
year has produced so abundant a crop.

Cacao is principally grown near the farthest point of the peninsula,
west of Jérémie, amid a population rarely visited, and reported as
among the most barbarous of the island.

Tobacco is not mentioned in the list of exports during the French
period, and only appears in those returns which were published when
the Dominican end of the island formed part of the Haytian republic.
A little has been occasionally grown for home consumption, as at the
Fonds-aux-Nègres.

Logwood is found in all parts of the country, and is a very important
article of export.

There is nothing else grown in Hayti which can be called an article of
commerce, but the peasantry cultivate large amounts of garden produce,
and some rice and Indian-corn, but they do not do so in sufficient
quantities to supply the market. Bananas for cooking purposes are a
valuable crop, as they take the place of bread in the daily consumption
of the people. Fruit-trees abound, particularly mangoes, sour oranges,
and the avocado (alligator pear). The last fruit comes to great
perfection, whilst the mango is inferior except in a few localities,
and is not to be compared to the “number elevens” grown in Jamaica.

The markets of the capital are well supplied with European vegetables,
which are grown in the mountains at the back of La Coupe, the old
summer resort of the people of the capital. When staying there, I have
often walked to the gardens at the foot of Fort Jaques, where not only
vegetables may be found, but many orchards full of peach-trees--sadly
neglected, however--with their branches covered with long moss,
to the exclusion of leaf and fruit. A few apples and chestnuts are
occasionally brought to market. Fort Jaques is situated about 6000 feet
above the level of the sea. I may notice that the peaches are usually
picked before they ripen, on account of the pilfering habits of the
people.

There is little to be said about the domestic animals. The horses are
generally small, but strong and full of endurance, and are of Spanish
breed. Mules and donkeys are plentiful, as no person is satisfied
unless he possesses some beast of burden. The cattle are supplied from
the Dominican part of the island, and are much used for traction. Good
beef may often be found in the markets. Sheep and goats are plentiful,
but of inferior breeds, whilst pigs wander about untended, and are
generally so lean that they warrant the reproach that the Haytians
cannot even fatten a pig. Poultry are thought to be getting scarcer
than formerly: they are generally of an inferior kind.


COMMERCE.

Hayti has for many years carried on a very fair commerce with Europe
and America, though probably not a quarter of what she might have if
her inhabitants were industrious. In the colonial days, the exports
were valued at from £6,000,000 to £8,000,000 a year, and in 1790 had
reached nearly £11,000,000 with a less numerous population, whilst the
highest since the independence has probably not exceeded £2,300,000.

Notwithstanding foreign wars, civil wars, insurrections, and those
continued conspiracies which have almost every year disturbed the
country, the productive powers of the soil are so great, that nothing
appears permanently to depress the exports, and therefore the imports.

The export trade of Hayti in 1835, which then included the whole
island, was as follows:--

                        Lbs.      Value.
  Coffee            48,352,371  $6,812,849
  Logwood           13,293,737      86,409
  Cotton             1,649,717     247,457
  Mahogany, feet     5,413,316     405,998
  Tobacco            2,086,606     125,196
  Cacao                397,321      47,678
                                ----------
                                $7,725,587

At the exchange of the day this represented just £1,000,000 sterling.
The last year in which the statistics refer to the whole island is 1842.

M. Madiou, in his “History of Hayti,” vol. i. p. 31, gives the amount
of the produce exported in the years 1842 and 1845, but does not affix
a value to them:--


1842.

  Coffee      40,759,064 lbs.
  Cotton         880,517 ”
  Logwood     19,563,147 ”
  Tobacco      2,518,612 ”
  Cigars         700,000 No.
  Mahogany     4,096,716 feet

and various small amounts of miscellaneous articles.

It will be remarked that in the returns for 1845 tobacco has ceased
to appear, as Santo Domingo had by this time separated from Hayti. M.
Madiou considers that about 5,000,000 lbs. of coffee are consumed in
the island, which is probably an under-estimate, considering the lavish
manner in which it is used, and that 20,000,000 lbs. are exported
as contraband, to avoid the heavy duties. This calculation appears
too high. Whilst I was in Hayti, the illicit trade was considered to
represent from 15 to 20 per cent of the acknowledged exports. Much,
however, depends on the character of the men in power.


1845.

                                Lbs.
  Coffee                     41,002,571
  Cotton                        557,480
  Logwood and other woods    68,181,588
  Mahogany, feet              7,904,285

The other woods consist of lignum vitæ, &c. It is curious that he makes
no mention of cacao.

In the next returns it will be noticed how mahogany decreased--the
cuttings near the coast were beginning to be exhausted--whilst the
exports of logwood were greatly increased. This is work that just
suits the negro; it can be done by fits and starts, and never requires
continuous labour. The following tables may appear superfluous, but
they show the effect of comparatively orderly government. These
six years were free from any serious civil trouble, and no foreign
complications prevented all development that was possible. The war in
the States gave trade considerable impulse.


1859.

  Coffee            41,712,106 lbs.
  Logwood           88,177,600  ”
  Cotton               938,056  ”
  Cacao              1,397,364  ”
  Mahogany           2,690,044 feet


1860.

  Coffee            60,514,289 lbs.
  Logwood          104,321,200  ”
  Cotton               668,735  ”
  Cacao              1,581,806  ”
  Mahogany           2,264,037 feet


1861.

  Coffee            45,660,889 lbs.
  Logwood          105,757,050  ”
  Cotton             1,139,439  ”
  Cacao              1,304,561  ”
  Mahogany           1,659,272 feet


1862.

  Coffee            54,579,059 lbs.
  Logwood          167,005,650  ”
  Cotton             1,473,853  ”
  Cacao              1,743,853  ”
  Mahogany           2,441,887 feet


1863.

  Coffee            71,712,345 lbs.
  Logwood          116,669,400  ”
  Cotton             2,217,769  ”
  Cacao              2,338,400  ”
  Mahogany           2,016,557 feet


1864.

  Coffee            45,168,764 lbs.
  Logwood          153,235,100  ”
  Cotton             3,237,594  ”
  Cacao              1,399,941  ”
  Mahogany           2,369,501 feet

No trustworthy statistics could be obtained for the time of Soulouque,
on account of the monopolies and the various interferences with
commerce. In 1865 the siege of Cap Haïtien, and the disturbances which
followed in 1866, the fall of Geffrard in 1867, and the civil war of
1868 and 1869, completely disturbed trade, and no reliable statistics
can be obtained.

The latest trade return which I have seen is of the year 1880:--

                    Lbs.
  Coffee         55,562,897
  Logwood       321,729,801
  Cacao           2,729,853
  Cotton            957,962
  Mahogany, feet     71,478
  Sugar               2,397

Mr. Mackenzie, who was English Consul-General at Port-au-Prince during
the years 1826 and 1827, gives a table of the commerce of Hayti in
1825, which includes the whole island.


_Imports._

             Vessels.  Tonnage.  Value of cargoes.
  American     374      39,199      £391,784
  British       78      11,952       291,456
  French        65      11,136       152,681
  German        17       3,185        85,951
  Others        18       1,328        10,162
                                    --------
                                    £932,034

The large amount of American vessels will be noticed, and the
comparative extent of their trade. In 1864 English-sailing shipping
rose to 281 vessels (of 41,199 tonnage) and 74 steamers, against those
under the American flag, 88 sailing vessels (of 16,316 tonnage) and two
steamers. This, however, was only nominal, the ravages of the _Alabama_
having induced American shipowners to transfer their vessels to the
British flag.

In 1877 the tonnage of vessels calling at the three chief ports of
Hayti (Port-au-Prince, Cap Haïtien, and Les Cayes) was as follows:--

    Flag.             Tonnage.
  British             184,331
  French               91,562
  German               80,561
  American             22,350

It must be noticed, however, that the English, French, and German
tonnage consists principally of steamers, which have ports of call
on the island, whereas the Americans have two-fifths of the sailing
tonnage.

In 1863 the imports into Hayti amounted to £1,743,052, and in 1864 to
£2,045,333. The United States then held the first place, having sent
£762,724 and £994,266, their imports, as usual, being principally
provisions and lumber. England occupied the second position with
£503,630 and £626,624; France, £255,747 and £273,778. Both in the years
1863 and 1864 there was a great decrease in the amount of provisions
grown in the country, partly on account of the increase of cotton
cultivation; hence the very heavy imports of provisions from the United
States.

The exports in 1863 and 1864 were valued at £2,458,000 and £1,895,000,
the decrease arising from the inferiority of the coffee crop, and the
fall in the price of goods. The average value of the principal articles
of export varied as follows:--

       Articles.            1863.          1864.
  Coffee, per 100 lbs.    £2 9 3½     £2  5  0
  Logwood, per 1000 lbs.   1 2 9       0 17 10
  Cotton, per lb.          0 1 4       0  2  0
  Cacao, per 100 lbs.      1 9 4       1  6  0


_Present Prices._

Prices have fallen lately to an unprecedented extent. During the autumn
of the year 1882, coffee was once quoted as low as 16s. per 100 lbs.,
but rose afterwards to 24s.; and all other produce was also depreciated
in value.

In 1876 the total imports into the island were £2,110,000; the total
exports, £2,200,000.

In 1877 the total imports were £1,594,200; the total exports,
£1,694,800, which was below the average.

In 1877 the imports into the capital were as follows, which shows a
marked change in the position of the importing countries:--

  Great Britain         £619,900
  United States          110,200
  France                 103,100
  Germany                 36,880

In some of the smaller ports the position of the trade of the United
States was relatively better. In Les Cayes, for instance:--

  United States          £119,172
  Great Britain            23,692
  France                   22,030
  Germany                   1,715

A portion of these imports from the United States consisted of
manufactures in transit from England. We appear to be holding our own
everywhere as regards piece goods and iron, whilst five-sixths of the
imports of the United States consist of flour, salt pork, and other
provisions. The Haytians are French in their tastes, but the cheapness
of our Manchester goods enables our importers to hold their own.
The great export, coffee, appears in great part ultimately to reach
French ports, as it is not appreciated in other countries, whereas
its cheapness and good quality recommend it strongly to the French
Government for the use of the army.

When in Port-au-Prince I drew the attention of the Secretary of State
for Foreign Affairs to the great discrepancy between their published
returns and those of our Board of Trade. In 1865 our exports are set
down at £1,163,274, and in 1866 at £1,425,402, for the whole island.
Santo Domingo takes but a small amount, whilst the Haytian custom-house
did not acknowledge more than half the amount of our returns. Either we
overvalue our goods in England, or the smuggling must be large.

The imports from the United States appear to have greatly fallen off
since 1864, which must imply that the peasantry are planting more food
and consuming a very much smaller amount of imported provisions.


FINANCE.

As in most American republics, the income of the Haytian state depends
chiefly on the custom-house. It is said the people will not bear direct
taxation, and that therefore the Government must rely on import and
export duties. The heavy debt which was imposed on Hayti by France
nearly sixty years ago has been the principal cause of the financial
embarrassments of the republic.

The mission of Baron Mackau, sent by Charles X. in 1825, had for object
the imperfect recognition of the independence of the republic of Hayti,
on condition of their paying £6,000,000 as an indemnity to the old
colonists--a sum quite out of the power of the country to raise--and
only five years were allowed to complete the transaction. One is at
a loss to understand how President Boyer could have consented to so
burdensome an arrangement. Subsequently the indemnity was reduced to
£3,600,000, but although fifty-eight years have passed, a balance
still remains due. It was not till 1838 that these arrangements were
concluded, and France definitively recognised the independence of
Hayti. The republic had effected a loan in Paris in 1825 of £1,200,000
nominal to pay the first instalment due, and even this debt has not
been completely settled. The whole transaction proved a cruel burden
to the country, and, by introducing heavy export duties and the curse
of paper money, greatly injured agricultural and every other interest.

The import duties average about 30 per cent. on the value, whilst the
export duties are at so much a quintal on coffee, and have varied
according to the exigencies of the moment. Major Stuart’s Report for
1877 enters into many details which may be found interesting. I propose
to give here only the general results; but I may say that the duties
embrace almost every article, and are as high as they can bear.

The progress of the revenue collected in Hayti is another proof to me
that the population has greatly increased.

It is not necessary to examine the budgets of many years. In 1821,
before the union with Santo Domingo, the income is stated by Mackenzie
to have been $3,570,691, and the expenditure $3,461,993. In these sums
must be included some exceptional receipts and expenditure, as the
revenue of the whole island in 1825 was only $2,421,592. The long and
quiet Presidency of Boyer, coupled with his honest administration,
enabled him not only to pay off considerable sums to France, but
to leave a heavy balance in the treasury. Boyer, however, has the
demerit of having introduced the paper currency, and of having put
into circulation $2,500,000 more than he withdrew, thus reducing the
exchange of the doubloon from 16 to 1 (par) to 40 to 1.

After Boyer came the period of revolutions, and consequent deficits
and heavy issues of paper money. In four years they had sent down the
exchange to $60 to one doubloon. But the disastrous period of Haytian
financial history was the reign of Soulouque, when millions of paper
dollars were issued every year, sending down the exchange to $289 to
one doubloon.

In 1849 no less than $4,195,400 were issued to meet the expenses of the
establishment of the empire.

The budget for 1848, the last year of the republic, is nominally a very
modest one (exchange $25 to £1):--

  Army                               $3,232,238 = £129,289
  Interior                              770,395 =   30,815
  Finance and foreign affairs           668,814 =   26,752
  Justice, education, public worship    303,393 =   12,135
                                                  --------
                                                  £198,993

But as 2,200,000 paper dollars were issued during the year, it is
probable that this budget was not adhered to.

The budget for the year in which the empire was established is given as
follows (exchange $40 to £1):--

  Army                      $3,810,216 =  £95,255
  Interior                     735,937 =   18,398
  Finance, &c.               2,237,389 =   55,934
  Justice, &c.                 309,293 =    7,732
                             ---------   --------
                            $7,092,835 = £177,319

But these budgets are not to be trusted, and do not represent the real
expenses.

When the accounts were examined subsequent to the fall of Soulouque,
it was found that of the coffee monopoly alone £400,000 had been
abstracted for the use of the Emperor and some of his Ministers and
favourites. The comparative large sums of £40,000, £20,000, and £12,000
were taken at a time, without any account being rendered. During
Soulouque’s reign over $28,000,000 were added to the currency.

In June 1863, General Dupuy, Finance Minister to President Geffrard,
published a very clear financial statement. The total debt remaining
due to France was £1,436,000. The custom duties produced:--

  In 1860          £511,666
  ”  1861           463,333
  ”  1862           566,000
    Minor taxes, £26,341.


_Deficits._

  In 1859           £30,276
  ”  1860            35,904
  ”  1861            81,193
  ”  1862            81,483

These were calculated on the amount of paper money signed to meet them,
but at the close of 1862 there was £79,834 in hand.

The budget of 1863-64 was fixed as follows:--

         Expenses.           |      Receipts.
  Finance            £67,776 | Duties       £564,050
  Foreign Office     171,828 | Minor taxes    24,725
  War                138,361 |
  Interior           171,692 |
  Public instruction  44,825 |
  Justice and public}        |
    worship         } 27,714 |
                     ------- |              --------
                    £622,196 |              £588,775

The deficit was met by adding ten per cent. to the duties.

During the Presidency of General Geffrard the finances were better
administered than under Soulouque, but millions of dollars disappeared,
without any one being found willing to give an account of what had
become of them. One coloured and two black generals are supposed to
have appropriated the principal portion. On the Chamber of Deputies
venturing to make inquiries on this interesting point, it was summarily
dismissed, and a packed Chamber substituted.

Civil war ended by General Geffrard resigning and quitting the country.
I do not believe, however, that he carried with him more than he
could have fairly saved out of his salary. He, moreover, was the only
President that I knew who kept up the position of chief of the State
with any dignity.

No budgets were procurable during Salnave’s time, and the civil war
that was carried on during three years caused the Government and
insurgents to issue paper money, so that before Salnave’s fall this
paper currency was to be obtained at 3000 paper to one silver dollar.
It was withdrawn by the subsequent Government at 10 to 1 for their own
paper.

The finances under General Nissage-Saget were, for Hayti, at first
decently administered; but when the bad black element from the south
entered into its councils, malversation became the order of the day.
But during this Presidency a great change was made in the currency:
all paper money was withdrawn at an exchange of 300 to 1, and American
silver dollars substituted. This change was much criticised both
before and since, as unsuited to the circumstances of the country.
On the whole, the balance of arguments was in favour of a metallic
currency.

Under President Domingue there were no honest financial measures taken.
Everything was done to suit the pleasure of Septimus Rameau, and a loan
was raised in France, and the largest portion distributed among the
friends of the Minister in a manner which astonished even Haytians. It
was a disgraceful transaction, that the next Chamber endeavoured to
ignore; but as it was supported by the French agents, the Government of
Boisrond-Canal had to yield and acknowledge it.

For the years 1876 and 1877 we have the receipts and expenditure stated
in detail. The income from duties, &c., was £805,900; the expenditure,
£804,737; including £202,876 to the sinking fund. The army and navy
figure for only £167,568, and public instruction was increased to
£82,245. In Soulouque’s budget of 1849, justice, education, and public
worship were credited with only £7732.


_Budget for 1876-77._

  Finance and commerce        £89,558
  Foreign relations            46,714
  War and marine              167,568
  Interior and agriculture    111,931
  Justice                      36,095
  Public instruction           82,245
  Public worship               12,586
  District chest (communes)    75,160
  Sinking fund                202,876
                             --------
                             £824,733

The latest budget I have before me is that of 1881. It is as follows:--

  Finance and commerce      £67,610
  Foreign relations          48,954
  War                       214,837
  Interior                  298,913
  Justice                    54,565
  Public instruction        115,037
  Public worship             13,875
                           --------
                           £813,791

The amount of the income to meet this expenditure is not stated.

The circulating medium in the early days of Haytian independence
consisted of foreign gold and silver coins, and then some fabricated
in the country, of inferior quality and appearance, of both silver and
copper. In 1826, President Boyer beginning to feel the pressure of
his engagements with France, issued paper notes of different values.
Being irredeemable, they soon fell to a heavy discount, 3½ to 1. The
succeeding Governments, as I have noticed, continued the same course,
until, on the accession of Soulouque to power, the exchange was about
4½ to 1. The unchecked emissions after he ascended the imperial throne
gradually lessened the value of the paper, until, in 1858, it was 18 to
1.

Some order having been put into the finances by General Dupuy, the
exchange in 1863 was more favourable, being 12½ to 1; the troubles
which succeeded in 1865 sent it to 17 to 1; and with the revolutionary
Government of Salnave and the civil war that followed it went down
like the assignats during the French Revolution,--in 1857, 30 to 1; in
1859, 3000 to 1.

The issues of Salnave’s Government were so discredited that they were
at one time exchanged at 6500 paper dollars for one of silver. Until
lately the American dollar and its fractions, with a plentiful bronze
currency, sufficed for all wants. Now, however, a special Haytian
dollar is being coined, with the object apparently of preventing its
export--a very futile expedient, as experience proves.

A sort of National Bank, managed principally by Frenchmen, was
established a few years since, but its operations do not as yet appear
to have had much influence on the country. As the bank, however, has
some control over the collection of duties, it may introduce a more
honest perception of these imports; but I do not think the managers
will find that their lines have fallen in pleasant places.


THE END.


                 PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE, HANSON AND CO.
                         EDINBURGH AND LONDON.




FOOTNOTES:

[1] Ever since the reign of Soulouque, professional authors have
been paid by the Haytian Government to spread rose-tinted accounts
of the civilisation and progress of Hayti. But twenty-four hours in
any town of that republic would satisfy the most sceptical that these
semi-official accounts are unworthy of belief.

[2] Mackenzie states that he noticed the thermometer marking 99° every
day for considerable periods.

[3] It is a well-known fact that the noise of the approach of an
earthquake is generally heard; but in Port-au-Prince there is a curious
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 perceptible. The
Haytians call it “le gouffre,” or “le bruit du gouffre,” and many fancy
the whole of that portion of the island to be undermined, and predict a
fearful fate for the capital.

[4] 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
fortifications during the day and do duty at night. No wonder that
we find a regiment 600 strong losing 400 in two months, and the 82d
landing 950 men, to be reduced in six weeks to 350.

[5] St. Remy, speaking of Toussaint’s capture, says, “Embarquement par
les _blancs_.” How like a mulatto not to say “par les français!”

[6] This biography, as well as the others I have seen, is full of
absurdities; 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 intrenchments, 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 untrustworthy black and
coloured allies, mixed with French planters. Even a moderately sensible
Haytian could not accept so absurd a biography.

[7] I am glad to be able to notice that M. Robin (mulatto), in his
“Abrégé de l’Histoire d’Haïti,” remarks in relating Toussaint’s sad
death:--“Ainsi fut récompensé de ses longs et éminents services cet
illustre enfant d’Haïti, qui pouvait bien se dire le premier des
noirs,” &c. &c. Dessalines appears to have encouraged Leclerc to arrest
Toussaint, and then dishonourably betrayed Charles Belair (black),
nephew to Toussaint, and his wife into the hands of the French, who
shot Belair and hung his wife.

[8] One thing I wish distinctly to state, that I never heard of any
mulatto, except Generals Salnave and Therlonge, who was mixed up with
the cannibalism of the Vaudoux, nor of any black educated in Europe.

[9] On the African coast the word is Vodun. Burton mentions that the
serpents worshipped at Whydah were so respected that formerly to kill
one by accident was punished by death. Now a heavy fine is inflicted.
Bosman states that the serpent is the chief god in Dahomey, to whom
great presents are made. They are harmless; white, yellow, and brown
in colour, and the largest was about six feet long, and as thick as a
man’s arm. Fergusson, in his introductory essay on “Tree and Serpent
Worship in India,” mentions that at a place called Sheik Haredi,
in Egypt, serpent-worship still continues, and that the priests
sacrifice to them sheep and lambs. On the west coast of Africa, women,
when touched by the serpent, are said to become possessed; they are
seized with hysteria, and often bereft of reason; they are afterwards
considered priestesses. The whole essay of Fergusson is exceedingly
interesting.

[10] Red, the royal colour at Mdra.--_Bosman._

[11] Burton, in his “Mission to the King of Dahomey,” notices that the
fetish priests are a kind of secret police for the despotic king, and
exercise the same influence as in Hayti. They are supposed to be able
to give health, wealth, length of days, and can compass the destruction
of the applicant’s foes, all for a fee. Bosman, in his account of the
slave coast of Guinea, says that a negro who offered opposition to the
priests was poisoned by them, and became speechless and paralysed in
his limbs; and that if any woman betrays the secrets of the priests,
she is burnt to death.

[12] Barbot states that the common food of the natives of the kingdom
of Ansiko (west coast of Africa) is man’s flesh, insomuch that their
markets are provided with it, as ours in Europe with beef and mutton.
All prisoners of war, unless they can sell them alive to greater
advantage, they fatten for slaughter, and at last sell them to butchers
to supply the markets, and roast them on spits, as we do other meat
(date 1700).--Churchill’s Collection, vol. v. p. 479. Barbot also
notices that the people of Jagos, Congo, and Angola were also cannibals.

[13] Barbot, in his account of the Ansiko kingdom, says: “That which is
most inhuman is, that the father makes no difficulty to eat the son,
nor the son the father, nor one brother the other; and whosoever dies,
be the disease ever so contagious, yet they eat the flesh immediately
as a choice dish.”--Barbot, in Churchill’s Collection, vol. v. p. 479.

[14] I may here notice that the Haytians have chosen the mountain
cabbage-palm (_Palma nobilis_) as the tree of liberty in the national
arms. It is in nature a beautiful palm, with its dark-green foliage and
perfect shape. The cap of liberty stuck on the top of it makes it look
rather ludicrous, and the arms around its base are not very appropriate
to so unmilitary a people.

[15] “Nous ne sommes plus aux temps où quelques rares curés, repartis
dans les principales paroisses de la république faisaient d’énormes
bénéfices par des moyens souvent hélas reprouvés par la conscience et
par les lois de l’église.... Qu’ai-je besoin d’évoquer dans le passé
les lamentables souvenirs de l’église en Haïti. Je suis prêtre, et je
voudrais pour l’honneur du sacerdoce pouvoir laver son opprobre de mes
larmes et de les plonger dans un éternel oubli. Mais il ne dépend ni
de moi ni de personne d’en effacer la triste mémoire.”--Monseigneur A.
Guilloux, Archbishop of Port-au-Prince.

[16] “Ne suffit-il pas d’ailleurs de parcourir les villes et les
bourgades de la république pour rencontrer encore les témoins vivants
d’un libertinage sans exemple.”--Guilloux.

[17] Military trials have always been a disgrace to Hayti. Even under
their model President Boyer (1827) they were as bad as they were under
the Emperor Soulouque or the present President Salomon. Mackenzie, in
his notes on Hayti, states that no defence was allowed, as that would
have been waste of time. Four officers were tried and condemned to
death: their arms were tied, and they were led by a police officer
to the place of execution. They showed great intrepidity, though the
soldiers fired a hundred shots before they killed them. President
Geffrard had certainly more respect for the forms of law.

[18] Mackenzie tells a story of a town-adjutant calling on him in
gorgeous uniform; he next met him cooking the dinner of his host.

[19] Recueil de Proverbes Creoles. Port-au-Prince, 1877.

[20] Vol. ii. p. 24:--“Les légionnaires au nombre de 800 environ furent
enveloppés de toutes parts; ils se trouvaient sans nul espoir; assurés
de leur mort, mais résolus de se bien défendre, ils se retranchaient
sous la mitraille la plus meurtrière, les uns derrière des arbres
renversés, d’autres derrière d’énormes? pierres; percés de coups de
baïonettes, criblés de balles, ils combattaient toujours avec une
intrépidité sans égale: plusieurs ayant le bras coupé se défendaient
avec celui qui leur restait; ceux qui par la perte de leur sang
ne pouvaient plus se tenir debout se trouvaient sur leurs génoux,
combattaient encore avec fureur, se faisaient un rempart des corps
expirés de ceux qui étaient tombés,” &c., &c.

[21] There is a line wanting in this stanza, which the authoress
herself has not been able to remember.

[22] I would refer to Major Stuart’s excellent Report for 1877 for
details on these subjects. I have myself partly founded my observations
on this Report.




Transcriber’s Note


In this file, text in _italics_ is indicated by underscores. Text in
SMALL CAPITALS has been made uppercase.

The following changes were made to the text as printed:

vi “climate; the Senate the House” changed to “climate; the Senate, the
House”.

ix “goodwill of the masses” changed to “good-will of the masses”.

xv “THE ARMY AND POLICE” changed to “ARMY AND POLICE”.

3 “the Artibonite, Arcahaie, Port Margot” changed to “the Artibonite,
Arcahaye, Port Margot”.

17 “hand-to-mouth system” changed to “hand-to-mouth system.”

20 “and yellow-fever too often” changed to “and yellow fever too often”.

21 “as yellow-fever appeared” changed to “as yellow fever appeared”.

22 “Yellow-fever rarely appears” changed to “Yellow fever rarely
appears”.

48 “Biasson then ordered all his white prisoners” changed to “Biassou
then ordered all his white prisoners”.

77 “effort to restrain is authority” changed to “effort to restrain his
authority”.

112 “Nissage-Saget took up arms” changed to “Nissage Saget took up
arms”.

125 “Bosroind-Canal, though not a brilliant ruler” changed to
“Boisrond-Canal, though not a brilliant ruler”.

143 “coromacaque” changed to “cocomacaque”.

169 “exercise which provokes Perspiration” changed to “exercise which
provokes perspiration”.

172 “The mistresses of the firstnamed” changed to “The mistresses of
the first-named”.

194 “The authorities at L’Arcahaie” changed to “The authorities at
L’Arcahaye”.

209 “associaties of the society” changed to “associates of the society”.

212 “cannibals of this society.”” changed to “cannibals of this
society.”

238 “de maintenir l’independance nationale” changed to “de maintenir
l’indépendance nationale”.

243 “Hérard Rivière was proclaimed” changed to “Hérard-Rivière was
proclaimed”.

245 “head-clerks” changed to “head clerks”.

247 A subheading reading “Religion.” was added, to standardise the
formatting of the chapter.

The anchor to the footnote on page 248 was missing from the printed
text; it has been placed by the transcriber in what seemed the most
probable intended location.

250 “arrangements of lesser importance” changed to “arrangements of
lesser importance.”

276 a subheading reading “The Army.” was added, to standardise the
formatting of the chapter.

282 “is purely nominal” changed to “is purely nominal.”

286 “Mr. ---- The lady” changed to “Mr. ----. The lady”.

308 “derrière d’enormes pierres; percès” changed to “derrière d’énormes
pierres; percés”.

308 “Etudes sur l’Histoire d’Haïti” changed to “Études sur l’Histoire
d’Haïti”.

309 “la grace de Lamartine” changed to “la grâce de Lamartine”.

311 “noir couleur me plait” changed to “noir couleur me plaît”.

311 “Regnrgent d’honneurs” changed to “Regorgent d’honneurs”.

311 “Gardez-vous de l’éclair” changed to “‘Gardez-vous de l’éclair”.

315 A subheading reading “Agriculture.” was added, to standardise the
formatting of the chapter.

320 “riding through coffee-plantations” changed to “riding through
coffee plantations”.

321 “amount produce greatly exceeded” changed to “amount produced
greatly exceeded”.

335 “Les Cayes, for instance--” changed to “Les Cayes, for instance:--”.

338 “Justice, education, pub li worship” changed to “Justice,
education, public worship”.

339 “custom duties produced--” changed to “custom duties produced:--”.

Otherwise, as far as possible, original spelling and punctuation were
retained.



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