The Author has prepared this work for the press somewhat hastily, and under many circumstances which heavily oppressed him; he hopes therefore that the want of arrangement, and the dearth of matter which may be observed in his narrative, will not subject it to a severe condemnation. In presenting it to the public, he is not actuated by any personal considerations, his object being to convey some information respecting the resources of a country, and the character of a people, which have been so

An account of the present state of Hayti I believe has not yet been submitted to the public; to offer one likely to meet with a favourable reception is, I am aware, an undertaking of considerable difficulty: it requires, no doubt, that the author should be well skilled in the various branches of knowledge, in order to render it in every respect satisfactory and interesting to the public. Ignorant as I acknowledge myself to be in the higher walks of philosophy, and educated solely for the more hu

Situation and general description of the French and Spanish divisions, previously to the Revolution in the former country. The island of St. Domingo, once the abode of fertility, and the scene of extraordinary political changes and events, lies in latitude 18° 20´ north and in longitude 68° 40´ west from Greenwich, having on its west the islands of Cuba and Jamaica, on its east Porto Rico, the Bahamas on its north, and bounded southerly by the Carribean Sea. Its extent has been variously stated;

It appears that the governor of the colony had lost a great deal of his popularity, and consequently of his power, by his interposition; for a general colonial assembly, convoked in January 1790 by order from the king, determined that his instructions were imperfect and inapplicable, and the people therefore proceeded on a plan of their own, and changed both the time and the place at which the assembly should be held. Nothing could have emanated from the deliberations of the body convoked by thi

First revolt of the slaves in 1791.—Their ravages.—Decree of the national assembly 4th of April 1792.—Santhonax and Polverel.—Their secret agency.—Encourage the slaves.—Their declaration of freedom to the slaves.—Consequences arising from it.—Character of the slaves.—Disabilities of the coloured people. In the preceding chapter I have sought to discover if the first cause of the revolt of the slaves in Hayti proceeded from any hatred towards their proprietors, or if it were excited by the intrig

During the interval occasioned by the non-arrival of the reinforcement from England, the planters who were, in the first instance, favourable to the cause of the British, began to shew some symptoms of displeasure; and the tardiness with which the operations were carried on, and the absence of that decision which the urgency of their situation required, induced many very powerful individuals to relinquish all further adherence to the party in which they had engaged, and to join the republican st

The period between the evacuation by the British forces and the arrival of the French army under Le Clerc.—Cultivation.—Law to enforce it.—Character of Toussaint.—Reverses.—His arrangement with the French general.—His seizure and removal to France. The evacuation of the colony by the British troops having taken place, most of the planters who had been faithful to their engagements departed at the same time, taking with them such moveable property as they were enabled to carry away: many proceede

The circumstance of the introduction of bloodhounds I have heard spoken of by some who were engaged in the war, and they have all declared that many of the statements of the cruelties said to have been committed by them were unfounded. They were brought it is true, but the blacks were prepared for them; and although in some instances in which they were tried they tore some persons, and absolutely devoured a child or two, yet they were found to be ineffectual for the object for which they were in

Independence declared.—Dessalines attempts to take the city of Santo Domingo.—Raised to the imperial dignity.—New constitution.—His atrocious massacres.—Attempts to import negroes from Africa.—Encourages cultivators.—Census taken.—State of his army.—His death and character. The independence of Hayti was declared on the 1st of January, 1804, and the first step taken by Dessalines, who had been vested with the chief command, was to endeavour to stop the emigration which was going on, and remove th

De Vastey, another of his secretaries, was also a man of strong natural understanding, and a work described as his “Reflections on the Blacks and Whites”, with his notes, printed at Cape Haytian, 1814, shews, that he possessed no little acquaintance with history, and that he was not without some knowledge of mankind in most countries, as well as of the opinions entertained in Europe on the affairs of his country. De Vastey is now living at the Cape in retirement, and is exceedingly attentive to

After the first acclamations of the people had in some measure subsided, Boyer, by the advice of his officers and the chief people of the north, began to make such arrangements for incorporating the north with the southern government as were requisite and imperative for the better administration of the united districts. The troops of Christophe were also removed from their stations to others in the south, whilst those of the south, in some cases, succeeded them: and those general officers who ha

Upon the whole nothing can be said in favour of the city of Port au Prince; and if it stood unrivalled in point of elegance and splendour in the time of the French, in the days and under the government of President Boyer it is only remarkable for ruins and every species of filth and uncleanliness. It contains about thirty-five thousand inhabitants of all classes. The plains of the Cul de Sac, in the vicinity of the city, were celebrated in former times for their extreme productiveness, but they

In the early part of this work I have stated the quantity of produce exported in the year 1791, which was the most flourishing period of the French, and the number of slaves that were employed in the colony. That the reader may more clearly see the difference at the two periods, I shall enumerate the principal articles again. It appears by various authorities that the exports were as follow: in 1791— And that there were employed for all the purposes of cultivation, four hundred and fifty-five th

Making an excess of imports into the country over the means of the people from the value of the exports, in three years, no less a sum than twelve million, five hundred and nine thousand, five hundred and thirty-one dollars and twenty-two centimes, about treble the amount of the collective wealth of the people through the whole country! In the two succeeding years the exports and imports have kept, it would appear, an equal pace. By the same documents also, the proportion of the above balances w

Haytian jurisprudence.—State of the courts.—Trial by jury.—The judges.—Justices of the peace, their corruption.—State of the church.—Account of a Missionary.—Schism in the church.—Moral and religious state of the people—shewn by their mode of living.—Description of this mode.—Habitations described.—Furniture, &c.—Education.—Its progress.—Government do not encourage it.—Remarks on the consequences of not doing so.—Qualifications of senators and communes shew the state of knowledge and edu

This account of the population carries on the face of it much more probability than the statement of Boyer. Indeed I took no little pains to inquire of individuals conversant with the subject, and they spoke decidedly against the census of 1824, giving it as their opinion that it could not have exceeded seven hundred thousand, at all events seven hundred and twenty thousand of all degrees. It was their further opinion that the population had not lately increased, but on the contrary, from what t