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....

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

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 a

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 nati

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 Hayt

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 uni

“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

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 subj

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

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, wh

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, teac

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 doc

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 see

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

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,

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

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 conspira

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