Where Black Rules White 1900

WHERE It*
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PraCHARD
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Onlt)er0itp of
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THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA
DIALECTIC
ENDOWED BY THE AND PHILANTHROPIC

SOCIETIES
^ 1901
.P9^
1900
UNIVERSITY OF
I
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mill
AT CHAPEL HILL
II III
10003068458
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DATE DUE
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i,^f^\f
f}'
C-'L
'
lUl
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UTirrwii
r'jrrn
No.
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J^
WHERE BLACK RULES WHITE
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WHERE
BLACK RULES WHITE
A JOURNEY ACROSS
AND ABOUT HAYTI
BY
HESKETH PRICHARD
Joint author of
"A Modern
Mercenary"
NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS

^53"^57 Fifth
I
Avenue
goo
Printed at the Motley Press, IS, Eldon Street, London, E.G.
AUTHOR'S NOTE
For
I
the use of
some of
the illustrations in this
volume
am
indebted to the courtesy of Dr. Rauch of Port-au-Prince,
Hayti.
Owing
to
my
"
departure on an expedition to Pata-
gonia, organized
by
T/w Daily Express''
am
unable to
correct the final proof-sheets of this book, and must therefore
beg
my
readers'
indulgence should any inaccuracies have
crept into the text.
H.
P.
en
CONTENTS
Page
CHAPTER
I.
First Impressions of the Black Republic
II,
The High Road of Hayti The Haytian General Vaudoux Worship and The Haytian Navy
Across Hayti'
Into San Domingo
Sacrifice
13
III.
39
IV.
...
74
102
iii
V.
VI. VII.
VIII.
129
147
Haytian Police, Prisons and Hospitals
IX.
living city within a dead one
i6g
183
X.
The Citadel of the Black Napoleon

Justice and the Status of the
XL
XII.
XIII.
White
210
225
The Haytian Press
The Haytian People

Hayti the Puff-ball
as
knew them
232
267
XIV.
XV.
Can the Negro rule Himself?
....
277
Index
2S5
ILLUSTRATIONS
Page
Haytian Scene Bananar at Jacmel A Funeral My Guide
{Frontispiece)
9
15
Market-place, Port-au-Prince Six o'clock Reveille in the Streets of Port-au-Prince Palms on the way to Bizotou
23
.
29 35 41
Some Generals
General's evening Ride
49
57 65
71
107
The March Past
On Parade
About to be reviewed
The Wharf at Port-au-Prince

Street Scene
in
Petit Goave
113
Washerwomen A Haytian Highway

Native Hut on the way to San Domingo Natives Military Arrondissement
119
.......
133
137
141
149
165
175
EcoLE Centrale
Port-au-Prince The Town of Millot Palace of Sans-Souci at Millot Interior of the Castle of La Ferriere Bel-air The Palace of the President
Facing
185
190
195 201
....
,
213
235
journey Typical Peasantry In a Haytian Forest
On a
239
247
Logwood
259
WHERE BLACK RULES
WHITE.
CHAPTER
FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF
I.
THE BLACK REPUBLIC.

Across the
The
leaden
cate
liner
was hove
Hayti
to,
awaiting daylight.
swell
lay hazy and of a soft grey, her deli-
mountain
sky.
crests cut sharply out against the brighten-
ing
Soon the
east
was
alive
and glowing
livid
in
deep
orange and deeper red patched with
green, a bar of
lid
angry colour shut

cloud.
in
between the sea and a jagged
of
Four
bells
rang
forward, and upon the stroke
we
were under way and steaming slowly past the dim dead
shores.
bluff,
Between us and the
distant
heights
ran
low
bristling with scrub.
No
villages
were
visible,
but
here
and there, through
glasses,
we could
discern
brownish speck which might
have been
a solitary hut, but these did not break the sense
of desolation.
Nothing seemed
alive
save the
dawn and
I
WHERE BLACK RULES WHITE.

clean,
sweet wind
that
blew graciously cool
after the
sweltering heats of the night.
Thus
Hayti
since
it
was that
in
November of
last
year (1899)
saw
for the
I
second time.
Eighteen months had elapsed
first
steamed along under the same shores, and
Hayti had
the
lost
none of her mystery and fascination.
Since
wholesale massacre of the whites by order of General
Dessalines,
which
followed
immediately upon the proclain

1
mation of the Act of Independence

a
sealed
little
804, Hayti has been

;
land.
Very
little
could be told about her

in
for
very
was known.
isles,
Threaded
alone
the circle of a hunveil
dred civiHsed
herself
she
has
drawn a
between
and the
rest of
mankind.
few scores of white

interior
men
live in
tell
her coast towns, but

practically nothing.
of the
even they can

set
you
The Black
Republic,
between her tropical seas and
virgin mountain-peaks, keeps her secrets well.
In spite of endless inquiries, until

island,
I
actually landed in the
could gather no definite details.
The
ship
was
travelling in passed seven times a year along the southern
coast to
drop the mails at the principal port of Jacmel,
but although
lives
many
people
on board had
I
lived half their
on the neighbouring
I
islands,
could glean no informtold that the place
ation respecting Hayti.
was vaguely
was unhealthy, more unhealthy than Colon, and even more

abnormally
dirty,
and that men were rather more apt
to
FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF THE BLACK REPUBLIC.

die
suddenly
there
than
elsewhere
in
the tropics.
It is
Even
the steamer seemed to hold herself aloof.

to
lie
her custom
well
out
in
the roadstead of Jacmel, and she only-
waits for the return of the mail boat before putting to sea
again.
BANANAR AT JACMEL.
There were of course various strange rumours
drifting
about, stories that had oozed out from the guarded silence
shrouding those dark-green shores, stories of snake-worship,
and
poisonings,
human
sacrifice
and cannibalism.
Hayti
all
appeared to be a stage with the curtain down,

world knew that the dramas of
life
the
and death were
bein";

out
played
but
over
and
over
or
again
horrible
behind
that
curtain,
with
what curious
tenor
of
variations
from
the
I
ordinary
human
existence
none could guess.
had read one or two books about the place, notably that
by
Sir
Spencer
a
St.
John,
who was
British Minister
his
in
Hayti
for
considerable
old.
period,
but even
book was
some years
Hayti the
is
Mysterious
Her appeal
to
the imagination
inevitable.
Ships from Europe and America move percall
petually
ports,
for
all
round and along her coasts and
at her
open
ocean cables
link her to the rest of the globe, but
these things, five miles inland you lose touch with
civilisation, with the world.
From
up to
she
is
the sea, her mountains, bearded with dark forests

their wrinkled brows, scowl at you.
To deny
that
picturesque
is
impossible
to
do so would be to
acknowledge a sheer lack of imagination.

Mile after mile
fjord-like
we
in
slid
along the coast

itself,
cliff,
until the
bay turned
upon
and there was the town
of Jacmel lying inside
its
is
belt of sand.
Jacmel from the sea
not unlike towns
in
the Colombian
Republic or on the Pacific coast.

nestling in vivid foliage, give
it
The same white

same
houses,
the
false air of coolness.
Five minutes later the quarter-boat was shouldering her
way shorewards
at the
across the swell which broke in
foam almost
foot of the palms.
THE BLACK REPUBLIC.

I
We
shot past the reefs, and
scrambled on to the dilap-
idated landing-stage
among
the
crowd of negroes,
a crowd
which as
black.
to colour represented every
shade of full-bodied
As
to
dress,
there
were degrees from gold lace
down
for
to the simplicity of a cloth with a hole in the middle
the
wearer's
head,
supplemented
by ragged
trousers.
Most of them carried heavy jointed
clubs.
The boat
that
had landed me put

stroke
;
oft';
saw the rowers

reached
the
slide into their
waited
till
they
shadow
of the
steamer, the
gangway was
raised, the boat
swung inboard,
and the
liner
dived away over the glinting sea.
Then
turned, stepped from the boarding, and was on Haytian earth.

I
do not know precisely what

that
it
had expected, but
do
know
was not
at all like the reality.
Almost
with
straight
before
me was
something
narrow
like
street, lined
irregular
as
buildings,
it
street
of old
London
first
I
you see
in pictures,
save that the overhanging
floors
were wooden piazzas.

It
walked slowly along, taking the measure of things.

a dirty street, albeit the chief
was
one of the chief town of
southern Hayti, and the sun was

also
scalding.
The
place was
acrush
with
lean
human beings
of African race and their

in the alleys.
donkeys.
dog or two basked
There
were shops, open cavernous places, with the stock-in-trade

of the
proprietor
depending from ropes round the
walls.
Pavement or foot-path there was none.

The
piazzas, jutting
from the upper
floors of the
ungainly
into the
houses, were supported by pillars of

earth;
athletic
wood driven
the
but
walking
under
them
in
shadow was an
for
exercise of four-foot leaps
up and down,
some
of the domiciles possessed brick thresholds leading to the

supports, while others had none.
There were many empty

fire-scarred
shells
houses
with
all
smashed
shutters,
which
seemed
the emptier for the pitiless sunlight.
In Hayti
they always start a revolution by firing the town.

I
turned on the thought to observe the negroes in their

preserve,
own
where they may

their
" revolute "
as they like.
to look
trotted,
Most of them had dropped

at
work or business
donkeys
me.
Through the dust and
glare wizened
laden with huge bundles of guinea-grass, negresses
hawked
full
about baskets of bananas and mangoes, the street was

of
men and women,

The
screaming, gesticulating, and shouting.

tin
bareheaded negro was blowing a
trumpet
in long,
ringing blasts.
din was incredible.

their
There were women carrying loads upon
heads
one
was half-running with a

tied
bottle balanced
on a yellow bandana
in white,
round her brows.

to
Most of them were dressed

and nearly
all
short-kilted
the
knee,
for the
wore the turban

coats,
handkerchief.
trousers,
As
men, some had
some only
kepis
and some, more ragged than the
rest, affected
with red bands.
These
last
discovered later were policemen.
No
carriages
were to be seen, not even a broken-down
West Indian buggy.
where Black
It
THE BLACK REPUBLIC.

my
first
was
impression of the land

clatter of voices,
rules White.
The bawl and
the jostling crowd, the scream of an angry

street,
man
in
the hot
the few cool stores with their proprietors seated

in
on
chairs
their
this
the doorways, the ungainly wooden houses with

side-posts,
sprawling
the
sun, the smell, the dirt
was Hayti.
British
The
Consular Agent, to
whom
had brought a
to put
letter of introduction,
was most kind, and oftered

which
I I
me
to
up
for the night, a proposal
was only too glad
accept.
to
Failing this hospitaHty

in
should have been obliged
bivouac
the open; for Jacmel, though the principal
port in southern Hayti, does not boast either hotel or rest-
house where one could hope for a night's Half an hour

office,
later,
shelter.
in
as
sat
at
peace
air,
the Consular
near the door for the sake of
a sudden clamour
of voices arose outside. ering
Then
crowd.
a thudding noise,
the gathinto
of a
bare-footed
We A
turned
out
the
scorching sun to where, in the centre of the arid waterside

space, a fight
in
was
in progress.
like
policeman, buttoned up
coat,
a blue
linen
uniform
a butcher-boy's
only
double-breasted,
was struggling with a big-headed negro.

his
The
captive
had hold of
captor's
cocomacaque
club,
and the pair swung to and
fro in a
heated struggle.
the
The big-headed negro was already wresting away

weapon when two other policemen raced
up.
Smash went
WHRRE BLACK RULES

cocomacaquc on the
big,
WHITE.
stooping head, and a bubble of
red blood rose through the short fuzz.
A
The
bellow of exciteprisoner turned

free
ment went up from the bystanders.

like
dazed
bull
for
moment, then he broke
and
fled
down
the street.
Experience soon taught
me
that similar scenes were
by
no means uncommon:
also learnt to sympathise with the
frantic resistance of the prisoners.
The
business
in
Jacmel
is
almost entirely
in the
hands
of the small foreign element.

distrusts
The RepubUcan Government

it
and
dislikes
the
outlander, but
cannot get on
without him.
projects
as
to
On
sufferance therefore he remains, but any
opening
up
the
country,
prospecting
or
obtaining concessions, are blocked in one

Either the
way
or another.
Government plants
point-blank, are
or
if
its
foot firmly
and refuses
permission
course,
craftily
left
expediency suggests another
negotiations
begun,
which
are
later
on
so
manipulated that the white

the
lurch,
man
own
finds himself finally
in
saddled with a hopelessly bad bargain.

legally
Again no foreigner can

but so
this
far as private
land in the island,
houses
in the coast
towns are concerned,
law has been circumvented

in
at various times.
district
There are
soldiers,
the
town and
about 500 potential
of
whom no
is
fewer than
in
200 are generals.
general, as he
known
Hayti, must be spelt with a big

this
G.
The general commanding
province
is
one of the
strong
THE BLACK REPUBLIC,

He
ii
men
of the country.
to
can neither read nor write,
and belongs
the
lowest
strata, yet
he was one of the
great forces in the last revolution.

sier
General Johannis Meri-
cannot sign documents, but by way of making his mark

impress
of his signet ring.
he adds the
writes for
What one man
him he gets another man

In
lies
to read, thus securing

is
himself against deception.
person he
of the ultralife
negro type, and
in his
I
hands
the power of
and death.
Towards evening
country
in
I
;
went
for a ride
about the surrounding

villas half
there were
some pretty-looking
hidden
green dotted about the outskirts of the town.

passed by the
Returning
arsenal under the walls of which public
executions
take place.
a
Not so long ago two

(the latter
criminals, a
man and
Upon
up
boy of fourteen
had
split
open the
be shot.
paternal skull with a hatchet) were the
condemned
to
moment
of firing a
Roman
if
Catholic priest went
to the
boy and asked him

said
he repented of his crime.

it
The boy
chance.
"No" he
would do
again
if
he had the
"If you repent you

"I do not repent."
will
be reprieved."
The
spoke.
priest
withdrew,
fell
and the twenty assorted firearms
The man The
upon
his
knees,
but the boy was

result.
untouched.
volley.
volley rang out again.
No
Another
the
The bleeding man pitched forward dead, but

in
boy stood
the aching sunlight,
still
unhurt.
12
WHERE BLACK RULES WHITE
A
He
men
fell
general rode up, and borrowing a cocomacaque from a
bystander, beat the soldiers over the head for their bungling.
swore that unless the
next attempt took
effect,
the
themselves should be shot.

riddled
second
later,
the
boy
with bullets.
Then the drums
beat, for the
justice
of the Republic was satisfied.

that
On
this
occasion
it
was
boy,
said
the
soldiers
had pity on the youth of the

his
and purposely shot wide, each man hoping that

But
it
comrade's bullet might do the deed. mercy.
was a cruel
Darkness
market-place.
had
come on by
the
weird.
time
recrossed
the
The scene was
Among
the ruinous
wooden booths
of the
night,
a few fluttering flames cut into the blackness
and from the gloom around came the inde-
scribable screeching babble of negro voices.

in
Here and there

in
the
dim
light
saw
pale-palmed
hands twisting
gesticulation, or
slips
wide mouths that flashed white teeth over
of sugar-cane.
And
so
the
busy unseen
night-life,
which the dark-skin loves, went on under the dense sky.
CHAPTER
II.
THE HIGH ROAD OF HAYTI.

LIBERTY, EQUALITY, FRATERNITY.
Permit
to the Citizen Petit
Saiis-Nom
(Little Nameless),
S.S., to
mounted on
an English
a red
as
mule bearing the brand

guide
to
go
to
Port-au-Prince
Monsieur Plesketh Prichard,

to
subject.
Request
the
Authorities, Civil
and
Military, to render to
him any aid
or protection of
which he may stand
in need.
Jacmel, 22 November, 1S99.
This passport,
(of
which the original
is
in
French) signed
and stamped with the round bhie stamp of the Communal

Council of Jacmel,
the
chief high
made me
of
free of
some seventy miles
of
road
Hayti, lying between the port of
Jacmel and the

every
fortnight
capital.
Along
agency
it
mails and
money
and
pass
by
this
the
of couriers
mules.
Outside of Hayti quote from a
road bears a sinister reputation.

written
to
To
letter
me
from a neighbouring
14

:
island
" Persons
hills
may
travel
with
great danger
by land
over the
from Jacmel to Port-au-Prince."

lying
its
The country
between
is
said
to
be a hotbed of
snake-worship, with
accompaniments of superstition and

mountain-land of the Republic.
sacrifice, as, indeed, is all the
On
first
sight,
my
guide, Petit Sans-Nom,
was a puny
was
to clean
Haytian of meek aspect.
His duty
in
life
out the Custom House, with interludes of acting as courier
on the Port-au-Prince road.
His face and head were
curi-
ously small, and he wore a scanty curling goatee.

soiled
In his
white coat and ragged trousers he listened
humbly
while the General of the Custom House was good enough

to
say
that
if
he misbehaved himself he should, on any me,

his
complaint from
left
be immediately cast into prison.

vocation with a grass broom.
again.
him pursuing
the
On
morrow we met
altered
;
His
bearing was surat his side,
prisingly
heavy cutlass swung

little
and
he was fiercely urging a

ing-place.
mule
to the appointed start-
Two
grass
bags were slung across the mule,
into
which he stowed
so
my
baggage, and while one wondered
how
it.
undersized
an animal could be expected to carry
Petit
Sans-Nom, perceiving that the two sides did not
balance, considerately added an enormous stone as a make-
weight.
He
then mounted on top of

in
all,
and
sat awaiting
tree.
my
convenience
the
I
shade of a tamarind
bidden
Five
minutes
afterwards
had
good-bye to H.B.M.'s
MY
GUIDE.

Consular Agent, to whose kindness
I
17
owed
so
much, and
was riding with

I
my
guide out of Jacmel,

it
had been told that

rivers,
would be necessary
to ford the
two
the
Grande Riviere and the Gosseleine, any

fifty
number of times between a hundred and

hundred.
deep.
and two
Rain had also
fallen recently,
and the fords were
For a mile or so we threaded along the narrow
track overhung
first
by creepers and
trees,
and we were
at the
ford.
silver
river,
The
trout
embedded
in
green and as clear as a
stream,
came suddenly
across our
way
in
one of
its
many
bends.
The water was about we

I
four
feet deep,
and
the hour at which
crossed
it
was
half-past three.
Before
lly half-
the quarter to four

past
five
had counted nine fordages.

to
the
number had swelled

became monotonous.
with
its
eighty-one.
After
fact,
that counting
The road
was, in
the
river-bed,
it
loops
and oval curvings, and we
followed
glen by glen through hollows clothed in fresh,
rain-flushed greenery.
hillsides,
less,
Sometimes we sagged up and down

a glimpse upwards of a tree-
with
now and then
conical slope covered with pointed grey stones, or an

foliage of a dark potato-leaf tint,
open valley massed with
flecked with the broad pale blades of banana palms.
Dusk came upon

through
sidered
us while
we were
gorges;
still
making our way

river-bed,
the
as
thickly-wooded
high
road)
the
(con-
becoming worse every moment.
WHERE black; RULES WHITE.

came out and danced among the
foliage overhead,
Fireflies
and
all
the myriad crickets and frogs ticked
and croaked
about
us, like
an army of pigmies marking time.

foot
We
had
arranged to sleep at the

guide
of the mountains, and

arrive
my
had promised that we should
there
before
nightfall.
When
to
it
darkness unmistakably settled down,

farther
asked him
how much
we had
"Far,
to go.
far,"
Petit
said,
Sans-Nom stooped
frankly.
no subterfuge.
was.
he
the
And
far
Hour joined hour

struggled on.
in
this
measureless past,
of the journey
and
still
we
At
stage
we
began
to pass
human
habitations which in every particular
might have been borrowed wholesale from West Africa.
Here and there red
fires
burned
in the
gloom of a stockade.
little,
Round them crouched

clad not at
all,
figures
clad
in
the children
and
in the heart of the
glow were people

Outside the
dancing to the monotonous clap of hands.

circle
you could see the squat
outlines
and the humpy
shoulders of thatch huts.
At
ford,
last the
small mule mutinied.

off the
She refused
Petit
to face a
and tipped
baggage and
Sans-Nom with
baggage being
to
one abrupt
action.
She submitted
to the
loaded on again, but allow her

she
human burden
remount
pro-
would
not.
So the procession of two became a
cession of three, the guide straining on the head-rope, the
mule throwing
off
the
baggage whenever
possible,
and

the
traveller
19
and horse bringing up a weary and
inglori-
ous rear.
The prospect
of sleep and food receded while the hours
went by, but, as
my
horse gathered himself to scramble

slipperiness.
it
up a steep
bank of more than usual
Petit
Sans-Nom encouraged him with

last
the remark that
was the
out the
ford,
and
rising
above us
in the
gloom
made
dim
shoulder
of a
mountain.
With renewed hope we
climbed upwards into a sound of voices singing.

thatched
hut
A
in
it
palmthey
peeped through the

festival.
foliage,
and
were holding high
Petit
Sans-Nom pulled down
the gate of the enclosure, and led the

starlight
I
way
in,
and by the
saw two or three subsidiary huts beside the one
where they were making merry.

the noise ceased abruptly
;
The guide
shouted, and
the door opened, and questions

to give satis-
were asked
in Creole, to
which we were able
factory rephes.
Forthwith they invited us inside.

six people in the central
There were
which was
lit
windowless room,
in the
by a flaming
tin
lamp that leaped
draughts, and showed the earthen floor,
wooden
table,
and
red
water-bottle,
the
girl
ordinary furnishing of the peasant's
home.
little
was
stirred to wakefulness, a tablecloth

laid
was produced, a mattress was
upon the
lying
floor.
can
next
remember eating something, and

recollection
is
down.
My
the being
still
wakened some hours before
daylight.
While
it
was
dark we ascended the lower spurs of
20
WHERE BLACK RULES
\VHITE.
the mountain, which rises eastward to Prince's Peak, 5,000ft.

high,
and the dawn was not

seas,
full
when we could
see both
grey
to
the south the Caribbean Sea, to the north

its
the bay of Port-au-Prince, with
misty island.
The
was
river
road
had been bad, but the mountain road

a
worse.
When we met
cavalcade
of donkeys
we
spent half an hour in edging across the top of a precipice,
where the path only allowed of the passage of one

time.
at a
When
at
last
we
reached
the
level,
the
track
broadened
out into a road

it
some
30ft.
it
wide, but horses and

soft with the rains,
donkeys had passed over
when
was
and the sun had subsequently hardened the hollows and

mouldings
of
mud
into
ridges.
We
followed
this
route
across the plain through the forenoon until

sight of the sea
we came within
belt of
which lay be}'ond a broad

lazily
swamp.
wind puffed
over the
marsh,
and the sun beat

into a
furiously
down upon
procession
the road as
we were swept up
mile-long
of negroes and negresses with laden

their
donkeys and mules on
way
to the
morrow's market.
We
came
to a bridge after a while,
and
my
It
guide said
"When
you see a bridge

this
ahva^'s
go round
proverb.
it."
Later
discovered
to
be a
national
was sound
advice, too, for the bridge

it.
had a
all
6ft.
its
hole
in
the centre of
Here the road,

its
in
spite of
shortcomings, was a
highway, with
dark stream of people flowing ahead of
us into the capital.
THK HIGH ROAD OF HAVTI.

So with the sun
back,
I
21
still
boring a hole
in the small of
my
at
length jogged,
wet and weary, into the heart

a
little
of Port-au-Prince,
a hotel.
where,
after
searching,
found
They say
a
that the
is
first
act of every nation in founding
new colony
typical.
Spain builds a church, England
founds a bank, and La Belle France opens and patronises

a
cafe.
it
For the moment,
preferred the P'rench plan in
that
administers to the primary necessities of the
human
frame.
P" ranee
has evacuated Port-au-Prince for a hundred years;

?
do her cafes survive

Haytian
black
life
is
In a degenerate form they do, for

life
negro
grafted
his
upon French
life,
and the
a strong
man
possesses
among
national
faults or virtues
conservatism.
The
impulse
of
the
colonising
Frenchman
is
to imitate Paris.
The
nearer his handiwork nearer he

is
can approach to the original
ideal, the
to bliss.
We
have,
therefore,
in
the
town of Port-au-Prince an
imitation of Paris
made
;
a hundred years ago
by men who
had seen the

the
last
original
and carried on and revised during

negro
race,
century
by
who the enormous
majority of them, at least
have
doors,
not.
The
hotel to which
had come was an oblong building,
rimmed below with narrow
and above with the usual

to
wooden
posts,
piazza.
Mules
and horses were hitched
the
and from the open doors an overpowering smell of
22
WHERE BLACK RULES

greeted
in
WHITE.
filled
coffee
you.
The bar was
with
Haytians,
many
black
frock-coats
and straw
hats,
imbibing the
brown "rhum" of the country.
They were
lean
men, bony-shouldered, with long faces
pointed by fuzzy thin goatees,
who greeted each
other with
an
elaborate
politeness,
shaking hands indifferently with
the right hand or the
left.
The coloured barman manipulated

question
a long drink, and the
of a
?
room
in
which to sleep was mooted.

1
Had
blanc
they one
Had
No,
le
they not
blanc
a fine big room,

first.
would
le
le
engage?
would see
Would
blanc
come
and,
this
way
then,
and they would show him ? He followed,

a dining-room of five or six tables,
passing through
furnished
with dirty cloths
and picturesque red earthenin the street.
ware water-jugs, was once more Turning to the

left,
we found an
iron door on
It
which
the ancient red paint was blotched and faded.
opened
;
upon a basement crowded with dogs and negroes

this
from
wooden
staircase climbed to the
upper
floor of the
establishment.
The
building
was two rooms
thick.
First
after-
came the ante-room and

noon heat hung palpable.
place
billiard-room,
and here the
wine-splashed table gave the

it,
an
air
of just awaking after a night of
and the
idea was
not refuted by after-experience.

9,
Then on along
a black passage to No.
and
was
there.
The room had been but
lately vacated,
and the evidence

of another presence spoke aloud from bed and basin.
25
Two
windows gave upon the
street,
further ventilation
was pro-
vided by jalousies opening into the sleeping rooms on each

side,
lack
of privacy
being a
detail
compared with the
luxury of a thorough draught.

efficacy
mosquito-net of bygone
hung stagnant over the bed, and mosquitoes buzzed

in platoons.
round the dirty wooden walls

This
pride
in
was the room, the waiter could not conceal

it
his
le
fine
room, as one could see
would not
blanc engage?
To whom
yes,
to
did
this
hotel
belong,
to
rent
Haytian?
But
Haytian certainly.
per day.
The
of the
room was
pension''^
two
dollars
Monsieur would stay en

dollars
That would be two

four
dollars
in
more.
Thus,
for the
sum
of
a day
(Haytian value), drinks extra, the
wan-
derer
Hayti had secured a resting-place and stokerage.
Outside the windows coursed an open drain which told

plainly
of
its
mission, and refuse of

in
all
indescribable sorts
lay
inches
deep
the
street.
The view extended over

tall
the
lower
town, beyond which stood up the

still,
masts of
of Portsea.
ships;
farther
the
green,
nameless
islands
au-Prince
Bay
set against a
!
background of blue tropic

the noises in the street, the
How
the heat danced

yelling
And
the
uncouth
of
negroes,
bark of dogs, and the
grunt of scavenging pigs,
came
up
in
a babel.
What
with the heat, the mosquitoes, and the noise there
26
arose a yearning for that primary necessity
bath.
The
The
heavy-footed negro came padding back into the room.

tin
bath
was
at
the
service
of
le blanc.
At once?
eat.
He
would
It
see.
And
after that,
something to
Very good
was a
fire.
first
experience of the Haytian gargoii, and things
hung
But
to
describe the
first
it
night in that
room
No wind
bottom
live-
stirred
the
well
steaming
of vapour.
air;
was Hke Hving
at the
of a
Cocks crowed throughout the
long night,
the
and poker was being played with vivacity
at
end of the passage from which one was only divided

slats.
by mere wooden
Not
fifty
odd miles
in the
saddle
gift
could conquer these drawbacks and bring the welcome

of sleep.
Next morning
heavy-eyed
le
blanc turned up to dejewier weary and
after a late
morning
sleep.
?
" Slept well? "
asked an American, " any mosquitoes

bore eloquent witness.
'*
"
All
1
visible skin-surfaces
Yes, by Josh
they've done you proud.
Say, ever hear the story of the
man who
shot a mosquito up in that
room of yours with
an eight-bore duck gun, and only wounded it?"
For four days and nights

I
held the fort of No.

left
9,
then
gave
in,
capitulated
miserably, and
I
the mosquitoes
and noises
the
in possession.
departed towards evening, and
loose-treading,
chairs,
good-hearted nigger waiters,
who
is,
sleep
on three
and don't know what a mosquito
save

by the sense of
cadeaux."
After
all,
it
27
sight,
came round and demanded
" petits
left
with some regret, for though the hotel

in fairness
was
with
the
dirty,
its
must
in
be said that one could meet
equal
that respect in not a few places within
Spanish
frontier.
And,
at least, the proprietors
were
amiably anxious to please, and spared no trouble.

I
went up
to
the
only other hotel in the town, which
stands above the palace of the President on the Champ-de-
Mars.
There the arrangements accorded better with
pre-
judiced English notions, and there was a night wind thrown

in.
It
is
it
difficult to
is
realise that in the
whole State, con-
taining,
tants,
said,
some
million
and three-quarters of inhabi-
there exist but three hotels.
Occasionally
when
at
was
feeling low
used to go
down
and have a meal

it
was no longer
my old my fate
quarters,
to
and the thought that

in
become mosquito-chop
relief
No. 9 never
failed to
throw a fresh luminance of
over
my
sojourn in the capital of the Black Republic.

for
So
some weeks
sojourned
in Port-au-Prince
and by
degrees acquired a knowledge of the Black Man's capital.
Within an arc of hazy blue mountains, threaded with

clouds of a hundred delicate shades, Port-au-Prince
its
lies
upon
beaches
like the
white skeleton of a stranded whale, of
which the rib-bones are the houses.
The
grass, that
seems to
grow between them, heads up
into
palm
trees as
you draw
28
WHERE BLACK RULES WHFrE.

Viewed from
afar
nearer.
you would
call
it
one of the
most beautiful spots

the
scar
on
God's earth.
find
But go down into
squalid
streets,
and you
as
it
the
town
is
a fester, a
made by man,
were of malice prepense, upon
the natural loveliness of his environment.

It
was good on quiet evenings and on certain cloudy

to ride
dawns
out
away from
this
city of gutters
and garbage,
of earshot of the multiloquous negro voices, and look

the blue horse-shoe of the bay, where the island
floats
in
down on
of
Gonave
shadow, and
to
watch the
soft
southern
greys and purples thrown on mountain, shore, and sea.
At
first
sight Port-au-Prince looks fair
enough
it,
to
be worth
travelling 5,000 miles to see;
once enter
and your next

Passing
impulse
is
to travel 5,000 miles to get

streets,
away
again.
through the
the
life
around seems a strange graft
of Parisianism and savagery.
Here
is
an idolatry of fashion,
of speech
all
an insistent militarism, and an exuberance

verging on the grotesque
orginal.
distended
caricature
of the
Here the white man,

rights
as
opposed
to the black, has

is
no
worthy of the name.
Moreover, the town

is
under
martial law.
This condition of things

has
permanent, although
the
country
been
for several years past at rest
from
in
internal dissensions.
streets,
After nine you are challenged
the
and
at
no time of the day or night are you out of
sight of a soldier.

The
street
31
chief boulevard
is
the
Rue des
Miracles, a broad
some
three-quarters of a mile in length.
Trees over-
hang the roadway, a wheezy steam-tram makes half-hourly

journeys
Mars.
up and down from the quays

;
to the
Champ
de
to
There are no footways

lost
art,
road-mending appears
is
be a
and the whole surface
as
rough as the
bed of a
torrent.
At
intervals of
from 50 to 100 yards you find a post of

live in
soldiers.
They
ramshackle guardrooms made of
wood turned
rust-colour
from lack of care and the corro-
sion of torrential rains, a longish hovel with the inevitable
piazza raised
some two
feet
above the
street.
Below flows
are blotched
an open drain.
with
sleep.
The heavy
play
faces of the
men
Some
in
;
dice
on the bench by the wall,
some lounge
sluggish sewer
their
hammocks
two or three
slung from the trees over the

fires
of boughs serve to cook
slender meals, which are not provided
by the
State.
collection of guns leans against the trees at various angles.

is
The whole
more
like a mid-forest
bivouac of a few ragged
blacks than a scene in the main thoroughfare of a capital.
The
city
has
no architectural pretensions.
wood, and
fires
The houses
are mostly built of
are of frequent occurrence,
though
it
is
now some time
since they
had a serious one.

which stands
at the
The
finest buildings are the Cathedral,
head of the boulevard, and the white palace of the President.
When
passed the
latter the
President was sitting on the
32

He
is
balcony, playing draughts.

a
a full-blooded negro, with

set
heavy face and huge negro mouth
between a grey
forehead.
beard and grey hair brushed up from
his
He
must weigh close upon eighteen
stone.
He
is
a superlative specimen of his race, and the black
faction in Hayti have at least secured an admirably repre-
sentative
figurehead.
To make
man,
this
clear,
it
must be ex-
plained that Hayti for the black, as differentiated from the
mulatto
or
coloured
is
the
watchword of the great
majority in the Republic.
The
where
the
palace stands on the fringe of the

the
Champ
space,
de Mars,
reviews
grass
are
held
an open
patches
on which
scanty
breaks
into
of dusty baldness,
and bloated
ing ditches.
bull-frogs hold nightly concerts in the intersect-
Turning back to the

Cathedral,
city,
one passes by the steps of the

tropical,
which
is
open and
the interior
hung
with dark curtains and supplied with a profusion of pictures
and colour.
of
its
The town
possesses a peculiar picturesqueness

in
own, unlike anything one sees
any other quarter
of the globe.
But you walk through
its
cobbled streets with
circumspection, for they are ankle-deep in refuse.
Even
the
feet
in
the
Place,
which contains the Consulates and

is
chief shops,
there
a heap of corruption five or six
high and more than proportionately long.

of the
The waspish
cab
country,
known
as
"'bus," has just about

room
it
33
to
pass
between
this
gigantic rubbish-shoot
called,
or,
as
might more truthfully be

that
skirts
dunghill and a black
drain
the
is
beams supporting the piazzas of the

the cleanest street in Port-au-Prince.
houses.
It
is
And
this
appalling
to
imagine what might happen were an
epidemic to break out here.

literally
The town
I
has
its
foundations
set
upon decay.
spots
to
have seen more than one of

is
those
unhealthy
which
attached the sobriquet

invi-
of "White Man's Grave," but none of them have the

tation
this
to
disease
written
so
plainly
across
their faces as
its
city of Port-au-Prince.
it.
And
yet disease in
largest
sense seldom visits
At
the corner of the

in
Ruedu-Peuple
blue,
came upon a white

dis-
man, clad
gusted
sea-going
moving cautiously with
nostril.
"Hello!" he
out to
I
said;
"would you be
so
good
as to
point
me
the shortest
way
to the
quay?"
indicated the direction,

I
"
say,"
he
continued,
overlooking
me
with
interest,
"how
long have you lived here.'"

I
" Four days,"
said.
"I wish
had your constitution then!

if I
Pve been ashore

haven't a
it
here an hour and three-quarters, and

of the
museum
the fault
most virulent microbes inside

all."
me
isn't
of this town, that's

It
is
And
he passed on hurriedly.
;
about the
filthiest
place in the world
shut in
3
by
34

it
mountains from the cool north winds,

year to year
at sanitation
;
stews on
is
from
in
stagnant heat.
No
smallest effort
all
made
the street-drains with
their contaminations
flow
rain
down and
flushes
help to
fill
up the harbour.
effort of
At
times the
them,
and
this
Nature seems to be
the sole force that tends to cleanliness. stances

to
Under these circumto
you would expect Port-au-Prince

lords
pay a heavy
toll
the
of disease.
in
Surely
this
it
must be the most

is
unhealthy
spot
the
world.
But
not
so.
Why?
There you have a question no one can answer.
Of
course the ordinary malarial fevers are by no means

the
uncommon, but
diseases
absence of other and
more
serious
leaves
one to speculate to what height Port-auif
Prince might soar as a health resort
an enterprising and
the
wholesome
Government
did
away with
present-day
horrors of the streets.
Among
artists
this
accumulated
of them
perilous
dirt,
black ladies, in
all
cases
well-dressed
many
their
in
the handiwork of Parisian or

drive
pick
way
past in buggies
atilt at
impossible angles over the unevenness of the streets.

his four-foot,
Wherever you go the policeman, with

club of cocomacaque,
is
ironshod
a constant and conspicuous figure.

it
He demands
factor
his
chapter to himself, but

is
is
difficult
to
forego mention of him here, as his zeal

in
so significant a
fairly
the Haytian daily
life.
When
he has
life
got
man down, and knocked most
of the
out of him

with
his
37
club,
figure
the
in
picture
he
makes standing over

litter
the
bleeding
the
road, with the ancient

all,
about
its
them, and the blazing sun over

counterpart out of wild
could scarcely find
West
Afi'ica.
Passing under an arch bearing the

dent,
"
name
of a late PresiI
Hippolyte President,
it
Progress
Union,"
entered
the chief market, and

sellers
was market-day.
like
The buyers and
spread themselves
the
smell
an open camp into the streets

here, seated
around,
was appalling; and
upon
the leavings of
bygone markets, the
citizens of the
Republic
do a brisk
trade.
is
The meat market
well
supplied
it
is
presided over
In the various
by burly butchers and gorged

approaches
flesh-foods,
bluebottles.
you can trace unpleasantly the evolution of

the
raw material of your future meals.
Pigs
and goats,
in
with their legs tied together, raise their voices

lie
expostulation as they
a
in
the sun.
is
One
has wriggled
fluid.
to
neighbouring drain,
with
the
a
piles
and
gulping the thick
Women,
against
lilt
of
vegetables
and
fruit,
boast
rises
one
the
other;
over the
song.
vociferous
Fires
babble
of
monotonous
smoulder
here
and
there,
and the acrid blue smoke hangs between sun and
scene.
The whole
brutality,
is
uni(|ue,
Haytian; politeness
is
mingled with
raucousness
with a strange grace of demeanour.
Picturesque, but eminently nasty, the spirit of neglect, one
38
inevitable

accompaniment of a black Government, broods
till
over
all,
one sickens
in the
sunshine.
"We
in
are polite always," said a of
man
But
to
me.
He
spoke
vindication
various
evils.
one cannot justify
one's destiny
by
raising one's hat to a stranger.
Port-au-Prince
vivid
leaves
you with three impressions more
than the rest: the puny beasts of burden, each sur;
mounted by a negress
black pervasive
dirt.
the blue pervasive soldier, and the

the
Through
human
torrent old
hooded
is
cabs are
driven
recklessly,
and the open market
the
backwash of the stream.

Just
outside
is
the
town,
towards the triumphal arch of

roof of corrugated iron.
Hippolyte,
building with a
You go
flags,
in.
The rude
from
painting of a snake, a few soiled

illustrated papers, are
few prints
almost
it,
its
sole furniture
and ornament.
in
You would
not think
but
here you are

skirts
Vaudoux temple,
The worship
clinging
is
upon the very

on,
if
of civilisation.
carried
not
openly, at least unrestrainedly.
CHAPTER
III.
THE HAYTIAN GENERAL.

Hayti
is
governed by Generals
of them there are
I
in
all
sizes.
I
wonder
how many
all
is
in
still
the country.
wondered
the time
was
there.
it
am
wondering.
The General
it
so ubiquitous that
leads you to doubt whether

is
may
not be possible that while to be a General

not to be one
I
no compliment,
is
in the
nature of a slap in the face.

it
have been given the rank myself; given

;
by many,
in
the hot white street

fiacres,
given
it
by the
drivers of wheezy,
weedy
General.
the
by goateed
could
not,
I
Haytian gentlemen General,
You
am
sure,
walk along any of

meeting
ten
main
streets
of Port-au-Prince
without
Generals.
One day
tried to attract the attention of a small black

for
boy who sometimes did odd jobs

put at ten years.
me.
his
His age
should
companion of
who saw my need
40

What
did he shout?
shouted across to attract his attention.
Why " General."

I
occupied myself for some time

I
in
looking up the numeristatistics
cal force of military Hayti.
could find no exact
of later
data
than 1867, when there were 6,500 Generals
of Division,
7,000 regimental
officers,
and 6,500
privates.
At
this
computation the troops commanded by each General

consisted
of Division
officer,
I
of one
private
and one regimental

officer.
and one-thirteenth of a regimental

a
made
great
I
many
a
inquiries
as
to
the
army of
of
the
Republic,
tapped
hundred
possible
sources
information,
hard,
sure,
but found
no one able to supply

facts
me
with
and certain
on the subject.
Like Hadji
to discover
Baba
the
of immortal
memory, when he was sent
number
in
of the enemy's guns, they were wont to

the
make
answer
five
same
illusory
fashion,
"One^two three
six hundred."
in a
At length
fortunate hour
purchased of an ancient
list
man
who
if it
book which purported

details.
I
to give a
it
of the regiments
officials,
and some other

I
took
to
one of the
supposed might be able to help me, and asked him

correct.
was
He
loosely said
it
was.
Anyway,
if I
it
was
not hopelessly the exact
incorrect,
for the
and he added that
secured
statistics
moment
in
should probably find
them considerably modified
six
months.
There
is
evi-
dently no stagnation of this particular kind in Hayti.
..^^-

As
I
43
have
said,
the
is
country
is
governed by Generals.
The biggest
Sam.
of
all
President Tiresias Augustin
Simon
;
Directly under
him are the Generals of Departments
below them are Generals of Arrondissements and of Communes.
Lower again
are Generals of subdivisions, Generals

it
of Postes Militaires, and so
goes on.
There
is
a General
of the prison, and a General of the
women's
stayed
prison.
at
The man who kept
the
hotel
was not a
last
I
General, but then he was not a Haytian.
At
found
myself asking whether the waiter did not, on his evenings

off,
also
flower
into
lace-bound
Generals,
General.
There have
been
waiters
very
only
much
a
and
one
but
who made
a
himself
not
General-President,
General-
Emperor.
It
is
beautiful, this militarism, but
it
has
made me decide
never to return to Hayti.
Raptiste of the soda-water syphon,

the
little
who
nightly
waged war with

in the
in
boys under the
door-slats,
might
meantime have become a General,

what
spirit
and who can say
he might remember the
former exactions of the white
man?
I
The General
is
prolific
not that
mean
that
all his
sons
are Generals "ipso facto,"
but from the forcing-ground of
each
could
the
revolution
springs
for the
new crop of honours.
What
be cheaper
exchequer or more gratifying to
individual
1
than the bestowal broadcast of the rank of
General
44

They
say,
but this
a
do not guarantee, that a certain
President
beat
man
at a
game of
draughts, and in his

's
dehght immediately presented him with a General

mission.
com-
There
is
only
is,
one thing of which
am
absolu-
tely certain,
which
that they will not
make me
a General
for writing all this
about them.
Lesser
titles
are very small potatoes indeed
" Aut General

closely, while
aut nuUus."
still
But when you look a

in
little
more
criticising
if
the
friendliest
in
spirit,
you cannot help

to
wondering
rank
is
this
elevation
the
spirit
bulk
high military
not
due to the same
as that which impels
the savage to clothe himself in the rather quaint combination of a

tall
hat and a girdle of hearse feathers.

display led in the year 1849
The same tendency towards
to the creation of a black nobility.
At
that time Soulouque
was
Emperor,
titles
calling
himself Faustin
a
lavish
the
First,
and he
showered
Black
with
hand among
it
his supporters.
dukes
and
barons
the
strutted
through the
it
Court.
The Emperor gave

ones to
titles,
but
left
to the favoured
choose their
own
designations, which they appato
rently did
more according
four
sound than
to
knowledge.
it
Of
tragic
the
Princes
one was Bobo,
and
is
almost
to learn that
among
the fifty-nine dukes were their
Graces
of
Marmalade and
Lemonade!
But
Mr.
James
Anthony Fronde's
over the white
allusion to dukes
in the
and marquises driving
man
streets of Port-au-Prince as late

as
45
1887
is
surely something of an anachronism, Hke certain
other of the
same gentleman's statements.

by Generals.
To-day
is
their places are taken
The Haytian
If
tender upon the subject of their multiplicity.

list
you ask
restless
him questions concerning the swollen

and prefers another
jugating a
future
to
topic.
he grows
In Hayti they are always con-
compound
"I
will
It
verb.
They
begin
young
in
He
the
tense:
a
be a General."
is
Everyone hankers
to
be
General.
the hall-mark of success.

himself,
"
I
whom
of the
success
comes vaunts
;
am
General
Republic"
to
and the conjugation has rather often

abruptly
in
been
known
end
the
lives
past
to
tense:
"He
last
was a General."
himself says
tions
it
The man who

from
overseas,
land.
is
say the
of
coupled with
bitter reflec-
upon
his native
An
his
urban General
of the
the
a
a
in
most cases but a name, whereas

is
congener
find in
country
that
usually
living
power.
You
villages
distinct
little
the
General of place and
commune
little
has
position.
He
lives in
a house a
larger
and
better than those of his neighbours
had almost
said subjects
with
an extra outbuilding
in
his stockade,
a better horse, and, perhaps, an extra wife or

his fierce rule the
two.
Under
commune bows
to the rigour
of the
at least
law; the peasantry cannot be said to prosper, but
they are inoffensive and

is
polite.
The reason
not far to seek.
The black man can no
46

his black brother successfully without
more govern
tyranny
than you can reach a blind man's sense without touch or

speech.
No
appeal
is
made
to his reason
he
is
coerced
by
solid fear.
Hear him pray, and you

does
essays
will
;
understand him better.

his
is
He
;
not supplicate his

to
God
is
he demands of
God
far
he
bargain.
That
because his deity
away
out of sight; therefore, in relation to that unfelt power he
begins to esteem himself and his desires, and to be puffed
up out of
General's
all
due proportion.
Whereas the
grip
of his
all
iron
hand
is
unmistakably evident over
the
hours of his daily
life.
When
of the
was
at
Thomazeau, the
frontier,
last
Haytian town before
one reaches the Dominican
an incident very typical
Spartan sway of these local pashas had occurred.

stole
man
cow.
He was
caught and shot dead the

la Place.
next morning by orders of the General de

result
The
of this
measure of summary
justice
was that you

more, your
might have
left
a handful of silver dollars

in the village street,
nay,
open rum
flask
nor would any
man
have dared to help himself to
either.
But these Generals,
with substantive power, are conspicuously in the minority.
Regarded from the point of view of possible leaders of

the Haytian army,
to
it
must be conceded that they have yet

Since
prove their significance and to win their spurs.
the
war with San Domingo,
in
which no reputations were
47
made, the Haytian Generals have not led the troops down
to
ahen
battle.
They have contented themselves
with being
up
to the hilt in revolutions,
and with sunning themselves
at dusty reviews.
If,
however,
the
State ever calls
them
left
to its service,
it
is
unlikely
that the troops will be

to
without a General.
into
full
Hayti
calculates
throw
at
any moment 8,000 men
the field, and of these only a smattering" would not be
Generals.
It
may be
Haytian
thought
likes
;
it
is
because of the emoluments that

is
the
to
become a General, but the State

of the
in ten
wiser
than that
out
numbers who are
entitled to
wear gold lace not one
ever sees the colour of State
money.
Each
subsists as he can, yet clings to the

it
nominal
honour, although
story
his
all
brings
many expenses
in
its
train.
goes that the Haytian, while quite content to leave

of worldly
his
wealth behind him, yet hopes to bear

across the lonely frontier,
it
with
him
still
rank of General
figure
and
to
cut a
with
in
another and a better
world.
But
let
us
proceed to consider the Soldier.
My
first
speaking acquaintance with him occurred one night on the
Champ-de-Mars
near
the
little
President's
variation
Palace.
repeated
the conversation with

afterwards.
'^
on numerous occasions
Blanc,
am
a soldier, give
me
ten centimes."
48 "
"
WHERE BLACK RULES

You have your
pay." taken
WHFrE.
My
General has
soldier.
my
pay.
am
poor man
and a
Give
me
ten centimes."
"How
"When
"
long have you been a soldier?"
"Three years."
did you have your pay
I
last.'^"
Very long ago, and
am
hungry. Give
me
ten centimes.
Merci, blancT
He
face
stood before me, with his chinless, thick-lipped black
under a blue cap banded with
red.
He wore
dried
grass slippers, shabby tweed trousers, and a faded light-blue

coat.
Over
his shoulders
by
a rough
hemp rope was
slung
a flintlock gun, and he was hurrying towards beat of

to
fall
drum
in
for the
evening parade.
trickling
At
half-past five p.m. the

streets,
bugle-calls
beat,
its
come
through the crowded

arises
drums
and the army of Hayti
from
its
benches and
dice.
at
line
The guard
at
the
houses of Ministers and the
men
and
the police-stations gather together, shoulder arms,
up by fours to twenties.
officer stands in front of
Their
sword.
vidual
them with a drawn rusty
The
soldiers continue to be interested in their indi-
concerns.
One
is
chewing
banana,
at
another
is
wolfing
long.
sugar-cane,
gnawing doglike
piece two feet
They
stand there, very
much
at ease, for
about twenty
minutes,
occasionally
going
through a slovenly series of

off,
movements,
then
the
General takes himself
and the
A GENERAL
EVENING RIDE.

Haytian
51
army once more disposes

if it
is
itself
on
its
benches
and dozes
more than usually hungry.

a uniform of
its
Of course each regiment has
own, but
the soldiery, save on review days
of
which more anon
put
on the trousers
the
good God sends them and are
thankful.
Of
a score drawn up in line no two are dressed

is
alike; their
workaday uniform
limited to the red-banded
kepi
nets
and
rags.
As
to vvêapons, a
file,
broken
all
bristle of
bayorifles.
sticks
up along the
of different
but
the
men have
They
are
calibres
and
In
decades almost,
one
might say, of different centuries.

decrepit magazine,
a flintlock,
one group
found a
and
a self respecting
Remington.
The State does not undertake any commissariat obligations,
and the
private's
pay
trickles
down
to
him through
sub-
more than one absorbent channel.
Visible
means of
sistence he has practically none; he seeks food to eke out
existence
pitifully
much
as a stray cat does in

'
England.
'
He
own
purrs
and pessimistically about the blanc
when he meets
colour
there
is
him, and pounces upon the weaker units of his

with
a
highly-developed
to
instinct of plunder.
When
So
in
happens
be a lack of such happy chances and he

to sleep.
more than usually hungry, he goes
the hot
town the Haytian soldiery drowses unstirred by dreams of

golden glory.
effort to
Its
its
attention
is
fully
occupied
in
it
strenuous
keep
stomach
full.
At the worst
does odd
jobs and carries coftee-sacks.
52

Every
third
man you meet

I
is
a General
only every
tenth General, as
have said before, gets paid, but every

himself.
General
is
tries
to
pay
The pay
for a
of these personages
nominally
for
-^^140
per
amum
General of Division,
less in
and ^^105
to
a Brigadier! a
The sums grow

given
ratio
the
rank:
Captain
is
a competency of iî2,
and the Private wallows
in
the wild prodigality of about
OS a year
and
is
that not always forthcoming.
When you know how

know how Hayti
indivisible.
the Haytian soldier
is
is
paid,
you
governed.
The
toll
principle
one and
The paymaster
it
takes
of the 50 centimes
and passes
on to the
fir.st
General.
The
it
first
General,
who
is
a very big General indeed, hands
on
in
slimmer
it,
bulk to the second
General.
He
in his turn transfers
further diminished, to his next in
command.
The Captain
lightens
to carry,
it
lest
it
should be too heavy for the Lieutenant
and the Lieutenant, not liking to break the chain
takes his
own
is
discount
;
thus the soldier
who
receives five
centimes
gods.
in luck
he
who
gets ten
is
a favourite of the
it,
And when
at last
it
he has pocketed
his Lieutenant
comes along and wins
off him at the universal

it
game
of dice.
This sounds very grotesque, but

truth.
is
none the
less
it
sober
Nor
is
it
a matter of isolated instances;
happens
every week as regularly as pay-day comes, and

probability
will in all
go
on happening every week as long as the
Black Republic endures.

"Big
so
fleas
53
have
but
little
fleas
upon
their
backs to bite 'em,

is,
"
we
say,
for
Hayti, as her custom

smallest
flea
is
twists the order
round,
the
the soldier, and upon him
feed a whole series of larger
fleas.
There are more ways than one of extracting sustenance

out
quite
of him,
as witness the following case which occurred
recently.
countrywoman brought
into
market the
best yield of her plantation.
By
sale
and barter she accufeeble, hired
mulated a good store of provisions, and, being
a sample of the ubiquitous soldier to carry her possessions

to
her
mules some half-a-mile away.
The
soldier
walked
in front of her,
and
all
went well
until
she met an acquain-
tance in the street and stopped to exchange gossip.

old
The
lady
was
interested,
and the
flea
soldier,
for
once finding
himself able to nip a smaller
than himself, seized the
opportunity to
decamp
to his arrondissement with the loot.

his sleeping at the
On
off
arrival
he awoke
for the
comrades, others
left
gambling
moment
set to
rare prospect of food,
and the whole guard
work
to divide the spoil
and
to put the butter, the pork,
and the rum beyond the reach

in
of their
tearing
original owner.
But while they were engaged

tin
open the second
of butter, the Lieutenant of
the post hove in sight.
Now when
an
officer sees a soldier
with
sufficiency of provisions he naturally

;
jumps
to the
conclusion that they must have been stolen
therefore the
Lieutenant, having listened to two minutes of fluent lying.
54

off
went
post-haste
to
acquaint the
affairs.
General next above
him with the condition of
This General was a prompt man.
He
lost
no time
in
committing the Lieutenant to prison

priated the food and brought
it
for not
having appro-
at
once to him.
Then he
guard
his off
got a horse, galloped

to
jail
down
to the post, sent the
in
bulk,
and carried the whole plunder to

for
own
the
house.
story
But,
unluckily
that
energetic
still
individual,
got
abroad,
and a certain
more highly placed
black General despatched a message to say that the butter,
rum and pork would be

where
else.
just as safe
under
his care as any-
Such
hints from a superior in Hayti are, like
royal invitations, not to be refused.
The peasant woman
returned
home empty,
the soldier
gained a few mouthfuls of food and prison, the Lieutenant

prison
only
the
first
General gained the sense of com-
placency consequent on possession for the space of an hour,

while
the
biggest
flea
of
all
pouched the booty that had

ladder
to
come up the long

highest
in
military
enrich
one of the
if
the
land.
There can be no doubt
the old
lady
ever applies for her
own
(which
it.
is
unlikely) she will
also be put into prison for losing
There
not
is
no conscription, and the battalions are

law, but
recruited,
by any regular enforcement of
by a system
of press-gangs
armed with the cocomacaque.
young
English subject, black,
about eighteen years old, was im-

pressed
of his
all
55
in this
manner
recently.
He
objected on the ground
nationah'ty,
that,
but the
after
recruiting
party
flung
cared not at
for
and,
beating him,
him
into
jail.
He was
Consul.
of course
released
on the representations of
his
There
is
is
another evil which pervades the army, and that

of the
is
the
influence
Papaloi.
At Vaudoux
sacrifices
the soldier class

is
always well represented.

I
This statement
in
not
upon hearsay evidence.

kill
have seen a general
uniform
the
cock
large
in
honour of the sacred snake under

If
eyes
of a
to
number of worshippers.
ever
it
should
come
pass
that the Papaloi were to order one
thing and the authorities another, the average soldier would
be extremely likely to disregard the wishes of the Government.
He
objects to a clubbing exceedingly, but he objects
even more strongly to brave the wrath and vengeance of

the unseen powers of darkness,
whose representatives upon

priests to be.
earth he believes the

It
is
Vaudoux
this
prevalence of the
Vaudoux
sect
if
which astonshe beat the
ishes
you.
A
in
priestess
once boasted that
sacred
drum
the centre of the town of Port-au-Prince,

in the
few even of the highest

the part
land would dare to disregard

that
summons.
of the
And you must own

of the
it
when
is
the third of
spectators
ceremonies
made up
negroes wearing the kepi,

of the priestess
is
not unlikely that the boast

as regards the army.
had good foundation
56

The tendency
of the soldiery towards these horrible and
is
grotesque
votaries
superstitions
one
of the
safeguards
of the
from punishment.
if
You may
any
set a thief to catch
a
is
thief
it
the
first
thief has
interest in so doing, but
not absurd to expect to stamp out snake-worship by
the
agency of snake-worshippers,
whom
instinct inevitably
throws back upon the primal religions?

Nevertheless, although the Haytian becomes a soldier in
spite
of himself,
and
is
heavily
handicapped by circumfault.
is
stances,
he
is
astonishingly free of one serious
He
not a
may be on
drunkard,
occasion a bully and a thief, but he
although he could get cheaply and comfortably

tafia
drunk on
for
two centimes.
first-class
With steady handling

fighting
he could be turned out a
man
as he
is,
however, he can hardly be deemed an

opinion
in
eft"ective.
it
Yet the
many Haytian
circles
is
that
it
would be a bad
in the
day
for
any European force when
came
way
of
the Republican troops.
"They would
fight like heroes,"

If
said a General to me,

in
"these brave ones!

free Republic,
any attacking army landed
this
it
they would without doubt instantly drive
into the sea."
On
the
first
Sunday of each month
a review
is
held on
I
the Champ-de-Mars.
On
it
the particular
Sunday when
had
the luck to be present,
was to be an even grander review
than
usual,
one of the events of the year.
The
earliest

intimation
59
of the
great
doings
came from
the
National
Musical
the
Company, whose
morning,
martial strains drifted across in
glow of the
on.
and
turned out to see what
was going
The
houses,
dusty
its
Champ-de-Mars,
drains,
with
its its
fringe
of
white
meandering
and
extensive prospect
over calm waters,
was
just greeting the rising sun.

air
The
dew was
yet
wet upon the grass, the
was growing
hotter with each
moment.
Beneath us the town was spread

and green, and afar
off a
out
in
chess-board
of white
in
few ships swung at anchor
the fjord-like bay.
Distant bugle calls tinkled like echoes from various points,

a couple of Generals
met together under a
tree,
and soon
dark columns of soldiers began to crawl out from the town

below.
As
they drew nearer

I
saw that they were changed
from the
the
men
in
knew.
On
week-days they lounge about

on review days
streets
ragged unkemptness, but
they blossom out into uniforms of gorgeous colours.

black
Busy
Generals
caracoled
ostentatiously
upon
their flanks
field
and
in front of
them, as they marched on to the
and
formed into a hollow square.

like
The town was now
stirring
an ant-heap, and giving forth a broad stream of people

in
on foot and
carriages.
its
Every scene has

first
dominant note, that aspect which

in the
strikes
the
eye and afterwards lingers longest

it
memory.
Here
was struck by the negro Generals.
There
6o

at the
least.
were three hundred of them

green Generals,
paler
Pink Generals,
in the
blue
tint
;
Generals,
the
plain
and Generals clad was

stiff
Cambridge
upon
lace,
with generals,
score
score,
important, imposing, each in a
web of
but
gold
each
horse,
mounted upon
small,
long-tailed
excellent
each riding well, though after the splay-
footed fashion of his race, each aware that the eyes of the
world were upon him, and each determined upon keeping
them
fixed there.
They galloped
they ambled
obtrusively
hither and thither across the ranks,
open square,
along the
they impressed themselves
upon the
attention.
To be
a General
ofificer
it
is
not
necessary
rank, the
ever to have been a soldier or

title
of lesser
or,
being bestowed for political purposes
as
an
article of the
Haytian Constitution has

"
it,
" for eminent
services rendered to the State.
The assembled
troops
numbered perhaps
2,000, and
judged, from the diversity of equipment, that

thirty-eight
many
of the
regiments
of the
Republic
fine
were represented
colour, although
amongst them.
There was a
show of
there were also deficiencies in the matter of foot-gear and

rifles.
Not
man
of them
all
stood straight; they might
have been galvanised figures jerked into position by some

malignantly humorous
a
intelligence.
Yet you knew
it
was
great
occasion, for not one individual was eating sugar
cane, a height to which discipline rarely soars.
6i
bugle gave notice of developments.
Generals smoothed
down
projecting angles with their horses as, riding swiftly,

St.
General
into
Fort Colin, the Minister of War, curveted out

sunshine.
the
golden
sign
He
galloped
round,
his
word
here,
there,
and even as he finished

of the palace
tour of
the
inspection
the
music
band
heralded
approach of His Excellency General Tiresias Augustin Simon
Sam, President of
the Republic.
The palace band moved forward

well
playing, and wonderfully

too, in red
they
played,
and looked
v/ell,
and blue
and gold, with crested caps.
After them
came
the President
and
his staff, sixty of
them, Generals
the
all.
They rode out
into
Champ-de-Mars and cantered

General
round, saluted and saluting.
Sam was
in
uniform,
and
his
charger
was caparisoned with a saddle-cloth of
crimson
bearing.
the
and
gold.
He
rides
well,
and has a soldierly
He
looked
not only the head of the army, but
most
soldierlike
man
in
it,
as he
drew up under the

line
shade of some trees and his
staff
wheeled into
led
off
behind him.
Then
the
march past began,
by the National
in
Musical Company.
with
First the infantry,
men
red trousers
black
kits
and red blankets,
their
band following
squads with blue jackets and red-tasseled caps, contingents
more or
blue
tassel.
less
numerous
in various
blends of pink and green,
and
red, with touches of yellow in stripe or cord or
62

The
artillery
passed,
battery
of five
guns
and
Nordenfeldt,
each
drawn by a
single mule.
Occasionally
an aide-de-camp received an order and galloped away with

it.
Three or four times a standard-bearer was manoeuvred

place by a vociferous General.
into
Once
woman
with
basket of linen on her head was hunted off the ground

in light green.
by another General
Two
filed
regiments
of cavalry
belonging to the bodyguard

the
first
by,
each perhaps 200 strong,
in
it
gleaming
brass helmets, the second chasseurs in blue.
So
went on,
colour after colour. General after General.

Little
can be
said
in
as to the to
deportment of the troops.

files
They marched
lolloped
step a
a certain degree, but the
past
in
loose-backed
drill
zigzag that
would have
broken the heart of a

unstiffened as
right
it
sergeant.
Yet, untrained and
was, there could be no doubt but that the

there,
if
it
material
was
could be put into efficient
hands.
The populace
was, however, pleased with the performance,

different regiments with
and greeted the appearance of the

that
singular
;
Oho
it
which
is
the
Haytian exclamation of
approval
is
with
he welcomes everything, from a lady

to
who
fortunate
enough
please
his
critical
e}'e,
to a cab
accident in the street.
Few
of 250.
of the
regiments
is
exhibited
failing.
their
nominal strength
a
This
no new
For many
day
after

the
last
63
war they were engaged
in against
San Domingo,
the President of the period was wont to say to any stranger
who remarked upon

suffered
these depleted battalions:
"Ahl
they
much
in the last
war!"
in
a tone which gave the
hearer to understand that he was looking upon the survivors

of a
later
Balaclava,
hills.
it
fought out
desperately
among
the
wooded
tropic
But tradition has

shot in any
that
the
only people those heroes
number were
their
own
officers,
at the orders
of the
then
Emperor Soulouque, who,
to excuse himself
when vanquished by
the Dominicans, accused his staff in
bulk of having betrayed him, the army, and their country.
Hayti supposes herself to have modelled her army upon

that of France, only in this, as in
all
other things she
is
caricature rather than a

all
copy of the
original.
She overdoes
her effects; she
is
like the iwuveati ricJic

it
who bought
an old oak balustrade and had
overlaid with gold-leaf.
At
length the last General of

filed
all
the Generals had saluted,
and the columns
away
into smallness
down
the road
the President and his staff trotted back to the palace near
by
the
grand review was over

fact that
and
was
left
to reflect
upon the
State
in
Hayti
is
the most unconditionally military
the
world,
and that she makes no account of
anything beneath the rank of General.
The Haytian,
in spite
of his huge pretensions,

Drill
is,
however,
art of
not naturally a soldier.
and
discipline
and the
64

to his ear.
war are mere empty sounds
From
his point of
view they are entirely beside the question.

for is to play at
What he
cares
being a soldier
he loves the accoutrement,

the gold lace.
the uniforms, the gold lace
especially
He
has a passion for military

display.
titles,
military bombast, military
Even on
in
his
postage
stamp a cannon sprawls

;
menacingly
front of his crossed flags
but there
it
ends.
He
brags
perpetually
of his
patriotic determination to
defend the
of the
to
to
last
inch of his native land from the usurpation
alien,
yet
he
allows his neighbour, San
Domingo,
push the frontier between the States farther and farther

the westward without offering the smallest elTective ob-
jection.
The
following
is
an attempt to reproduce a conversation

a
trio
between an Englishman and

review.
of generals after the
Scene.
tropic
village
The
piazza
of a
palm-thatched hut
in
in
the hot
evening.
street.
It
The open space
front
represents the
breaks up at once beyond the huts into

bridle
straggling,
light
loose-edged
of the
path, which glints in the

until
it
oblique
rising
moon
disappears into
the forest.
Dark
figures
move
to
and
fro in the half-dusk outside,
and crowing cocks, the sound of horses making a meal

guinea-grass,
ofT
the
patter of donkeys, disturb the silence of

in
the
night.
Three consequential Haytians
blue,
green,

and pink,
smoking.
flies,
67
thickly
netted
over
with gold lace, are seated
Also an Englishman.
Mosquitoes,
dust,
sand-
and a smell of coffee mixed with rank tobacco

air.
smoke
temper the sweetness of the

Haytian
(in
blue uniform): "General."
The
other two: "Qui,
mon
General."
Blue General (stretching):

of to-day
"I
am
tired.
But the review
what
a great spectacle!"
"
Pink General:
Oho
Assuredly, a great spectacle!"
Green General; "Without question the most magnificent

spectacle that one can see."
Englishman: "I was much interested."

Blue
"Our army
in
is
composed
of brave
men.
The
troops are the finest
the world!
Do you
not think so,
monsieur?"
E, (choosing his words): "I have seen none like
it."
Pink G. (who
ing
is
fat,
with streaks of yellow on the bulg-
whites of his eyes):
"The
tenue, the discipline of the
men was admirable!"

Green
credit
G.
"
The army
of Hayti
is
one which
reflects
upon
:
its officers.
An army
without officers
what
"
is it?
Blue G.
"Nothing, absolutely nothing!"
Pink G.
"The army
here
:
of Hayti has never been conquered!
The French were

fought
with
us;
we drove them
out
The English
where are they?
But we
we we
are
here always!
We
have never been conquered!"
68
WHERE BLACK RULES

Blue
G.
:
WHITE.
" It
would be impossible.
We
for
could not sur-
vive
it."
Chorus
" It
!
is
true,
my
General,
in
that case
we
should be dead
"
Blue G.
Pink
has
E.
"But
the Boers will conquer the English."

G's.
and Green
(together)
" Yes, yes,
Ladysmith
fallen.
:
The Boers have captured
the town."
"Indeed?
:
When?"
or to-morrow
Blue G.
"To-day
it
goes without saying."
E. (with relief): "Quite so."
Blue
General (puffing out

are
brothers.
his
chest):
"The Boers and

for the
we Haytians
independence
We
also
have fought
are a
of
our
country.
They
bad people,
these FLnglish."
Pink
G.
(looking at the E.)
"The
blaiic
is
perhaps an
Englishman."
Green G.
Blue
G.
:
"The
" Yes,
blanc
yes,
is
an American."
an
American.
have
always
said so."
E.
"Pardon, Generals, English."

I
Blue G. (with assurance): "Yes, yes, English, have

said so?"
not
E.
"I
am
sorry to find, General, that
ou are on the
side of the Boers."
Blue
G.
:
(shaking
his
fat
black cheeks
in
vehement
de-
clamation)
"What would
you, monsieur?
They
are our

brothers,
69
for
these
I
Bo-o-ers
here.
If
were fighting
them!
But, no,
am
"
!
The white
English, they would crush
the Bo-o-ers
Chorus:
"But they cannot!
Vive
les
brave Bo-o-ers!"
"The
G.
lôers are white also,
messieurs."
:
Blue
white."
E.
:
(not
to
be taken
in)
"
No, no, they are not
"I assure you

G.
:
live
Blue
Africa,
"The
lioers
in
Africa.
All
who
live
in
excepting
the
this
English,
are
black
men."
(The
General
who made
astounding statement was an ex-
Minister of War.)
Chorus
K.
tion
:
"'It
is
true."
if
"
in
On
the contrary,
you
the
will
pardon
are,
my
presump-
mentioning the
fact,
Boers
in
undoubtedl}',
place,
white.
They came from Lûrope

the
the
first
and
took
land
from
the
Africans.
Now
the English are
taking the land from the Jôers."
Blue General
"
The English
are brave men. the world.

"
say so
They
are
the
bravest
men
in
The Haytians
this
conquered
bugle
to
call
them.
My
in
in
regiment
the
military
(At
moment
a
is
resounds
village street, a
commotion
be
observed
the
arrondissement opposite.
in
light- blue
short score
of ragged
negroes
coats,
and
trousers the worse for wear, tumble lazily out and form up in
irregular line before a short, goateed black with a
little
sword.)
"
"
70

Pink G.
E.
:
:
"
Monsieur, see, the soldiers of the Repubhc."
"
How many men
such as these could his Excellency

field
the President put into the
at a "
1
week's notice?"
Pink G.
E.
:
" Twenty-five thousand
"An army
at the
indeed!
How many
Champ
troops were present
today
review on the
de Mars?"
Blue G. (not to be behindhand):

the outside there were hardly
"Ten
thousand."
(At
i,8oo.)
Pink G.
E.
:
"I was there."
"I observed you there. General.

:
Your horse
a horse
1
can
Pink G.
'
My
horse
Oho
that
is
He
go a hundred miles a day."

Blue
G.
(cutting
in)
:
" President
Sam
is
the father of
will
the army.
He
is
undertaking reforms which

first
make our
Such men
army the equal of the

as
armies
in
Europe.
ours
as
is
you saw to-day, monsieur can do anything.

ready we
will
When
sea,
all
drive the Dominicans into the
and the whole island

la
shall
be ours!"
Chorus: "Vive
Blue
G.
to
:
Republique."
all
is
"
When
ready we
will
send
officers to
Europe
what an
show
the French, the Germans, and the English
ofificer
can attain to."

will
Pink G.
"I
then go to Europe."
Blue G. (with excitement): "

I
Oho
It
is
who
will
go!
have already been chosen.

E. (hurriedly in the uproar)
:
am
of the cavalry."
last
"
During the
revolution
"

Pink G. (asserting himself): "
out
to
I
71
If
a revolution were to break
would proceed
at
once to the place and put a stop
it."
Blue G. (with quivering cheeks)

of a revolution."
All (clapping
their
"
also
am
not afraid
hands
to
their
swords):
"Who
is
afraid?"
;^5SS^Sîfc^^JR
ABOUT TO
1!E
REVIEWED.
Blue G.
Pink G.
E.
: :
"Fear?
do not know what

afraid.
it
isl"
"I have never been
And
you, monsieur
"I have been afraid very often."

feel afraid, talk! It will
Green G.: "If you

E.
:
do you good."
I
"Having seen
the Grand Review to-day,
should like
to hear more about the Haytian forces.
Will you be good
enough
to tell
me
something- of interest?"
72

Pink G.
(after a
moment's deep thought): "I am General
of Division." E. (who has heard

privates
at rest):
in
it
rumoured that Generals outnumber

to set the question
the
Haytian army, wishes

are in your
"How many men

(shrugging
his
command?"
:
Pink G.
not know.
shoulders complacently)
it?
"I do
But what matters
Two
or three thousand,
at the least."
E.,
opening up a fresh subject, speaks of Hayti as a nation.

G.
(aggressively):
a
Blue
republic,
"France
republic,
Hayti
and America
republic" (triumphantly shaking

republics
"
1
three fingers in E.'s

E.:
face) "three
"You have been

:
to Paris?"
I
Blue G.
sition.
I
"I
will
go next month.
will see
the Expo-
will
review the troops."

in.
(The Pink and Green Generals join

impression
it
To deepen
the
already
made upon
the P^nglishman they
also,
all
seems, are going to Paris probably next month, and
three launch into a chaos of conversation.)
Blue G. (surviving the chorus)

time,
"
Return here
changes.
in
two years'
will
my
friend.
You
will
see
Railways
will
intersect
the
land.
I
The army, already numerous,

shall
be
enormous.
And
seems
be again a Minister!"
As
this
to place a cap
upon the
his
future, the
En-
glishman disengages himself from
companions and goes
out into the stockade, where, beneath a tamarind tree, he
Î'HK
his horse
HAYTIAN GENKRAL.
73
finds
making
frantic efforts to fight the puissant
steed of the Pink General.
He
on-saddles and rides round

fallen asleep
by way of the
open-mouthed,
in
piazza.
The Pink General has
the
voice
of the Blue General rumbles on
continuous
a
argument.
"
He and
the Green General are
taking
friendly
Rhum "
his
together.
They
call
out their
adieux as the h'nglishman passes, then a bend of the track

shuts
them out from
life
for ever.
CHAPTER
.
IV.
SACRIFICE.
VAUDOUX WORSHIP AND
Although much
following
of the information incorporated
in
the
chapter
was only gradually gained during the

stay in Hayti,
I
whole period of
place
in
this
my
am
giving
it
an early
volume,
really
is
because some slight knowledge of
what Vaudoux
is
and
its
influence
upon
its
votaries
indispensable to the understanding of the condition and
character of the inhabitants of the Republic.
For Vaudoux
of the
is
so inextricably
life,
woven
in with
every side
Haytian's
his politics, his religion, his outlook
upon the world,

judices
his
social
and family
he
relations, his pre-
and
peculiarities
that
cannot be judged apart
from
it.
The underpart
of Black
life
is
is full
of strange beliefs.
Catholicism, but
find,
In
it is
Hayti the nominal religion
Roman
no more than a thin veneer
beneath you
not traces
VAUDOUX WORSHIP AND

merely,
stition,
SACRIFICE.
75
but
solid
groundwork of West African super-
serpent-worship, and child-sacrifice.

last
This
assertion
may seem
almost incredible,
made
in
connection
other
with
a nation, not only living in the midst of

itself started
civilised
communities, but which was

lines of
all
century ago
on the double
European laws and a
Christian creed.
Nevertheless,
those
who know anything

know
of Hayti by personal experience and residence there,
too that the fact has been amply proved over and over again.
Little
is
known
of the Black Republic outside of her

at
own
shores,
and even
home her
policy
is
a policy of keeping
dark everything humiliating to her pretensions.

nal
The
natio-
method
is
not to suppress these infamous crimes, but
simply to deny their existence.
The
ment
the
evil
of
Vaudoux worship
is
widespread.
The Govern-
has,
at all times,
been too unstable
to care to take
risk
of seriously opposing so powerful a combination.

is
The
rites
sect
universally
feared, hence they carry
on their
and
the
their orgies with practical impunity.
At
root
of this
outgrowth of superstition are the

the
priests
Papalois
minister
Papaloi,
"
in
and
to
Mamalois,
naturally
are
and
priestesses,
who
the
credulous
of
mind of the negro.
Mamaloi,
le
corruptions
"Papa
le
roi "
and
Mama
roi," the titles
themselves showing the estimation
which these people are held.
They
dwell chiefly in the
mountains.
famous
priest
lives
on the road (save the
76

;
mark!) between Port-au-Prince and Jacmel

P\ircy
;
another towards
in
but the old iniquity
who
is
more especially
not
so
far
my
mind's
capital
eye
itself.
sojourns
in
the
sierras
from the
Vaudoux,
according
to
its
more
elect
disciples,
is
an
all-powerful deity, but the idea of the masses does not rise
above the serpent, which represents to them which presides,

usually
consist
in
its
their
god and
These
box, over
all
their services.
take
place at night and in pseudo-secrecy.
They
of dancing, sacrificing, feasting, invocations, and a delirium on the part of the Mamaloi, winding up
Delphic
with scenes of an indescribable nature.
There are said

sacrifices
to be
two
sects of
Vaudoux
one which
only
;
fruits,
white cocks, and white goats to the
serpent-god
the other, that sinister cult above referred to,
whose
but
lesser
ceremonies
call
for the
blood of a black goat,

fully
whose
the
advanced orgies cannot be

sacrifice
carried
out
without
of "the
goat
without
horns"
the
human
child.
is
White
supposed to be the sacred colour of the former,

latter,
red of the
to
but on one occasion
was lucky enough
witness a
Vaudoux
function where the flags and hand-
kerchiefs were red and white, pointing to an intermingling
of the
two forms
the
cocks
sacrificed
in
were both black
and white, again bearing evidence

Testimony as
to
the
same
direction.
in
the
order
of the
ceremonies used
VAUDOUX WORSHIP AND

Vaudoux worship
being the
natural
differs,
SACRIFICE.
not be wondered
ritual,
77
but
this
is
at,
result
of an
unwritten
practised
by an
utterly ignorant people.
Each
writer on Hayti gives
the order at secondhand as described by native witnesses,
and probably
referred to.
all
are equally right as regards the instance
For
my own
satisfaction
rites
noted down on
my
cuff the
sequence of the
these
I
as
they took place before me.

later.
is
Of
will give a
detailed description
The serpent used by
these fetish sectaries
generally
believed to be the Macajuel, a species allied to the harmless

boa.
When
with
a
riding
in
a remote country district,
met
a
I
man
snake
five
of this
kind
it,
that
he
had caught.
offered
him
dollars
is
for
which he refused.
The
is
Haytian
peasant
very
poor,
and
five
dollars
for
him not merely a

would hardly
doing
Sir
so.
windfall,
but
it
absolute wealth, and he

for
have declined
without strong reason
Richard Burton speaks of the "small green snake of

so
well
the
Haytian negroes,
enacted
before
known by
the abominable
orgies
the
is
Vaudoux King and Queen."

extinct in the island.
it
Today
that,
I
the green snake

I
More than
no white man
met would allow

to think that
ever existed, and

for
I
was almost beginning

a mistake,
as
Burton had
once
made
when
a certain old native,

in
whom
me
may
describe
up to the neck
Vaudoux,
told
certain
78
facts
WHERE BLACK RULES WHrfE.

which modified
my
conckision.
was subsequently
shown a green snake preserved
in spirits.
Whether the snake enclosed

altars
in its
box on the Haytian

is
of to-day
during
it
child-sacrifice
of that species
or a harmless
boa
is
impossible to say, as no white
man
has ever been allowed to set eyes upon one.
Vaudoux,
Juju, Obi, or
some analogous
superstition
seems
to belong to the
is
bottom stratum of black nature. Vaudoux
a religion of old, old time.

to
When
William the Norman
came
England
it
was no doubt flourishing amongst the
African tribes of the
West
slaves,
Coast.
With the captured

are,
it
whose descendants the Haytians

and here
it
was brought
still.
to
this distant island,
is
rampant
It
raises
an unshamed head
in all quarters.
The
last
President was even said to be a votary.

is
large
place like a casino, just outside of Port-au-Prince,

to
its
devoted
observances.
is
But Southern Hayti Jacmel the hot-bed of
its
strongest rallying-point,
and
its
power.
I
All along the road be-
tween the town and Port-au-Prince

ingly.
know
it
thrives exceed-
In
the
it
north,
at
Cap Haytien, on
the
contrary,
the traces of
are slighter.
in the
Vaudoux
is
cannibalism
second stage.
In the
first
instance a savage eats
human
;
flesh as
an extreme form of
triumph over an enemy

food
is
so the appetite grows until this
preferred
to
any other.
The next
stage follows
VAUDOUX WORSHIP AND

naturally.
SACRIFICE.
79
The man, wishing
to propitiate his god, offers

prizes.
him that which he himself most

the
the
Add
ages,
to this sacrifice
mysteries
and
traditions
of the
and you have
Vaudoux
of to-day.
Cannibalism has been brought as a very general accusation
against the Haytians, but although there
is
no doubt
that the child sacrificed in the worst
Vaudoux
I
rites is after-
wards dismembered, cooked, and eaten,

of recent with
do not think that
years
is
the
in
practice
of cannibalism, unconnected
it
sacrifice,
any degree prevalent, although

scattered
instances
is
equally
light.
certain
that
do
to
still
come
to
The Government have been known

efforts to
make
feeble
and spasmodic
this
punish the culprits, but as a rule
iniquity,
as well as
most others,
is
allowed to run
its
course unchecked.
To
quote a case or two
of these judicial attempts at
punishment:
woman and
killing
her daughter, convicted redchild,
handed
at
Jacmel of
and eating a
were mounted
on asses and beaten round the town by the police with
cocomacaque
years
ago,
in
clubs.
Afterwards they were released.
Two
the northern part of the island, a party of
men and women were

the a
imprisoned
for a
in
is,
few days only
for
same crime, which they indulged

sacrifice.
as a conclusion to
I
Vaudoux
But
this
crime
in
both believe and
hope, on the decrease and
may
time die out.

is
Not the
least
prominent feature of Vaudoux
the
drum
8o
WHERE BLACK RULES
WHITE.
that calls the worshippers together.
One which
frame was
it
saw and
of some
examined was four

jointed
feet high.
Its
made
wood
like
bamboo,
in
girth
was
as large as a
man's trunk.
The upper
surface
was of black goatskin,

fingers, with hair
still
thinned by the thrumming of
many
it
adhering to the edges where

This instrument
at
is
was pegged
to the frame.
so singularly constructed that although
a distance of a mile or
its
more
it
sounds loudly, near
at
hand
throbbing note
is
indistinct
and low.
it is
Where
the negro picked up this secret in acoustics
hard to imagine.
use.
But the
rites
peculiarity
has
an important
naturally
initiated
sect
with
for
like
the
that
Vaudoux have
none
:
strong
reasons
desiring
at
but
the
should
be
present
their
gatherings
hence
the
low,
misleading sound
is
that mutters about

at
you when the drum
played
close
hand, whereas the initiated,
who have
wonderful
warning
distances,
of a
sacrifice,
hear the
call
at really
and
at
once proceed
of following
to the
appointed spot.
dull
The
quarters
tried
tion,
in
difificulty
is
up the
throb at close
I
extraordinary.
On
several
occasions
have
to
trace
from the ear alone the unmistakable vibrafailed.
and
the
have
muffled
There
is
some
beat
thrilling
quality
and
mysterious
stirs
which
in
cannot
spite
be
described,
but
which
the
pulse
of
familiarity.
Hayti
is
the sole country with any pretence to civilisation
VAUDOUX WORSHIP AND

where
exists.
SACRIFICE.
8i
superstition
It
contaminated by such active horrors

cult so
would seem that the perpetuation of a

its
degrading must have

the
race.
source
that
deep
in
the character of
Yet
you
find
these
undoubted cannibals and hospitable.

ignorance.
can
on
occasion
be
all
both
lies
kind-hearted
Perhaps the root of
in their squalid
Then whose
is
the fault?
unhesitatingly.
It is
The answer must be given

of the Government.
tions
strike
the fault
Instead of rare and
futile
demonstra-
directed against
at
some outlying
evildoer, they should
the
Papalois,
who
are the heart and mainspring
of Vaudouxism.
Let them destroy the Papalois, and the

will
whole
decay.
I
edifice
of horror
crumble
to pieces of natural
made
it
a special point while in the island to learn as
much
of the sect as possible, to get at the truth concerning

to glean actual facts at
I
them by personal experience, and

firsthand.
With
this
object
in
view,
more than once

for the
I
gained intelligence of the time and place appointed
performance
of
see
Vaudoux
for
I
ceremonies
and
sacrifices.
wanted
to
myself the mysteries of snake-worship,

succeeded to a certain extent.
I
and by good luck
On
find
the
first
of these occasions,
to
understood that
must
my way
It
low part of the town after night had
fallen.
was
getting
on
towards
midnight
when
6
the
mufifled
reverberation
of a
drum beating a
swift
measure
82

the
came up out of
hot
darkness
no wind
stirred,
and
the candle-flame by the open
window stood up
straight
and
unwavering.
I
descended into the

it
evil
odours of the
street.
had
heard
or two
before,
at
that droning
drum music, with
a scream
intervals,
which
in
Hayti often beats upon the
overladen pulses of the night.

law, but passing steps
The town was under

up the
martial
were
stirring
ineffable rubbish
under
in
foot.
At
the
corner,
"Qui
vive.^" from a soldier

I
the
gloom, but a small coin settled the matter and
passed on.
At
last
the challenges died
away behind me
the carpet
of dirt and garbage seemed to have
grown thicker below

in the
the
ters
tread
the
streets
were
unlit
even
to
best quar-
of the
town,
and therefore
keep clear of drains

impossibility.
and arbitrary pools of slime was almost an
Under
oscillated
a roof a concertina
was playing
to a
crowd who
and turned
in
dance measure, but the drum was

in the
calling
from somewhere
the
dark twist of streets beyond.

;
Above shone
serene
stars their
beneath them the negro

life.
and negress followed out
scheme of
Past booths
crowded with
talkers, past the vending-places of rich, unin
wholesome sweetmeats and drink
coloured bottles, pausing
occasionally to catch the vibration of the drum, across an
open market-place
frilled
with an edging of empty sheds,
and
at length
was
at the spot described to
me.
VAUDOUX WORSHIP AND
SACRIFICE.
S3
There was a crowd round the house, peering through a
window
at
the
doings inside.
big negro stood at the
door with a cocomacaque chib.

as to
There was some demur
admittance,
then the door opened and a stream of
muffled drum-music and a monotonous

out
self
hum
and
of voices broke
I
on the
within.
ear.
hand beckoned me, and

it
found mydifficult
The
shutters were closed,
was
through the obscurity to make out one's surroundings, but

I
felt
the presence of a crowd.

forefathers
The song they were
sing-
ing their
sang two hundred years ago
in the
riverland of Africa.
Suddenly a negro
scene
all
set light to a candle,
and
at
once the
leapt
out
still
to
meet the eye.

its final
The
note.
in
song ceased, but
mouths
hung upon
There must have

two small rooms.
been upwards of two hundred people
They were ranged round

on
the walls, those in front sitting
their haunches, leaving only a
narrow passage open
in
the middle of the earthen floor.
The
faces
were glistening
with heat, and
all
eyes were turned towards the Mamaloi.
The
silence
was broken by an abrupt bark of the drum

sitting figures
and the chant began again, the

shoulders to
its
swaying
their
roll.
It
was led by an enormous negress,

purple print,
wrapped
cock
in
in
white
and
who
held a living
see
her
spatulate
black fingers you
could
the
shining of her uncut nails.

in
She
sat
and swayed and sang

drone of sound.
It
what
at
last
became an
insistent
84

like
was
something heard through a delirium of

it
fever,
you
could not forget or escape
for
an instant, and the drum

It
drove
it
through the brain with blows.

;
neither
waxed
nor waned
it
was merely the same, and endless.

forth, forth
Meantime the Mamaloi danced, back and

back,
and was
between the knees of the worshippers.

small-faced,
She
about forty years of age,

eyed.
snub-nosed, roundstare,
She gazed past you with a rapt

chin.
a streak of
thin
foam lay across her

white robe,
tied
For covering she wore a

sash,
with
red
and a
string
of gold
beads gleamed round her neck.

alight
There were two candles
now,
set
in
pots and decked with the pink flowers

floor,
of the melon.
Beneath them, on the
was spread the

beans, ground
to
feast; bottles of coloured intoxicants,

rice,
Congo
and red melon.
At
intervals the
Mamaloi stopped
sprinkle water over them,
and as she did so the song rose

it
little
higher; but would
never end, never end?
had
time to notice that the walls were ornamented with prints
from the French

scenes
in
illustrated papers.
!
Upon how many

find
strange
do those pictures look

;
You
them everywhere
Hayti
in
the drawing-rooms of the rich and in the huts
of the
rites.
peasantry,
and now
in a place
used
for
Vaudoux
The song
rose
suddenly
the
in
volume, a candle flickered
and burnt up.
Still
Mamaloi danced between the rows
of knees with stealthy, menacing, tigerish steps.
Her
excite-
VAUDOUX ^VORSHIP AND

ment was
intensifying,
SACRIFICE.
to
85
her
eyes
seemed
grow
larger,
but they never met yours.

throat
action.
As
she danced she cleared her

like
in
and spat with a noise
artillery
coming
into
The huge black woman

the
the centre droned on,
and
to
drum-beat was added the chink of a key on

in
metal.
The Mamaloi quickened

terrific
;
her sinuous dancing.

there.
The
all
I
heat was
humanity sweltered
And
over
presided a portrait of the
German Emperor, whose eye
seemed
to catch at this juncture.
The
one
Papaloi,
as the
small
and
filthy
old man, crouched at
side,
Mamaloi caught the cock from the hands

and,
of the
big
woman,
holding
it
by the neck, flung
it
over her head and shoulder.

frenzy
swifter
;
Her
face
was distorted with

accompanied by a
round and
round she
twisted,
measure of the same ciead song.
She
laid the
cock
upon the heads of the worshippers and began

and more
rapidly
to the hurrying,
to whirl
more
maddening drumming.
Suddenly she straightened her arm, spun the cock round

and round,
air.
its
flapping wings beating impotently upon the
snowstorm of feathers floated up as she stood with
rapt eyes and bared teeth, twirling; then she flung up her
hand, and the headless body flew over her shoulder.
Her excitement was

neck to her
stood
teeth
for
lips,
horrible
she pressed the bleeding

her hand,
lips
and,
when she slowly withdrew

and immovable, her
to run
an instant fixed
red.
and
stained
Then she began
up and down
86

at
last
screaming;
she
staggered
still
and
fell,
and, with the
torn neck of the sacrifice
in
her hand, rolled in under
the feet of the worshippers, while the song boiled over her.
In the interval various fetishes were brought out of a box,
uncouth wooden
handled,
images, stones and bones, old and over-
which must have come over with the ancestors
of these people from their original home.
After this the
rites,
dancing,
sacrifice, sprinkling of
blood
and of some pungent

followed
slain,
all
fluid,
which was certainly not perfume,

Six cocks were
one another
in
in
changing order.
to the
first,
like
manner
with like
monotony
and
brutishness.
One
of them,
however, was the chief
sacrifice,
and
its
blood was
set apart in a basin
by
itself.
With
this
blood the
Mamaloi went outside and sprinkled

marks upon them.
the doors and gates, putting
Then she
returned,
and with the remainder sealed the
foreheads of those present with the sign of the Cross
This intermingling of the
ancient Jewish and Christian

springs, of
symbolisms with
their
own nauseous ceremonies
course, from their acquaintance with
Roman Catholic
teaching.
The
ignorant are always ready to incorporate the worship
of any other god with their

it
own
from their point of view

good.
can do no harm, and

After
may do some
a time the frenzy grew, and the dancing
became
universal.
The whole crowd were moving and swaying and

monotonous
jostling together, chattering out the unvarying,
VAUDOUX WORSHIP AND

measure.
the
SACRIFICE.
87
The chink
of the old key quickened riotously,

falhng thumb-joints with
drum thrummed out under the

haste,
stimulating
rose
to
the
mental
atmosphere fermented and

whirled,
high
pressure.
They swung and
they
writhed and danced in an intoxication of excitement.
A woman
was contorting herself and hissing
in
an
ill-
lighted corner.
Near the end of the room another with a

was carried away by the seething hysteria
to
shuffle
child at her breast
about
her,
in
all,
and began
a
to
and
fro,
with eyes
distended
sort of sightless stare.

faster.
There was hardly
room
for
and the drums beat

its
The
child at the
breast began to stretch
arms and
wail,
but the mother
danced blindly on.

Still
the
tumult
and the music grew.
The atmosphere
tiring or
was
suffocating,
but there
was no symptom of
its
cessation.
On and
on and on, the scene with
savagery
at last
I
and blood and senselessness sickened you.

I
When
I
got out into the clear starshine once more

five
felt
could
I
not have endured another
minutes of
it.
Yet what
had witnessed
was only the beginning of an orgie which

for a
was
to
go on
couple of da}'s longer.

is
The
acter
belief of a people
is
the skeleton on which
its
char-
moulded.
Here
it
in
Hayti they have

will,
I
this gigantic
cult, superstition, call
what you
possessing unbounded
influence,
all
and
in active existence, as
have personally seen,

it
over the island.
The tremendous hold
has gained
88
WHERE BLACK RULES WHLrE.

people
is
over the
proved by the
fact,
well
known and
will,
amply
verified
on many an occasion, that a mother
under the orders of the Papaloi, give up her own offspring

to
be
sacrificed.
When
reproached with inhumanity, the

:
reply has
more than once been given
"
Who
had a better
right to eat
them than
who brought them
forth?"
No
picture
of Hayti will remain longer in
my memory
under
than the remembrance of a

heel-less,
mean
old
man
in grass slippers,
showing a long
half-foot of veiny black ankle
the
faded trouser, the upper half of him almost bare, the
whole topped by a vinegar-coloured face graven by time and wickedness

into
exaggerated wrinklings.
He had
wide-
open, far-away eyes, and sparse grey hair scattered on chin
and
lip
and head.
a Papaloi, or
He was
up
Vaudoux
priest,
otherwise a Haytian
witch-doctor
in
and medicine-man.
His
home was
far
away
the mountains, where he dwelt as a patriarch.

four palm-thatched huts within an enclosure of
He
raw
owned
stakes, where, hidden
away among
the potato-green foliage
of the bush, tamarinds, bananas, and
mangoes ripened.
his
All
day long he
him.
sixty
sat in the shade,
and
and
wives waited upon
There were
to
sixteen.
four of them,
their ages
ranged from
He was
said to have other wives elseit,
where, but, then, he could afford
for
he was a
man
of
substance, and his fame was great in the land.

In Hayti the Papaloi
is
a living force.
He
is
at
once a
VAUDOUX WORSHIP AND
SACRIFICE.
8q
high priest and a consulting physician.
He
will
cure the
body,
of
life.
and,
for
consideration, touch the hidden springs
People are very much afraid of him.

foot,
They
travel
up on
their
for
on donkey-back and pony-back, according to

in
life,
stations
from the plains to consult him
and,
payment, he
will
use his hereditary knowledge on their
behalf.
He
can
cure,
and he can
kill,
and the two are
often curiously allied in his practice.
A
He
man
is
has a revenge to accomplish
he seeks a Papaloi.
he seeks the
the victim of an unrequited
affection,
Papaloi.
is,
He
is
sick,
he seeks the Papaloi.
The Papaloi
life.
in fact, the pivot
on which moves much of Haytian
All
these
in
powers over mind and body he lays claim

matter of love
is
to,
and
the
some of
his
cures are nasty
enough,
but there
one thing he can assuredly do

for
he
can give you a revenge

the
vindictiveness
twenty dollars that would
satisfy
of a Corsican and leave him a balance
of remorse.
The
Papaloi can take
away your
reason, with
or without pain, at will.

are unapproached.
useless
stance.
His ancient subtleties of poisoning

course, he winds into his
Of
woof much
mystery and ceremony of time and place and circumThis

is
natural,
as well as useful
and
politic,
for
a mere dose would seem of poor value to a sickness-smitten
negro compared with a remedy to be swallowed when the
moon
is
at her full,
with mystic
in.
rites
and incantations and
the bones of the dead thrown
90

Nor
is
the white
man
outside the powers of the Papaloi.
Consider the simplicity of being poisoned.

offend
You
unwittingly
negro and he takes away with him the sense of
deadly injury.
You
eat
and drink three times a day, and

seizes his chance,
on one occasion or another he

the
Papaloi's
prescription
into
and puts
your food or drink.
Then
beyond
sickness grips you, ghastly sickness,
and you are
far
the aid of doctors of your

as
own
colour.
Some
poison, old
the
world,
is
at
your
vitals.
You must
infallibly
seek
a Papaloi or die.
Being the
local practitioner,
he
may be
dollars,
the very
man who
has poisoned you.
For twenty
or perhaps for as
many
centimes, he has brought this evil

liberal
upon you, and he asks a

to
advance on the
antidote.
first
sum
cure
you.
It
is
mere matter of
No man
but
so
shudders at the grasp of these grim powers, they are

potent
and
so
hopelessly
;
irresistible.
You pay
the
Papaloi
fifty
dollars
you would pay him a thousand as

feeling of relief.
his side of the
readily for no
more than the

be
it
To
his credit
;
said,
he usually keeps
contract
little
though he occasionally uses delay to extort a
more.
The
real
wonder of
it
is
that
he does not
spread his poisons broadcast, but

uses
his
it
would appear that he
power not
for play,
but for pay, or to carry out

of this kind was
little
some personal resentment.
Once an attempt
made under my own

in a little
close observation, a
something
issue.
water-and-rum,
but
it
came
to
no serious
VAUDOUX WORSHIP AND

During
SACRIFICE.
I
91
my
travels
in
the
interior
carried
water-
bottle of military pattern
topped by a cup of black vulcanite,

over the
neck.
water.
I
which was padlocked

usually
carried
I
securely
In this
some Haytian rum and

the bottle at a hut, where
On
one
occasion
left
had bought corn
my On my
for
horse,
while
I
went down to the river to bathe.
return
started with
my
guide and a pair of
vil-
lagers.
After
time
it
occurred to
I
me
it.
that a drink
all
round would be acceptable.

it
offered
To my
surprise
was
somewhat
and
I
furtively
refused.
I
My
suspicions
were
aroused,
that
also
went
thirsty.
afterwards discovered
into the bottle
some vegetable poison had been put
the leathern strap padlocked over the cup had been stretched,
the
cup
turned,
and the poison
inserted.
It
could
quite
not imagine any reason for the attempt.

gratuitous.
seemed
Not
I
till
long after did a possible solution flash

little
upon me.
which,
I
had petted a
is
plump
child at the hut,
believe,
in
I
certain
cases
considered unlucky.
Certainly, as
Perhaps they thought

the Zulus say,
had the
evil eye.
my
snake stood up beside

for
me
that day.
do not care to think over the incident,
Haytian poisons
do not
kill
painlessly,
interior,
and
miles
was alone
in the heart of the
mountainous
In
away from
a white face.
word,
life
secret
poisoning
it
pervades the scheme
of
Haytian
exactly as
pervades that of West Africa.

at Petit
There was an English engineer
Goave
he
has
92

left
now
Hayti,
so
am
for
free to tell the story
who
dis-
charged a workman
left
a serious fault, and shortly after
the
place
for
Port-au-Prince.
Arrived
in
the capital,
well-
his legs
began
to swell with all the
symptoms of the
known African
disease beri-beri.
He
consulted doctors, but
they could do nothing for him.

guess at the
true
state
Making a pretty accurate

case, he at length sent a
of the
at Petit
fifty
messenger to the Papaloi
Goave.
The
that
Papaloi
demanded
dollars,
and promised
for
sum
to effect a certain cure.
The Englishman agreed
to pay,
and the Papaloi, with many incantations, prepared

of leaves, a thick
bath
brown
bath.
Into this the sick
man was
to
plunged,
and
after three
days was well enough
return to Petit
Goave.
But the beri-beri returned, and
he was obliged to consult the Papaloi once more, who said

that
he had again been poisoned, and that

fifty
for a
second
at the
payment of
dollars he
would again cure him,

if
same time warning him
that
he were poisoned a third

the hint,
time he would probably die.

and, as soon as he was cured,
The white man took

left
the country.
The
doctor.
Papaloi
is
descended straight from the African witchsecret king

still
Seven generations ago he was a

of French Hayti
;
among
in
the
slaves
further
back
Juju.
he lived
a wattle hut by the

it
Congo and made
And he makes
talk with
in
Hayti to
this day.
Here and there
in
him
you stumble across some older African
superstition, some-
VAUDOUX WORSHIP AND
SACRIFICE.
93
thing from which you could, without other evidence, deduce

the origin of his race.
There
is
another operation
the
sleep
to
which the Papalois

their
or
in-
more
often
Mamalois
which
is
turn
power.
They can
For
is
produce
stance,
a a
death's
twin
brother.
sacrifice
child
marked
shivers
for the
Vaudoux
given
into a
in
certain
drug,
and
in
some hours
It is
sinks
stillness
beyond the
stillness of sleep.
buried
is
due
course, and later,
by the orders of the
Papalois,
dug up
I
and brought
written
in
all
to consciousness; of
It
is
what occurs then
have
another place.
question
ghoulish and horrible, but

is
beyond
human
sacrifice
offered up to a con-
siderable extent in the Black Republic at the present time.
Everywhere
in
Hayti you find charms against

Mamalois.
evil,
sold
by Papalois
sticks,
and
They assume
leaves.
I
all
shapes
stones,
rags,
and bags of
call
remember
see-
ing a 'bus, as they

Prince.
the local cab, overturn in Port-au-
The
first
thing that the driver scrambled for was
a
It
nameless bundle
which had
fallen
1
from under the
seat.
was
his
charm against being upset
Putting
of the
Vaudoux upon
their
enemies
is
another variation
is
priests'
accomplishments.
if
ill.
A
far
bundle of garbage
it
placed at your door, and

the
you pass over
you are
is
sure,
negroes say, to
it
fall
So
the thing
absurd,
but
becomes
less
is
so
when the
action of the rotten
egg
on
}'our
doorstep
aided
by a sprinkling of powdered
94
glass
in

your
rice.
No
priestcraft gains so firm a grip of
the savage
the
mind
of
as that which lends solid temporal aid to

its
passions
in
devotees.
to
There
a
is
a deep desire
in-
grained
the
black
get
pinch on the
man above
sufficient to
him
to be given this obscurely

his
and surely
is
rivet
adhesion to any
faith.
Few
whites
in
the island
have altogether escaped the

directed against
far-off
touch
of the Papaloi
them
for
some
their
inscrutable offence
by those
who
are
most probably of
own household.
In considering the character
and influence of the Papaloi,

;
one
fact
should be borne
in
mind
that
he
is
the sacrificial
priest
rites
when
is
the most culpable and hideous of the
Vaudoux
practised.
He
is
also
the
his
guiding and dominant
intelligence
amongst the bulk of
countrymen, the
result
of which
must be a continuous
state.
falling
back deeper and
deeper into the savage
But as long as Hayti retains

least
an entirely negro Government, at
so long will the
shadow of the Papaloi loom

transplanted
the
is
large in the land, for Africa

is
Africa
still,
and she
so conservative that
passage of uncounted years finds her ever the same.

Papaloi
is
The
Africa
the rain-maker, the witch-doctor of
West
under another
name.
He
is
a kind of fortunate
vagabond battening upon the ignorance and credulity of

this
fakir,
New World
the
to
negro.
He
is
dirtier
than
an
Indian
without that excuse which emanates from the religion

fakir,
of
whose
mind our
precept
assumes
an
VAUDOUX WORSHIP AND

inverted
SACRIFICE.
next
to
95
form
with
him
dirtiness
is
godhness.
But the Papaloi, on the other hand, has no

dirt;
religion in his
he
is
filthy,
because to be clean
is
troublesome.
And
the Papaloi possesses a treble share of the universal laziness
of the children of
Ham.
a
Rut he
is
not
subject to jest
at.
His power
is
par;
amount throughout the length and breadth of the Republic
he rules with an iron hand, and with that jealous insidious

grasp
on
is
the
whole
inner
the
life
of his
fellow-countrymen
of
priestcraft.
which
everywhere
highest
to
distinctive
all
trait
From
it
the
the lowest
yield
him obedience;
is
true the majority believe, but the minority,

at
who do
not
believe,
least
tremble.
The whole
land
is
netted over
with
fear,
fear
of vague and occult potencies that harass

hurt,
and harm and
and
in
case of revolt inevitably

the murders
kill.
Remove
the
Papaloi and
and
superstitious
observances would, to a large extent, die out, and the land
shake
off the
influence which keeps
it
so degraded.
The
debasing consequences
the
of kindred
superstitions
in
acting on
negro
mind
is
keenly recognised
other countries
where the black man does not
rule himself.
Among
carried
the
American negroes the
rites
it
of Voodoo, Voudoo, Vaudoo,

as
Vaudoux
you
can
spell
you
like
are
on
in
secrecy, and sedulously screened
from
light of day.
In Jamaica the punishment for the practice of
Obeah
is
imprisonment and whipping, the
latter
having a wholesomely
96

effect.
deterrent
variant
as
For,
is
though
wine,
Obeah
is
to
its
it
Haytian
in the
water
to
it
the danger of
lies
fact that if
unchecked
would only too
easily
merge
into
the enormities and crimes which distinguish true
Vaudoux
worship.
Obeah
is
a cult of charm-wearing, of love-potions,
of the laying on of curses
by means more or
less
absurd,
such as the tying of a bunch of red rags to a branch near
your door, or hanging up a beer bottle

concoctions,
all
filled
with nasty
of which go to prove
sect.
is
its
kinship in a
puny
degree with the hideous Haytian

It
must be remembered that

and upholder of the
it
the Papaloi
who
is
the
instigator
vilest
forms of snake-worship,
and they can be carried on by him with practical impunity.
When some
public
notice
grosser case than usual forces

it
itself
upon the
is
never the priest
who
suffers.
The
vic-
tim
is is
always some obscure votary, never the arch-criminal,

too powerful for the Government to interfere with.
who
couple of
unknown women,
or a group of poverty-stricken or
peasants,
will
be maltreated or imprisoned,
is
even on
occasion shot, while the Papaloi

If
permitted to go scot-free.
to the sect
you are a black man, either you belong

to
and are under deadly compulsion
perform the behests

its
of the Papaloi, or else you are not of the sect, and, as
supposed enemy, are exposed to equally deadly dangers.

It
is
thus
very evident that
in
a land publicly christened
with the names of Liberty and Brotherhood no
man
is
free.
VAUDOUX WORSHIP AND

The mysterious weapon
or
SACRIFICE.
can
kill
97
of poison
which
body,
mind, or both,
or
merely cause long languishing and

at all times
pain
is
one against which no man can
guard
himself.
his
And
this
is
the
chief
weapon
the Papaloi, with

is
pre-eminent knowledge of vegetable venoms,

give yet another illustration.
I
apt to use.
To
knew
a negro in the
Triburon peninsula
who was
not of the sect of the Vaudoux.
He was
tween
his
at
one time a white man's servant; he stood be-
master and harm, and he was not to be bribed.

to
Nor did he buy charms

his
shirt.
wear round
prophesied
his
tiiat
neck or inside
he would
not
Hence
in
it
was
remain
long
the
employment he then
it
held.
it
He
he
never
knew where he drank

malignant
the
drug.
It
for certain,
its
but drink
swiftly.
did,
had
effects
He
rolled in
gutters.
He
stared
at
the
sun with vacant eyes
to
with
use his
own
expressive words:
"My
head was
filled
boiling blood."
His master noticed his condition, and sent
him
to
a white doctor,
effect
who gave him

At
last
civilised medicines,
which had no
Papaloi
in
whatever.
he was taken to a
a
the
mountains,
jug.
who gave him
compost of
drugs
in
an
earthen
He
ate
of
it,
and was cured.

soil.
He had
Even
makes
that
paid his tax to the powers of darkness and of the

in
itself
the
felt.
highest
places
it
the
hand of the Papaloi
Since
his
is
a matter of public notoriety

in
he can
kill
enemy
number of
painful ways,
none dare offend him.
He
is
a licensed criminal.
7
98
WHERE BLACK RULES WHrfE.

Occasionally he will admit to the white
man
that he
is
a bit of a fraud, but for the
most part he keeps up appearin his
ances.
in
How much
as
a
he believes
religion
it
own
pretensions or
Vaudoux
both
to
is
impossible to guess.
ends.
He
a
uses
forward his
own
He seldom
in
has
tendency towards discussion.

the
His argument
the
hills.
favour of
sacred
snake
says,
is
old
is
as
"You have an
I
enemy," he
"who
him.
not a snake-worshipper.
will
put Vaudoux upon
If his
god be stronger than mine,

is
he
will
save him."
Afterwards poison
conveyed
into the
victim's food,
and when the man

is
dies the Papaloi's disciples
agree that the serpent
a great
like
is
god indeed. upon

their
The
Papalois
feed
leeches
negro
following.
The country
The
honey-combed by
is
that system
of terrorism.
profession
not necessarily hereditary, of his father.
although the son often follows
in the footsteps
is,
The knowledge
trade, passes
of poisons, which
after
all,
their stock-in-
down through
the generations, nor will they,

particle of
any more than the Indian jugglers, divulge any

their secret lore.
These
priests are
no doubt to a certain
extent hypnotists.
of
course,
They achieve
is
the unexplainable.
is
And,
what
to us a trick
to the
savage mind a
miracle.
In
full
dress
a Papaloi
makes
at
once a grotesque and
an alarming
sacred
figure.
;
His piecemeal vestments are red, the
colour
his
aged
face,
bandaged about the brows
VAUDOUX WORSHIP AND

with
a
in
SACRIFICE.
It
is
99
red
handkerchief, peers out malignantly.
he
who
the course of the ceremonies initiates the hysteric
fervour
and dehrium of the priestess and the worshipping

it
crowd
is
he again who leads the orgies into frenzied

it
and horrible excesses which
is
impossible to describe.
or four days at a time,
to
These orgies continue
for
three
and
their
result
must
infallibly
lead
the
continuous
debasement of the national character.

There
of the
is
no doubt also that the

the
priests
prompt the action
'Toup-garous",
old,
child-stealers,
who
are usually
women, generally
pilot-fishes
to
the priestly sharks.

" the " loup-garou
The Papaloi chooses
the victim, but
it is
who
is
steals
it
or otherwise secures
to
it.
The drugged
it
child
borne
away
some secure
in
place, be
a hut in the
centre
little
of a
town or
all
some lonely
forest clearing.
The
it
body bears
the appearance of death, and so
is
allowed to remain until the appointed time, when an antidote

to
to
the
sleeping drug
is
given,
and the dazed
child
wakes
become the
central figure in a tragedy of sacrifice.
What
First,
are the three galls of this priest-ridden people?
there
there
is
superstition.
Who
keeps
it
alive?
rites.
Next,
instigates
are
?
the
impure and tragical
Who
Who
them
Lastly, there
is
the opposition to
all
enlightenment.
obscures the light?

In every case the
answer
is
the same.
The
Papalois.
loo

own manner
of
life,
Their
their
traditions,
all
their very
appearance, their budget of endeavours are

seeking,
squalid.
mean,
self-
They have
;
absolutely
that
no
good
can
point,
no
clean
impulse
no
characteristic
you
even
distantly respect.
It
is
well to understand exactly the position these

in
men
occupy
Hayti.
In the
alive
unhealthy atmosphere which they
create evil
becomes
and
flourishes.
They encourage
the worst tendencies innate in negro nature as assiduously

as
a gardener nourishes his forcing-beds.

with
their
They permeate
down
Hayti
influence.
Until
they are smitten
the country can never flourish.
At
present
is
the greatest obstacle to an almost universal
terrorism
the
sprinkling
of white
men
dwelling in the
coast towns.
The
better Haytians are

its
ashamed of Vaudoux,
but they
are
afraid of
revenge.
The Government
it.
are
either unwilling or unable to cope with
In
is
West Africa
to break the
the
rule
first
endeavour of the advancing white
of the witch-doctors, and they succeed
in
so far that
superstition
Africa.
moves
in
slowly
backwards
into
the
heart
of
But
Hayti,
instead
of meeting with relentless
opposition the Papaloi meets with tacit encouragement, or

at
best a puerile interference, with results such as
have
even now only partially shown.
As
the case stands, were
one to subtract the very small white element, his authority
would increase
fourfold.
And
it
is
in
the
mountainous
VAUnOUX WORSHIP AND

interior,
SACRIFICE.
that
his
loi
where
its
is
no
white
man
goes,
autocracy
reaches
high water mark.
But
it
absurd to
pretend
I
that the Papaloi possesses

for a
supernatural powers, though

that
would not deny
moment
at
he has
to
in
inherited
certain
knowledge which seems

man's
the
range.
rest
present
lie
outside
the
to
white
fill
He
is
Borgia
poisons,
is
and
in
of his hollow
terrorist.
pretensions he
an actor, a colossal quack, and a
CHAPTER
V.
THE HAYTIAN NAVY.
Most
nations
keep a navy
to
fight against their foes.
In this extraordinary country the navy couples that mission
with
the
high
honour of being a potential
factor towards
either internal peace or war.

is
The
case stands thus.

;
Hayti
a place
somewhat given over
to political strife
all
a country
in which, as has been said of Mexico, "

sible,
things are pos-
and most things come
to pass," a country in
which
an enterprising
man
can easily bring off a coup

years
there
d'etat.
For
the
last
eleven
as
has been
no bloody
revolution
such
the
past has
so often seen, but there
have been two or three attempts to upset the Government,
and under Hippolyte a good deal of quiet shooting.

au-Prince
Port-
might quite conceivably go to sleep under one

But to-day the
Government, and wake up under another.
capture of the Capital would only be equivalent to carrying
THK HAYTIAN NAVY.

the entrenchments of a fort
103
the
inner bastions would
still
remain, and the navy answers to the bastions.
You may
four
see
it
every day
at
anchor
in
the harbour,
ships in a line.
its
One presented
a sufficiently ghastly
aspect,
tubby white sides being splashed and smeared

paint in a
with
red
manner horribly suggestive of human

",
blood.
the
This was the " Dessahnes
and as she remained
in
same unsightly condition during the whole period of

stay in Port-au-Prince
I
my
tian
incline to believe that the
Hay-
Navy had run
out of paint.
is
But the show ship
the " Crete-a-Pierrot
",
the third in
the line that runs across from the lighthouse to the Bizoton
side
of the bay.
She
is
fat,
white vessel with a yellow

stern,
funnel
and gold scrollwork upon her bows and

the
and
over her floats

public.
angry blue and red of the Black Reis
Away
on the lighthouse side

;
the " Toussaint

fruit boat,
",
cargo steamer of chequered career

a
once a
next
Haytian
warship,
now
sad
example of the
pilfering
habits of the personnel of the navy.
In the words of the
bull-necked, slouch-hatted mate of an
American
sailing ship
"They're a
had niggers
scofted.
set of thieves.
You
wouldn't believe, but I've

with brasswork they've
off that ship
come here
Yes, and boiler-fittings
anything,
any blooming
thing for which they thought they'd get a red cent.

I
Why,
know
a captain in this trade

this chirruping
who was
black
offered fittings that
must have cost
Government thousands
I04

dollars,
I" for
of
any bid he
liked
to
make.
Jes'
you go
and see
And
in
so
it
was.
few
boys
the
lived tides
hugger-mugger
beat
a
tattoo
the
stripped,
deserted
hulk,
on her rotten
noises.
skin,
and she was
full
of rats and
empty
Then,
having
seen
the
worst of the Haytian Navy,

it.
decided to go
certain
and see the best of
Therefore upon a
December morning an
exertions
ancient rowboat, propelled
by
the
united
of two small negroes, crawled slowly
out upon the lazy blue waters of Port-au-Prince Bay.
"Blanc, which sheep you go for?"

*'
There's
an Englishman
in
command
of one.
Put
me
on board of her."
The pink
conch-shells,
the
sucking
fish,
and the lump
of white coral loaded

risk
down
was
the old leaky boat.
At some
the
of
up-setting
it
pulley-hauled
out towards
centre of the bay where
the " Crete-a-Pierrot " lay blistering

at the request of
in
under a scalding sun.

the
She was designed

in
Haytian Government
England.
The plans
due
time
were
forwarded to
to
Hayti,
where one Minister took
upon himself
and
profit
move
the ward-room a few yards forward,
another
to
thought
the
engine-room
might with great
the Republic be shifted a {&\\ feet to starboard.
When
were
they
sent
had had
back
to
their will of
them, the revised plans
the designer, who, so the story goes,
THE HAYTIAN NAVY.

said that either
105
he or the Haytian Government must design

thought
it
the ship.
In the event they

it
well to leave
it
to
him.
So the end of
built
in
was that the
" Crete-a-Pierrot " in
was
finished,
England,
armed
France,
and three
years ago was added to the Haytian Navy.

''Blanc,''
said
the small negro, "the Anglais
is
I
leaving
the
sheep."
And
through the dancing heat-haze

;
saw a
white gig being
manned
a figure descended the gangway,
the squeak of rowlocks followed, and the boat slipped out
from the warship's shadow.
With a gasp and

I
a gurgle
my
boat gathered more way.
had
the
not braved
the sun and the unsavoury approaches nothing,
to
wharves
for
and another opportunity of

readily present
catching the English

itself.
commander might not

came on with
The
warship's gig
laborious strokes.
and when within hailing distance
"May
go and take a look over your

that.'
ship, sir?"
.f'"
"Hey, what's
"Afraid
I
Got a pass from the admiral
haven't."
let
"They
won't
you aboard without."

to
"Thanks, sorry
There was
his watch.
have troubled you."
silence.
Then Captain Gilmour drew out
"I've a few minutes to spare.
I'll
come back and show
you over."
It
took
some moments
to
get
my
boat alongside the
io6

Rarely
craft.
gangway.
has
foreign
navy been
visited in so
unimposing a
Captain
in
Gilmour,
R.
N.
R.,
is is
a Scotsman
who
served
the
Ashanti
business,
and
now under
contract with
the
Haytian Government to
is
command
who
their best warship.
He
a sunburnt, kindly man,
takes a very real interest
in his
work.
are heavily armed,"
yes.
I
"You
said,
looking round.
for-
"Why,
and
Gunner!"
grinning black stepped

It
ward and opened the breech of a big gun.

oily.
shone clean
"We
we
are
pretty
heavily
armed,
as
you
say.
is
For'ard there
carry a sixteen centimetre gun.
This
a twelve, and there are four tens besides.

five
Also we have
Those,
Nordenfeldts, two five-barrelled, the others three.

all
with two inch and a half Maxims, are
the ironmongery
we
carry."
The guns were
clean
and
in
excellent order, and the
decks bore evidence of recent stoning, but Captain Gilmour

told
me
still
that
had
come
week
later things
would have
been
more shipshape.
fifteen
"She steams
knots
and
carries
crew of one
is
hundred and seventy-five.

man, and
merly
in
My
a
chief engineer
a white
for-
my
the
first
lieutenant
Barbadian,
Yes,
the
who was
merchant
service.
admiral comes
aboard
sometimes.
Admiral
Killick.
I
Haytian
.'
Yes.
He
used to
command
a barque.
brought
this ship out
THE HAYTIAN NAVY.

from England,
109
and
my
like
chief engineer
came with me.
am
way
under
more.
I'll
contract
with the
it.?
Government here
Oh, yes.
If you'll
lor three
years
Uo
step this
show you the accommodation."

you do much target practice.""
no,
I
"Do
we
can.
asked.
" Well,
not
tie
with
a
rifle
the
big guns.
But
we do what
it
We
on them and shoot with

It
up to
1,000
or
1,500
yards.
is
teaches
the
men
to
work the
gun,
you know, and
nearly as good as the real thing,
besides being less expensive."
"Have you
ushered
taken her any long cruises?"
said as he
me
into the cabin,
where a
portrait of the president
looked down upon the scene.

"
We
don't go farther than Jacmel and the Cape.
Named
more
I'll
after?
After a battle
island.
when
I
the
laytians drove the French
out
of the
Well,
don't think there's any
to see.
She'd have been more shipshape next week.

in
give you a cast ashore
my
boat
if
you care
for it."
As we down
"
left
the
ship,
and the
six
I
negro rowers settled

said
into their slow, jerky stroke,
Do you
think
rise to
that it?"
if
the
occasion
arose
your men
would

er
Captain Gilmour stroked his chin.
"I do," he
here
in
said.
"
When
there was that

sent
German
trouble
December
try
'97,
they
two warships, as you

this country.
know,
to
and force an indemnity out of
no
Well,
WHERE BLACK RULES

we were
cleared
for
I
AVHITE.
the
action,
men
in all
lying
down
seen
I
behind their guns,

so
and
have never
my
life
grim a look of determination
on any faces as
saw
then
on
theirs.
Yes,
think they'd put up a very
good
fight indeed."
"You
get a
do.
fair
class of
men then?"
though they don't always
"We
get
it
The
pay's
good,
quite to time.
The Government has embarrassments,
you know."
We
raised
were nearing the wharf, and each stroke of the oars
mud and
smell.
"
"You
" No,
don't losemenfromyellowfever or that sort of thing?
we hardly ever have
a case of sickness.
These
fellows are mostly
immune, anyway."
in
Captain Gilmour gave an order
Creole.
"I
But
I
don't speak
it,"
he
explained,
"or French
of
either.
can give
my
first
orders in both.
authorities
Many
my men
can
speak English.
to that
The
chose
them with a view

.
when
came
out."
The boat paddled

and jagged
'
along, looking
among
the rotten, black,
piles for a
landing-place.
said Captain Gilmour remi-
In that
German
business,"
niscently,
as the
'
boathook caught, " we should have sunk
the
'
Charlotte
for certain.
She was
It's
right
under our guns.
Be
careful of that plank.
loose.
No, you won't take
a cocktail?
Well, good-bye."
CHAPTER
ACROSS HAYTI.
VI.
HAD
lingered so long in the city that the prospect of

fetid streets
leaving
its
behind
me
to breathe the purer air
beyond
to
their
influence
I
was very welcome.

out of the
capital
On my way
towards the
San Domingo
rode
Plain of Cul-de-Sac, which in the days of the
French occu-
pation had contained
many
flourishing plantations, the soil
being
prolific
rich
and
productive
beyond the average even
in
Hayti.
sir,
"Yes,
you
are
right
plumb
in
the
centre of the
most
fertile
district in
Hayti
in
the world.
Do you know
how much
up
to
in
It
the revenue from this Plain of Cul-de-Sac totted

the time of the P^rench colony a hundred years
back.?
it
was 20,000,000
francs,
and what would you put
at
I
now.'"
had overtaken the speaker.
looked round.
We
were
112

up a steady but hardly perceptible
heart
I
riding
in
incline,
first
and were
streak of
the
of the
plain.
Ever since the
dawn
tation,
had been passing ruined walls matted with vegea
few irregular patches of corn, a few clumps of

hut,
Guinea grass about each solitary palm-thatched
yet
mangoes, bananas, and tamarinds bore witness

unaided
fruitfulness.
to the soil's
As
Save
we went on
for the
the
surroundings
grew more
village
lonely.
town of Pompadette no
forest
broke the desolate ranges of

trees
on either hand.
hint of the oldin
Here among wild and hardy

time
some
occupation
of
man might
be traced
the existence
of gentler-bred shrubs, but the splendid country houses of

the
French period had apparently been absorbed by the
jungle, which
to
had closed
Mules,
in
in
about them when
man
ceased
dwell
there.
bred
the
between the parrot and the

foliage,
blackbird,
chattered
riotous
and droves of
lean pigs eked out a precarious existence on the land that

the forest had reclaimed from the dominion of man.
"The
present revenue?
have not an idea,"

''Not
a
replied.
My
year
questioner
the
forest
laughed.
red cent,
effort
sir!
is
Each
to
comes forward, and no

clear,
made
keep the ground

is
much
less to
cultivate
it.
There
proverb
Hayti
in this island
which you may have heard

classes
'In
there
are
only three
who work;
the
white
it
man, the black woman, and the
ass.'
What would
cost to lay a railroad along?
Just nothing.
And
a rail
STREET SCENE
IN PETIT GOAVE.
ACROSS HAYTI.
would tap the plain and the
this
115
lakes.
Sir,
if
America owned
country
there would be a track here before midsumis,
mer.
tires
As
it
the place
is
dead and getting deader.
It
me
to look at it."
is,
The
Plain of Cul-de-Sac
roughly,
lies
twenty-seven miles
by twenty- four.
there the
ships
Port-au-Prince
at
one end of
it,
and
its is
of
all
nations
all
offer
a ready outlet to
its
wealth.
not.
And
few
yet,
for
practical purposes,
wealth
huts,
lie
primitive
enough
its
to cost the labour of surface, but the occu-
but half a day,
scattered over
piers are satisfied to subsist
on the produce of the land as
Nature gives
it
into their hands.

lie
The very
sugar-boiling
pans of a hundred years ago

of slave-emancipation
rusting where the

in these
dawn
found them, and
evidences
of a bygone prosperity the lizard has
its
dwelling-place.
Yet the people are poor, sordidly poor.

a living, as the pigs do, upon the wild
lazy
They eke
out
fruits
they are too
and too improvident

exist
to cultivate.
They glean where-
with to
to them.
from that which French energy bequeathed

wild descendants of the coffee shrubs planted
still
The
settlers
by the
bear
;
berries,
if
which the negroes are

is
almost too idle to pick
and
there
a rainy season of
unusual
duration
they
pick them green.

is
As
for cleaning
or caring for the shrubs, such a thing
never thought of
save
in isolated cases.
The negroes lounge away
their lives in the sun, reckoning
ii6
WHERE BLACK RULES
WHITE.
in the
their
age by the Presidents who come and go

sea.
town
by the
vides
Nature does
all
their thinking for
them, proshe
fails
them with
necessaries,
the
sole
article
to
supply them with being clothes, and they are rapidly coming
to think clothes a superfluity.
All that savours of civilisa-
tion
is
a
to
legacy of the white nations
who
sent their bat-
talions
win a colony which eventually slipped through
the fingers of
them
all.
I
England gave Hayti the road
was traversing.
It
has
it
degenerated into a bridlepath, but the great frame of

can
the
still
be discerned, clear and straight, and eloquent of
strong arm
which cut
it
out
from the
virgin forest.
it.
But a hundred years of utter neglect has ruined

perhaps sixty feet wide,
so
in
It
it
is
is
many
places wider, but
maimed and damaged
that
only a slender line beaten

is
down by The
the passing feet of asses
passable.
interior
;
of the
huts
floor
by the wayside showed stark

was a sign of
enterprise, but
feet
and bare
for
cobbled
the
most part the

did
earth,
hardened by the
house-floor.
of the
in
inmates,
duty
a
for
the
Stars
rest,
looked
a
through
many
palm
thatch.
For the
mat
to
sleep upon, gourds to hold water, a cooking pot, a couple
of game-cocks
or
tethered
all
in
corner, with a broken chair
two,
formed
with hens
their
belongings, while flat-sided pigs

for
fought
of food.
and guinea-fowls
any chance refuse
ACROSS HAYTI.
Once
a
117
week most of
the
the
adults
and
all
the children,
for
make
tafia,
for
nearest
market to
for
barter
Guinea-grass
not.
what they have

through
of
what they have

dreamlike
land
in
Passing
the
noise
this
you often heard

sight
It
drums,
or
you came
in
of a
single
individual
dancing alone
clearing.
was a happy
left
existence, no doubt,
adju.st itself.
where the future was always
to
At length
high green
water.
in
I
the mountain-bordered plain gave

tufts of
way
to
swamp,
Guinea-grass standing
in
pools of black
I
crossed a river
some
half an hour before

It
came
sight
of the village of
Thomazeau.
was merely an
each cluster
African collection of huts lumped

within
its
in clusters,
own
stockade, with scant vestige of plant or tree
about them.
The
red-shot sunset had given
way
I
to a pale
green overhead and purple tropic dusk below.
was very
village,
hungry
as
rode through the
open part of the
which was merely a space of bare earth.
On
inquiry
it
turned out that the
man
in
whose hut
had intended
for a
till
to pass the night
had
left
early that morning
neighbouring hamlet, and was not expected to return

This was sad, but food seemed the
;
the next day.
first
and most urgent necessity
the problem of finding a place
to sleep in could be faced later on.
Ambling slowly
if
on,
asked a likely-looking
woman
where,
anywhere,
might hope to get something to
eat.
She
ii8

know,
but, as an after-thought, suggested
at the other
said she did not
that
there
was a cock-fight going on

le
end of
the village, and that
blanc might as well try there.

inside
The
cock-fight
was taking place
one of the usual
enclosures, under the shelter of a wall-less roof, which rose
above the scene on
its
corner posts like a four-stemmed

critical
brown
the
toadstool.
for
it
It
was a manifestly
tiers
moment
in
cockpit,
three
of gesticulating negroes were

necks,
bending
over
with
arrival
craning
raving
in
I
their
excitement.
My
was almost unnoticed, so
reined
up to wait
until public interest
had simmered down.
In two or three minutes a long-drawn exclamation arose
from the crowd, a white bird, splashed with ominous
red,
was gathered up
by an
angry-looking
negro,
and you
could hear the victor crowing joyfully in the ring.

this
Upon
the
women
with the baskets of bottles containing red

left
and yellow drinks
the outskirts of the crowd to squat
beneath the palisade.
To one
fowl? No.
of these
addressed myself.
Could
get
I
turkey.'
No; nothing save pork.
Rut
had
too intimate a knowledge of the habits of Haytian pork in

the pig stage to find the offer alluring, even though
I
had
I
been
in
the
in
saddle
since
daylight.
In
the
long
run
succeeded
securing "biscuits" of sour bread and a few
brown,
to
seed-covered,
gluey
cakes,
I
with
which
went
off
seek for a lodging.
As
passed up the street for the
ACROSS HAYTI.
121
second time, a Haytian with a grey beard and a well-cut
mouth came towards me.

**
Do you
sleep to-night at
Thomazeau?" he asked
his
civilly,
and on
This
my
saying yes, he placed

old
house
at
my
to
disposal.
courteous
gentleman
turned
out
be
the
magistrate of the village.

still
The
ancient virtue of hospitality

;
flourishes
in
the
rural
districts
is
it
is
a very
marked
characteristic
in
Hayti, and
absolutely disinterested, for
the offer of
payment mortally
offends.
My
host took charge
of
to
my
horse, sent off a small

I
boy
to cut a
bundle of grass,
into his hut.
which
added corn, and then ushered me
He
introduced
me
a
to
his wife,
an old lady
in
blue print,
who brought me
in
cane-backed chair and busied herself
laying out
my
purchases on a table cloth.
When
and
had
finished
my
meal,
my
my
host led
me
across
the stockade to a hut where a mattress

floor,
was spread on the

and
a cigar,
there, with the help of
flask
we
passed the
bugle
call.
hour that
is
ended
all
over the island by the

possibilities of tobacco-
We
had discussed the
culture,
for
he had brought
birds
me some
native tobacco, and
talked
of the
that haunt the lakes
and one or two
other subjects
when
the bugle sounded.
Just across the road
was the
local guard-house.
In front
of
it
the soldiers jjaraded, seven of them, under the General

Place, or Governor,
de
hut.
la
and
finally
disappeared into their

I
My
host
bade me good-night.
blew out the
oil
122

but then
the mosquitoes,
lamp,
and with them hordes of

gloom.
its
sand-flies,
came out
to hold revel in the

firefly
The
last
thing
remembered was a
with
pale lamp of
intermittent green lighting up the dark roof.

In the morning,
between night and dawn, and rode to the

to swell
parted from
my
friend the magistrate
limit of the plain
where the mountains began
upwards and a break-
neck track led away over the round backs of the lower
hills.
They were green and

bird-life
heavily forested, and amongst
them
became noticeably more abundant.

to
Dawn grew
commended
in
day,
to
and day
as
to
afternoon
the
road
itself
attention
one of the worst even

in
Hayti.
Almost perpendicular
falls
places,
peppered with
loose
sliding
of
stone,
overhung by branches and
intertwining creepers
a
if the ingenuity of man ever constructed

all
highway here
it
had vanished out of

at
recognition.
On
and up, with a peep

outline of a blue,
some towering summit

ridge,
or flowing
forest
far-off"
and hour by hour the

ofT
closed
in
behind,
shutting
one
from
the
life
of the
ordinary world.
Soon
a
learned to expect one prominent feature wherever

in
clearing
the
its
trees
showed
the
presence
of
man.
falling
Whatever owed
into
origin to
human handiwork was
decay and
ruin,
while Nature, fresh and vigorous, was

little
always advancing her outposts to the verge of each

circle
and plot where the
frail
ragged dwellings held their
ACROSS HAYTI.
own,
like forlorn
in
123
hopes that might
at
any time be
ruthlessly
smothered
the living tide of rank foliage.

I
So
went on, lingering by the way, eating the food

from the negroes and sleeping beside
like another.
obtained
their huts.
One day was very
The people
in the lonely
groups of hovels only seemed to grow more poor, more

ignorant,
as
I
more
superstitious,
and
in
some ways more degraded

interior
penetrated further into

enterprise
the
of the country.
Few had
than
the
enough
market,
to
go
to
any place more distant

lived
it
nearest
everyone
to
from
hand
to
mouth and seemed content

Native
life
have
so.
showed few
even
attractions,
no
new
features
presented themselves,
individuality
appeared to die
out in that stagnation of existence.
One evening
the
was seated on a mat of water-reeds

hut,
in
shadow of an old
by night
to this,
the single
room
of which gave
shelter night
to eleven
natives.
civilisation
Compared
Thomazeau was
incarnate.
The scene
before
me
consisted
of a few isolated huts
huddled together inside a dilapidated stockade.

the
in
Old Papa,
beings, sat
In the forefire
patriarch
of this disparate knot of
human
shadow, dozing on a broken-down bench.

under the
ground,
usual four-legged toadstool roof, a

girls
smouldered, about which two or three
were squatting,
and the smoke curled

clothed only
in
lazily
out into the sunlight.
youth,
a torn coat, which he used as a loin-cloth.
124

at
was gnawing
banana
in the
middle distance.
Beside
dust.
these, nothing but tamarinds, sand-flies, sun,
and
Papa was a
For
senile figure, with
a wrinkled mild old face.
thirty years he
I
had watched the slow decay of things

into
life
and of himself. and

he
warmed him
with a
little
rum,
chattered
innocuously of times
forgotten,
when
Boyer was President and
he, the old fossil,
was young.
buried,
for
He had
was
seen strong
men
lost
shot
down and
whose
Boyer
very graves have been

in
for half a century,
power
in
the twenties.
He
his
his.
was, undoubtedly, "old,

wife
old," as he called himself,
and
was
old,
old, also,
and so was everything that was

children
His children and grand-
were
dead.
The
fourth generation lived around

fire to light his
him, and his grandson's grandson brought

All
pipe.
around the stockade the

spirit
trees bore witness to the
mischievous
knife
often,
of the dwellers there.
The machette, a
wanton destruction
cases the trees so
I
like a cutlass,
had been used

in
for
all
sometimes to extract gum;

dying.
;
wounded were
These people were the poorest
had come across

lower race.
they might have almost belonged to a
They were
went naked.
evidently
dirty
and squalid beyond imagination, some

gorilla,
bow-legged boy, long-armed as a

prowled
half-witted,
about making beast noises,
or shambled with an attempt at the swaying shufifle

to
common
dancine here.
ACROSS HAYTl.
One
asking
or two of the people had
125
come
to
show me
sores,
me
to
cure them.
doled out carbolised vaseline
and
similar
remedies, with instructions, but probably they
were taken internally.
At
nightfall the
negroes retired into the hut, and
could
over-
not accept Papa's offer to
me
of the hospitality of
its
burdened stowage space.

under the
the
stars
mat and a waterproof blanket

I
served
me
better.
rolled myself up, for
dew was heavy, but
night
brought
no
silence
in
or
cessation of speech.
One
or other of the
crowd
the hut
else,
would waken
at intervals;
he at once waked someone

the
still
and
talked.
All
through
dark hours the chattering

sketched out
out.
in
never ceased.
white
Dawn was
black and
when they arose and trooped

old
The
man
at
once sought
small,
fat,
his
bench, and began his

girl
day-long
vigil.
A
for
black
raked
among
little
the
flaky ashes of the wood-fire,
and soon collected a
heap
of glowing
red
the
for
coffee.
The
gorilla
I
boy brought
preferred the
me
lake
cup of water
my
in
ablutions, but
down
in
valley
about a quarter of a mile away.

shallow water, underneath which
to the
There you could bathe
was
a quicksand
which took you
knees.
By
colour,
the time
returned, the day had
grown
into
lemon
and a smell of burning coffee berries arose with

of rich blue- black
the
gouts
smoke from the
fire.
In the
midst of the blossoming,
fruitful
land, this unsightly
home
126

fresh ofifence.
was a
About the
huts small Haytians fronted
the morning sun, naked and unashamed.

life
The
luxuries of
had no place here; necessity

Truly
into
it
is
the only queen in wild
Hayti.
may be
world,
said of
man
here that naked he

its
comes
the
and naked,
it
using the term in
widest sense, he goes out of
again.
in
Of
the peasant's
attitude
I
towards the stranger
the
more remote
His
virtue
districts,
have nothing to say but good.

is
of hospitality
beautiful.
His politeness
is
beyond reproach.
and though he
is
He
poor
is
Nature's gentleman in
many ways,
rich in
in
worldly goods, he
is
some
of the higher qualities.
Riding through the rural
districts
you
find
it
hard to
obtain anything to eat, but easy enough to get a place in
which to
have
not,
sleep.
The people cannot
give you what they
but they do give what they have, and that with
both hands.
Even nearer
from
to
it.
to the
towns
have known a peasant

it,
rise
his
If
own
bed, place sheets upon
and lead
in the
his guest
you offered him money-payment

it
morning
trifle,
he refused
aggrieved,
but a knife or some such
presented as from one equal to another, was received with

pleasure.
The average
of
diet,
is
if
you except the

to
fruits
rice,
which grow
sticky
themselves,
with
limited
sugar,
little
seed
if
cakes
brown
that
make you
sleep,
and,
ACROSS HAYTI.
luck
say,
is
127
good,
in
sour
bread.
In
mango
the
season,
they
may
fruit
as
Jamaica,
"Turn up
pot;" while the
lasts there is
no need
is
for cooking.
killed,
Sometimes a pig
sided
one of the sharp-snouted,
slab-
scavengers
that
are
everywhere
in
evidence.
A
it
European digestion would

brand of pork, but the
infallibly fail
before this special
robuster
negro appears to put
away without inconvenience.

Their
relaxations
are twain
dancing
it
and cock-fighting.
Their ideas of wealth take the form of the possession of

these
plumed
warriors.
But
is
good
to note that they

steel spurs.
have never heard of such barbarous things as
The cocks
are
permitted to
fight
with
such weapons as
Nature has given them.
But the mountain people among

reigned were not at
all
whom Papa and
his like
representative of the average native.
They were
wilder race, with the shyness of the

I
woods
upon them, and what

districts
have
written above as to other

to
;
must not be taken as applying

civilised
them.
life
Here
were no such
crude,
adjuncts
all
as
in
sheets
all,
it
was raw,
rudimentary.
life
Taken
was the sordid,
purblind
of savages. lonely stockade was but a replica of yester-
To-day
in that
day, the one barren as the other.

sitting
The
old
mumbling man
on the old bench, the large-headed, solemn child
carrying
him an ember
for his pipe.
Birth
and death
in
128

sequence visited the hut, but the old
scarcely-heeded
man
drowsed on.
flies,
Fie reigned there
amongst the
dust, the sand-
the hot wind, the parched tamarinds in the stale and
rotting stockade,
and
his
kingdom was only existence and

there he will go on reigning
that
the
until
passage of hours.
And
a
he
goes
out
of
world
has
already passed
beyond him.
CHAPTER
VII.
INTO SAN DOMINGO.
Every country
or
less
has
In
its
own modes
tropical
of travelling,
either
more
ride
pleasant.
this
land you
through the heat of the day or you continue your journey

far
into
tiie
night,
and
if
the night should

life
happen
to
be
starless
your direction and your
are both at the
mercy
of your horse.
One
in
night
far
comes back
to
me above
?
all
others.
was
the
interior.
The road
There was no road.
A
it.
track
led
round boulders, and branches hung low over

to
You had
thrust
be
careful
of your
eyes,
for
I
thorn bushes
out inch-long prongs to maul you.

fear of
was haunted
by
the
them.
Think what blindness would be up

1
there in those remote solitudes
We
were passing over the mountains beside Lake Assauei,

to guide
and there was nothing
one through the
forest, for
I30

the
in
sky was only the Hght of the evening star and a
white
miles,
moon
in
her
first
quarter.
in
We
had ridden many

any chance was on the
and many more lay
front of us before
of rest or food.
left
The
trail
so-called bottomless lake

in
hand,
the
wound
forest
and out about loafshaped
hills
crowded with
and tangled with those inwoven
creeping plants which one always associates with the idea

of a South American jungle.
in
The
scent of the water was
the
air.
Stones shifting under the horse-hoofs supplied

;
the dominant sound
you heard them
fall
over the precipice,

in
and long afterwards the echo of

lake
their
plunge
the unseen
came up
feebly.
cHff,
We
were riding along a

;
unable to see more than four
yards ahead
my
white
horse
was moving forward with

trail.
a sort of irritable caution, feeling the
The
guide,
who
had no
taste for night-pioneering, followed
on a shaggy mule.
Occasionally,
a
by the
light of
your
cigar,
you could see
dark bush or a thick tree-limb close above your head.

to
You dodged
evade
it,
and the thorns ripped away jagged
strips of hat or coat.
This sort of thing seemed to go on
for
hours.
The
forests,
almost untraversed by man,

silent
cer-
tainly
by white men, were

of
save for the occasional

the pulsatits
movement
ing
fall
some
bird, a
wind
in the leaves, or
of a
stone
as
it
struck the cliff-side on

gigantically alone
long
leap into the lake.
You
felt
in the heart
of the Black Republic and the black night.
INTO SAN DOMINGO.

Presently
it
131
was certain we had
lost
our
way
the forest
turned,
raised up an impenetrable wall in front of us.
We
times.
and by the help of a
series of
lit
matches
four
tried to
come
upon the path
again.
This happened
Two
hours later (by the watch
by
one's feelings four at least)

lake,
we began
likely
to
descend towards the
where
it
was more
respective
tunnel-like
we might come upon some
stray hut.
slid
Our
mounts leaped and scrambled and

declivities,
down
over-arched with trees and paved by a water-cut

itself to
lane,
which lent
unexpected steep drops

sort
at frequent
intervals.
Riding of
this
would of course, be quite
impossible in a country ranged over by big game, but here

there
is
nothing more formidable to be met with than an
escaped pig or a dog run wild.

a solitary hut, where
for a torch.
At length we came upon
my
guide managed to raise the materials
And now
the journey.
in
it
was that we reached the

torch with
its
difficult
part of
The
comet
tail
of sparks
moved
the
blackness
like a red tracery
on a ground of black
velvet.
The shadows made

way and
that
rushes at you as you swayed
your
kept
light this
his
above your head.
The horse
footing after the extraordinary despite
manner of Haytian
horses,
the fact that the ground at his feet was a

light
moving panorama of
and dark.
less
On, and on. and on, and the guide seems

ever of the end of our ride.
hopeful than
The
truth
is
he has long ago
1,32

Finally, the torch burns itself out,
at
lost himself.
and again
we plod on
in
haphazard through a gully.
The
night grows
round us again.
As we
top the next incline a scream
pierces
upwards
to us.
We
push on.
Now
in
you can hear

and, advancing
the short, sullen bark of the
Vaudoux drum,
trees,
from behind a curtain of black

stars
which are netted
and
fire-flies,
we come
in
sight of a great red
glow
set in the heart of the forest.
A
the
group of negroes are dancing round the

wind-up
of
a
fires;
it
is
three-days-long
Vaudoux
orgie.
Two
days ago a black goat was sacrificed to the sacred snake,
and
the
frenzy
of the
worshippers
is
still
unexhausted.
There they
blind
to
are, screaming, writhing,
and swaying, apparently

rein
all
outward things.
You
up your horse
to
watch.
in
this
They
take no heed of you, for they have no eyes

for
:
remote and lonely spot save

afraid of interference
their
excesses.
Here they are not

is
not that interference but in these wild
to
be expected anywhere
from
in the island,
districts, cut off
civilisation
and the towns by the slabby

rainy
and unmanageable
pathless
hills,
mud
of the
all
season and by the
they omit
precaution.
Easily
dirty
you can pick out the Mamaloi.
There she
a red sash.
is
in
white,
bound round the waist with
Op-
posite to her dances a large, fierce-eyed, splay-footed negro.
The
it
fires,
the posturing black forms, the uncouth howls
is
like
a scene from Hell.
You may be
the bravest
man
A HAYTIAN HICHWAV.
INTO SAN DOMINGO.

in the world,
135
but
when you
recollect that the probabilities
are hugely in favour of these
same people having
sacrificed
child
to
their
god
to
at
some date not too remote, your
hand goes creeping
your revolver.
When you grow

detour,
skirting
tired of watching,
you turn and make a
the far edge of the clearing, and, finding
the
track
again,
you pass through a deserted

all
village, the
inhabitants
fires,
of which are
at the
Vaudoux
alight,
dance.
shine,
The
mere
which the negro always keeps
still
glow-worms on the bare brown

While upon the subject of
earth.
child-sacrifice,
let
me
state
that although there can be no doubt that at certain seasons
of the year, and more particularly at Easter and Christmas,
such sacrifices do most certainly take place,

of
still,
regardless
what has
been written
upon the
subject,
strenuously
believe that no European, with the single exception of one
Catholic
priest,
has
ever
actually
been
child
present
on
an
dis-
occasion
of the
kind.
The dead
sacrificially
membered has
actual
frequently
been seen afterwards, but the
ceremony
excludes
most
rigorously
all
save
the
initiated.
The
in
noise of the dance dies
away behind.
We
us.
are
now
set,
lower and
trees
marshier
taller
land.
The young moon
has
the
seem
and tower up above
Monkej's
move
restlessly in their branches, disturbed
by our passing.
this
The going on
the
mountains
was bad, but
gorge
is
136

The
trees
worse.
order;
advance on you
like a
regiment
in
open
you are swallowed up amongst them.

forest
is
night's
to.
I
bivouac in the
all
that
we can look forward

us.
We
are
hopelessly
lost
and only day can deliver
mention
this to the guide.
He
acquiesces.
This
all
is
in fact
the point towards which his diplomacy has

directed.
along been
Regardless of the chorus of frogs and the more

to bivouac
than
marshy ground, he proposes

unhealthy
on.
chill
on the spot,
but the
speaks eloquently of malaria, and
we move
More quagmires, more

more
end
?
boulders,
more branch-dodging,
slipping
of the
tired beasts
we
ride.
Will
it
never
At
last
we come
walls,
to a possible halting-place, a deserted

roof,
its
hut, with
no
and a broken
supporting posts
scarred
with
flame.
In the centre of the floor a
heap of
white and
flaky
ashes,
to
it.
the remains of a dead
fire.
You
put your
hand
faint
heat.
Someone camped
here last night.

the
to
Probably a game-cock farmer from one of
Haytian
the
villages,
who was working
his
way eastwards
good markets of San Domingo City or Barahona.

rekindles
The guide
stream, and
the
fire
and fetches water from

meal of
rice
a
in
you manufacture
and soup
tin
mug.
After that one pipe.
Then you
stretch your
hammock between
thing you
into
the joists of the open hut, and the next

that the light of
trees.
know
is
dawn
is
filtering
down
your eyes through the
You
arise
and take your
fS,..^^-/
INTO SAN DOMINGO.

bearings to
find
139
you have wandered four miles only out
of your intended path.
Farther and farther

sierra,
we plunged
up
behind
still
into the doublings of the

us,
valleys
closed
and
hills
folded
in
one upon another, and

almost virginal forest.
we pushed on through
the
The
trees
above were dark against

Presently,
a sky where the morning stars shone together.

as the
woodland thinned away

bearing on
it
to
more open
countr}', a hot
wind,
fringe
the exhalations of the marshes which

idly by.
rising
Lake Fundo, blew

all
Then
at
once
is
in the
day you come
in sight
of
the lake vi^hich

tory.
hills
It
is
half in Haytian, half in

still
Dominican
in
terri-
deep and
and blue, cradled
towering
about which cling turquoise clouds,
and the whole
wide scene shines out upon you with a strange insistent

beauty, the essential charm of which
it
is
hard to analyse.
straight as
few
plumes of
from
the
soft
grey smoke
shore,
rise
palm
in
stems
other
and high up,
lark-high
heaven, a breeze catches them and blows them abroad into

great wisps and fronds that melt slowly out of sight.
Up
and
on the mountain side the

bracing.
air is like
champagne, cool
All
around,
forests
from
peaked
in
summit
to
the
water's
edge,
the
spread
an
unbroken sea of
green
an
uncalculated wealth of timber.
few trees are
occasionally felled on the other side of the mountains, and

in
due time reach I'ort-au-Prince
for export,
but very
little
T40

done
:
is
absence of roads or of any means of communithe riches of the country into the interior.
for
cations
dams up
The Consular Report
1898 masses the export of mahogany

:
with six other items under the remark
"
Not of
sufficient
lie
importance to be quoted
to be plucked, but here
"
Golden opportunities
ripe
is
no hand to pluck them.

through the shallows and
of
By
show
the
the
their
shore
herons
stalk
awkward grey-blue bunch

of legs and beak.
body
lie
set
between
in
angles
Alligators
abask
its
the
strong, sweet sunshine.

vivid tones of blue
rich
If
The whole
is
picture with
broad,
and green
magnificently tropical and
and high-coloured.
the flag of any other country flew over the land,
how
the
long
would
this
glorious
lake
and
its
fellow
across
border retain their present opulent desolation?
No
boat
pushes a venturesome forefoot through the brackish water
(for these lakes are
salt,
yet fed
salt
by
fresh springs, so that
here and there you can stand in
water and drink fresh) -infinite
save one which American enterprise has brought with
trouble through the blocked-up land and set afloat on Fundo.

In the French times there were country houses here, but
they
I
lie
in
ruins,
swarmed over by the ingrowing

lost vestiges
forest.
sought out the almost
of a colonial estate.
The
it
fierce fingers of the tropic
seasons had torn and twisted
into
untimely decay
nothing
but
a
no doorways, no outline of living
rooms,
heap of tumbled walls not as high
NATIVES.
INTO SAN DOMINGO.

as
143
your
knee,
with
lizards
sleeping
on the sun-warmed
stones and forest vines tangled over their downfall.

It
is
the
same
all
over Hayti wherever you go;

in
all
that
savours of industry, energy, civilisation,
short, has
been
and
is
not.
All that the white races
left
behind as mile-
stones
on the path leading up out of sheer savage waste

idleness
is
and
obliterated.
As
far
as
the
is
interior
is
concerned, the situation in the present day

with regard to the
retrogression
human
element, and retrocession to the
forest-powers of once cultivated lands.
There you are among a people who prefer a thatched

hut to a palace.
The
inhabitants scattered about that part
of the country are few, but none of
them have made
their
presence
buried
fifty
felt.
shanty
is
of,
so to speak, sticks
and leaves
in
the
trees
all
you
find.
At
the distance of
yards you are unaware of the presence.

for a
The
land
is
empty but
few birds and
reptiles.
In the remoter places
you may see

its
dog run
wild,
and
breeding wild, slink with

or
litter
from foliage to foliage
perhaps,
when camping,
stick
a herd of pigs, also run wild
and lacking the forked
which
is
the domestic
emblem,
the sign of man's ownership, comes out upon you unaware
and
wild
fiies
grunting to
proper,
thicker
cover.
On Gonave
Island
pigs
descendants
in
probably of those
still
droves
hunted by the buccaneers

recesses of the woods.
bygone days,
haunt the
144

defile
Late that night, as we came through a wilder

usual under the dark green forest shadows, a
than
fire,
small as
firefly,
twinkled on a ledge above the track.
''Qui vive?"
A
hold
little
ramshackle guardhouse, showing against a wall
of trees,
it.
was perched on a clearing

It
just
big enough to
was of wood, rust-coloured and dreary-looking.

floor of the forest,
soldiers, like
Broken walls stood up awry from the

and on the narrow piazza
a pair
their
this
in front
two ragged
of vultures,
craned
rifles
over the road.
They unslung
For
rope-suspended
and demanded passports.
was the Frontier Guard of Hayti.

slope of broken
They came down

an arm stretched
the
weedy ground
reach
until
up from horseback could

passports,
them, and examined the

recovered their places at
their
and before they had and sunk back upon
the
fireside
haunches, we were
over the border and in the Republic of San Domingo.
The Laguna de Fundo used

territory, but
to
be entirely on Haytian
now
the Dominican landmark has

its
moved slowly
Even on
the
and ominously half-way up
blue waters.
lake level the air was balmy, the temperature ranging from
90 degrees on the shore to anything you prefer on the

rise
of the mountain sides.
Neither Cuba nor Jamaica can
give you a climate so perfect as Hayti.
Evening came with a wind, and the lake was transformed.
Seen from the lower ground
it
now appeared
like a
menacing
INTO SAN DOMINGO.

eye,
set
145
beneath
the
rough
and
scowHng brow of the

it.
mountain.
No wonder
legends have grown round about

its
The Laguna de Fundo and

altogether
companion, which hes
within
feet
the
limits
of
San Domingo, are both

and
in
about 200
above the
sea-level,
times of heavy
in the
is
rains or floods are
connected by water lying

the
larger
lowlands
between.
Lake
Enquirillo,
lake,
supposed
once to have
ranean river
porpoises
;
been connected with the sea by a subterthe waters are

exist in
salt,
and
it
is
said sharks
I
and
still
them
but to this
last
cannot bear
any personal testimony.

I
remained
little
I
in
the Dominican State but a short time, and
the
saw of the people did not strike
me
too favour-
ably.
try,
They
are not nearly so likeable as the Haytian peasanflourish in the
and hospitality does not
same degree
as
on the western side of the border.
On
the other hand, the
Government of San Domingo
is
lessjealous of foreign influence.
The Dominicans speak

purity
Spanish, and have preserved the
of their language to a far greater degree than can
be said of the
into
Haytians,
whose
French has degenerated

it
Creole patois so corrupt that
can with
for
this
difficulty
be understood by outsiders.
reason
may be
adduced from the
fact that in
San Domingo we
find a colour-
ed as opposed to an entirely black population.
For San Domingo

of races has probably
is
the Mulatto Republic, and the mixture
done much towards keeping the general
146

its
status of
is
people on a higher level

also.
yet the lack of energy
very apparent there
There
is
no doubt that both States

all
contain
kinds,
a vast amount of mineral wealth, of wealth of
but
the
output
is
blockaded hopelessly by
their
respective
Governments and the inertness of the people.

into
The
natives
trail
San Domingo
is
little
travelled.
few
work across
in
to sell fighting-cocks, a few
more have
an interest
cutting
wood
beside the lakes, a few
who
have
committed misdeeds
rest
break
traffic
;
cover
it
there
left
for
safety.
For the
there
is
no
is
to the parrots
that fly above and the wild pigs which range in the woods.
And
In
this,
you must understand,
is
the chief highway be-
tween Hayti and San Domingo.

the
time
of the
late
Dominican President Hereaux,

to
who was
a
assassinated
some months ago, there used

frontier,
be
few soldiers posted on the
but either Jimenez

themselves.
I
recalled
them
or
they
have
to
recalled
If
a
lie
history
will
of Hereaux
comes
be written,
think the
be
given
to
many
superficial
observers
his
who have
committed
to
their ideas
upon him and

praise.
It
is
methods of ruling
believe
the
that
paper and
of
added
hard to
certain
them had any personal knowledge of

country.
man
or
of his
Here was a
ruler masterful certainly,
but whose mastery was obtained by the foulest of means.
He was
a President of the Central
American type, unscrupu-
lous, pliable, fair-seeming,
and immutably vengeful.
CHAPTER
VII
I.
HAYTIAN POLICE, PRISONS AND HOSPITALS.
He
blue
was
lightly attired in the
remnants of a striped
left
shirt,
and what the passage of years had

cotton
a
trousers.
of a pair of sky-
On
in
his
head he carried a blue cap
with
red
band,
and
his
hand
dirty yellow club.
He was
scanty
a very black and lowering negro, with the invariable
imperial on his chin, which accentuated the resem-
blance that
sprang
at
once into
my
mind
humanised
black goat.
I
was told that he was a policeman of the Republic,

fact
and experience afterwards substantiated the was quite a

fair
that he
sample of the
force.
all
They
are
Hke no other police

in
the world over; they

particulars.
stand curiously alone
respect of
many
When
to
on duty they loaf about the

fulfilling
streets,
and are very frequently

that
their
duties
in
manner
you are glad
148

from witnessing.
escape
Elsewhere one seldom sees the

in
colour of
human blood
see
it
this island
the chances are that
you
will
flowing
in
broad daylight whenever the

fit
guardians
of the
peace think
to
make an
arrest,
for
they are prone to use their cocomacaque clubs, and

cases
in the
where the victim
is
not picked out at
random
as a
medium whereby they may

to be beating the
secure a meal, they are sure
wrong man.
The
police
are merely soldiers told off casually for the

safety.
maintenance of the public

arrears,
Their pay
is
ordinarily in
and when remitted
to
someone
in authority for distri-
bution, reaches
this,
them
in
an attenuated form.
In addition to
they have to "keep themselves," but the administration
has invented an ingenious method by which a truly zealous

officer
can manage to stave
off"
starvation very well indeed.
In
fee
some towns,
of
fifty
at
any
rate,
they receive a capitation
centimes
the
fluctuating
sevenpence-halfpenny
according
to
exchange
is
for
every
man they
arrest.
Fortunately, living
cheap, so that
when hunger bears too

is
hardly upon them the remedy of a timely prisoner
easily
come
by.
There need be no superfluous scruples, such as
waiting until a a
quarrel
man commits an
offence against the law.
Pick
with any stray passer-by or pounce

will
down upon
him unawares. There

feet as the victim
be some howls and a patter of flying

ill-luck,
understands his
is
and
flies
from
;
it.
But the policeman
not to be so easily baulked
he

bounds
in
151
pursuit.
Perhaps
the
pursued
doubles,
and
catches a thud on the shoulder from the cocomacaque club.
With a
cry,
I
he rushes
in
to close with the
policeman
in
every arrest
witnessed the procedure was the same

for possession of the
the
two struggled Not
club.
for long,
however.
sleeping policeman reels into
wakefulness up the
coat-tails
hot street, and rushes out with flying

" Tenez, tenez!"
from the nearest arrondissement.

as he
he shouts,
makes
to the aid of his
companion, and
smash goes
his club his
on the head or face of the offender, and

the
first
who
lets
go
hold,
accuser takes
the
opportunity to indulge in a thorough-going revenge.

victim
is
The
more
taken away to the lock-up afterwards
in
or less unspeakable condition.

If
is
he were a white, one would say, knowing where he

to,
going
that
he
must die of
his injuries.
As he
is
black, the chances are that after
some days of pain he

is
will
recover from the beating.

says the proverb; also
to the stick.
in
The back
suited to the burden,
Hayti the thickness of the skull

club
is
The cocomacaque
a cane jointed like

It is
a bamboo, but solid and unbreakable.

to fell
heavy enough
an ox, and
it is
used indiscriminately over the heads

It is
and bodies of the prisoners.

to
its
iron
shod to add piquancy
the
blows.
Even
the
negro occasionally succumbs to

to die
powers,
his
and has been known

to the jail.
by the roadside
on
way
152

like
The cocomacaque,
the Black Republic.
I
the poHceman,
is
indigenous to
cannot
take
an
example of
this
singular
method of
action from the contemporary newspapers of Hayti, as they

rarely,
if
ever, print
news of
this sort, either
because such
occurrences are too

are
common
to call for
is
comment, or they
grave
too wise to mention what
in the nature of a
scandal.
But formerly,
when
more independent paper

were duly published.
in
existed, cases like the following
Sir
Spencer
St.
John,
British
Minister
Hayti, quotes from
"La
"
Verite" of August 23rd,
1887:
readers
to
Death
in
Prison.
Our
tried
may remember
that
the
individual
who had
pillage the house of
M.
he
Marmont Flaubert had been wounded by

was taken
fractured.
in,
the police
to
prison
in
this
state.
His leg was horribly

mortification soon set
this unfortunate
From want
of attention
and presently the existence of
was
in
peril.
A
us,
good woman, of
whom
few
are
still
found
assist
among
him
the
overcoming her repugnance, wished to
in his last
moments.
She tended
as well as she could
putrid
limb,
and talked of God to the dying wretch.

sent
for
He was
touched,
priest,
and confessed with
every sign of sincere repentance, received extreme unction,
and died quietly shortly
after imploring
Divine mercy."
at
Another example
night,
"On
Sunday, about eleven o'clock
two countrymen who were not sleepy were amusing
153
themselves playing with dice or cards under the gallery of

a house in Courbe-street.
The
patrol arrived.
One
of the
young men bolted and gained the courtyard where he was

accustomed to
is
sleep.
The
other
was not so prompt
he
caught: a blow from a cocomacaque stops him.

fell
Struck
on the nape of the neck, he

cry.
dead without uttering a
No means
1
of passing this unfortunate off as a thief."
-(July
6th,
1887.)
suffice to
in
Other instances could be given, but these

the shameful licence permitted to the police
their
show
Hayti, and
wanton
I
brutality.
Such cases are

to
sufficiently horrible,
and
adduce
them
show
what
another Englishman
one
but
who was
also
not only on the spot to judge for himself,

details,
who
took the trouble to verify
has
said
upon the
subject.
He
bears
ample witness
I
to
the
state of affairs several
years ago, and
can add on personal observation that they

in
continue
to
be
precisely
the
same condition
to-day.
During
I
my
second walk through the streets of Port-au-Prince

a Haytian scene of arrest.
I
came upon
need only say
that the prisoner
had been so cruelly battered that a gen-
tleman passing offered the police a dollar to take the wretched
man
to gaol without further man-handling.
For answer
they attacked
a
soldier
him again with
their clubs.
The man was

drill
who had omitted
to turn
up to
because he
was doing some work
to earn a few centimes to
buy
food.
154

another occasion
I
On
saw a captain of police called

to steal
in
by a negress who had attempted

owner of the
place, a
from a
store.
The
Danish subject, naturally interfered

in
to save his goods.
The woman went out and returned

officer,
a few moments with the police
who
threatened to
shoot the Dane, and then stood by while the
woman, under
the protection of his revolver, wreaked her vengeance with a heavy stick.
court,
The upshot of
this case,
when brought
into
was
a sentence of imprisonment on the Dane, with
the option of a heavy fine.
At
the time of arrest white
men
are mostly
exempt from
But
or,
violence, although there have
been several exceptions.
the
I
negro,
whether guilty or only under suspicion,

really
as
have shown,
is
innocent of any offence against the

at the time of
law,
arrest
liable
to
murderous treatment both

in the prison itself.
all
and afterwards
Moreover, the condition of the prisons

is
over the country

in
almost incredible when one considers that they exist
the midst of a
community
that calls itself civiHsed.
am
well aware that the curse of the present police
and prison
Haytian
systems
is
a source of
shame and regret

his
to every
who has
the
good of
country
at heart.
Many have
spoken of the
matter to me, but the Government appear
to be entirely indifferent.
little
is
brief authority
is
poison to a negro, whose inflated
vanity
not tempered by education and whose intelhgence

seems too dwarfed
pain he
position,
inflicts.
155
to afford hina
any adequate idea of the

it
One can
only account for
on the sup-
which close acquaintance with the race certainly

far duller
goes to support, that negroes have
nerves and recover
are less susceptible to pain than P2uropeans.
They
from
injuries that
no white man could hope
to survive,
and
that without tendance or medical aid of
any kind.
in the
The policeman
still
strides
through the land
name
of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity.

his
is
Within the
limits of
office
he has absolute power, and
this absolute
power
placed in the hands of a
man
the mysterious workings
of whose mind leads him occasionally to shoot his prisoner,
not while resisting arrest, but afterwards for having resisted

It
is
it
scarcely
surprising
that
few
negroes from other
countries
become
as
naturalised Haytians.
Realism,
some understand the word, can be studied
with effect in the prisons of the Black Republic.
To
enters
at the into a
begin with,
jail
the
prisoner, as has
been
said,
less
usually
suffering from maltreatment

his captors.
more or
severe
hands of
He
live
is
flung
among
his fellows
narrow courtyard to
of his
is
or die, as destiny and the

decide.
strength
constitution
may
No
tendance of
any kind
given to him, whatever his condition, nor does
the State provide

visitors,
him with any
food.
He begs from
casual
or his friends bring
him provisions when they can
from time to time.
156
WHERE BLACK RULES

date of his
the
jails
trial
WHITE.
is
The
in the
courts
vague
persons are
now
they
in
whose very crimes are
forgotten, but there
still
remain
the
is
police or soldiers in authority keep
him
their
in
subjection
according to rough-handed customs of
own.
There
no power
to
which he can appeal,

Justice
for
no one has the
slightest interest in his fate.
and
mercy
are alike denied to

will
him
he
is
helpless.
So you
find
men
in
the various prisons of the island
herded together under conditions which would disgrace the

worst cattle-boat that
seen
ever
crossed
the Atlantic.
jail
have
them myself
in
more than one
starving, dirty,
suffering, without the barest elements of sanitation in their
surroundings.
The
prison of Port-au-Prince
is
situated in the middle of
the town.
The
high, pinkish walls are set on the top with

It
is
broken
glass.
divided into
courts,
some containing
political prisoners, others the
common
criminals.
to
narrow
door,
through which you
are
obliged
pass
sideways,
admits you.
When
cleaning
entered,
nails.
the
General of the prison was sitting
his
I
His noble
name
did not gather,
al-
though
I
was duly introduced

not see
of the
to him.
I
He
told
me
that
could
the prison unless

Interior.
I
had a pass from the

a
pass,
Minister
had
not
and knew
excellently well that
could not obtain one, for the Black

to cure the sores
Government, though they take no care

of the
157
body
politic,
are
careful
to
cover them from the

is
pubUc gaze.
indeed.
I
And
the
prison
of Port-au-Prince
a sore
pressed
my
request, but
it
was explained
to
me
that
the law wisely forbade the visits of strangers, as they not

infrequently
Finally,
I
brought messages
for
the political prisoners.
put forward a plea which procured
me
the per-
mission
wanted.
soldier,
I
Under the guidance of a

left,
was led away
to the
where round a large enclosure prisoners

I
live in sheds.
This was the best part of the prison, as
soon found out.
The men had

crimes
false
little
articles to sell.
of.
asked
my
guide what
they were guilty

theft,
All sorts of things
uttering
money,
are
and murder.
while others are so
"Why
off?"
I
they here,
much worse
asked.
for it."
"They pay
It
was
onl}'
by sheer perseverance
that
at length looked
for
in
upon the quarters which the Government provides

It is difficult
the poorer sort of malefactor.

to describe this
to
choose words
like
noisome place.
like
Here men
also.
I
live
dogs,
and on occasion die

carried
dogs
are
believe they are

that
is
away when they
dead,
but
the sole
sanitary precaution taken.
Doorless
earth
as
in
cells
were round the

for
walls, with straw
upon the
cages
wild
beasts.
Some
prisoners were
158

naked
;
practically
a few had converted worn-out jackets into

in the last stage of destitution.
loin-cloths; all
in iron anklets
were
Men,
with a short chain between, stood or squatted
round.
to
All shades of colour were there, from yellow ochre

black,
coal
and everyone looked
half-starved.
Not a
ill,
few had gaping wounds, and others were wearily
their
backs furred with sickness and neglect.

In
the
centre of the court there was a filthy pool, and
pigs
rooted
about amongst the accumulations of

Hercules cleaned the
all
sorts
which strewed the ground.

stables
;
Augean
scarcely
know how he would have
faced a task
such as Hayti could offer him here.

In
this
part
of the world they do not provide political
prisoners
with
every
luxury
short
of freedom.
On
the
contrary, they are frequently chained to a bar in the clothes
they stand up
in,
and
it
is
not impossible to see a gentle-
man
in
a black frock-coat tethered
by the
legs.
Escape from the court where the rabble are confined
seemed
to
be childishly easy, but the negro lacks enterprise.

it
As
in
freedom, so in confinement, he takes the world as
comes.
There are several hundreds

is
in Port-au-Prince prison,
and
it
rightly regarded as a hotbed of disease.
Later
on
visited
another large gaol in the north at

also,
Cap Haytien.
There
as
has
been said before, the
conscientious seeker after realism, upon
whom
pall,
perhaps the
find not
slum miseries of London have begun to
would
159
only the hunger, the crowding, the disease, and the misery
reproduced, but withal an indescribable residuum calculated
to
titillate
the most jaded experience.
All prisons in the
Republic have the same essential features,
and
it
is
no
more than a necessary precaution

going on a tour of inspection.
In
to take quinine before
Cap Haytien
as
in
Port-au-Prince
the
prison
was
divided into
for the
two chief
sections,
one
for the civil
and one
criminal cases.
latter,
all
There were 130 of the former and

dwelling in the
stifling
I
280 of the
heat of two
uncleansed, roofless yards.
One man
spoke to had been
awaiting
It
is
trial
for four months, another for three years.
hardly possible to imagine a white
man imprisoned
it
under such conditions of horror, yet, of course,

happens.
sometimes
to
For instance,
if
you have the misfortune

is
have
your house burned down, there

regards
it
a law in Hayti which
as a criminal oftence.
living in a certain
A
the
gentleman
criminal
town was consigned

on
this
to
side
of the
local
gaol
charge
until
investigation
should be made.
to
By making
the
civil
representations
he had himself removed

little
side,
where, after a
to
time, he
fell
ill.
The doctor supposed

visit
be attached
worse, and
to
the
prison
did
not
him.
He became
was
his
at times delirious,
but his request to be allowed to see
own
doctor was steadily refused.

the prison doctor did chance to
When
come
in,
he saw
i6o
WHERE BLACK RULES

my
the
friend
WHITE.
and knowing that
that
this
was very
likely to die,
event might produce unpleasant complications

prisoner
seeing
that
was not a Haytian
he
fifty
ordered him to
better than
be taken to the military hospital, which

the
gaol.
is little
At
length, on
payment of
dollars,
he was
allowed to be
moved
to the Hospice,
la
where he was nursed
back to
life
by the Soeurs de
is
Sagesse, a French sisterhood
whose gentle care
the only tendance the sick can procure.

in lawyers' fees
Five hundred dollars
was subsequently paid
by the
his
late
prisoner.
All
this,
in addition to the loss of
house and property, on account of an accident

in
for
which
he was not
any way responsible

I
In course of time,
chiefly distinguished
visited the Military Hospital, a place
by the absence of everything
that goes
to
make
hospital
cleanliness,
by
a
comfort,
nurses.
In the
dreary shed which goes by that

ants
floor,
name
patients
and attend-
were
represented
man
leg,
lying
on the earthen
suffering from a
broken
and a negress smoking
a pipe on an upturned tub by the doorway.

It
seems
impossible
under
black
government
for,
for
any
undertaking or institution to be cared

carried
on.
a
is
or kept up, or
Some
individual,
in
an
ambitious moment,
makes
soever
start,
but the beginning of any enterprise whatthe end

;
also
no one bothers to go on with
it.
The Hospice
Justinien at
Cap Haytien
Filles
is,
however, under
French management, eight
de
la
Sagesse,
who have

devoted
their lives
it.
i6i
to
It
the
cause
of
Haytian humanity,
taking charge of
stands on the edge of the
Champ
de Mars, fronting the blue, sun-scorched bay.

Crossing from the Military Hospital,
I
entered the Hospice,
and was met by a nun,
in
a cool grey habit, her pale face

it.
almost as white as the starched wimple which framed
She led me up
a flight of steps into a piazza,
70 or 80
yards long, grey-shuttered and shadowy, with whitewashed

pillars
and
full
of wandering winds.
In the chapel
some
function
was
us.
in progress,
and the
faint
sound of chanting
reached
As
listened, heat, glare, dirt,
and Hayti faded,
and
was
bacV: for a
moment
in
another land.
furnished
Long rows
of
black
bedsteads,
with
sheets
spotless as snow, lessened
away
into long perspective.
Few
of them
figures
were occupied, and by one or two

to
all
sat doleful
their places
that
appearance
would occupy
on earth but a few days longer.

"
Oh, massa,
am
very
ill
" said
I
oneto
me in English, and her

"
face broke
up. "
And,
oh, massa,
shall die here in the quiet
She was a Jamaican negress.

Presently
little
I
was taken through a variety of rooms
to the
chapel, where an old priest's fragile hands were raised

his black
from
cassock towards the cool white roof.
Thence on through the men's ward, the women's ward,

and out among the
sick
on the piazza.
"What
is
the matter with him.'"

II
62

kindly-faced
The
nun looked
up
at
me and made
gesture with her hands.
"This, that, everything,"' she replied; "they have terrible

diseases here in Hayti."
The man was

head.
sitting
it
on a bed with a cloth over

spoke.
his
He
raised
as
He had no
flesh.
face,
nothing
save teeth and a few red strips of
"Poor creatures!" the nun

worst, they can die in peace.
last hours,
if
said
softly;
"here, at the
We
help them to pass their

to health."
we cannot help them back

easily
The Haytian
thinks
himself sick,
and takes
his
physic with the greatest appreciation.
The more he
swal-
lows the greater his enjoyment.

told
Here was one man who

his face looked
little
me
his
head ached, and very black

purity
against
the
of his
pillow.
fat
youngster
was laughing and romping, riding a broom-stick up and
down along
After that
fruit,
the piazza.
I
visited the well-ordered garden.

all
Vegetables,
and flowers of
is
climes
a place of green fragrances.

for
it
The Hospice
deserves
to
supported by private subscriptions, and

is
be well maintained,
country where
the only haven

little
for the sick in a for the sufferer.

I
illness
bespeaks
care
was told that
rich patients
were admitted, who could

;
be attended by any doctor they chose
for the
poor the
Hospice provided
all
medical treatment.

When
at last
I
163
passed out from under the broad shadow

I
of the front piazza under the palms,
went dreaming.
The
cool and the peace and the silence and the cleanliness and the
purity,
the
echo
of Latin
song
it
might have been
another far-away
All that
site
I
home
of nuns burled in green Breton woods.
saw
in the
Hospice was so entirely the oppo-
of
all
that
you
find
everywhere
else in Hayti.
"Is monsieur pleased?"

I
my
guide asked
rest
me
as
left.
told her that

to
it
had been a
even to see the place.
She bowed
me
with a quaint courtesy, and so

is
we
parted.
It is
The nominal
the
religion
religion of Hayti
State,
to
Roman
Catholic.
of the
and
an
archbishop
and four
bishops
are
supposed
be paid by a grant from the
Republican budget.
Up
the
to
i860,
when
a concordat with
Rome was
signed,
condition
of the
Catholic
So-called
clergy in the island was a

priests,
source
of scandal.
set
whose "creed was

But
all
need,"
that
themselves up
forty
in the various parishes.
was altered
years
ago.
Yet the
process
of
evangelising the island goes on but slowly.

a strong hold
attract them,
Vaudoux has
upon the people.

and a well-defined
priests
Its
mummeries and horrors

all.
fear lies at the root of

life
The
the
Catholic
have a hard
of
it,
whether
in
unhealthy suburbs
of the towns or travelling through
the mountains under a tropical sun, at one season choked
with dust, at another drenched with torrential rains.
These
i64

to the inadequate food
hardships, joined
which alone can
be obtained
in the
life
country
districts,
brings
down
the aver-
age length of
to a deplorably low figure.

difl^culties
One
is
of the numberless
which
lies in their
way
the absorption of
some
points of their teaching into the
mummery
of fetishism.
For instance,
have myself seen
the sign of the Cross
made on
the forehead with the blood

In the absence of
of a
goat sacrificed to the snake-god.
the priest
celebrate
some of the chapels

mass
have
in
which they are wont to

for
been
the
used
the
rites
of snake-
worship.
to the
The
Papalois,
arch-priests of the cult, refer
priests of Catholicism as brother ministers.
Yet the
Papalois are jealous of Catholic influence, and do
all in their
power
to
undermine
it.
When
hold
you consider that no
priestcraft has so strong a

its
over a semi-savage people as that which can aid

life,
votaries in the affairs of this present

it
you
will see
why
is
that
snake-worship
should
be so serious
a rival to
Christianity.
The Haytian
naturally prefers a religion which
not
only
to
permits but abets him in vengeance, which aids

secretly
feels
him
strike
at
his
enemy
with poison.
is
Here,
indeed,
the
negro
that reward
not shadowy, that
he
is
getting his money's worth.
For these reasons Christianity

able
disabilities
in
labours
under considerNevertheless, the
the Black Republic.

to
Republic owes
much
Christianity
all
charity, all self-

sacrifice,
all
167
care
for
the
sick in Hayti spring
from that
source.
But since the Catholics do so much
for
Hayti,
is
it
not
inconsistent to fix the marriage-fees so high that the peasant
cannot afford to marry?

lars,
These
fees
amount
to
many
dol-
as
much perhaps
as a peasant-farmer can
make
in the
round of the year.
The
are 50
to
natural result
is
that for every married couple there

as they call
It
it.
couples " places,"
There
is
no need
say more on the subject.
speaks for
itself.
is it
Hayti boasts of
boast.
its
religious toleration, nor
an empty
Many
sects
of Protestants not only exist, but are
encouraged
articles
in their efforts to evangelise.

in
One
writer
whose
had something of a run

as
Hayti speaks of the
Protestants
follows
"
Let us try to Protestantise the

is
country
loves
the Protestant
is
economical, respects the law,

in
reading,
a
.
.
friend
.
of peace, rich
gallant
hope
and perseverance
The
nations that are dreamy, sleepy,

. .
imaginative, easily discouraged, depressed, are Catholic.
All
who engage
in
commerce,
agriculture,
manufacture,
progress, enrich themselves, prosper, are Protestants."

it
Yet
cannot
Hayti.
I
be
said
that
Protestantism
makes
any
way
in
have referred
I
in
a former chapter to an instance, the
only one,
believe,
on record, when human
sacrifice
was
actually beheld
by a white man.
The
witness was a
young
i68

priest
French
whom
Sir
Spenser
St.
John met
at the palace
of the Archbishop in Port-au-Prince.
This young
take him to a
cure had persuaded
some of the people

his
to
Vaudoux
and
service.
They blackened
as
face a
and
hands,
disguised
him
peasant.
After
prelude of the usual frenzied dancing and whirling, a cock
and a goat were

Later
on,
to
sacrificed.
one of those present knelt and prayed the

complete the
sacrifice
this
Mamaloi
by the
offering of the
"goat without horns."

sitting
Upon
a child was disclosed,
with
its
feet
bound.
As
the
Papaloi
approached
the
the
victim
with
the
knife, the child
screamed aloud, and

shouting
his
young
priest
rushed
at
forward,
"Spare the
friends,
child 1"
He was
once surrounded by
who
smuggled him away.
On
ities,
his return to the
town he
tried to rouse the author-
but they would do nothing until the morning, when
on
going to the spot they found the remains of the feast

skull
and the boiled

against the
of the child.
No
him
action
was taken
criminals,
it
but the
priest
was deported under

to remain in the
the excuse that
was dangerous
for
neighbourhood.
There are undoubted

ing Hayti.
difficulties
in
the
way of
evangelis-
CHAPTER
IX.
A LIVING CITV WITHIN A DEAD ONE.
When
The
ashore
I
reached Cap Haytien revolution was

to anchor,
in
the
I
air.
"
OHnde Rodriguez" came
and
went
to
be received as a conspirator.
not
could
I,
conceive the reason, but the fact remained
that
in
the correspondent of the "Daily Express," landing

all
Cap Haytien, produced
the effect of a stone falling
into a pool of shrimps.
When
troops
arrived
they
in
were
expecting
Minister; the
and Generals,
full
about equal numbers, had turned
out in
gorgeousness to meet him.
Drums were beating

that the
and
flags
were
flying,
but
when
in
it
became known
expected grandee had not put
an appearance the military

off.
and the twenty-seven mounted Generals took themselves
As
had come
I
from a port within the borders of the
Republic
hardly expected any trouble with the Customs,
T70

I
but herein
found
myself mistaken.
My
light
baggage
remon-
was pounced upon by
a tall soldier, and, in spite of

vv-as
strances and protestations,
carried into the presence of

to
a gold-laced General,
I
who ordered me
open
it.
explained
that
coming from Port-au-Prince
my
effects
were not
liable to inspection.
letters.^"
"Have you
" Certainly."
"Give the
letters to
me."
towards the door into the sunto super-
The scene had

light,
shifted
and
the
crowd of guff'awing negroes gathered

discomfiture of
le
intend
hlanc.
An
assistant
until
of the
General's
rummaged through my belongings
he came
upon the MSS. of these papers and
a few private letters,
which things were clearly suspicious and produced a profound

sensation.
The General
I
seized them.
I
"What
in
has
le
d/anc got here?"
explained that
was
the habit of keeping a diary
of
my
the
daily
spot.
doings.
My
private letters were
impounded
to
on
Searching
questions
were then put
me
was
of,
concerning
the
at
my
to
in
name,
my
destination,
official
and
my
me
business in
that
I
Republic.
liberty
I
Soon an
go away.
informed
This
was not
to
be thought
as
knew
my
heart that, with

and, possibly,
it
leaving
my
liberty
my manuscript, I my life behind me
was
;
for
Hayti
is
a country in which
is
by no means healthy
to
A TJVING CITY WITHIN A DEAD ONE.

write
171
down
exactly what the traveller
may
see.
You must
not under any circumstances express a political sentiment,

least of
all,
ye gods, on paper
Why,
only the other day
a gentleman of sporting tendencies shouted "
A bas
I
President
Sam"
out
of
in the street at Port-au-Prince.
negro guard leaped
the
shadows and shot him dead.
remembered
two hundred
this also,
that no English Consul existed within
miles of me.
There was nothing

Office passport
British subject
for
it
but
to
produce
my
Foreign
and
to
speak vaguely of
my
position as a
I
and the long arm of the
British navy.
talk-
ed of the "Powerful" and the "Terrible."

together,
notes.
They whispered
returned
and,
the
after
considerable
British
interval,
my
!
May
shadow of the
activity
Empire never grow

clear to
less
The
official
was afterwards made
me.
An
ague-fit
of revolutionary
at
hankerings had swept across

I
Northern Hayti, and
the time
chanced
to arrive the
Government were
correspondence.
still
keeping
a
in
wide-open
eye on
all
With
my MSS.
my
to
kit
lived
on without
having attained to either the picturesqueness or the inconvenience
which
inevitably
attach
political
schemer.
But
let
us explore
that
Cap Haytien.
your outlook,
is
They say
or perhaps
should say
your inlook, upon a country
largely influenced
it.
by the
door through which you happen to enter

Hayti
is
no exception
to the rule.
Her
three gates of
172

present
ingress
feature.
each
of
them
a definite
and
characteristic
That of Port-au-Prince
is
dirt.
That of Jacmel
is
fireis
scorched and gutted black

a
interiors.
But Cap Haytien
mushroom town
of wood,
built
among imposing
stone
ruins.
Go
in
whatever direction you
like the sights that
meet
you are the same.

fountains
Ruined houses, ruined aqueducts, ruined

ruined
walls,
of stone,
ruined
forts.
She bears
upon her the

quake of
cluster
indelible
impress
the sea
of the tremendous earththe
1842.
From
town
is
but a
little
of
dwellings
in
heaped together beneath the wooded
mountains
the corner of a big purple plain.

;
Her jetties
ashore in
are broken, black, and old
the usual wreck
lies
her harbour
port
in
there
is
one
in
the harbour of every important
the
Repubhc
but
once
ashore
you are
in the
cleanest and the best kept

street
town
in all Hayti.
The
principal
it
fronts
down almost
directly
on the harbour;
is
wide and perhaps two miles long.

days the town
Once
in the old
French
It
was the centre of luxury and

"little
fashion.
was called the
Paris" of the West.

it.
Since then ruin
and devastation have swept over

Half the
hillside
was torn away by the shock which
annihilated the city.
The dread earthquake shook down
or
seriously injured almost every house, two-thirds of the inhabitants were buried beneath the fallen masonry; bands of blacks
A LIVING CITY WITHIN A DEAD ONE.

rushed
their
in
173
from mountain and plain, not to aid
in
saving
wretched
for
countrymen,
whose
cries
and groans could and
be heard
two or three days, but
to rob the stores
houses, while the officers and
men
of the garrison, instead
of attempting to keep order, joined in plundering the small
remnants of what the surviving inhabitants could save from

the tottering ruins.
What
a people!
is
An American
comment was
happened
to
"
journaHst
said to
have heard the above

His
story of the earthquake

:
and the looting of the town.

I
My
aunt
What copy
for
any duck who
be browsing around!"
is
To-day Cap Haytien

deserted
nest
like a
sparrow's egg laid in the

are
of an
eagle.
Wherever you walk you
among
old ruins, knee high and over-grown.
Among them
the
have cropped
masters
of the
up
the
wooden dwellings of
present
land.
The
hills
which back the town are

to the north, guarding
sol-
guiltless of
human
habitation.
is
Away
the harbour mouth,

diers.
It
Fort Picolet, garrisoned by two
contains a few old cannon, which lean their black
nozzles over the ruined parapets like a colony of basking seals.

It
is
common
saying
in
it
the Republic that no revolution
can
the
that
be successful unless
seat
emanates
at the
Cape.
It
was
of
Government under the Emperor Christophe,

and masterful
figure,
terrible
to
the
days of whose
iron rule the greater virility, energy,
and enterprise of the
population of the north are often attributed.
174

itself
I is
The town
the cleanest
stand,
well laid out,

in
its
cobbled streets are

under-
have seen
far
Hayti
; not too clean, you

people
but
still
in
advance of those of the capital or

the
are
superior
also.
pestiferous
Jacmel.
And
They work
less
harder, the soldiers have straighter backs and
ragged uniforms.
to
is
These things are
in
some measure
due
General Nord Alexis, the head of the department.

an old
did
He
man now,
good
but
if all
the officials of the Rethis
public
her as
service
as
high-handed old
General the country would be a wholesomer and a happier

land.
Spread
in
all
the
main
streets
are
sail-cloths
covered
with coffee berries, whose

their
toil
shining green bears witness to
high
quality.
Wild-eyed
sacks
to
men,
it;
with
naked
torsos,
shouting
under
likeness
of
the
bearded natives (whose

of North Africa forces
four, mules, take
extraordinary
itself
it
Riffs
upon you), driving
carts
drawn by
with an accompaniment of indescribable din to the wharf,

for possession of
like that. in the
its
it.
and there another horde screams

the South you do not see
In
men working
boils
And
of the
all
this riotous
life
and struggles
midst
fallen
old
dead
city,
within the broken shell of
palaces and aqueducts and baths, whose walls have mostly
sunk to the ebb-tide
level of destruction,
and are hardly
more than
ridges
above the ground.
Time and weather
and the strong
soft fingers of tropical vegetation are slowly
177
wiping out the remembrance of them from the face of the

earth.
To-day an occasional Ilaytian

the
tin
will
point out with
pride
erection
of the
new custom-house, proudly

reigning
President.
marked
white
with
the
name
of the
The
man
built a
hundred years ago, the black builds now.

I
Apropos of the threatened revolution
have alluded
to,
an extremely frightened gentleman once presented himself

at
the British Consulate, and begged the Consul to advise
him what happen

the
to
course
he
had
better
pursue
if
there
should
in
be
as
was then most likely an)' shooting
streets.
The Consul, who was used
to Hayti, slowly
stroked his beard.
"What
should
I
you do?" he said slowly.
" If
were
you, Mr. Blank,

of fiahl"
should at once get out of the
ah line
Hayti
is
chameleon.
once
She has been a Republic, an
Empire, then
more Republic, again an Empire, and
now
a Republic over again.

history
is
Her
one gigantic patchwork of revolutions.

like
Whatever she may be

is
when her
political
it
temperature
normal, she changes completely

two.
when
goes up a degree
or
With her
rulers a few suspicions are
enough
to
be magnified into an attempted revolution, and, when once

her temperature reaches this fever point, strange things of
many
kinds
I
occur.
Having been
suspected conspirator
myself, do
not write with the diploma of experience?
178

is
Everyone
interested in revolution tales.
Here are some
true ones from the best forcing-bed in the world for such
productions.
tropical skies,
They
are
dramatic tales
fitting this
land of
and pronunciamentos, and vengeful Presidents.

something more than true and drama-
But these
tic
;
stories are
they were once everyday occurrences.
The
following
are selected at hap-hazard from a thousand such,

all
and they
point
happened during the

bear
in
last
two revolutions.
The
to
mind
is
that
they
for
are pretty sure to
happen
political
again
during the next;

strife
once the delirium of
excitement and
begins to take hold upon the people

civilisation.
they break away from the leash of
Upon
the death of President
Salomon the usual sanguinpower, and
ary struggle took

it
place
for the possession of
was
in the
course of this struggle that the ominous and
daring personality of General Dardignac forged to the front.
He was
the
iron-grey
an adherent of Legitime,
chair.
who
eventually seized
Presidential
Dardignac was a mulatto with an
moustache and determined eyes, bloodshot with

and
sun.
staring through dust
Now
Dardignac was one of those strong

friends.
men who make
more enemies than
On one
occasion he was going
north with troops on a Riviere steamer (she trades between

the
for
Haytian ports to
supplies
at
this day).
About dawn they put

some
in
little
seaside town, and
fresh pas-
sengers
came aboard.
While breakfasting Dardis^nac heard

on the deck above him two
reason to
voices,
179
one of which he had

per-
know
too well.
It
was that of a prominent
sonage nicknamed Rude Raide, who
for public or personal

in
reasons had crossed the designs of Dardignac
past days.
The General went on
deck.
"My
friend,"
he
said,
"I have been looking forward to
a meeting such as this for years."
Rude Raide turned green and made a

offer
feeble attempt to
his
conventional greetings.
said
he,
Dardignac called
men.
"Tie him up!"

meal.
and went below to
finish his
When
ankles,
he returned the
affair
developed.
He
ordered the
steamer to be stopped.
Fire-bars were tied to
Rude Raide's
and
with his
own hand Dardignac shoved him

it
overboard.
Those who saw
say that
Rude Raide wriggled Then Dardignac
down
upright into the depths of the sea.

;
laughed aloud
it
was
his
form of humour.
During the
same
revolution
he
fought
to
a battle
near
Grand Saline
on each
of this
the casualties
mounted up
heavy numbers
characteristic
side,
which
is
not a very
common
internecine
warfare.
in
Seven prisoners were taken.
Dardignac,
seated
an arm-chair, ordered them to be
brought before him.

in
By
his directions
they were placed
a semicircle,
and with a small Winchester he shot them

from his chair with
;
one
after the other
his
own hand.
Very
brutal, of course
but there was another and a no
i8o

definite
less
side
to
the
General's
character.
to
He was
man
of fantastic bravery.
He
is
known
have captured
it
one of the enemy's ramparts unaided, riding

with
a
at
armed only
cocomacaque
club.
He
sat in full
view upon the
ramparts,
being shot at (and wounded),

in.
until the last
man
of his following was
At another engagement he was wounded
in the groin.
To show
giving
his
contempt of pain, he was
in
the habit of
audiences while the doctor probed his wound, and

last footfall of his
more than once the
retiring officers
had
hardly died away before he fainted.
The end own

As
tion,
of his career was tragic.
He was
shot by his
soldiers.
for the
lower class of Haytian, he fights in a revolufights.
and knows not why he
The
;
leader has his
stake in the contest, the soldier has none the
he merely runs
chance of losing
President
all
he ever possessed
his
life.
Be
the
who he may,
still.
the private remains the
same
ragged, unfed private
From
these
this
standpoint a revolution
is
pathetic.
Here are
ignorant soldiers fighting, reinforced by a rabble of
wild peasants and vociferous wharf-side negroes, helping to

turn
things
upside
down, and
to
make
that peculiar con-
coction
Haytian
a
history
and
:
getting
no good out of
it
for themselves.
So
it
goes on
always a few military operin the street
ations,
good deal of promiscuous shooting

and round corners, with a great deal of
talk
;
i8i
and as an
bill
aftermath pronunciamentos, imprisonments, and a heavy
of mortality within prison gates or against the arsenal wall.
The
revolutionist,
is
it
is
true,
kill.
wears no gloves of mercy,
but the negro
hard to
Somewhere about 1888

five
bold vanguard, numbering some

village
men, marched
into a
upon the banks of the Artibonite.

the
The
villagers,
believing
main
body
food
to
be close behind,
ate,
fled.
The
famous
children,
kind.
five
seized
and
maltreated
women and
after his
and otherwise enjoyed themselves each

village people,
The
who were
hiding in the woods,
presently found out that the five
men were
unsupported, so
five
they
killed,
flocked
back
to
vengeance.
fifth
Two
of the
they
two escaped, and the
unfortunate
was taken
pig's,
prisoner.
They cropped
tip
his ears as
slit
they cut a
they
cut
the
off his
nose, they
his
mouth
to his neck.
balls,
To crown
all
they broke both his legs with musket
and threw what half an hour before had been a man into
a cactus bush.
Meantime the two

on
their
fugitives
had returned
to the
camp, and
representations
force
was
at
once sent out to
immolate that gentle

groans
village.
When
He
is
the butchery
was over,
were heard to issue from the cactus bush.

recovered.
It is
They
hard
pulled out the wreck of a man.

to believe this story, but there
the scarred
man walking
about Port-au-Prince to-day.
82

do not know whether anyone, allured by
of the country,
feels
my
such
descrip-
tion
moved
to
emigrate to
Hayti,
I
there
to carve out a career for himself.
To
make
free
present
of the
following
revolutionary
prescripis
tion.
In a revolution the theory for the individual
go
him
for
your worst enemy, and go quickly, or you

for
will find
coming
bill
you.
When you
have
killed him,
send
in the
to
whatever Government has come into power, and

a reward for patriotism.
It
is
demand
by working on
this
simple principle that
many
big local reputations have been
made
in Hayti.
first
I
When
ing
starving
all
arrived in the island the country was
drift-
pretty
surely
towards revolution.
The people were

at
and discontented.
Exchange stood
fallen.
190,
and
the
because the price of coflee had
Then came
news that an outbreak of the plague

the
in Brazil
had scotched
export of coffee
120
from that quarter, exchange leaped

in four
back to
and
iio
days, and the

its
Government
uses.
was saved.
Even
the bubonic plague has
CHAPTER
X.
THE CITADEL OF THE BLACK NAPOLEON.

I
LINGERED
I
Oil
at
Cap Haytien.
For days For days

citadel,
had waited.
had become
I
it
my
habit to gaze across at the

to visit.
which
it
had travelled the length of Hayti

seeming small
far
There
was,
as
crow's
nest
upon
its
mountain peak
away
across the plains.

to
For days word was brought

hopeless
me
that the journey
was
it
could not be attempted.
Why?
First,
The roads were impassable.

because the rain had increased the fords and flooded
the lower-lying parts of the intervening plain.
Second, because the sun had dried the
mud
to the con-
sistency of glue, and no horse could do otherwise than stick

helplessly in
it.
Lastly, because there
had been more
rain.
Then
saw
my
opportunity.

With Haytian
a
volubility
I
184
was implored
to wait a week,
month,
fortnight,
until,
at the least, the
ground was
passable.
Through
the
kindness
I
of a
gentleman to
whom
am
most deeply indebted,
secured a guide and set out.

I
That road
farmyard,
field,
How
shall
bring
a
it
before you
Take a
ploughed-
thunderstorm,
horse-pond,
fat
mix them thoroughly, spread over with unwholesome

it.
green scum, and you have
Here and there you came
upon a pool of the consistency of porridge.

into
negro
fell
one just outside a village
it
rose shoulder high
upon
him.
You tacked along

I
like
a
in
boat
in
a shifting wind.
To my middle
I
was sopped
mud.
Never before did
realise
the
beauty of the profession followed by those

carts
gentlemen who drive water-tight

ering up fluid street-slime.
round London, gathsmelt, hot, thick, that

I
And
I
the
mud
marshy.
Up
to
in
the waist
was a mudlark, above

yellow khaki
like
was spotted
leopard.
black on
my
an Ethiopian
The
plain
for
it
vagaries of the road irritated one.
Across the level
took you meandering half a mile out of your
way
every three-quarters you went forward.
My
first
object-
ive
was
Millot,
where
that
was
to pass the night.
It
was a
I
pleasant prospect,
of sleeping wet to the skin, yet

for
knew
it
to
be unavoidable,
my
small change of clothes
had sunk long since
into a sticky
and revolting mass.
o
X

My
he
guide,
Petit
1S5
Col
by name, on hearing
that
was
an Englishman, christened
me
John.
"This way, John,"
would say.
And "John"
followed meekly for a time,
until
he discovered that Petit Col was as innocent as himof the
self
led,
geography of the quagmires.
Then "John"
Through
encouraged by the shouts of
his retainer.
morasses, into sloughs, wading rivers of mud, you entered

into the spirit of
rier."
it
after a time.
I
''
The muddier
the merI
As long
as
did not
fall
bodily into a hole

first
ceased
to care
what happened.
Yet the
splash which painted
me
black from ear to mouth had produced unseemly language.

cloudless blue, and the sunlight, scalding
The sky above was

yellow
on the road, made the black surface of the slime
dance and steam.
Much
sunset
in
the
same manner we were
still
toiling
on when
found
us.
At
last
we came
of
life
in
sight of Millot, the

Ferriere,
halfway house to the

built
citadel
La
which was
at infinite cost of
human
some eighty years ago

or, as
by the black Emperor of Hayti, Christophe,

to call himself,
he loved
Henry the
is
First.
Millot
itself
but
collection
of a few hundred huts
regular
as
the
I
ranks
of a
into
regiment.
village
Armed
at
with letters
and permits
rode
the
the rising of the
moon.
In
the
in
shifting
lights
the
place
reminded
me
of
Broadway
the Cotswolds of
happy memory.
Over the
huts a blue haze
hune low under
the china-blue reflections
86

This haze was
of the moon.
fires,
made by
small
the
in
smoke of many
distance
as
that
winked and burned

nearer,
the
fireflies.
Riding
one saw black forms crouching

figures
on
their haunches,
and other black

at the
dancing
in the
glow.
with
In
some hut
rolling
back they were beating a drum

which has come
it
the
booming finger-motion
through
this
from Africa.
And
who
blue fog
was necessary
la Place, that
for the traveller to seek out the
General de
local potentate
is
about as absolute a monarch as the
Czars of Russia used to be, but are no more.
The General was

building,
not
at
his
house,
straw-thatched
brick-
consisting
of three
rooms and a narrow
paved verandah.
the
hill
Nor was he
at the little guard-house in
central
street.
So we must seek him away up the
through the pufiy blue haze.
''Qui vive?'"'
The
challenge
was
slung
at
us,
as
it
seemed, from nowhere.

'^
Ayizlaisy
We
fire
moved forward
gloom of
to find a
dozen soldiers
seated by a
in the
a wall-less shed very like

their
I
an
English
cart-house.
They caught up
rifles
and
proceeded to ask our business with one voice.

that
I
mentioned
wished to see the General de

'
la Place,
for
whom
had
letters.
As
usual, they attempted to confiscate them,
but upon one
of their
number
spelling out the addresses
they became polite.
Endless chattering followed.
At
last,
weary of waiting, wet from the rigours of the

road,
I
187
handed over
my
letters,
and begged the

I
officer of
the
post to
inform the
General that
should do myself
the honour of calling upon him to pay
my
respects in the
morning.
Then
followed Petit Col

to sleep.
down
the
hill
to find
some place wherein
The morning came

coffee.
with a grateful smell of strong sweet

after a tin-full of that
Then
it
was on-saddle again

coffee,
same excellent
and away, guided by a large-headed,

to
thin-legged four-year-old,
pay
my
promised
visit to
the
General de
la Place.
Now,
the
General de
is
la
Place holds an authority from
which there
at
no
sort of appeal.
This time
found him
home.
rode into his yard and dismounted, not without

as
to
some qualms
the possible failure of
my
to
expedition.
The Government
foreigners
to
are
very
much opposed La
permitting
inspect the fortress of
Ferriere, but they

at
are diplomatic in their refusals.

will
The General
Cap Haytien
graciously give you a pass, which the General at Millot
invariably cancels.
As
all
this
had been explained
to
me
before starting
was, naturally, apprehensive.
For a long
time
no one had been allowed to see La Ferriere

?
was
going to be more fortunate
The General was

of shepherd's
cap.
plaid
a large coal-black man, in a frock-coat
check and a cream-coloured military

affable.
He was most
polite
The
usual
compliments and
us.
some
remarks
passed
between
He
was,
he
i88

me,
thirty-five
told
years old, and I?
trusted
at
him with
once on
the secret of
my
age,
and we found ourselves
an excellent footing.
In his remarks about the citadel he

I
was vague.
Afterwards
it.
discovered
the
reason
of the
prohibition to visit
The Emperor Christophe

fifteen millions,
is
said
to
have died worth
and
this
hoard of treasure no one has yet
discovered.
But some time ago a

at a
?
man his name
is
of
no import
appeared
with
Cap Haytien gaming-table, and

Spanish
tempted
than
that
luck
what
doubloons
No
less
most romantic and

discovered
it.
piratical coin?
He
did not
deny
having
the treasure of Christophe.
The
Government heard of
time,
Hippolyte was President at the

for
and Hippolyte sent
him.
" Confide in me," said Hippolyte, " and
become a General
came
"
!
Lured by
this
tempting
bait, the discoverer
perilously
near to giving up his secret, but not quite.

sent back to the north to
He was
then
Cap Haytien, where
the General
made
the
mistake
of threatening him.
The
limpet might
his
have yielded to caresses, but the finger of force closed

mouth.
barous
He was
put into prison,

strove to
and there by every barhis secret
means they
he bore
wrench
from him.
Yet
ever
his tortures,
and closed
his
mouth the
tighter.
At length they
carefully
set
him
free,
and had
result.
his
movements
shadowed, but with no
Finally hundreds

of soldiers
find
189
were sent to excavate.
These again
rests
failed to
trace of gold,
and there the matter

is
still
unto
this
day.
The
discoverer
at large with fifteen
millions
locked up in his inviolable silence.

old-world
to
Strange, bloodstained,
money
like
to Kidd's treasures,
in
which are said
be buried near by
the Haytian Island of Tortuga.

la Place.
But to return to the General de

cards,
We
la
exchanged
and from
his
learned that he was
" General
Anahim
Amazan, General de Division aux Armees de

Aide-de-camp
d'Haiti, Millot."
Republique,
le
honoraire
de
la
son
P'xcellence
et
President
Commandant de
In
Place
de
la
Commune
de
poor exchange he read mine, which held no-
thing but
my
with
name.
shall
always look back upon General
Amazan
gratitude.
Nowhere could you meet with

to the bedraggled
more courtesy than he showed
wanderer
who presented
The
creator
himself before him.

of
La
Ferriere
has
been called the Black
Napoleon.
him,
Black as the purest African blood could make
and
born
of his
slave,
he yet showed himself,

to
in
the
afterdays
taste
for
power,
be possessed of a right royal
splendid architecture of the most enduring type.
The
Ferriere
mountain
is
upon
takes
whose
two
crest
the
fortress
of
La
to
built
hours
of
hard
climbing
surmount.
But you have evidences of Christophe's ambitions

it.
long before you arrive at

roads
He
loved bôad and spacious

his people to
and noble
vistas,
and these he forced
igo

out for him from rock and plain and forest.
hew
are
But they
gone now, wiped out of

of the
results
sight
by those two remorseless

labour,
dissolvents
of
human
neglect
and
nature.
Riding out of Millot

ruler's chief
saw what
is
left
of the black
Palace of Pleasure, Sans-Souci.
He had many
other
rich
handsome
plain
dwellings, country-seats scattered about the

Artibonite, bearing
of the
names which smack

Delight,"
rather
of the East than of the
West
"Queen's
at the
"The
Glory,"
is
"The
built
King's Beautiful View," and so forth.
Sans-Souci
on a rising ground
set
apex of a
hills.
its
narrow and lovely ravine,

It
between steep green
stands a grey ruin of lost
effort,
among
the waste of
fallen gardens.
it
The
solid
hne of stone steps leading up
to
still
remains, though green things are pushing between
the slabs.
You
It
is
look
up
into the face of the
main building above.
a pale and shattered face, and from

trees
some of
its
is
blank
not a
or
windows
are growing outwards.
But there
memory connected
make you wish
with
it
that
could raise a regret
to perpetuate
one single association.
For
the history of the
Emperor Christophe's fourteen years of

self-seeking, corruption,
power
and
is
one
unbroken record of
cruelty.
Yet the man must have had great quahties besides those
which enabled him to make himself autocrat and tyrant
o D
m
in
z <
CO
<
a.

over his fellows.
of his race,
squalor,
is
191
He was
liking
curiously different from the mass
who
love idleness,
for
all
who do
not seem to heed
and whose
gaudy personal adornment

of congruity
told,
;
grotesquely devoid
of
sense
whereas
Christophe's
representative
in
England
filled
not only of
extensive public works, ravines
up, mountains levelled,
and public roads

rare tapestry
laid out,
but also of the inlaid work and
with
which the Emperor's apartments were
embellished.
Leaving Sans-Souci we began the climb upwards.

accompanied,
not
was
only
by
my own
guide. Petit Col, but

the agency
by the
military escort provided for
me through
of the General.
This escort consisted of one small soldier
armed with a
club.
Outside the village

prison
we met
a murderer being taken to

police,
by one of the country

'
who
was, of course,
a rope tied
also a soldier.
tightly
The
prisoner
was pinioned by and

his
round
his
upper-arms,
captor
drove him
along with
vigour.
thin.
The poor wretch was
nearly naked,
in
and miserably and

a few
He had been wounded
the face,
I
broken teeth showed under

I
his swollen lips.
gave cigars to each of the men, but

the
soldier
have no doubt that
who was armed
with a rusty modern revolver
with a handle of mother-of-pearl,
smoked
both.
After
forest,
long rough
climb
through the ever-thickening
we reached
the region of the clouds.
hail
rang
192

us
down upon
from the thicket of trees overhead, and a
six-foot negro,
armed with a machette, dropped down from

the
track.
the
heights
above
His
It
clothing
was not
in
keeping with the
bitter cold.
consisted of the remains

will,
of a pair of trousers, of which the thorns had had their
hanging
shirting,
in
tatters
about
for
his thighs,
while a piece of blue

for
adjusted
his
wear by holes
head and arms,
completed
costume.
This was the chief warder of the
Black Napoleon's great citadel.
He and
sparsely
companion, similarly armed and yet more
clad,
now
led the way.
All trace of a path was

full in
gone, and to reach the Citadel, which

starkly up above us, grim
view, towered
and ruinous and red-stained with

was necessary
to cut out a track
lichen
and overgrowth
it
through the close mesh of underbush and creepers.

Yet,
if
report speaks truly, Christophe was wont in his

to drive
own day
up
to his fortress in the mountains.
The
warder guided us by devious turns and with

while
forest,
many
delays,
he cleared
away
the encroaching vanguards of the
until at length at the
outer bastions of the fort the

their shelter
trees stopped short.
From under
hurtling
until
we plunged
and waited,
should
out into
chilled
blinding,
cloud
sense
of rain,
of sight
to
the
bone,
the
be
vouchsafed to us again.
The guards
of
the
are,
Citadel,
inadequately
provided
it
in
every way as they
would have a poor time of
were

it
193
not
for
the
fact
that
the
Government, jealous of the
discovery of buried treasure, changes the

After a
men
every month.
time
the
rain
thinned,
urged
my
horse
to
frantic effort,
and shortly we gained the comparative
shelter
fluffy,
of the
flaky
roof,
guard-house.
log to
sit
upon, a mass of
fire,
wood-ash, eloquent of a dead
and a broken
as
usual,
tin
supported
served
on
to
posts,
but
the
it
wall-less
chill
which
merely
that
increase
of wind
and cloud
shot
and drove under
as through a funnel,
made
up the sum of barrack accommodation

Republican Government
Personally
I
furnished
by the
for its servants.

all
found that khaki, though

ports
very well
down
ideal
below
in
the
and on the
plains,
was not the
material for facing this fierce weather. While

the pleasure of the storm, the wild warder
we waited on
had plucked an
it
orange from a tree hard by, and was peeling

machette.
I
with his
it
remember
could
hardly
see
what
was
when
fell
its
first
he cut into
it,
and
yet, before the coil of peel
to the ground, the

tail
overhanging cloud had flicked away

in
and the mountain summit was bathed
yellow,
opulent sunshine.
And
mouths.
then
came repayment
to the fullest.
The whole green The
place laughed with a thousand dew-lit
trees dripped moisture
and exquisite shades

Nature breathed
of colour from their low-hanging branches.
warm
in
your
face.
You seemed
to see her, savage
and
194

flinging
beautiful,
fortress
her
unchecked
it
arms
its
about
place
walls,
the
great
as
if
I
to
drag
down from
at
of pride.
Involuntarily
their
glanced
up
the
grim,
draped
in
torn
garment of orange-red mosses.
Signs of decay
and time show clearly enough upon them, yet they stand
erect
against
the
pale
that
blue
other
sky-line
in
impressive
the
bulk.
And
then
came
contrast
their
between
wild
figures of the
solid
two warders and
great empty ward of
stone and brick and masonry.

dwelling-place,
They choose
to live
in their sordid
is,
puny and tumble-down

it
as
it
by
force of race preferring
to the
enormous
ruin.
Of
that they were
afraid
they
So
it
was
the
were
terribly
afraid.
Gingerly they
door,
opened
huge,
nail-rusted,
iron-bound
pausing
hang-footed on the vast threshold.
For here ghosts move,
they say, with

I
shrill
pipe through the blackness.
gave the order to
move
forward.
to trouble them.
little
But they held back.
Something seemed
The
four negroes gathered themselves into a
knot
and gabbled together.

back the creaking door.
Then one advanced and pushed

Old smells came out
laughing.
It
to
meet
us,
and noises
far
like
giants
was only a
landslip
away
in the
bowels of the mountain.

I
Well,
we
entered.
took three steps forward and a
hand plucked me back.

I
struck a match.
mouth of blackness gaped
at
my
feet.
194
WHERE
T^T
\ri-

"Deep,
deep
I
I
195
You dead
if
you
too.
walk
there 1"
After which
moved hang-footed
The
great
door of the ruin closed between us and the

in
sunlight,
and we were
the dark interior of the huge old
citadel
left
on Mont La Ferriere.
its
Long
deserted by man, and
to natural decay,
mighty structure shaken to dangerof
point
by the
violent
earthquake
1842,
the
Citadel
sight.
is
precisely the place
where one prefers to walk by

flight
We
groped our way up a

daylight
lit
of steps, and presently

ourselves
in
reached
gallery,
again.
We
found
long
by narrow embrasures, each guarded by an
ancient black-snouted cannon. There were nineteen of them,
nineteen
out
of an
aggregate
of three
all
hundred
in
the
whole
were
fort.
Behind the cannon and

and
piled
about the gallery

they
rolled
the
rusty
balls
were
never
destined to send forth.

it,
The
flooring, as
you moved over
quivered
like
the bed of a snipe-marsh, and the place
reeked of old wet smells.

Outside
you could see the world

;
alive
and hot with

the
lizard
glowing
startled
sunshine
here
nothing
stirred
save
from
its
bask.
Of
the long row of cannon
some
were of brass, and marked " Georgius IV. Rex," and some were strangely bearded
white,
little
with
shining
stalactites
of pallid
grovv'n
from the
endless drippings of the roof.
further
on the
the
floor did not
look like bearing a heavy

like
weight,
so
lighter negroes
went on alone
prying
196

until
children,
ten
yards
ahead the rotten wood creaked
and gave ominously, and they came scuttling back.
From
the gallery
we passed
out into an open courtyard
and the welcome warmth of the sun.
Here,
about the
tomb of dead Christophe, the

checked by the
outer
walls,
jungle,
fought back
and
has
undermined them and
broken out into fresh
riot.
Between the stems of the young
tamarinds and through Guinea-grass head-high and higher,
we pushed our way
until
we reached
the
resting-place,
in history,
pink and age-stained, of the most dominant black

the
negro who reproached Napoleon
for surviving defeat,
and who, true

chose death.
a
hole
to his convictions, in the
supreme moment
In front of the tomb, under the covering slab,

inside
it
had been broken through the masonry;

like a rabbit-earth
looked
Close
where dogs had been scratching.
over
it
from an orange tree
hung
fruit
in
ripe
golden
clusters.
Petit Col, the guide,
stooped down and burrowed
in the
opening,
furred,
and drew forth something yellowed, curved, and
human
it
rib.
"Take
Christophe,"
It
he said
briefly,
and diving again,

I
plucked out what seemed to be a finger-bone.

the souvenir.
declined
was a
little
too grisly.
it
But the
in
tall
warder
had no such scruples.

for
He wrapped
saleable.
I
what served him
shirt,
for
it
was
In the loneliness of the
stark interior he would,
think,
have shrunk from the
act,

but here he
courage.
197
had company and the sunHght
to stiffen his
We
the
pkuiged again
cut
a
into the jungle of Guinea-grass,
and
after
men
path to some
broken steps
then,
passing through one more dark passage,

the
battlements.
we emerged upon
for a
They
are
flat
and wide enough

gains
carriage to drive along.
From them one
some notion
of the vast thickness of the walls, fifteen to twenty feet of

solid
stone-work.
bars
Below,
the
whole plain spread out
in
gigantic
of colour.
The foreground
of deep potato-
green, dotted with huts small and black, like ranked dominoes,
the distances
fading
into
smoky
grey, and far to the
left
the sea in a band of gleaming blue underscored the horizon.

It
is
not
until
you look suddenly
straight
downwards
above
that
you
plain.
lealise
you are
thousand
two thousand
feet
feet sheer
the
Two
it
does
not
seem very
much
in print,
but
cliff
when
to
the eye follows the clean drop of
grey wall and

that
dim depths below, you become aware

a
the
words
have
pregnant meaning.
A
is
red mo.ss
creeps like old blood-stains about the stones.

inches
visible,
Here a few
distinctly
under
a
little
the
edge
each minute feather
further
down you have

till
a wide-spread blur,
lower, lower, and lower,
the distance grows
brown and
your head
reels,
for at last the field of
view comes up to
you with a wavering

of
air.
sea-floor
glimmer through the fathoms
98

in
fact,
Old blood-stained walls

Citadel.
are these of Christophe's
From
his
the
battlements
men have
leaped
into
space
at
order,
or been flung screaming out into the
shuddering emptiness.
The
stories of his cruelty are endless.
You wonder why

could have shaken
a strong
the
oft",
people
until
submitted to tyranny they

recollect that the will of
you
man
usually holds the key to
any
situation.
stone dislodged under the hand tumbled over the edge,

to
and we hung breathless
hear
it
strike
bottom.
After
we had ceased
surprised
to listen an echo rose faintly

ear.
upwards and
to
the
In
due time
we went back
the
massive
chill
and
silence of the ruin.
Through the King's

the
dining-hall,
chamber,
lofty,
the
Queen's
chamber,
and
round, be-windowed place.
While we
Billowing,
loitered there,
the
sun
went out
as
before.
in
smoky
cloud-
wreaths
came vomiting
through
twilight.
the
It
blank windows,
occurred to the
and threw us into a sudden

wild
to
warder to choose
this
juncture
as a fitting
moment
tell
me something
ghost,
if
of the habits of the local ghosts.
"
he can hurt you,

first
looks at you and you
die,"
he muttered; "the
time he comes he looks only

is
at his feet,
and the second time he
looking down,
down
at his feet; the third time

his
he looks at you"
he
flung up
two large-jointed hands with a gesture that depicted

left
sudden death, and
very
little
to the imagination.
When,
after
some minutes, the cloud
rolled
off.
Petit

Col
said.
igg
looked
up.
"There
is
nothing
more
to
see,"
he
But
the
explained that the
Emperor Christophe was not
man
to leave out those old-time necessities, dungeons;

all-time necessities, wells,
to do.
in finding
and those
from any building with
which he had
I
was not disappointed up
the Citadel dungeons
quite
to the quality of their best
European prototypes.
The
ally
bottle-necked variety appears to have appealed especito
Christophe's
practical
;
mind.
He had
constructed
last.
four of
them
in
a row
each one deeper than the

first
A
fall,
prisoner
say,
thrust
through the throat of the

;
would
;
twenty
feet
in
still.
the
next the drop was deeper
the
third
was deeper
In the last the victim
plunged into
the bottomless blackness of the mountain's heart.
There were many other dungeons,
too, so safe, so chill,
and so remote, a man might shriek himself
to death within
a few yards of sunshine and orange trees and flowers, and
none know save God and the stone
walls.
There can be
no manner of doubt that many so perished
men,
women,
and children,
I
for Christophe's
mercy was
not.
think
the
Black
Emperor must have looked forward

to defend himself
to a
foes.
day when he would have
from
his
The
well
he had constructed
was deep and clear
and freezing-cold, and fed by an inexhaustible spring.

Ferriere was his
La
Tower of Babel
he
built
it
to save him-
200
WHERE BLACK RULES

from
it
WHITE.
self
the
incoming flood of revolt which he feared

life
built
all
it
at
an incredible waste of
and labour, and

its
after
never answered the purpose of

is
being.
it
It
magnificent.
The
price paid for
was
thirty thou-
sand
lives.
it
To-day
gates,
is
cloud-hung ruin.
is
The
lizard
keeps
its
and the wind

ruin
alone in
its
vast emptinesses.
it
A
the
has always stamped upon
the traces of
some
human
passion.
This frowning helmet of La Ferriere bears

ferocity
sign
manual of the
and merciless vigour of
Christophe.
On
the battlements you find yourself, as
it
were, on the
side
roof of the
cloud-rack.
world,
looking
it
upon the other
of the
One
reaches
in
by a
faint track curling
up the
mountain
side,
and
three hours
you pass from the sun-
dried breathless plain below to a region of wind, grey-black

mists,
and aching
like
cold.
It
towers upon the
last
and highest
world
precipice
some
sinister
monster
of
the
elder
ready to launch
itself forth
upon the spreading lands below.
Seen
fort,
from afar the Citadel reminds one of a Chitrali

flat
one
it
step of
masonry above another, but nearer

its
at
hand
lines.
resolves itself into
true bold
and menacing
out-
The conception
of placing a fortress of such immense
strength and size in such a position could only have

to
come
ruler
who
did
not
count cost
in
lives
and labour.
But the black Emperor was a
man who knew
his
own mind
Ai

and
understood thoroughly the gentle
art of tearing
203
down
the barriers of laziness behind which the negro entrenches
himself at
all
times.
for
The
the
materials
the whole huge pile of building, and

it
three
hundred pieces of ordnance with which
was
fortified,
clififsides
were dragged up those steep mountain scarps and
by human hands.
in
Christophe employed the troops
mercilessly
this
labour,
seconding them
by
levies
of
peasants raised as required.
These poor wretches had no
pay and no food

terrible
they lived as they could, while their

toil
master forced them on to a fever of

little
by methods
which
left
chance of resistance.
nor
in
Neither sex
to
age was spared
the royal works had
be carried on
spite of exhaustion or death.
Whips
of cowskin, mercilessly applied
by the
ofificers in
command,
mortal-
drew
ity
forth almost incredible reserves of energy.

frightful,
The
was
but
Christophe
had the whole of the

lives
populous north to draw upon, and he used up human

unsparingly.
It
took a whole regiment a
whole day
to
drag up a
32-pounder.
On
another occasion the Emperor watched a
long
its
line
of a hundred
men
hauling a cannon upwards to
mountain resting-place.
labour,
;
Now
and then they paused
in
their
and these frequent stoppages annoyed
Chris-
tophe
he sent to ask the

for
why and
wherefore.
The
labourers
for the
returned
answer that the gun was over much
204
strength of a hundred men, and prayed that another hundred
men might be
Christophe
provided to help them.
ordered
them before him and talked

fall
softly
with them, and at length told them to

off.
in
and number
fall
it
He
up
then directed every fourth

his guards,
man
to
out, and,
calling
had them
shot.
When
was over,
he
informed the remaining seventy-five that he was but
half-way
favour
if
through
his
lunch,
and he would consider
it
they would run the gun up into place before he
had
finished.
The diminished band went back
to
work, but by the
time Christophe's meal was over the cannon had

little
made but
progress up the mountain side.
When
he arrived on
the scene the seventy-five bore witness with one voice that the thing he required was, for so small a number, impossible.
Christophe laughed.
"So
it
seems,"
he
said,
"but
have a remedy.
Fall in."
They
fell
in,
and numbered
off as before.
"Every
third
man
fall
out.
Guards, shoot these men."

last
The
volley
had scarcely died away and the
limb
ceased to quiver, when Christophe gave his ultimatum.
"Now," he
every second
said to the frightened residue, "I will require
man
to
fall
out
next time.
The gun was

it
too heavy for a hundred men, surely
fifty will find

it
light."
They
of
did.
At any
and
rate,
they towed
up to the summit
it
La
Ferriere,
in its
appointed casemate
probably

stands
to
this
205
day.
By such means
it
the Citadel
came
to
be the wonderful achievement
is.
On
those
towering heights
it
was painfully
to
laid,
stone
effort
on stone, by men and women driven
superhuman
by the
fear
of unheard-of punishments.
For Christophe
in torture.
was of an
original turn of mind,

not,
I
and an epicure
man does
take
it,
know how he can work
until
he has real fear dogging him.

Christophe's
created
agent
in
England
(a
prince,
by the way,
master's
under the
works,
new empire) boasted

filled
of his
public
"ravines
up" and
the like.
He
did
not add the modus operandi; which was simple.

tophe, in driving,
to to
If Chris-
came
to a hollow place
he caused a drum
be beaten.
All within hearing were compelled to
come
point
it
the spot on pain of death.
The Emperor would
to the offending hole or valley
it
mattered
little
which
was
at
and
remarked that he would pass by that way again
such a time.
That was
suit
all.
When
he returned,
if
the
work did not

the
his
ideas
or had not been completed,
drum sounded
again,
and on the people assembling
he would choose out a casual half-dozen and have them

shot then and there.
There seems
man's nature.
him.
the
to
have been nothing

humility,
all
to appeal to in this alike failed to touch
Bravery,
He had no bowels
of mercy.
He was one day on
battlements with a youth, who, perhaps presuming on
2o6

favours,
in
past
some manner displeased him.

is
The drop
from those sheer waUs
2,000ft. to the plain below.
"You
" but
I
are,
will
of course,
about to
die,"
shall
said
Christophe,
be kind to you.
You
have a choice of
deaths.
Either you throw yourself over here or the soldiers
shall shoot
you."
to fling himself into space.
The young man chose

by a miracle he
cliff-side,
fell
But
amongst some
trees or bushes
on the
and so escaped with a broken arm.
He
gathered
himself up
somehow, and presented himself again before
the Emperor.
"Your bidding
"Yes,
it
has been done, sire," he said.
has,"
remarked Christophe,
to
find that
it
"and
am
very
much
trying
interested
if
you
survive.
Oblige
me by
you can do
again!"
These are the

Christophe.
stories
which cling round the name of

a
He was
not
Haytian negro, but from one
of the English islands near.
For
this reason,
perhaps, one
takes an unwholesome pride in the man, as possessed of a

rare character
and indomitable resolution, much
in the
same
way
as
we
are
proud of the great
pirate,
Captain Kidd,
for his
another
treasure
gentleman
is
who had
to
do with Hayti,
said to be hidden in the neighbouring island of

lies
Tortuga,
Republic.
which
close to the coast
and belongs
to the
The Black Napoleon was
man
of rapid
rise.
He
en-

tered the army, did
207
some
service in a tumult of revolution,
then
contrived
coup-d'etat,
and he was master of the

he raised himself to the
situation.
By
these
few
at
steps
head of events, and

Northern Provinces.
Unlike the
the
qualities
once created an Empire out of the
majority
of his race, he possessed
many
of
of a born ruler.
He made
himself immortal
side,
it
by
his masterful vigour,
which on the one
is
true,
degenerated into callous brutality, but on the other rose

to
that
energising
force
of character that
is
said to have
initiated
a spirit of enterprise and industry in the north

that
spirit
up
to
the
rest
present day differentiates his old

of the
kingdom from the

whole,
a
it
Black
Republic.
On
the
can
hardly be denied that he was somewhat of
kingly
figure.
And
life.
the
manner of
his
death was
in
keeping with his
Towards the
close he
had an attack of
paralysis,
and
as
soon as he recovered sufficiently to give orders he had

himself placed
that
in
bath
of
rum and pepper, a remedy
somewhat restored him.

at
Immediately after a revolution
broke out against him

merciless
Cap Haytien, provoked by
his
exactions
of labour from the people.
From
the
belvedere of his Palace of Sans-Souci he watched the rebels
burning
his fields of
cane; he sent for his body-guard, and,
as they defiled before him, he
gave each man a

rebels.
dollar,
and
bade them go and
fight against the
Later,
news
2o8
was brought that the guard had deserted, and gone over
to
the
enemy.
He must have He
felt
that
the
end of
his
power was come.

and
rose and bade farewell to his wife
family, and, going to his
own chamber, blew
out his
brains.
As always happens
in
such cases, the servants and
officers
of the court looted the palace, but his wife and daughters
managed
Citadel
to
carry
away
his
dead body with them
to the
on the mountain above.

rises
At
times,
they
say,
grim shadow
about
the
his
from the jungle grown tomb and wanders

overlooking the plains that were
battlements,
once
own.
of the
Citadel up there
The
is
climate
among
the clouds
full
of rapid
is
and bewildering changes.
One moment
;
the
heat
tropical.
Then you
see far
away a cloud
it
approaches, rearing up into the zenith, rushing at you like

a regiment of cavalry in a wide swirl of black dust.
The
next
moment
to
it
is
belching in at
all
the embrasures, chilling
you
outer
the
bone,
and the climate becomes that of the
Hebrides,
During these sudden invasions the place

all
gives you the concrete representation of
that
is
chaotic
and ruinous and abysmal.
When
over
the
rain
and the mist had passed over we went
out again across the threshold.
The sun was
shining,
and
the vista of potato-green plain and amethyst sea the

its
cloud was gathering up
ragged
skirts in
flight.

As
the
fire
I
209
left
the
tall
warder was pessimistically picking over

late repast,
remnants of
into flickering
my
life.
and he had warmed the
Another heavy-breasted cloud had

;
invested the frowning walls
beneath their shadow the

their
men
were crouching together
in
dreary hut,
and above
them the dying
fortress
hung hooded.
14
CHAPTER
JUSTICE
XI.
AND THE STATUS OF THE WHITE.

RULED BY THE NEGRO.
distinc-
WHERE HE
In most countries
tions
IS
where they put forward race
man
is
called Englishman,
American, German
claim him.
the
by
the the
name
point
of whatever nation of complexion

If
may
But
in
Hayti
carries
day, and estabhshes

to
your designation.
you do not happen
be of the reg-
nant colour, you are a white, a blanc \\\Q Haytian recognises
no minor distinction among the lighter-hued foreigners.

the streets you catch, at the tags and
the
labial
As you walk about

tails
of sentences,
"
blajic,''
as
the curious
or
antagonist negro delivers his criticism upon you, your pro-
bable
sonal
station
in
life,
your present business and your per-
charms.
For,
above
all
things, the negro
is
extra-
ordinarily inquisitive.
JUSTICE
Jealousy
of

the
21
foreigner
is
very pronounced
loafer.
trait,
from the Government down to the wharf-side

immigration
said to
in land,
is
His
discouraged
in
every way.
;
He may be
have practically no rights
he can own no property
and
if
he gets a concession from the Government
he
is
likely to find himself, sooner or later, left in the lurch.

it
Yet
is
not too
much
it
to say that the presence of the

is,
white element, small as
makes
for
good.
Remove
it,
and the Republic would go sliding back

of barbarism.
into the depths to the repre-
This applies
more especially
sentatives of foreign
Powers accredited
in
to the island.
Time
and again has Hayti,

of independence,
the course of her hundred years
owed
the
continuance of that independ-
ence to the kind
offices of these
gentlemen.
it
Occasionally she flounders diplomatically, and then

that
is
the
white
man's aid
must be called
black.
in to
adjust a
difificulty
beyond the powers of the
schedule of
the
cases
where the diplomatic representatives of foreign
nations
have saved Hayti from the wrath and reprisals of
some
insulted
Power would make an
interesting
document,
and, to those
who
are not behind the scenes, a surprisingly
lengthy one.
Pôr
all
this,
Haytian gratitude
in
is
not.
Unless the quid

inis
pro quo be down

sisted
black and white, and, moreover,
upon,
it.
it
quietly drops into oblivion
and no more
heard of
212
WHERE BLACK RULES

is
WHITE.
Here
the
an instance when the diplomatic corps formed
buffer
between Haytian maladroitness and foreign
re-
sentment.
The 6th
in
of December,
1897, was a day to be

for
long
the
remembered
Port-au-Prince,
on that morning
It
is
German Government
sent in
an ultimatum.
un-
necessary to enter at length into the origin of the dispute,

suffice
it
to
his
say that a German subject had been imprisonrelease,
ed,
and
on the intervention of
his Minister,
refused.
In
the
end the man was
set at liberty
through
the
good
offices of the
American representative.
But Ger-
many
considered herself insulted.
The Kaiser
sent a tele-
gram, followed up by two gun-boats, with orders to receive

the indemnity demanded, and, in the event of a refusal to
pay, they were instructed to shell the capital.

Port-au-Prince
was
in
an uproar.
The
inhabitants fled
to the hills, the families of
many
leading citizens were sent

in the har-
on board the ships that happened to be lying

bour.
the
The rougher
part of the populace boasted that on
first
shot fired they would begin a massacre of every

in the
white
man, woman, and child
town.
The Cabinet
met
at the palace of the President to discuss the situation.

flying,
Meantime the minutes were
but the foreign repre-
sentatives procured an extension of the time-limit given in
the
German ultimatum.
The
final
hour fixed upon was
one o'clock, on the stroke of which, as the German com-
mander was
careful
to
assure
them, the
first
shell
would
JUSTICE AND
be
flag,
THE STATUS OF THE WHITE.
215
dropped
upon the roof of the palace unless a white
the signal of compliance, should be hoisted there.

the horns of a dilemma
;
The Cabinet were on

not
they did
know how
the
populace would take surrender.
For
the Haytians at large have no idea of their position in the
catalogue of the
nations,
being
fully
convinced that they
could engage on equal terms with any one of them.
With-
out
there
the
advice
and mediation
of
the
foreign
delegates,
can
be
little
doubt that the time-limit would have

felt
expired and that Hayti must in consequence have
the
weight of Germany's hand, even
if
the wild anarchy that
would inevitably have broken out had not marked the end
of her century of independence.
And
the
German
affair
is
only one of many.

is,
Thanks,
then, to events such as these, while he

tions,
with rare excep-
disliked
and
distrusted,
the
average foreigner has

is
earned
to
at least the toleration
which
invariably accorded
usefulness.
In this connection the visit of the
German
to the
warships
had
in
one
good
effect.
It
brought
home
is
Haytian
the street, the knowledge that white
a colour
worthy of respect.
For a foreign gun- boat
in
Port-au-Prince
bay
is
worth more as a deterrent than a navy at Port
Royal.
The
black
man must
see to understand.
foreigner, he has
As
to the personal safety of the

little
under
it
the present regime

is
cause for complaint.
Of
course
fatally
easy,
if
you are not known,
to get into trouble,
2i6

in
and once
you
will
find
it
an uncommonly hard matter
to get out again.
On many
crossed
to
It
occasions
during
my
stay in Port-au-Prince
the Champ-de-Mars late at night.
better place
rob a
is
man you
it
could not find

dark,
its
in
the two hemispheres.

it
lonely,
is
lamps are broken,

holes
It
it
is
honey-
combed with treacherous

bull-frogs croak ceaselessly.
it
and
ditches,
whence the
to cross
would not be wise
in the small hours,

is
were
situated in Venezuela,
where
the early pedestrian

fied fingers
apt to find such objects as unidenti-
on the public paths

a
three
were found
in Car-
racas
not
month ago
soldier,
but
here beyond the ubiquitous,
cent-desiring
that
you are never molested.
At
least,
was
is
my
a
experience.
surprising condition of affairs
This
sider
when you
con-
the
state
in
of Hayti.
this
It
is
another of those violent

is
contrasts
which
country
so
rich.
Her people,
knife-in-
whatever
may be
their other faults,
have not that
your-back instinct which permeates so
many
of the Spanish-
American Republics.
And
now, having dealt with the safety of the white man

let
from the attacks of the lawless,

to fare
if
us see
how he
is
likely
he chances to be attacked by the law.

is
The
frivolous
blanc
not
infrequently
thrown into prison on

into
charges,
and when one takes

arrest,
account the
insan-
chances of maltreatment on
and the horribly
JUSTICE AND
itary
THE STATUS OF THE WHITE.

prisons,
this in
217
condition
of the
itself constitutes
grave danger.
Further, his evidence in the courts does not,
under any circumstances, hold good against counter-evidence

offered
by
it
a
is
Haytian.
Whatever the
rights
of the case
may
will
be,
a foregone conclusion that the Juge de Paix
decide
in
favour of his
own countryman.
the
Outside
the
Legations,
Consulates,
in
and the chief
mercantile houses, the white
man
Hayti cannot be called

Five
a particularly fine example of the aristocracy of colour.
men
fired
out of six have had chameleon careers, and have been

at
last
by the rigour of
stark
necessity
into
their
present berths.
The
greater
number of them
it
are, of course,
Germans.
At
the close of the last century
was estimated
that the white population of Hayti reckoned 46,000 souls;
to-day you might knock off the last two ciphers.
And
with the disappearance of the white colonists pros-
perity fled from the land.

said,
is
Government
policy, as has
been
directed
that the
towards keeping out the foreigner.
The
result
is
immense natural resources of the country
remain entirely undeveloped.

sity to
The white man has of
neces-
be very circumspect
in his
dealings with the Haytian.

it
He
lives
and trades
in
the Republic under protest, as

is
were, against a regime that

to
always antagonistic, and ready

offers.
hamper
his
efforts
whenever opportunity
As
if
far as the
towns are concerned, then, the white man,

will
he can keep clear of the entanglements of the law,
2i8

save in unusual cases, be molested.
alters
not,
revolution, of
course,
the
aspect
of things, promiscuous shooting
goes on, and underlying dislike of the outlander comes to

the surface.
course,
if
But even when things are taking
their
normal
he
happens
to
be unfortunate enough to come
within the grasp of the law, the White, under the present
Government, has no
rights
the
Black need respect save
those which can be enforced by his diplomatic representative,
which means by the brute power of

In
all
his nation.
little
the principal coast towns there exists a
nucleus
of white men,
who form
if
the core of the virile part of the
community, and who,

country, bring
they
it.
make
their
money
life is
out of the
much
into
Their daily
monotonous
at
enough.
Take,
by way of example, the

is
routine
it,
the
Cape.
man
up with the sun or before

Breakfast
is
and arrives
at his office early.
taken at noon, after which
he returns to work.
to
About
four he adjourns as one

till
man
the
local
club,
and there he stays

sitting
seven, playing
billiards or
dominoes, or
on the wooden piazza that

marsh.
After that he
overlooks the ragged weed-grown
goes
the
If
home
to dinner
and bed.
And
to-morrow he travels
same old round.

you are
is
So runs
life
for the foreigner in Hayti.

in Hayti.
a white
man, then don't go to law

it is
Bribery
to
not unknown, but

to
injustice
nearly always far cheaper

try
submit
than to
conclusions
if
in
a law
to,
court.
For you cannot bribe away, even
you wished
JUSTICE AND
the
self-evident
to
fact
THE
Sl'ATUS OF
THE WHITE.
219
of race,
and your opponent usually
happens
be of the ruling colour.

is
The
basis of the law
the
Code Napoleon, modified

in lesser particulars
to
Haytian necessities,
time to time.
the
and altered
judicial
from
The
machinery of the courts, from

is
Court of Cassation downwards,
modelled upon the
French system.
of blood
toes
is
The judges
are black, for any admixture
regarded with strong disfavour, and even mulat-
are rigorously excluded from positions and authority.

better class
The
do not seek the
office,
and judges, oddly

legal
enough,
are
rarely
drawn from the grades of the
profession.
The
President has the right of nomination, and he and
his party put forward
any person they please,

is
for a judge's
most prominent recommendation

tisan
his usefulness as a paris
or
supporter.
The
is
actual
salary
small, but the
appointment can be and

remunerative.
It
is
so handled as to prove highly
a fact of
common knowledge
;
that cases are .syste-
matically
quietly
prejudged
now and then
a politician intervenes
hint to the
litigants set
in the
for
purposes of his
is
own; he gives a
bench, and the verdict

foot in court.
arranged before the
Curious impediments are thrown
way
of justice, and grotesque excuses have been given for the

non-fulfilment of ordinary legal forms.
In
this
connection
story
may
be
told
which has a
220

In a certain
moral, but no end.
town there
is
a firm
whom
made
certain
we
will
call
Da
Costa and Co.
Some
years ago they

for
an arrangement with a Haytian to buy

materials required in their business.
them
To
carry
out his
side
of the contract, and for the ex-
press purpose of procuring the various articles in
demand,
large
visited
at
the
Haytian
went
to
Europe,
taking
with
him a
advance of some thousands from the company.
He
most of the Continental

the
or
cities,
spending a long interval
Mecca of Haytians
so
Paris,
and by the end of a year
returned
home empty-handed.
He had no money
complete
into
left,
nor had he any supplies to show.
Da
Costa and Co
of their
it still
naturally
objected to the
disappearance
court,
money, and took the matter

remains.
and there
The evidence was
so clear
that a record
tiffs.
was broken and judgment given
for the plain-
But, having
done
this,
the judges manifestly thought

a
verdict
in
they
favour
to
had
done
firm
enough.
They had given

it
of a
of foreigners, and
was now necessary
remove the
stain of so
doing from their characters.

of a simplicity
The course they adopted was

genius
akin to
they
refused
to
execute the judgment.
On
The
the
occasion of Messrs.
beautifully
Da
Costa's last appeal, the excuse
was
consistent
with
Haytian traditions.
court
(and
it
was not an
had
inferior court, quite the opposite) replied
that they
at the
moment no money
to
buy the neces-
*-
JUSTICE
221
sary stamped paper to execute the judgment, and Messrs.
Da
Costa must wait until they had

the converse side of the shield of Republican
this
To show
justice
in
at
for
moment
crime
there
is
more than one foreigner
gaol
the
of owing a dollar or
some
similar
small
sum
to a Haytian.
their cases
Those who gain

three
classes.
may
safely
be divided into
is
First,
;
the
black,
whose opponent
as
white,
wholly or partially
secondly,
among
;
themselves, the
man
lower
with
the
biggest
the
purse and pull
and, lastly, in the
classes,
man who
has the luck.
Occasionally
extraneous influences are brought to bear.
As
in
the old
Roman
down
days,
the
sword thrown
into
the balance brings
the scales of justice with a run.
Recently a
Haytian merchant sued the active Chief of
Police for debt.
On
a
to
the
day the case was

little
called the Chief
of Police give
made up
weight
snug
the
escort of his men, and, to
due
proceedings,
served
out
few
rounds of ammunition,
to
and marched them

black
in a
body up
the
court.
Three
judges
of
were
on the bench
ready to try the case

recollecting pressing
two
them
forestalled trouble
by
engagements elsewhere, and the
third
sought cover.
The
case was adjourned for a fortnight.

for
On
Police
the
day fixed
the second hearing the Chief of the
played trumps again,
judges departed
at
the
double and there was no quorum.
222

this the
Upon
Chief Justice wrote to the defendant.
He
and
begged him
to
to
bear
in
mind
his duties as a citizen,
present himself before
the Civil Tribune in a costume
and manner conforming
to the laws of his country.
For answer, upon the appointed day the Chief doubled

his escort, dressed himself in full uniform, served out
some
extra boxes of ammunition for his

his
men
to carry,
and rode
horse
into
it
the
court.
at the
The
case was postponed, and

It is
postponed
remains
hour of writing.
reported
that political animus

In
was here the wheel within the wheel.

the
criminal
cases
courts
move slowly about

is
their
business.
The law
lie
of habeas corpus
a dead letter.
man may
of time.
Prince.
in
prison
is
awaiting
trial
for
no small period
jail
There
to-day a prisoner in the
at Port-au-
He
has been there for
many
years,
and no record
of his
offence
remains
the
why and
the wherefore have

is
been long forgotten.
Only the man himself

his lost crime.
extant,
still
undergoing the punishment of
There
is
in the constitution a
law abolishing the penalty

it
of death for political misdemeanours, but
was consistently
ignored by every President,
without
exception,
who has
is
held power in the island, until General Sam,

at the
who
now
his
head of the Government, came

be
it
into office.
his political
To
credit
said that
he usually sends
enemies
to prison instead of shooting
them out of hand against the

his
crumbling arsenal wall, after the immortal principles of
JUSTICE

But
to
I
223
predecessors Salomon and Hippolyte.
could
name one
gentleman
chair,
at
least
is
who,
if
he succeeds
the Presidential
which
quite
on the cards,
will revive the
good
old customs of the past.

In
spite,
however, of the
very
general corruption and
deliberate miscarriage of justice, the Court of Cassation has
of late taken up an attitude which approximates more nearly

to the universal idea of equity,
and has decided some cases
upon
their
own
merits and not upon those of the litigants.

is
Judicial
procedure
in certain instances
not untouched
by humour.
Haytian owed a trader twenty-eight dollars.

to
judgment requiring the Haytian

into court
pay four
dollars a
to
week
was given, and the trader agreed
send
a messenger every
week
to the magistrate for the

first
money.
In due time he sent for the

that
instalment,
and was informed
the
Haytian had not paid up, but that he should be
thrown
into prison for his failure.result.
Three weeks passed with the same

ing the
said,
One morn-
Haytian
came
to the trader's store.
He
was, he
there-
poor man,
much
married, a
man
to
whom
fore
expense came.
if
What
him
good, he asked, would accrue
to the trader
he, the
poor man, was thrown into prison?

his
Let
the
trader
forgive
in
debt,
and earn
thereby
untold rewards
a future state.
After some talk the trader gave him a letter of remission,
which he went
oft"
to present to the magistrate.
The
affair
224

settled, but the
was
Haytian was struck by the bad grace
with which the magistrate dismissed him, and he forthwith

returned to
the
trader
and asked him
if
he had received
trader looked
the eight dollars already paid into court.

surprised,
"
is
The
and
said he
had received nothing.
Then, since you have remitted the debt, that eight dollars
mine," said the Haytian.
Accordingly he went off to the court to present
his claim.
The
magistrate at once committed him to prison.

the
story
consul
who had heard
asked
for.
the magistrate what the
Haytian was sent to prison
"For contempt of
court,"
was the
reply.
CHAPTER
THE HAYTIAN
If
I
XII.
PRESS.
were condemned to write down the names of

I
all
the
to
newspapers of Hayti, past and present,
should have
spend a considerable time upon the

is
task.
The
reason
of their multiplicity
for
not on account of any great
demand
news
in the
Black Republic, but because from a number

of the
daily
of causes
short-lived.
the
journals
press
are
apt to be
Whenever
leader,
there
is
a revolution each party, each powerful
must perforce have an organ through which he

the
in
may
address
public
generally
and the inhabitants of

political
Port-au-Prince
particular.
So each
commotion
brings
in
its
train
crop
of newspapers,
will
proclamations,
pamphlets
of hfe
is
call
a
them what you
whose average length

its
limited to half-a-dozen issues.
Moreover,
paper which
starts
career
in
print as
15
226

of Hayti
"
"The Evening News
may
pass through various
re-incarnations; so that
to
when "The Evening News" happens

it
be suppressed on a Saturday,
alias
makes
its
reappearance
Mirror of the
it
on Monday under the
of (say)
"The
down
World;"
shortly as
after
being
once
more
put
turns
up
"The Thunderer
have
a
of the Republic."
These journals
humour of
are
their
own
for
the
European reader.
nalists
They
conducted by Haytian jour-
whose
styles
appear to lend themselves to a rather
bombastic tone, and

superlatively
whose grasp upon foreign
affairs is
French.
to
Although there appears

the
be some competition
is
among
newspapers,
circulation
counted by tens instead of
by thousands, and the means by which the chief Republican

organs exist are drawn from the subsidies granted to them
by the
free
State.
This system
press.
naturally
militates
it
against
and
fearless
In
any
case,
must be
difficult
to preserve
freedom of utterance when,
at the first
symptom
of independence, the enterprising editor is dragged off to prison.
Ten years ago

condition than
published,
it
the Haytian press was in a

is
more healthy
to-day.
At
that time grievances were

evils of the
brutal
arrests
condemned, and the
country, even cannibalism and snake-worship, were occasionally dealt with.
The
greatest newspaper of those days

rival
was
run
by the Consul-General of the
black Republic of
Liberia.
THE HAYTIAN
At
"
PRESS.
227
the present time Port-au-Prince possesses two papers,

Soir "
Le
and " Le Nouvelliste," whose views upon

are absolutely colourless.
local
questions
a single
In form they are like
page of
"The
St.
James's Gazette," but the paper
upon which they appear has vast margins.

include
Their contents an
article
telegrams
Haytian,
from
P'rench
sources,
by a
leading
and a patchwork of utterly unimportant

they find themselves short of copy they
local news.
When
print
a eulogy of the President of Hayti, or of the editor
of the paper.
In
the the
front
column of one of these papers,

of
" P'oreign
directly
under
head
Telegrams,"
appeared the
following interesting announcement

"
M.
Salmon has removed

nail
for
M. C. Rigaud four corns
and an ingrowing
without pain or effusion of blood.
He was
very
satisfied with the
manner
in
which Pedicure
Salmon operated.
cisse
To-morrow
will
be the turn of D. NarP^ditor of this paper."
and on PMday that of the
"
Le Peuple."
Another gem
is
the following:
of the sons of Dr. Maitre

last
"Extraordinary Fact. One

Bonaventure,
the
Port
doctor,
was a victim
night of
an attempted assassination accomplished under circumstances
which have yet to be explained.

in the
Being
in his
bed alone
closed,
house, and
all
the
means of ingress absolutely

from
a
he
received
several
blows
poignard
We
have
228

heard certain persons seriously lay
!
ourselves
this mysteri-
ous crime to the charge of Satan

has
We
believe that Justice
accepted
further
this interpretation
with a wise reserve.

expectation." "La
We
await
revelations
with
Revue
Expres."
The
price
of newspapers
I
ranges
from
five
centimes to
half a dollar.
ally
understand that their circulation occasionfigures,
attains
four
but
believe
three
would be
nearer the mark.
During the
earlier part of the
Boer
War
suffered con-
siderably at the hands of the Haytian press.
Their render-
ing of events, being drawn from the French point of view,
was
alarmist.
Under date
in his
13th December, General "Forestier" includes
despatch from the Cape the following news of General

:
Methuen
morning
" The
/
Boers
being
I
perfectly
entrenched
order,
this
in their position,
retired in
good
and up
to the present
am
us.
safe.''
latel}'
We
have heard a great deal

Hayti
of the French press
campaign against
lies,
as
everyone knows, 4,000
miles distant from France, yet one of these Haytian papers,
which
have described above, published an
article
last
December, some extracts from which are worth quoting.

Napoleon, risen from
his
his
tomb
at the Invalides,
addresses
old
soldiers
"
for
The
in
English,
the
eternal
enemy who
conquered you
conquering
me
she conquered you
THE HAYTIAN
PRESS.
229
the
the
English of Trafalgar and of Waterloo, recoil before

little
energy of a
people of Africa.
The mercenaries
;
of the Old
fall
Queen draw back, and

honour of the
;
are broken
the officers
to save the
flag that these
mercenaries
, .
have not the heart to defend

Albion dies
.
. .
Albion
fights
no longer
And
thou, France, thou wilt look on and
thou wilt not budge

"
What
then
is
the blood that flows in thy veins

I
Hast
thou
forgotten
that
fought
for
?
twenty years to deliver
thee from her commercial yoke

at
That
conquered
at Jena,
Austerlitz,
at
Eylau, to chastise, not the Prussian, not
the Russian, not the Austrian, but to destroy the English?
Hast thou
that
forgotten that thy last glory, the purest of

lit
all,
which
up the end of the century with a ray of
greatness and hope, the glory of Marchand and of his band
of heroes,
has
been torn from thee by
this
race of shop-
keepers
"And
if
thou
hast
not
forgotten
?
these
sorrows,
why
dost thou delay to avenge them

" Already
at
Boulogne
had
gathered
their
an
army.
I
Under
their
eyes,
notwithstanding
cruisers,
I
was
preparing to
invade them.
In a few days
their
island.
should have
thrown
100,000
suffice to
;
men
into
To-day
20,000
would
muzzle them.
Their vessels are at the end
of the earth
"
thine are here.

escort
They
will
thy transports,
which,
in
less
than
230

hours,
will
twenty-four
the
disembark on
!
this
accursed island
!
sons
a
to
of
my
old Grenadiers
I
France, to arms
it
It
is
not to
conquest that
these
invite you,
!
is
to give a vital
blow
insolents
Republic,
1
remember Hoche
France,
bethink thee of Bonaparte "
On coming
to
an
end of these inspired words, the shade disappeared.
At times the
difficulties
editors of the Haytian papers
have singular
its
to
contend
with.
One organ announced

it
desire
to
buy new
until the
forms,
but said
must postpone the

its
purchase
newsagents who retailed
copies paid
some
of their debts on account.

up,
I
To wind
in
will give
you some war correspondence

following were produced during
the Haytian style.
The
the
tions
Dominican War or one or other of the many revolu:
"The two
the enemy's
armies
met;
after
life
terrible
battle
lasting
two hours, which cost the
of a man, our troops carried
camp by
assault."
Here
again:
rising
"To-day,
to the height of the sublime sentiment
of independence, of
indissoluble
the
citizens
!
of Valliere shouted the cry

against
fraternity
The enemy launched

;
us the whole of their forces
the lesson has been a terrible
one; three
drums,
the
trumpet,
and various other objects
remained
in
hands of the troops of the Government.
Honour
to the Generals
&c."
THE HAYTIAN
And
your
then
here
is
PRESS.
231
an address from a General to his soldiers

I
"Soldiers!
first
promised to conduct you to victory, and
enterprises
have been
fruitful
Put your trust

I
in the
wisdom and the experience with which

Soon, the
will
direct
your
steps.
God
of Armies blessing our arms,

efforts,
complete triumph
crown our
for
we defend
just cause, a holy cause
that
tried
of public liberty!"
A
his
week
party
later
this
patriot
emptied the Treasury, sold

during a night disturbance
fled to
to
the
enemy,
to overthrow the President,
and
Pûrope.
To
"
conclude,
give an advertisement of a different kind.

to bring to the notice of the
The undersigned wishes

the
fact
public
that
since
his
return
from Panama,
now
almost six years ago, he has not meddled with any sums
in
gold
or
silver
belonging
to
this
an)'
person
whatsoever.
will
He
trusts
that
having said
an impartial public
"
meditate
on the
announcement."
Le Peuple."
(Advt.)
CHAPTER
THE IIAYTIAN PEOPLE AS
TiiEV are kindly.
hearted.
XIII.
KNEW THEM.
They
are good-
They
are hospitable.
They
are a song-loving and a cheerful people.
They
are ignorant.
They
are lazy.
They
are leavened
with the horrors of serpent-worship, and a certain, though

I
think a diminishing, proportion of them consent

it)
(to
say
the least of
to
human
sacrifice.
That
West.
is
the
good and bad of the Black Republic of the

it
In their defence, let
be said that they are brutally

of the
secret
misgoverned.
the
alive
I
And by
reason
faults
influence
of
Papalois their
worst
to.
and superstitions are kept

all
and pandered
Yet, in spite of
all
these drawbacks,
the wild districts
farmers, or
have
never during
for
my
travels
in
in
asked
those
a
in
drink
of water
vain.
Small
who
any other country would answer

seen
to such a
description,
men who had never
me
before, dwelling
THE HAYTIAN PEOPLE AS

in
KNEW THEM.
me
233
nnor hnmp-backcu huts, have given
a mattress and
what meagre food they had, without ever expecting repayment, and indeed they were insulted
It
is
if I
offered
it.
a country of gigantic contrasts, of no sort of medio-
crity.
The Haytian
is
either
one thing or the
other, a
sort of
Man
in the
Moon,
entirely lacking in mental atmos-
phere,
capable
of passing
instantaneously
from intensest
light to blackest
shadow, from kindly hospitality to hopeless
cruelty.
The
so-called
wild
people
chance,
of
as
I
the
interior
are
utterly
maligned.
You may
did, to run
up against
will
some priest-dominated Vaudoux worshipper who

to poison
try
you by means of some obscure and potent drug.

witness orgies and sacrifices,
if
You may
to
you can contrive

risk.
be
all
present and are willing to take the

the
They go
license at
on
year
round,
If
although with greater

authorities in
certain
periods.
place,
you offend the
any outfate,
of-the-way
for
yours
may
not be a very enviable
when
as
the
far
negro finds a white

as
man
is
in
his
power the
result,
the
white
man
concerned, becomes
it.
precisely
what the negro's whim may make

rural
Yet the
foreigner
Haytian
is
all
that
have
said, for the
who
gets into trouble
amongst them has
to deal,
is,
not
with
them,
la
but with the local authority
that
the
General de
Place.
He
is
a black
endowed with
arbitrary
powers, and, consequently,
is
often of swollen pretensions.
234

rules precisely as rules the biggest
He
boy
at school
he
deals
out a rough and ready justice that would be humoit
rous were
not
terrific.
He awards
the penalty of death
with the same lightness of heart that a large boy bestows
on a smaller the harmless and necessary kick.

judge broadly from
effects, this
Yet, to
off-hand system excellently
suits the character of the
people.
rather
different.
In
loafer
the
is
towns matters are

not
The townwharfside
;
deserving
with as
of
much
praise.
The
nigger
steals
much frequency
all
as he eats
that
is,
he seeks the chance
the
day and most of the
night.
When
a
working on
a lighter, his favourite
game
is
to
drop
barrel
overboard,
sink
it,
and
fish
it
up again
in the
small
hours.
trifle
He
hangs about ships
in
his boat, picking
up every
he can lay hands on.
Occasionally
someone
is
in authority
breaks up his foolish
jackdaw's hoard, he
taken
arrested and clubbed
by the
is,
police,
away
to
the
prison
It
where
no
food
and there
chained to an
thief of thieves,
iron bar.
does him no good.

until
will
He
is
is
and
will
go on stealing
his
he
dead,
and then probably some of

and
steal
friends
come along
these petty
the
are
still
boots from the corpse.

the
Above
offenders
great
Generals,
who
steal the soldiers'
pay; and,
higher, the Government,
who
steal promis-
cuously from
all
and everywhere.
As
to the negro's position in the
Government, there are
^
;.,-**
'lit-*
A;^4<#^
-il^
==^

in
KNEW THEM.
of African
others
race,
237
the
Cabinet some capable

in
men
are
but
sandwiched
amongst them
who
are
mere
caricatures men
whose deserved
place,
really
do not
think
am
unjust or unfair in saying, ought to be rather
the stoke-hole of a steamer.

cies
in
One
is
of the strongest tendenthe desire to keep the
the
as
Republic
of to-day
coloured,
opposed to the
black,
man from
office
and
emolument.
classes, to
If
There
which
is
is
a rooted jealousy between the two
added race-hatred.
will find
you look
its
into
Haytian history you
cropping up
throughout
pages the record of these

;
fierce
and sangui-
nary struggles
you
will find the
coloured element dwindling

less powerful.
is
and continually growing smaller and

personnel
delight
sident
The
of the
present
Government
black enough to
Pre-
the
heart of the most advanced negro-phile.

is
Sam
of the ultra-negro type, and

filled
all
the higher
posts
around him are

for
with
that
men
of his
own
race.
"Hayti
the
Haytians,"
war-cry of the people of
the Republic,
means
really Hayti for the
negro
no mulatto
need apply.
The people
as
a whole will rarely consent to vote for
a mulatto, whilst
is
when
a negro enters the arena the result

It
is
a foregone conclusion.
an every-day fact that the
masses,
fancied
who would
slight,
individually poison a white

justice
at the
man
for a
or
would resent
hands of a
mulatto,
submit contentedly to tyrannical oppression from
238
WHERE
their
BT-ACK RULES WHITE.

!
one of
will
own
colour
In
the same
way a regiment
cheerfully watch one of their
comrades being clubbed
into
oblivion
if
the
orders emanate from a negro officer,

in
whereas they would mutiny were a mulatto

to exercise a like right.
command
lies
In this brotherhood of colour
the power of the Papaloi.
One
of the points that strike you most

a country of extremes
fault.
is
that Hayti
is
essentially
and
contrasts.
is
Logic
is
always at
Haytian's honesty
like a
Haytian's
mind
it
is
apt to surprise you round odd corners.

:
For example
pass
hundreds of thousands of Haytian dollars

is
annually
along the lonely track, which
called
by
courtesy
a high road,
between Jacmel and Port au-Prince.

are low-class Haytians
The men who bear them

uncouth,
ragged,
in spite
uneducated,
wild,
and untutored.
Yet,
of the temptations of poverty, only once have the dollars

failed to arrive.
This
the
strange
blend
breeds theory.
It
is
advanced that
courier
does not steal because he has no use for the

his idea of
money, because
cocks,
wealth takes the form of fightinghis necessity.

I
and surplus roosters are not

it
have
heard
said
that
ten
dollars
would tempt
into
his cupidity,
whereas
honesty.
ten
thousand
would awe him
immaculate
But over and above

that
it
all
you may
safely put
it
down
within certain set bounds the courier's honesty burns
TYPICAL PEASANTRY.

in
KNEW THEM.
the
story
241
clear
flame.
To go back
the rule.
to
of the one
all
exception
who broke
He was
a poor man, as
couriers are,
and he was engaged
to ride across from
Jacmel
to Port-au-Prince. to
Before he started certain other

theft into his
men came
him and put the
mind.
Somewhere on
the road
over the mountain he was to transfer the thirty

off.
thousand dollars to them, then they would clear

induce the courier to do this they offered him
dollars
To
Fifty
what?
fell
of the whole amount

ten,
His pay would have been
about
his
so
thus
for
forty dollars our courier
from
high estate.
story
The
has
pathetic
note
in
it,
especially as the
unfortunate
man
disappeared into prison and was heard of

last thirty
no more.
During the
years uncounted couriers
have made the desolate journey by the lonely riverside

track
and over the mountain

and the above
is
passes, each with his load of
wealth,
the only instance
known
of the
betrayal of trust.
fine record.
As
of
to
these
fellows,
to trust
them gives them the

courier
staff
self-respect.
Yesterday
the
was a wandering
;
nigger,
a
common bad-egg
From
in
citizen
of Hayti
to-day he
is
man
entrusted
with thirty thousand dollars.
He
is
not
the same.
a
butterfly
the chrysalis of obscurity he has

fierce
become
the
light
of trust.
He
lives for the
moment, to-morrow he
For the moment he
will
be nothing again.
Never mind.
finds
honesty to hang with the gourds
242
WHERE BLACK RULES

his
WHITE.
is
and the money-bags upon

a serpent-worshipper.
saddlebow, yet he
probably
His self-respect, unlike the self-respect of a white,

intrinsic
;
is
not
no man, indeed, has

it,
less.
It is
from outside that

him, changes
he gains
and
it
consolidates him,
stififens
him from a bad

a cutlass
loafer into a
good
servant.
He
girds on
and
sets forth singing a
rude song, and he sings

for
is
and smokes,
hours,
a
fords
rivers
and climbs mountains

strain
is
many
apt to
Man.
Once the
over, alas, he
sink back into
what he was before.

thirty
courier
who had brought
thousand dollars from
Jacmel across the passes made them over intact to their

consignee, and
a penknife
!
when leaving
thirty
his office stole thirty cents
and
The
thousand dollars were confided to
his care, the thirty cents
were a prey to
his
enterprise.
You must
not forget that the negro has been for a cen-
tury in touch with white
men on
face.
the coast
in the interior
he rarely sees a white

hold
Now, while on
the coast
him
I
to
be often a very objectionable person,

his roof
in the
interior
have accepted the hospitality of
and lived
with him, and, apart from his natural laziness and his inclination towards snake-worship, have found
him
a simple
and
unobtrusive being.
points
fall
Yet, the
;
moment he
prospers his good
away from him

you come
he loses
the
his perspective.
And
here
to
question
of
how
far
the
Haytian negro has advanced from
his initial .stage of sav-

agery.
KNEW THEM.
243
The
huts in which he lives in the interior are the
same
as those in
which
his forefathers
used to hve beside
the Congo.
He
dresses Httle, but after the age of puberty
rarely goes quite naked.
He
has few ambitions.
His chief
desire
that
if
is
to
be
let
alone.
Moreover,
he firmly believes
any white nation were to take over Hayti he would
again
become
a slave.
The
one
negro, then, in Hayti mostly turns his energies into

channels.
of three
is
He
either
helps
to
govern the
for a
country,
Hving.
in
Government
he
to
lives
service, or does
odd jobs
Otherwise
trusting
behind the big scarred, purple

soil
mountains,
the
to
supply his wants, and

it is
dreaming away
his life in a land
where
always afternoon.
Nine-tenths of the population of Hayti are negroes, and
they
the a
form an ever-growing
country
is
class.
The tendency
all
over
It
is
to
breed back to the African type.

the
curious
fact
that
negro
hates
the
half-breed, the
mulatto,
considerably more than he hates the white
man
but
the negress,
when she cannot get them
white, prefers
her admirers yellow, nor does this predilection on her part
tend to lessen the loathing the

in the
man
of mixed blood inspires
breast of the black.

is
Although Hayti
by no means
large, yet
you
find in
different parts of the island almost separate races, dissimilar

in build
and
features,
and speaking distinguishable variants
of Creole French.
In the west
and around the
capital
you
244
WHERE BLACK RULES
WHITE.
tribes
;
have the descendants of the Mandingo

peninsula
course,
in the
Tiburon
are,
the
Congo negro predominates.

of
There
of
representatives
many
other
African races, and

in
each
of these
has
had some influence

life
modifying the
Re-
dialect
and mode of
in the particular part of the
public which fortune

In
sorts,
may have made

met
the
his headquarters.
is
travelling
sizes,
through the country one

to be
is
struck
by the
and shades
own.
with.
Black has variajet-black

fine
tions
of
its
There
polished,
skin
and the
dull,
sooty
complexion,
while
mahogany
black-brown often accompanies an upstanding figure and a

pleasant
face.
As
in
Africa
itself,
so here one finds the
black
man
fashioned
on widely different patterns.
Yet
have heard white men say that the power

one
black
face
to
to distinguish
from
the
another
is
the
result
of time and
really
training,
that
at
unaccustomed
1
eye
all
dark
persons look
In
much
alike
book of Haytian proverbs a story

least
is
told
is
which
possesses
to
artistic
the
seasoning of truth that
essential
success in caricature.
white man, a mulatto,

into the presence
it
and a negro were one day summoned

of
their
Maker, and each was asked what
was
in the
world that he most desired.

he
The white man was prompt,
knew
his
own mind.
beautiful
to
He wanted
women.
question.
knowledge.
at first the
The
negro
mulatto
desired
But
had
no
answer
the
After
some sheepish

evasions
KNEW THEM.
245
he pleaded that he had been brought there by
the
mulatto,
and that
if
he really
like
was
to
be given that
1
which he most wanted he would

After seeing
the tale.
a piece of gold lace
Haytian review you are inclined to credit
Hayti
is
rich
in
proverbs,
are,
most of which turn on the
colour question.
They
of course, in the Creole dialect,
and many are

not
at
once humorous and mordant, but they do

as
a
rule,
bear
translating
life
for
a large
number deal
one, however,
is
with conditions of
that are local.

significance.
Here
is
which
has
is
general
"Wood
wood, but
maple
not mahogany."
part
The
greater
of the trade of the interior
is
in the
hands of itinerant Syrian pedlars, of

thousands
in
whom
to find
there are
many
these
Hayti.
It
is
strange
them
in
Western
in
islands.
They
are a race unspeakable, living ten
room,
consummate cheats;
blood
from
they
the
are
usurers
in
and
no
parasites
sucking the
country and
way
enriching their adopted land in return.
The Haytians do
their
not
like
them, and legislate against

are
immigration,
in
yet
they
there
in
numbers.
You
meet them
featured
the country districts, dirty, under-sized, well-
people,
followed by a boy carrying their box of

this
goods.
For a long time the Haytians regarded

fair-skinned
com-
paratively
race
as
white men, but they have
learned
that
the
Syrian
will
do
anything
for a five-cent
246 piece.
WHERE BLACK RULES

I
WHITE.
in a
have seen them take part
Vaudoux
sacrifice
evidently belonging to the initiated.
The Haytian
wish to do
thing to
of the
rarely
marries
it is
not
because he does not
so indeed,
considered a highly distinguished
be married
but
because marriage by the

is
rites
Roman
sum
Catholic
Church, which
supposed
to
be
the religion of the State, costs about a hundred dollars, a

prohibitive
for the
tie,
lower classes
who
favour the looser
and
less
binding
life
which seems
to serve
them very
well.
Family
with them appears to run on smooth lines.
You
rarely
hear of a
negress "changing" her husband,

to
and the negro, owing
the predominant
number
of the
opposite sex, indulges himself in as

afford.
I
many
wives as he can
came
fifty,
across one man, who, like Priam, was the
father
not, as
of
only
the Haytian's brood was mixed, and

king's, all sons.
were the Trojan

influential
districts,
Every
wild
negro this statement holds true of the

at
rural
any
rate
is
a polygamist.
to fourteen
The
number of
last
his
wives
may range from two
this
being the largest which came under
my
personal notice.
If
he has
money enough he probably

will
marries one of them,
and the lady thus favoured

his
be thereafter the chief of

life
harem.
Of
course, these peculiar circumstances of
are not conducive to morality.

In fact, the rural Haytian blacks have no sense of morality
in
our
meaning of the term.
Wives are
to the
negro a
THE HAYTIAN
source of wealth.
stitutional
PEOPT.E AS
KNEW THEM.
24Q
They work
for him,
while he, with con-
and ineradicable
laziness, sits in the
shade of his
all
largest
hut,
and smokes a pipe with a red clay bowl
day long.
Meantime
his
women and young
children work.
They
will
walk miles across a lonely and, during the rainy

impassable
country, carrying heavy loads
I
seasons,
almost
upon
their
heads to the most favourable market.
say
advisedly the
young
children, for directly the
young buck
becomes of an age
he joins
to understand the dignity of his sex,
his father in lolling

for
away
If
the days, and works no

the patriarch deigns to
more thenceforward
go
to market,
ever.
he goes mounted on a small donkey, while

afoot.
his wives
do the journey
to as
And now
the
capital,
turn to their pleasures.

in
They
dance.
In
the country,
it
is
their
passion.
Never
are
they
too
tired,
never can a dance go on too long.

are
direct
The dances themselves

West
in
importations
from the
Coast, and cannot be described as either graceful or

beautiful.
at,
any degree
guessed
Their chief characteristic can be
readily
considering that the performers are of

are riding through the country at
the negro race.
As you
night
it
is
quite a
common
occurrence to come upon one
of these dances going on within the stockade of old
wood
which surrounds each group of huts.

in
drum
is
is
always
the orchestra, and the sound of tom-toms
never absent.
You
see
the
scene painted
like
picture in red
upon
250
WHERE BLACK RULES WHriE.

Fires throw up great wings of
in
the blackness of the night.
smoke, flaming lamps
set
iron
sockets and a torch or

the writhing
two
light
up the scene.
The screams and

fire,
contortions of the dancers, the ring of
the
far
humpbacked
beyond
the
huts
throwing
their
monstrous
shadows
circle of red
light,
the darkness of the listening forest
you
the
have a scene which you are never likely to forget.
At other
times,
riding
through
the
woodlands
in
freshness of the
morning or the evening, you see a

grotesquely
solitary
in
dancer posturing away
under a tree
some
green nook.
The Bamboula,
of the
the Martinique,
the
Vaudoux
are a few
dance names.
Sometimes these gatherings centre

in a dress of barbaric
round a professional, who, clothed

colour,
offer
performs
on a
dais,
and any man who

It
is
likes
may
for a
himself as
her partner.
common enough
perhaps
negress,
who has walked twenty
or
many more
miles since dawn, to spend the hours of darkness dancing
monotonously
landscape.
In
until
day comes
to
change the
tints
of the
the
capital there are four or five
dances
in progress
every night.
soldiers,
They
are
attended by
all
the lower classes
boatmen,
police,
coffee-workers
that
is,
porters
who
As
carry bags of coffee for lading.

for the
upper ten
in the
towns you frequently see a

or
it
stalwart
Haytian followed by one,
may
be several

boys
(I
KNEW
THEA[.
first
251
fancy
it
is
cJiic
to
employ many), the
carrying
his walking-stick,
ettes,
another a newly-purchased packet of cigarfor to carry a parcel
and so on,
an inch long would
bring a lasting stigma upon his pretension to fashion.
Fashion
in
Hayti,
as
elsewhere,
is
all-powerful.
In
its
name
the
negro cheerfully endures
many
a weariness of
the flesh.
Fashion compels
its
votaries to a reign of black
frock-coats in a tropical climate.
F"ashion
it
is,
again, which
decides
that
the
"only wear" of the Haytian army on
high
a
days and holidays must be a uniform of cloth about

inch
in
quarter of an
to wish to
thickness.
Fashion drives every
man
gives
become a General, even though the State

position,
him no substantial means of supporting the

as
its
is
and,
the case in every country under the sun, rank
brings
own expenses.
the richer classes there
is
Among
life.
good deal of
social
Balls
frequently
take
place,
and are
well attended,
I
for
Haytians high and low love dancing.

I
From what
saw,
however,
to
gathered that domestic

in
bliss
was more commonly
be
found
the
homes
of the poorer peasantry than
among
the well-to-do of the towns.
As soon
"
as a
"
man
can
afford to punctuate his

to
day
freely with
rhums
beseems
not
see no
little
special reason for restraint,

his family relations.
is
and
this reacts
upon
Marriage
the
privilege
of the
wealthier
part
of the
community, although only a proportion
avail themselves of
-f
252
WHERE BLACK RULES

This
is
WHITE.
it.
an omission upon which the local Mrs. Grundy

a lenient
looks
with
eye.
And
as
by
Haytian law the
children of these looser unions are regarded as legitimate,
the parents lack the strongest inducement to legalise their
ties.
The Haytian
politician
forms
distinct
section of the
community, and cannot be dismissed with only a passing

mention.
Take
almost
Paris,
all
cut
its
comb, reduce and minimise
it
in
it
directions, material as well as intellectual, let

for
go to rack and ruin

blacks and
it
century,
turn
its
whites into
its
blacks into whites, the temperate sky above
into tropical, scorching blue,
and you would have some

Haytian
life
presentment of Port-au-Prince.
bears stamped
it
upon
it
the likeness of France, and no individual shows

politician.
more palpably than the
He
race.
is
in
many ways
a highly superior specimen of his

just
More French than a Frenchman, which means
too French, his ambitions are usually one of twain: either
if
he
is
not one already
he
has hopes of being a General,

life
or else he desires to retire for the close of his
to Paris.
Personally the political gentleman
is
for this part of the

in
all
world
well-dressed
man.
You meet him
public
places in a black frock-coat and straw hat.
He
talks with
many
gesticulations.
He
brags with a wonderful fluency.
When
been a
there
real
is
no revolution going on, and there has not

for
one
eleven years, he
is
polite,
theatrical.

showy and
he
is
KNEW THEM.
253
kind-hearted.
He
is
ahvays shaking hands, and
mostly a General.
is
One
presented.
He
takes off his hat and shakes hands,

in a
and you are swept up into conversation

expects you
to
moment.
He
this
drink
with
him
it
indeed,
is
he desires
ceremony so strenuously
teetotaler.
so.
that
well in Hayti to be a
He
is
not reserved, and he dislikes your being

strip
He
is
ready to
off the cloak of his
privacy and
to take
you
for a stroll into his personal affairs.
And
yet
not quite inside.
There
is
always
well-defined
line
in
the
confidence
between the white man and the black, be he of Asia or

of Africa, that
is
seldom over-stepped.
its
It
is
the reticence
of race which has

are
source in congenital differences which

it
seldom bridged, and
is
by reason of these that the

fall
relations
between them so often
short of mutual under-
standing.
The Haytian wears

of his descent.
a goatee, but his face
tells
the tale
He
is
very touchy, and
if
he
tries to
"get
at"
you over any question, and you

he
shrinks
listen
quietly
and
smile,
back
at
once and changes the subject.
He
has a horror of ridicule, and perhaps some dim apprehis
hension of
own
lack of knowledge.
He
He
is
is
very hospitable, and will always play to an audience.
excessively ambitious, and will readily
bow
the knee
to Baal.
He
is
often brave, but
fails in
power of continuity
254
wherp: black rules white.

effort.
of thought and
He
cannot forego the small praise
of to-day for the great success of to-morrow.
He
does not talk
much
of his
own
country, unless you
get him alone, but he will readily give you his opinion of
every other country

Paris,
under the sun, and
if
you speak of
he
will
blossom out into plentiful and
real enthusiasm.
His views on most subjects are catchy, and he never quite

forgives
you
for
being white.
From
until
half-past twelve,
when
the offices close for lunch,

again,
half-past
two,
when they open

in
you
find
him
everywhere.
cigarette,
if
He
sits
the cafes
smoking a dark Havana

burns away to ash
which does not go

it.
out, but
you leave
In
the cool of the day, he rides outside
the town,
still
clad in his frock-coat, on a small horse that
ambles
houses,
comfortably.
All
round
Port-au-Prince
are,
are
his
and very nice houses they
broad, cool, open,
tropical, half-hidden in a luxuriance of trees
and greenery.
country
I its its
Whether he
believes
is
in
the
future
of his
cannot say, but he

independence.
salvation, but
wordily and wildly attached to

tell
He can always
each time he
is
is
you what would be

you something
will tell
different.
its
In
his
own mind, he
himself.
often
largely
mixed up with
salvation
He
red-hot
politician,
and often
related to a former President.

his
He
is
easy
for
in morals,
and
motto
is:
"Let
us
eat
and drink,
is
to-morrow we
Catholic,
die."
In religious matters he
a tolerant
Roman

and
if
KNEW THEM.
255
you press him about the present condition of things

the masses he will shrug his shoulders and talk of
among
Toussaint I'Ouverture.
In
all
ways he would model himself upon
his Parisian
prototype.
With
his
whole
heart
is
and
soul
he admires More-
France
over,
eyes.
on that one point he

regards
the
rest
is
absolutely sincere.
he
of the
world through French

his
This
peculiarity
encouraged by
retail
newspapers
he has two of them which
telegrams and opinions

Nevertheless,
taken from French sources and from no other.

they
are
to
the
Haytian the actual
mirror
of
all
that
is
passing between the poles.
He War
the
is
warm
partisan,
and during the Spanish-American
he drank cocktails to the success of Spain, just as he

at the
drank them
Boer.
time
was
in
Hayti to the success of

to Hayti.
England and America are bugbears

I
Individually,
believe,
he
likes
the
Englishman, but he
that
cordially
hates
England
or,
rather,
presentation
of
John Bull with the large and taloned hands, by the creation
and perpetuation of
striven to
whom
the
French journalists
have
avenge
all
things from Waterloo to Fashoda, or,

for
perhaps one should say to Dreyfus,
whose existence
we
are apparently held to be responsible.
A
would
General, beat
us.
an
ex-Minister
of War,
hoped the Boers

Because
he
He was asked why.

a
had
gathered
from
French
print
that
Boers were
negroes
256
WHERE BLACK RULES

by the
and,
British.
WHITE.
however,
persecuted
conviction,
He
was,
open
to
after
the
all
explanation
was given,
said
1
naively that he thought

In
people in Africa must be black
what other land could
this
happen
The most
blatant talkers are frequently bewildering
and
astonishingly ignorant.
Exception must be made

in
in
favour
of those
who have been educated

is,
France.
The negro
ously
considering
his
numbers, most conspicu-
absent from the middle

in
class.
He
forms the lower,
and he predominates
class of
the governing, but from the best

is
Haytian society he
largely self-excluded.
He
is
not, with
some exceptions,
class of
at
home
there.
politics.
The
best
Haytian does not touch

is
He
little
knows too well how much there

to
to lose
and how
gain under existing circumstances.

of Haytian
is
But, then, the best

If
class
often a mulatto.
you were
to pick
out the most advanced and promising
men
in the Republic,
you would choose a very small proportion of the pure

blacks
In
among them.
this
connection
asked a gentleman
who knows
as
much
in
of Hayti as any
living
man,
if,
after his
long residence
the island, he really considered the negro educated up
to
in
fact,
fitted
for
the
task
of self-government.
He
replied that he believed he could put his
hand on a score
or
two of coloured men, and a few, very few, pure-bred
negroes
who were
certainly
capable.
But when
asked
KNEW THEM.
257
him why such men did not come forward

their country,
for the sake of
he shook
hopelessly
his
in
head.
the
"They
they
are
it."
minority," he said,
"and
know
To-day the Government

negro
picion
proclivities,
is
centred
in
a group of ultra-
who
look with an almost ferocious susto
upon the small party who, were they

But
it
come
to
power, might do lasting good.

that
must be remembered
is,
the
unalterable tradition
of Hayti
Hayti
for
the
black as distinguished from the mulatto.

It
has been advanced that there must be progress, since
the people, or, rather, the politicians, " revolute"
much
less
frequently than they used to do.

in
How
far this
is
improvement
to question.
fool,
conduct
is
a sign of inward grace
open
The Haytian man

is
of politics
is
not quite a
and he
pretty
well
aware that there are countries who might

if
not put
pecially
up with him
if
events boiled over too often

the
es-
they
boiled
over with
accompaniments of
bloodshed which have signalised
his revolutions in the past.
The
drawn
following
open
letter
from a
political
Haytian
is
entirely from views expressed in various

writers,
pamphlets
by Haytian
and
is
given in as close a rendering
as possible of the French.

"
Mon
ami,
Now
that evil
war has ceased from the land,
and peace, the

us,
beautiful, has for
some years dwelt amongst
the time has
come
for us,
the piously devoted sons of

17
258
Hayti, to be silent no longer, in face of the mistakes and
deceptions that promise to ruin our country.
"We
the
are credulous,
friends
we
are well-disposed,
we
believe in
false
who run from

at
the ends of the earth to
enrich
themselves
our expense.
On
all
sides promises
are
lavished
upon
us
and miracles of prosperity are pre-
dicted should
we
yield to the voice of the charmer.

in
One
would exploit the treasures of timber
our virgin forests
some plead
others
for
concessions
to
begin
mining operations
dream of railroads,
and lighthouses.
canals, telegraphs, irrigation works,
bridges,
"They
"
caress us, these beggars, for do
we not
possess
to-day the wealth of Hayti?
But behind our backs these perfidious
villains,
what do
they not say of us?
They
call us
a "nation of
monkeys!"
They say we
are
human
crabs,
who do
not advance in
In
the march of civilisation, but
move always backwards.
saying this they
add we must be driven forward

Before
it
they
let
liars.
propose a foreign protectorate.

us
is
too late
guard ourselves against these adventurers, these

us
Let
do nothing
blindly,
hastily,
in
the
dark,
at
the
gallop.
"Listen, while
"
It
sound the trumpet of danger
Let us not forget Poland, who confided herselfto strangers.

killed her
was they who

"
Let us recollect Egypt.
W:

"Fifty
years
KNEW THEM.
261
ago to
whom
to
did
Egypt belong? To the

civilised
Egyptians.
singular fury
!
become
inflamed
them.
Fatal disease
They were promised
prosperity, they
gave concessions
benefited
for
canals, railways, docks.

I
Have they
by these things? No
fetters
All concessions have been
converted into
for
the
find
once
free
limbs of Egypt,
the
One day
England.
oppressed
tyrants
she
awoke
to
herself under
boots
of
Formerly
in
the
Egyptians
the
were
whipped and
least
the
name of
Koran,
but at
the
who
despoiled them were of their

midst, speaking the
own blood and
born
the
in their
same language, professing
same
religion as themselves.
Are they happier
to-day,
when they
British
are
whipped
stand
in
the
name
of the Bible,
when
howitzers
ready to blow into pieces those

r
patriots
who
raise a voice in the defence of their liberties

let
"Let us beware;
the stranger
;
us not imitate them.

1
Let us avoid
is
let
us spurn his attentions
Hayti
a maiden
to give
of generous
proportions.
We
must not allow her
herself in marriage save to her
own
!
sons
Fortify
!
" Let
us take precautions. Practise

in
Arm
Intrench our1
selves
the
evolutions of the military
But
let
us
be secret
stranger
singes
')
our
preparations.
us
Then we can answer

monkeys
('
the
who
calls
a race of
!
un peuple de
people are
with
our guns
The
hearts
of our
ready, they do not want in courage.

"
The English
are brave.
We
conquered the English.
262
"

The French
are a great nation.
We
drove them into
the sea.
"
The
victorious
Napoleon himself sent
his
myrmidons
to
snatch back our new-bought liberty.
We
hurled them back.
"For
"
a nation of monkeys,
will
it
was
colossal!
We
be wise.
the
We will adopt to ourselves the doctrine
of Monroe,
American
Hayti
in
for the
Haytians
Cry
aloud the watchword.

the the
Repulse
manner the most
formal,
in
most energetic, any interference of foreign nations

interior
affairs
of our
country.
Our
history contains
the
illustrious
names of Toussaint L'Ouverture and
of
Tiresias
Sam.
night
We
is
need not despair.

us,
let
"The
the
dark about
us wait for the
moon,
moon
of education and of reason that soon must rise.

in
Let us take no step
the
dark.
still
Let us endeavour to
make our
military organisation
more complete.
They
laugh at our
us
many
Generals, those others.

forget
that
Have they seen

Hayti
are
on parade.? They
we
those
in
born
soldiers.
From being
soldier
who have
They
training
advance easily to the grade of General.
forget this
when they
" Hayti
smile.
for
the
Haytians
Here alone one can show a
black
face
without receiving
earth
upon
to
it
a buffet.
It
is
the
in
corner of the
Africa,
in
sacred
our rights.
Elsewhere,
America, the
black
man
is
governed by the
himself, the
white.
In
Hayti alone the black
man governs

black
is
KNEW THEM.
is
263
the equal of the white.

that In
fact.
It
here
in
Hayti that
we prove
tolerance.
Here we
hve by right and not by

first
Hayti
has been gained the
foothold of
the doctrine of equality of nations.

"
Let us sound the trumpet
" It has
been said we are incapable of guiding ourselves,

to
that
we cannot govern, yet

liberty?
whom
1
do we as a nation
owe our
To
;
our forefathers
Alone they created
the Haytian nation
alone, without help of
any kind, they

their
paid
in
gold
and blood and the sweat of

!
brow
for
the right
of freedom
They bought
for this
small portion
of the great African race the right to live in independence.
We
do not need foreigners to aid

let
us.
Since
we were born
without consulting them,
us live without doing so.
"But
events.
must
tell
you,
my
dear friend, of the progress of
"On Sunday
What
a
there
was a review on the Champ-de-Mars.

revelation
magnificent
horses,
of our national resources

!
Uniforms,
the night.
soldiers,
all
cavalry
let
One dreams
of
it
in
Above
nation
things
us remind our people that
we
is
are
of soldiers
that
our very independence
rooted in a military struggle wherein the armies of Europe
were worsted.
"More than
that.
Hayti stands for a symbol of liberty.

liberty
Not the one-sided

the
true
that
others
scream about, but
Liberty, Equality. Eraternity. which equalises the
264

of the
is
status
black
man and
the white.
It
may
be said
our republic
of the
not so large in extent as that of France or

States.
United
On
that
offer
no opinion, but
maintain that our very existence has a meaning altogether

unique,
"
But to
fulfil
our mission, we must rid ourselves of the

life-
whites.
They
of
trade in our coast towns, they suck the
blood
Hayti.
What do
they
give
to
us
in
return?
Nothing but absurd and impudent projects by which they

profess to assure our national credit, to improve our com-
merce,
to
it
ameliorate
is
our
material
condition.
We
need
money,
foreign
true.
We
the
can borrow,
but we must refuse
aid in disturbing the funds.

;
We
have responsible
Ministers
we have
whole machinery of the State to
depend upon, who
will see that all is
done
for the national
honour, the national good.
"Up
out
the
to to-day
have we not
help of
built
our towns alone? With-
invidious
strangers
we have conducted
naval, military,
and commercial operations.
We
have
tilled
our
are
own
a
fields,
we have sown,
planted, and reaped.
We
if
people gay, light-hearted, kind.
What do we need
Rut,
more?
We
have
all
that produces happiness.
we
would not see these days of pleasure change, we must

combine to keep out the foreigners, the men of
blood,
ity
!
different
those,
in
word,
who
are jealous of our prosperthings,
Those who, speaking smooth
are
preparing

to
KNEW THEM.
265
rob
us
of
all
They say we
then,
let
neglect the education of

build schools.
the
masses.
Well,
us
They
re-
proach us because we have no railways, and few roads.

In
tell
answer
us
let
us point to
live
many
already surveyed.
They
we
in
fine
Is
dreams,
fact
we content
ourselves
with
great
?
projects.
1
the
of our
independence a
dream
No
"Sons of brave
fathers,
awake, and be warned

us
in
time!
The envious peoples

against
threaten
on
all
sides
they plot
our
!
liberties,
they
groan to
live,
enrich themselves at
our expense
If
we would
we must be on
is
the watch
in
day and
night.
The
must
foreigner
insidious
he creeps
us
upon
taxes;
us.
We
load
those
others
now amongst who would
with
we must push back

maintain
our
follow them.
Let us
traditions.
Let each Haytian show

will.
himself proud and of an imperious

ors,
We
to
are conquer-
we
are free,
we do not wish
valets
to
fall,
degrade our-
selves, to
"
become
I
?
and
;
vassals.
'
Then beware
is
And
hear you say

of himself
I
Oho, here
for
a sly one, he
says
I
nothing
calm.
will
As
me,
remain tranquil,
am
advise,
sow the seed.

to to
Some day my
will
!
country
'
be
grateful
me.
The people
le
say,
What do we
surprise
not
owe
Monsieur
General
'
Does
in
this
you,
my
friend?
Already a Minister
the
Cabinet,
of Ilayti!
they have
now made me
a General of the forces

I
General of Division.
am
saluted
in
the
266

I
streets.
have
chosen
green
uniform.
parade the
capital
on
my
horse.
it,
"
have deserved
you
will
say, yet
is
my
heart
full
of pride.
My
country has recognised her deliverer. Others

Generals,
have also been made

me.
but
I,
that
I
does not
said,
I
affect
They
I
are puffed up.
But
as
have
remain
tranquil,
am
calm always.
" Agreez, etc.,
Adieu,
my
friend.
"GENERAL MILES BOBO."
CHAPTER
XIV.
HAYTI, THE PUFF BALL.
What
invariably
astonishes the traveller most in Hayti
is
that they
have everything there.

is,
Ask
for
what you please, the answer

it."
" Yes, yes,
we have
They
possess everything that a civilised and progressive

Electric light?
nation can desire.
They proudly
Until
land,
is
point to
plant on a hill-top outside the town.
you have had you are taken
some experience of the people and the

aback by
this
galloping of events.
Here
a nation hidden
is
away
in
the
depths
of the
Atlantic,
which
not only
abreast of the times, but ahead of
many towns
in
England.
So you say
to yourself.
Constitutional
elected
Government?
vote,
;
Chamber
and
all
of
Deputies,
by public
Senate,
the elaborate
paraphernalia of the law
they are to be found here, seem-
268

all
ingly
of them.
Institutions,
churches,
schools,
roads,
railways, forts.
What more
system
is
can you ask for?

flawless.
If
On
trust
paper their
in the
one puts one's

all desir-
mirage of hearsay the Haytians have
able things, but on nearer approach these pleasant prospects

are apt to take on another complexion.
For instance, you are standing

ing, but
is
in
what was once

its
a buildself.
now
a spindle-shanked ghost of
former
single
man, nursing a broken

floor;
;
leg, sprawls
is
on the black
earthen
pile
of
wooden beds
in
heaped
in
the
north corner
rain has
formed a pool
the middle of the

circle as
room, crawling and spreading into an ever wider

the
lie
last
shower drips from the

into a sticky ball
roof.
Some
filthy sheets
is
wound
on two beds, one of which
overturned.
large iron washing-tub stands in the open
doorway, and a black

red earthen pipe.
woman
sits
on
its
edge, smoking a
Now, where
It
are
you
would be impossible
in
to guess.
As
a matter of
fact,
you are
tant
the Military Hospital of the second most imporin
town of Hayti, a State-supported concern,

of the of the
is
which the
all
soldiers
Republic are supposed to be cured of

flesh.
the
all
ills
No need
to linger;
is
you have seen
there
to see.
Besides, the place

in.
I
used occasionally
for
smallpox cases to die

is
This
how
came
there.
had met a General
in the
HAYTI,
street,
THE PUFF
BALL.
269
a fine, big negro, resplendent in uniform of

I
gaudy
acci-
green,
had heard that a

night
before.
soldier
train
had met with an

of thought
dent
the
The
was thus
supplied.
Where does
put her
It
this ideal country,
which possesses
everything,
maimed
is
soldiers?
was new
I
in
the
land
it.
and curious.
easy to ask a question.
asked
My
friend
I
in
gold lace
waved
his
hand towards the

in
building
have described from where we stood, a blot
the distance the

I
and
I
said,
"To
the Military Hospital!"
For
moment
was properly impressed.

is
"Lucky people!"
for
thought to myself; " everything

paternal
arranged
you by
Government."
But when you get
to the spot
the illusion fades.

It
is
it
the
same with the

act.
electric light.
The
plant
is
here,
but
It
does not
the
is
same with the cannon.

go
off.
They
are cannon, but

their railways.
they
won't
It
is
the
same with
They
It
is
are being "hurried forward," but they never progress.
the
same with everything.

is
Everything
It
is
arranged.
if,
Everything
drafted
in,
upon paper.
seems
as
with a
people so hedged
nothing could go wrong.
They simply
yet,
it.
cannot get
they
off the paths of progress.
And
and yet
have begun everything

I
and
dropped
Then
the
prisons.
have read a notable code of rules referring to them,

a view to their proper maintenance.
drawn up with
this
Under
system,
you say again, nothing can go wrong.
On
270

it
reading
wisely
you picture a model house of detention, ruled

officials
by grave
with one eye on the regulations

their prisoners.
if
and the other on the welfare of
Go
grave
lent
to
the
prison.
Obtain admission
you
can.
The
trucuis
officials
of your fancy are replaced

clubs.
by a dozen
vagabonds with cocomacaque

of disease,
blow-flies,
The place
the
haunt
and vermin.
walls,
will
is
pestiferous
swamp, surrounded by ramshackle

the
starving,
inhabited
if
by
you
naked prisoners.
You
be lucky
do not bring away with you smallpox or some kindred

evil
as a
memento.
is
The code
of regulations
is
for
show,
the prison
for use.
I
But while
it
am
on the subject of prisons,

all
let
us thresh
out.
If all
the realists of
the nations could be formed
into
one
realist,
and
all
their
powers of describing the
disgusting could be delegated to that one chosen individual,
he
might
write
an
account of the
Haytian prisons and
never take the

the reality.
imagination of his readers within miles of
Four hundred men

with gate
in
two enclosed yards,

is
stale
and
foul
years of use.
of iron bars.
bodies,
Access
gained to the interior by a

filth,
Inside, a swelter of
green scum,
diseased
nakedness,
and
red,
raw
wounds
(the
warders keep up the supply of these
last
with their clubs).
That
It
is is
what you
will see.
it
horrible, yet
is
pale to the reality.
Let us leave
HAYTI,
the subject for ever.
I
THE PUFF
BALL.
271
should never have entered upon
it
save
for
in
the hope that
when
stir
this description
comes
to
be
read
Hayti,
the
it
may
up prison reform.
it
As
for
Government
is
nominally Republican, but

is
under existing conditions supreme power

centrated
or breaks
in
practically con-
the
hands of one man, who keeps the laws

to
them according
think
whim
or expediency.
If
you
come
to
of
it,
the
difficulties
of governing on the
offici-
Republican system are almost insuperable with high

als,
many
of
is
whom
to
fill
can neither read nor write, and whose

their pockets,
main idea
to
and eventually
to succeed
the
headship
It
is
of the
State
by the rawest methods of

wondered
at that the
revolution.
therefore not to be
regime has developed into a military despotism.
The machinery
of constitutional government
is
complete
there are Ministers, a Senate, and a
Chamber
of Deputies.
But these bodies have
little
independent power, and are

If
expected to carry out the wishes of the President.
they
all
do
not,
the
head
of the
;
State
promptly suppresses
symptoms
lution.
of disobedience
otherwise there ensues a revois
Perhaps, as matters stands, personal rule

besides
inevit-
able,
being
the
form
most
popular
with
the
masses.
Supreme power incorporated

to
in
strong
man
appeals
of
the
imagination
of
the
ignorant.
The
presidents
Hayti have been not infrequently venal, corrupt, and hor-
272
WHERE BLACK RULES
WHITE.
to
ribly cruel, but the

felt
man who knows how
make
his will
becomes
for the
time the hero of the people.

it
The
with
surprising part of
is
that these negroes,
who
bear
incredible
wrongs and tyrannies from
their illiterate
masters, would resent the mildest
sway attempted by those
not
of their
own
race
and colour.
The lowest
of the
people are as frantically opposed to annexation by a white
Power
as are the ruling classes,
and
this feeling is
not so
fear
much
results.
love
of
their
insular
independence
as
of
When
and
negro gets an idea into
his
head,
it
remains
there unalterable and unmodified until the day of his death,

it
happens that one of the strongest

limited
to
field
certainties in the
Haytian's
of
knowledge
in
is
that
if
white
Power were
self
It
become supreme
his country,
he him-
would be forced back
into slavery.
must of course be remembered that the Haytian

in the
speaking of him
course
with
the
bulk
has
no education, no
inter-
outer
world,
no means of acquiring any
information outside a certain narrow cast-iron set of opini-
ons which have been handed
down
to
him from
his fathers,
and which
inviolate.
I
it
is
to the interest of the
Government
to
keep
have before described the network of generals which

is
governs the country, so there

In a
sentence,
no need
for repetition.
Hayti
is
governed by about a thousand
HAYTI,
generals,
miles,
it
THE PUFF
is
BALL.
273
and as
is
its
area
to
approximately 10,000 square

very
far
difficult
get
from the
founts
of
power.
The members
of the
Government
live
in
some
state.
One
of the highest and most powerful Ministers, however,
received
me most
State
haughtily at a desk set

are
in
his
bedroom.
The
offices
crowded with
clerks.
When
went to beg an audience of the President, the
office of the
Minister of Foreign Affairs, an able man, was packed with

secretaries,
generals,
and minor
to
officials,
who appeared
to
have nothing to do but
smoke
cigarettes.
The
tin
daily
life
of the President, General Tiresias Augus-
Simon Sam,
seems
to
be chiefly passed
in
playing
draughts near the window of a room opening upon a bal-
cony which overlooks the Champ-de-Mars.

drives in the streets attended
Sometimes he
suite.
by
numerous
I
During
all
the
time
spent
the
in
Port-au-Prince
I
saw him
his
in
four
times.
On
whole,
cannot think
office
an envi-
able one.
"Uneasy
sooner take
Hayti.
lies
the head that wears a crown," but

risk
is
would
the
of any
crown than be President of

list
Precedent
so cheerless, as the following
shows.
Emperor Dessalines
President Petion (Soutliern Hayti)
.
Assassinated.
Died of
Suicide.
fever.
Emperor Christophe (Northern Hayti)

President Boyer President Herard
Exiled.
Deposed
after four
months.
18
274

Emperor Sovilouque
President Geffi-ard
President Salnave
Fled.
Fled
Shot.
to
Jamaica
President Nissage-Saget President
Abdicated hurriedly.
Fled wounded.
Domingue
President Boisrond Canal

President
....
Abdicated.
Salomon
Abdicated and
Fled
to
fled to
Cuba.
President Legitime
President Hippolyte
New
York.
Died
as President!
President
Sam
also
I
Present head of the Republic.
There were
so brief, that
some others whose day of power was

it
have not thought
worth while to include
them.
But there
is
one thing
common
to the
whole country,
of which every Haytian denies the existence.

the
tell
Vaudoux
not.
is
one thing which they declare they have
They
you there
is
no snake-worship
the
(I
am
speaking of the
higher classes)
within
bounds of the
Repubhc.
But
when you
betray
certain
knowledge of the
subject, they
admit that though

place in
other
sacrifices
and savage dances may take

no such things are known
in
departments,
that one in which
you
at the
moment
I
find yourself.
Thus
in
Jacmel they told
me
should find
Vaudoux
in
Port-au-Prince and the Plain of Cul-de-Sac.

as
I
In Port-au-Prince,
sacrifice within
was actually returning from witnessing a

limits
the
of the town,
rites
was advised
to
go
to the Cape,
where alone such

told
flourished.
And
at the
I
Cape they
me
to take ship for Jacmel, for there
would assuredly
find them.
As
a matter of plain fact, the traveller riding
HAYTI,
THE PUFF
BALL.
is
275
across the country in any direction
quite likely, to
full
come
will
suddenly
in
view of the ceremonies
in
swing.
He
see the tell-tale dances, the faces smeared in blood, perhaps
even the body of the black goat, the sacred
sacrifice.
Nor
horror
are
they grotesque pictures only

all,
the element of
darkens them
for
wherever you hear the palpi-
tating throb of the big bullock-skin drum,
and wherever the
votaries of that
Vaudoux
sacrifice
foregather there
is
always the possibility
human
has been or
is
to
be accomplished.
feeling
Oddly enough, your most prominent

you look upon these things leads you
boys'
when
first
to reflect that the
books are
all
wrong,
and so
sacrifice
is
popular fancy.
it,
In
both the votaries of

able
human
parade
as objection-
barbarians indeed, but with a savage picturesqueness
of their own.
Here
in
Hayti you have

fires,
all
the elements of
the picturesque, forests, red the
blood, the flash of steel,
red
in
robes
of the priest.
Surely the worshippers will

picture
^
be
not.
keeping with the
rest of the
But they are
They
are neither very brave nor very fierce.

;
They
are not even barbaric

It
they are merely barbarians.
was
in
disappointment to
me,
admit
it.
do not
think
the
whole world you could have found a more
disillusioned person than myself
when
I
first
saw a
sacrifice
of animals
to
the sacred snake.

I
had expected a
grisly
crew of
fanatics,
found a medley of squalid negroes.
The
accepted description catches some of the salient points and
276
WHERE BLACK RULES

them
vividly
it
WHITE.
it
brings
before
while
it
your eyes, but
ignores the
meanness of
all
gives rein to the picturesque.
You
are
get the rude huts where the sacrificers dwell, but
you
foul-
never brought face to face with the draggle, the
ness, the sordid repulsiveness.

It
is
moving,
that,
is
it
is
it
terrible,
is
it
is
savage,
it
is
grisly,
we
know
nasty.
all It
but
also cheap, unsavoury, eminently

realities,
drama of
not played out against a

dirty
background of romance, but upon a rubbish-heap with

straw in the foreground.
first
And
this
it
is
which
strikes
you
and leaves the
lasting effect
and impression.
If the
sacrifice,
realist
would but take a turn

let
at describing
Vaudoux
he would
you have the

it
smell, the staleness, the ugliness,
the squint and leer of
all.
So Vaudoux
flourishes
and
electric light fails.

for
But you
are told that the
Government has
some time been taking

set the other
measures to suppress the one and to
on a
working
basis.
in
But there
is
no symptom that they are
advancing
either direction.
Can we not
fair
christen
it
the pufT-ball system,
by which
all
seeming ends
in a little
explosion of dust.^
"Only
this
and nothing more."
CHAPTER
XV.
CAN THE NEGRO RULE HIMSELF?
Can
That
the negro rule himself?

is
Is
he congenitally capable
question
which has been mooted at various

In nearly all cases the line
times and by various writers.

of argument has been the
selected
same
The negro
apologist has
race, has
some examples of great men of negro
used them as the foundation of his logical

stead
edifice,
and
in-
of arguing
from the
masses to the individual, has

in-
reversed the order of things, and has argued from the

dividual to the masses.
Can the negro
rule himself?
The
answer
has
present
to
condition of Hayti gives the best possible

question,
the
for
and,
considering
the experiment
lasted
century,
perhaps also a conclusive one.

has
For
century
the
answer
been working
itself
out
there in flesh and blood.
The
negrro has
had
his
chance,
278

field
fair
and no favour.
He
has had the most

for his
;
fertile
and beautiful of the Carribbees
own
he has had
the advantage of excellent French laws
he inherited a made
" Little Paris," as
country, with
it
Cap Haytien
Here was
for its Paris,
was
called.
a wide land
sown with
prosperity,
a land of wood, water, towns, and plantations, and in the
midst of
his
it
the Black
Man was
turned loose to work out
own
salvation.
What
To
it
has he
made
of the chances that were given to him?

define the term "negro,"
find at the root of so
begin
this
with,
we must
that
and
is
definition
we
many
errors.
The negro
not the
referred
to
here
is
the
full-blooded
African,
man
of
mixed
race, the Alexandrian, the

in-
Numidian, the Moor, or the white throw-back who has

herited a dash of the tar-brush.
It
is
possible
by arguing
from the individual outwards to prove anything on earth.

This fact
is
sufficiently
obvious to need no demonstration.
And
is
yet in the whole history of the Haytian Republic there
only one instance which could give any solid support to
the pro-negro line of argument Toussaint I'Ouverture
Here we
a
slave,
certainly
find
it
a great historical figure.
Born
his grandfather,
has been said, was an African
prince.
Judging from
his pictures,
you cannot but form the
opinion that Toussaint was not a pure-blooded negro; the

features,
the
shape of the head,
the
setting
of the eyes
are
all
so
many
strong reasons against such a supposition.

Among
obloquy,
all
279
the leaders that jostle each other in the story

is
of Haytian Independence, his or unsmirched
the only
name
of
untainted by
foul
by the memory
some
and
savage massacre.
In Toussaint
you have a man whose word was
his
bond,
whose
acts
of
mercy are the
sole bright episodes against

history.
one of the darkest backgrounds of

sans peur
his
life
man
really
et
sans reproche,
who was
than
actuated throughout
of
love
for
his
by no other
feeling
that
country.
of
The many
militated
tales of his acts of generosity,

in
no one
of
which
any
degree
against
the
cause
Haytian
liberty, are legion.
Over against him stands

General
Dessalines,
in
far
different figure, that of

in
who spared no man

lust,
his
anger and
no woman
his
who was
corrupt and venal to an

crystallised his political
fowl, but take
is
unheard-of degree.
tenets
in
The man who
the
famous saying:
"Pluck the
care she does not cry out," a saying which to this day
honoured
of the
in
the observance throughout every department
Government.
at
The man who ordered
woman
to
be beaten to death
Les Cayes under the most horrible
circumstances, and around whose
name each
story or legend
his
which has gathered merely adds one other instance of

cruelty.
To-day,
hero.^
It
in
is
Hayti, which of these two

Dessalines.
men
is
the national
28o

the act
And
barous
living
upon which
issued
his
fame chiefly
for
rests
is
the bar-
decree
by him
the
massacre of every
French
if
soul,
man, woman and
child.
I
From
Toussaint,
then,
he was a negro
built
and
this
do not concede
all
an
argument might be
to
up which would be, at
events
some
extent,
itself.
vindication
of the claim of the negro
race to rule
act
But by
their
own
choice and their
own
their
the
Haytian people have chosen Dessalines as
national hero.
There
so
is
no space here to pass
in
review the score or

it
of rulers Hayti has known.
Suffice
to say that her
best President was Geffrard, a mulatto, and that the dictatorship of her black
Heads of State has always been marked

history.
by a redder smear than usual upon the page of
The
better, the wiser, the

class
more enlightened and
less
bru-
talised
has
always been composed of the mulattoes,

fact,
and the blacks have recognised the

mulatto element accordingly.
and hated the
But to pass from the
earlier
days of independence to
rule
more recent
times.
We
had not long ago the savage
of President Salomon, a notorious sectary of snake-worship,
beneath whose iron hand the country groaned
for years,
and public executions, assassinations, and robbery were the

order of the day.
And
at the present
time?
To-day
in
Hayti we come to the real crux of the question.
At
the end of a hundred years of trial,
how does
the black
CAN THE NEGRO RULE HLNLSELF?

nmn
govern
himself?
281
What
progress
has
he
made ?
Absolutely none.
ment,
public
When
not
he undertakes the task of governwith

the
intent
filling
he does
weal,
is
so,
of promoting the
his
but for the

still,
sake
of
own
pocket.
His motto
"Pluck the
fowl, but take care she
does
not cry out
"
Corruption has spread through every portion and every
department of the Government.

country
Almost
all
the
ills
of the
may be
traced to their source in the tyranny, the

at the
is
ineptitude,
and the improbity of those

the
seat
helm of
state.
Port-au-Prince,
of Government,
is
the cesspool
capital
is
of the
filled
Republic.
The reason
are in the
;
obvious.
The
with
men who
employ of the Government,
but
to
who
make
are seldom paid
indeed,
who
are rather expected
use of their positions to pay themselves, and
who
therefore
go
to
make up
dangerous.
a class grasping, dishonest, disIt

is
contented, and
not overstating the case
to say that the ambitions of the average
Haytian
politician
on entering
country
a
or
office are
not towards the advancement of his

;
projects
for
of reform
his
main idea
is
to
make
fortune
himself and to use his power to avenge his

In the former connection there
is
personal resentments.
national proverb, wdiich
to rob the State."
may be
rendered
" It
is
no robbery
The bond,
is
therefore,
which consolidates a Government
not that the Ministers hold similar opinions or political
282

it
convictions;
ship
is
one of
common
interest in
keeping the
of State
as
under way while they help themselves as

from
fell
its
liberally
possible
treasure-room.
is
Suppose the
present Government of
it
to-morrow, there
not one
member
whose
first
impulse would not be to put leagues of
sea between himself
and
his native land.
Since the Black Republic arose out of the ashes of the
French Revolution,
Republic
for
it
has
been twice an Empire, and a
the rest of the time
nominally.
But under
whatever category the

have stood,
tism.
It
is
it
Government may
for the
moment
has always been in reality a military despoto-day,
that
and
it
is
possible to bribe your

is,
way
to
almost
anything.
Republicanism
for a
after
its
all,
perilous form of
government
it
young
nation,
bounds
are
so
wide and
gives
room
for the
working of mutual
jealousies as well as infinite scope to the ambitions of the

individual.
"
France a Republic, America a Republic, Hayti

say the Haytians.
Republic," so
The saying needs no
comment.
I
have been assured, however, by a European who has
long resided in the country that there exists to-day a section of negroes
who
if
they could win their
way
to
power
would soon make a

things.
class.
I
beneficial
I
change
in the
condition of
of such a
own
that
have seen but
slight trace
little
Besides,
there
seems
to
be
doubt that the
advent into the arena of active
politics of a truly patriotic
283
party would be resented in the most lively manner by the
bigoted populace,
who would regard any measures

sell
of re-
form or progress as indicative of a design to

into
them
the
hand of the white, and thus back under the old

slavery.
yoke of
This belief
it
is
the policy of the Govern-
ment
to
keep
alive
and
active.
for
The lower
classes
have
their
idols
black generals,
who can
ety
all
is is
neither read nor write,
whose
sole claim to notori-
their
supernormal fierceness and push.
And when
said
and done
it
is
on the influence of these men

of the
that
the
safety
and
.stability
Government depend.
They
possess the ear of the multitude, they are puffed up
with their
own importance.
While they
retain their present

for the Republic.
ascendency there can be no going forward

Their watchword
is
"
Hayti
for
the
Haytians," which,
being interpreted, means conservatism to savagery.
To
this
return then to the question put at the beginning of
article.
"
Les Amis des Noirs
",
who
in
the days of the French
Revolution
gave the black man
his first hint of
and help
towards freedom, have long since passed away themselves,

but they set the thinking world a colour-problem.
century the answer
has
For a
been working
itself
out in flesh
and blood.
ally capable
?
Can the negro
rule himself?
Is
he congenit-
The non-proven
of the Scottish courts seems hardly strong
284
WHERE
P3LACK RULES WHITE.
enough by way of a
reply.
Up
to date he certainly has
not succeeded in giving any convincing proof of capability,
has not indeed come within measurable distance of success.

I
think
we may go a
say
that,
full
step
beyond the non-proven.

at
We may
shown no
the
taken en
masse
any
rate,
he has
signs whatever which could fairly entitle
him
to
benefit
of the doubt that has for so long
hung about
the question.
He
for
has had his opportunity.
That opportunity has
lasted
hundred years
for
in
splendid
land which he found

find
ready prepared
him.
save
Yet to-day we
in
him with a
of force
for
Government
majeure,
which,
the
single
farce
;
point
has
itself,
degenerated
houses
into
and as
the
country
and plantations have

is
disappeared,
and where clearings once were there

forest.
now impenetrable
Certainly he has existed through one hundred years

strife,
of internecine
but he has never for six consecutive

in
months governed himself
any accepted sense of the word.
Today, and
as matters stand, he certainly cannot rule himself.
FINIS.
INDEX.
Alexis, General, 174.
Army,
40,
5664
see
Generals,
Amazan, General,
i8q.
Soldiers.
Assauei, Lake, 129.
Bobo, General Miles, Open Letter of, 257266.
Boyer, President, 124, 273. Burton, Sir Richard, 77.
Cannibalism,
75,
79,
88,
93,
168,
Cock-fight, 118.
274- 276. Cap Haytien,
Cocomacaque,
78,
151.
169175.
Coftee, 115, 174, 182.
Charms,
93.
Child-stealing, 99.
Consular Agents, 211, 212, 215, 218. of Great Britain, 7, 17,

55.
Christophe, Emperor, 173.

citadel, 185, 189,
177-
192
204.
of Liberia, 226. Corruption, 5154, 221, 224, 271,

281, 282.
cruelty, 198, 199, 203

206.
Cul-de-Sac, Plain
of,
in 122.
in.
death, 207, 208.
fertility,
palace of Sans-Souci,
190.
neglect, 115, 116.
Custom House,
14,
170,
171.
treasure, 188, 189.
Dardignac, General, 178180. Dancing, 8487, 132, 249, 250, 251.
Dessalines, General,
2,
273, 279. 245, 252.
Dress, Haytian,
6,
22,
286
INDEX.
E
Enquirillo, Lake, 145.
I
Execution
at
Jacmel,
11.
Food,
126, 127.
8,
Forest, Life in the, 123

100,
128.
Foreigners in Hayti,
life,
21c 224.
riding
218. 217.
of,
129139. rich in timber, 139140.

in,
number,
treatment
154, 159,
France, see Haytians. Froude, J. A., 44.
160, 217, 218, 220, 221.
Fundo, Lake,
139, 140, 144, 145.
Geffrard, President, 280.
Germany, Dispute
212, 215.
with, 109,
no,
Generals,
8,
39-73,
73-
231, 273.
conversation with,
grades, 43.
64
Gilmour, Captain, 105 no.
Government,
40.
271, 272.
tyranny, 45, 155, 233,

237instability
177, 182,
number,
pay, 41, 52. tyranny, 45, 46.

ubiquity, 39, 40, 43.
273. 274.
Guides, Petit Sans-Nom,
14, 130, 131.
uniform, 60, 64.
Petit Col, 185, 196.
H
Haytians, 232266.
capability for self-govern-
Haytians, jealousy
laziness,
249.
of
foreigners,
211, 217, 258
265, 272.
143,
ment,
46, 235, 256, 271,
115 117,
272, 277
284.
dishonesty, 103, 104, 234,

242.
love of physic, 125, 162. morality, 246, 249.

relations to
honesty, 216, 238, 241.

hospitality, 121, 126, 232.
France,
21,
63, 72, 160, 172,219,226,
ignorance, 255, 263, 272.
228, 243, 252, 255, 278.
INDEX.
Haytians, vanity, 6772, 215, 251,
262, 264.
varieties, 243, 244.
287
Hereaux, President,
146.
Hippolyte, President, 102, 188, 274.
Arch
Hospice
of, 37.
vindictiveness,
164.
8994,
Justinien,
160,
162
163.
Hospital, Military, 160, 268.
Jacmel, 28. hot-bed of Vaudoux,

78.
Jamaica, Obeah-worship
in,
95, 96.
Law
Courts, 219
224.
M
Mamaloi,
75, 76,
83-86,
93,
132.
Millot, 185, 186.
Marriage, 167, 246, 251. Martial Law, 28.

Merisier, General,
8.
Minerals, 146.
Mulatto, 145, 146, 237, 238, 243, 256,
257, 280.
N
Navy, 102 no.
"Crete-a-Pierrot", 103
"
Navy, "Toussaint",
103,
T04.
109.
Nobility, 44.
Dessalines
",
103.
Papaloi,
55,
75,
81,
85,
88-90,
Port-au-Prince, drainage, 25.

filth,
9296, 98
101,
164.
32-34-
Passport, 13. Poisoning, 8993, 97> 98-
hotels, 21,22, 25, 27.
market, 37.
mosquitoes,
191.
streets, 31. 26.
Policemen,
7,
34, 147, 221.
brutality, 151
154,
pay, 148.
Politicians,
Press, 152, 153, 225231.
252254.
Port-au-Prince, 21
38.
Prisons, 152, 154, 155, 156, 269, 270. in Port-au-Prince, 156158.

in
by
night, 26, 81, 216.
Cap
Haytien, 158, 159.
cafes, 21.
Protestantism, 167.
27,
description,
28^ 31. 32.
288
INDEX.
R
Religion,
see
Roman
Catholicism
and Vaudoux. Review at Port-au-Prince, 5664.

Revolutions, 102, i6g, 178182.
Roads, 17 184186.
20,
116,
122,
129
136,
Roman
Catholicism, 86, 163168,

246.
See Hospice.
Salomon, President, 178, Sam, President, 32, 43, 61, San Domingo, 63, 64, iii,
Soldiers, 31, 47.
274, 280. 222, 274.

145, 146.
Soldiers, pay, 48, 51, 52. recruiting, 54.
review, 56, 59, 60. uniform, 51.

St.
arms,
51.
character, 56.
dishonesty, 53. parade, 48.
Soulouque, Emperor, 44, 63, 273. John, Sir Spencer, 4, 152153. Syrian pedlars, 245.
Thomazeau,
46,
117
122.
Toussaint TOuverture, 278, 279.
ft
'
Vaudoux, 74101.
cannibalism
sacrifice,
Vaudoux,
relation to
81.
Government,
and
75,
child135,
76,
relation
tholic
164.
to
Roman
Ritual,
Ca86,
168, 274, 275, 276.
dances, 8487, 132, 135.
drum,
80.
sacrifices, 76, 81
sects, 76.
55.
87.
fetishes, 86.
power
priests,
in
army,
see
serpent, 77.
jMamaloi,
temples, 38, 83.
Papaloi.
Printed at the Motley Press,
iS, Kldoti
Street, E.C.

Where Black Rules White 1900

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WHERE It*

hoo\i toa0 pte^enttti

THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA

ENDOWED BY THE AND PHILANTHROPIC

WHERE BLACK RULES WHITE

Digitized by the Internet Archive

2011 with funding from

University of North Carolina at

AND ABOUT HAYTI

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS

Printed at the Motley Press, IS, Eldon Street, London, E.G.

the illustrations in this

indebted to the courtesy of Dr. Rauch of Port-au-Prince,

departure on an expedition to Pata-

T/w Daily Express''

correct the final proof-sheets of this book, and must therefore

indulgence should any inaccuracies have

crept into the text.

First Impressions of the Black Republic

Haytian Police, Prisons and Hospitals

living city within a dead one

The Citadel of the Black Napoleon

The Haytian Press

The Haytian People

Can the Negro rule Himself?

Haytian Scene Bananar at Jacmel A Funeral My Guide

General's evening Ride

The March Past

The Wharf at Port-au-Prince

Washerwomen A Haytian Highway

journey Typical Peasantry In a Haytian Forest

WHERE BLACK RULES

THE BLACK REPUBLIC.

lay hazy and of a soft grey, her deli-

crests cut sharply out against the brighten-

orange and deeper red patched with

angry colour shut

between the sea and a jagged

forward, and upon the stroke

Between us and the

bristling with scrub.

and there, through

brownish speck which might

a solitary hut, but these did not break the sense

WHERE BLACK RULES WHITE.

blew graciously cool

sweltering heats of the night.

Eighteen months had elapsed

steamed along under the same shores, and

none of her mystery and fascination.

wholesale massacre of the whites by order of General

immediately upon the proclain

mation of the Act of Independence

804, Hayti has been

could be told about her

the circle of a hunveil

few scores of white

her coast towns, but

even they can

between her tropical seas and

virgin mountain-peaks, keeps her secrets well.

In spite of endless inquiries, until

actually landed in the

could gather no definite details.