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Ballantyne Press
BALLANTYNE, HANSON AND CO.
EDINBURGH AND LONDON
A MAP OF
HAYTI
1884
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HAYTI
OR
THE BLACK REPUBLIC.
BY
SIR SPENSER ST. JOHN, K.C.M.G.
FORMERLY HER MAJESTY’S MINISTER RESIDENT AND CONSUL-GENERAL
IN HAYTI, NOW HER MAJESTY’S SPECIAL ENVOY TO MEXICO.
“Haïti, Haïti, pays de barbares.”
Napoleon III.
LONDON:
SMITH, ELDER, & CO., 15 WATERLOO PLACE.
1884.
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INTRODUCTION.
Whilst in Port-au-Prince, a Spanish colleague onceremarked to me, “Mon ami, if we could return toHayti fifty years hence, we should find the negressescooking their bananas on the site of these warehouses.”Although this judgment is severe, yet from what wehave seen passing under the present Administration, itis more than probable—unless in the meantime influencedby some higher civilisation—that this prophecywill come true. The negresses are in fact already cookingtheir bananas amid the ruins of the best houses of thecapital. My own impression, after personally knowingthe country above twenty years, is, that it is a countryin a state of rapid decadence. The revolution of 1843that upset President Boyer commenced the era oftroubles which have continued to the present day. Thecountry has since been steadily falling to the rear inthe race of civilisation.
The long civil war (1868-1869) under PresidentSalnave destroyed a vast amount of property, andrendered living in the country districts less secure, sothat there has been ever since a tendency for the more[Pg vi]civilised inhabitants to agglomerate in the towns, andleave the rural districts to fetish worship and cannibalism.Fires, most of them incendiary, have sweptover the cities; in the commercial quarters of Port-au-Prince,it would be difficult to find any houses whichexisted in 1863, and the fortunes of all have naturallygreatly suffered.
When I reached Hayti in January 1863, the capitalpossessed several respectable public buildings. Thepalace, without any architectural beauty, was large andcommodious, and well suited to the climate; the Senate,the House of Representatives, the dwellings occupied byseveral of the Ministers, the pretty little theatre, wereall features which have now entirely disappeared.
The town of Pétionville or La Coupe, the summerand health resort of the capital, where the best familiessought a little country life during the great heats, wasalmost entirely destroyed during the revolution of 1868,and nothing has taken its place. People are still toopoor to afford to rebuild.
Society also has completely changed. I saw at ballsgiven in the palace in 1863 a hundred we