JACMEL, REPUBLIC OF HAYTI, _Feb. 5, 1849_.
My last communication was from on shipboard, at anchor under the lee of
Beattie Island, where I had every facility for corresponding, as the
generous and gentlemanly commander had given me entire possession of
the cabin and library on the main deck, from which I had at will a full
view of the tactics and manœuvres of a man-of-war vessel, under the
most rigid discipline, and manned by the most hardy and fine looking
Danish crew I had ever seen; whose health and conduct were the care
and pride of the officers, who were intelligent from necessity, as the
naval school of Copenhagen obliges its inmates to acquire the English,
German, and French languages, in addition to a general education, so
that when they are sent abroad as officers they are at home among the
great powers.
According to promise the Haytian fisherman came alongside with his
boat. The steward had provided my outfit for a three days’ passage,
and after exchanging gifts, as souvenirs, with my worthy friend Capt.
Irminger, whose kindness I shall not forget, I embarked in the frail
vessel, half loaded with dried fish, to make a coasting voyage of
upwards of one hundred miles to this place.
Although an old traveller, I had been extremely undecided how to act;
if I continued with the brig I could not arrive at St. Thomas in time
for the steamer, and would lose a month’s time, and my letters had
preceded me. The coast of Domingo and Hayti was quite uninhabited,
except by half-civilized negroes, and the exposure was considerable
in making the point of False Cape with a rolling sea. I had however
decided, and thought my confidence was not misplaced in my boatman. The
weather was very warm, with a full moon, and ordinarily a breeze in our
favor; so trusting in that Providence which has protected me through
so many wanderings, I waved my hat in response to the salutations from
shipboard and shot away before the breeze in order to double the cape
before nightfall, in which we succeeded, not however without drenching
my cloak with the spray. I never saw a boat more skilfully managed
than by these fellows, who hold their lives in their hands in passing
that point, where it looked as if we should be engulphed every moment.
In twenty-four hours we arrived at the residence of my men, a village
called Saltrou, of four hundred inhabitants, living in cane and mud
houses, with thatched roofs; and I found to my surprise that we had
unintentionally created a great excitement. One of the fishermen whom
we had first met at False Cape had reported that he had seen a man-of
war vessel, and a white man on board who wanted to be conveyed to
Jacmel. I was met at the beach by some negro officers in rusty uniform,
and bare-footed, who escorted me before the colonel and other officers
of this military despotism, whose cognomen of republic is a farce. I
was then questioned from whence I came, and the object of my visit. I
had my passports en regle, and had taken the precaution to have the
visé of the captain of the brig, showing my intentions. The colonel,
who could not read, and spoke but little French, began to abuse the
boatman in the Creole tongue, for bringing a man from the direction
of the Dominicans, with whom they were at war; but his secretary, an
intelligent black, and one out of six who could read and write in
the village, gave him to understand who I was, and I had taken an
independent course in manner and expression, although the only white
man or stranger in the place. He was informed, aside, as I learned
subsequently, that I might have the village razed to the ground by this
vessel of war, if I was ill treated. I then received from the villagers
great attention, and the mother of the fisherman, who happened to be
one of the élite of the town, provided the best she was capable of. I
was detained one day and night, until the formalities of Haytian law
were fulfilled in sending information and an escort with me to Jacmel
to the authorities of the place.
As good fortune would have it, my boatmen were good and honest
fellows, and became much attached to me from my conduct towards them.
The colonel wished to separate me from my men, and send me by a
barge coming to this place, in company with a group of all sorts of
people, to which I demurred strongly, and he finally consented that
my boat should convey me, but in company with the other; so I took
my departure, and arrived the following day. On my arrival, I was
presented to the Commandant du Port, and other authorities, who were in
full uniform, and who appeared well, and showed more intelligence than
I had yet found. The highest official with whom I conferred relative to
crossing the island to visit the capital, Port au Prince, said that he
was obliged to send a special messenger to the President, announcing
my arrival on the coast from a war vessel, and that he would probably
leave about the same time that I did.
The following morning I departed with my guide, on horseback, and
at mid-day was overtaken by a black officer in full costume and
well armed, who came up at a full gallop, and inquired if I was the
individual he was directed to join. I concluded I was to be ordered
back, but such was not the case. He had almost ruined his horse in
overtaking me.
The distance across from Jacmel to Port au Prince is sixty-six miles,
along deep valleys watered by ever-living streams, and only traversed
by horses, mules, and donkeys, there being from eighty to ninety
fording-places, produced by the windings of the little rivers. The
valleys are rich and fertile in the extreme. The mountains to be
crossed are very lofty, and covered with a profusion of verdure and
forestry; they present one of the grandest scenes in all the West India
Islands, and prove the assertion that the blacks have the jewel-island
of all the Antilles; but how mortifying the reflection should be to
them, that what was once such a source of riches to France, and to the
islands, and what with industry might be made a paradise, is now so
woefully neglected, and falling back into barbarism.
Agriculture is very much neglected from the want of a disposition to
labor, as the blacks will not work for themselves or others, and their
wants are trifling and readily supplied. The government is a military
despotism, and exhausts the country by its levies of troops, and
taxation. It has a standing force of some twenty thousand men, and is
now at war with the Dominicans at the east end of the island.
Port au Prince has a population of about twenty thousand, composed of
all colors, with perhaps one hundred whites. It has a fine harbor, and
is a place of considerable trade, being situated in an agricultural and
cultivated country.
The city is mostly composed of frame buildings, although there are many
of other materials, covered with slate and shingles, but it has a dull
and dusky air for the want of paint. The Government-House, which is
occupied by Soulouque, with the grounds inclosed, is quite extensive,
and the array of infantry, cavalry, and artillery within the grounds,
looks formidable; but instead of the simplicity of a republican
government, it has the appearance of the residence of a tyrant.
I arrived quite à-propos on Saturday morning--the market-day--when
the inhabitants of the country come in with their products without
a permit. They are permitted to do so from Friday night to Monday
morning; on the other days of the week a passport must be obtained,
which is quite a tax to them; and although it is arbitrary, and helps
the government, it may have a good effect in keeping them from idling
their time in the city, instead of being at work at home. Sunday was
the gala-day, and the great review of the troops by the President,
whom I saw in full uniform, attended by a numerous staff, and some of
the companies, who were well dressed, and appeared quite militaire.
Several of them looked well in the distance, but their rusty uniforms
would not bear inspection. The blacks are fond of military display.
Chapeaux, feathers, and gold lace give them great importance, and one
sees generals and colonels sufficient for a British army.
I passed a day with the Consul General of France, and the English
Vice-Consul, at their villas, a few miles from town. I had met the
former in my travels, and now obtained much information relative to the
massacre of the colored people by the blacks, last April. He had taken
a noble stand in their favor, and had protected large numbers under
his flag, in his own house; and having a vessel of war in the harbor,
he effected, under cover of night, the embarkment of many of the most
distinguished and intelligent mulattoes.
The ignorant blacks, jealous of the mixed castes, whose intelligence
and wealth were far superior to their own, had resolved on a general
extermination and pillage. Since then, however, a French war ship is
constantly in port, and there is now a better understanding between
the races. The President, who is a black, had lent himself to his own
color, but soon saw the error. Monsieur Rebaud, the consul, has just
returned from St. Domingo, and effected the release of one hundred
and sixty Haytian prisoners, who had been incarcerated three years.
This act, with the fearless exposure of his own life in April last,
among the mob, for the preservation of families from massacre, and
threatening the President to fire upon the town if more blood was shed,
has endeared him much to the colored people of the island.
It has been said that confidence in the common people of the country is
rarely misplaced, and that strangers heretofore could travel over the
country by day or night without being robbed or molested; and I must
add, that in most cases I have been treated with great civility.
In the mountains, at night, we met with the sable troops bivouacked
around their camp fires, en route for the war declared against the
Dominicans. Very little clothing is required in this climate, and
scores of women and girls may be seen washing clothes by the side of
the streams, with no other covering than a handkerchief; while the
little naked urchins are basking like black snakes on the rocks, in the
sun’s rays.
I have just returned from the north side of this little continent,
whose circumference, by an even line, is about one thousand miles, and
am now waiting the arrival of the steamer to proceed to Jamaica. At
present, the drought is excessive on the plains, and the heat of the
sun almost overpowering; and I can scarcely realize that while I am
writing, dressed in light summer clothing, with my unglazed shutters
wide open, and the birds singing merrily in the cocoa-nut trees of the
garden, that in this month (February) you, at home, are muffled in
furs, and have another music in the chinkling sleigh bells. This town,
Jacmel, with a population of some eight thousand, stands at the head
of a fine bay (the lower town is the commercial portion), and is built
along the shore, near which lies the shipping, that takes the products
of the country, principally coffee and logwood. The upper town is built
on the hill, and in entering the port, presents a pretty appearance;
but the effect is soon lost with bad paved streets and indifferent
houses. I was pleased to find a number of schools in the towns and
cities.
I am gratified in having had an opportunity of seeing a South American
Republic, and a Black Republic, both of which are failures, as they
have resolved themselves into military despotisms, without the great
fundamental principles of religion and education, which I trust we
shall always preserve in the United States.