The Present State of Hayti (Saint Domingo) with Remarks on its Agriculture, Commerce, Laws, Religion, Finances, and Population

Sumana, which appears as if it were detached from the main land, is a peninsula, and may be said to be nearly uninhabited. A few American free persons of colour have emigrated thither from the United States, for the purpose of cultivation; but they have greatly diminished since their arrival, numbers clandestinely leaving it, finding that the assurances held out to them by the Haytian government were only made for the purpose of deluding them to form a settlement. It is a low and swampy situation, and not likely to be an eligible place for colonization, as fevers and agues are exceedingly prevalent. Notwithstanding all these unfavourable consequences, Bonaparte planned a new city about the middle of the peninsula, to be called Napoleon; for this purpose, I am inclined to think that a survey was taken, but the design was finally given up. The bay of Sumana is very capacious, and affords a most delightful anchorage for shipping; and it may be justly denominated the key to the Mona Passage, as all ships passing from the north through the passage must be perceived by the vessels at anchor in the bay.

There is nothing remarkable in the south-east end of the island from the city of Santo Domingo to Higuey, with the exception of the extensive plains of Los Llanos, through which the traveller passes to Scibo, and thence to Higuey. These plains have been well described by Mr. Walton in his history of the Spanish colonies, and at the period of his residence in the island, they were without doubt the most delightful pastures in the western world. That writer says, “these astonishing plains constitute almost a sixth of the island, extending nearly to the east end, a distance of more than ninety miles, on a width of about thirty. On them cattle of more than a hundred owners pasture in herds, and are collected, counted, and the young branded at the season when the calf cannot mistake its mother. The dexterity with which the herdsman on horseback with a lance in his hand separates one of his master’s brand from the rest, is wonderful. In the dry season when the blade is long and rank, it is customary to burn all the grass on the plains, which serves as an annual manure; for in that season the cattle generally take to the forests in search of the herbage which the sun has not had the power to parch. The operation of burning is performed by setting fire to the most eastern part of the tract, whence the wind regularly blows; it spreads in long and succeeding volumes, frequently making the traveller recede, and effacing the path through which he has been accustomed to journey.” Subsequently to the repossession of the eastern part by the Spaniards on the expulsion of the French by General Carmichael, a very extensive trade in cattle was carried on with the island of Jamaica, which continued until the union with the west, when the intercourse was restricted, and, consequently, the breeding of cattle has not been so much attended to as formerly, as they have only their internal consumption to take them off. Many are now killed for the skin and tallow; when the meat is jerked, and the Spaniards from the continent of South America purchase it and ship it to the Havanna, where it is in great request for the slaves, and is called Tassaja.

The town of Higuey was once of some note from the riches and magnificence of its church, which it appears escaped the ravages of the revolution, and was not visited by those sacrilegious wretches, who devoted all edifices to destruction that had once been the resort of the white inhabitants of the island. The people formerly used to go on a pilgrimage to the shrine of the Virgin in this church from all parts of the island; but a few only now undertake it. The Virgin therefore has become poor, and the monks who used to officiate are reduced to great shifts for an existence. I know not if this be a mark of improvement in the Haytians; at all events, there seems to be less superstition and bigotry: a little, however, is still left amongst the females. I knew one instance of a female at Port au Prince who undertook a pilgrimage to the shrine of the virgin. She went by water to the city of Santo Domingo; and on her voyage thither was in great danger of being lost; but far from being alarmed, she considered it as part of the penance she had to perform before she invoked the saint for a remission of her sins, and therefore exulted at her good luck in meeting with such a disaster on her way.

The city of Santo Domingo, being, I believe, the oldest city in the republic, has been described by Walton as having been exceedingly strong, regularly built, and well fortified, and as containing many public edifices of note. Having since his time gone greatly into decay, it has declined in consequence, as well as in its commercial character; and it is remarkable, that in every place in which Haytian influence predominates, commercial enterprise, and every other good quality appertaining to man, is sure to sink to the lowest ebb. This may appear extraordinary, but it is true, and the city of Santo Domingo is an example of what I now write; for at this moment it certainly is in a state of inconceivable misery, and the greatest poverty and wretchedness prevail amongst the people. No place in the republic is better situated for commerce, were the people and the government disposed to encourage it; but no such disposition is manifested by either: and those merchants, who formerly had extensive dealings with the Spanish Main, have thought it adviseable to leave it and take up their abode in a country where they are likely to receive some encouragement, and may be able to invest their capital, with some chance of receiving an equivalent return for their industry.

The city is nearly a mile in circumference, and at this time does not contain above fourteen thousand inhabitants, although in the time of the Spaniards, including its attached district, it contained twenty-two thousand, and yet the population is said by the government to have increased exceedingly.

The harbour of Santo Domingo is a very indifferent one, being too much exposed to the south winds, but the ground is good for holding. It was in this harbour that Admiral Sir John Duckworth defeated a French squadron in the beginning of 1806. They were at anchor nearly under the walls of the city, from the batteries of which they received some protection; but the British were not to be intimidated. Putting every obstacle at defiance, they boldly entered, attacked the French line in succession, and obtained a decisive victory, taking and destroying the greatest part.

The river Ozama, which washes the eastern side of the city, is a strong and wide stream, and is of great advantage to it, as it not only carries off a great deal of the decayed animal and vegetable matter that is at times to be found in the vicinity, but offers great facilities for floating down timber and for carrying provisions and produce from the interior of the country.

To the westward of the city of Santo Domingo as far as Jacmel, the whole country is very little inhabited, although it is most beautifully picturesque, and affords every encouragement to the cultivator from the extreme richness of its soil. The bay of Ocoa has several convenient anchorages for shipping, and it is here that the largest quantity of mahogany and dye-woods is shipped for Europe and the United States; and formerly cattle were purchased, of which the supply was extensive and the prices exceedingly cheap. The Neyva, a river which has its source in the mountains of Cibao, and runs through a very rich and delightfully romantic district, emptying itself into a bay of the same name, receives vessels of small draught of water, for the purpose of conveying the products of the country on its banks to Jacmel for a market. In the neighbourhood of the banks of the Neyva are many remains of sugar settlements. This district is well watered, and occasionally shaded from the power of the sun; and as the soil is strong, it must have been highly productive in sugar as well as congenial for the breeding of cattle: nothing can exceed its verdure, and its fertility is generally admitted. The palmetto, or mountain-cabbage, grows in this district in a most flourishing state, demonstrating the richness of the soil, as this vegetable will not arrive at very high perfection except in tracts of country where the soil possesses great nutritive powers as well as a moderate degree of moisture.

From the Neyva to the west of the peninsula at Cape Tiburon the only places now of any trade or of the least note, are Jacmel and Aux Cayes. Jacmel was formerly a place of great trade from its situation, being so immediately convenient for carrying on an intercourse with the Spanish ports of the island, and likewise with the Spanish ports in South America; it had also a communication with Jamaica, which was valuable to it, but the restriction annihilated this branch of its commerce; and as the intercourse with South America subsided when the revolution in that country commenced, it lost its commerce altogether, and it is now a poor inconsiderable place, without trade, and without inhabitants of any respectability or means. The vicinity of Jacmel was never much celebrated for the extent of its cultivation, though in proportion to its means the returns to the cultivator seemed to meet his expectations. Sugar and coffee were the principal articles of growth; some cotton and a small proportion of indigo were also produced. Scarcely any thing is now produced except coffee, and but little of that commodity. The intermediate places to Aux Cayes are now nearly neglected, Aquin being the only one now frequented; and there are only a few inhabitants, such as fishermen, who carry on a kind of contraband trade in coffee to avoid the export duty, which can be done in these quarters easily enough, the officers of the customs being so ill paid by the government, that they are necessitated to make up the deficiency by participating in the profit of defrauding the revenue over which they are placed as guardians.

Aux Cayes is a place of some trade and a port from which is shipped a large portion of the produce of this part of the country. In the neighbourhood of Aux Cayes the soil is exceedingly productive, and to the cultivator used to return as much as any other part of the island, requiring at the same time less labour and less means; but now, however, like its adjoining districts, it has gone into great neglect, and exhibits on the face of it that relaxation in the culture which is so general throughout the republic. Indeed in the whole of this part the sugar cane is but little planted; in fact, with the exception of an instance or two in which English gentlemen happen to hold property in trust, the cane plantations are but little attended to; they are allowed to go on years in succession without cleaning, without manure, or any other requisite to render them productive. There are several British houses in Aux Cayes who used to carry on an extensive trade with the interior, and with the Spanish Main and Jamaica, but they have sustained considerable losses by the Haytians; and the restriction precluding an intercourse with other islands, they have only the chance of adventuring to the South American ports, and this only has been permitted recently by an act of the legislative body; for of late years goods exported received no drawback, but were subjected to the full duties, unless they were exported within six months, when they only paid half duties, or six per cent. But even this permission cannot benefit the merchant here, the trade direct to the Spanish Main supplying that market so abundantly, that the chance of an advantageous speculation is but very doubtful.

The whole of this vicinity and the district southward of the mountains of La Hotte, may be said to present the finest field for agricultural operations. A rich and nutritive soil, a congenial climate, and fine, refreshing, and seasonable rains, with a plentiful supply of water, all cooperating, hold out to the cultivator the greatest encouragement to exert his skill and industry, and to avail himself of those gifts which the hand of Providence has so liberally dispensed. But in the Haytian no such energy must be expected; nothing requiring the least effort of the mind or exertion of the body will rouse the energy of that slothful and inactive being, who idles away his time, careless of the consequences that may spring from his negligence and his irresistible desire for repose and quietude. In fact, I fear that nothing can be done that can prove effectual in stimulating the Haytian; it would be a task of no little labour to lead him; to drive him, would perhaps endanger the state.

From Aux Cayes through the country by Cape Tiburon to Jeremie, cultivation appears generally in a very backward state. The passing traveller sees nothing to attract him, except now and then an object which reminds him that the vicinity was once the scene of great havoc and desolation, and that all that was valuable and useful had been destroyed by some general convulsion. The remains of habitations, remnants of walls, and scattered implements of tropical labour, are to be seen in all directions. Here an iron boiler, half buried in the surface; there an old iron shaft of a mill, or some other part of the apparatus for the manufacture of sugar, and often a dismounted cannon, arrest the attention of the traveller as the wretched memorials of a devastating war.

In the district of Jeremie, which produced at one period large crops of coffee, cocoa, indigo, and cotton, but few symptoms of agricultural industry are visible. The finest plantations of the French are now totally obscured and overspread with the creeper, the windband, and numberless other species of indigenous weeds. In vain does the traveller look for those settlements which wore the gay appearance of culture, and for those plantations that enriched the proprietors, and placed them in that ease and affluence to which their industry and their perseverance so justly entitled them. Instead of such a scene, the whole country, as we approach towards the capital, exhibits nothing but neglect and waste, and their concomitants, poverty and wretchedness.

The plains Leogane, which once excited the admiration of travellers, and formed the scene of so much contention during the heat of the rebellion, are partially cultivated, and on the elevations that surround them a patch is in some places selected by a settler for the raising of vegetables for his own consumption; but I could perceive nothing which indicated a regular scene of cultivation, or which had the appearance of a system of agriculture likely to be beneficial to the proprietor of the soil. This state of things appears however not confined to a particular district; there is a similarity of negligence throughout the whole of the republic, and it would be an invidious distinction to select one part as worse than another.

Nothing can be more laborious, nor more inconvenient and unpleasant, than travelling in Hayti, from the state of the roads, from the want of inns for accommodation, and from the innumerable rivers and streams over which the traveller has to pass, and which, at all seasons, he is obliged to ford, often swimming his horse, and exposed to great danger from the rapidity and force of the current (to say nothing of being nearly up to his shoulders in water). There are no bridges in the island; the Haytians being all good swimmers, and much addicted to ablutions, deem them unnecessary. In the time of the French, the roads through the whole of their division were admirable; indeed they were admitted to be the best in the West Indies; the materials being adjacent to them, and the expense of putting them on the required parts so very trifling, they were always kept in the most perfect order, and carriages of all descriptions could pass with the same facility as in any country in Europe, from one extremity of the colony to the other. The accommodations for strangers too were of the first order, and no inconvenience was experienced for the want of those comforts so requisite after a journey under a tropical sun. But the scene is quite changed. It is almost impossible to describe the state of the roads at this moment. It is evident that, notwithstanding the heavy contributions levied for their repair, they have remained untouched since the revolution, and there seems a disposition on the part of the government to efface every vestige of the former roads, leaving the people who travel to beat out their own way in the most easy manner they can. On approaching the capital, they are, it is true, somewhat better than in the interior. Here a little attention is bestowed upon them, whilst in other districts they are unnoticed. All the criminals sentenced to labour on the roads are employed in the vicinity of Port au Prince; and this seems to be a measure suggested from its being economical, as the criminals have an opportunity of supporting themselves by begging.

It may not be amiss to explain in this part how the criminals are treated in the republic, and to shew what nice feelings the government has with regard to their treatment during the hours of labour, and the way in which they are provided for. All criminals who are sentenced to work on the public roads for a stated time, are not chained together, but roped together by pairs, the rope being first attached to the neck, then descending to the body, where it is fastened; the ends of the ropes are joined, so as to leave the space of about three yards between the criminals thus tied together. They labour from daylight until sun-set, being allowed an interval of about an hour and a half for dinner at noon. The government pretends to provide for them; but to save the expense of provisions, two of these criminals, accompanied by two soldiers with their bayonets fixed, are permitted to go about to beg provisions for the subsistence of the whole, and unless they chance to be very successful, they get but a very poor allowance, and often are left to fast until the next day. They are in gangs of about fifteen or twenty, and over every gang nearly as many soldiers, and an officer, all armed, are placed to force them to labour. At night they are incarcerated in the gaol, and their bed is composed simply of boards without any covering; they are allowed no supper. Admitting their criminality to be great, and their punishment just, still such a system has a degree of barbarity in it which can never prevail except among savage nations. What! convicted felons sentenced to hard labour, and directed to beg for their subsistence at the point of the bayonet! It seems incredible. The thing is too revolting to be admitted, many will say; but I declare it to be a fact, and call upon the people of Hayti to contradict it if they can. It is the labour of these criminals which alone renders the roads approaching the city somewhat passable.

From Jacmel to the capital, the road is in the worst state, and it is evident that it has not undergone any repair since the revolution. It is almost impassable in places, and never receives the least attention from one end of the year to the other. If the roads were in a condition to offer the least encouragement to travellers, I cannot imagine a more romantic nor a more enchanting ride. Ascending the lofty mountain of Tavite, the scenery is beautiful. To the southward is seen the Carribean sea, with Jacmel and its plain immediately below; on the other side may be viewed the island of Gonaives, the bay of Port au Prince, with the town of Leogane and its extensive plains. In every direction also are to be seen small cordilleras intersecting, between which are valleys whose verdure is perennial, and having natural pastures of the most luxuriant growth, which are seldom visited by the husbandman, and remain untouched by beast.

From the capital to the extremity of the western peninsula and Aux Cayes, the roads are very bad. To the latter place a chaise may penetrate by way of Leogane, Petit Goane, Morogane, and Aquin; few persons however who are accustomed to travel between the two places would venture to drive, but would rather ride, as the safest mode of travelling. Going to the north from Port au Prince, the old road remains, but in such a state as to be in places almost impassable. When the country was in cultivation, and these roads were in their finest order, a tour through the northern departments of the country must have afforded the traveller much gratification.

From Gonaives to Cape Haytien, the road is somewhat more easy for travellers, and in fact, throughout the whole of Christophe’s country, they are infinitely better than in the south, for he attended to their repairs, and saw that they were kept in good condition. The Escalier, about half way between the two places, deserves the notice of strangers, and perhaps is the most extraordinary road in the western world, with the exception of some that are to be met with in Columbia and in Mexico. No name could be more appropriate, for it certainly has the appearance of a staircase. This road ascends very high, and the precipices on its side are enough to intimidate the boldest rider who attempts to ascend or descend it.

Through the whole of the republic I believe there is not a decent inn for the accommodation of travellers; at all events, I never had the good fortune to find one, nor did I hear of one in any direction. There are huts on the road side, into which those who are travelling sometimes go to obtain lodging for the night; but even in these, a bed would not be easily found, and instead of a pallet, some boards thrown on the floor must suffice to repose on. On the summit of the mountains of Tavite, there is a hut of this description, and on passing that road on one occasion I was benighted, and took up my abode there until morning. A bed I was unable to obtain, there being only one in the house, and that was taken up by a Frenchman who had arrived a little before me. Mine hostess of the mountain, however, being a good-natured sable creature, was kind enough to prepare a place on which I might recline during my stay. Whilst she was engaged in adjusting my apartment, I thought it a measure of necessity to prepare myself for it by a copious libation of brandy, as a somniferous cordial; a great requisite in these Haytian inns, as one is sometimes rather disturbed by an insect that is very common in them, and of which it is not an easy matter for a man to disencumber himself, as they evince an extraordinary pertinacity in adhering to the body, and excite a sensation not at all calculated to invite sleep. Having fortified myself against the offensive operations of my dreaded enemy, I prepared to enter my apartment, but this was attended with some difficulty, its dimensions being only sufficient for a dwarf, and not calculated for a person somewhat beyond the middle size. I was obliged therefore to resort to the plan usually adopted on board of small vessels, by putting my head in first, and then by degrees to get in my body and legs; and this place about four feet square, on boards covered with my cloak, being one of those apartments of the inn usually appropriated for strangers, became my lodging for the night. To sleep was impossible, for the bugs, rats, and croaking lizards, haunted me the whole night, and I rose again before daylight just as fatigued as when I arrived the evening before, and with the additional knowledge of having a dollar to pay for my bed. The houses of the negroes in the British colonies are a palace compared with this inn for travellers; and yet this is one of the most frequented places in the republic.

In most parts of the West Indies there are public places to which people frequently resort for amusement on holidays, but there is no such thing in Hayti, except when parties occasionally go from Port au Prince to the lakes of the Cul de Sac, but even this is attended with great inconvenience, there being no places for the reception of travellers; and persons are therefore obliged to seek and beg temporary accommodations of the people in their vicinity, from whom at times you do not receive much civility, and they exact enormously for every thing you purchase. Were there any place fit for the reception of people, a tour to the lakes is worth undertaking, though the roads to them, like all the rest, are execrable. The largest of these lakes is named La Laguna de Henriquillo, and is about fifty miles in circumference, situate to the eastward of the old line of demarcation, and about thirty miles from the sea at the mouth of the Rio de Pedernales. Its water is salt, and although at this distance from the coast, there is the same motion in its waters as in the neighbouring ocean. The country on its banks is exceedingly attractive and highly picturesque, and exhibits a scene of natural fertility and beauty scarcely to be equalled in any other part of the Antilles. The game peculiar to the country is very abundant in this district, and the inhabitants who reside near the lakes subsist solely upon it and the fish which they can obtain in great abundance.