Hayti; or, The black republic.

by Sir Spenser St. John

The Army.

A large portion of the revenues is spent in keeping up a nominally numerous army, but in reality the most undisciplined rabble that ever were assembled under arms. With the exception of a few hundred tirailleurs, who were, in the time of President Geffrard, disciplined by an intelligent officer, Pétion Faubert, a man who had seen service in the French army, the regiments have been always composed of the peasantry, without any discipline, and officered by men as ignorant as themselves. I have seen a battalion on parade numbering thirteen privates, ten officers, and six drummers—the rest of the men thinking it unnecessary to present themselves except on pay-day.

A French admiral asked permission to see a Sunday morning’s review. On approaching a cavalry regiment equally low in numbers with the battalion mentioned above, the President gravely turned to the Frenchman and said, “Beaucoup souffert dans la dernière guerre.”

A more motley sight can scarcely be imagined than a full regiment marching past. Half the men are in coats wanting an arm, a tail, or a collar, with a broken shako, a straw or round hat, a wide-awake, or merely a handkerchief tied round the head; officers carrying their swords in their right or their left hands according to caprice; the men marching in waving lines, holding their muskets in every variety of position; whilst a brilliant staff, in all the uniforms known to the French army, gallops by. President Geffrard used to look on with a smile of satisfaction on his face, and gravely ask you whether there were any finer troops in the world. As I have elsewhere related, the Treasurer-in-chief, who had passed some time in Paris, assured him that although the soldiers there were more numerous, they had not the tenue of the Haytian, and suggested that it would be as well for the President to send some of his officers to France as models for the French army to imitate. This is no exaggeration. I have myself heard similar observations. The negro is generally an ill-made shambling fellow, who rarely looks well in uniform and detests the service; but in order to render the work less fatiguing for the poor fellows, the sentries are provided with chairs!

It was after watching such a march-past as I have described above that a French naval officer asked me, “Est-ce que vous prenez ces gens au serieux?” And yet they look upon themselves as a military nation, and constantly boast that they drove the English and French out of the island; forgetting the part taken by their most potent allies, climate and yellow fever; and until disease had carried off the mass of their oppressors, and the renewal of the war in Europe enabled the English to lend their aid, they were crushed under the heel of the French.

The Haytian army has greatly varied in numbers. In the early years (1825 to 1830) of General Boyer’s Presidency it was calculated at 30,000 men, with only a fair proportion of officers. Some months after the fall of General Geffrard (1867) an account was published stating that the army in round numbers consisted as follows:—

General officers and staff	6500
Regimental officers	7000
Soldiers	6500
	———
	20,000

It is never possible to say what is the exact force of the army; in a late return it is stated at 16,000, and among the non-effectives are about 1500 generals of division. However, the old system continues, and to most of the battalions the President’s observation, “Beaucoup souffert dans la dernière guerre,” could be aptly applied. As Gustave d’Alaux somewhere remarks, “Tout Haïtien qui n’était pas général de division était au moins soldat.”

The cause of the great superabundance of general officers arises from nomination to a superior grade being a form of reward for political services which costs little. Every successful revolution brings with it a fresh crop of generals and colonels, as a lesser rank would be despised. I know a general who kept a small provision shop, and have seen him selling candles in full uniform. A counter-revolution made him fly the country, and for some time after he was acting as groom in some French seaport.[18] A Minister of War wishing to please a courtesan, gave her a commission in blank, which she sold for about five pounds.

President Salnave raised a common workman to the rank of general of brigade. As he had no money to buy a uniform, he began by stealing a pair of gold-laced trousers from a tailor’s shop, but did not do it unobserved. Chase was given, and the culprit fled to the palace, and took refuge in Salnave’s own room, who, however, handed him over to the police. The stolen trousers were then fastened round his neck and a rope secured to one ankle, and in this manner the new general was led round the town, receiving every now and then blows from the clubs of the soldiers. When he was quite exhausted, they mounted him on a donkey with his face to the tail, a placard with the word “Thief” fixed on his breast, and the gold-laced trousers still tied round his neck.

The great majority of the officers are in reality civilians, without any military training whatever, but they have a hankering for wearing a uniform, which is partly excusable on account of the respect with which the lower classes regard an officer.

The blacks laugh a little at their own love of gold lace. One day, whilst entering the cathedral with the diplomatic and consular corps in full uniform, I heard a negro say to his companions, “Gardé donc, blancs là aimé galon too!” (“Look, the whites also like gold lace!”), and a grunt of acquiescence showed that they were not a little pleased to find that the whites shared their weakness. “Too,” by the way, is almost the only English word which remains to testify to our former presence in the island.

Military honour has never been a distinguished feature in the Haytian army,—I mean that military honour which implies fidelity to the Government that they have sworn to serve. This was most marked in the revolution which broke out at Cap Haïtien in 1865 under Salnave and Delorme. Nearly every superior officer appeared more or less to have betrayed General Geffrard; but as they hated Salnave more, their treachery consisted in plots, in preventing successes, but not in aiding the enemy. Geffrard knew this, and so put over the army General Nissage-Saget, an ex-tailor, I believe, who was utterly incapable and as unsuccessful as the rest. Salnave could not have held his position a week had the officers done their duty; but they appeared to think only of how their personal interests could be best served, and never of the honour or dignity of the Government and country. Some entered into a conspiracy to murder the President, but being discovered, the most compromised fell on his knees before Geffrard and pleaded for mercy, which was somewhat contemptuously granted, with the remark, “You are not of the stuff of which conspirators should be made.”

There was no want of personal courage shown by the chiefs during the long civil war between civilisation and barbarism in 1868 and 1869, and some officers showed conspicuous dash and bravery, as Monplaisir-Pierre (negro) and Brice (coloured), (who subsequently were foully murdered by order of their then ally, Septimus Rameau), and Boisrond (coloured), who really merited the epithet of sans peur et sans reproche which was given him at a banquet at Port-au-Prince.

Traits of individual courage were constantly occurring, as during the defence of the town of Les Cayes, when young Colonel Lys distinguished himself. He, as all the bravest and best, has lately fallen a victim to the ferocity of the negro authorities; The Haytian, however, is not a fighting animal. Roused to fury by the excesses of his French masters, the negro of the time of the Revolution fought well, but since then many of his military qualities have departed. He is still a good marcher, is patient and abstemious; but Soulouque’s ignominious campaigns in Santo Domingo showed that the Haytian soldier will not fight. There has been little or no real fighting since; overwhelming numbers would sometimes endeavour to capture a post, but no battle took place during the civil war of 1869. The only really daring act performed by numbers was the surprise of Port-au-Prince in December of that year, and the chiefs of the expedition were Brice and Boisrond-Canal, supported by a land force under General Carrié.

The ignorance of the officers often leads them into ludicrous mistakes. A general commanding at Port-au-Prince saw a boat entering the harbour with the Spanish flag flying, and he instantly went down to the wharf. “Who are you?” said he to the officers. “Spaniards,” was the reply. “Paniols!” exclaimed he, “then you are enemies!” and proceeded to arrest them, under the mistaken idea that all Spaniards must be Dominicans, with whom Hayti was at war. It required the most vigorous language, and some emphatic gestures with his foot on the part of the French Consul-General, to prevent the Spanish officers being thrust into the common jail. The negro had never heard of Spain, although Cuba is within sight of Haytian shores.

An English admiral came into the harbour of the capital, and President Salnave sent an officer on board to welcome our naval chief. This was a black general, who, when he got on board, was so tipsy that he commenced making formal bows to the mainmast, under the mistaken idea that it was the admiral, who, hearing of his maudlin state, came to receive him on deck, and soon dismissed him. I heard that he afterwards declared he had seen two admirals on board. I knew this man well, and though a tipsy savage, was intrusted with a most important military command.

The army is legally recruited by conscription, the term of service being seven years, though volunteers serve only four; this, however, is purely nominal. During my stay, the invariable practice was for a colonel of a regiment to send out parties of soldiers, who seized in the streets any man whom they thought would suit. As this only occurred in times of danger, or when the President’s body-guard had to be completed, these captured volunteers had the greatest difficulty in getting free from the clutches of the recruiting sergeant. I have seen even deputies and senators walked off to the barracks.

As soon as it is known that the recruiting parties are about, men begin to stay at home, and only women come in from the country. This brutal system of enlistment was one of the causes of the fall of President Geffrard. To punish the inhabitants of Cap Haïtien for their unsuccessful insurrection in 1865, the President had recruiting parties sent out into that town, and the respectable young men were captured by dozens, transferred to Port-au-Prince, and forcibly incorporated into the battalions of tirailleurs. It was they who in 1867 gave the signal for those revolutionary movements which finally upset the President. The brutality shown by these recruiting parties is revolting, as the men are armed with clubs, and permitted to use them at discretion.

General Geffrard used to harangue these unhappy volunteers as if they were burning with enthusiasm to join the army, whilst, bleeding, tattered, and torn, they listened sulkily to his words, all the time carefully guarded by their brutal captors. Their chief pretended not to see their state.

This reminds me of an incident which occurred during the late war between Chili and Peru. Some hundreds of Indians had been lassoed in the interior, and brought down to Lima to fill up the regiments. President Prado was urged to address them, and they were collected under one of the windows of the palace. The general approached with his staff, and leaning out of window began—“Noble volunteers,” when he perceived that the men were tied together, and that a dozen pairs were secured by a long rope. He drew back hastily and said, “Noble volunteers indeed. I cannot lend myself to such a farce;” and no persuasion would induce him to return to continue his speech. President Prado has been deservedly criticised for his conduct during this war; but had his countrymen listened to his advice, there would have been no war between Chili and Peru.

The pay of the Haytian army is nominally as follows:—

General of division	£140	a year.
General of brigade	105	”
Adjutant-general	75	”
Colonel	40	”
Commandant or major	20	”
Captain	12	”
Lieutenant	10	”
Sub-lieutenant	7	”
Non-commissioned	from £3 to £5	”
Private	£2 10	”

The rations of a foot-soldier on duty are about two shillings a week, whilst that of a cavalry-man are three shillings. As the soldiers not on duty are allowed to work, they receive no rations. The President’s guard, consisting of several battalions, was composed principally of the mechanics and respectable labourers of the town and neighbourhood, who often paid the colonels so much per week to be exempt from active service.

The ordinary battalions are recruited among the country people, and these rarely present themselves except on pay-day. Even for this there is little encouragement, as if they do not present themselves at the appointed time, the officers divide the balance of the pay amongst themselves. If any man persistently comes to receive his dues, he is detained to do active duty for a month or two, which effectually checks his zeal and his love of dollars.

When the pay of officers is so trifling, it is to be supposed that the better classes do not enter the army as a profession. The higher grades are generally named for political services, whilst the lower are filled by men raised from the ranks. Except in a few special cases, it is rare for a man to have gone through all the grades of officer.

The generals are a power in the State, and have to be conciliated. The most ignorant blacks, as I have mentioned, are given the most important commands, from their supposed influence among the lower orders, whom they perfectly resemble in everything but uniform. They supplement their inadequate pay by every illegitimate means.

President Geffrard had really a desire to form an army, but the materials at hand were poor. His lower officers were as usual taken from the ranks, and inclined to pilfering. A captain was detected in the act of robbing the custom-house. As he had charge of the guard, the President determined to make an example. I find the incident recounted in my journal written at the time, and as the incidents are very characteristic of the people, I will tell the whole story. The danger of not knowing the connections of those to whom you are speaking may be exemplified by the following:—During the inevitable quarter of an hour before dinner, I was sitting next a charming Haytian lady, educated in England and married to an Englishman, when she began to tell me the news of the day. At the parade that morning the President had ordered the epaulettes of an officer to be torn off his coat on account of a petty theft he had committed at the custom-house. After he had given the order, the President turned away his head, but presently remarked, “Is he dead yet?” “Dead! your Excellency,” exclaimed an aide-de-camp. “Yes, dead. I thought that an officer of my army so publicly disgraced would instantly have put an end to his existence.” The lady’s anecdote produced a hearty laugh, first at the acting of the President, and then at the idea of any Haytian officer having a notion of such delicate honour. I remarked to my companion that the President would have done better, instead of only punishing the petty thieves, to lay a heavy hand on the great robbers, as for instance Mr. ——. The lady quietly turned to me and said, “I am sure you do not know that Mr. —— is my brother.” The start I gave convinced her that I did not; but I felt uncomfortable until, during dinner, with a nod and a smile, she asked me to take wine with her. Mr. —— had been engaged with some others in a détournement, as it was delicately called, of about seventy thousand dollars, but when I knew him afterwards, he was Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, and a more unworthy man it would have been difficult even for Hayti to produce.

President Salnave had a favourite regiment that he kept up to its full strength, and the men were fairly well disciplined. They were the only men in his pay who really looked like soldiers, but they were most insolent and overbearing. In order to strike terror into the town, Salnave ordered their colonel to march them down to the “Rue des Fronts Forts,” where the retail shopkeepers live, and there gave them leave to plunder. His little speech on this occasion has become a proverb in Hayti—“Mes enfans, pillez en bon ordre.” Whenever there were any political executions, the shooting squad was chosen from among them, and they have the discredit of having been employed to murder all the political prisoners confined in the jail at Port-au-Prince in December 1869.

The only battalions which, in time of peace, are kept up to their full strength, are those which are sent from their own districts to garrison distant towns, where those not actually on duty are allowed to look for work.