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

by James Franklin

The city of Port au Prince, which constitutes the capital of the republic, is situate immediately at the extremity of the bay of Port au Prince, and in the centre of the department of the west. On its north are the plains of Cul de Sac, environed by a chain of mountains extending from the eastward to the channel of St. Marc’s in the vicinity of L’Arcahaye. To the east are the mountains of La Coupe, the ascent to which commences immediately without the walls of the city. And on the south it is bounded by the plains and the bight of Leogane. It is about a mile from the northern to the southern gate, and from the sea to the eastern boundary about twelve hundred yards. It was formerly encompassed by a wall, and by several forts of great strength; but the wall has fallen to decay, and the forts are partly demolished, and are now so much gone to ruin that they are quite incapable of defence. At present there are forts Petion, in which the bowels of President Petion are deposited, Bazilles, La Croix, Le Marre, Islet, Hospital, Leogane, Government, and one or two of minor note, but they are all in such a state of dilapidation that a salute adds greatly to their weakness. Fort Islet is at the entrance of the harbour, and the weakness of the President leads him to think that its few guns, not more than six, would stop the approach of an invading force; and with this idea he has had it put into a proper condition of defence; but it stands so low, that the guns of a frigate brought to bear upon it would at once make it quite untenable. In fact I am sure that a British officer at the head of fifty men would desire no better amusement than to storm it, particularly when defended by such soldiers as the Haytians. With regard to the others, I do not see that in their present condition they can be defensible, for their batteries are demolished, and not an embrasure is left.

The streets are straight, running from north to south, and from east to west, and are sufficiently wide and commodious; but the roads are in such a state as to be quite impassable for carriages; and although the government levies a heavy tax for repairing them, and the criminals sentenced to work on them are numerous, yet but little is accomplished towards putting them into a state of repair at all suited for vehicles of any description, and after a heavy rain they are totally impassable for people on foot. The members of government are quite unconcerned about any thing tending to improve the appearance of their city, towns, or country; they seem, from the President to the lowest individual, absorbed in vice, living in sloth and sensuality, careless of every thing, so long as they may be permitted to indulge in the indolence and excesses so predominant in the habits of the Haytian people. The houses are merely the remains of such as stood the ravages of the revolution, and those wooden edifices, which were built since the two destructive fires in 1820 and 1822, which consumed one third of the city, containing all the most valuable buildings, with property in them to a large amount. The city therefore, to a stranger approaching it from the sea, has an odd appearance, exhibiting nothing but dilapidation and decay, or as if it had just suffered from the effects of some violent convulsion; and there seems no disposition to repair or improve it. In the time of the French the whole of the streets were paved, but the pavement since then has been mostly destroyed and never repaired. The houses on each side had verandas and trees in front of them, whose foliage, impervious to the solar rays, afforded the inhabitants a promenade, without being exposed to the influence of the sun; but the trees have been all destroyed, and only an occasional veranda is to be seen. The public buildings consist only of the government-house, the arsenal, senate, and communes’ house, and it is no difficult matter to describe them. The first was the residence of the governor during the French régime, and at that period must have been a splendid edifice. It is low, as are all the houses in the West Indies, built so on account of the frequency of earthquakes, but it is commodious, and commands a fine view of the sea. The gardens are represented to have been splendid, and in the front was a fountain (jet d’eau), which had a supply of water sufficient for all the purposes of the governor’s establishment; but they are now a mere waste, the fountain destroyed, and the house externally exhibits more the appearance of a barrack than the seat of government. The arsenal is contiguous to the sea, and might be destroyed by a gun-boat, for it has nothing to defend it but a battery, mounting two or three guns. It contains all the arms, artillery, and ammunition of the government, and shews the folly of the president who established it immediately within the range of an enemy’s guns. The senate-house is a low irregular building, and was formerly used as a dwelling-house, and since that period it has never received either repair or ornament, for it is tumbling to pieces, and has a filthy appearance, for the want of a little attention. The communes’ house has more the appearance of a receptacle for lunatics; and really if one were only to visit it during the sittings of the chamber, it would not be surprising if an impression were made that the lunatics of the republic had congregated in it, instead of reasonable men to deliberate upon the affairs of their country. The cathedral has nothing in its external appearance to point it out as a place appropriated for divine worship; it is a square building, with a single roof, without any steeple, with an ascent to it of about three or four steps on the western extremity. There is but little to attract in the interior decorations and ornaments; the altar is constructed of gew-gaws and tinsel; above it is a painting by a modern artist, representing the union of the blacks and people of colour. The figures are two officers embracing; one is in the uniform of a general of hussars, and the other in that of a general of infantry, one black and the other a mulatto. The back ground represents a field of battle in which the Haytians have just gained a victory over the enemies of the republic. There is an organ, but a small one, and not at all remarkable for either its tones or its structure. There is nothing else in the cathedral, and it is in fact a libel on the name to call it one.

Upon the whole nothing can be said in favour of the city of Port au Prince; and if it stood unrivalled in point of elegance and splendour in the time of the French, in the days and under the government of President Boyer it is only remarkable for ruins and every species of filth and uncleanliness. It contains about thirty-five thousand inhabitants of all classes.

The plains of the Cul de Sac, in the vicinity of the city, were celebrated in former times for their extreme productiveness, but they are now very little cultivated; and passing through them from one extremity to the other, from the sea on the west to the lakes on the east, from the mountains of La Coupe on the south, to those of Mirebalais on the north, I could only discover now and then a patch that had the least appearance of being tilled. On ascending the mountains, and looking into the valley below, the mind is at once struck with the inertness and indolence of the people, and with the devastation that must have been committed during the revolt of the slaves. Remains of houses and plantation works are to be seen in every direction, scattered implements for manufacturing sugar are spread around you, and walls, which were erected for dividing properties, as well as for the internal division of the lands in cultivation, are thrown down and mouldering, or overrun with the creepers and convolvulus, and various other shrubs, so as in places to become perfectly imperceptible. There is nothing to be seen in these once delightful plains like cultivation; all looks a barren waste, as though the inhabitants had been driven out, or cut off by some scourge, and the whole country had since been a place of refuge only for beasts of prey. The mountains remain untouched for the purposes of cultivation, except now and then a small patch for the production of vegetables, and on which is erected a miserable hut, in no respect superior, in point of accommodation and comfort, to the wig-wam of the North American Indians, but in which the sluggish Haytian will dwindle away his days in laziness, sloth, and in every species of lust and sensuality. He seeks for nothing but what supplies his immediate wants; and so long as he can produce enough for the calls of to-day, he is careless of what may follow on the morrow. Sleep and his women occupy the remainder of his time, with the exception of a brief interval, which he generally devotes to playing drafts or cards with a neighbour, generally as indolent and as unconcerned as himself. The plains are finely watered; for independently of La Grande Rivière there are innumerable smaller streams that water the different parts, and in the event of any extraordinary drought, irrigation could be easily resorted to for the purpose of supporting vegetation. But this is not often the case, as the seasons appear very regular, and the country in general is well supplied with rain from the great attraction of the surrounding mountainous districts, which are covered with almost impenetrable underwoods, and the showers descend into the valleys, and fertilize the soil in an extraordinary degree.

To the northward of the plains of the Cul de Sac, in the vicinity of L’Arcahaye, there is nothing to be seen that in the least indicates a country in that state of productiveness which is pleasing to the traveller; every thing exhibits a degree of negligence that is truly astonishing, particularly when the fertility of the soil is so well known.

The whole of the extensive and fertile plain of the Artibanite is in a similar condition; and although it receives all the beneficial influence derived from the overflowings of the river of the same name which washes an extent of fifty leagues, emptying itself into the bay of St. Marc, still the people do not evince any disposition to cultivate the land. Scarcely a sugar plantation is to be seen until you approach Gonaives or its vicinity, and those established in that quarter are not worthy of the designation; they are mere patches visible on an extended surface, and from the elevations around them have only the appearance of detached spots cultivated as gardens. There is nothing like an extensive scene of cultivation, nor can such be found throughout the whole of the republic. In this plain on the coast are situated St. Marc and Gonaives, which at one period were both places of considerable trade, and the inhabitants wealthy, living in great splendour and magnificence; but like other places inhabited by the blacks and people of colour, they are neglected, the houses gone to decay, and allowed to moulder into ruins. Nothing is left to remind the traveller of what they were. Contrasting what they are with what they are represented to have been, he at once infers, that the present inhabitants are a race devoid of all desire of improvement, and only raised a very small degree above the brute creation, from whom in their natures and habits they differ but little.

The north, taking the whole of the point westward from Port de Paix to Cape Nicolas Mole, abounds in fertile plains, and in rich and productive lands, well watered, and capable of great improvement, where agriculture might be carried on with great advantage, and where even an European, in a climate almost approaching to the temperature of his native country, might undergo manual labour without any more inconvenience from it than what is experienced by a labourer in Europe in the months of July and August. This is evident from the circumstance of a colony of Germans and Dutch in the neighbourhood of Cape Nicolas Mole having cultivated their lands unaided by the negroes, which, in proportion to their extent, are as productive now as they were at any period of the history of the country. They do not, it is true, produce sugar; but in the culture of coffee and cotton they are exceedingly successful, and are in a fine thriving condition. These Germans and their ancestors seem to have resided in this part unmolested during the whole of the troubles of the revolution and rebellion; and by the leading chiefs, subsequent to those events, they have been respected and protected.

In this district of the island there were several places of considerable notoriety in the time of the French, but they are now sunk into disrepute, and in fact mere villages. These are, the Platform, the town of Cape Nicolas Mole, Jean Rabel, and Port de Paix. The Platform was noted in the time of the revolutionary war with France for being a place from which a great many privateers were fitted out for the purpose of menacing our trade from Jamaica, being within sight of ships passing to the northward from that island. It is now, however, of no consideration, as it contains only a few houses inhabited by fishermen, who, it is said, occasionally turn pirates, whenever they find a vessel close enough in shore upon which they can pounce, without running the risk of being seen by the crew until they are alongside. The harbour of Cape Nicolas Mole was the principal place for the safe anchorage of shipping in the western world, but it has gone to neglect. The town consists now only of a few scattered houses of no consideration, and the whole of the fine fortifications which secured the harbour against an enemy are now nearly demolished and tumbling into ruins. The harbour is capable of holding an immense fleet, and ships of the largest size may safely ride at anchor, sheltered from the wind from every quarter. The mountains secure them against it from the east, north and south, and the wind from the south-west is greatly shut out by the high land running westerly.

The water in the harbour and close to the town is said to be from five to fifteen fathoms deep. In his negotiations with the Haytian government, the King of France was exceedingly anxious to have this port delivered up to him, for the purpose of a place of security for his fleets, or rather for a footing in the island, with a view of menacing the Haytians whenever he felt disposed to threaten them with his displeasure. But they had sense enough to resist this demand, and the king was wise enough not to contend for it, knowing that, in the event of Boyer not fulfilling his engagements, it would fall an easy prey to a very small force that might be sent against it. The British homeward-bound ships, during the war with France, were greatly annoyed by privateers from this port, as they passed within sight of the Mole, and so near at times, beating to windward, that it might easily be distinguished whether they were merchantmen or men-of-war. It was therefore between the Platform and this port that most of the captures took place, and lately this space has been the hiding-place for many piratical vessels, which run in under the land at daylight, strike their sails and top-masts, and consequently lie unperceived during the day, whence they again sail at night to commit further depredations. This became so glaring at last, that Boyer was obliged to send one of his vessels to intercept them; but I do not hear that he succeeded.

Jean Rabel is an inconsiderable port, with only a few houses saved during the revolution. The plains of the same name in its vicinity used to be exceedingly fertile, but there is now but little done in the culture of them, and in fact the whole of this part of the island exhibits a picture of indolence too shameful for any government to tolerate.