Port de Paix is opposite to the island of Tortuga at the mouth of the Three Rivers; it is of no magnitude, not being a port of entry for shipping as it was formerly; nor is it required, for there is little or no traffic, there being but little produce in its neighbourhood. It was celebrated in the time of the Buccaneers for being the place of their frequent resort, after their plundering and marauding voyages in the adjacent seas. It was here that the celebrated Morgan, who was afterwards knighted by Charles the Second, and became lieutenant-governor of Jamaica, first joined the “Brethren of the Coast”, the term usually given to the Buccaneers, of whom he finally became the daring and most famous leader. In the vicinity of Port de Paix there is a medicinal spring, the waters of which are strongly sulphuretted, and are much used and esteemed in cutaneous diseases.
The plains of the north, formerly celebrated for their sugar plantations, and extending from the Three Rivers to the old Spanish lines of demarcation, are in a similar state with every other part of the country, only partially cultivated in the elevated parts, with coffee and some cotton. It is impossible to view these celebrated plains without regret, and to reflect on the impolitic measures of the present ruler, which preclude the European all chance of adventuring with his capital, and trying what might be accomplished by investing it in the soil. The most beneficial offer was once made to him by an American company to colonize a district, by sending from that country five thousand blacks, to be emancipated in the event of their being shipped off from the United States. But he refused to accede to the proposal; and what is more, he told the parties making the application that the American negroes were too much enlightened to be allowed to colonize in Hayti, as they might intrigue with the Haytians to undermine the state. There is no finer soil in the island for the production of sugar than is to be found in these plains; it is composed of a strong black mould, of great depth and exceedingly rich and nutritive for the cane, and is highly valuable also for pasturage; but even on this no care or attention is bestowed, nor are there any pains taken in the breeding of cattle, for which the whole country presents the greatest facilities, from the luxuriance of its grass, and from the whole district being so well watered by rivers meandering through every part of it, and by those springs and smaller streams with which the whole island abounds. No country affords such retreats from the heat of the solar rays as this. Nature seems to have dispensed its blessings for man and beast with a liberal hand; but man here seems to be but little sensible of the beneficence of his Creator. All those elegant structures which once gave the face of these plains and the mountains around them such an air of grandeur, and excited the admiration of the traveller, are demolished, and scarcely a vestige of their original site can be discovered. Sometimes a dilapidated stonewall, and the remains of a windmill may point out to the passer-by that near them once stood an extensive range of buildings, and perhaps a mansion of some magnificence. The highly productive and very extensive estates once to be seen in the vicinity of La Petite Ance, St. Acul, Limonde, La Grande Rivière, Le Dondon, Marmalade, Limbé, and Plaisance, are now neglected wastes, with little to be seen but the spreading guava, the wild indigo, and a thousand other weeds and shrubs, raising themselves unmolested on the very spots which once displayed all the luxuriance of vegetation, aided and matured by the skill and industry of the husbandman.
Christophe certainly made strong efforts to revive the cultivation of his country, and he made some progress; but at the period when he was about to carry into effect a more rigid system for the culture of the soil, he was cut off, his plans were laid aside by Boyer, and now, as in every other part of the country, nothing is seen in that district but desolate wastes.
The city of Cape Haytien, which is the capital of the north, retains no vestige of its primitive splendour. It is, however, a much more pleasant and more elegant place than Port au Prince, and the inhabitants are always kind and courteous to strangers, as they all are in that part of the country which was under Christophe; a thing which the stranger must not expect at the seat of government, where the people are quite the reverse, and all spies. It is situate at the extremity of a bay, having the sea to the north, and mountains of considerable elevation on the south. It is strongly fortified, the old batteries of the French having been greatly improved by Christophe, who left nothing undone that could be accomplished in the way of strengthening his capital. Towards the sea the ramparts are very commanding, and an enemy’s vessel would find considerable difficulty on entering the harbour, as she could only do so within range of the whole forts, which are well mounted with guns of large calibre. The only requisite in the event of war would be men possessing sufficient skill and courage to man these works and to defend them. The city is well supplied with pure water, which descends from the mountains, over a gravelled surface, and receiving in its course no stream that can in the least injure its qualities.
A military force of about five thousand men is kept up in this district, under the command of General Magny. Part of this force garrisons the city, in which there are barracks for their residence; the other part is at different stations on the plains.
The trade to the cape is somewhat circumscribed, the country round it being not so thickly inhabited as the south, but what little there is seems to be carried on with much more regularity, and a great deal more certainty as to the result, than at Port au Prince. I have heard it generally remarked that the people of the north have a greater sense of honour and rectitude in their commercial dealings with foreigners, than the inhabitants of the south. Certain it is that Christophe in his time exacted from his people a strict adherence to their word in matters of commerce, and in the event of a disputed claim a foreigner had a chance of redress. Not so in Port au Prince, where, if a foreigner have a demand against a Haytian, it is ten to one against his getting any redress, and fifty to one against his getting paid.
Christophe, who always shewed a very great attention and respect for the British merchants and British subjects at the cape, or in any other part of his dominions, erected a very neat house on an elevation near the city, and furnished it somewhat elegantly, in which he had put up billiard tables, expressly as a place of resort for them, and of the whole he made them a present, with his pledge that no person of the country should be permitted to disturb them, nor should the premises be used by his people at any time or for any purposes.
At no great distance from the city of Cape Haytien were those two stupendous works of Christophe, his palace of Sans Souci and the Citadel Henry, or Fort Ferrier, the construction of which shews no little labour and design, and the expense of their erection must have exceeded any thing that can be imagined as the cost of modern works. I cannot describe them better than by quoting the account given of them by a native of Hayti, in his narrative of Christophe’s elevation to the throne. “The Citadel Henry,” he says, “that palladium of liberty, that majestic bulwark of independence, that monument of the greatness, and of the vast combinations of a Henry, is built on the lofty summit of one of the highest mountains in the island, whence you may discover to the left the island of Tortuga, and the reflection of its beautiful canal; in front, the gentle risings, with the city of Cape Henry, its roadstead, and the vast expanse of the ocean; on the right, La Grange, Monte Christi, the city of Fort Royal, Mancheneel Bay, and the surrounding hills. The eye is gratified with the prospect of the beautiful plain, and the magnificent carpet of verdure spread before it. At the back, the extended chain of mountains seems as it were the frame to this enchanting picture. The position fortified by nature, and to which art has added all its science, with casemates and bomb proofs, has secured it from being successfully besieged, while the mouths of cannon overtop the elevation of the high ground, and command the adjacent territory, affording protection to the whole north, and indeed to Hayti itself, this being the most formidable defence it possesses.”[8]
On the subject of this fort, I have before stated that it was built under the directions of an individual said to have been a Scotchman, of the name of Ferrier, from whom it takes the appellation of Fort Ferrier.
Of the magnificence of the palace of Sans Souci, I shall give the description of Saunders, as conveying an idea of what it was. “Sans Souci, a town rising into preference, and likely to become the capital of Hayti, has been established. Ravines have been filled up, mountains levelled, and public roads laid out. This superb royal palace, the glory of Hayti, is carried up to a great elevation. The beauty and durability of its construction, its sumptuous apartments, all with inlaid work, and lined with the most beautiful and rarest tapestry, which was amassed at a great expense, and with particular care in the selection; the furniture and elegant tapestry, selected with good taste; the gardens arranged with a just symmetry, through which meanders a pure stream, having a degree of freshness that particularly characterizes it, the jets d’eau, the fruit trees, and European productions, &c. &c., combine to embellish the retreat of a hero, and to attract the admiration of strangers; whilst a church, whose noble dome agreeably points out the richness of its architecture, and other public establishments, such as arsenals, dock-yards, and barracks, have sprung up around in spite of the ravages of war. To see the astonishing activity diffused in all these works, one would say that the greatest tranquillity had prevailed, and that it was the hand of peace which brought them to perfection! Immense treasures, the fruits of economy in the public administration of finances, fill the spacious coffers of the Citadel Henry.” “I know it”, he says again, “to be one of the intentions of our king to have the rotunda of his palace in the citadel paved and lined with quadruples. He is rich enough to do this.”