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.
The smaller lake, called Etang du Cul de Sac, contains fresh water, and the fish in it are very numerous. The soil in the vicinity of these lakes is the deepest and richest mould, and not having for years been disturbed for tillage, has become highly nutritive, from the animal and vegetable matter which decays annually upon its surface.
The value of land throughout the republic is greatly deteriorated, from the impossibility of making a money value from it within any moderate time. Labour being so high, and the difficulty of finding labourers for cultivation so very great, that the lands in the possession of the government lie in an untilled state, without any person evincing the slightest disposition to purchase them. Land also in the possession of individuals is similarly circumstanced; and those who are large proprietors cannot effect a sale of any produce which they may have beyond the quantity which they can consume; consequently a proprietor may have an immense extent of land, and yet be quite unable to derive any benefit from it by cultivation, or to convert it into money, for the want of purchasers. Thus, as I have before stated, there is no individual wealth in the country, because, although a man may have very large landed possessions, still those possessions are unavailable, for they produce him nothing, as he can seldom find persons disposed either to occupy or purchase them. There are some instances of proprietors leasing their lands to persons who undertake to cultivate them, for which they receive about one-third of the produce; but this is far from being general, and I imagine can only be accomplished by military men who have the command of troops, and who are thereby enabled to till them by working parties daily sent out for that purpose.
The finest land in the republic would not sell for more than sixty dollars per acre, although contiguous to a port for shipping, and of a quality so strong and nutritive, as to be capable of growing any of the tropical productions. The mountain-lands, and the lighter descriptions in the plains, suitable for cocoa and cotton, can be obtained for a price varying between twenty and thirty dollars in any quantity from ten to five hundred acres. In the plains of the Artibanite, where the soil is exceedingly rich and fertilized by the overflowings of that river in the months of May and November, and which has been yearly improving its condition, from having been upwards of thirty years out of cultivation, I have known small plots of land, for horticultural purposes, sold for forty dollars per acre. In those districts where indigo and cotton were formerly most generally planted, for the growth of which the soil is suitable, the situation peculiarly adapted, and the climate and seasons congenial, the price of land seldom exceeds thirty dollars per acre. I know an instance of a sale of land, once an old cotton plantation, which only brought twenty dollars per acre for one part, and about twelve for another.