A better or clearer proof cannot be given of the highly improved state of agriculture at this time, than by a reference to the number of plantations which had been established, and to the quantity of produce which had been exported to France, with the value of the whole, as estimated by persons whose authority may be relied on, and who were doubtless competent judges, from having in the island filled situations which gave them opportunities of fairly estimating everything connected with the country.
Moreau St. Mery, a writer of great credit, and a native of St. Domingo, states, “that in the year 1791 there were, in the French division alone, seven hundred and ninety-three sugar estates, seven hundred and eighty-nine cotton plantations, three thousand one hundred and seventeen of coffee, three thousand one hundred and fifty of indigo, fifty-four cocoa manufactories, and six hundred and twenty-three smaller settlements, on which were produced large quantities of Indian corn, rice, pulse, and almost every description of vegetables required for the consumption of the people. There were also forty thousand horses, fifty thousand mules, and two hundred and fifty thousand cattle and sheep; and that the quantity of land actually in cultivation was about two million two hundred and eighty-nine thousand four hundred and eighty acres.”
The quantity of produce exported from the island to France appears, by various accounts, to have been very large indeed, furnishing a very strong corroboration of the flourishing state of the colony, and of the extent to which agriculture had been carried. It would appear that not much regard was paid to other means by which the prosperity of the country might have been enhanced, the inhabitants resting solely on the culture of the soil to exalt the island in the eyes of the parent state, and to make it an appendage worthy to be cherished and protected. Mr. Edwards and others have stated the amount of exports as follows: that is to say, about one hundred and sixty-three millions four hundred thousand pounds of sugar, sixty-eight millions one hundred and fifty thousand pounds of coffee, six millions two hundred and eighty-six thousand pounds of cotton, nine hundred and thirty thousand pounds of indigo, twenty-nine thousand hogsheads of molasses, and three hundred puncheons of rum. Walton, in his Appendix, enumerates many other articles of export besides those which I have named, and he states the quantity of each much larger, and values the whole at about six millions and ninety-four thousand two hundred and thirty pounds, English money. The same writer observes, that the value of the imports into the country about that time from France was four millions one hundred and twenty-five thousand six hundred and ten pounds sterling. At this period, also, it appears from authority, that the population amounted to about forty thousand white people, twenty-eight thousand free persons of colour, and about four hundred and fifty-five thousand slaves; and that the valuation of the whole of the plantations in culture, with the buildings, slaves, cattle, and every implement for the use of agriculture, was estimated at fourteen hundred and ninety millions of livres, or somewhat about seventy millions English money.
The Spanish division of Hayti is said to contain two-thirds of the whole, and is estimated at about three thousand one hundred and fifty square leagues, an extent of country capable of affording the means of subsistence to a population of at least seven millions of souls. In local advantages this part certainly exceeds the western division, from its soil being almost in a virgin state, and a very large proportion of its valleys and elevations never having been tilled. The indolence and inactivity inherent in the Spanish character have been displayed in all their colours in this part of St. Domingo; for although their district possessed all the natural means required to raise them to an equal pitch of splendour with their French neighbours, yet so powerful were their propensities for pleasure, and every species of amusement, that they devoted but little of their time to the improvement of their properties, and they obtained from them but little beyond a scanty supply for their own immediate wants. From every source of information that can be consulted, it appears that the Spaniards, from their earliest settlement down to the period when they finally quitted the country, depended more on their mines than on anything that possibly could be derived from either agriculture or commerce; consequently agriculture was in a backward state, and the culture of the soil made but a very slow progress: indeed, but a very small proportion of the country was in a state of tillage; the inhabitants merely paid a little attention to the natural pastures which abounded in all the plains of the east, and whose luxuriance and verdure continued throughout the whole year. In these they raised large herds of cattle, for which they found a market, not only among their neighbours the French, who required a considerable supply for their estates, but they exported very large quantities to Jamaica and Cuba. To the raising of cattle, therefore, and to the occasional cutting of wood—mahogany, cedar, and a variety of other timbers for ornamental work, as well as dye-woods,—did the Spaniards devote their time, and hence did they contrive to satisfy their moderate and contracted wants, without having recourse to tillage.
It has been observed, and I think very truly, that the most important obstacle to the advancement of this part of Hayti, was the policy pursued by Spain towards her colonies. The system of government under which she ruled her transatlantic settlements seems to have been one of extreme oppression, and of unexampled rigour, and, from the earliest period of her sway, this system was most rigidly enforced in Hispañeola. There does not appear upon record any circumstance previously to the year 1700, which evinced a disposition on the part of Spain to promote the welfare of the colony, by calling forth its local resources, and by encouraging and tolerating settlers from others of their unprofitable and barren islands, in which all their energies and efforts had been fruitless and unavailing. The high state of the west end, under their prudent and more assiduous neighbours the French, whose industry and perseverance had astonished the world, and whose judicious and highly commendable system for promoting the cultivation of their country had become the theme of much praise and admiration, seemed about this time to have produced among the Spaniards some disposition to adopt measures for insuring to the parent state a more lucrative trade from their colonies. The force of example was too powerful to be resisted, and even the Court of Madrid began about this time to devise measures which might improve, and which might call into play all those resources which this highly fertile and most congenial soil was known to possess. Governors of known prudence and patriotic zeal for the interest of their nation were selected, and sent out, with injunctions to promote the interests of agriculture, and to give a spur to commerce, by opening an intercourse with their neighbours. The wants of the French in cattle, mules, and horses, were exceedingly extensive, and offered to the Spaniards an opportunity of improving their properties, by providing a vent for the sale of their stock. It gave an impulse to industry, and the once inert and unconcerned Spanish planter became in time an active and enterprising agriculturist, shaking off that languor by which he had been previously characterized, and at length assuming a degree of animation and spirit, which enabled him to take advantage of those resources which nature had placed within his reach.
A mutual interchange and good understanding between the two powers of France and Spain having taken place, this intercourse, become more frequent and reciprocally beneficial, continued for a series of years. In 1790, however, this most important branch of their commerce was cut off by the convulsion into which the neighbouring province was thrown. All that part of the population who dwelt on the frontiers withdrew themselves into the interior, leaving behind them their cattle, which fell into the hands of their rapacious neighbours, whose inroads caused much consternation amongst the proprietors; but their slaves, from habit or from some other powerful cause, remained unmoved and attached to them, although they had before them such strong incentives to revolt. Every appeal made by these people (and it is said, that they made innumerable ones) to the cabinet of Spain for protection against the fatal example of the French division, met with a very cold reception, if not a positive rejection. In this state of suspense and continued fear and alarm the people remained, until the disgraceful treaty of Basle gave Hispañeola to the republican government of France; and this event I cannot better describe than in the language of one of the most correct writers on this country[1], whom I shall here quote as an authority which has been hitherto deemed unquestionable. Speaking of this event, which occurred in the year 1795, and of the designs of the French rulers, he says, “though busied in the plans of universal dominion on their own continent, their cabinet did not lose sight or cease to entertain a hope of again possessing colonies abroad, and they were well aware which were the most desirable. Perhaps no system of invasion had been longer or more deeply premeditated, and digested with more mysterious secrecy, than the entire subjugation of Spain and her American settlements, in which, besides the common views of aggrandizement, their constitutional enmity to the reigning family acted as a powerful stimulus. This policy was coeval with that ambition which marked the first career of the present ruler of France and the specious veil under which the hidden, but continued advances were regularly made towards the end in view, adds to the guilt of duplicity and ingratitude, when we consider that Spain has scrupulously maintained her treaty of alliance and has fulfilled the stipulations entered into in 1795, notwithstanding all the three changes that have given other names to the French government, without altering its entity, or revolutionary or destructive system; that the cabinets of Madrid have bended to a degree of abject condescension, rather than be precipitated into a war; that they have sacrificed the interests and inclinations of their people, and have been driven at length into a state of non-reprisal, rather than risk a warfare with a nation they respected, and though an ally, furnishing both men and money under promises to share in the conquests made, they have been treated rather as a faithless neutral without claim, representation, or character, and thus their country has been impoverished and laid waste, and the supports of national union and energy undermined.”
Further, in continuation of this disgraceful treaty, by which Spain so abjectly submitted to surrender her colony to France, he says, “by this instrument of diplomatic intrigue and subtlety Hispañeola was made over unreservedly to France; the oldest subjects of the Spanish crown in the western world were thus bartered like so many sheep, and an island, not the capture of an enemy during war, and given up at its termination, but one that had descended to them as a primitive right, and had formed the glory of the preceding monarchs, who saw it discovered and settled. When possession was given in further aggravation of the Spanish natives, the transfer was received by Toussaint at the head of the intrusive settlers of one division of the island, with whom the former had previously and generously shared their territory; in short by a horde of emancipated slaves to whom the French republic had given equality, consistence, and power, and who now came to erect a new standard on the spot consecrated by the labours and ashes of Columbus, and long revered as an object of national pride.”
“In justice to the Dominican people it may be said, that none of the Spanish settlements possess more of the amor patriæ which ought to distinguish loyal subjects: they received the news as a thunder-bolt, and the country presented an universal scene of lamentation. They appealed to the humanity of their sovereign, but without effect, and then had recourse to remonstrances.”
Receiving no answer to their prayers or to their remonstrances, the people were left in a state bordering on despondency, with the only alternative of leaving their native land, or of swearing allegiance to a power in whom they could not confide, and which they had been taught to detest. Emigration therefore was determined on, and all orders—nuns, friars, clergy, and men of property and influence—with their families and their slaves, embarked for Cuba, Porto Rico, and the Spanish main, leaving behind them their possessions, to seek a shelter, and to find homes and occupations, in a country in which they might be protected by laws to which they had been accustomed, and submit to a government which they had been taught to respect. The extent of this emigration was considerable, and is said to have amounted to one third of the population; and it is evident from a subsequent census that this was not an exaggeration, and that so large a proportion of the people absolutely left the country, abandoning their abodes and much wealth rather than submit to a people whom they hated as the usurpers of their possessions.
In the years 1789 and 1790, about which time the first disturbances among the slaves in the French part of the island commenced, it appears the Spanish division contained about one hundred and fifty thousand souls or upwards; but by a subsequent census taken immediately after the cession to the French, and after the spirit for emigration had in some measure subsided, there remained only about one hundred thousand of all descriptions, a very strong proof of the detestation in which the Spaniards held this treaty, which assigned them over as subjects of the republican government of France. It is very evident, however, whatever impressions this arrangement might have made on the Spanish colonists, that it was one dictated by the rulers in France, and therefore accepted from necessity, and not from choice. The infamous Godoy, Prince of Peace (which high sounding title was confirmed by this treaty) was the leading personage in its negotiation, and being secretly leagued with the French ministry, became a willing instrument in consigning this bright and valuable appendage of the Spanish crown to the more designing and crafty schemes of the French cabinet, which had been from the beginning of their ambitious aim at universal dominion, not unmindful of the advantages that were to be derived from colonial possessions. When it is seen that the mistaken and weak policy, as well as the pusillanimity of the Spanish cabinet, caused so great a sacrifice as the dismemberment of their most valuable colony, it becomes a matter of no astonishment that the people should relax in their efforts to aid the means and resources of their parent state, by any exertions, in the cultivation of their lands, beyond what might be requisite for their own support. As this neglect and heedless inattention to their prosperity had been for a series of years observable, and as every incentive to industry was checked by the measures of the crown, it is not to be wondered at that this division of the island did not advance at the same rate as that which was under the dominion of France. However manifest the declension of the colony was to Spain, she never made any movements, nor adopted any means indicating a desire to revive the drooping energies of the colonists, and reinstate them in their former easy circumstances and affluence. If the cabinet of Madrid had had recourse to those wise plans which would have promoted the cause of agriculture and commerce, instead of becoming a calm and unconcerned spectator of the decline of both, this colony might still have remained the most brilliant gem in the Spanish crown. A people who had, from the example of their neighbours, and by an impulse the most surprising, been roused from a state of lethargy and inactivity to great exertions in the culture of the soil, in the breeding of cattle, and in commercial enterprise, might have exalted their country to the highest possible state of prosperity, had their efforts been seconded by the regulations of a wise government, and had that protection been given to them to which they were surely entitled; but instead of such support and protection, instead of being watched over and guarded by their parent state, their prayers, their petitions, and entreaties, were unattended to, and they were given up as a prey to their rebellious and uncivilized neighbours, who used every exertion to throw their country into a state of anarchy and confusion. The individual and unsupported energies of the colonists, however, were roused by the alarming predicament into which they had been thrown, through the apathy and supineness of the cabinet of Spain, and they effectually stopped the incursions of the pillagers for a time, prevented the destruction of their towns and plantations, and finally, by their firmness and perseverance, saved their properties from the devastations which had destroyed those of the western division.