The first morning after our arrival was cloudy, which was very unusual, for thruout the year in Port-au-Prince the mornings are almost invariably clear. So is the remainder of the day for the six months during the dry season, but in the wet season it regularly rains a downpour for about two hours late each afternoon. November is the beginning of the dry season, so for a couple of weeks after our arrival it would still occasionally rain for a few moments a day. But we missed having any of the truly tropical rains which during the summer flood the streets and sweep all before them.
While the winter is for Port-au-Prince and southern Haiti the dry season, the conditions are exactly reversed in the northern half of the republic. There the wet season commences in November, to last for six months until the next summer when all becomes dry again. And so there is never a time in Haiti when half of the island is not being well-watered and the fruit and crops in season.
[II]
CACOS
Although, in the days of the French, Cap Haitien was the capital of Haiti, to-day Port-au-Prince is the capital as well as the most important town. It is also the most modern town, being the only one, for example, to have the paved streets which I have referred to. In addition it has a good telephone and electric lighting system.
The first morning's tour of the shops in Port-au-Prince made my former knowledge of fair prices useless. Goods which it was necessary to import from the United States, such as silks and American-made cloths, seemed exorbitant; perfumes and French clothes, imported directly from Paris at a low rate of duty sold at a considerably reduced rate from the New York price; but naturally the greatest difference in cost was those of native goods. Mahogany grows plentifully throughout the interior of Haiti and hence is easily obtained. Its price is consequently low and I purchased a solid mahogany small dinner table for $6, which is the customary price. But compare the price for such a piece in New York! And then of course the native fruits were either free along the roads or at a nominal price in the markets. Alligator pears, bought as a luxury in New York for 75 cents or a dollar apiece, sell in Port-au-Prince for 5 pears for 2 cents.
