One reason for the dislike entertained by the mulatto for the white man is the evident partiality of their fair countrywomen for the latter. It is well known that the first dream or beau ideal of the young Haïtienne is a rich, and if possible a good-looking European, who can place her in a respectable position, give her the prospect of occasional visits to Europe, with the ultimate expectation of entirely residing there. Few young girls lose the hope of securing this desirable husband, particularly among those who have received their education in Europe, until their charms begin slightly to fade, when they content themselves with the least dark among their countrymen. It is unfortunate that this should be the case, as those who are most enlightened among the Haytian ladies are thus withdrawn from the civilising influence they would otherwise naturally exert. This preference for the white to the coloured man was also very conspicuous during the French occupation; and all things considered, it is not to be wondered at, as the whites make much better husbands.
The young mulatto, seeing this evident partiality for the foreigner, naturally resents it, but instead of trying to put himself on an equality of position with his rival by the exercise of industry and by good conduct, expends his energies in furious tirades in the cafés or by low debauchery.
The Haytians are distinguished for what the French call jactance, a better word than boasting. Mackenzie tells the story of a mulatto colonel saying to him, “Je vous assure, monsieur, que je suis le plus brave de tous les mulâtres de ce pays-ci.” He was lost in admiration of his own noble qualities. At the fortress of La Ferrière, during Mackenzie’s visit, a Captain Elliot said about some trifle, “N’ayez pas peur?” Immediately the officers of the garrison clapped their hands to their swords and talked five minutes of inflated nonsense.
I remember a Haytian general once calling upon me, and asking me to get inserted in the daily London papers a long account of the battles in which he had been engaged, and of his personal exploits. He was anxious that the English people should know what a hero they had among them. As he was really a brave fellow, and a man whom I liked, I was anxious that he should not make himself ridiculous by publishing a pompous account of battles which were but skirmishes among the peasantry. I therefore gave him a letter of introduction to an editor, who, I was sure, would explain to him that the English public would not be interested in the affair. I heard no more of it, but my friend was persuaded that since Napoleon no greater general than he had arisen.
As an ideal type of the better class of mulatto, I would take the late President Geffrard; he had all the qualities and defects of the race, and was one whom I had the best opportunity of studying. In a report which for some reason I never forwarded, I find myself thus sketching his portrait when almost in daily intercourse with him (1866):—“I am loth to analyse the character of President Geffrard, but as he is the Government itself, it is necessary to know him. In manner he is polished and gentle, almost feminine in his gentleness, with a most agreeable expression, a winning smile, and much fluency in conversation. But the impression soon gains possession of the listener that, with all his amiable qualities, the President is vain and presumptuous, absorbed in himself and in his own superiority to the rest of mankind. He imagines himself a proficient in every science, although he is as ignorant as he is untravelled. There is not a subject on which he does not pretend to know more even than those whose studies have been special, as lawyers, doctors, architects, and engineers. He seriously assures you that he discovered the use of steam by independent inquiries, and that he is prepared to construct a machine which shall solve the problem of perpetual motion; and he who has not ridden anything larger than a middle-sized pony imagines he could give hints in riding to our Newmarket jockeys.”
Geffrard, like many other coloured men, was much distressed by the crispness of his hair and his dark colour, and having a half-brother very fair, he persisted in assuring us that he had been born nearly white, with straight hair, but that having unfortunately bathed in the streams of Sal Tron during many months, the water, being deeply impregnated with iron, had curled his hair and darkened his skin. In any other man I should have suspected a jest.
One of the things which contributed to the unpopularity of the Emperor Soulouque was the waste of the public finances and the extravagance of his court. General Geffrard, who lived in penury before becoming President, promised to reform this; but instead of doing so, he gradually raised his own allowance to £10,000 a year; he also had the sole control of £4000 a year for secret service, and another £4000 a year for the encouragement of the arts and sciences. The grateful country had also presented him with two large estates, the expenses of which were largely borne by the State, whilst the profits were Geffrard’s.
As nearly every one of his countrymen would have acted in the same manner if he had had the opportunity, Geffrard’s conduct excited envy rather than blame. Even in the smallest details of the household there was a mean spirit; the expenses of the meat of the family were put down to the tirailleurs, whilst some exquisite champagne purchased of a colleague was charged to the hospital. Geffrard was certainly one of the most distinguished of his race, yet he sullied his good name by all these petty meannesses. I once asked a Haytian friend why she and others were always running down Geffrard and his family. She answered, “Because when I knew them intimately, they were as poor as myself, but now Madame Geffrard insults me by calling on me in a carriage. What right has she to a carriage more than I?”
Geffrard was personally brave, which quality is not too common among his countrymen, who are rather wanting in martial qualities. He had no idea of true liberty, nor of freedom of discussion. A son of a black Minister wrote a pamphlet in favour of strict protection for the manufactures of Hayti, in order to encourage native industry. A young mulatto replied, demolishing with ease the absurd idea that manufactures could be readily established in a tropical country, which could only be made to prosper by encouraging agriculture. The father was offended by this liberty, and, to soothe his wounded feelings, Geffrard had the young mulatto arrested, put as a common soldier into a regiment, and set to work to carry on his head barrels of powder to a village five miles in the mountains. The argument was unanswerable, and it is no wonder that the pamphleteer became a protectionist, though I believe that subsequently, when he was made a senator, he was inclined to return to his primitive views.
If I wished to describe a mulatto of the most unscrupulous type, I should have selected the late General Lorquet, but I have already referred to him.