Hayti; or, The black republic.

by Sir Spenser St. John

Poor, however, as the education is that is given in Hayti, it is nevertheless an advance; and if ever revolutions cease and peace be kept for a few years, the Government may yet turn its attention to founding educational establishments on a solid basis. Of this, however, there is very little hope.

There are several private schools in Hayti. The best, as I have previously observed, was kept by the late M. Seguy-Villevalien. He had a very high opinion of the capacity of Haytian boys to learn, and he turned out some excellent scholars. His school, however, deteriorated in late years from his inability to secure superior teachers, arising first from parents not paying their school-bills, and secondly from the Government omitting to settle their accounts with him for the bursars. I mention this to show what a people the Haytians are. During the civil war in 1868 and 1869, M. Villevalien spent all his capital in supporting some dozens of boarders, whose parents were among the insurgents, and by his energy saved them from being drafted into the army. Yet when the war was over, few, if any, paid him what was due, or did it in depreciated paper, which was almost equivalent to not paying at all.

Education in Hayti is too often sacrificed to political exigencies, and a master of a high school is not chosen for his capacity, but for his political leanings.

We all noticed what has often been remarked in Africa, that negro boys, up to the age of puberty, were often as sharp as their coloured fellow-pupils; and there can be no doubt that the coloured boys of Hayti have proved, at least in the case of one of their number, that they could hold their ground with the best of the whites. Young Fénélon Faubert obtained the “prix d’honneur au grand concours” at Paris in rhetoric, “discours latin,” and only missed it the next year by unpardonable carelessness.

Some of the Haytian lads have the most extraordinary memories. M. Villevalien mentioned one to me who came to his school rather over the usual age. My friend took up a book on rhetoric and asked him a few questions, which were answered in the words of the author without an error; curious as to the extent of his proficiency, the schoolmaster kept turning page after page, and found, to his surprise, that the boy knew nearly the whole volume by heart. He then began to converse with him, and found, that although he could repeat his lesson perfectly, he did not really understand the sense of what he was repeating.

Whilst I was at Port-au-Prince the following affecting incident occurred:—Many families who have accumulated a certain amount of wealth by retail trade are desirous of having their children well educated, and therefore send them to France. A Haïtienne of this description placed her daughter at the Convent of the Sacré Cœur in Paris. After seven years’ residence there, she passed a few months with a French family, and saw a little society in the capital. She then returned to Port-au-Prince, was received at the wharf by a rather coarse-looking fat woman, whom her affectionate heart told her was her mother, and accompanied her home. Here she found a shop near the market-place, where her mother sold salt pork and rum by retail; the place was full of black men and women of the labouring class, who were, as usual, using the coarsest language, and who pressed round to greet her as an old acquaintance. Traversing the shop, she found herself in a small parlour, and here she was destined to live. Her mother was doing a thriving trade, and was always in the shop, which was a receptacle of every strong-smelling food, whose odours penetrated to the parlour. There the young girl sat within earshot of the coarse language of the customers. What a contrast to the severe simplicity of the convent, the kindness of the nuns, the perfect propriety! and add to this the recollection of the society she had seen in Paris! She was but a tender plant, and could not stand this rude trial, and sickened and died within the first two months. At her funeral many speeches were made, and the doctor who had attended her, whilst declaring that she died of no special malady, counselled parents not to send their children to be educated in Europe, unless, on their return, they could offer them a suitable home. No wonder, under these circumstances, that every educated Haytian girl desires to marry a foreigner and quit the country.

The well-known lawyer, Deslandes, objected to Haytian children being sent to Paris for their education, as likely to introduce into the country French ideas and sympathies, and thus imperil their independence.

At the present time education must be completely neglected, as the whole attention of the country is devoted to mutual destruction.

Justice.

My first experience of a court of justice in Hayti was a political trial. Four of the most respectable and respected inhabitants of Port-au-Prince were to be tried for their lives on a charge of conspiracy against the government of President Geffrard. My colleagues and I decided to be present. On approaching the courthouse, we saw a considerable crowd collected and some military precautions taken. Forcing our way through to some reserved seats, we found ourselves in a perfectly plain room,—a dock on the left for the prisoners, opposite to them the jury seats, behind a table for three judges, and a tribune for the public prosecutor.