Where Black Rules White

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WHERE It*

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THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA

ENDOWED BY THE AND PHILANTHROPIC

DIALECTIC

SOCIETIES

^ 1901 .P9^

1900

8

UNIVERSITY OF I

N.C. mill

AT CHAPEL HILL

II III

10003068458

This book is due at the LOUIS R. WILSON LIBRARY on the last date stamped under "Date Due." If not on hold it may be renewed by bringing it to the library.

DATE DUE

DEC

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DATE DUE

RET.

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NovTizooe

UTirrwii

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No.

513

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WHERE BLACK RULES WHITE

Digitized by the Internet Archive in

2011 with funding from

University of North Carolina at

Chapel

Hill

http://www.archive.org/details/whereblackruleswOOpric

WHERE BLACK RULES WHITE A JOURNEY ACROSS

AND ABOUT HAYTI

BY

HESKETH PRICHARD Joint author of

"A Modern

Mercenary"

NEW YORK

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS ^53"^57 Fifth I

goo

Avenue

Printed at the Motley Press, IS, Eldon Street, London, E.G.

AUTHOR'S NOTE For I

am

the use of

some of

the illustrations in this

volume

indebted to the courtesy of Dr. Rauch of Port-au-Prince,

Hayti.

Owing

to

gonia, organized

my

by

"

departure on an expedition to Pata-

T/w Daily Express''

,

I

am

unable to

correct the final proof-sheets of this book, and must therefore

beg

my

readers'

indulgence should any inaccuracies have

crept into the text.

H.

4

en

P.

CONTENTS Page

CHAPTER

I.

„

II,

„

III.

„

IV.

„

V.

„

VI.

„

VII.

„

VIII.

„

IX.

„

X.

First Impressions of the Black Republic

The High Road of Hayti The Haytian General Vaudoux Worship and

13

39 Sacrifice

...

74

The Haytian Navy

102

Across Hayti'

iii

Into San Domingo

129

Haytian Police, Prisons and Hospitals

147

A

.

i6g

.

183

.

210

living city within a dead one

.

.

The Citadel of the Black Napoleon

„

XL

„

XII.

„

XIII.

The Haytian People

„

XIV.

Hayti the Puff-ball

„

XV.

Index

i

Justice and the Status of the

White

The Haytian Press

225

as

I

knew them

Can the Negro rule Himself?

.

232 267

....

277

2S5

ILLUSTRATIONS Page

A

Haytian Scene Bananar at Jacmel A Funeral My Guide

{Frontispiece)

— 3

9 15

Market-place, Port-au-Prince Six o'clock Reveille in the Streets of Port-au-Prince Palms on the way to Bizotou

23 .

29

Some Generals

35 41

A

49

General's evening Ride

The March Past

57 65

On Parade About to be reviewed

71

The Wharf at Port-au-Prince Street Scene

in

107

Petit Goave

Washerwomen A Haytian Highway Native Hut on the way to San Domingo Natives Military Arrondissement

113

119

.......

On a

137 141

149

EcoLE Centrale Port-au-Prince The Town of Millot Palace of Sans-Souci at Millot Interior of the Castle of La Ferriere Bel-air The Palace of the President

133

165 175

.... ,

Facing

185

„

190

„

195 201

213

journey Typical Peasantry In a Haytian Forest

235

Logwood

259

239 247

WHERE BLACK RULES

CHAPTER

liner

was hove

leaden

swell

Hayti

mountain

cate

ing

awaiting daylight.

to,

crests cut sharply out against the brighten-

east

was

alive

and glowing

orange and deeper red patched with

angry colour shut

Four

cloud.

Across the

lay hazy and of a soft grey, her deli-

Soon the

sky.

I.

THE BLACK REPUBLIC.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF

The

WHITE.

in

green, a bar of

between the sea and a jagged

rang

bells

livid

deep

in

lid

forward, and upon the stroke

of

we

were under way and steaming slowly past the dim dead

Between us and the

shores. bluff,

No

distant

heights

ran

low

a

bristling with scrub.

villages

glasses,

were

we could

have been

visible,

discern

a

but

here

and there, through

brownish speck which might

a solitary hut, but these did not break the sense

of desolation.

Nothing seemed

alive

save the

dawn and I

WHERE BLACK RULES WHITE.

2

a

sweet wind

clean,

blew graciously cool

that

after the

sweltering heats of the night.

Thus Hayti

was that

it

Hayti had the

Since

wholesale massacre of the whites by order of General

sealed

which

immediately upon the procla-

followed

little

herself

Very

land.

little

isles,

and the

she

rest of

interior

The Black

804, Hayti has been

could be told about her

alone

drawn a

has

for

;

the circle of a hunveil

between

mankind.

men

even they can

Republic,

1

in

few scores of white

of the

in

Threaded

was known.

dred civiHsed

A

saw

I

Eighteen months had elapsed

mation of the Act of Independence

very

year (1899)

none of her mystery and fascination.

lost

Dessalines,

a

last

steamed along under the same shores, and

first

I

November of

second time.

for the

since

in

live in

her coast towns, but

you

tell

practically nothing.

between her tropical seas and

set

virgin mountain-peaks, keeps her secrets well.

In spite of endless inquiries, until island,

I

I

actually landed in the

could gather no definite details.

The

ship

I

was

travelling in passed seven times a year along the southern

coast to

drop the mails at the principal port of Jacmel,

but although lives

many

people

on the neighbouring

ation respecting Hayti.

I

on board had

islands,

I

lived half their

could glean no inform-

was vaguely

told that the place

was unhealthy, more unhealthy than Colon, and even more abnormally

dirty,

and that men were rather more apt

to

FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF THE BLACK REPUBLIC. die

suddenly

there

than

elsewhere

in

to

lie

well

out

in

Even

the tropics.

the steamer seemed to hold herself aloof.

It is

3

her custom

the roadstead of Jacmel, and she only-

waits for the return of the mail boat before putting to sea again.

BANANAR AT JACMEL.

There were of course various strange rumours

drifting

about, stories that had oozed out from the guarded silence

shrouding those dark-green shores, stories of snake-worship,

and

poisonings,

human

sacrifice

and cannibalism.

appeared to be a stage with the curtain down, world knew that the dramas of

life

—

and death were

Hayti all

the

bein";

WHERE BLACK RULES WHITE.

4

played but

and

over

out

over

what curious

with

ordinary

tenor

horrible

or

human

of

behind

again

that

variations

curtain,

from

the

none could guess.

existence

I

had read one or two books about the place, notably that

by

Spencer

Sir

Hayti

considerable

a

for

some years

inevitable.

for

but even

period,

Mysterious

Her appeal

1

his

in

book was

the imagination

to

Ships from Europe and America move per-

round and along her coasts and

petually ports,

British Minister

old.

Hayti the is

who was

John,

St.

ocean cables

call

at her

open

link her to the rest of the globe, but

these things, five miles inland you lose touch with

all

civilisation, with the world.

From up to she

is

the sea, her mountains, bearded with dark forests their wrinkled brows, scowl at you.

picturesque

impossible

is

to

;

To deny

that

do so would be to

acknowledge a sheer lack of imagination. Mile after mile fjord-like

we

bay turned

slid

in

of Jacmel lying inside

Jacmel from the sea

along the coast

upon

its is

itself,

cliff,

until the

and there was the town

belt of sand.

not unlike towns

Republic or on the Pacific coast. nestling in vivid foliage, give

it

the

in

the Colombian

The same white same

houses,

false air of coolness.

Five minutes later the quarter-boat was shouldering her

way shorewards at the

across the swell which broke in

foot of the palms.

foam almost

FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF

We

shot past the reefs, and

among

idated landing-stage

which as

down

the

I

to

crowd of negroes,

— a crowd

shade of full-bodied

were degrees from gold lace

there

dress,

5

scrambled on to the dilap-

to colour represented every

As

black.

for

THE BLACK REPUBLIC.

to the simplicity of a cloth with a hole in the middle

wearer's

the

Most of them carried heavy jointed

had landed me put stroke

waited

I

;

steamer, the

and the

oft';

till

they

reached

trousers.

The boat

clubs.

saw the rowers

I

gangway was

liner

by ragged

supplemented

head,

that

slide into their

shadow

the

raised, the boat

of the

swung inboard,

Then

dived away over the glinting sea.

I

turned, stepped from the boarding, and was on Haytian earth. I

do not know precisely what

know

that

Almost with

I

was

was not

buildings,

you see

as

it

me was

in pictures,

narrow

a

something

like

a

street, lined

street

of old

save that the overhanging

walked slowly along, taking the measure of things. a dirty street, albeit the chief

acrush

donkeys.

do

were wooden piazzas.

floors

southern Hayti, and the sun was also

I

at all like the reality.

before

straight

irregular

London first

it

had expected, but

I

A

with lean

human beings

It

one of the chief town of

scalding.

The

place was

of African race and their

dog or two basked

in the alleys.

There

were shops, open cavernous places, with the stock-in-trade of the

proprietor

depending from ropes round the

Pavement or foot-path there was none.

walls.

WHERE BLACK RULES WHITE.

6

The

piazzas, jutting

from the upper

houses, were supported by pillars of

walking

but

earth;

them

under

ungainly

wood driven

into the

in

shadow was an

the

up and down,

exercise of four-foot leaps

athletic

floors of the

some

for

of the domiciles possessed brick thresholds leading to the supports, while others had none.

houses

with

seemed

all

smashed

shutters,

There were many empty fire-scarred

shells

which

In Hayti

the emptier for the pitiless sunlight.

they always start a revolution by firing the town. turned on the thought to observe the negroes in their

I

own

preserve,

where they may

Most of them had dropped at

me.

their

Through the dust and

" revolute "

as they like.

work or business

glare wizened

to look

donkeys

laden with huge bundles of guinea-grass, negresses

trotted,

hawked

about baskets of bananas and mangoes, the street was of

men and women,

A

bareheaded negro was blowing a

ringing blasts.

The

screaming, gesticulating, and shouting.

trumpet

tin

was half-running with a round her brows.

short-kilted

to

handkerchief. trousers,

As

bottle balanced

carriages

heads

Most of them were dressed

knee, for the

These

their

and nearly

last

all

men, some had

I

;

one

on a yellow bandana

and some, more ragged than the

with red bands.

No

the

in long,

din was incredible.

There were women carrying loads upon

tied

full

in white,

wore the turban coats,

some only

rest, affected

kepis

discovered later were policemen.

were to be seen, not even a broken-down

—

THE BLACK REPUBLIC.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF West Indian buggy. where Black

was

It

my

impression of the land

first

The bawl and

rules White.

clatter of voices,

man

the jostling crowd, the scream of an angry

in

the hot

street,

the few cool stores with their proprietors seated

chairs

in

sun, the smell, the dirt

the

side-posts,

:

was Hayti.

this

The

British

Consular Agent, to

letter of introduction,

up

which

Failing this hospitaHty

bivouac

whom

had brought a

I

was most kind, and oftered

for the night, a proposal

accept. to

on

the doorways, the ungainly wooden houses with

sprawling

their

7

I

I

to put

me

was only too glad

to

should have been obliged

the open; for Jacmel, though the principal

in

port in southern Hayti, does not boast either hotel or rest-

house where one could hope for a night's Half an hour office,

later,

as

peace

at

near the door for the sake of

Then

of voices arose outside. ering

sat

I

of a

bare-footed

crowd.

air,

shelter. in

the Consular

a sudden clamour

a thudding noise,

We

turned

— the gath-

out

into

the

scorching sun to where, in the centre of the arid waterside space, a fight in

a blue

was

linen

double-breasted,

The

captive

in progress.

uniform

like

A

policeman, buttoned up

a butcher-boy's

only

coat,

was struggling with a big-headed negro.

had hold of

and the pair swung to and

his

captor's

fro in a

cocomacaque

club,

heated struggle.

The big-headed negro was already wresting away weapon when two other policemen raced

up.

the

Smash went

WHRRE BLACK RULES

8

a

cocomacaquc on the

WHITE.

stooping head, and a bubble of

big,

A

red blood rose through the short fuzz.

The

ment went up from the bystanders. dazed

like

a

fled

down

bull

prisoner turned

moment, then he broke

a

for

bellow of excite-

free

and

the street.

me

Experience soon taught

no means uncommon:

that similar scenes were

by

also learnt to sympathise with the

I

frantic resistance of the prisoners.

The

business

Jacmel

in

almost entirely

is

and

On

without him. projects

as

up

the

country,

Either the

Government plants

permission

point-blank,

negotiations

are

the

in

lurch,

this

or another.

foot firmly

and refuses

houses

legally

of

in

the

town and

whom no

general, as he

is

man

known

are

later

on

so

finds himself finally

land in the island,

towns are concerned,

at various times. district

fewer than in

own

in the coast

law has been circumvented

soldiers,

G.

which

saddled with a hopelessly bad bargain.

far as private

There are

or

expediency suggests another

begun,

Again no foreigner can but so

if

manipulated that the white

craftily left

or

its

prospecting

way

obtaining concessions, are blocked in one

course,

cannot get on

it

sufferance therefore he remains, but any

opening

to

outlander, but

the

dislikes

hands

The RepubUcan Government

of the small foreign element. distrusts

in the

about 500 potential

200 are generals.

A

Hayti, must be spelt with a big

The general commanding

this

province

is

one of the

THE BLACK REPUBLIC,

FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF

men

strong

He

of the country.

and belongs

lowest

the

to

can neither read nor write,

he was one of the

strata, yet

General Johannis Meri-

great forces in the last revolution. sier

cannot sign documents, but by way of making his mark

he adds the

impress

himself against deception.

negro type, and

country

there were

;

went

I

to read, thus securing

person he

In

hands

in his

Towards evening

What one man

of his signet ring.

him he gets another man

writes for

lies

the power of

for a ride

of the ultra-

is

life

passed by the

I

executions

man and

some pretty-looking

villas half

Not so long ago two

boy of fourteen

up

moment

the

The boy

of firing a

boy and asked him

to the

said

"No" — he

had

(the latter

paternal skull with a hatchet) were

Upon

hidden

Returning

arsenal under the walls of which public

take place. a

and death.

about the surrounding

green dotted about the outskirts of the town.

in

ii

if

split

condemned

Roman

criminals, a

to

open the be shot.

Catholic priest went

he repented of his crime.

would do

it

again

if

he had the

chance.

"If you repent you

will

be reprieved."

"I do not repent."

The spoke.

priest

untouched. volley.

withdrew,

The man The

fell

and the twenty assorted firearms

upon

his

knees,

volley rang out again.

but the boy was

No

result.

Another

The bleeding man pitched forward dead, but

boy stood

in

the aching sunlight,

still

unhurt.

the

WHERE BLACK RULES WHITE

12

A

general rode up, and borrowing a cocomacaque from a

bystander, beat the soldiers over the head for their bungling.

He

swore that unless the

men

themselves should be shot. riddled

fell

said

boy,

with bullets.

A

second

On

the

that

soldiers

effect,

the

the

boy

later,

Then the drums

of the Republic was satisfied.

justice

was

next attempt took

beat, for the

this

occasion

it

had pity on the youth of the

and purposely shot wide, each man hoping that

comrade's bullet might do the deed.

But

it

his

was a cruel

mercy.

Darkness

come on by

had

time

the

I

recrossed

Among

the

market-place.

The scene was

wooden booths

a few fluttering flames cut into the blackness

of the

night,

weird.

and from the gloom around came the inde-

scribable screeching babble of negro voices. in

the

dim

light

gesticulation, or slips

the ruinous

I

saw

pale-palmed

Here and there

hands twisting

in

wide mouths that flashed white teeth over

of sugar-cane.

And

so

the

busy unseen

night-life,

which the dark-skin loves, went on under the dense sky.

CHAPTER

II.

THE HIGH ROAD OF HAYTI. LIBERTY, EQUALITY, FRATERNITY.

Permit

to the Citizen Petit

mounted on

a red

Port-au-Prince

an English

and

as

Saiis-Nom

(Little Nameless),

mule bearing the brand guide

to

Request

subject.

Military, to render to

which he may stand

S.S., to

go

to

Monsieur Plesketh Prichard, to

the

Authorities, Civil

him any aid

or protection of

in need.

Jacmel, 22 November, 1S99.

This passport,

(of

which the original

is

in

French) signed

and stamped with the round bhie stamp of the Communal Council of Jacmel, the

made me

road

chief high

of

free of

capital.

Along

every

by

agency

Outside of Hayti quote from a

this

letter

the

of

Hayti, lying between the port of

Jacmel and the fortnight

some seventy miles

it

mails and

of couriers

money and

mules.

road bears a sinister reputation. written

to

me

pass

To

from a neighbouring

WHERE BLACK RULES WHITE.

14

island

may

" Persons

:

over the

hills

travel

from Jacmel to Port-au-Prince."

The country

between

lying

snake-worship, with

my

sight,

first

is

said

to

be a hotbed of

accompaniments of superstition and

its

sacrifice, as, indeed, is all the

On

by land

great danger

with

mountain-land of the Republic.

guide, Petit Sans-Nom,

Haytian of meek aspect.

His duty

in

life

was a puny was

to clean

out the Custom House, with interludes of acting as courier

on the Port-au-Prince road.

His face and head were

curi-

ously small, and he wore a scanty curling goatee.

In his

white coat and ragged trousers he listened

humbly

soiled

while the General of the Custom House was good enough

say

to

that

if

complaint from

he misbehaved himself he should, on any

him pursuing

left

On

the

prisingly

be immediately cast into prison.

me,

vocation with a grass broom.

his

morrow we met altered

he was fiercely urging a ing-place.

Two

into

which he stowed

how

so

it.

Petit

little

mule

bearing was surat his side,

and

to the appointed start-

bags were slung across the mule,

grass

undersized

His

again.

heavy cutlass swung

a

;

I

my

baggage, and while one wondered

an animal could be expected to carry

Sans-Nom, perceiving that the two sides did not

balance, considerately added an enormous stone as a make-

weight.

my

He

then mounted on top of

convenience

minutes

in

afterwards

the I

all,

and

shade of a tamarind

had

bidden

sat awaiting tree.

Five

good-bye to H.B.M.'s

MY

GUIDE.

THE HIGH ROAD OF HAYTI. Consular Agent, to whose kindness

was riding with

my

two

the

rivers,

owed

it

would be necessary

Rain had also

track overhung

The

silver

trout

stream,

many

bends.

by creepers and

river,

and the fords were

and we were

trees,

the

that counting river-bed,

followed

it

we

at the

green and as clear as a

across our

crossed

it

was

four

in

one of

feet deep,

became monotonous. loops

its

to

and

lly half-

eighty-one.

The road

its

Before

half-past three.

number had swelled

with

way

had counted nine fordages.

I

After

was, in

fact,

and oval curvings, and we

glen by glen through hollows clothed in fresh,

rain-flushed greenery. hillsides,

in

The water was about

the quarter to four five

embedded

came suddenly

the hour at which

less,

and two

ford.

first

the

fallen recently,

fifty

For a mile or so we threaded along the narrow

deep.

past

to ford the

Grande Riviere and the Gosseleine, any

number of times between a hundred and hundred.

much, and

so

guide out of Jacmel,

had been told that

I

I

17

with

Sometimes we sagged up and down

now and then

a glimpse upwards of a tree-

conical slope covered with pointed grey stones, or an

open valley massed with

foliage of a dark potato-leaf tint,

flecked with the broad pale blades of banana palms.

Dusk came upon through sidered

the as

a

us while

thickly-wooded high

road)

we were

still

gorges;

the

making our way river-bed,

(con-

becoming worse every moment.

8

WHERE black; RULES WHITE.

1

Fireflies

came out and danced among the

and

the myriad crickets and frogs ticked

all

about

and croaked

We

had

of the mountains, and

my

an army of pigmies marking time.

us, like

arranged to sleep at the

foot

had promised that we should

guide

foliage overhead,

there

arrive

before

nightfall.

When

darkness unmistakably settled down,

how much

we had "Far,

no subterfuge.

to it

farther

we

began

far,"

Hour joined hour

was.

still

to go.

At

struggled on.

human

to pass

in

Petit

he

frankly.

And

measureless past, of the journey

stage

this

Sans-Nom stooped

said,

the

asked him

I

far

and

we

habitations which in every particular

might have been borrowed wholesale from West Africa.

Here and there red

fires

Round them crouched clad not at

all,

and

burned

figures

in the

clad

gloom of a stockade.

in

little,

in the heart of the

glow were people

dancing to the monotonous clap of hands. circle

you could see the squat

outlines

the children

Outside the

and the humpy

shoulders of thatch huts.

At ford,

last the

and tipped

one abrupt

off the

action.

She submitted

would

not.

to face a

Petit

Sans-Nom with

to the

baggage being

baggage and

loaded on again, but allow her she

She refused

small mule mutinied.

human burden

to

remount

So the procession of two became a

pro-

cession of three, the guide straining on the head-rope, the

mule throwing

off

the

baggage whenever

possible,

and

THE HIGH ROAD OF HAYTI. the

19

and horse bringing up a weary and

traveller

inglori-

ous rear.

The prospect

of sleep and food receded while the hours

my

went by, but, as

horse gathered himself to scramble

bank of more than usual

up a steep

Sans-Nom encouraged him with last

and

ford,

dim

above us

rising

shoulder

was the

gloom

I

made

out the

With renewed hope we

mountain.

of a

it

the remark that

in the

A

climbed upwards into a sound of voices singing. thatched

hut

peeped through the

were holding high

foliage,

the gate of the enclosure, and led the starlight

I

the noise ceased abruptly in Creole, to

There were

way

;

A

which we were able

by a flaming

lit

little

the

tin

girl

was

While

it

to give satis-

the being

was

still

windowless room,

lamp that leaped

wooden

in the

table,

and

stirred to wakefulness, a tablecloth laid

remember eating something, and is

shouted, and

ordinary furnishing of the peasant's

was produced, a mattress was

recollection

and by the

the door opened, and questions

six people in the central

water-bottle,

home.

in,

The guide

draughts, and showed the earthen floor,

red

they

it

Forthwith they invited us inside.

factory rephes.

which was

in

saw two or three subsidiary huts beside the one

where they were making merry.

were asked

and

palm-

Sans-Nom pulled down

Petit

festival.

Petit

slipperiness.

upon the lying

floor.

down.

wakened some hours before

My

I

can next

daylight.

dark we ascended the lower spurs of

:

WHERE BLACK RULES

20

\VHITE.

the mountain, which rises eastward to Prince's Peak, 5,000ft. high,

and the dawn was not

grey

seas,

— to

was

When we met

worse.

misty island.

its

had been bad, but the mountain road

road

river

see both

the south the Caribbean Sea, to the north

the bay of Port-au-Prince, with

The

when we could

full

of donkeys

cavalcade

a

we

spent half an hour in edging across the top of a precipice,

where the path only allowed of the passage of one

When

time.

broadened

at

we

last

reached

some

out into a road

donkeys had passed over

it

the

30ft.

when

it

the

level,

at a

track

wide, but horses and

was

soft with the rains,

and the sun had subsequently hardened the hollows and mouldings

of

mud

into

We

ridges.

followed

across the plain through the forenoon until sight of the sea

which lay be}'ond a broad

A

lazily

wind puffed

furiously

down upon

mile-long

procession

came

"When

their

be a

to

way

to the

Here the road,

highway, with

its

us into the capital.

in

ahva^'s

national

advice, too, for the bridge it.

we came within belt of

swamp.

and the sun beat

we were swept up

to a bridge after a while,

this

route

into a

of negroes and negresses with laden

you see a bridge

discovered

marsh,

the road as

donkeys and mules on

We

over the

this

had a

spite of

all

morrow's market.

and

my

go round proverb.

6ft. its

hole

it."

It

in

guide said

Later

I

was sound

the centre of

shortcomings, was a

dark stream of people flowing ahead of

THK HIGH ROAD OF HAVTI. So with the sun back,

at

I

boring a hole

still

where,

in the small of

my

wet and weary, into the heart

length jogged,

of Port-au-Prince,

21

a

after

little

searching,

I

found

a hotel.

They say

that the

new colony

a

is

act of every nation in founding

first

Spain builds a church, England

typical.

founds a bank, and La Belle France opens and patronises a

cafe.

that

For the moment,

I

preferred the P'rench plan in

administers to the primary necessities of the

it

human

frame. P" ranee

has evacuated Port-au-Prince for a hundred years;

do her cafes survive Haytian black

life

man

negro

is

possesses

The

conservatism.

Frenchman

is

In a degenerate form they do, for

?

among

have,

therefore,

imitation of Paris

had seen the the

last

made

original

century

by

;

a

in

hotel to which

I

posts,

piazza.

Mules

a strong

the

colonising

nearer his handiwork

ideal, the

the

of

and the

nearer he

is

to bliss.

town of Port-au-Prince an

by men who

and carried on and revised during negro

race,

— have

who — the enormous

not.

had come was an oblong building,

rimmed below with narrow

wooden

The

a hundred years ago

majority of them, at least

The

impulse

national

life,

faults or virtues

his

to imitate Paris.

can approach to the original

We

upon French

grafted

life

doors,

and above with the usual

and horses were hitched

to

the

and from the open doors an overpowering smell of

WHERE BLACK RULES

22

coffee

greeted

many

in

The bar was

you.

black

WHITE.

and straw

frock-coats

Haytians,

with

filled

imbibing the

hats,

brown "rhum" of the country.

They were

men, bony-shouldered, with long faces

lean

who greeted each

pointed by fuzzy thin goatees,

an

elaborate

the right hand or the

left.

The coloured barman manipulated question

they one

room

of a ?

Had

in

No,

come

this

way

and,

passing through

furnished

le

blanc

a fine big room,

1

would see

would

Would

first.

le

left,

in the street.

we found an

establishment.

staircase climbed to the

The

building

came the ante-room and

It

place

an

idea was

air

upper

was two rooms

billiard-room,

noon heat hung palpable.

A

opened

thick.

and here the

The room had been but

and

from

First after-

wine-splashed table gave the

I

was

it,

and the

Then on along

not refuted by after-experience. 9,

;

floor of the

of just awaking after a night of

a black passage to No.

which

iron door on

upon a basement crowded with dogs and negroes

wooden

blanc

le

and picturesque red earthen-

with dirty cloths

the ancient red paint was blotched and faded.

a

blanc

a dining-room of five or six tables,

ware water-jugs, was once more

this

Had

and they would show him ? He followed,

then,

Turning to the

a long drink, and the

which to sleep was mooted.

they not

engage?

other with

shaking hands indifferently with

politeness,

there.

lately vacated,

and the evidence

THE HIGH ROAD OF HAYTI.

25

Two

of another presence spoke aloud from bed and basin.

windows gave upon the

was pro-

further ventilation

street,

vided by jalousies opening into the sleeping rooms on each

being a

of privacy

lack

side,

detail

A

luxury of a thorough draught.

mosquito-net of bygone

hung stagnant over the bed, and mosquitoes buzzed

efficacy

round the dirty wooden walls

in platoons.

was the room, the waiter could not conceal

This pride

compared with the

in

it

—a

room, as one could see

fine

;

his

would not

le

blanc engage?

To whom

did

to

two

dollars

per

dollars

a day

— to

a

rent

of the

Haytian?

more.

dollars

Thus,

But

room was

Monsieur would stay en

day.

That would be two

derer

The

Haytian certainly.

a

yes,

four

belong,

hotel

this

pension''^

for the

sum

of

wan-

(Haytian value), drinks extra, the

Hayti had secured a resting-place and stokerage.

in

Outside the windows coursed an open drain which told of

plainly

its

lay

inches

the

lower

ships;

How

deep

in

the

Bay

still,

the

yelling

of

!

green,

nameless

tall

masts of

islands

of Port-

background of blue tropic

And

negroes,

grunt of scavenging pigs,

What

indescribable sorts

The view extended over

street.

set against a

the heat danced

uncouth

all

town, beyond which stood up the

farther

au-Prince

mission, and refuse of

the noises in the street, the

— came

sea.

— the

bark of dogs, and the

up

in

a babel.

with the heat, the mosquitoes, and the noise there

!

WHERE BLACK RULES WHITE.

26

—a

arose a yearning for that primary necessity

The

bath.

heavy-footed negro came padding back into the room. tin

would

hung

first

of

The

He

At once?

le blanc.

something to

after that,

Very good

eat.

experience of the Haytian gargoii, and things

describe the

to

steaming

the

stirred

first

air;

of vapour.

well

long night, the

service

fire.

But

of a

the

at

And

see.

was a

It

was

bath

night in that

room

was Hke Hving

it

No wind

1

bottom

at the

Cocks crowed throughout the

live-

and poker was being played with vivacity

at

end of the passage from which one was only divided

by mere wooden

Not

slats.

fifty

odd miles

saddle

in the

could conquer these drawbacks and bring the welcome

gift

of sleep.

Next morning heavy-eyed

le

blanc turned up to dejewier weary and

after a late

" Slept well? "

morning

asked an American, " any mosquitoes

visible skin-surfaces

bore eloquent witness.

they've done you proud.

man who

sleep.

'*

?

"

All

Yes, by Josh

1

Say, ever hear the story of the

shot a mosquito up in that

room of yours with

an eight-bore duck gun, and only wounded it?"

For four days and nights I

gave

in,

and noises the

capitulated

on three

chairs,

held the fort of No.

miserably, and

in possession.

loose-treading,

I

I

left

9,

then

the mosquitoes

departed towards evening, and

good-hearted nigger waiters,

who

and don't know what a mosquito

is,

sleep

save

THE HIGH ROAD OF HAYTI. by the sense of

27

" petits

came round and demanded

sight,

cadeaux." After

was

dirty,

with the

all,

I

must

it

equal

its

Spanish

with some regret, for though the hotel

left

in fairness

be said that one could meet

that respect in not a few places within

in

And,

frontier.

were

at least, the proprietors

amiably anxious to please, and spared no trouble. I

went up

to

only other hotel in the town, which

the

stands above the palace of the President on the Champ-de-

There the arrangements accorded better with

Mars.

pre-

judiced English notions, and there was a night wind thrown It

in.

taining, tants,

it

said,

is

some

when

and have a meal

at

was no longer

No. 9 never

my

million

and three-quarters of inhabi-

there exist but three hotels.

Occasionally

it

whole State, con-

realise that in the

difficult to

is

was

I

my old my fate

failed to

feeling low

quarters, to

I

used to go

down

and the thought that

become mosquito-chop

throw a fresh luminance of

relief

in

over

sojourn in the capital of the Black Republic.

So

for

some weeks

I

sojourned

in Port-au-Prince

and by

degrees acquired a knowledge of the Black Man's capital.

Within an arc of hazy blue mountains, threaded with clouds of a hundred delicate shades, Port-au-Prince its

beaches

like the

lies

upon

white skeleton of a stranded whale, of

which the rib-bones are the houses.

grow between them, heads up

into

The

grass, that

palm

trees as

seems to

you draw

WHERE BLACK RULES WHFrE.

28

Viewed from

nearer.

most beautiful spots squalid

the

streets,

made by man,

scar

you would

afar

on

it

find

it

one of the

But go down into

God's earth.

and you as

call

town

the

is

a fester, a

were of malice prepense, upon

the natural loveliness of his environment.

was good on quiet evenings and on certain cloudy

It

dawns

to ride

this

and garbage,

city of gutters

of earshot of the multiloquous negro voices, and look

out

down on

the blue horse-shoe of the bay, where the island

Gonave

of

away from

floats

in

shadow, and

watch the

to

soft

southern

greys and purples thrown on mountain, shore, and sea.

At

first

sight Port-au-Prince looks fair

travelling 5,000 miles to see;

impulse

is

once enter

to travel 5,000 miles to get

through the

streets,

the

enough it,

away

be worth

and your next Passing

again.

around seems a strange graft

life

Here

of Parisianism and savagery.

is

an idolatry of fashion,

an insistent militarism, and an exuberance verging on the grotesque

to

—a

distended

of speech

caricature

all

of the

orginal.

Here the white man, rights

worthy of the name.

martial law.

the

country

and

opposed

has

been

at

to the black, has

Moreover, the town

This condition of things

internal dissensions. streets,

as

is

is

no

under

permanent, although

for several years past at rest

After nine you are challenged

from in

the

no time of the day or night are you out of

sight of a soldier.

THE HIGH ROAD OF HAYTI. The

chief boulevard

some

street

Rue des

the

is

31

Miracles, a broad

three-quarters of a mile in length.

Trees over-

hang the roadway, a wheezy steam-tram makes half-hourly up and down from the quays

journeys

There are no footways

Mars.

be a

lost

bed of a

At

;

and the whole surface

art,

to the

Champ

road-mending appears is

as

de to

rough as the

torrent.

intervals of

They

soldiers.

wood turned

from 50 to 100 yards you find a post of live

ramshackle guardrooms made of

in

from lack of care and the corro-

rust-colour

sion of torrential rains, a longish hovel with the inevitable

some two

piazza raised

The heavy

an open drain. with

Some

sleep.

some lounge

in

sluggish sewer

;

play

above the

faces of the

dice

hammocks

street.

men

Below flows are blotched

on the bench by the wall,

slung from the trees over the

two or three

fires

of boughs serve to cook

slender meals, which are not provided

their

A

feet

by the

State.

collection of guns leans against the trees at various angles.

The whole

is

more

like a mid-forest

bivouac of a few ragged

blacks than a scene in the main thoroughfare of a capital.

The

city

has

no architectural pretensions.

are mostly built of

though

The

it

is

wood, and

now some time

fires

The houses

are of frequent occurrence,

since they

finest buildings are the Cathedral,

had a serious one. which stands

at the

head of the boulevard, and the white palace of the President.

When

I

passed the

latter the

President was sitting on the

WHERE BLACK RULES WHITE.

32

He

balcony, playing draughts. a

a full-blooded negro, with

is

heavy face and huge negro mouth

beard and grey hair brushed up from

must weigh close upon eighteen

He

is

between a grey

set

his

forehead.

He

stone.

a superlative specimen of his race, and the black

faction in Hayti have at least secured an admirably repre-

To make

figurehead.

sentative

this

clear,

it

must be ex-

plained that Hayti for the black, as differentiated from the

mulatto

man,

coloured

or

the

is

watchword of the great

majority in the Republic.

The

palace stands on the fringe of the

where

the

are

grass

breaks

scanty

the

held

reviews

and bloated

;

— an open

into

Champ space,

de Mars,

on which

of dusty baldness,

patches

bull-frogs hold nightly concerts in the intersect-

ing ditches.

Turning back to the Cathedral,

which

is

city,

one passes by the steps of the

open and

tropical,

the interior

hung

with dark curtains and supplied with a profusion of pictures

The town

and colour. of

its

possesses a peculiar picturesqueness

own, unlike anything one sees

But you walk through

of the globe.

in

its

any other quarter

cobbled streets with

circumspection, for they are ankle-deep in refuse.

Even

in

the

which contains the Consulates and

Place,

a heap of corruption five or six

the

chief shops,

feet

high and more than proportionately long.

cab

of the

there

country,

is

known

as

a

The waspish

"'bus," has just about

THE HIGH ROAD OF HAYTI. room it

between

pass

to

gigantic rubbish-shoot

this

might more truthfully be

drain

that

And

houses. It

this

to

imagine what might happen were an

upon decay.

set

unhealthy

those

The town

spots

foundations

its

have seen more than one of

I

which

to

has

attached the sobriquet

is

of "White Man's Grave," but none of them have the to

tation

disease

sense seldom visits

At

gusted

sea-going

in

And

me

out to

yet disease in

its

largest

Ruedu-Peuple blue,

I

came upon a white

moving cautiously with

dis-

said;

"would you be

the shortest

way

to the

good

so

as to

point

quay?"

indicated the direction,

he

say,"

I

"how

continued,

overlooking

me

with

interest,

long have you lived here.'"

" Four days,"

"I wish

I

I

said.

had your constitution then!

here an hour and three-quarters, and of the

most virulent microbes inside

of this town, that's It

invi-

their faces as

nostril.

"Hello!" he

"

across

plainly

it.

the corner of the

man, clad

I

so

written

city of Port-au-Prince.

this

as

dunghill— and a black

called,

epidemic to break out here. literally

or,

the cleanest street in Port-au-Prince.

is

appalling

is

—

beams supporting the piazzas of the

the

skirts

33

is

about the

all."

filthiest

And

if I

Pve been ashore haven't a

me

it

isn't

museum the fault

he passed on hurriedly.

place in the world

;

shut in 3

by

WHERE BLACK RULES WHITE.

34

mountains from the cool north winds, year to year at sanitation

in ;

No

stagnant heat.

the street-drains with

flow

down and

rain

flushes

help to

smallest effort

is

from

made

their contaminations

all

At

up the harbour.

fill

and

stews on

it

times the

effort of

Nature seems to be

the sole force that tends to cleanliness.

Under these circum-

this

you would expect Port-au-Prince

stances the

to

them,

lords

unhealthy

Surely

of disease.

spot

in

the

this

But

world.

to

pay a heavy

toll

must be the most

it

not

is

Why?

so.

There you have a question no one can answer.

Of

course the ordinary malarial fevers are by no means

uncommon, but leaves

diseases

serious

one to speculate to what height Port-au-

Prince might soar as a health resort

Government

wholesome

more

absence of other and

the

did

if

an enterprising and

away with

present-day

the

horrors of the streets.

Among

this

well-dressed artists

— many

— pick

atilt at

accumulated

their

dirt,

of them perilous

in

way

black ladies, in

or

past in buggies

drive

impossible angles over the unevenness of the streets.

club of cocomacaque,

He demands

a

is

his four-foot,

in

ironshod

a constant and conspicuous figure.

chapter to himself, but

forego mention of him here, as his zeal

his

cases

the handiwork of Parisian

Wherever you go the policeman, with

factor

all

the Haytian daily

life.

When

man down, and knocked most

is

it

difficult

is

so significant a

he has

of the

to

life

fairly

got

out of him

THE HIGH ROAD OF HAYTI. with

his

club,

bleeding

figure

in

makes standing over

he

picture

the

road, with the ancient

the

them, and the blazing sun over counterpart out of wild

West

"

Hippolyte —President,

the chief market, and

spread themselves

sellers

around,

the

smell

the leavings of

do a brisk

like

about its

Afi'ica.

name

Progress

of a late Presi-

— Union,"

I

entered

The buyers and

was market-day.

it

litter

the

could scarcely find

all,

Passing under an arch bearing the dent,

37

an open camp into the streets

was appalling; and

bygone markets, the

here, seated

citizens of the

upon

Republic

trade.

The meat market

is

supplied

well

by burly butchers and gorged

;

presided over

is

it

bluebottles.

In the various

approaches

you can trace unpleasantly the evolution of

flesh-foods,

the

and goats,

with their legs tied together, raise their voices

raw material of your future meals.

expostulation as they

in

neighbouring drain,

a

to

Women,

with

against lilt

lie

of

there,

the a

of

piles

other;

in

and

is

song.

One

has wriggled

gulping the thick

vegetables

over the

monotonous

the sun.

and

vociferous Fires

Pigs

fruit,

babble

smoulder

boast rises

here

fluid.

one the

and

and the acrid blue smoke hangs between sun and

scene.

The whole brutality,

is

uni(|ue,

raucousness

Haytian; politeness

is

mingled with

with a strange grace of demeanour.

Picturesque, but eminently nasty, the spirit of neglect, one

WHERE BLACK RULES WHITE.

38

accompaniment of a black Government, broods

inevitable

over

all,

"We in

till

one sickens

sunshine.

are polite always," said a of

vindication

one's destiny

by

Port-au-Prince vivid

in the

various

evils.

He

man

to

But

one cannot justify

me.

spoke

raising one's hat to a stranger.

you with three impressions more

leaves

than the rest: the puny beasts of burden, each sur-

mounted by a negress black pervasive

cabs are

Through

dirt.

driven

the blue pervasive soldier, and the

;

recklessly,

the

human

torrent old

and the open market

hooded is

the

backwash of the stream.

Hippolyte,

You go flags,

the

outside

Just

a

is

in.

a

town,

towards the triumphal arch of

building with a

The rude from

few prints

painting of a snake, a few soiled illustrated papers, are

sole furniture

and ornament.

here you are

in

skirts

a

roof of corrugated iron.

You would

Vaudoux temple,

of civilisation.

The worship

openly, at least unrestrainedly.

not think

clinging is

almost it,

its

but

upon the very

carried

on,

if

not

CHAPTER

III.

THE HAYTIAN GENERAL. Hayti

governed by Generals

is

how many

of them there are

was

all

the time

is

so ubiquitous that

I

there.

I

in

am

still

in

all

the country.

wondering.

I

is

in the

weedy

fiacres,

General. the

is

You

main

streets

wondered

The General

;

it

may

nature of a slap in the face.

given

by goateed could

I

no compliment,

have been given the rank myself; given

the hot white street

in

wonder

I

leads you to doubt whether

it

not be possible that while to be a General not to be one

sizes.

not,

I

it

by the

it

by many,

drivers of wheezy,

Haytian gentlemen —General,

am

sure,

of Port-au-Prince

walk along any of

without

meeting

ten

Generals.

One day

I

tried to attract the attention of a small black

boy who sometimes did odd jobs put at ten years.

A

for

companion of

me. his

His age

I

should

who saw my need

—

WHERE BLACK RULES WHITE.

40

What

shouted across to attract his attention.

did he shout?

Why — " General." occupied myself for some time

I

cal force of military Hayti.

of later

At

this

7,000 regimental

Republic,

information,

tapped

I

but found

and certain

sure,

Baba

of immortal

number

answer five

in

and 6,500

privates.

and one regimental

private

inquiries

as

hundred

a

officer.

to

the

possible

the

me

on the subject.

to discover

make

"One^two — three

fashion,

illusory

with

Like Hadji

memory, when he was sent

same

of

sources

no one able to supply facts

army of

of the enemy's guns, they were wont to

—six hundred."

At length

man

many

great

a

hard,

the

of one

consisted

made

the

officers,

and one-thirteenth of a regimental

officer,

statistics

computation the troops commanded by each General

of Division

I

could find no exact

I

than 1867, when there were 6,500 Generals

data

of Division,

looking up the numeri-

in

a

fortunate hour

in a

book which purported

and some other

who

I

if it

was

details.

I

purchased of an ancient

I

to give a

took

it

to

list

of the regiments

one of the

officials,

supposed might be able to help me, and asked him correct.

not hopelessly the exact

He

loosely said

incorrect,

statistics

for the

it

was.

Anyway,

and he added that

moment

them considerably modified

in

six

I

if I

it

was

secured

should probably find

months.

There

is

dently no stagnation of this particular kind in Hayti.

evi-

..^^-

THE HAYTIAN GENERAL. As

have

I

The biggest Sam.

of

country

the

said, all

governed by Generals.

is

Simon

President Tiresias Augustin

is

Directly under

43

him are the Generals of Departments

;

below them are Generals of Arrondissements and of Com-

Lower again

munes.

are Generals of subdivisions, Generals

of Postes Militaires, and so

it

women's

of the prison, and a General of the

The man who kept

hotel

the

There

goes on.

stayed

I

a General

prison.

was not a

at

At

General, but then he was not a Haytian.

is

last

I

found

myself asking whether the waiter did not, on his evenings off,

flower

also

been

very

much

only

a

waiters

not

himself

lace-bound

a

into

General.

and

Generals,

General-President,

There have

one but

who made a

General-

Emperor. It

beautiful, this militarism, but

is

nightly

door-slats,

waged war with

might

in

what

is

prolific

revolution

could the

be cheaper

individual

General

1

little

boys under the

springs for the

he might remember the

man?

not that

;

I

mean

that

all his

sons

but from the forcing-ground of

are Generals "ipso facto,"

each

the

spirit

former exactions of the white

The General

made me decide

meantime have become a General,

in the

and who can say

has

Raptiste of the soda-water syphon,

never to return to Hayti.

who

it

a

new crop of honours.

What

exchequer or more gratifying to

than the bestowal broadcast of the rank of

WHERE BLACK RULES WHITE.

44

They

but this

say,

President

beat

man

a

do not guarantee, that a certain

1

game of

at a

draughts, and in his

dehght immediately presented him with a General

There

mission.

which

tely certain,

But when you look a

aut nuUus." still

criticising

wondering rank

this

if

the

friendliest

elevation

in

due to the same

not

is

in

am

com-

absolu-

a General

about them.

— " Aut General

are very small potatoes indeed

titles

I

make me

that they will not

is,

for writing all this

Lesser

one thing of which

only

is

's

little

more

you cannot help

spirit,

bulk

the

closely, while

to

high military

as that which impels

spirit

the savage to clothe himself in the rather quaint combination of a

tall

hat and a girdle of hearse feathers.

The same tendency towards

display led in the year 1849

to the creation of a black nobility.

was

Emperor,

showered

dukes

Black

with

and

ones to

the

tragic

Graces

Princes

to learn that

of

titles,

more according four

strutted

own

over the white

but

to

left

one was Bobo,

among

in the

it

and he

his supporters.

through the

sound than

Court.

to the favoured

to

knowledge.

and

it

is

almost

the fifty-nine dukes were their

Lemonade!

allusion to dukes

man

it

First,

designations, which they appa-

Marmalade and

Anthony Fronde's

the

hand among

lavish

the

choose their

rently did

Of

a

barons

The Emperor gave

that time Soulouque

himself Faustin

calling

titles

At

But

Mr.

James

and marquises driving

streets of Port-au-Prince as late

THE HAYTIAN GENERAL. 1887

as

surely something of an anachronism, Hke certain

is

same gentleman's statements.

other of the

To-day is

45

their places are taken

The Haytian

by Generals.

tender upon the subject of their multiplicity.

him questions concerning the swollen and prefers another

be

to

"I

tense:

future

General.

a

whom

Republic"

known

been

It

;

upon

tions

An his

You

—

I

his native

urban General

congener find

commune little

from

it

of the the

in

has

larger

and

had almost

Under

of the at least

the

Everyone hankers

"

He

am

I

a

to

General

the

in

lives

past

tense:

say the

to

coupled with

overseas,

"He last

of

bitter reflec-

land. is

in

most cases but a name, whereas

country

distinct

a

— in

little

usually

is

the

that

position.

a

living

power.

General of place and

He

lives in

a house a

better than those of his neighbours

said subjects

— with

an extra outbuilding

in

a better horse, and, perhaps, an extra wife or

his stockade,

two.

himself,

abruptly

villages

a

young

the hall-mark of success.

The man who

was a General."

restless

and the conjugation has rather often

end

to

himself says

is

he grows

begin

be a General."

comes vaunts

success

of the

They

verb.

will

you ask

In Hayti they are always con-

topic.

compound

jugating a

list

If

his fierce rule the

commune bows

to the rigour

law; the peasantry cannot be said to prosper, but

they are inoffensive and

The reason

is

not far to seek.

polite.

The black man can no

WHERE BLACK RULES WHITE.

46

more govern

his black brother successfully without

tyranny

than you can reach a blind man's sense without touch or

No

speech.

by

appeal

is

made

to his reason

;

he

is

coerced

solid fear.

Hear him pray, and you does

not supplicate his

essays

God

That

bargain.

to

will

is

;

He

understand him better.

he demands of

his

because his deity

is

God

;

he

away

far

out of sight; therefore, in relation to that unfelt power he

begins to esteem himself and his desires, and to be puffed

up out of General's

hand

iron

hours of his daily

When

was

I

at

is

of his the

all

life.

Thomazeau, the frontier,

last

Haytian town before

an incident very typical

Spartan sway of these local pashas had occurred.

of the

man

stole

cow.

a

He was

caught and shot dead the

next morning by orders of the General de result

grip

unmistakably evident over

one reaches the Dominican

A

Whereas the

due proportion.

all

of this

might have

open rum

measure of summary

left

flask

justice

a handful of silver dollars

—

in the village street,

have dared to help himself to

either.

la Place.

The

was that you

— nay,

more, your

nor would any

man

But these Generals,

with substantive power, are conspicuously in the minority.

Regarded from the point of view of possible leaders of the Haytian army, to

the

it

must be conceded that they have yet

prove their significance and to win their spurs.

war with San Domingo,

in

Since

which no reputations were

THE HAYTIAN GENERAL.

47

made, the Haytian Generals have not led the troops down ahen

to

up

They have contented themselves

battle.

with being

and with sunning themselves

to the hilt in revolutions,

at dusty reviews.

however,

If,

that the troops will be

unlikely

is

Hayti

State ever calls

the

calculates

to

throw

at

them left

to its service,

it

without a General.

any moment 8,000 men

the field, and of these only a smattering" would not be

into full

Generals.

may be

It

thought

Haytian

the

than that

wiser

to

likes

out

;

become a General, but the State of the

wear gold lace not one

Each

money.

and

in ten

it

brings

is

entitled to

ever sees the colour of State

many expenses

in

its

nominal

train.

A

goes that the Haytian, while quite content to leave

story all

with

numbers who are

subsists as he can, yet clings to the

honour, although

his

because of the emoluments that

is

it

of worldly

him still

his

to

wealth behind him, yet hopes to bear

rank of General

cut a

figure

with

across the lonely frontier, it

another and a better

in

world.

But

let

proceed to consider the Soldier.

us

My

first

speaking acquaintance with him occurred one night on the

Champ-de-Mars

near

the conversation with

the little

President's variation

Palace.

I

on numerous occasions

afterwards. '^

Blanc,

I

am

a soldier, give

me

repeated

ten centimes."

WHERE BLACK RULES

48 "

You have your

"

My

and a

pay."

"How

my

taken

General has

me

Give

soldier.

WHFrE.

pay.

I

am

a

poor man

ten centimes."

long have you been a soldier?"

"Three years."

"When "

did you have your pay

Very long ago, and

am

I

last.'^"

hungry. Give

me

ten centimes.

Merci, blancT

He

stood before me, with his chinless, thick-lipped black

under a blue cap banded with

face

He wore

red.

dried

grass slippers, shabby tweed trousers, and a faded light-blue

hemp rope was

slung

a flintlock gun, and he was hurrying towards beat of

drum

Over

coat.

to

bugle-calls

dice.

men

at

and

line

The guard

half-past five p.m. the

through the crowded

trickling

at

the

arises

from

streets,

its

drums

benches and

houses of Ministers and the

up by fours to twenties. officer stands in front of

The

sword.

wolfing

minutes,

One

sugar-cane,

They

is

chewing

gnawing doglike

stand there, very

occasionally

movements,

them with a drawn rusty

soldiers continue to be interested in their indi-

concerns.

vidual

At

the police-stations gather together, shoulder arms,

Their

long.

a rough

and the army of Hayti

beat, its

come

by

evening parade.

for the

in

fall

his shoulders

then

the

going

much

a

banana, at

a

another

is

piece two feet

at ease, for

about twenty

through a slovenly series of

General takes himself

off,

and the

A GENERAL

S

EVENING RIDE.

—

THE HAYTIAN GENERAL. army once more disposes

Haytian

and dozes

if it

is

a uniform of

the soldiery, save on review days

on the trousers

Of

thankful.

kepi

and

nets

sticks

They

are

the

benches

its

— of

own, but

its

which more anon

good God sends them and are

a score drawn up in line no two are dressed

workaday uniform

alike; their

on

itself

more than usually hungry.

Of course each regiment has

put

51

rags.

As

is

limited to the red-banded

up along the of different

file,

but

a flintlock,

and

the

all

bristle of

bayo-

men have

rifles.

decades — almost,

and

calibres

might say, of different centuries. decrepit magazine,

broken

to vv^eapons, a

one group

In

I

one

found a

Remington.

a self respecting

The State does not undertake any commissariat obligations,

and the

private's

pay

trickles

more than one absorbent channel.

down

to

him through

means of

Visible

sub-

sistence he has practically none; he seeks food to eke out

existence

much

as a stray cat does in

and pessimistically about the blanc

pitifully

'

'

highly-developed

a

happens

to

purrs

when he meets

him, and pounces upon the weaker units of his with

He

England.

instinct of plunder.

own

colour

When

there

be a lack of such happy chances and he

more than usually hungry, he goes

to sleep.

So

in

is

the hot

town the Haytian soldiery drowses unstirred by dreams of golden glory. effort to

keep

Its its

attention

stomach

is

full.

jobs and carries coftee-sacks.

fully

occupied

At the worst

in

strenuous

it

does odd

WHERE BLACK RULES WHITE.

52

Every

man you meet

third

tenth General, as

General

nominally

is

and ^^105 the

to

rank:

amum

Captain

a

OS a year

I

— and

a competency of i^i2,

the wild prodigality of about

the Haytian soldier

governed.

is

it

on to the

The

takes

fir.st

bulk to the second

General.

further diminished, to his next in lest

it

you

one and

is

of the 50 centimes

toll

The

General.

He

paid,

is

principle

a very big General indeed, hands

it

ratio

in

and passes

lightens

less in

given

The paymaster

is

General of Division,

for a

is

indivisible.

who

of these personages

that not always forthcoming.

When you know how know how Hayti

only every

;

The sums grow

a Brigadier!

and the Private wallows

£2

The pay

himself.

per

-^^140

for

a General

have said before, gets paid, but every

I

pay

to

tries

is

it

first

on

General,

slimmer

in

in his turn transfers

it,

The Captain

command.

should be too heavy for the Lieutenant

to carry,

and the Lieutenant, not liking to break the chain

takes his

own

centimes gods.

is

discount

in luck

And when

;

he

who

at last

comes along and wins

it

gets ten

Nor

is

it

is

it,

his Lieutenant

off him at the universal it

is

receives five

a favourite of the

he has pocketed

This sounds very grotesque, but truth.

who

thus the soldier

;

game

none the

a matter of isolated instances;

every week as regularly as pay-day comes, and probability

go

of dice.

less it

sober

happens

will in all

on happening every week as long as the

Black Republic endures.

THE HAYTIAN GENERAL. "Big

we

so

but

say,

round,

have

fleas

for

the

upon

fleas

little

their

Hayti, as her custom smallest

flea

is

feed a whole series of larger

53

backs to bite 'em,

"

twists the order

is,

the soldier, and upon him

fleas.

There are more ways than one of extracting sustenance out

as witness the following case which occurred

of him,

quite

recently.

A

countrywoman brought

By

best yield of her plantation.

into

market the

and barter she accu-

sale

mulated a good store of provisions, and, being

feeble, hired

a sample of the ubiquitous soldier to carry her possessions

The

mules some half-a-mile away.

her

to

in front of her,

and

went well

all

until

soldier

walked

she met an acquain-

The

tance in the street and stopped to exchange gossip. lady

old

was

and the

interested,

himself able to nip a smaller

opportunity to

On off

arrival

gambling

decamp

tearing

with

a

work

comrades, others

left

rare prospect of food,

to divide the spoil

and

and the rum beyond the reach

But while they were engaged

original owner.

open the second

the post hove in sight.

at the

set to

to put the butter, the pork,

of their

once finding

than himself, seized the

his sleeping

moment

and the whole guard

for

to his arrondissement with the loot.

he awoke for the

flea

soldier,

tin

in

of butter, the Lieutenant of

Now when

an

officer sees a soldier

sufficiency of provisions he naturally

conclusion that they must have been stolen

;

jumps

to the

therefore the

Lieutenant, having listened to two minutes of fluent lying.

WHERE BLACK RULES WHITE.

54

went

post-haste

off

acquaint the

to

him with the condition of

General next above

affairs.

He

This General was a prompt man.

committing the Lieutenant to prison priated the food and brought

got a horse, galloped to

bulk,

in

jail

house.

Then he guard

to the post, sent the

that

for

and a certain

abroad,

energetic still

in

having appro-

and carried the whole plunder to

unluckily

But,

got

story

down

for not

no time

once to him.

at

it

lost

his

individual,

off

own the

more highly placed

black General despatched a message to say that the butter,

rum and pork would be where

Such

else.

just as safe

under

his care as any-

hints from a superior in Hayti are, like

royal invitations, not to be refused.

The peasant woman

returned

home empty,

the soldier

gained a few mouthfuls of food and prison, the Lieutenant only

prison

;

the

first

General gained the sense of com-

placency consequent on possession for the space of an hour, while

biggest

the

come up the long highest

lady

in

the

flea

of

all

military

land.

pouched the booty that had ladder

There can be no doubt

ever applies for her

own

(which

also be put into prison for losing

There not

is

one of the

enrich

to

is

it.

by any regular enforcement of

law, but

recruited,

by a system

armed with the cocomacaque.

English subject, black,

the old

unlikely) she will

no conscription, and the battalions are

of press-gangs

if

A

young

about eighteen years old, was im-

THE HAYTIAN GENERAL. pressed of his

nationah'ty,

and,

that,

for

all

manner

in this

He was

but the after

of course

He

recently.

objected on the ground

recruiting

beating him,

released

55

party

cared not at

him

flung

into

jail.

on the representations of

his

Consul.

There the

is

another evil which pervades the army, and that

is

influence

the soldier class

uniform the

is

always well represented.

eyes

should

cock

a

kill

of a

come

in

I

sacrifices

This statement

have seen a general

in

honour of the sacred snake under

number of worshippers.

large

to

At Vaudoux

Papaloi.

upon hearsay evidence.

not

is

of the

If

ever

it

that the Papaloi were to order one

pass

thing and the authorities another, the average soldier would

be extremely likely to disregard the wishes of the Govern-

He

ment.

objects to a clubbing exceedingly, but he objects

even more strongly to brave the wrath and vengeance of the unseen powers of darkness,

earth he believes the It

is

this

you.

ishes

sacred

Vaudoux

prevalence of the

A

drum

in

priestess

part

summons. of the

Vaudoux

sect

once boasted that

in the

if

which astonshe beat the

land would dare to disregard

And you must own

spectators

of the

negroes wearing the kepi, of the priestess

priests to be.

the centre of the town of Port-au-Prince,

few even of the highest the

whose representatives upon

it

is

that

ceremonies

when is

the third

made up

of

not unlikely that the boast

had good foundation

as regards the army.

WHERE BLACK RULES WHITE.

56

The tendency grotesque

thief

is

one

is

the

if

first

You may

thief has

safeguards

of the

any

of the

set a thief to catch

interest in so doing, but

not absurd to expect to stamp out snake-worship by

it

the

superstitions

from punishment.

votaries

a

of the soldiery towards these horrible and

whom

agency of snake-worshippers,

instinct inevitably

throws back upon the primal religions? Nevertheless, although the Haytian becomes a soldier in spite

of himself,

he

stances,

handicapped by circum-

heavily

is

astonishingly free of one serious

is

may be on

and

He

fault.

occasion a bully and a thief, but he

not a

is

drunkard,

although he could get cheaply and comfortably

drunk on

tafia

for

two centimes.

he could be turned out a

first-class

With steady handling fighting

however, he can hardly be deemed an opinion

day

many Haytian

in

for

circles

is

any European force when

;

as he

it

is,

Yet the

eft"ective.

that it

man

would be a bad

came

in the

way

of

the Republican troops.

"They would

fight like heroes,"

"these brave ones! free Republic,

If

said a General to me,

any attacking army landed

in

this

they would without doubt instantly drive

it

into the sea."

On

the

first

Sunday of each month

the Champ-de-Mars.

On

the luck to be present,

than

usual,

it

the particular

a review

is

held on

Sunday when

I

had

was to be an even grander review

one of the events of the year.

The

earliest

THE HAYTIAN GENERAL. of the

intimation

Company, whose

Musical the

was going

houses,

meandering

its

a

I

National

turned out to see what

with

and

drains,

was

its

extensive prospect

The

just greeting the rising sun.

moment.

air

was growing

Beneath us the town was spread

of white

chess-board

white

of

fringe

its

wet upon the grass, the

yet

hotter with each in

and

Champ-de-Mars,

over calm waters,

out

the

on.

dusty

dew was

came from

martial strains drifted across in

morning,

glow of the

The

doings

great

59

few ships swung at anchor

in

and green, and afar

off a

the fjord-like bay.

Distant bugle calls tinkled like echoes from various points, a couple of Generals

met together under a

tree,

and soon

dark columns of soldiers began to crawl out from the town

As

below.

from the the

they drew nearer

men

streets

in

On

knew.

I

I

saw that they were changed

week-days they lounge about

ragged unkemptness, but

on review days

they blossom out into uniforms of gorgeous colours. black

and

Generals

in front of

caracoled

ostentatiously

field

The town was now

and

stirring

an ant-heap, and giving forth a broad stream of people

on foot and

in

carriages.

Every scene has first

their flanks

them, as they marched on to the

formed into a hollow square. like

upon

Busy

strikes

memory.

the

Here

its

dominant note, that aspect which

eye and afterwards lingers longest

in the

was struck by the negro Generals.

There

it

WHERE BLACK RULES WHITE.

6o

were three hundred of them green Generals, paler

Cambridge

score

upon

gold

horse,

the

;

was

plain

a

small,

in the

with generals,

stiff

web of

important, imposing, each in a

mounted upon

each

lace,

excellent

tint

Pink Generals,

least.

and Generals clad

Generals,

blue

score,

at the

but

long-tailed

each riding well, though after the splay-

footed fashion of his race, each aware that the eyes of the

world were upon him, and each determined upon keeping

them

fixed there.

They galloped they ambled

title

To be

attention.

a General ofificer

Haytian Constitution has

The assembled

troops

it,

numbered perhaps

judged, from the diversity of equipment, that

regiments

Republic

of the

There was a

not

is

of lesser or,

as

" for eminent

"

services rendered to the State.

amongst them.

it

being bestowed for political purposes

article of the

thirty-eight

open square,

they impressed themselves

ranks,

ever to have been a soldier or

necessary

an

along the

upon the

obtrusively

rank, the

hither and thither across the

fine

2,000, and

many

I

of the

were represented

show of

colour, although

there were also deficiencies in the matter of foot-gear and rifles.

Not

a

man

of them

all

stood straight; they might

have been galvanised figures jerked into position by some malignantly humorous a

great

intelligence.

Yet you knew

it

was

occasion, for not one individual was eating sugar

cane, a height to which discipline rarely soars.

THE HAYTIAN GENERAL.

A

Generals smoothed

bugle gave notice of developments.

down

6i

projecting angles with their horses as, riding swiftly,

General into

the

here,

a

Fort Colin, the Minister of War, curveted out

St.

golden sign

inspection

galloped

round,

and even as he finished

there,

music

the

He

sunshine.

of the

band

palace

a

his

word

tour of

heralded

the

approach of His Excellency General Tiresias Augustin Simon

Sam, President of

the Republic.

The palace band moved forward well

and looked

played,

they

them, Generals

his staff, sixty of

They rode out

the

into

round, saluted and saluting.

and

crimson

and

bearing.

He

the

most

He

gold.

looked

soldierlike

the

black

General

kits

all.

Sam was

in

uniform,

and has a soldierly

well,

not only the head of the army, but

man

in

it,

staff

as he

drew up under the

wheeled into

march past began,

Musical Company. with

the President

Champ-de-Mars and cantered

rides

shade of some trees and his

Then

came

and blue

was caparisoned with a saddle-cloth of

charger

his

too, in red

v/ell,

After them

and gold, with crested caps.

and

playing, and wonderfully

led

off

First the infantry,

and red blankets,

line

by the National

men

their

behind him.

in

red trousers

band following

squads with blue jackets and red-tasseled caps, contingents

more or blue tassel.

and

less

numerous

in various

blends of pink and green,

red, with touches of yellow in stripe or cord or

WHERE BLACK RULES WHITE.

62

The

passed,

artillery

Nordenfeldt,

battery

a

drawn by a

each

guns

of five

single mule.

and

a

Occasionally

an aide-de-camp received an order and galloped away with

Three or four times a standard-bearer was manoeuvred

it.

into

a

Once

place by a vociferous General.

a

woman

with

basket of linen on her head was hunted off the ground

by another General

Two filed

regiments

in light green.

of cavalry

belonging to the bodyguard

each perhaps 200 strong,

by,

the

first

brass helmets, the second chasseurs in blue.

in

So

it

gleaming

went on,

colour after colour. General after General.

can be

Little

They marched

a

in

as to the

step

in

past

lolloped

said

it

zigzag that

sergeant.

drill

files

would have

Yet, untrained and

was, there could be no doubt but that the

was

material

right

a certain degree, but the

to

loose-backed

broken the heart of a unstiffened as

deportment of the troops.

there,

if

it

could be put into efficient

hands.

The populace

was, however, pleased with the performance,

and greeted the appearance of the that

approval is

Oho

singular ;

with

fortunate

it

which

is

the

different regiments with

Haytian exclamation of

he welcomes everything, from a lady

enough

to

please

his

critical

e}'e,

who

to a cab

accident in the street.

Few of 250.

of the

This

regiments is

no new

exhibited failing.

their

nominal strength

For many

a

day

after

;

THE HAYTIAN GENERAL. the

war they were engaged

last

in against

63

San Domingo,

the President of the period was wont to say to any stranger

who remarked upon

much

suffered

"Ahl

these depleted battalions:

war!"

in the last

they

a tone which gave the

in

hearer to understand that he was looking upon the survivors of a

wooded

tropic

shot in any

the

only people those heroes

the

that

it

number were

then

among

desperately

hills.

But tradition has

of the

fought out

Balaclava,

later

own

their

officers,

Emperor Soulouque, who,

when vanquished by

at the orders

to excuse himself

the Dominicans, accused his staff in

bulk of having betrayed him, the army, and their country.

Hayti supposes herself to have modelled her army upon that of France, only in this, as in

copy of the

caricature rather than a

her effects; she

all

length the last General of

and the columns

filed

other things she

away

it

all

is

a

She overdoes

original.

who bought

like the iwuveati ricJic

is

an old oak balustrade and had

At

all

overlaid with gold-leaf.

the Generals had saluted,

into smallness

down

the road

the President and his staff trotted back to the palace near

by

;

the

grand review was over

upon the

fact that

State

the

in

Hayti

world,

is

;

and

I

was

left

to reflect

the most unconditionally military

and that she makes no account of

anything beneath the rank of General.

The Haytian,

in spite

not naturally a soldier.

of his huge pretensions, Drill

and

discipline

is,

however,

and the

art of

WHERE BLACK RULES WHITE.

64

war are mere empty sounds

From

to his ear.

view they are entirely beside the question. for is to play at

being a soldier

the uniforms, the gold lace

Even on

menacingly

He

defend the of the

the gold lace.

He

postage

stamp a cannon sprawls

of his

;

but there

it

ends.

patriotic determination to

inch of his native land from the usurpation

he

yet

alien,

— especially

military bombast, military

perpetually

last

cares

he loves the accoutrement,

front of his crossed flags

in

brags

his

What he

titles,

has a passion for military display.

;

his point of

allows his neighbour, San

Domingo,

to

push the frontier between the States farther and farther

to

the westward without offering the smallest elTective ob-

jection.

The

following

is

an attempt to reproduce a conversation

between an Englishman and

a

trio

of generals after the

review.

The

Scene. tropic

evening.

village

street.

a

of a

light

palm-thatched hut

The open space It

in

front

in

the hot

represents the

breaks up at once beyond the huts into

loose-edged

straggling,

oblique

piazza

of the

bridle

rising

path, which glints in the

moon

until

it

disappears into

the forest.

Dark

figures

move

to

and

fro in the half-dusk outside,

and crowing cocks, the sound of horses making a meal guinea-grass,

the

night.

the

ofT

patter of donkeys, disturb the silence of

Three consequential Haytians

in

blue,

green,

THE HAYTIAN GENERAL. and pink,

thickly

smoking.

Also an Englishman.

flies,

with gold lace, are seated

over

netted

67

Mosquitoes,

dust,

sand-

and a smell of coffee mixed with rank tobacco

smoke

temper the sweetness of the Haytian

The

(in

blue uniform): "General."

other two: "Qui,

mon

— what

General."

am

"I

Blue General (stretching): of to-day

air.

But the review

tired.

a great spectacle!" "

Pink General:

Oho

Assuredly, a great spectacle!"

1

Green General; "Without question the most magnificent spectacle that one can see."

Englishman: "I was much interested."

G

Blue

"Our army

:

troops are the finest

is

composed

the world!

in

of brave

Do you

The

men.

not think so,

monsieur?" E, (choosing his words): "I have seen none like

Pink G. (who ing

is

it."

with streaks of yellow on the bulg-

fat,

whites of his eyes):

"The

tenue, the discipline of the

men was admirable!" Green credit

G.

upon

Blue G.

Pink G.

:

"

The army

its officers.

:

:

An army

is

one which

without officers

reflects

— what

" is it?

"Nothing, absolutely nothing!"

"The army

The French were fought

of Hayti

with

here always!

us;

here

:

of Hayti has never been conquered!

we drove them

where are they?

We

out

!

But we

The English

— we — we

have never been conquered!"

are

WHERE BLACK RULES

68

Blue vive

G.

could not sur-

it."

Chorus

" It

:

Blue G.

Blue G.

we

the Boers will conquer the English." G's.

"To-day

:

that case

in

(together)

:

" Yes, yes,

Ladysmith

the town."

When?"

"Indeed?

:

for

The Boers have captured

fallen.

E.

General,

!

and Green

Pink

my

"

"But

:

true,

is

should be dead

has

We

would be impossible.

" It

:

WHITE.

or to-morrow

—

it

goes without saying."

E. (with relief): "Quite so."

Blue

General (puffing out

we Haytians

are

independence

of

his

We

brothers.

our

chest):

also

They

country.

"The Boers and

have fought are

for the

bad people,

a

these FLnglish."

Pink

G.

(looking at the E.)

:

"The

blaiic

is

perhaps an

Englishman."

Green G. Blue

G.

:

"The " Yes,

:

blanc

is

an American."

an

yes,

American.

I

have

always

said so."

E.

:

"Pardon, Generals, English."

Blue G. (with assurance): "Yes, yes, English, have

I

not

said so?"

E.

:

am

"I

sorry to find, General, that

)

ou are on the

side of the Boers."

Blue

(shaking

G.

clamation)

:

his

fat

"What would

black cheeks

in

you, monsieur?

vehement

They

de-

are our

THE HAYTIAN GENERAL. these

brothers,

But, no,

I

am

The white

here.

G.

them!

for

—

English, they would crush

!

"The

Blue

were fighting

I

"But they cannot!

Chorus: :

If

!

"

the Bo-o-ers

E

Bo-o-ers

69

Vive

be taken

to

in)

brave Bo-o-ers!"

messieurs."

l^oers are white also,

(not

les

"

:

No, no, they are not

white." E.

"I assure you

:

Blue

G.

"The

:

—

lioers

Africa,

excepting

General

who made

the

English,

are

who

All

Africa.

in

live

live

(The

men."

black

in

astounding statement was an ex-

this

Minister of War.)

Chorus K.

"

:

tion

in

white.

took

:

"'It

On

is

true."

the contrary,

mentioning the

if

fact,

you

will

Boers

the

They came from L^urope the

from

land

the

pardon

in

are,

the

Now

Africans.

my

presump-

undoubtedl}',

first

place,

and

the English are

taking the land from the J^oers."

Blue General

They

are

the

"

:

The English

My

conquered

them.

bugle

resounds

call

to

be

A

short score

men

bravest

observed

in

in

in

are brave men.

the

the

of ragged

"

(At

negroes

1

moment

a

commotion

is

this

village street, a

military

say so

The Haytians

the world.

— regiment

I

arrondissement opposite. in

light- blue

coats,

and

trousers the worse for wear, tumble lazily out and form up in irregular line before a short, goateed black with a

little

sword.)

"

"

WHERE BLACK RULES WHITE.

70

Pink G. E.

:

"

Monsieur, see, the soldiers of the Repubhc."

"

:

How many men

such as these could his Excellency

the President put into the

Pink G. E.

:

" Twenty-five thousand

:

"An army

today

" 1

How many

indeed!

Champ

review on the

at the

week's notice?"

at a

field

de Mars?"

"Ten

Blue G. (not to be behindhand): the outside there were hardly

Pink G. E.

:

troops were present

(At

i,8oo.)

"I was there."

:

Your horse

"I observed you there. General.

Pink G.

thousand."

'

:

My

horse

Oho

r

1

that

is

a horse

1

—

He

can

go a hundred miles a day." Blue

G.

(cutting

He

the army.

is

in)

ours

When sea,

— as

all

G.

is

to

what an

ready we

"

show

:

"I

la

When

ofificer

Pink G.

I

:

in

the father of

make our

will

Europe.

Such men

you saw to-day, monsieur — can do anything.

Chorus: "Vive

Europe

armies

first

drive the Dominicans into the

will

and the whole island

Blue

is

undertaking reforms which

army the equal of the as

Sam

" President

:

shall

be ours!"

Republique." all

ready we

is

will

send

officers to

the French, the Germans, and the English

can attain to." will

then go to Europe."

Blue G. (with excitement): "

Oho

have already been chosen.

am

E. (hurriedly in the uproar)

:

I

"

1

It

is

I

who

will

go!

of the cavalry."

During the

last

revolution

—

"

THE HAYTIAN GENERAL. Pink G. (asserting himself): " out to

I

would proceed

at

If

71

a revolution were to break

once to the place and put a stop

it."

Blue G. (with quivering cheeks)

:

"

also

I

am

not afraid

of a revolution." All

(clapping

their

hands

to

their

swords):

"Who

is

afraid?"

;^5SS^S^ifc^^JR«

ABOUT TO

Blue G. Pink G. E.

:

:

:

"Fear?

I

:

REVIEWED.

do not know what

"I have never been

afraid.

isl"

it

And

you, monsieur

?

"I have been afraid very often."

Green G.: "If you E.

1!E

"Having seen

feel afraid, talk! It will

the Grand Review to-day,

to hear more about the Haytian forces.

enough

to tell

me

do you good." I

should like

Will you be good

something- of interest?"

WHERE BLACK RULES WHITE.

72

Pink G.

(after a

moment's deep thought): "I am General

of Division." E. (who has heard

rumoured that Generals outnumber

it

Haytian army, wishes

privates

in

at rest):

"How many men

Pink G.

the

(shrugging

his

are in your

command?"

shoulders complacently)

But what matters

not know.

to set the question

Two

it?

:

"I do

or three thousand,

at the least."

E.,

opening up a fresh subject, speaks of Hayti as a nation.

Blue

G.

(aggressively):

and America

republic,

three fingers in E.'s E.:

sition.

:

"I

will

I

will

it

republic,

republics

Hayti

a

" 1

to Paris?"

go next month.

I

will see

the Expo-

review the troops."

(The Pink and Green Generals join impression

a

republic"— (triumphantly shaking

face) — "three

"You have been

Blue G.

a

"France

already

made upon

in.

To deepen

the P^nglishman they

the

also,

seems, are going to Paris probably next month, and

all

three launch into a chaos of conversation.)

Blue G. (surviving the chorus) time,

my

intersect

the

enormous.

As

You

friend.

this

land.

And seems

I

will

:

"

see

Return here changes.

in

two years'

Railways

The army, already numerous, shall

will

will

be

be again a Minister!"

to place a cap

glishman disengages himself from

upon the his

future, the

En-

companions and goes

out into the stockade, where, beneath a tamarind tree, he

^I'HK his horse

finds

HAYTIAN GENKRAL.

making

frantic efforts to fight the puissant

He

steed of the Pink General.

by way of the

piazza.

open-mouthed,

the

in

continuous

taking

a

friendly

"

on-saddles and rides round

The Pink General has

voice

argument.

73

fallen asleep

of the Blue General rumbles on

He and

Rhum "

the Green General are

together.

They

call

out their

adieux as the h'nglishman passes, then a bend of the track shuts

them out from

his

life

for ever.

CHAPTER VAUDOUX WORSHIP AND

.

Although much following

in

this

is

of the information incorporated

my

stay in Hayti,

in

the

really

I

am

giving

it

an early

because some slight knowledge of

volume,

what Vaudoux

SACRIFICE.

was only gradually gained during the

chapter

whole period of place

IV.

is

and

its

influence

upon

its

votaries

indispensable to the understanding of the condition and

character of the inhabitants of the Republic.

For Vaudoux of the

Haytian's

upon the world, judices

from

is

and

so inextricably life,

his

woven

in with

every side

his politics, his religion, his outlook

and family

social

peculiarities

that

he

relations, his pre-

cannot be judged apart

it.

The underpart

of Black

Hayti the nominal religion

life

is full

is

Roman

no more than a thin veneer

;

of strange beliefs.

In

Catholicism, but

it is

beneath you

find,

not traces

VAUDOUX WORSHIP AND merely,

but

75

groundwork of West African super-

solid

serpent-worship, and child-sacrifice.

stition,

This

assertion

last

connection other

a

SACRIFICE.

with

almost incredible,

made

in

a nation, not only living in the midst of

communities, but which was

civilised

century ago

may seem

on the double

Christian creed.

all

a

European laws and a

lines of

Nevertheless,

itself started

those

who know anything know

of Hayti by personal experience and residence there,

too that the fact has been amply proved over and over again. Little

known

is

of the Black Republic outside of her

and even

shores,

at

home her

policy

is

a policy of keeping

dark everything humiliating to her pretensions. nal

method

own

The

natio-

not to suppress these infamous crimes, but

is

simply to deny their existence.

The ment the

Vaudoux worship

sect

rites

and

to care to take

on their

their orgies with practical impunity.

and

minister

to

Papaloi,

Mamaloi, le

outgrowth of superstition are the

of this

root

Papalois

in

The Govern-

feared, hence they carry

universally

is

the

Mama

widespread.

of seriously opposing so powerful a combination.

The

"

is

been too unstable

at all times,

has,

risk

At

of

evil

Mamalois,

the

the

naturally are

priests

credulous

corruptions

roi," the titles

A

famous

priestesses,

who

mind of the negro.

of

"Papa

le

roi "

and

themselves showing the estimation

which these people are held.

mountains.

and

priest

They

lives

dwell chiefly in the

on the road (save the

WHERE BLACK RULES WHITE.

76

mark!) between Port-au-Prince and Jacmel P\ircy

who

but the old iniquity

;

eye

mind's capital

sojourns

in

the

is

;

another towards

more especially not

sierras

so

in

my

from the

far

itself.

Vaudoux,

according

to

its

more

elect

disciples,

is

an

all-powerful deity, but the idea of the masses does not rise

above the serpent, which represents to them which presides,

in

its

box, over

their

god and

their services.

all

These

place at night and in pseudo-secrecy.

They

usually

take

consist

of dancing, sacrificing, feasting, invocations, and a delirium on the part of the Mamaloi, winding up

Delphic

with scenes of an indescribable nature.

There are said only

sacrifices

serpent-god

whose but

the

human

child.

to

Vaudoux

call

for the

one which

;

blood of a black goat,

advanced orgies cannot be

without

red of the

sects of

white cocks, and white goats to the

fruits,

ceremonies

whose

is

two

the other, that sinister cult above referred to,

;

lesser

White

to be

sacrifice

of "the

goat

fully

without

carried

horns"

out

— the

supposed to be the sacred colour of the former, latter,

witness a

but on one occasion

Vaudoux

I

was lucky enough

function where the flags and hand-

kerchiefs were red and white, pointing to an intermingling

of the

two forms

;

the

cocks

sacrificed

and white, again bearing evidence Testimony as

to

the

order

in

of the

were both black

the

same

direction.

ceremonies used

in

VAUDOUX WORSHIP AND Vaudoux worship

differs,

being the

result

by an

natural

but

this

of an

SACRIFICE.

is

not be wondered

unwritten

Each

utterly ignorant people.

77

at,

practised

ritual,

writer on Hayti gives

the order at secondhand as described by native witnesses,

and probably

all

are equally right as regards the instance

referred to.

my own

For

satisfaction

sequence of the these

will give a

I

detailed description

The serpent used by

my

cuff the

Of

they took place before me.

as

rites

noted down on

I

later.

these fetish sectaries

generally

is

believed to be the Macajuel, a species allied to the harmless

When

boa.

man

with

a

him

offered

Haytian

in

snake

of this

five

dollars

peasant

would hardly

Sir

the

dollars

five

a I

The for

is

absolute wealth, and he

without strong reason

for

Richard Burton speaks of the "small green snake of

enacted

Today

so

before

the green snake

no white man

I

a

describe

mistake, as

well

is

known by

extinct in the island.

met would allow

when

the abominable

Vaudoux King and Queen."

the

was almost beginning

made

and

but it

had caught.

he

which he refused.

it,

have declined

met

I

so.

orgies

I

that

poor,

windfall,

Haytian negroes,

that,

kind

for

very

is

him not merely a

doing

a remote country district,

riding

to think that

it

ever existed, and

Burton had

a certain old native,

up to the neck

in

More than

Vaudoux,

for

whom

told

me

I

once

may

certain

WHERE BLACK RULES WHrfE.

78

my

which modified

facts

conckision.

shown a green snake preserved

in spirits.

Whether the snake enclosed during

of to-day

altars

boa

or a harmless

a

in its

box on the Haytian

child-sacrifice

of that species

is

man

impossible to say, as no white

is

it

was subsequently

I

has ever been allowed to set eyes upon one.

Vaudoux,

to belong to the is

some analogous

Juju, Obi, or

England

to

it

With the captured

West

William the Norman

Coast.

whose descendants the Haytians

slaves,

was brought

it

When

was no doubt flourishing amongst the

African tribes of the

are,

and here

this distant island,

to

an unshamed head

rampant

still.

The

President was even said to be a votary.

last

It

raises

its

is

A

is

large

devoted

observances.

But Southern Hayti

is

Jacmel the hot-bed of

its

its

strongest rallying-point,

In

ingly.

the

the traces of

Vaudoux

is

north,

it

know

it

thrives exceed-

the

contrary,

are slighter.

cannibalism

instance a savage eats

preferred

to

in the

human

triumph over an enemy is

I

Cap Haytien, on

at

and

All along the road be-

power.

tween the town and Port-au-Prince

food

it

in all quarters.

place like a casino, just outside of Port-au-Prince, to

seems

bottom stratum of black nature. Vaudoux

a religion of old, old time.

came

superstition

;

second stage.

flesh as

In the

first

an extreme form of

so the appetite grows until this

any other.

The next

stage follows

VAUDOUX WORSHIP AND The man, wishing

naturally.

mysteries

the

Vaudoux

and

Add

prizes.

of the

traditions

79

to propitiate his god, offers

him that which he himself most the

SACRIFICE.

to this sacrifice

and you have

ages,

of to-day.

Cannibalism has been brought as a very general accusaagainst the Haytians, but although there

tion

that the child sacrificed in the worst

Vaudoux

wards dismembered, cooked, and eaten, years

of recent with

sacrifice,

equally

in

is

and spasmodic iniquity,

no doubt

rites is after-

do not think that

of cannibalism, unconnected

practice

any degree prevalent, although

that

certain

I

scattered

do

instances

The Government have been known

light.

this

the

is

efforts to

as well as

still

to

it

come

make

is

to

feeble

punish the culprits, but as a rule

most others,

is

allowed to run

its

course unchecked.

To

quote a case or two

punishment:

handed

at

—A

of these judicial attempts at

woman and

Jacmel of

killing

her daughter, convicted red-

and eating a

child,

were mounted

on asses and beaten round the town by the police with

cocomacaque years

ago,

clubs.

in

Afterwards they were released.

the northern part of the island, a party of

men and women were the a

imprisoned

for a

same crime, which they indulged

Vaudoux

sacrifice.

But

hope, on the decrease and

Not the

least

Two

this

crime

may

in

in is,

few days only

for

as a conclusion to I

both believe and

time die out.

prominent feature of Vaudoux

is

the

drum

WHERE BLACK RULES

8o

WHITE.

One which

that calls the worshippers together.

examined was four

wood

jointed

feet high.

bamboo,

like

The upper

man's trunk.

at

many

throbbing note

its

Where

A

sect

strong

reasons

should

be

more

still

to the frame.

sounds loudly, near

it

warning

close

of a

and

distances,

is

at

to

tion,

and

hear the

described,

initiated

hence

:

the

low,

you when the drum

at really

call

who have wonderful

appointed spot.

to the

up the

On

naturally

the

hand, whereas the initiated,

once proceed

dull

throb at close

occasions

several

I

have

from the ear alone the unmistakable vibrafailed.

muffled

be

but

gatherings

of following

have

the

none

that

their

extraordinary.

in

Vaudoux have

that mutters about

sacrifice,

trace

tried

at

at

difificulty

quarters

desiring

for

it is

an important

has

peculiarity

the

at

and low.

indistinct

like

rites

present

played

The

is

But the

with

misleading sound is

fingers, with hair

the negro picked up this secret in acoustics

hard to imagine. use.

as large as a

was pegged

it

of some

so singularly constructed that although

a distance of a mile or

hand

was

it

made

was of black goatskin,

surface

adhering to the edges where is

girth

in

thinned by the thrumming of

This instrument

frame was

Its

saw and

I

but

and

There

some

is

mysterious

which

stirs

the

beat

thrilling

which

pulse

in

quality

cannot spite

of

•familiarity.

Hayti

is

the sole country with any pretence to civilisation

VAUDOUX WORSHIP AND where exists.

would seem that the perpetuation of a

It

degrading must have the

race.

can

on

Then whose

is

that

find

be

occasion

in their squalid

unhesitatingly.

Instead of rare and

some outlying

who

ignorance.

It is

futile

the fault

demonstra-

evildoer, they should

are the heart and mainspring

Let them destroy the Papalois, and the

of horror

edifice

and hospitable.

lies

Papalois,

of Vaudouxism.

whole

undoubted cannibals

these

the fault?

directed against the

cult so

the character of

kind-hearted

all

of the Government.

at

in

both

The answer must be given

strike

deep

source

its

you

Yet

Perhaps the root of

tions

8i

contaminated by such active horrors

superstition

a

SACRIFICE.

will

crumble

to pieces of natural

decay. I

made

much

it

a special point while in the island to learn as

of the sect as possible, to get at the truth concerning

them by personal experience, and

With

firsthand.

object

this

in

to glean actual facts at

view,

I

more than once

gained intelligence of the time and place appointed

performance

wanted

to

Vaudoux

of see

On find

the

first

my way

fallen.

mufifled

It

I

was

sacrifices.

I

succeeded to a certain extent.

of these occasions, to

and

myself the mysteries of snake-worship,

for

and by good luck

ceremonies

for the

a

I

understood that

I

must

low part of the town after night had

getting

reverberation

on

of a

towards

midnight

drum beating a

when

swift

the

measure 6

WHERE BLACK RULES WHITE.

82

came up out of

darkness

hot

the

;

no wind

window stood up

the candle-flame by the open

stirred,

and

straight

and

unwavering.

descended into the

I

heard or two

which

intervals,

at

were

under the

in

At

foot.

the

I

had

a scream

Hayti often beats upon the

in

The town was under

overladen pulses of the night. law, but passing steps

street.

drum music, with

that droning

before,

it

odours of the

evil

up the

stirring

"Qui

corner,

martial

ineffable rubbish

vive.^" from a soldier

gloom, but a small coin settled the matter and

I

passed on.

At

away behind me

the challenges died

last

of dirt and garbage seemed to have

the ters

tread

:

of the

the

streets

town,

were

unlit

and therefore

in the

oscillated

calling

a roof a concertina

and turned

in

from somewhere

Above shone

the

was playing

impossibility.

to a

crowd who

dance measure, but the drum was in the

serene

and negress followed out

crowded with

best quar-

keep clear of drains

and arbitrary pools of slime was almost an

Under

the carpet

grown thicker below

even to

;

stars their

dark twist of streets beyond. ;

beneath them the negro

scheme of

life.

Past booths

talkers, past the vending-places of rich, un-

wholesome sweetmeats and drink

in

coloured bottles, pausing

occasionally to catch the vibration of the drum, across an

open market-place

and

at length

I

frilled

was

with an edging of empty sheds,

at the spot described to

me.

VAUDOUX WORSHIP AND

SACRIFICE.

S3

There was a crowd round the house, peering through a

window

A

doings inside.

the

at

big negro stood at the

There was some demur

door with a cocomacaque chib. as

then the door opened and a stream of

admittance,

to

muffled drum-music and a monotonous out

on the

self

within.

A

ear.

The

hum

of voices broke

hand beckoned me, and and

shutters were closed,

I

found my-

was

it

difficult

through the obscurity to make out one's surroundings, but I

felt

The song they were

the presence of a crowd.

ing their

forefathers

sang two hundred years ago

sing-

in the

riverland of Africa.

Suddenly a negro scene all

out

leapt

mouths

to

hung upon

still

its final

The

They were ranged round

The

shoulders to

its

wrapped

a

in

her

roll.

white

spatulate

It

what

at

were glistening

last

sitting figures

swaying

their

was led by an enormous negress,

and

purple print,

who

black fingers— you

shining of her uncut nails. in

faces

in

eyes were turned towards the Mamaloi.

and the chant began again, the

cock

two small rooms.

was broken by an abrupt bark of the drum

silence

in

There must have

narrow passage open

The

the middle of the earthen floor. all

once the

the walls, those in front sitting

their haunches, leaving only a

with heat, and

in

at

song ceased, but

note.

been upwards of two hundred people

on

and

set light to a candle,

meet the eye.

became an

She

sat

held a living

could

see

the

and swayed and sang

insistent

drone of sound.

It

WHERE BLACK RULES WHITE.

84

was

something heard through a delirium of

like

could not forget or escape

drove

for

it

nor waned

;

was merely the same, and endless.

it

about forty years of age,

white robe,

red

a

now,

set

and red melon.

At

floor,

of gold

string

higher; but would

was spread the

Congo

intervals the

sprinkle water over them, little

thin

pots and decked with the pink flowers

in

feast; bottles of coloured intoxicants,

a

a streak of

There were two candles

Beneath them, on the

of the melon.

stare,

and a

sash,

beads gleamed round her neck. alight

was

For covering she wore a

chin.

with

tied

She

and

snub-nosed, round-

small-faced,

She gazed past you with a rapt

foam lay across her

rice,

forth, forth

between the knees of the worshippers.

eyed.

waxed

neither

It

Meantime the Mamaloi danced, back and back,

you

an instant, and the drum

through the brain with blows.

it

fever,

beans, ground

Mamaloi stopped

to

and as she did so the song rose it

never end, never end?

I

had

time to notice that the walls were ornamented with prints

from the French scenes in

do those pictures look

Hayti

of the

illustrated papers.

;

in

!

Upon how many

You

find

strange

them everywhere

the drawing-rooms of the rich and in the huts

peasantry,

and now

in a place

used

for

Vaudoux

rites.

The song

rose

and burnt up.

suddenly

Still

the

in

volume, a candle flickered

Mamaloi danced between the rows

of knees with stealthy, menacing, tigerish steps.

Her

excite-

VAUDOUX ^VORSHIP AND ment was

intensifying,

As

but they never met yours.

like

action.

The huge black woman

and

the

to

The

I

heat was

seemed

The one

terrific

of the

;

a

as the

and

small

round and

the centre droned on,

in

her sinuous dancing. there.

And

over

German Emperor, whose eye

old man, crouched at

filthy

and,

holding

it

Her

round she

by the neck, flung

face

was distorted with accompanied by a

She

upon the heads of the worshippers and began and more

rapidly

it

twisted,

measure of the same ciead song.

swifter

into

Mamaloi caught the cock from the hands

woman,

big

;

coming

artillery

humanity sweltered

over her head and shoulder. frenzy

larger,

to catch at this juncture.

Papaloi,

side,

grow

drum-beat was added the chink of a key on

presided a portrait of the

all

in

The Mamaloi quickened

metal.

to

85

she danced she cleared her

and spat with a noise

throat

seemed

eyes

her

SACRIFICE.

to the hurrying,

laid the

cock

to whirl

more

maddening drumming.

Suddenly she straightened her arm, spun the cock round and round, air.

A

its

flapping wings beating impotently upon the

snowstorm of feathers floated up as she stood with

rapt eyes and bared teeth, twirling; then she flung up her

hand, and the headless body flew over her shoulder.

Her excitement was neck to her stood teeth

for

lips,

and,

horrible

red.

she pressed the bleeding

when she slowly withdrew

an instant fixed

stained

;

and immovable, her

Then she began

to run

her hand, lips

and

up and down

!

WHERE BLACK RULES WHITE.

86

screaming;

at

last

and

staggered

she

torn neck of the sacrifice

still

in

fell,

and, with the

her hand, rolled in under

the feet of the worshippers, while the song boiled over her. In the interval various fetishes were brought out of a box,

uncouth wooden

images, stones and bones, old and over-

which must have come over with the ancestors

handled,

of these people from their original home.

After this the

rites,

and of some pungent

slain,

and

like

in

all

brutishness.

and

sacrifice,

With

fluid,

one another

followed

this

its

dancing,

in

manner

One

changing order. to the

returned,

first,

Six cocks were

with like

monotony

however, was the chief

of them,

by

set apart in a basin

itself.

Mamaloi went outside and sprinkled

the doors and gates, putting

Then she

blood

which was certainly not perfume,

blood was

blood the

sacrifice, sprinkling of

marks upon them.

and with the remainder sealed the

foreheads of those present with the sign of the Cross

This intermingling of the

symbolisms with

their

ancient Jewish and Christian

own nauseous ceremonies

course, from their acquaintance with

The

Roman Catholic

teaching.

ignorant are always ready to incorporate the worship

of any other god with their it

springs, of

can do no harm, and After

own

:

from their point of view

may do some

good.

a time the frenzy grew, and the dancing

universal.

became

The whole crowd were moving and swaying and

jostling together, chattering out the unvarying,

monotonous

VAUDOUX WORSHIP AND The chink

measure.

stimulating rose

high

to

mental

the

haste,

87

of the old key quickened riotously,

drum thrummed out under the

the

SACRIFICE.

falhng thumb-joints with

atmosphere fermented and

They swung and

pressure.

they

whirled,

writhed and danced in an intoxication of excitement.

A woman

was contorting herself and hissing

child at her breast

distended

room

for

was carried away by the seething hysteria

and began

her, in all,

ill-

Near the end of the room another with a

lighted corner.

about

an

in

and

to

shuffle

to

sort of sightless stare.

a

and the drums beat

breast began to stretch

with eyes

There was hardly

faster.

arms and

its

fro,

The

child at the

but the mother

wail,

danced blindly on. the

Still

was

tumult

suffocating,

cessation.

and the music grew.

was no symptom of

but there

On and

The atmosphere

on and on, the scene with

got out into the clear starshine once more

not have endured another

had witnessed

was

go on

to

The acter

is

Here

in

influence,

moulded.

and

felt

I

could

Yet what

it.

I

couple of da}'s longer.

for a

belief of a people is

minutes of

I

at last

was only the beginning of an orgie which

cult, superstition, call

all

five

savagery

When

and blood and senselessness sickened you. I

its

tiring or

it

the skeleton on which

Hayti they have

what you

over the island.

char-

this gigantic

possessing unbounded

will,

in active existence, as

its

I

have personally seen,

The tremendous hold

it

has gained

WHERE BLACK RULES WHLrE.

88

people

over the

amply

proved by the

is

known and

well

fact,

on many an occasion, that a mother

verified

will,

under the orders of the Papaloi, give up her own offspring

be

to

reproached with inhumanity, the

more than once been given

reply has

right to eat

No

When

sacrificed.

them than

picture

I

"

Who

who brought them

showing a long

mean

man

old

had a better

forth?"

my memory

of Hayti will remain longer in

than the remembrance of a heel-less,

:

in grass slippers,

half-foot of veiny black ankle

under

faded trouser, the upper half of him almost bare, the

the

whole topped by a vinegar-coloured face graven by time and wickedness

into

exaggerated wrinklings.

He had

wide-

open, far-away eyes, and sparse grey hair scattered on chin

and

and head.

lip

He was

witch-doctor

up

in

owned

Vaudoux

a Papaloi, or

priest,

and medicine-man.

otherwise a Haytian

home was

His

away

far

He

the mountains, where he dwelt as a patriarch. four palm-thatched huts within an enclosure of

stakes, where, hidden

away among

the potato-green foliage

mangoes ripened.

of the bush, tamarinds, bananas, and

day long he

sat in the shade,

him.

There were

sixty

to

sixteen.

and

four of them,

He was

raw

his

and

All

wives waited upon

their ages

ranged from

said to have other wives else-

where, but, then, he could afford

it,

for

he was a

man

of

substance, and his fame was great in the land. In Hayti the Papaloi

is

a living force.

He

is

at

once a

VAUDOUX WORSHIP AND

SACRIFICE.

He

high priest and a consulting physician.

body, of

and,

up on

foot,

cure the

consideration, touch the hidden springs

a

People are very much afraid of him.

life.

They

travel

on donkey-back and pony-back, according to in

life,

from the plains to consult him

payment, he

will

use his hereditary knowledge on their

stations

their for

for

will

8q

He

behalf.

can

and he can

cure,

kill,

;

and,

and the two are

often curiously allied in his practice.

A He

man

has a revenge to accomplish

the victim of an unrequited

is

He

Papaloi. is,

is

All

and

these

enough,

matter of love

but there

vindictiveness

of remorse.

is

The Papaloi

The

some of

his

life.

for

to,

cures are nasty

one thing he can assuredly do twenty dollars that would

— he

satisfy

of a Corsican and leave him a balance

Papaloi can take

are unapproached.

Of

away your

reason, with

His ancient subtleties of poisoning

or without pain, at will.

useless

he seeks the

on which moves much of Haytian

can give you a revenge the

affection,

powers over mind and body he lays claim

the

in

he seeks a Papaloi.

he seeks the Papaloi.

sick,

in fact, the pivot

;

course, he winds into his

woof much

mystery and ceremony of time and place and circumThis

stance.

is

natural,

as well as useful

and

politic,

for

a mere dose would seem of poor value to a sickness-smitten

negro compared with a remedy to be swallowed when the

moon

is

at her full,

with mystic

the bones of the dead thrown

in.

rites

and incantations and

WHERE BLACK RULES WHITE.

90

Nor

man

the white

is

outside the powers of the Papaloi.

You

Consider the simplicity of being poisoned.

negro and he takes away with him the sense of

a

offend

You

deadly injury.

and drink three times a day, and

eat

on one occasion or another he Papaloi's

the

prescription

the

world,

is

man who

or perhaps for as

and you are

cure

you.

You must

vitals.

many

a

is

and

potent

Papaloi

beyond

poison, old

infallibly

local practitioner,

seek

may be

he

For twenty

dollars,

centimes, he has brought this evil liberal

advance on the

mere matter of

To

antidote.

first

sum

No man

little

;

be

said,

it

feeling of relief.

he usually keeps

The

real

wonder of

spread his poisons broadcast, but

power not

for play,

some personal resentment.

made under my own in a little

the

his side of the

though he occasionally uses delay to extort a

more.

his

You pay

irresistible.

you would pay him a thousand as

;

more than the

his credit

contract

hopelessly

so

dollars

fifty

readily for no

uses

far

shudders at the grasp of these grim powers, they are

but so

It

Some

colour.

has poisoned you.

upon you, and he asks a to

own

Being the

a Papaloi or die.

the very

your

at

Then

your food or drink.

into

the aid of doctors of your

and puts

seizes his chance,

sickness grips you, ghastly sickness,

as

unwittingly

is

it

it

that

would appear that he

but for pay, or to carry out

Once an attempt

close observation,— a

water-and-rum,

— but

he does not

it

came

to

of this kind was little

something

no serious

issue.

VAUDOUX WORSHIP AND my

During

travels

which was padlocked

my On my

horse,

while

return

I

lagers.

After

for

time

somewhat

was

and

aroused, that

neck.

In this

On

water.

I

one

had bought corn

I

guide and a pair of

me

occurred to

it

I

went

offered

thirsty.

I

that a drink

To my

it.

My

refused.

furtively

also

I

my

started with

a

water-

a

went down to the river to bathe.

I

round would be acceptable. it

over the

securely

the bottle at a hut, where

left

I

carried

I

some Haytian rum and

carried

occasion

interior

91

topped by a cup of black vulcanite,

bottle of military pattern

usually

the

in

SACRIFICE.

vil-

all

surprise

suspicions

were

afterwards discovered

some vegetable poison had been put

into the bottle

the leathern strap padlocked over the cup had been stretch-

cup

the

ed,

and the poison

turned,

inserted.

not imagine any reason for the attempt. gratuitous.

Not

upon me.

I

which,

I

had petted a is

my

I

plump

little

certain

in

Perhaps they thought the Zulus say,

cases

had the

kill

mountainous In

a

Haytian

life

quite

considered unlucky.

snake stood up beside

painlessly,

and

interior,

miles

word,

could

child at the hut,

secret

exactly as

I

was alone

away from

poisoning it

Certainly, as

evil eye.

do not care to think over the incident,

do not

I

seemed

long after did a possible solution flash

till

believe,

It

for

me

that day.

I

Haytian poisons

in the heart of the

a white face.

pervades the scheme

of

pervades that of West Africa.

There was an English engineer

at Petit

Goave

— he

has

WHERE BLACK RULES WHITE.

92

now

Hayti,

left

so

I

charged a workman

his legs

free to tell the story

Arrived

for

began

to swell with all the

known African

— who

dis-

a serious fault, and shortly after

for

place

the

left

am

Port-au-Prince.

the capital,

symptoms of the

He

disease beri-beri.

in

well-

consulted doctors, but

they could do nothing for him.

Making a pretty accurate

guess at the

case, he at length sent a

true

of the

state

messenger to the Papaloi

The that

sum

to pay,

a

Papaloi

bath

demanded

Goave.

and promised

dollars,

fifty

for

The Englishman agreed

to effect a certain cure.

and the Papaloi, with many incantations, prepared of leaves, a thick

man was

and

plunged,

return to Petit

to

at Petit

brown

days was well enough

after three

Goave.

Into this the sick

bath.

But the beri-beri returned, and

he was obliged to consult the Papaloi once more, who said that

he had again been poisoned, and that

payment of

fifty

would again cure him,

dollars he

same time warning him

that

if

and, as soon as he was cured,

doctor.

the

Papaloi

is

in

of French Hayti

Hayti to

at the

the hint,

the country.

descended straight from the African witch-

a wattle hut by the it

left

Seven generations ago he was a

slaves

second

he were poisoned a third

The white man took

time he would probably die.

The

for a

;

further

Congo and made

this day.

secret king

back

still

Juju.

Here and there

you stumble across some older African

in

among

he lived

in

And he makes talk with

him

superstition, some-

VAUDOUX WORSHIP AND

SACRIFICE.

93

thing from which you could, without other evidence, deduce the origin of his race.

There

more

stance,

a

which

sleep

a

marked

child

drug,

certain

stillness

Mamalois

the

often

produce

a

another operation

is

beyond the

course, and later,

and brought

— turn

and

in

stillness of sleep.

to consciousness; of

beyond

all

human

question

sinks

Papalois,

is

what occurs then

in-

given

is

buried

It is

by the orders of the

It

sacrifice

some hours

in

For

brother.

Vaudoux

for the

another place.

written

twin

— or

They can

power.

their

death's

is

shivers

which the Papalois

to

into a in

due

dug up I

have

ghoulish and horrible, but

is

sacrifice

offered up to a con-

is

siderable extent in the Black Republic at the present time.

Everywhere

by Papalois sticks,

in

Hayti you find charms against

and

and bags of

rags,

stones,

ing a 'bus, as they

The

Prince.

first

a

nameless bundle

It

was

his

Putting of the

call

which had

Vaudoux upon

negroes say, to

but

it

less

doorstep

remember

their

is

fall

so

if ill.

—

see-

A

is

another variation

bundle of garbage

you pass over

So

seat.

1

enemies

when the

aided

from under the

fallen

accomplishments.

the

becomes

I

shapes

thing that the driver scrambled for was

charm against being upset

priests'

}'our

leaves.

all

sold

the local cab, overturn in Port-au-

placed at your door, and

on

They assume

Mamalois.

evil,

far

it

you are

the thing

is

is

sure,

absurd,

action of the rotten

egg

by a sprinkling of powdered

WHERE BLACK RULES WHITE.

94 glass

your

in

mind

the savage

passions

the

grained

him

rice.

of

the

in

No

priestcraft gains so firm a grip of

as that which lends solid temporal aid to its

There

devotees.

black

get

to

rivet

adhesion to any

his

directed against

who

them

for

should be borne

when

priest rites

is

of which

He

is

mind

also

that

;

he

is

the sacrificial

guiding and dominant

the

countrymen, the

his

falling

an entirely negro Government, at

is

Africa

still,

Vaudoux

result

back deeper and

But as long as Hayti retains

state.

shadow of the Papaloi loom

by those

and influence of the Papaloi,

amongst the bulk of

deeper into the savage

the

of the Papaloi

own household.

must be a continuous

transplanted

the island

the most culpable and hideous of the

practised.

intelligence

in

in

inscrutable offence

their

In considering the character fact

sufficient to

is

whites

touch

far-off

some

most probably of

are

Few

faith.

have altogether escaped the

one

and surely

in-

man above

pinch on the

a

to be given this obscurely

;

a deep desire

is

least

so long will the

large in the land, for Africa

and she

is

so conservative that

passage of uncounted years finds her ever the same.

The

Papaloi

is

the rain-maker, the witch-doctor of

under another

Africa

name.

He

is

West

a kind of fortunate

vagabond battening upon the ignorance and credulity of

New World

this fakir,

of

negro.

He

is

dirtier

than

an

Indian

without that excuse which emanates from the religion

the

fakir,

to

whose

mind our

precept

assumes

an

VAUDOUX WORSHIP AND form

inverted

— with

him

dirtiness

SACRIFICE. next

is

But the Papaloi, on the other hand, has no he

dirt;

is

filthy,

because to be clean

is

95

godhness.

to

religion in his

And

troublesome.

the Papaloi possesses a treble share of the universal laziness

Ham.

of the children of

Rut he

is

not

subject to jest

a

His power

at.

is

par-

amount throughout the length and breadth of the Republic

;

he rules with an iron hand, and with that jealous insidious grasp

on

which

is

From

the

it

is

the

whole

inner

everywhere highest

to

the

fellow-countrymen

of his

life

distinctive

the lowest

all

of

trait

yield

priestcraft.

him obedience;

who do

true the majority believe, but the minority,

believe,

with

at

fear,

fear

and harm and

Remove

the

The whole

tremble.

least

land

is

not

netted over

of vague and occult potencies that harass hurt,

and

in

Papaloi and

case of revolt inevitably the murders

and

kill.

superstitious

observances would, to a large extent, die out, and the land

shake

off the

influence which keeps

debasing consequences the

negro

mind

is

of kindred

American negroes the

— you

can

rites

spell

it

The

so degraded.

superstitions

keenly recognised

where the black man does not

Vaudoux

it

in

acting on

other countries

rule himself.

Among

the

of Voodoo, Voudoo, Vaudoo, as

you

secrecy, and sedulously screened

like

from

— are

latter

in

Obeah

is

light of day.

In Jamaica the punishment for the practice of

imprisonment and whipping, the

on

carried

having a wholesomely

WHERE BLACK RULES WHFrE.

96

deterrent variant

water

as

fact that if

is

to

unchecked

Obeah

though

For,

effect.

it

to

is

the danger of

wine,

would only too

Obeah

is

in the

lies

it

merge

easily

the enormities and crimes which distinguish true

worship.

Haytian

its

into

Vaudoux

a cult of charm-wearing, of love-potions,

of the laying on of curses

by means more or

less

absurd,

such as the tying of a bunch of red rags to a branch near

your door, or hanging up a beer bottle concoctions,

of which go to prove

all

degree with the hideous Haytian

must be remembered that

It

instigator

and upholder of the

its

with nasty

filled

puny

kinship in a

sect. is

it

vilest

who

the Papaloi

the

is

forms of snake-worship,

and they can be carried on by him with practical impunity.

When some public

tim

A

notice

it

is

never the priest

is

upon the

The

suffers.

vic-

too powerful for the Government to interfere with.

couple of

peasants,

unknown women,

will

or a group of poverty-stricken

be maltreated or imprisoned,

occasion shot, while the Papaloi If

who

itself

always some obscure votary, never the arch-criminal,

is

who

grosser case than usual forces

is

or

even on

permitted to go scot-free.

you are a black man, either you belong

and are under deadly compulsion

to

to the sect

perform the behests

of the Papaloi, or else you are not of the sect, and, as

its

supposed enemy, are exposed to equally deadly dangers. It

is

thus

very evident that

in

a land publicly christened

with the names of Liberty and Brotherhood no

man

is

free.

a

VAUDOUX WORSHIP AND The mysterious weapon mind, or both,

or

pain

— is

— which

And

this

is

can

the

weapon

chief

give yet another illustration.

who was

Triburon peninsula

He was tween

the Papaloi, with

Hence

shirt.

long

malignant

in

drug.

He

gutters.

own

use his

the

which had no Papaloi

He had Even makes that

in

in

a negro in the

an

prophesied

for certain,

it

had

stared

effects

its

at

the

neck or inside

his

he would

tiiat

employment he then

He

held.

but drink

it

he

He

swiftly.

never

did,

—

rolled in

sun with vacant eyes

— to

"My

with

head was

filled

who gave him

effect

the

At

whatever.

mountains,

earthen

jug.

last

civilised medicines,

he was taken to a

who gave him

He

ate

of

it,

a

compost of

and was cured.

paid his tax to the powers of darkness and of the in

not

His master noticed his condition, and sent

a white doctor,

to

drugs

It

wear round

expressive words:

boiling blood."

him

apt to use.

is

not of the sect of the Vaudoux.

to

was

it

knew where he drank

the

knew

I

guard

master and harm, and he was not to be bribed.

his

remain

body,

one time a white man's servant; he stood be-

at

Nor did he buy charms his

kill

at all times

pre-eminent knowledge of vegetable venoms,

To

97

merely cause long languishing and

or

one against which no man can

himself. his

of poison

SACRIFICE.

the

itself

felt.

he can

kill

highest

Since his

none dare offend him.

the

places it

enemy

He

soil.

hand of the Papaloi

a matter of public notoriety

is

in is

a

number of

painful ways,

a licensed criminal. 7

WHERE BLACK RULES WHrfE.

98

man

Occasionally he will admit to the white

How much

Vaudoux

in

both

uses

as

he believes religion

a

snake

sacred

enemy," he

says,

put Vaudoux upon

he

will

old

is

"who

agree that the serpent

The

Papalois

following.

the

is

feed

The country The

of terrorism.

"You have an

is

conveyed

leeches

profession

is

upon

in the footsteps

of

course,

what

is

negro

that system

is,

after

all,

of his father.

their stock-in-

the generations, nor will they,

priests are

They achieve

extent hypnotists.

into the

their

any more than the Indian jugglers, divulge any

These

will

not necessarily hereditary,

of poisons, which

their secret lore.

I

god indeed.

honey-combed by

is

down through

trade, passes

favour of

dies the Papaloi's disciples

a great

although the son often follows

The knowledge

hills.

in

a

god be stronger than mine,

If his

like

He

has

not a snake-worshipper.

is

and when the man

victim's food,

He seldom

ends.

Afterwards poison

save him."

pretensions or

His argument

as

him.

own

impossible to guess.

own

tendency towards discussion. the

in his

is

it

forward his

to

is

most part he keeps up appear-

a bit of a fraud, but for the

ances.

that he

particle of

no doubt to a certain

the unexplainable.

And,

savage mind a

to us a trick

is

to the

makes

at

once a grotesque and

miracle.

In

full

dress

an alarming sacred

a Papaloi

figure.

colour

;

his

His piecemeal vestments are red, the

aged

face,

bandaged about the brows

VAUDOUX WORSHIP AND with

a

who

in

SACRIFICE.

handkerchief, peers out malignantly.

red

99 It

is

he

the course of the ceremonies initiates the hysteric

fervour

and dehrium of the priestess and the worshipping

crowd

it

;

he again who leads the orgies into frenzied

is

and horrible excesses which

These orgies continue

and

must

result

their

for

impossible to describe.

is

it

three

four days at a time,

or

lead

infallibly

the

to

continuous

debasement of the national character. There

is

no doubt also that the

'Toup-garous",

of the

women, generally

old,

The Papaloi chooses

who is

steals

centre little

of a

the victim, but

town or

body bears

all

to

pilot-fishes

some secure

to

in

prompt the action

who

child-stealers,

or otherwise secures

it

away

borne

the

priests

the priestly sharks.

it is

it.

" the " loup-garou

The drugged

place, be

some lonely

are usually

it

child

a hut in the

The

forest clearing.

the appearance of death, and so

it

is

allowed to remain until the appointed time, when an antidote sleeping drug

to

the

to

become the

is

given,

and the dazed

child

wakes

central figure in a tragedy of sacrifice.

What

are the three galls of this priest-ridden people?

First,

there

Next, instigates

is

there

them

Lastly, there

Who

superstition.

the

are

keeps

it

alive?

impure and tragical

rites.

Who

?

is

the opposition to

all

enlightenment.

Who

obscures the light? In every case the

answer

is

the same.

The

Papalois.

WHERE BLACK RULES WHITE.

loo

own manner

Their

of

their

life,

appearance, their budget of endeavours are seeking,

no

They have

squalid.

impulse

clean

no

;

their very

traditions,

good

no

absolutely

you

that

characteristic

mean,

all

self-

point,

can

even

distantly respect. It

men

well to understand exactly the position these

is

occupy

in

Hayti.

In the

becomes

create evil

alive

unhealthy atmosphere which they

and

They encourage

flourishes.

the worst tendencies innate in negro nature as assiduously

They permeate

a gardener nourishes his forcing-beds.

as

Hayti

with

Until

influence.

their

down

they are smitten

the country can never flourish.

At

the greatest obstacle to an almost universal

present

terrorism

the

is

The

coast towns.

but they

sprinkling

are

better Haytians are

afraid of

its

men

of white

ashamed of Vaudoux,

The Government

revenge.

either unwilling or unable to cope with

the rule

first

dwelling in the

endeavour of the advancing white

is

of the witch-doctors, and they succeed

superstition Africa.

But

moves in

slowly

Hayti,

backwards

instead

West Africa

In

it.

into

are

to break the

in

so far that

the

heart

of

of meeting with relentless

opposition the Papaloi meets with tacit encouragement, or at

best a puerile interference, with results such as

even now only partially shown.

As

I

have

the case stands, were

one to subtract the very small white element, his authority

would increase

fourfold.

And

it

is

in

the

mountainous

VAUnOUX WORSHIP AND where

interior,

reaches

But

man

white

absurd to

is

pretend

supernatural powers, though that

he has

present

Borgia

to in

goes,

that

his

loi

autocracy

high water mark.

its

it

no

SACRIFICE.

inherited

lie

outside

poisons,

pretensions he

is

I

would not deny

certain

the

and

to

that the Papaloi possesses

moment

knowledge which seems

white fill

for a

in

man's the

range. rest

He

is

at

a

of his hollow

an actor, a colossal quack, and a

terrorist.

CHAPTER

V.

THE HAYTIAN NAVY.

Most

nations

keep a navy

to

fight against their foes.

In this extraordinary country the navy couples that mission

with

the

high

honour of being a potential

either internal peace or war. is

a place

The

somewhat given over

case stands thus.

to political strife

in which, as has been said of Mexico, " sible,

and most things come

an enterprising

For

the

revolution

last

such

man

all

;

the

years

a country

to pass," a country in

there

past has

Hayti

things are pos-

can easily bring off a coup

eleven as

factor towards

has been

which

d'etat.

no bloody

so often seen, but there

have been two or three attempts to upset the Government,

and under Hippolyte a good deal of quiet shooting. au-Prince

Port-

might quite conceivably go to sleep under one

Government, and wake up under another.

But to-day the

capture of the Capital would only be equivalent to carrying

THK HAYTIAN NAVY. the entrenchments of a fort

— the

103

inner bastions would

still

remain, and the navy answers to the bastions.

You may four

every day

it

blood.

in

the harbour,

a sufficiently ghastly

tubby white sides being splashed and smeared

its

red

anchor

at

One presented

ships in a line.

aspect,

with

see

paint in a

manner horribly suggestive of human

This was the " Dessahnes

",

and as she remained

in

the

same unsightly condition during the whole period of

my

stay in Port-au-Prince

tian

Navy had run

I

Hay-

incline to believe that the

out of paint.

But the show ship

is

the " Crete-a-Pierrot

",

the third in

the line that runs across from the lighthouse to the Bizoton side

of the bay.

funnel

is

a

white vessel with a yellow

fat,

and gold scrollwork upon her bows and

over her floats public.

She

Away

the

on the lighthouse side

cargo steamer of chequered career a

Haytian

warship,

now

a

sad

;

bull-necked, slouch-hatted mate of an

"They're a

set of thieves.

had niggers

off that ship

You

the " Toussaint

once a

fruit boat,

know

a captain in this trade

must have cost

this chirruping

a

pilfering

In the words of the

American

sailing ship

:

with brasswork they've

— anything,

any blooming

thing for which they thought they'd get a red cent. I

",

next

wouldn't believe, but I've

come here

Yes, and boiler-fittings

is

example of the

habits of the personnel of the navy.

scofted.

and

stern,

angry blue and red of the Black Re-

who was black

Why,

offered fittings that

Government thousands

WHERE BLACK RULES WHITE.

I04

of

dollars,

and see

liked

make.

to

you go

Jes'

I"

And

so

the

in

any bid he

for

A

was.

it

deserted

stripped,

on her rotten

boys

few

the

hulk,

and she was

skin,

hugger-mugger

lived

full

beat

a

tattoo

of rats and

empty

tides

noises.

Then,

having

worst of the Haytian Navy,

the

and see the best of

decided to go

December morning an

certain

united

the

seen

I

Therefore upon a

it.

ancient rowboat, propelled

by

of two small negroes, crawled slowly

exertions

out upon the lazy blue waters of Port-au-Prince Bay.

"Blanc, which sheep you go for?" *'

an Englishman

There's

in

command

Put

of one.

me

on board of her."

The pink

conch-shells,

down

of white coral loaded of

risk

up-setting

was

it

centre of the bay where

forwarded to

were

move

upon himself

to

and

thought

another

profit

When were

to

and the lump

the old leaky boat.

At some

out towards

pulley-hauled

the

in

England.

Hayti,

at the request of

The plans

in

due

where one Minister took

the ward-room a few yards forward,

the

engine-room

might with great

the Republic be shifted a {&\\ feet to starboard.

they sent

fish,

the " Crete-a-Pierrot " lay blistering

Haytian Government

time

sucking

She was designed

under a scalding sun. the

the

had had back

to

their will of

them, the revised plans

the designer, who, so the story goes,

:

THE HAYTIAN NAVY.

he or the Haytian Government must design

said that either

In the event they

the ship.

So the end of

him.

finished,

built

105

it

armed

well to leave

it

it

" Crete-a-Pierrot "

was that the

England,

in

thought

in

France,

to

was

and three

years ago was added to the Haytian Navy.

the

the small negro, "the Anglais

said

''Blanc,''

And

sheep."

white gig being

through the dancing heat-haze

manned

;

leaving

is I

saw a

a figure descended the gangway,

the squeak of rowlocks followed, and the boat slipped out

from the warship's shadow.

With a gasp and I

to

had

a gurgle

wharves

The

nothing,

for

catching the English itself.

boat gathered more way.

the sun and the unsavoury approaches

not braved

the

my

and another opportunity of

commander might not

warship's gig

came on with

readily present

laborious strokes.

and when within hailing distance

"May

go and take a look over your

I

"Hey, what's "Afraid

"They

I

Got a pass from the admiral

that.'

.f'"

haven't."

won't

let

"Thanks, sorry There was

ship, sir?"

a

you aboard without." to

have troubled you."

silence.

Then Captain Gilmour drew out

his watch.

"I've a few minutes to spare.

I'll

come back and show

you over." It

took

some moments

to

get

my

boat alongside the

WHERE BLACK RULES WHITE.

io6

gangway.

Rarely

unimposing a

Ashanti

the

N.

R.

R.,

and

business,

in his

is

now under

is

who

are heavily armed,"

"Why,

their best warship.

takes a very real interest

looking round.

said,

I

A

Gunner!"

yes.

"We

oily.

are

we

For'ard there

grinning black stepped

heavily

pretty

It

armed,

as

you

all

say.

This

is

Also we have

Nordenfeldts, two five-barrelled, the others three.

with two inch and a half Maxims, are

for-

shone clean

carry a sixteen centimetre gun.

a twelve, and there are four tens besides. five

served

contract with

ward and opened the breech of a big gun.

we

who

work.

"You

and

visited in so

a Scotsman

command

a sunburnt, kindly man,

is

navy been

foreign

Haytian Government to

the

He

a

craft.

Gilmour,

Captain in

has

Those,

the ironmongery

carry."

The guns were

and

clean

excellent order, and the

in

decks bore evidence of recent stoning, but Captain Gilmour

me

told

been

had

that

still

I

come

fifteen

knots

hundred and seventy-five. man, and

aboard

He

in

later things

would have

more shipshape.

"She steams

merly

week

a

my the

first

used to

My

lieutenant

merchant

sometimes.

carries

crew of one

a

chief engineer

a

service.

Admiral

command

and

Killick.

a barque.

I

the

A

a white

who was

Barbadian, Yes,

is

for-

admiral comes

Haytian

brought

.'

Yes.

this ship out

/

:

THE HAYTIAN NAVY. from England,

am

under

way

"Do can.

or

no,

not

We

tie

1,500

with a

Oh, yes.

it.?

I

lor three

If you'll

yards.

step this

asked.

I

But

we do what

on them and shoot with teaches

It is

big guns.

the

rifle

you know, and

gun,

Government here

you do much target practice.""

" Well,

1,000

like

I

came with me.

show you the accommodation."

I'll

we

Uo

chief engineer

with the

contract

more.

years

my

and

109

the

men

it

up to

work the

to

nearly as good as the real thing,

besides being less expensive."

"Have you

me

ushered

taken her any long cruises?"

where a

into the cabin,

I

said as he

portrait of the president

looked down upon the scene. "

We

don't go farther than Jacmel and the Cape.

After a battle

after?

out

of the

island.

when

Well,

give you a cast ashore

As we

"

left

the

laytians drove the French

don't think there's any

I

ship,

in

my

boat

and the

think

— —

rise to

er

that

if

the

if

six

into their slow, jerky stroke,

Do you

would

I

more

She'd have been more shipshape next week.

to see.

down

the

Named

I

you care

I'll

for it."

negro rowers settled said

occasion

arose

your men

it?"

Captain Gilmour stroked his chin.

"I do," he here

know,

in

to

said.

December try

"

When

'97,

there was that

they

sent

German

trouble

two warships, as you

and force an indemnity out of

this country.

WHERE BLACK RULES

no

we were

Well,

cleared

and

behind their guns,

have never

I

grim a look of determination

so

on

then

Yes,

theirs.

I

men

the

action,

for

AVHITE.

in all

down

lying

my

seen

life

on any faces as

think they'd put up a very

saw

I

good

fight indeed."

"You

get a

"We

do.

get

class of

fair

The

pay's

though they don't always

good,

The Government has embarrassments,

quite to time.

it

men then?"

you know."

We

were nearing the wharf, and each stroke of the oars

mud and

raised

smell.

"You

don't losemenfromyellowfever or that sort of thing?

" No,

we hardly ever have

fellows are mostly

But

immune, anyway."

don't speak I

can give

to that

when

it,"

my

I

first

The boat paddled and jagged '•

In that

niscently,

the

Be

'

came

as the

Charlotte

'

Many

chose

of

either.

my men

can

them with a view

out."

.

along, looking

among

_

the rotten, black,

landing-place.

business,"

said Captain Gilmour remi-

boathook caught, " we should have sunk

for certain.

careful of that plank.

a cocktail?

"or French

explained,

authorities

piles for a

German

he

Creole.

in

orders in both.

The

speak English.

These

a case of sickness.

Captain Gilmour gave an order

"I

"

She was It's

Well, good-bye."

loose.

right

under our guns.

No, you won't take

CHAPTER

VI.

ACROSS HAYTI.

HAD

I

leaving

lingered so long in the city that the prospect of fetid streets

its

beyond

their

influence

San Domingo

me

behind

to breathe the purer air

was very welcome.

On my way

capital

towards the

Plain of Cul-de-Sac, which in the days of the

French occu-

to

I

rode

pation had contained

being

"Yes,

most

sir,

to

in

back.?

It

at I

flourishing plantations, the soil

productive

you

are

district in

fertile

how much

it

many

beyond the average even

in

Hayti.

prolific

up

and

rich

out of the

right

Hayti

plumb

— in

in

the

the world.

centre of the

Do you know

the revenue from this Plain of Cul-de-Sac totted the time of the P^rench colony a hundred years

was 20,000,000

francs,

and what would you put

now.'"

had overtaken the speaker.

I

looked round.

We

were

—

WHERE BLACK RULES WHITE.

112

riding

up a steady but hardly perceptible heart

the

in

dawn

of the

incline,

Ever since the

plain.

and were streak of

first

had been passing ruined walls matted with vege-

I

tation,

few irregular patches of corn, a few clumps of

a

Guinea grass about each solitary palm-thatched

mangoes, bananas, and tamarinds bore witness unaided

grew more

we went on

As

fruitfulness.

Save

lonely.

for the

Here among wild and hardy time

occupation

of

trees

man might

yet

to the soil's

surroundings

the

town of Pompadette no

broke the desolate ranges of

village

hut,

forest

on either hand.

some

hint of the old-

be traced

the existence

in

of gentler-bred shrubs, but the splendid country houses of

French period had apparently been absorbed by the

the

jungle, which

dwell

to

had closed

blackbird,

chattered

in

the

ceased

between the parrot and the

bred

Mules,

there.

man

about them when

in

riotous

foliage,

and droves of

lean pigs eked out a precarious existence on the land that the forest had reclaimed from the dominion of man.

"The

My year

present revenue?

laughed.

questioner the

forest

proverb

a

'In

Hayti

white it

clear,

''Not

much

in this island

there

have not an idea," a

red cent,

comes forward, and no

keep the ground is

I

are

less to

effort

cultivate

replied.

I

Each

sir! is

made

it.

to

There

which you may have heard

only three

classes

man, the black woman, and the

cost to lay a railroad along?

who work;

ass.'

Just nothing.

the

What would

And

a rail

STREET SCENE

IN PETIT GOAVE.

I

ACROSS HAYTI. would tap the plain and the this

country

As

mer. tires

me

The

it

not.

the

A

if

the place

is,

is

dead and getting deader.

ships

yet,

few

huts,

all

for

lie

it

one end of

primitive

enough

scattered over

its

lie

The very

in these

its

a living, as the pigs do, upon the wild

by the

evidences

dwelling-place.

They eke

fruits

out

they are too

They glean where-

to cultivate.

The

wild descendants of the coffee shrubs planted

settlers

still

bear

duration

they

;

berries,

and

if

which the negroes are

there

is

pick them green.

or caring for the shrubs, such a thing

save

dawn

from that which French energy bequeathed

almost too idle to pick

unusual

is

sugar-boiling

rusting where the

Yet the people are poor, sordidly poor.

to them.

its

wealth

surface, but the occu-

of a bygone prosperity the lizard has

exist

its

to cost the labour of

found them, and

and too improvident

and

on the produce of the land as

into their hands.

of slave-emancipation

it,

a ready outlet to

offer

practical purposes,

all

pans of a hundred years ago

with to

It

twenty-seven miles

at

lies

nations

piers are satisfied to subsist

Nature gives

roughly,

is,

Port-au-Prince

of

And

but half a day,

lazy

America owned

to look at it."

Plain of Cul-de-Sac

wealth.

Sir,

there would be a track here before midsum-

by twenty- four. there

lakes.

115

is

a rainy season of

As

for cleaning

never thought of

in isolated cases.

The negroes lounge away

their lives in the sun, reckoning

WHERE BLACK RULES

ii6

WHITE.

age by the Presidents who come and go

their

by the

Nature does

sea.

them with

vides

their thinking for

all

the

necessaries,

sole

in the

them, proshe

article

town

to

fails

supply them with being clothes, and they are rapidly coming All that savours of civilisa-

to think clothes a superfluity.

tion

legacy of the white nations

a

is

talions

who

sent their bat-

win a colony which eventually slipped through

to

them

the fingers of

all.

England gave Hayti the road

was traversing.

I

has

It

degenerated into a bridlepath, but the great frame of

be discerned, clear and straight, and eloquent of

can

still

the

strong arm

which cut

from the

out

it

virgin forest.

But a hundred years of utter neglect has ruined perhaps sixty feet wide,

down by The

interior

the

that

;

a

of the

cobbled

inmates,

did

through

many

duty a

palm

is

it

is

passable.

enterprise, but

hardened by the

earth,

the

is

was a sign of

floor

for

places wider, but

It

by the wayside showed stark

huts

most part the

it.

only a slender line beaten

the passing feet of asses

and bare for

many

in

maimed and damaged

so

it

Stars

house-floor.

thatch.

For the

rest,

feet

of the

looked

in

mat

to

a

sleep upon, gourds to hold water, a cooking pot, a couple

of game-cocks or

two,

fought of food.

tethered

formed with hens

all

in

their

a

corner, with a broken chair

belongings, while flat-sided pigs

and guinea-fowls

for

any chance refuse

ACROSS HAYTI. Once

make

week most of

a

what they have

tafia,

through

Passing the

of

noise

drums,

in

a

not.

sight

in

clearing.

of a

single

was a happy

It

where the future was always

existence, no doubt,

for

you often heard

land

you came

or

dancing alone

individual

Guinea-grass

barter

dreamlike

the children,

all

what they have

for

this

and

adults

market to

nearest

the

for

the

117

left

to

adju.st itself.

At length high green water.

I

tufts of

Guinea-grass standing

crossed a river

some

African collection of huts lumped within

its

own

pools of black

in

It

as

I

I

came

was merely an each cluster

in clusters,

way

red-shot sunset had given

green overhead and purple tropic dusk below.

hungry

swamp,

stockade, with scant vestige of plant or tree

The

about them.

to

half an hour before

Thomazeau.

of the village of

sight

in

way

the mountain-bordered plain gave

rode through the

I

to a pale

was very

open part of the

village,

which was merely a space of bare earth.

On

inquiry

had intended for a till

it

turned out that the

to pass the night

had

man

left

in

whose hut

I

early that morning

neighbouring hamlet, and was not expected to return

the next day.

This was sad, but food seemed the

and most urgent necessity

;

first

the problem of finding a place

to sleep in could be faced later on.

Ambling slowly if

anywhere,

I

on,

I

asked a likely-looking

woman

might hope to get something to

where,

eat.

She

WHERE BLACK RULES WHLrE.

ii8

know,

said she did not

was a cock-fight going on

there

that

the village, and that

The

but, as an after-thought, suggested

blanc might as well try there.

le

was taking place

cock-fight

end of

at the other

one of the usual

inside

enclosures, under the shelter of a wall-less roof, which rose

above the scene on

its

brown

was a manifestly

the

toadstool.

cockpit,

bending

three

for

over

tiers

arrival

critical

moment

in

of gesticulating negroes were

craning

with

it

My

excitement.

up to wait

It

corner posts like a four-stemmed

necks,

raving

was almost unnoticed, so

until public interest

their

in I

reined

had simmered down.

In two or three minutes a long-drawn exclamation arose

from the crowd, a white bird, splashed with ominous

was gathered up

by an

angry-looking

and you

negro,

could hear the victor crowing joyfully in the ring. the

this

women

red,

Upon

with the baskets of bottles containing red

and yellow drinks

the outskirts of the crowd to squat

left

beneath the palisade.

To one fowl? No.

of these

A

addressed myself.

I

Could

Rut

No; nothing save pork.

turkey.'

I

get I

a

had

too intimate a knowledge of the habits of Haytian pork in the pig stage to find the offer alluring, even though

been

the

in

succeeded

brown, to

in

saddle

since

daylight.

In

the

long

I

had

run

I

securing "biscuits" of sour bread and a few

seed-covered,

seek for a lodging.

gluey

As

cakes, I

with

which

I

went

off

passed up the street for the

m

i

ACROSS HAYTI.

121

second time, a Haytian with a grey beard and a well-cut

mouth came towards me.

Do you

**

my

and on This

sleep to-night at

saying yes, he placed

courteous

old

The

flourishes

characteristic

my

to

which

He

Hayti, and

in

me

introduced

laying out

my

had

I

to

a

and

it

;

boy

to cut a

an old lady

my

is

my

meal,

ended

he had brought

when

in

blue print,

my

me

host led

across

was spread on the

flask

me some

and

a cigar,

we

native tobacco, and

that haunt the lakes

and one or two

the bugle sounded.

Just across the road

hut.

into his hut.

possibilities of tobacco-

other subjects

la

bundle of grass,

had discussed the

birds

de

host took charge

over the island by the

of the

it

marked

all

We

of

a very

is

My

offends.

his wife,

finished

bugle

talked

the

purchases on a table cloth.

hour that

for

be

to

cane-backed chair and busied herself

passed the

culture,

out

disposal.

absolutely disinterested, for

is

there, with the help of

call.

my

civilly,

ancient virtue of hospitality

the stockade to a hut where a mattress floor,

at

added corn, and then ushered me

I

When

turned

districts

horse, sent off a small

who brought me in

rural

payment mortally

the offer of

of

the

in

house

his

gentleman

magistrate of the village. still

Thomazeau?" he asked

was the

local guard-house.

In front

the soldiers jjaraded, seven of them, under the General Place, or Governor,

My

host

and

finally

bade me good-night.

disappeared into their I

blew out the

oil

WHERE BLACK RULES WHLrE.

122

lamp,

but then

came out

sand-flies,

thing

to hold revel in the

remembered was a

I

and with them hordes of

the mosquitoes,

with

firefly

The

gloom. its

last

pale lamp of

intermittent green lighting up the dark roof.

between night and dawn,

In the morning,

my

and rode to the

friend the magistrate

where the mountains began

to swell

I

parted from

limit of the plain

upwards and a break-

neck track led away over the round backs of the lower

They were green and

hills.

them

bird-life

became noticeably more abundant.

Dawn grew commended

loose

itself

sliding

of

falls

highway here

to

the

road

places,

in

peppered with

overhung by branches and

stone,

at

far-off"

behind,

in

;

one of the worst even

as

had vanished out of

it

outline of a blue,

afternoon

— if the ingenuity of man ever constructed

and up, with a peep

closed

attention

to

intertwining creepers a

and day

day,

to

Almost perpendicular

Hayti.

in

heavily forested, and amongst

all

recognition.

some towering summit ridge,

shutting

or flowing

and hour by hour the

one

ofT

from

the

On

life

forest

of the

ordinary world.

Soon a

I

learned to expect one prominent feature wherever

clearing

in

Whatever owed into

decay and

the its

trees

showed

origin to

ruin,

the

presence

man.

of

human handiwork was

falling

while Nature, fresh and vigorous, was

always advancing her outposts to the verge of each circle

and plot where the

frail

little

ragged dwellings held their

ACROSS HAYTI. own,

hopes that might

like forlorn

smothered

So

I

123

any time be

at

ruthlessly

the living tide of rank foliage.

in

went on, lingering by the way, eating the food

obtained

from the negroes and sleeping beside

One day was very

The people

like another.

I

their huts.

in the lonely

groups of hovels only seemed to grow more poor, more ignorant, as

I

superstitious,

and

penetrated further into

Few had than

more

the

enough

enterprise

nearest

showed few

life

even

presented themselves,

some ways more degraded

the

to

go

to

of the country.

interior

any place more distant

to

everyone

market,

mouth and seemed content Native

in

have

it

hand

from

lived

to

so.

new

no

attractions,

individuality

features

appeared to die

out in that stagnation of existence.

One evening the

I

was seated on a mat of water-reeds

shadow of an old

shelter night

hut,

by night

Compared

to this,

The scene

before

the single

to eleven

of which gave

natives.

Thomazeau was

me

room

in

consisted

civilisation

incarnate.

of a few isolated huts

huddled together inside a dilapidated stockade.

Old Papa,

human

beings, sat

the in

patriarch

of this disparate knot of

shadow, dozing on a broken-down bench.

ground,

under the

usual four-legged toadstool roof, a

smouldered, about which two or three

and the smoke curled clothed only

in

In the fore-

lazily

girls

fire

were squatting,

out into the sunlight.

A

youth,

a torn coat, which he used as a loin-cloth.

WHERE BLACK RULES WHFrE.

124

was gnawing

banana

a

at

middle distance.

in the

these, nothing but tamarinds, sand-flies, sun,

Papa was a For

had watched the slow decay of things

thirty years he

he

and

warmed him

I

Boyer was President and seen strong

very graves have been

was

power

in

men lost

and so was everything that was were

The

dead.

knife often,

dying.

had come across

;

was

old,

old, also,

His children and grand-

his.

fourth generation lived around

sometimes to extract gum;

wounded were

Boyer

wife

fire to light his

pipe.

trees bore witness to the

had been used

like a cutlass,

for

whose

his

of the dwellers there.

spirit

buried,

was, undoubtedly, "old,

around the stockade the

mischievous

when

He

him, and his grandson's grandson brought All

rum,

was young.

for half a century,

and

little

forgotten,

down and

shot

the twenties.

in

with a

life

he, the old fossil,

old," as he called himself,

children

into

innocuously of times

chattered

He had

dust.

a wrinkled mild old face.

senile figure, with

and of himself.

and

Beside

in

for all

The machette, a wanton destruction cases the trees so

These people were the poorest

I

they might have almost belonged to a

lower race.

They were went naked. evidently

dirty

A

and squalid beyond imagination, some

bow-legged boy, long-armed as a

half-witted,

prowled

about making beast noises,

or shambled with an attempt at the swaying shufifle to

dancine here.

gorilla,

common

ACROSS HAYTl. One

and

come

or two of the people had

me

asking

cure them.

to

125

to

show me

sores,

doled out carbolised vaseline

I

remedies, with instructions, but probably they

similar

were taken internally.

At

negroes retired into the hut, and

nightfall the

not accept Papa's offer to

me

burdened stowage space.

A

under the

served

stars

me

One

cessation of speech.

at intervals;

and

All

talked.

never ceased.

night

The

old

through

day-long

A

vigil.

still

small,

fat,

flaky ashes of the wood-fire,

of glowing

me

for

cup of water

a

down

lake

red

in

a

the

was

a quicksand

By colour,

the

the time

I

my

in

or

the hut else,

his

black

black and

in

out.

bench, and began his girl

raked

among

and soon collected a

The

gorilla

ablutions, but

I

little

the

heap

boy brought preferred the

about a quarter of a mile away.

valley

There you could bathe

crowd

sketched out

coffee.

for

silence

dark hours the chattering

the

once sought

at

over-

he at once waked someone

Dawn was

man

no

brought

when they arose and trooped

white

its

rolled myself up, for

I

or other of the

would waken

could

mat and a waterproof blanket

better.

dew was heavy, but

the

of the hospitality of

I

in

shallow water, underneath which

which took you

to the

returned, the day had

knees.

grown

into

lemon

and a smell of burning coffee berries arose with

gouts

of rich blue- black

midst of the blossoming,

smoke from the

fruitful

fire.

land, this unsightly

In the

home

WHERE BLACK RULES WHITE.

126

was a

About the

fresh ofifence.

huts small Haytians fronted

The

the morning sun, naked and unashamed.

had no place here; necessity

life

Truly

Hayti.

comes

into

may be

it

widest sense, he goes out of

Of

the peasant's

more remote His

attitude

districts,

He

beyond reproach. and though he

poor

is

it

here that naked he

using the term in

its

again.

towards the stranger

the

in

have nothing to say but good.

I

of hospitality

virtue

man

and naked,

world,

the

the only queen in wild

is

said of

luxuries of

beautiful.

is

His politeness

many ways,

Nature's gentleman in

is

in

worldly goods, he

is

is

rich in

some

of the higher qualities.

Riding through the rural

districts

you

find

it

hard to

obtain anything to eat, but easy enough to get a place in

The people cannot

which to

sleep.

have

but they do give what they have, and that with

not,

give you what they

both hands.

Even nearer from to

it.

his If

own

to the

towns

I

have known a peasant

bed, place sheets upon

it,

and lead

you offered him money-payment

he refused

it

in the

his guest

morning

but a knife or some such

aggrieved,

rise

trifle,

presented as from one equal to another, was received with pleasure.

The average of

themselves,

cakes

with

diet, is

brown

if

you except the

limited sugar,

to

that

a

little

fruits

which grow

rice,

sticky

make you

sleep,

seed

and,

if

ACROSS HAYTI. luck

is

good,

say,

as

in

sour

no need

Sometimes a pig sided

scavengers

mango

"Turn up

Jamaica,

lasts there is

In

bread.

127

may

they

season,

pot;" while the

fruit

one of the sharp-snouted,

slab-

the

for cooking. killed,

is

are

that

European digestion would brand of pork, but the

everywhere

evidence.

in

infallibly fail

negro appears to put

robuster

A

before this special it

away without inconvenience. Their

relaxations

are twain

— dancing

and cock-fighting.

Their ideas of wealth take the form of the possession of these

plumed

But

warriors.

it

good

is

to note that they

have never heard of such barbarous things as

The cocks

permitted to

are

such weapons as

with

fight

steel spurs.

Nature has given them.

But the mountain people among reigned were not at

They were

a

all

I

have

were no such

civilised

rudimentary.

purblind

To-day

life

adjuncts

Taken

all

in

to

sheets

as

all,

it

them. life

;

Here

was raw,

was the sordid,

of savages.

in that

lonely stockade was but a replica of yester-

day, the one barren as the other. sitting

woods

written above as to other

must not be taken as applying

districts

his like

representative of the average native.

wilder race, with the shyness of the

upon them, and what

crude,

whom Papa and

The

old

mumbling man

on the old bench, the large-headed, solemn child

carrying

him an ember

for his pipe.

Birth

and death

in

WHERE BLACK RULES WHITE.

128

sequence visited the hut, but the old

scarcely-heeded

drowsed on. flies,

Fie reigned there

until

man

dust, the sand-

the hot wind, the parched tamarinds in the stale and

rotting stockade,

the

amongst the

and

his

passage of hours.

he

goes

beyond him.

out

of

kingdom was only existence and

And a

there he will go on reigning

world

that

has

already passed

CHAPTER

VII.

INTO SAN DOMINGO.

Every country or

its

In

this

pleasant.

less

own modes

has

land you

tropical

more

of travelling, either

ride

through the heat of the day or you continue your journey far

into

starless

tiie

night,

and

if

happen

the night should

your direction and your

life

are both at the

be

to

mercy

of your horse.

One

night

the

in

track

far

led

You had

interior.

to

me above

The road

the

was

I

There was no road.

?

round boulders, and branches hung low over to

be

careful

of your

fear of

them.

eyes,

for I

A it.

thorn bushes

was haunted

Think what blindness would be up

there in those remote solitudes

We

others.

all

out inch-long prongs to maul you.

thrust

by

comes back

1

were passing over the mountains beside Lake Assauei,

and there was nothing

to guide

one through the

forest, for

9

WHERE BLACK RULES WHITE.

I30

sky was only the Hght of the evening star and a

the

in

white

moon

miles,

and many more lay

her

in

The

of rest or food.

hand,

left

hills

the

crowded with

had ridden many

front of us before

any chance

so-called bottomless lake

was on the

in

wound

trail

We

quarter.

first

and out about loafshaped

in

and tangled with those inwoven

forest

creeping plants which one always associates with the idea

The

of a South American jungle. the

in

Stones shifting under the horse-hoofs supplied

air.

the dominant sound

;

you heard them

and long afterwards the echo of lake

came up

We

scent of the water was

their

cHff,

my

horse

;

white

the unseen

in

was moving forward with

by the

light of

your

The

trail.

taste for night-pioneering, followed

Occasionally, a

plunge

unable to see more than four

a sort of irritable caution, feeling the

had no

over the precipice,

feebly.

were riding along a

yards ahead

fall

guide,

who

on a shaggy mule.

cigar,

you could see

dark bush or a thick tree-limb close above your head.

You dodged

evade

to

strips of hat or coat.

for

hours.

tainly

and the thorns ripped away jagged

This sort of thing seemed to go on

forests,

almost untraversed by man,

by white men, were

movement ing

The

it,

fall

of

of a

some

bird, a

stone

leap into the lake.

as

You

silent

wind

it

felt

cer-

save for the occasional

in the leaves, or

the pulsat-

struck the cliff-side on gigantically alone

of the Black Republic and the black night.

—

its

long

in the heart

INTO SAN DOMINGO. Presently

was certain we had

it

131

way

our

lost

upon the path

series of

again.

This happened

hours later (by the watch

we began

to

— by

descend towards the

lane,

come

times.

Two

four

it

was more

stray hut.

Our

respective

down

slid

tunnel-like

over-arched with trees and paved by a water-cut

which lent

intervals.

tried to

where

lake,

mounts leaped and scrambled and declivities,

turned,

one's feelings four at least)

we might come upon some

likely

matches

lit

the forest

We

raised up an impenetrable wall in front of us.

and by the help of a

;

itself to

Riding of

unexpected steep drops

this

sort

at frequent

would of course, be quite

impossible in a country ranged over by big game, but here there

nothing more formidable to be met with than an

is

At length we came upon

escaped pig or a dog run wild. a solitary hut, where

my

guide managed to raise the materials

for a torch.

And now the journey. in

the

it

The

blackness

velvet.

torch with

light this

kept

his

its

comet

like a red tracery

The shadows made

your

horses,

was that we reached the

way and

that

tail

part of

of sparks

moved

on a ground of black

rushes at you as you swayed

above your head.

footing after the extraordinary despite

difficult

The horse

manner of Haytian

the fact that the ground at his feet was a

moving panorama of

light

and dark.

On, and on. and on, and the guide seems ever of the end of our ride.

The

truth

is

less

hopeful than

he has long ago

—

WHERE BLACK RULES WHITE.

1,32

Finally, the torch burns itself out,

lost himself.

we plod on

at

round us again.

in

upwards

pierces

As we

to us.

fire-flies,

Now

push on.

Vaudoux drum,

from behind a curtain of black

and

night grows

top the next incline a scream

We

the short, sullen bark of the

stars

The

haphazard through a gully.

and again

we come

trees,

in

in

you can hear and, advancing

which are netted

sight of a great red

glow

set in the heart of the forest.

A

group of negroes are dancing round the wind-up

the

of

three-days-long

a

Vaudoux

fires;

orgie.

it

is

Two

days ago a black goat was sacrificed to the sacred snake,

and

There they blind

to

in

all

this

to

is

rein

afraid of interference

be expected anywhere from

and unmanageable hills,

Easily

unexhausted.

and swaying, apparently

remote and lonely spot save

pathless

still

up your horse

they omit

their

excesses.

not that interference but in these wild

and the towns by the slabby

of the all

:

in the island,

civilisation

mud

for

rainy

season and by the

precaution.

you can pick out the Mamaloi.

There she

bound round the waist with

a red sash.

white,

to

take no heed of you, for they have no eyes

districts, cut off

dirty

You

outward things.

Here they are not is

worshippers

are, screaming, writhing,

They

watch.

of the

frenzy

the

is

in

Op-

posite to her dances a large, fierce-eyed, splay-footed negro.

The it

is

fires,

like

the posturing black forms, the uncouth howls

a scene from Hell.

You may be

the bravest

man

A HAYTIAN HICHWAV.

INTO SAN DOMINGO. in the world,

but

when you

recollect that the probabilities

same people having

are hugely in favour of these

a

child

to

their

god

hand goes creeping

When you grow detour,

the

again,

inhabitants fires,

your revolver.

you turn and make a

tired of watching,

the far edge of the clearing, and, finding

skirting

track

sacrificed

some date not too remote, your

at

to

135

you pass through a deserted

of which are

all

at the

which the negro always keeps

glow-worms on the bare brown While upon the subject of

Vaudoux alight,

village, the

The

dance.

still

shine,

mere

me

state

earth. child-sacrifice,

let

that although there can be no doubt that at certain seasons

of the year, and more particularly at Easter and Christmas,

such sacrifices do most certainly take place,

what has

of

been written

upon the

still,

subject,

regardless

strenuously

I

believe that no European, with the single exception of one

has

Catholic

priest,

occasion

of the

membered has actual

kind.

been

present

The dead

child

sacrificially

frequently

ceremony

on

actually

ever

excludes

an dis-

been seen afterwards, but the

most

rigorously

all

save

the

initiated.

The in

the

noise of the dance dies

lower and trees

move

marshier

seem

taller

land.

We

are

now

The young moon

has

set,

away behind.

and tower up above

restlessly in their branches, disturbed

The going on

the

mountains

us.

Monkej's

by our passing.

was bad, but

this

gorge

is

WHERE BLACK RULES WHITE.

136

The

worse.

trees

like a

regiment

bivouac in the

forest

hopelessly

are

mention

all

is

and only day can deliver

lost

He

this to the guide.

This

acquiesces.

marshy ground, he proposes

but the

unhealthy

we move

chill

last

hut, with

scarred

no

with

white and

put your

of the

we come

hand

stream, and tin

we

Will

ride.

it

never

to a possible halting-place, a deserted roof,

its

supporting posts

the remains of a dead

A

it.

faint

heat.

heap of

fire.

You

Someone camped

Probably a game-cock farmer from one of

villages,

who was working

mug.

rekindles

thing you

the

fire

you manufacture

way eastwards

his

a

and fetches water from meal of

know

is

rice

Then you

After that one pipe.

hammock between

into

tired beasts

ashes, to

more branch-dodging,

good markets of San Domingo City or Barahona.

The guide

a

in fact

on the spot,

In the centre of the floor a

flame.

flaky

Haytian the

to

I

along been

all

to bivouac

boulders,

and a broken

walls,

here last night. the

us.

on.

slipping

At

?

is

to.

speaks eloquently of malaria, and

More quagmires, more

end

night's

Regardless of the chorus of frogs and the more

directed.

more

open

we can look forward

that

the point towards which his diplomacy has

than

in

A

you are swallowed up amongst them.

order;

We

advance on you

and soup

a in

stretch your

the joists of the open hut, and the next that the light of

your eyes through the

trees.

dawn

You

is

arise

filtering

down

and take your

fS,..^^-/

INTO SAN DOMINGO. bearings to

139

you have wandered four miles only out

find

of your intended path.

we plunged

Farther and farther valleys

sierra,

closed

up

one upon another, and almost virginal forest.

behind

us,

and

folded

hills

we pushed on through

still

The

into the doublings of the

woodland thinned away bearing on

fringe

Lake Fundo, blew

Then

at

all

the lake vi^hich tory.

It

is

once

more open

to

in the

day you come

rising

deep and

still

in sight

Dominican

and blue, cradled

in

of

terri-

towering

and the whole

about which cling turquoise clouds,

hills

countr}', a hot

idly by.

half in Haytian, half in

is

Presently,

the exhalations of the marshes which

wind,

it

the

above were dark against

trees

a sky where the morning stars shone together. as the

in

wide scene shines out upon you with a strange insistent beauty, the essential charm of which

it

A

rise

plumes of

few

from

stems

the

soft

other

grey smoke shore,

is

hard to analyse. straight as

and high up,

palm

lark-high

in

heaven, a breeze catches them and blows them abroad into great wisps and fronds that melt slowly out of sight.

Up and

on the mountain side the bracing.

water's

green

edge,

— an

All

the

around, forests

air is like

from

spread

champagne, cool

summit

peaked in

an

uncalculated wealth of timber.

to

the

unbroken sea of

A

few trees are

occasionally felled on the other side of the mountains, and in

due time reach I'ort-au-Prince

for export,

but very

little

WHERE BLACK RULES WHITE.

T40

done

is

absence of roads or of any means of communi-

:

dams up

cations

the riches of the country into the interior.

The Consular Report

1898 masses the export of mahogany

for

with six other items under the remark

importance to be quoted to be plucked, but here

By

the

show

their

angles

the

long

:

"

Not of

sufficient

Golden opportunities

lie

ripe

no hand to pluck them. through the shallows and

stalk

of legs and beak.

vivid tones of blue

If

"

awkward grey-blue bunch

and green

of

body

Alligators

The whole

strong, sweet sunshine.

rich

is

herons

shore

1

is

lie

set

between

abask

picture with

in

the

broad,

its

magnificently tropical and

and high-coloured. the flag of any other country flew over the land,

would

and

lake

glorious

this

its

fellow

border retain their present opulent desolation?

across

No

how the

boat

pushes a venturesome forefoot through the brackish water

—(for these lakes are

salt,

yet fed

here and there you can stand in

salt

by

fresh springs, so that

water and drink fresh) --

save one which American enterprise has brought with

infinite

trouble through the blocked-up land and set afloat on Fundo. In the French times there were country houses here, but

they I

in

ruins,

swarmed over by the ingrowing

sought out the almost

The it

lie

lost vestiges

fierce fingers of the tropic

into

rooms,

untimely decay nothing

but

a

;

forest.

of a colonial estate.

seasons had torn and twisted

no doorways, no outline of living

heap of tumbled walls not as high

NATIVES.

;

INTO SAN DOMINGO. your

as

with

knee,

on the sun-warmed

sleeping

lizards

143

stones and forest vines tangled over their downfall. It

is

same

the

all

over Hayti wherever you go;

savours of industry, energy, civilisation,

and

is

left

short, has

that

been

behind as mile-

on the path leading up out of sheer savage waste

stones

and

All that the white races

not.

in

all

idleness

As

obliterated.

is

far

as

concerned, the situation in the present day

human

with regard to the

the is

interior

is

retrogression

element, and retrocession to the

forest-powers of once cultivated lands.

There you are among a people who prefer a thatched

The

hut to a palace.

inhabitants scattered about that part

of the country are few, but none of

presence buried fifty

A

felt.

in

the

shanty

trees

you

At

find.

for a

few birds and

breeding wild, slink with perhaps,

when camping,

and lacking the forked

litter

its

The

land

is

reptiles.

you may see

In the remoter places

their

and leaves

the distance of

yards you are unaware of the presence.

empty but

or

so to speak, sticks

of,

all

is

them have made

a

dog run

wild,

and

from foliage to foliage

a herd of pigs, also run wild

stick

which

is

the domestic

emblem,

the sign of man's ownership, comes out upon you unaware

and

fiies

grunting to

wild

pigs

proper,

thicker

cover.

descendants

hunted by the buccaneers recesses of the woods.

in

On Gonave

probably of those

bygone days,

still

Island

droves

haunt the

WHERE BLACK RULES WHITE.

144

Late that night, as we came through a wilder usual under the dark green forest shadows, a

a

firefly,

defile

fire,

than

small as

twinkled on a ledge above the track.

''Qui vive?"

A

of trees,

hold

ramshackle guardhouse, showing against a wall

little

was perched on a clearing It

it.

Broken walls stood up awry from the and on the narrow piazza

craned

their

rope-suspended

rifles

and demanded passports.

was the Frontier Guard of Hayti.

the

slope of broken

passports,

the

weedy ground

For

They came down

until

an arm stretched

them, and examined the

reach

and before they had

fireside

soldiers, like

They unslung

over the road.

this

up from horseback could

floor of the forest,

two ragged

in front

of vultures,

a pair

big enough to

just

was of wood, rust-coloured and dreary-looking.

recovered their places at

and sunk back upon

their

haunches, we were

over the border and in the Republic of San Domingo.

The Laguna de Fundo used territory, but

now

to

be entirely on Haytian

the Dominican landmark has

and ominously half-way up

its

blue waters.

moved slowly Even on

the

lake level the air was balmy, the temperature ranging from

90 degrees on the shore to anything you prefer on the rise

Neither Cuba nor Jamaica can

of the mountain sides.

give you a climate so perfect as Hayti.

Evening came with a wind, and the lake was transformed.

Seen from the lower ground

it

now appeared

like a

menacing

INTO SAN DOMINGO. eye,

beneath

set

No wonder

mountain.

legends have grown round about

The Laguna de Fundo and altogether

within

about 200

feet

the

Lake

between.

porpoises

;

still

companion, which hes

San Domingo, are both

sea-level,

and

in

connected by water lying

Enquirillo,

the

it.

larger

times of heavy in the

lake,

is

lowlands

supposed

been connected with the sea by a subter-

once to have ranean river

its

of

limits

above the

rains or floods are

scowHng brow of the

and

rough

the

145

the waters are exist in

them

and

salt,

it

but to this

;

is

said sharks

last

I

and

cannot bear

any personal testimony. I

the

remained little

They

ably. try,

I

in

the Dominican State but a short time, and

flourish in the

on the western side of the border.

Government of San Domingo

The Dominicans speak

a

is

On

same degree

as

the other hand, the

lessjealous of foreign influence.

Spanish, and have preserved the

of their language to a far greater degree than can

be said of the into

too favour-

are not nearly so likeable as the Haytian peasan-

and hospitality does not

purity

me

saw of the people did not strike

Haytians,

whose

French has degenerated

Creole patois so corrupt that

be understood by outsiders.

adduced from the

fact that in

A

it

reason

can with for

San Domingo we

this

difficulty

may be

find a colour-

ed as opposed to an entirely black population.

For San Domingo of races has probably

is

the Mulatto Republic, and the mixture

done much towards keeping the general

WHERE BLACK RULES WHITE.

146

status of is

its

people on a higher level

very apparent there

but

no doubt that both States

is

The

output

the

into

trail

San Domingo

work across

natives

blockaded hopelessly by

is

an interest

in

rest

cutting

there

little

is

their

wood

is

traffic

cover it

;

is

there left

few

more have

beside the lakes, a few

break

no

A

travelled.

to sell fighting-cocks, a few

committed misdeeds

For the

all

Governments and the inertness of the people.

respective

have

yet the lack of energy

a vast amount of mineral wealth, of wealth of

contain kinds,

There

also.

;

for

who

safety.

to the parrots

that fly above and the wild pigs which range in the woods.

And

this,

you must understand,

is

the chief highway be-

tween Hayti and San Domingo. In

time

the

who was a

assassinated

history will

be

them

given

Dominican President Hereaux,

some months ago, there used

of

of his

to

they

have

comes

many

their ideas

paper and

certain

or

of Hereaux

committed

or

late

few soldiers posted on the

recalled

to

of the

added

to

frontier,

recalled

upon him and praise.

themselves.

It

is

I

Here was a

a lie

who have

methods of ruling

hard to

believe

them had any personal knowledge of country.

If

think the

observers his

be

but either Jimenez

be written,

superficial

to

the

that

man

ruler masterful certainly,

but whose mastery was obtained by the foulest of means.

He was

a President of the Central

lous, pliable, fair-seeming,

American type, unscrupu-

and immutably vengeful.

CHAPTER

VII

I.

HAYTIAN POLICE, PRISONS AND HOSPITALS.

He

was

lightly attired in the

remnants of a striped

and what the passage of years had blue

cotton

with

a

red

He was scanty

On

trousers.

band,

and

in

his

his

shirt,

of a pair of sky-

left

head he carried a blue cap

hand

dirty yellow club.

a

a very black and lowering negro, with the invariable

imperial on his chin, which accentuated the resem-

blance that

sprang

once into

at

my

mind

—a

humanised

black goat. I

was told that he was a policeman of the Republic,

and experience afterwards substantiated the was quite a

They

are

fair

sample of the

in

respect of

on duty they loaf about the fulfilling

their

duties

in

a

that he

force.

Hke no other police

stand curiously alone

fact

all

the world over; they

many

streets,

manner

particulars.

When

and are very frequently that

you are glad

to

WHERE BLACK RULES WHITE.

148

from witnessing.

escape

colour of

human blood

you

see

will

guardians

;

Elsewhere one seldom sees the

flowing

it

of the

this island

in

the chances are that

broad daylight whenever the

in

peace think

fit

to

make an

arrest,

they are prone to use their cocomacaque clubs, and

where the victim

cases

medium whereby they may to be beating the

The

as a

secure a meal, they are sure

wrong man.

are merely soldiers told off casually for the

police

maintenance of the public arrears,

in the

random

not picked out at

is

for

and when remitted

bution, reaches

them

in

safety.

to

Their pay

someone

is

ordinarily in

in authority for distri-

an attenuated form.

In addition to

they have to "keep themselves," but the administration

this,

has invented an ingenious method by which a truly zealous

can manage to stave

officer

some towns,

In fee

of

fifty

according

at

centimes

to

the

Fortunately, living

any

—a

starvation very well indeed.

rate,

they receive a capitation

fluctuating

exchange is

off"

—

for

sevenpence-halfpenny

every

cheap, so that

man they

when hunger bears too

hardly upon them the remedy of a timely prisoner

come

by.

quarrel

is

easily

There need be no superfluous scruples, such as

waiting until a a

arrest.

man commits an

offence against the law.

with any stray passer-by or pounce

him unawares. There feet as the victim

will

is

down upon

be some howls and a patter of flying

understands his

But the policeman

Pick

ill-luck,

and

flies

from

not to be so easily baulked

;

it.

he

HAYTIAN POLICE, PRISONS AND HOSPITALS. bounds

pursuit.

in

Perhaps

the

pursued

151

and

doubles,

catches a thud on the shoulder from the cocomacaque club.

With a

he rushes

cry,

every arrest

I

two struggled Not

for possession of the

as he

lets

go

his

— the

sleeping policeman reels into

hot street, and rushes out with flying

makes

his club

" Tenez, tenez!"

to the aid of his

companion, and

on the head or face of the offender,

hold,

and

the

first

accuser takes

is

taken away to the lock-up afterwards

in

a

the

The

opportunity to indulge in a thorough-going revenge. victim

in

:

club.

from the nearest arrondissement.

smash goes

who

A

however.

wakefulness up the

he shouts,

policeman

witnessed the procedure was the same

for long,

coat-tails

to close with the

in

more

or less unspeakable condition. If is

he were a white, one would say, knowing where he

going

to,

that

he

must die of

his injuries.

As he

some days of pain he

black, the chances are that after

is

will

recover from the beating.

The back

says the proverb; also

Hayti the thickness of the skull

in

The cocomacaque

to the stick.

is

club

a bamboo, but solid and unbreakable. to fell

an ox, and

blows.

the

its

powers,

on

his

way

Even

is

a cane jointed like It is

heavy enough

used indiscriminately over the heads

it is

and bodies of the prisoners. to

suited to the burden,

the

It is

iron

negro occasionally succumbs to

and has been known to the jail.

shod to add piquancy

to die

by the roadside

WHERE BLACK RULES WHITE.

152

The cocomacaque,

the poHceman,

like

indigenous to

is

the Black Republic.

cannot

I

example of

an

take

singular

this

method of

action from the contemporary newspapers of Hayti, as they rarely,

occurrences are too are

news of

ever, print

if

this sort, either

common

is

when

a

But formerly,

scandal.

existed, cases like the following

Spencer

"La "

the

Death

Prison.

in

individual

— Our

who had

more independent paper were duly published. in

Hayti, quotes from

tried

may remember

readers to

to

fractured.

From want

prison

A

peril.

among

in his last

the

putrid

mortification soon set

He was

moments.

limb,

he

of attention

whom

this unfortunate

a

few

are

still

overcoming her repugnance, wished to

him

:

His leg was horribly

this

good woman, of

us,

the police

M.

state.

in

and presently the existence of

in,

that

pillage the house of

Marmont Flaubert had been wounded by was taken

Sir

1887: —

Verite" of August 23rd,

A

grave

in the nature of a

Minister

British

John,

St.

comment, or they

to call for

too wise to mention what

because such

She tended

was

in

found assist

as well as she could

and talked of God to the dying wretch.

touched,

sent

for

a

priest,

and confessed with

every sign of sincere repentance, received extreme unction,

and died quietly shortly

Another example night,

:

after imploring

— "On

Divine mercy."

Sunday, about eleven o'clock

at

two countrymen who were not sleepy were amusing

HAYTIAN POLICE, PRISONS AND HOSPITALS.

153

themselves playing with dice or cards under the gallery of

The

a house in Courbe-street.

One

patrol arrived.

of the

young men bolted and gained the courtyard where he was accustomed to

sleep.

The

was not so prompt

other

caught: a blow from a cocomacaque stops him.

is

on the nape of the neck, he

No means

cry.

-(July

1

6th,

fell

and

I

— one but

1887.)

them

who was

I

show

what

show

Hayti, and

in

sufficiently horrible,

another Englishman

not only on the spot to judge for himself,

ample witness

years ago, and

During

to

suffice to

details,

— has

said

subject.

bears

continue

Such cases are

took the trouble to verify

also

upon the

He

brutality.

adduce

who

Struck

of passing this unfortunate off as a thief."

the shameful licence permitted to the police

wanton

he

dead without uttering a

Other instances could be given, but these

their

:

be

to

my

I

to

the

state of affairs several

can add on personal observation that they in

precisely

the

same condition

to-day.

second walk through the streets of Port-au-Prince

came upon

a Haytian scene of arrest.

that the prisoner

I

need only say

had been so cruelly battered that a gen-

tleman passing offered the police a dollar to take the wretched

man

to gaol without further man-handling.

they attacked a

soldier

him again with

who had omitted

was doing some work

their clubs.

to turn

up to

For answer

The man was drill

because he

to earn a few centimes to

buy

food.

WHERE BLACK RULES WHITE.

154

On

another occasion

I

saw a captain of police called

by a negress who had attempted owner of the

The

store.

Danish subject, naturally interfered

place, a

to save his goods.

from a

to steal

in

The woman went out and returned

a few moments with the police

in

who

threatened to

shoot the Dane, and then stood by while the

woman, under

officer,

the protection of his revolver, wreaked her vengeance with

The upshot of

a heavy stick.

was

court,

this case,

when brought

into

a sentence of imprisonment on the Dane, with

the option of a heavy fine.

At

the time of arrest white

violence, although there have

the I

negro,

liable

is

arrest

are mostly

been several exceptions.

to

murderous treatment both

and afterwards

But or,

at the time of

in the prison itself. all

over the country

almost incredible when one considers that they exist

the midst of a

community

that calls itself civiHsed.

well aware that the curse of the present police

systems

is

who has

a source of

the

spoken of the

as

innocent of any offence against the

really

Moreover, the condition of the prisons is

exempt from

whether guilty or only under suspicion,

have shown,

law,

men

shame and regret

good of

his

country

am

and prison

to every

at heart.

I

in

Haytian

Many have

matter to me, but the Government appear

to be entirely indifferent.

A

little

vanity

is

brief authority

is

poison to a negro, whose inflated

not tempered by education and whose intelhgence

!

HAYTIAN POLICE, PRISONS AND HOSPITALS. seems too dwarfed pain he

any adequate idea of the

to afford hina

One can

inflicts.

only account for

it

goes to support, that negroes have

no white man could hope

injuries that

They

strides

still

is

placed in the hands of a

man

in the

Within the

he has absolute power, and

office

to survive,

through the land

of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity.

recover

and

any kind.

that without tendance or medical aid of

The policeman

nerves and

far duller

are less susceptible to pain than P2uropeans.

his

on the sup-

which close acquaintance with the race certainly

position,

from

155

name

limits of

power

this absolute

the mysterious workings

of whose mind leads him occasionally to shoot his prisoner,

not while resisting arrest, but afterwards for having resisted It

scarcely

is

surprising

become

countries

Realism,

as

few

that

it

negroes from other

naturalised Haytians.

some understand the word, can be studied

with effect in the prisons of the Black Republic.

To enters

begin with, jail

the

prisoner, as has

suffering from maltreatment

at the

hands of

into a

narrow courtyard to

strength

of his

any kind

is

his captors.

constitution

live

is

said,

more or

flung

among

usually

less

severe

his fellows

or die, as destiny and the

may

decide.

No

tendance of

given to him, whatever his condition, nor does

the State provide visitors,

He

been

him with any

or his friends bring

from time to time.

food.

He begs from

casual

him provisions when they can

WHERE BLACK RULES

156

The

now they

date of his the

in

him

in

their

own.

— the

There

will

— persons are

forgotten, but there

police or soldiers in authority keep

no power

is

which he can appeal,

to

slightest interest in his fate.

are alike denied to

So you

vague

according to rough-handed customs of

subjection

no one has the

mercy

is

whose very crimes are

jails

remain

still

courts

in the

trial

WHITE.

men

find

in

him

— he

for

and

Justice

helpless.

is

the various prisons of the island

herded together under conditions which would disgrace the worst cattle-boat that seen

them myself

ever

crossed

the Atlantic.

more than one

in

jail

I

have

starving, dirty,

suffering, without the barest elements of sanitation in their

surroundings.

The

prison of Port-au-Prince

The

the town.

broken

glass.

situated in the middle of

high, pinkish walls are set on the top with It

is

divided into

political prisoners, others the

door,

is

through which you

common

are

some containing

courts,

criminals.

obliged

to

A

narrow

sideways,

pass

admits you.

When

I

cleaning

though I

could

Minister

entered,

his I

nails.

the

General of the prison was sitting

His noble

was duly introduced not see of the

name

excellently well that

I

I

He

to him.

the prison unless Interior.

did not gather,

I

had

I

told

me

al-

that

had a pass from the

not

a

pass,

and knew

could not obtain one, for the Black

Government, though they take no care

to cure the sores

HAYTIAN POLICE, PRISONS AND HOSPITALS. body

of the

politic,

And

pubUc gaze.

are

careful

prison

the

157

cover them from the

to

of Port-au-Prince

is

a sore

indeed.

my

pressed

I

request, but

it

was explained

to

me

that

the law wisely forbade the visits of strangers, as they not

brought messages

infrequently Finally,

soldier,

I

This was the best part of the prison, as

The men had

false

money,

off?"

theft,

in

articles to sell.

I

to the

live in sheds.

soon found out.

I

asked

my

guide what

— uttering

All sorts of things

of.

and murder.

they here,

are

much worse

while others are so

asked.

I

"They pay It

little

they were guilty

"Why

the per-

was led away

where round a large enclosure prisoners

crimes

me

wanted.

I

Under the guidance of a left,

the political prisoners.

put forward a plea which procured

I

mission

for

was

onl}'

for it."

by sheer perseverance

that

at length looked

I

upon the quarters which the Government provides

the poorer sort of malefactor. to describe this

carried

Here men

noisome place.

and on occasion die

dogs

like

away when they

to

It is difficult

are

also.

dead,

I

but

for

choose words

live

like

dogs,

believe they are is

the sole

walls, with straw

upon the

that

sanitary precaution taken.

Doorless earth

as

in

cells

were round the

cages

for

wild

beasts.

Some

prisoners were

WHERE BLACK RULES WHITE.

158

naked

practically

;

a few had converted worn-out jackets into

Men,

loin-cloths; all

were

in iron anklets

with a short chain between, stood or squatted

All shades of colour were there, from yellow ochre

round. coal

to

in the last stage of destitution.

black,

and everyone looked

half-starved.

few had gaping wounds, and others were wearily

Not a ill,

their

backs furred with sickness and neglect. In

centre of the court there was a filthy pool, and

the

about amongst the accumulations of

rooted

pigs

which strewed the ground. stables

scarcely

I

;

Hercules cleaned the

know how he would have

all

sorts

Augean

faced a task

such as Hayti could offer him here. In

part

this

with

prisoners

of the world they do not provide political

every

luxury

short

of freedom.

On

the

contrary, they are frequently chained to a bar in the clothes

they stand up

man

in,

and

it

is

not impossible to see a gentle-

a black frock-coat tethered

in

by the

legs.

Escape from the court where the rabble are confined

seemed

As

in

to

freedom, so in confinement, he takes the world as

There are several hundreds

comes.

and

it

be childishly easy, but the negro lacks enterprise.

is

Later

it

in Port-au-Prince prison,

rightly regarded as a hotbed of disease.

on

I

visited

Cap Haytien.

There

another large gaol in the north at also,

as

has

been said before, the

conscientious seeker after realism, upon

slum miseries of London have begun to

whom pall,

perhaps the

would

find not

HAYTIAN POLICE, PRISONS AND HOSPITALS.

159

only the hunger, the crowding, the disease, and the misery reproduced, but withal an indescribable residuum calculated to

the most jaded experience.

titillate

All prisons in the

Republic have the same essential features,

more than a necessary precaution

and

it

no

is

to take quinine before

going on a tour of inspection. In

Cap Haytien

two chief

divided into for the

as

criminal cases.

280 of the

latter,

all

Port-au-Prince

in

It

is

for the civil

dwelling in the

One man

I

spoke to had been

man imprisoned

under such conditions of horror, yet, of course,

For instance,

if

A

gentleman

of the

time, he

the

was his

prison

fell

did

ill.

not

at times delirious,

own

When

local

should be made.

he had himself removed

to

to

have

a law in Hayti which

is

living in a certain

side

investigation

little

sometimes

as a criminal oftence.

criminal

the

it

you have the misfortune

your house burned down, there it

heat of two

stifling

hardly possible to imagine a white

regards

and one

for four months, another for three years.

trial

happens.

was

prison

There were 130 of the former and

uncleansed, roofless yards.

awaiting

one

sections,

the

to

town was consigned

gaol

on

this

By making the

civil

side,

The doctor supposed visit

him.

charge

to

until

representations

where, after a to

be attached

He became

worse, and

but his request to be allowed to see

doctor was steadily refused. the prison doctor did chance to

come

in,

he saw

!

WHERE BLACK RULES

i6o

my

that

friend

was very

WHITE.

likely to die,

event might produce unpleasant complications

this

prisoner

the

that

was not a Haytian

— he

be taken to the military hospital, which the

At

gaol.

allowed to be

back to

life

moved

by the Soeurs de

late

la

better than

dollars,

he was not

Sagesse, a French sisterhood

the only tendance the sick can procure.

is

in lawyers' fees

All

prisoner.

in

was subsequently paid

in addition to the loss of

this,

chiefly distinguished

a

hospital

I

were

by the absence of everything

— cleanliness, by

represented

suffering from a

floor,

which

visited the Military Hospital, a place

a

broken

comfort,

name

dreary shed which goes by that ants

for

any way responsible

In course of time,

make

he was

where he was nursed

house and property, on account of an accident

his

— seeing

ordered him to

is little

fifty

to the Hospice,

Five hundred dollars

by the

payment of

length, on

whose gentle care

to

and knowing that

man

nurses.

patients

lying

that goes

In the

and attend-

on the earthen

and a negress smoking

leg,

a pipe on an upturned tub by the doorway. It

seems

under

impossible

government

black

undertaking or institution to be cared carried

on.

Some

makes

a

start,

soever

is

also

The Hospice

individual,

in

an

for,

for

any

or kept up, or

ambitious moment,

but the beginning of any enterprise whatthe end

;

no one bothers to go on with

Justinien at

French management, eight

Cap Haytien Filles

de

la

is,

it.

however, under

Sagesse,

who have

HAYTIAN POLICE, PRISONS AND HOSPITALS. devoted

their

taking charge of

the

to

lives

Haytian humanity,

of

stands on the edge of the

It

it.

cause

i6i

Champ

de Mars, fronting the blue, sun-scorched bay. Crossing from the Military Hospital,

and was met by a nun,

in

I

entered the Hospice,

a cool grey habit, her pale face

almost as white as the starched wimple which framed

She led me up

a flight of steps into a piazza,

it.

70 or 80

yards long, grey-shuttered and shadowy, with whitewashed pillars

and

was

function

reached

and

and the

in progress,

As

us.

was

I

of wandering winds.

full

I

of

moment

figures

in

away

sound of chanting

and Hayti faded,

furnished

to

would occupy

appearance

all

with

into long perspective.

were occupied, and by one or two

that

some

another land.

bedsteads,

black

spotless as snow, lessened

of them

faint

listened, heat, glare, dirt,

bacV: for a

Long rows

In the chapel

sheets

Few

sat doleful their places

on earth but a few days longer. "

Oh, massa,

face broke

I

am

up. "

very

And,

ill

1

" said

oh, massa,

I

oneto

me in English, and her

shall die here in the quiet

"

She was a Jamaican negress. Presently

I

was taken through a variety of rooms

to the

little

chapel, where an old priest's fragile hands were raised

from

his black

cassock towards the cool white roof.

Thence on through the men's ward, the women's ward, and out among the

"What

is

sick

on the piazza.

the matter with him.'" II

1

WHERE BLACK RULES WHITE.

62

The

nun looked

kindly-faced

up

me and made

at

a

gesture with her hands.

"This, that, everything,"' she replied; "they have terrible diseases here in Hayti."

The man was

He

head.

on a bed with a cloth over

sitting

raised

as

it

I

He had no

spoke.

save teeth and a few red strips of

"Poor creatures!" the nun worst, they can die in peace. last hours,

if

thinks

easily

said

We

softly;

against

his

the

to health."

himself sick,

The more he

head ached, and very black of his

purity

and takes

his

swal-

Here was one man who

lows the greater his enjoyment.

me

"here, at the

help them to pass their

physic with the greatest appreciation.

told

nothing

flesh.

we cannot help them back

The Haytian

face,

his

pillow.

A

fat

his face looked

youngster

little

was laughing and romping, riding a broom-stick up and

down along After that fruit,

the piazza. I

visited the well-ordered garden.

and flowers of

The Hospice deserves

to

is

all

climes

— a place of green fragrances.

supported by private subscriptions, and

be well maintained,

for the sick in a

Vegetables,

country where

for

illness

is

it

the only haven

bespeaks

little

care

for the sufferer. I

was told that

rich patients

were admitted, who could

be attended by any doctor they chose

Hospice provided

all

medical treatment.

;

for the

poor the

HAYTIAN POLICE, PRISONS AND HOSPITALS. When

at last

163

passed out from under the broad shadow

I

of the front piazza under the palms,

I

The

went dreaming.

cool and the peace and the silence and the cleanliness and the

the

purity,

another far-away All that site

of

all

I

saw

of nuns burled in green Breton woods.

everywhere

find

my

She bowed

to

The nominal the

religion

bishops

are

me

else in Hayti.

guide asked

had been a

it

it

Hospice was so entirely the oppo-

in the

told her that

might have been

home

"Is monsieur pleased?" I

—

of Latin

you

that

song

echo

rest

me

as

of the

State,

supposed

to

and

Roman

is

an

left.

even to see the place.

with a quaint courtesy, and so

religion of Hayti

I

we

parted.

Catholic.

archbishop

It is

and four

be paid by a grant from the

Republican budget.

Up the

to

i860,

condition

when

of the

source

of scandal.

need,"

set

that

So-called

forty

priests,

whose "creed was

attract them,

The

years

the

upon the people. and a well-defined

Catholic

priests

unhealthy suburbs

But

all

process

of

in the various parishes.

Yet the

ago.

evangelising the island goes on but slowly. a strong hold

signed,

clergy in the island was a

Catholic

themselves up

was altered

Rome was

a concordat with

Its

Vaudoux has

mummeries and horrors

fear lies at the root of

have a hard

life

of

it,

whether

all.

in

of the towns or travelling through

the mountains under a tropical sun, at one season choked

with dust, at another drenched with torrential rains.

These

WHERE BLACK RULES WHITE.

i64

be obtained

One

country

in the

age length of

of the numberless

mummery

districts,

brings

difl^culties

some

which

made on

the priest

some of the chapels

celebrate

mass

worship.

The

been

have

In the absence of

in

which they are wont to the

for

arch-priests of the cult, refer

Papalois are jealous of Catholic influence, and do

undermine

to

When

you consider that no

that

is

snake-worship

priestcraft has so strong a

not

only

him

to

indeed, is

should

The Haytian

Christianity.

you

life,

will see

be so serious

its

why

a rival to

naturally prefers a religion which

permits but abets him in vengeance, which aids

strike

the

secretly

negro

at

feels

his

enemy

that reward

with poison. is

Here,

not shadowy, that

getting his money's worth.

For these reasons Christianity able

all in their

it.

votaries in the affairs of this present

he

Yet the

over a semi-savage people as that which can aid

hold

it

of snake-

rites

priests of Catholicism as brother ministers.

to the

way

the forehead with the blood

used

the

Papalois,

lies in their

have myself seen

I

goat sacrificed to the snake-god.

power

the aver-

points of their teaching into the

For instance,

of fetishism.

the sign of the Cross

of a

down

to a deplorably low figure.

life

the absorption of

is

which alone can

to the inadequate food

hardships, joined

disabilities

Republic owes

in

labours

the Black Republic.

much

to

Christianity

:

under considerNevertheless, the

all

charity, all self-

.

HAYTIAN POLICE, PRISONS AND HOSPITALS. sacrifice,

care

all

sick in Hayti spring

the

for

167

from that

source.

But since the Catholics do so much

Hayti,

for

is

not

it

inconsistent to fix the marriage-fees so high that the peasant

These

cannot afford to marry?

much perhaps

as

lars,

fees

amount

to

as a peasant-farmer can

many

make

dol-

in the

round of the year.

The

natural result

are 50

is

that for every married couple there

couples " places,"

as they call

say more on the subject.

to

Hayti boasts of

Many

boast.

encouraged

in their efforts to evangelise.

follows

"

as

country

the Protestant

.

.

reading,

and perseverance

.

.

:

friend

a

is

is

no need

itself. is it

an empty

of Protestants not only exist, but are

sects

Protestants .

speaks for

religious toleration, nor

its

had something of a run

articles

loves

It

There

it.

.

The

in

One

whose

writer

Hayti speaks of the

Let us try to Protestantise the is

economical, respects the law,

of peace, rich

in

gallant

hope

nations that are dreamy, sleepy,

imaginative, easily discouraged, depressed, are Catholic.

All

who engage

in

commerce,

agriculture,

cannot

in

Hayti. I

be

have referred

only one,

I

that

said

in

believe,

actually beheld

Protestantism

.

manufacture,

progress, enrich themselves, prosper, are Protestants." it

.

makes

any

Yet

way

a former chapter to an instance, the

on record, when human

by a white man.

The

sacrifice

witness was a

was

young

WHERE BLACK RULES WHITE.

i68

French

whom

priest

Sir

Spenser

John met

St.

at the palace

of the Archbishop in Port-au-Prince.

This young

Vaudoux

take him to a

and

hands,

cure had persuaded

and

They blackened

service.

disguised

some of the people

him

peasant.

a

as

his

to

face

After

a

prelude of the usual frenzied dancing and whirling, a cock

and a goat were Later

Mamaloi

on, to

sacrificed.

one of those present knelt and prayed the complete the

Upon

"goat without horns." with

sitting

the

victim

the

young

child 1"

its

feet

with

the

priest

He was

bound.

As

offering of the

a child was disclosed,

this

the

shouting

forward,

approached

Papaloi

screamed aloud, and

knife, the child

rushed at

by the

sacrifice

once surrounded by

his

"Spare the friends,

who

smuggled him away.

On ities,

on

town he

his return to the

tried to rouse the author-

but they would do nothing until the morning, when

going to the spot they found the remains of the feast

and the boiled against the

skull

of the child.

criminals,

the excuse that

it

but the

priest

was dangerous

for

No

action

was taken

was deported under

him

to remain in the

neighbourhood.

There are undoubted ing Hayti.

difficulties

in

the

way of

evangelis-

CHAPTER

IX.

A LIVING CITV WITHIN A DEAD ONE.

When The

"

I

OHnde Rodriguez" came

— to

ashore

could

I

that

reached Cap Haytien revolution was

and

the I

air.

went

be received as a conspirator. not

conceive the reason, but the fact remained

the correspondent of the "Daily Express," landing

I,

Cap Haytien, produced

in

to anchor,

in

the effect of a stone falling

all

into a pool of shrimps.

When

I

arrived

troops

and Generals,

out in

full

and

flags

were

they in

expecting

flying,

Minister; the

about equal numbers, had turned

gorgeousness to meet him.

were

a

but

when

expected grandee had not put

in

it

Drums were beating

became known

that the

an appearance the military

and the twenty-seven mounted Generals took themselves

As

I

Republic

had come I

off.

from a port within the borders of the

hardly expected any trouble with the Customs,

WHERE BLACK RULES WHITE.

T70

but herein

was pounced upon by

explained

were not

light

vv-as

remon-

carried into the presence of

who ordered me

open

to

coming from Port-au-Prince

that

baggage

a tall soldier, and, in spite of

strances and protestations,

a gold-laced General, I

My

myself mistaken.

found

I

it.

my

effects

liable to inspection.

"Have you

letters.^"

" Certainly."

"Give the

The scene had and

light,

towards the door into the sun-

shifted

crowd of guff'awing negroes gathered

a

discomfiture of

the

intend

me."

letters to

An

hlanc.

le

assistant

rummaged through my belongings

General's

upon the MSS. of these papers and

to super-

until

of the

he came

a few private letters,

which things were clearly suspicious and produced a profound sensation.

The General

explained that

I

of

on

my the

my

Republic.

the at

liberty

as

I

leaving

Hayti

is

my

in

name,

my

Soon an

my

liberty

in

My

go away.

to

knew

was

Searching

spot.

concerning

I

doings.

daily

"What

seized them.

has

le

d/anc got here?"

the habit of keeping a diary

private letters were

questions

were then put

destination,

This

and

informed

official

impounded

was not

to

my

business in

me

that

was

I

be thought

my manuscript, I my life behind me

a country in which

it

is

of,

was

heart that, with and, possibly,

me

to

;

by no means healthy

for

to

A TJVING CITY WITHIN A DEAD ONE. down

write

may

exactly what the traveller

171

You must

see.

not under any circumstances express a political sentiment, least of

all,

ye gods, on paper

Why,

!

only the other day

a gentleman of sporting tendencies shouted "

Sam" out

A

in the street at Port-au-Prince.

of

President

negro guard leaped

shadows and shot him dead.

the

this also,

A bas

remembered

I

that no English Consul existed within

two hundred

miles of me.

There was nothing and

Office passport

for

but

it

speak vaguely of

to

and the long arm of the

British subject

my

and,

notes.

The

An

May

the

shadow of the

British

of revolutionary

Northern Hayti, and

Government were

talk-

I

They whispered returned

interval,

Empire never grow

my

less

clear to

!

me.

hankerings had swept across

the time

at

still

With

correspondence.

position as a

was afterwards made

activity

official

ague-fit

considerable

a

after

Foreign

British navy.

ed of the "Powerful" and the "Terrible." together,

my

produce

to

I

keeping

a

my MSS.

in

chanced

to arrive the

eye on

wide-open

my

kit

I

lived

all

on without

having attained to either the picturesqueness or the inconvenience

But

let

which

inevitably

us explore

They say

that

attach

to

a

political

Cap Haytien. your outlook,

your inlook, upon a country

is

or perhaps

is

no exception

I

should say

largely influenced

door through which you happen to enter Hayti

schemer.

to the rule.

by the

it.

Her

three gates of

WHERE BLACK RULES WHITE.

172

each

present

ingress

them

of

a definite

and

characteristic

feature.

That of Port-au-Prince

scorched and gutted black a

mushroom town

That of Jacmel

dirt.

is

interiors.

of wood,

fire-

is

But Cap Haytien

is

among imposing

stone

like the sights that

meet

built

ruins.

Go

whatever direction you

in

you are the same.

Ruined houses, ruined aqueducts, ruined

fountains

ruined

of stone,

upon her the quake of

1842.

of

cluster

mountains

indelible

From

dwellings in

the

port

in

fronts

the

is

one

Repubhc

;

is

in

— but

the usual wreck

but a

once

town

down almost

days the town

was called the

Her jetties

lies

ashore

in all Hayti.

directly

The

annihilated the city.

in the

principal

on the harbour;

Once

Paris" of the West.

and devastation have swept over hillside

ashore in

you are

in the old

was the centre of luxury and "little

little

the harbour of every important

wide and perhaps two miles long.

Half the

town

heaped together beneath the wooded

cleanest and the best kept street

sea

the corner of a big purple plain.

— there

the

She bears

forts.

of the tremendous earth-

impress

are broken, black, and old

her harbour

ruined

walls,

it

is

French

fashion.

It

Since then ruin

it.

was torn away by the shock which

The dread earthquake shook down

or

seriously injured almost every house, two-thirds of the inhabitants were buried beneath the fallen masonry; bands of blacks

A LIVING CITY WITHIN A DEAD ONE. rushed

from mountain and plain, not to aid

in

wretched

their

be heard

whose

countrymen,

cries

two or three days, but

for

houses, while the officers and

men

173

in

saving

and groans could

to rob the stores

and

of the garrison, instead

of attempting to keep order, joined in plundering the small

remnants of what the surviving inhabitants could save from

What

the tottering ruins.

An American

journaHst

happened

to

"

:

My

aunt

among

of an

nest

for

is

like a

masters

up

of the

guiltless of

Wherever you walk you

eagle.

land.

human

The

hills

habitation. is

are

Among them

wooden dwellings of

the

the harbour mouth, It

any duck who

sparrow's egg laid in the

old ruins, knee high and over-grown.

have cropped

diers.

What copy

I

His

be browsing around!"

To-day Cap Haytien deserted

have heard the above

said to

is

and the looting of the town.

story of the earthquake

comment was

a people!

the

present

which back the town are

Away

to the north, guarding

Fort Picolet, garrisoned by two

sol-

contains a few old cannon, which lean their black

nozzles over the ruined parapets like a colony of basking seals. It

is

a

common

saying

can

be successful unless

the

seat

that

of

terrible

in it

the Republic that no revolution

emanates

at the

Cape.

It

was

Government under the Emperor Christophe, and masterful

figure,

to

iron rule the greater virility, energy,

the

days of whose

and enterprise of the

population of the north are often attributed.

WHERE BLACK RULES WHFrE.

174

The town the cleanest

but

stand,

itself

have seen

I

in

far

still

They work

ragged uniforms.

due

to

public

cobbled streets are

;— not too clean, you

under-

advance of those of the capital or people

the

are

superior

also.

These things are

in

some measure

General Nord Alexis, the head of the department.

man now,

an old

is

its

harder, the soldiers have straighter backs and

less

He

Hayti

in

And

Jacmel.

pestiferous

well laid out,

is

did

but

good

her as

the officials of the Re-

if all

service

as

high-handed old

this

General the country would be a wholesomer and a happier land.

Spread

in

all

main

the

with coffee berries, whose their toil

high

extraordinary itself it

under

shouting

sacks

likeness

to

upon you), driving

covered

sail-cloths

shining green bears witness to

Wild-eyed

quality.

are

streets

of the

carts

men,

with

naked

torsos,

bearded natives (whose

it;

Riffs

of North Africa forces

drawn by

four, mules, take

with an accompaniment of indescribable din to the wharf,

and there another horde screams the South you do not see

And of the

all

old

this riotous

dead

city,

life

for possession of

men working boils

it.

In

like that.

and struggles

in the

within the broken shell of

its

midst fallen

palaces and aqueducts and baths, whose walls have mostly

sunk to the ebb-tide

more than

ridges

and the strong

level of destruction,

above the ground.

and are hardly

Time and weather

soft fingers of tropical vegetation are slowly

A LIVING CITY WITHIN A DEAD ONE.

177

wiping out the remembrance of them from the face of the

To-day an occasional Ilaytian

earth.

pride

the

marked

with

man

white

erection

tin

name

the

built a

of the

will

point out with

new custom-house, proudly

of the

reigning

The

President.

hundred years ago, the black builds now.

Apropos of the threatened revolution

I

have alluded

to,

an extremely frightened gentleman once presented himself the British Consulate, and begged the Consul to advise

at

him what

course

happen

be

the

to

had

he

— as

better

pursue

there

should

was then most likely— an)' shooting

The Consul, who was used

streets.

if

in

to Hayti, slowly

stroked his beard.

"What

you, Mr. Blank,

" If

you do?" he said slowly.

should I

should at once get out of the

I

were

— ah — line

of fiahl"

Hayti

chameleon.

a

is

once

Empire, then

now

more Republic, again an Empire, and

a Republic over again.

Her

history

is

one gigantic patchwork of revolutions.

Whatever she may be is

or

She has been a Republic, an

like

when her

normal, she changes completely two.

With her

political

when

it

temperature

goes up a degree

rulers a few suspicions are

enough

to

be magnified into an attempted revolution, and, when once her temperature reaches this fever point, strange things of

many

kinds

myself, do

I

occur.

Having been

a

suspected conspirator

not write with the diploma of experience?

WHERE BLACK RULES WHITE.

178

Everyone

is

Here are some

interested in revolution tales.

true ones from the best forcing-bed in the world for such

productions.

They

tropical skies,

and pronunciamentos, and vengeful Presidents.

But these

dramatic tales

are

stories are

fitting this

land of

something more than true and drama-

The

following

are selected at hap-hazard from a thousand such,

and they

tic

;

they were once everyday occurrences.

all

happened during the

to

bear

again

in

mind

is

strife

two revolutions.

for

once the delirium of

political

begins to take hold upon the people

the death of President

ary struggle took it

was

in the

point

happen

they break away from the leash of

Upon

The

are pretty sure to

they

that

during the next;

excitement and

last

place

civilisation.

Salomon the usual sanguin-

for the possession of

power, and

course of this struggle that the ominous and

daring personality of General Dardignac forged to the front.

He was the

an adherent of Legitime,

Presidential

iron-grey

eventually seized

Dardignac was a mulatto with an

chair.

moustache and determined eyes, bloodshot with

staring through dust

Now

who

and

sun.

Dardignac was one of those strong

more enemies than

friends.

On one

men who make

occasion he was going

north with troops on a Riviere steamer (she trades between the

Haytian ports to

for

supplies

sengers

at

a

this day).

little

came aboard.

About dawn they put

seaside town, and

some

in

fresh pas-

While breakfasting Dardis^nac heard

A LIVING CITY WITHIN A DEAD ONE. on the deck above him two reason to

know

too well.

voices,

one of which he had

was that of a prominent

It

sonage nicknamed Rude Raide, who

"My

friend,"

he

per-

for public or personal

reasons had crossed the designs of Dardignac

The General went on

179

in

past days.

deck.

"I have been looking forward to

said,

a meeting such as this for years."

Rude Raide turned green and made a offer

"Tie him up!"

said

feeble attempt to

Dardignac called

conventional greetings.

his

and went below to

he,

men.

finish his

meal.

When

he returned the

and

overboard.

down

Those who saw

During the

Grand Saline on each of this

;

side,

it

was

same

in

Rude Raide wriggled Then Dardignac

is

he

fought

mounted up

not a very

to

a battle

near

heavy numbers

common

characteristic

Seven prisoners were taken.

an arm-chair, ordered them to be

By

his directions

they were placed

and with a small Winchester he shot them

after the other

Very

Rude Raide's

form of humour.

warfare.

brought before him.

one

say that

revolution

which

seated

a semicircle,

his

the casualties

internecine

Dardignac,

in

it

upright into the depths of the sea. ;

ordered the

own hand Dardignac shoved him

with his

laughed aloud

He

developed.

Fire-bars were tied to

steamer to be stopped. ankles,

affair

from his chair with

brutal, of course

;

his

own hand.

but there was another and a no

WHERE BLACK RULES WHITE.

i8o

less

side

definite

man

General's

the

to

He

of fantastic bravery.

known

is

cocomacaque

a

He

club.

of his following was

at

it

his

man

until the last

in.

At another engagement he was wounded

To show

armed only

view upon the

sat in full

being shot at (and wounded),

ramparts,

a

have captured

to

one of the enemy's ramparts unaided, riding with

He was

character.

contempt of pain, he was

in the groin.

in

the habit of

audiences while the doctor probed his wound, and

giving

more than once the

last footfall of his

retiring officers

had

hardly died away before he fainted.

The end own

of his career was tragic.

He was

shot by his

soldiers.

As

lower class of Haytian, he fights in a revolu-

for the

and knows not why he

tion,

The

fights.

stake in the contest, the soldier has none the

chance of losing

the

President

From

this

he merely runs

he ever possessed

all

who he may,

ragged, unfed private

;

leader has his

— his

life.

the private remains the

Be

same

still.

standpoint a revolution

is

pathetic.

Here are

ignorant soldiers fighting, reinforced by a rabble of

these

wild peasants and vociferous wharf-side negroes, helping to turn

things

coction

upside

— Haytian

for themselves.

ations,

a

down, and

history

So

it

to

— and

goes on

make

getting :

that peculiar con-

no good out of

it

always a few military oper-

good deal of promiscuous shooting

in the street

A LIVING CITY WITHIN A DEAD ONE. and round corners, with a great deal of

talk

i8i

and as an

;

aftermath pronunciamentos, imprisonments, and a heavy

bill

of mortality within prison gates or against the arsenal wall.

The

revolutionist,

but the negro

is

wears no gloves of mercy,

true,

is

it

hard to

Somewhere about 1888

kill.

bold vanguard, numbering some

upon the banks of the Artibonite.

village

the

believing

famous

main

seized

five

children,

body food

be close behind,

to

and

village people,

who were

back

Two

vengeance.

two escaped, and the

killed,

They cropped

prisoner.

cut

to

the

fled.

tip

To crown

off his

all

his ears as

nose, they

slit

The

after his

unsupported, so

of the

unfortunate

fifth

villagers,

hiding in the woods,

men were

flocked

into a

women and

maltreated

ate,

presently found out that the five

they

The

and otherwise enjoyed themselves each

The

kind.

men, marched

five

a

they cut a

his

mouth

five

they

was taken pig's,

they

to his neck.

they broke both his legs with musket

balls,

and threw what half an hour before had been a man into a cactus bush.

Meantime the two on

their

representations

immolate that gentle groans

fugitives

a

village.

had returned

force

was

When

at

to the

camp, and

once sent out to

the butchery

was over,

were heard to issue from the cactus bush.

He

pulled out the wreck of a man. to believe this story, but there

about Port-au-Prince to-day.

is

recovered.

the scarred

It is

They hard

man walking

1

WHERE BLACK RULES WHITE.

82

do not know whether anyone, allured by

I

free

to

demand

present

of the

for

made

To

such

revolutionary

have

killed him,

Hayti,

make

I

prescripis

— go

will find

send

him

in the

whatever Government has come into power, and a reward for patriotism.

first

pretty

starving

many

It

is

by working on

this

big local reputations have been

I

arrived in the island the country was

surely

towards revolution.

and discontented.

because the price of coflee had

export of coffee

back to

120

was saved.

and

Even

drift-

The people were

Exchange stood fallen.

news that an outbreak of the plague the

emigrate to

in Hayti.

When

all

following

When you

you.

simple principle that

ing

to

your worst enemy, and go quickly, or you

coming bill

moved

descrip-

In a revolution the theory for the individual

tion.

for

feels

to carve out a career for himself.

there

a

country,

of the

tion

my

at

190,

Then came

in Brazil

and the

had scotched

from that quarter, exchange leaped

iio

in four

days, and the

the bubonic plague has

its

Government uses.

CHAPTER

X.

THE CITADEL OF THE BLACK NAPOLEON. I

LINGERED

For days

I

For days

it

it

at

Cap Haytien.

had waited.

which

citadel,

There

Oil

was,

mountain peak

had become I

my

seeming small far

away

—

Why? First,

it

as

a

crow's

nest

to visit.

upon

its

across the plains.

For days word was brought hopeless

habit to gaze across at the

had travelled the length of Hayti

to

me

that the journey

was

could not be attempted.

The roads were impassable. because the rain had increased the fords and flooded

the lower-lying parts of the intervening plain.

Second, because the sun had dried the

mud

to the con-

sistency of glue, and no horse could do otherwise than stick helplessly in

it.

Lastly, because there

Then

I

saw

my

had been more

opportunity.

rain.

WHERE BLACK RULES WHITE. With Haytian a

month,

a

volubility

fortnight,

was implored

I

184

to wait a week,

at the least, the

until,

ground was

passable.

Through

kindness

the

most deeply indebted,

That road farmyard,

How

!

I

am

shall

bring

I

it

before you

horse-pond,

a

a

fat

?

Take a ploughed-

mix them thoroughly, spread over with unwholesome

field,

green scum, and you have

Here and there you came

it.

A

upon a pool of the consistency of porridge. one just outside a village

into

You tacked along

him.

To my middle I

whom

secured a guide and set out.

I

thunderstorm,

a

gentleman to

of a

realise

I

was sopped

ering up fluid street-slime.

was spotted

upon

Never before did

beauty of the profession followed by those

the

Up

fell

a shifting wind.

in

mud.

in

gentlemen who drive water-tight

marshy.

boat

a

like

rose shoulder high

it

;

negro

the waist

to in

black on

And I

my

carts

the

round London, gath-

mud

smelt, hot, thick,

was a mudlark, above yellow khaki

like

that

I

an Ethiopian

leopard.

The plain for

ive

vagaries of the road irritated one.

it

took you meandering half a mile out of your

every three-quarters you went forward.

was

Millot,

where

pleasant prospect,

knew

it

Across the level

to

that

I

was

to pass the night.

first

object-

It

was a

of sleeping wet to the skin, yet

be unavoidable,

had sunk long since

My

way

for

my

into a sticky

I

small change of clothes

and revolting mass.

z

o

H

X

H

THE CITADEL OF THE BLACK NAPOLEON. My

guide,

by name, on hearing

Col

Petit

me

an Englishman, christened

And "John"

would say.

he

until

John.

that

1S5

I

was

"This way, John,"

followed meekly for a time,

he discovered that Petit Col was as innocent as him-

Then "John"

geography of the quagmires.

self

of the

led,

encouraged by the shouts of

Through

his retainer.

morasses, into sloughs, wading rivers of mud, you entered into the spirit of

As long

rier."

as

I

did not

what happened.

to care

me

after a time.

it

fall

''

The muddier

bodily into a hole

Yet the

first

the merI

ceased

splash which painted

black from ear to mouth had produced unseemly language.

The sky above was yellow

cloudless blue, and the sunlight, scalding

on the road, made the black surface of the slime

dance and steam.

Much

in

the

found

sunset

same manner we were

us.

At

halfway house to the built

we came

last

citadel

at infinite cost of

human

of life

in

La

toiling

still

sight of Millot, the Ferriere,

Millot

regular

itself

as

the

and permits

moon.

In

Broadway

but

ranks

rode

I

the in

Henry the is

of a into

shifting

he loved

of a few hundred huts

regiment.

the

lights

the Cotswolds of

huts a blue haze

or, as

First.

collection

a

which was

some eighty years ago

by the black Emperor of Hayti, Christophe, to call himself,

on when

village

the

Armed at

place

the rising of the

reminded

happy memory.

hune low under

with letters

me

of

Over the

the china-blue reflections

1

WHERE BLACK RULES WHITE.

86

This haze was

of the moon.

Riding

fireflies.

on

winked and burned

that

fires,

and other black

with

some hut

In

the

rolling

through

who

distance

as

dancing

figures

in the

back they were beating a drum

at the

blue fog

this

which has come it

was necessary

General de

for the traveller to seek out the

local potentate

the

in

booming finger-motion

And

from Africa.

small

smoke of many

the

one saw black forms crouching

nearer,

their haunches,

glow.

made by

la Place, that

about as absolute a monarch as the

is

Czars of Russia used to be, but are no more.

The General was building,

consisting

hill

central

at

of three

house,

his

straw-thatched

a

rooms and a narrow

Nor was he

paved verandah. the

not

brick-

at the little guard-house in

So we must seek him away up the

street.

through the pufiy blue haze.

The

''Qui vive?'"'

was

challenge

slung

at

us,

as

it

seemed, from nowhere. '^

seated by a

an

We

Ayizlaisy

English

fire

moved forward

in the

cart-house.

gloom of

to find a

dozen soldiers

a wall-less shed very like

They caught up

their

proceeded to ask our business with one voice. wished to see the General de

that

I

had

letters.

'

As

but upon one

last,

and

mentioned

for

whom

I

usual, they attempted to confiscate them,

of their

they became polite.

At

la Place,

I

rifles

number

spelling out the addresses

Endless chattering followed.

weary of waiting, wet from the rigours of the

THE CITADEL OF THE BLACK NAPOLEON. road,

the

my

handed over

I

inform the

post to

and begged the

letters,

General that

the honour of calling upon him to pay

Then

morning.

I

followed Petit Col

some place wherein

Then

same excellent

coffee,

Now,

I

is

no

as

my

hill

to find

after a tin-full of that

promised

visit to

the

Place holds an authority from

la

sort of appeal.

to

The Government

This time

to

the possible failure of

much opposed

very

are

inspect the fortress of

La

I

found him

my

expedition.

to

permitting

Ferriere, but they

The General

are diplomatic in their refusals. will

the

rode into his yard and dismounted, not without

some qualms

foreigners

pay

to

General de

the

home.

down

respects in the

la Place.

which there at

my

and away, guided by a large-headed,

thin-legged four-year-old,

General de

should do myself

I

with a grateful smell of strong sweet

was on-saddle again

it

officer of

to sleep.

The morning came coffee.

187

at

Cap Haytien

graciously give you a pass, which the General at Millot

invariably cancels.

before starting

time

I

As

all

The General was of shepherd's

some

had been explained

plaid

me

— was

I

?

a large coal-black man, in a frock-coat

check and a cream-coloured military

He was most polite

to

For a long

no one had been allowed to see La Ferriere

going to be more fortunate

cap.

this

was, naturally, apprehensive.

remarks

affable.

passed

The

usual

between

compliments and us.

He

was,

he

WHERE BLACK RULES WHLrE.

i88

told

me,

years old, and I?

thirty-five

my

the secret of

age,

an excellent footing.

was vague.

and

discovered

I

no import

tempted than

that

deny

this

— appeared

luck

with

the

to

doubloons

did not

The

him.

for

become a General

bait, the discoverer

sent back to the north to

mistake

less

Hippolyte was President at the

came

Cap Haytien, where

of threatening him.

The

then

the General

limpet might

have yielded to caresses, but the finger of force closed

He was

mouth. barous

Yet

put into prison,

means they

ever

he bore

strove to

his

and there by every bar-

wrench

his tortures,

" !

perilously

He was

near to giving up his secret, but not quite.

the

He

piratical coin?

" Confide in me," said Hippolyte, " and

made

of

is

No

1

the treasure of Christophe.

it.

tempting

have died worth

man — his name

Spanish

?

discovered

this

of the

Cap Haytien gaming-table, and

at a

and Hippolyte sent

Lured by

reason

hoard of treasure no one has yet

what

Government heard of time,

said

is

most romantic and

having

once on

it.

But some time ago a

discovered.

at

In his remarks about the citadel he

The Emperor Christophe fifteen millions,

him with

trusted

and we found ourselves

Afterwards

prohibition to visit

I

his secret

and closed

his

from him.

mouth the

tighter.

At length they carefully

set

him

free,

shadowed, but with no

and had result.

his

movements

Finally hundreds

THE CITADEL OF THE BLACK NAPOLEON. were sent to excavate.

of soldiers find

trace of gold,

a

The

day.

and there the matter

discoverer

is

money

to

be buried near by

and from

his

I

We

la Place.

learned that he was

de

honoraire

Commandant de

d'Haiti,

In

Millot."

Amazan

son

with

name.

shall

I

creator

and

taste

for

The

La

of

has

Ferriere

born of his

a

wanderer

been called the Black

he yet showed himself,

slave,

power,

to

in

the

be possessed of a right royal

splendid architecture of the most enduring type.

whose

built

takes

two

is

crest

hours

the

of

fortress

hard

of

climbing

La to

But you have evidences of Christophe's ambitions

long before you arrive at roads

de

himself before him.

upon

surmount.

President

Commune

to the bedraggled

mountain

Ferriere

le

Black as the purest African blood could make

Napoleon.

afterdays

la

Republique,

Nowhere could you meet with

gratitude.

who presented

him,

de

et

Anahim

always look back upon General

more courtesy than he showed

The

la

P'xcellence

Place

la

exchanged

" General

poor exchange he read mine, which held no-

my

thing but

millions

which are said

Amazan, General de Division aux Armees de Aide-de-camp

this

the Haytian Island of Tortuga.

in

But to return to the General de cards,

unto

Strange, bloodstained,

to Kidd's treasures,

like

rests

failed to

at large with fifteen

still

locked up in his inviolable silence. old-world

These again

189

and noble

vistas,

it.

He

loved b^oad and spacious

and these he forced

his people to

WHERE BLACK RULES WHITE.

igo

hew

gone now, wiped out of

are

But they

out for him from rock and plain and forest.

of the

dissolvents

of

results

by those two remorseless

sight

human

labour,

and

neglect

nature.

Riding out of Millot ruler's chief

rather

"The

Artibonite, bearing

of the East than of the

Glory,"

Sans-Souci

"The

it

set

stands a grey ruin of lost

The

fallen gardens. still

West

— "Queen's

Delight,"

King's Beautiful View," and so forth.

narrow and lovely ravine, It

He had many

names which smack

on a rising ground

built

is

of the black

dwellings, country-seats scattered about the

of the

plain

rich

left

is

Palace of Pleasure, Sans-Souci.

handsome

other

saw what

I

solid

at the

apex of a

between steep green

among

hills.

the waste of

its

hne of stone steps leading up

to

effort,

remains, though green things are pushing between

the slabs.

You It

is

look

up

into the face of the

a pale and shattered face, and from

windows

are growing outwards.

trees

memory connected make you wish

power

is

one

with

it

that

to perpetuate

the history of the

and

main building above.

some of

But there

its

blank

is

not a

could raise a regret

one single association.

or

For

Emperor Christophe's fourteen years of

unbroken record of

self-seeking, corruption,

cruelty.

Yet the man must have had great quahties besides those which enabled him to make himself autocrat and tyrant

o D O

m in

z < CO

< a.

THE CITADEL OF THE BLACK NAPOLEON. He was

over his fellows.

who

of his race, squalor,

liking

grotesquely devoid

is

Christophe's

curiously different from the mass

of

for

laid out,

of congruity

England

in

extensive public works, ravines

and public roads

not seem to heed

gaudy personal adornment

sense

all

representative

rare tapestry

who do

love idleness,

and whose

191

whereas

;

not only of

told,

up, mountains levelled,

filled

but also of the inlaid work and

which the Emperor's apartments were

with

embellished.

Leaving Sans-Souci we began the climb upwards. accompanied,

by the

only

not

my own

military escort provided for

armed with a

we met

by one of the country

also a soldier.

round

tightly

along with

a few

'

The

his

soldier

forest,

a

who

police,

and

thin.

his

who was armed

long rough

a rope tied

I

drove him

captor

nearly naked,

He had been wounded

broken teeth showed under

we reached

was, of course,

The poor wretch was

in

the face,

his swollen lips.

I

have no doubt that

with a rusty modern revolver

with a handle of mother-of-pearl,

After

the agency

a murderer being taken to

gave cigars to each of the men, but the

me through

was pinioned by

prisoner

upper-arms,

vigour.

and miserably

guide. Petit Col, but

club.

Outside the village prison

was

This escort consisted of one small soldier

of the General.

and

by

I

climb

smoked

both.

through the ever-thickening

the region of the clouds.

A

hail

rang

192

WHERE BLACK RULES WHITE.

down upon

us

six-foot negro,

the

from the thicket of trees overhead, and a

armed with a machette, dropped down from

above

heights

keeping with the

the

His

track.

bitter cold.

It

was not

clothing

consisted of the remains

of a pair of trousers, of which the thorns had had their

hanging

in

shirting,

adjusted

about

completed

tatters

his

his thighs,

will,

while a piece of blue

wear by holes

for

in

for

head and arms,

This was the chief warder of the

costume.

Black Napoleon's great citadel.

He and sparsely

a

clad,

companion, similarly armed and yet more

now

All trace of a path was

led the way.

gone, and to reach the Citadel, which starkly up above us, grim

lichen

—

and overgrowth

it

full in

view, towered

and ruinous and red-stained with was necessary

to cut out a track

through the close mesh of underbush and creepers. Yet,

report speaks truly, Christophe was wont in his

if

own day

up

to drive

warder guided us by devious turns and with while forest,

away

he cleared

From under

out into

hurtling

chilled

to

the

bone,

delays,

outer bastions of the fort the

trees stopped short.

blinding,

many

the encroaching vanguards of the

until at length at the

a

The

to his fortress in the mountains.

until

the

we plunged

their shelter

cloud sense

and waited,

of rain,

should

be

provided

in

of sight

vouchsafed to us again.

The guards

of

every way as they

the are,

Citadel,

inadequately

would have a poor time of

it

were

THE CITADEL OF THE BLACK NAPOLEON. not

it

the

for

that

fact

Government, jealous of the

the

discovery of buried treasure, changes the After

time

a

the

I

A

guard-house.

log to

wood-ash, eloquent of a dead

roof,

supported served

on to

but

posts,

increase

it

fire,

chill

Republican Government Personally

I

the

in

when

he cut into

fell

to the ground, the

its

tail

which

and cloud

made

by the

plains,

down

was not the

ideal

we waited on

had plucked an

orange from a tree hard by, and was peeling machette.

tin

very well

all

material for facing this fierce weather. While

remember

fluffy,

for its servants.

and on the

I

to

shelter

usual,

furnished

the pleasure of the storm, the wild warder

first

horse

as through a funnel,

found that khaki, though ports

as

of wind

up the sum of barrack accommodation

below

my

and a broken

wall-less

the

and drove under

shot

that

urged

every month.

upon, a mass of

sit

flaky

merely

men

and shortly we gained the comparative

frantic effort,

of the

thinned,

rain

193

I

it,

could

and

hardly

see

it

what

with his it

was

yet, before the coil of peel

overhanging cloud had flicked away

and the mountain summit was bathed

in

yellow,

opulent sunshine.

And

then

came repayment

The whole green mouths.

The

to the fullest.

place laughed with a thousand dew-lit

trees dripped moisture

and exquisite shades

of colour from their low-hanging branches.

warm

in

your

face.

You seemed

Nature breathed

to see her, savage

and

WHERE BLACK RULES WHITE.

194

as

fortress

Involuntarily their

drag

to

if

unchecked

her

flinging

beautiful,

it

glanced

I

arms

down from

up

the

at

about place

its

grim,

of pride.

draped

walls,

garment of orange-red mosses.

torn

great

the

in

Signs of decay

and time show clearly enough upon them, yet they stand erect

against

And

then

the

came

blue

that

other

sky-line

their

by

So

it

opened

was the

— afraid

huge,

it

to the

terribly

nail-rusted,

I

move

away

Well,

in the

we

as

it

Of

ruin.

door,

pausing

For here ghosts move,

forward. to trouble them. little

knot

Then one advanced and pushed

back the creaking door. like

to live

Gingerly they

four negroes gathered themselves into a

and gabbled together.

far

afraid.

Something seemed

But they held back.

and noises

wild

pipe through the blackness.

shrill

gave the order to

The

enormous

iron-bound

hang-footed on the vast threshold.

they say, with

the

great empty ward of

!

were

they

;

between

bulk.

puny and tumble-down

dwelling-place,

force of race preferring

that they were

impressive

They choose

stone and brick and masonry.

in their sordid

in

contrast

two warders and

figures of the solid

is,

pale

Old smells came out laughing.

giants

It

to

was only a

meet

us,

landslip

bowels of the mountain.

entered.

I

took three steps forward and a

hand plucked me back. I

struck a match.

A

mouth of blackness gaped

at

my

feet.

194

WHERE

T^T

\ri-

THE CITADEL OF THE BLACK NAPOLEON. "Deep,

deep

After which

The

You dead

I

moved hang-footed

I

and we were

to natural decay,

left

by the

point

its

Long

gallery,

flight

We

again.

daylight

of

1842,

Citadel

the

where one prefers to walk by

groped our way up a

reached

deserted by man, and

mighty structure shaken to danger-

earthquake

violent

precisely the place

We

too.

the dark interior of the huge old

in

on Mont La Ferriere.

citadel

there 1"

walk

door of the ruin closed between us and the

great

sunlight,

you

if

195

is

sight.

of steps, and presently

found

ourselves

in

long

a

by narrow embrasures, each guarded by an

lit

ancient black-snouted cannon. There were nineteen of them,

nineteen

whole were

of an

out

aggregate

Behind the cannon and

fort.

and

rolled

piled

destined to send forth. it,

of three

quivered

like

rusty

the

The

all

balls

flooring, as

hundred

in

the

about the gallery they

were

never

you moved over

the bed of a snipe-marsh, and the place

reeked of old wet smells. Outside

glowing startled

you could see the world

sunshine

from

its

;

here

bask.

nothing

Of

alive

stirred

and hot with

save

the

lizard

the long row of cannon

some

were of brass, and marked " Georgius IV. Rex," and some were strangely bearded white, little

grovv'n

further

weight,

so

from the

on the the

with

shining

stalactites

of pallid

endless drippings of the roof.

floor did not

lighter negroes

A

look like bearing a heavy

went on alone

like

prying

WHERE BLACK RULES WHITE.

196

children,

yards

ten

until

ahead the rotten wood creaked

and gave ominously, and they came scuttling back.

From

the gallery

we passed

out into an open courtyard

and the welcome warmth of the sun.

tomb of dead Christophe, the checked by the

outer

broken out into fresh

walls,

Here,

about the

fought back

jungle,

and

undermined them and

has

Between the stems of the young

riot.

tamarinds and through Guinea-grass head-high and higher,

we pushed our way

until

we reached

the

resting-place,

pink and age-stained, of the most dominant black the

negro who reproached Napoleon

and who, true chose death.

supreme moment

to his convictions, in the

In front of the tomb, under the covering slab,

looked

like a rabbit-earth

Close

over

golden

clusters.

opening,

—a

"Take

hung

it

stooped down and burrowed

ripe

in the

and drew forth something yellowed, curved, and

human it

rib.

— Christophe,"

the souvenir.

It

was a

had no such scruples. a

in

fruit

he said

briefly,

and diving again,

plucked out what seemed to be a finger-bone.

for

inside

where dogs had been scratching.

from an orange tree

it

Petit Col, the guide,

furred,

for surviving defeat,

had been broken through the masonry;

hole

a

in history,

shirt,

for

it

was

stark interior he would,

little

too grisly.

He wrapped saleable. I

think,

it

But the in

I

declined

tall

warder

what served him

In the loneliness of the

have shrunk from the

act,

I

THE CITADEL OF THE BLACK NAPOLEON. had company and the sunHght

but here he

197

to stiffen his

courage.

We

pkuiged again

men

the

cut

path to some

a

broken steps

They

battlements.

are

flat

and wide enough

From them one

carriage to drive along.

then,

;

after

we emerged upon

passing through one more dark passage, the

and

into the jungle of Guinea-grass,

gains

for a

some notion

of the vast thickness of the walls, fifteen to twenty feet of

Below,

stone-work.

solid

gigantic

the

The foreground

of colour.

bars

whole plain spread out

in

of deep potato-

green, dotted with huts small and black, like ranked dominoes,

fading

the distances

smoky

into

grey, and far to the

left

the sea in a band of gleaming blue underscored the horizon. It

you

that

the

not

is

plain.

much

you look suddenly

until

you are

lealise

Two

in print,

but

when

grey wall and

cliff

to

that

the

feet

—

it

does

feet sheer

seem very

not

the eye follows the clean drop of

a

pregnant meaning.

A

visible,

under a

little

the

edge

further

lower, lower, and lower,

your head

reels,

air.

till

is

the distance grows

sea-floor

distinctly

a wide-spread blur,

for at last the field of

you with a wavering of

each minute feather

down you have

red mo.ss

Here a few

creeps like old blood-stains about the stones. inches

above

dim depths below, you become aware

have

words

two thousand

thousand

downwards

straight

brown and

view comes up to

glimmer through the fathoms

1

WHERE BLACK RULES WHITE.

98

Old blood-stained walls Citadel.

From

space

his

at

the

The

You wonder why

the

could have shaken

oft",

A

men have

submitted to tyranny they

you

until

recollect that the will of

usually holds the key to

any

situation.

stone dislodged under the hand tumbled over the edge,

hear

to

bottom.

strike

it

we had ceased

to listen an echo rose faintly

surprised

ear.

massive

the

chill

chamber,

sun

the

and

the

went out

before.

came vomiting

wreaths

in

warder to choose

tell

A

die,"

me something ghost,

if

this

the

twilight.

juncture

It

dining-hall,

a

loitered there,

smoky

Billowing,

he can hurt you, first

cloud-

blank windows, occurred to the

as a fitting

moment

looks at you and you

time he comes he looks only

and the second time he

at his feet; the third time his

the

to

of the habits of the local ghosts.

he muttered; "the

at his feet,

the

While we

through

and threw us into a sudden wild

and

chamber,

as

upwards and

Through the King's

silence of the ruin.

Queen's

After

we went back

due time

In

round, be-windowed place.

lofty,

"

into

stories of his cruelty are endless.

people

and we hung breathless

to

leaped

or been flung screaming out into the

order,

man

are these of Christophe's

fact,

battlements

shuddering emptiness.

a strong

in

is

looking down,

he looks at you"

— he

down

flung up

two large-jointed hands with a gesture that depicted

sudden death, and

When,

after

left

very

little

to the imagination.

some minutes, the cloud

rolled

off.

Petit

THE CITADEL OF THE BLACK NAPOLEON. looked

Col

"There

up.

nothing

is

more

igg

see,"

to

he

said.

But the

explained that the

I

man

to leave out those old-time necessities, dungeons;

and those

all-time necessities, wells,

which he had

quite

up

from any building with

to do. in finding

the Citadel dungeons

to the quality of their best

European prototypes.

was not disappointed

I

Emperor Christophe was not

The

bottle-necked variety appears to have appealed especi-

ally

to

four of

Christophe's

them

prisoner say,

third

a row

in

;

mind.

He had

feet

was deeper

;

in still.

constructed

each one deeper than the

through the throat of the

thrust

twenty

practical

the

first

last.

would

next the drop was deeper

In the last the victim

A fall,

;

the

plunged into

the bottomless blackness of the mountain's heart.

There were many other dungeons,

too, so safe, so chill,

and so remote, a man might shriek himself

to death within

a few yards of sunshine and orange trees and flowers, and

none know save God and the stone

no manner of doubt that many so perished

and children, I

to a foes.

think

for Christophe's

the

Black

well

mercy was

— men,

women,

not.

Emperor must have looked forward

day when he would have

The

There can be

walls.

to defend himself

he had constructed

from

was deep and clear

and freezing-cold, and fed by an inexhaustible spring. Ferriere was his

Tower of Babel

;

he

his

built

it

La

to save him-

;

WHERE BLACK RULES

200

from

self

built all

incoming flood of revolt which he feared

the

an incredible waste of

at

it

life

never answered the purpose of

it

It

sand

The

magnificent.

is

WHITE.

and labour, and

after

being.

its

price paid for

was

it

thirty thou-

lives.

To-day

and the wind

gates,

A the

is

alone in

keeps

its

the traces of

it

some

This frowning helmet of La Ferriere bears

passion.

manual of the

sign

lizard

vast emptinesses.

its

has always stamped upon

ruin

human

The

cloud-hung ruin.

a

is

it

ferocity

and merciless vigour of

Christophe.

On

the battlements you find yourself, as

roof of the

One

cloud-rack.

mountain

side,

reaches

and

upon the other

looking

world,

by a

it

three hours

in

were, on the

it

side

faint track curling

of the

up the

you pass from the sun-

dried breathless plain below to a region of wind, grey-black mists,

and aching

precipice

like

some

ready to launch

Seen fort,

hand lines.

towers upon the

It

sinister

itself forth

monster

of

last

the

and highest

elder

upon the spreading lands below.

flat

step of

masonry above another, but nearer

resolves itself into

The conception

its

true bold

and menacing

a

ruler

who

did

at

out-

of placing a fortress of such immense

strength and size in such a position could only have to

world

from afar the Citadel reminds one of a Chitrali

one it

cold.

not

count cost

But the black Emperor was a

in

lives

man who knew

come

and labour.

his

own mind

Ai

THE CITADEL OF THE BLACK NAPOLEON. and

understood thoroughly the gentle

203

down

art of tearing

the barriers of laziness behind which the negro entrenches

himself at

The the

times.

all

materials

for

the whole huge pile of building, and

hundred pieces of ordnance with which

three

was

it

fortified,

were dragged up those steep mountain scarps and

clififsides

by human hands.

mercilessly

in

Christophe employed the troops

labour,

this

peasants raised as required.

pay and no food

which

left

to

they lived as they could, while their

;

age was spared

nor

be carried on

in

;

by methods

the royal works had

by the

ofificers in

forth almost incredible reserves of energy.

was

ity

toil

spite of exhaustion or death.

of cowskin, mercilessly applied

drew

of

chance of resistance.

little

Neither sex

levies

These poor wretches had no

master forced them on to a fever of

terrible

by

seconding them

frightful,

but

Christophe

Whips

command,

The

mortal-

had the whole of the

populous north to draw upon, and he used up human

lives

unsparingly. It

took a whole regiment a

32-pounder.

long its

line

On

men

mountain resting-place. labour,

tophe

;

for

drag up a

hauling a cannon upwards to

Now

and then they paused

and these frequent stoppages annoyed

he sent to ask the

returned

to

another occasion the Emperor watched a

of a hundred

their

whole day

why and

wherefore.

The

in

Chris-

labourers

answer that the gun was over much

for the

WHERE BLACK RULES WHITE.

204

strength of a hundred men, and prayed that another hundred

men might be

provided to help them.

them before him and talked

ordered

Christophe

with them, and at length told them to

He

off.

then directed every fourth

up

calling

had them

his guards,

fall

man

and number

in

to

fall

out, and,

it

was over,

When

shot.

softly

informed the remaining seventy-five that he was but

he

and he would consider

half-way

through

favour

they would run the gun up into place before he

had

if

lunch,

his

it

a

finished.

The diminished band went back

work, but by the

to

time Christophe's meal was over the cannon had little

progress up the mountain side.

When

made but

he arrived on

the scene the seventy-five bore witness with one voice that the thing he required was, for so small a number, impossible.

"So

Christophe laughed.

have a remedy.

They

fell

"Every

The

third

volley

seems,"

he

"but

said,

I

Fall in."

and numbered

in,

it

man

fall

off as before.

out.

Guards, shoot these men."

had scarcely died away and the

last

limb

ceased to quiver, when Christophe gave his ultimatum.

"Now," he every second

said to the frightened residue, "I will require

man

to

fall

out

next time.

too heavy for a hundred men, surely

They of

La

did.

At any

Ferriere,

and

rate,

in its

The gun was

fifty will find

they towed

it

it

light."

up to the summit

appointed casemate

it

probably

THE CITADEL OF THE BLACK NAPOLEON. stands

to

By such means

day.

this

be the wonderful achievement

On

those

was painfully

it

on stone, by men and women driven

by the

fear

was of an

A

to

stone

superhuman

effort

For Christophe

and an epicure

original turn of mind, not,

take

I

in torture.

know how he can work

it,

to

laid,

of unheard-of punishments.

man does

came

is.

it

towering heights

the Citadel

205

until

he has real fear dogging him. Christophe's created

public

agent

under the works,

in

England

(a

prince,

new empire) boasted

"ravines

up" and

filled

by the way,

of his

the like.

not add the modus operandi; which was simple.

came

tophe, in driving,

to a hollow place

he caused a drum

point

the spot on pain of death.

to the offending hole or valley

—

it

mattered

little

which

it

remarked that he would pass by that way again

such a time.

work did not the

If Chris-

The Emperor would

to

at

did

come

be beaten.

— and

He

All within hearing were compelled to

to

was

master's

That was suit

his

drum sounded

all.

ideas

again,

When

he returned,

if

the

or had not been completed,

and on the people assembling

he would choose out a casual half-dozen and have them shot then and there.

There seems man's nature. him. the

to

have been nothing

Bravery,

humility,

He had no bowels

all

of mercy.

to appeal to in this alike failed to touch

He was one day on

battlements with a youth, who, perhaps presuming on

WHERE BLACK RULES WHITE.

2o6

past

favours,

in

from those sheer waUs

"You " but

are,

is

of course,

2,000ft. to the plain below.

about to

Christophe,

said

die,"

You

be kind to you.

will

I

The drop

some manner displeased him.

have a choice of

shall

Either you throw yourself over here or the soldiers

deaths.

you."

shall shoot

The young man chose by a miracle he

amongst some

fell

trees or bushes

He

and so escaped with a broken arm.

cliff-side,

But

to fling himself into space.

on the

gathered

somehow, and presented himself again before

himself up

the Emperor.

"Your bidding "Yes,

has been done, sire," he said.

remarked Christophe,

has,"

it

much

interested

trying

if

you can do

These are the

it

survive.

I

am

Oblige

very

me by

again!"

stories

He was

Christophe.

you

find that

to

"and

not

which cling round the name of

Haytian negro, but from one

a

For

of the English islands near.

this reason,

perhaps, one

takes an unwholesome pride in the man, as possessed of a rare character

way

we

as

and indomitable resolution, much

are

proud of the great

another

gentleman

treasure

is

Tortuga,

who had

to

pirate,

in the

same

Captain Kidd,

do with Hayti,

for

his

said to be hidden in the neighbouring island of

which

lies

close to the coast

and belongs

to the

Republic.

The Black Napoleon was

a

man

of rapid

rise.

He

en-

—

THE CITADEL OF THE BLACK NAPOLEON. some

tered the army, did

then

contrived

By

situation.

service in a tumult of revolution,

coup-d'etat,

a

few

these

head of events, and

at

207

and he was master of the

steps

he raised himself to the

once created an Empire out of the

Northern Provinces. Unlike the the

qualities

by

majority

of his race, he possessed

He made

of a born ruler.

his masterful vigour,

many

of

himself immortal

which on the one

side,

it

true,

is

degenerated into callous brutality, but on the other rose to

energising

that

of character that

force

is

said to have

initiated

a spirit of enterprise and industry in the north

a

that

spirit

up

kingdom from the whole, a

it

kingly

can

rest

of the

Black

On

Republic.

the

hardly be denied that he was somewhat of

And

figure.

keeping with his

Towards the

present day differentiates his old

the

to

the

manner of

his

death was

in

life.

close he

had an attack of

paralysis,

and

as

soon as he recovered sufficiently to give orders he had himself placed that

in

a

bath

somewhat restored him.

broke out against him merciless

exactions

at

of

rum and pepper, a remedy

Immediately after a revolution

Cap Haytien, provoked by

From

of labour from the people.

his

the

belvedere of his Palace of Sans-Souci he watched the rebels

burning

his fields of

cane; he sent for his body-guard, and,

as they defiled before him, he

bade them go and

gave each man a

fight against the

rebels.

dollar,

Later,

and

news

WHERE BLACK RULES WHITE.

2o8

was brought that the guard had deserted, and gone over enemy.

the

to

He must have He

power was come. and

felt

that

end of

the

his

rose and bade farewell to his wife

family, and, going to his

own chamber, blew

out his

brains.

As always happens

such cases, the servants and

in

officers

of the court looted the palace, but his wife and daughters

managed

to

carry

grim shadow

once

the his

The

the

dead body with them

At

battlements,

they

say,

a

overlooking the plains that were

own.

of rapid

heat

times,

to the

from the jungle grown tomb and wanders

rises

climate

full

is

his

on the mountain above.

Citadel

about

away

is

of the

Citadel up there

among

One moment

and bewildering changes.

tropical.

Then you

see far

the clouds

away a cloud

;

it

approaches, rearing up into the zenith, rushing at you like a regiment of cavalry in a wide swirl of black dust.

next

moment

you

to

outer

the

it

belching in at

is

bone,

Hebrides,

all

The

the embrasures, chilling

and the climate becomes that of the

During these sudden invasions the place

gives you the concrete representation of

all

that

is

chaotic

and ruinous and abysmal.

When

the

rain

and the mist had passed over we went

out again across the threshold. over

The sun was

shining,

and

the vista of potato-green plain and amethyst sea the

cloud was gathering up

its

ragged

skirts in

flight.

THE CITADEL OF THE BLACK NAPOLEON. As

I

left

the

tall

warder was pessimistically picking over

my

the

remnants of

fire

into flickering

late repast,

life.

were crouching together fortress

and he had warmed the

Another heavy-breasted cloud had

invested the frowning walls

them the dying

209

;

in

beneath their shadow the their

dreary hut,

men

and above

hung hooded.

14

CHAPTER

AND THE STATUS OF THE WHITE.

JUSTICE

WHERE HE In most countries

man

a

tions

the

name

the

point

is

XI.

RULED BY THE NEGRO.

IS

where they put forward race

called Englishman,

may

of whatever nation of complexion

your designation.

If

carries

distinc-

American, German claim him. the

But

in

— by

Hayti

day, and estabhshes

you do not happen

to

be of the reg-

nant colour, you are a white, a blanc — \\\Q Haytian recognises

no minor distinction among the lighter-hued foreigners.

As you walk about tails

of sentences,

the streets you catch, at the tags and the

labial

"

blajic,''

as

the curious

or

antagonist negro delivers his criticism upon you, your pro-

bable

station

sonal

charms.

in

life,

For,

ordinarily inquisitive.

your present business and your per-

above

all

things, the negro

is

extra-

AND THE STATUS OF THE WHITE.

JUSTICE of

Jealousy

foreigner

the

very pronounced

a

is

from the Government down to the wharf-side immigration

in

and

in land,

if

Yet

He may be

he can own no property

;

he gets a concession from the Government

it

is

not too

much

white element, small as

it

to say that the presence of the is,

makes

for

This applies

of barbarism.

sentatives of foreign

and again has Hayti,

owed

of independence,

ence to the kind

in

to the repre-

to the island.

white

the

continuance of that independ-

offices of these

gentlemen.

must be called

beyond the powers of the

difificulty

cases

black.

in to

A

it

is

adjust a

schedule of

where the diplomatic representatives of foreign

have saved Hayti from the wrath and reprisals of

nations

some

man's aid

Time

the course of her hundred years

Occasionally she flounders diplomatically, and then the

it,

into the depths

more especially

Powers accredited

Remove

good.

and the Republic would go sliding back

the

His

likely to find himself, sooner or later, left in the lurch.

is

that

t

trait,

loafer.

every way.

have practically no rights

said to

he

discouraged

is

21

Power would make an

insulted

and, to those

who

interesting

document,

are not behind the scenes, a surprisingly

lengthy one. P^or

all

this,

Haytian gratitude

pro quo be down sisted

upon,

heard of

it.

it

in

is

not.

Unless the quid

black and white, and, moreover,

quietly drops into oblivion

and no more

inis

WHERE BLACK RULES

212

Here the

an instance when the diplomatic corps formed

is

between Haytian maladroitness and foreign

buffer

The 6th

sentment.

remembered

long the

WHITE.

in

of December,

1897, was a day to be

Port-au-Prince,

German Government

sent in

re-

for

on that morning

an ultimatum.

It

is

un-

necessary to enter at length into the origin of the dispute, suffice

ed,

it

and

good

many

his

In

refused.

the

to

say that a German subject had been imprisonrelease,

the

on the intervention of

end the man was

offices of the

his Minister,

set at liberty

American representative.

considered herself insulted.

The Kaiser

through

But Ger-

sent a tele-

gram, followed up by two gun-boats, with orders to receive the indemnity demanded, and, in the event of a refusal to

pay, they were instructed to shell the capital. Port-au-Prince

was

in

The

an uproar.

to the hills, the families of

many

inhabitants fled

leading citizens were sent

on board the ships that happened to be lying

The rougher

bour. the

first

white

met

in the har-

part of the populace boasted that on

shot fired they would begin a massacre of every

man, woman, and child

in the

town.

The Cabinet

at the palace of the President to discuss the situation.

Meantime the minutes were

flying,

but the foreign repre-

sentatives procured an extension of the time-limit given in

the

German ultimatum.

The

final

hour fixed upon was

one o'clock, on the stroke of which, as the German com-

mander was

careful

to

assure

them, the

first

shell

would

JUSTICE AND

the signal of compliance, should be hoisted there.

flag,

The Cabinet were on know how

not

215

upon the roof of the palace unless a white

dropped

be

THE STATUS OF THE WHITE.

the horns of a dilemma

they did

;

populace would take surrender.

the

For

the Haytians at large have no idea of their position in the

catalogue of the

nations,

being

convinced that they

fully

could engage on equal terms with any one of them.

out

can

there

and mediation

advice

the

be

of

the

foreign

With-

delegates,

doubt that the time-limit would have

little

expired and that Hayti must in consequence have

weight of Germany's hand, even

if

felt

the

the wild anarchy that

would inevitably have broken out had not marked the end of her century of independence.

And

German

the

affair

is

only one of many.

then, to events such as these, while he disliked

tions,

earned

Haytian

in

one

is

Royal.

As

is

invariably accorded

good

effect.

It

brought

For a foreign gun- boat

in

German

home is

to the

a colour

Port-au-Prince

worth more as a deterrent than a navy at Port

The

black

man must

see to understand.

to the personal safety of the

the present regime is

average foreigner has

the street, the knowledge that white

worthy of respect.

bay

which

with rare excep-

In this connection the visit of the

had

warships

the

distrusted,

at least the toleration

usefulness.

to

and

is,

Thanks,

fatally

easy,

if

little

foreigner, he has

cause for complaint.

you are not known,

Of

under

course

it

to get into trouble,

WHERE BLACK RULES WHITE.

2i6

and once

in

you

find

will

an uncommonly hard matter

it

to get out again.

On many to

rob a

It

is

man you

lonely,

it

could not find dark,

is

were

in the small hours,

the early pedestrian

a

cent-desiring

This sider

my

was is

the

a

ditches,

it

whence the to cross

where

apt to find such objects as unidenti-

month ago

— but

— three

were found

in Car-

here beyond the ubiquitous,

At

you are never molested.

soldier,

honey-

is

situated in Venezuela,

it

on the public paths

fied fingers

not

is

better place

would not be wise

It

I

the two hemispheres.

in

and

holes

bull-frogs croak ceaselessly.

that

A

lamps are broken,

its

combed with treacherous

racas

stay in Port-au-Prince

the Champ-de-Mars late at night.

crossed

it

my

during

occasions

least,

experience. surprising condition of affairs

state

of Hayti.

which

contrasts

in

whatever

may be

this

It

when you

con-

another of those violent

is

country

is

their other faults,

so

Her people,

rich.

have not that

your-back instinct which permeates so

many

knife-in-

of the Spanish-

American Republics.

And

now, having dealt with the safety of the white man

from the attacks of the lawless, to fare

if

The frivolous

let

us see

how he

is

likely

he chances to be attacked by the law.

blanc

is

charges,

not

infrequently

thrown into prison on

and when one takes

chances of maltreatment on

arrest,

into

account the

and the horribly

insan-

JUSTICE AND

of the

condition

itary

THE STATUS OF THE WHITE. prisons,

this

in

217

itself constitutes

a

Further, his evidence in the courts does not,

grave danger.

under any circumstances, hold good against counter-evidence offered

may

by

a

it

is

be,

decide

will

Outside

Whatever the

Haytian.

rights

of the case

a foregone conclusion that the Juge de Paix

in

favour of his

the

Legations,

own countryman.

man

mercantile houses, the white

and the chief

Consulates,

the

in

Hayti cannot be called

a particularly fine example of the aristocracy of colour.

men

Five

out of six have had chameleon careers, and have been

fired

at

last

by the rigour of

The

present berths.

At

Germans.

greater

stark

necessity

number of them

the close of the last century

it

their

into

are, of course,

was estimated

that the white population of Hayti reckoned 46,000 souls;

to-day you might knock off the last two ciphers.

And

with the disappearance of the white colonists pros-

Government

perity fled from the land. said,

is

result

is

He

that the

immense natural resources of the country

be very circumspect

lives

hamper

As if

The

towards keeping out the foreigner.

and trades

in

his

efforts

far as the

The white man has of

in his

neces-

dealings with the Haytian.

the Republic under protest, as

were, against a regime that to

been

directed

remain entirely undeveloped. sity to

policy, as has

is

it

always antagonistic, and ready

whenever opportunity

offers.

towns are concerned, then, the white man,

he can keep clear of the entanglements of the law,

will

WHERE BLACK RULES WHITE.

2i8

A

save in unusual cases, be molested.

not,

course,

of things, promiscuous shooting

aspect

the

alters

revolution, of

goes on, and underlying dislike of the outlander comes to

But even when things are taking

the surface. course,

happens

he

if

to

normal

their

be unfortunate enough to come

within the grasp of the law, the White, under the present

Government, has no

rights

Black need respect save

the

those which can be enforced by his diplomatic representative,

which means by the brute power of In

all

the principal coast towns there exists a

who form

of white men,

community, and who, country, bring

Take,

enough.

A

Cape.

man

much

is

the

local

billiards or

they

if

into

it.

make

Their daily

Breakfast

club,

About

home

If

you are

Bribery to

to dinner

same old round.

the

is

submit

sitting

court.

a white

So runs

monotonous

routine it,

and arrives

till

After that he

marsh.

And

life

it is

than to

man

seven, playing

to-morrow he travels

for the foreigner in Hayti.

man, then don't go to law

injustice

the

at

on the wooden piazza that

and bed.

not unknown, but to

life is

out of the

four he adjourns as one

and there he stays

dominoes, or

nucleus

taken at noon, after which

is

overlooks the ragged weed-grown

goes

money

their

up with the sun or before

he returns to work.

little

the core of the virile part of the

by way of example, the

at his office early.

to

his nation.

in Hayti.

nearly always far cheaper try

conclusions

For you cannot bribe away, even

if

in

a law

you wished

to,

THE

JUSTICE AND the

self-evident

happens

The

to

of race,

fact

basis of the law

The

time to time.

219

and your opponent usually

the

is

Code Napoleon, modified

and altered

in lesser particulars

The judges

French system.

to

from

machinery of the courts, from

judicial

Court of Cassation downwards,

of blood

THE WHITE.

be of the ruling colour.

Haytian necessities,

the

Sl'ATUS OF

is

modelled upon the

are black, for any admixture

regarded with strong disfavour, and even mulat-

is

toes

are rigorously excluded from positions and authority.

The

better class

enough,

are

do not seek the

office,

and judges, oddly

drawn from the grades of the

rarely

legal

profession.

The

President has the right of nomination, and he and

any person they please,

his party put forward

most prominent recommendation tisan

The

supporter.

or

appointment can be and

is

actual is

for a judge's

his usefulness as a par-

salary

is

small, but the

so handled as to prove highly

remunerative. It

is

a fact of

matically quietly

common knowledge

prejudged

for

;

now and then

purposes of his

bench, and the verdict foot in court.

is

that cases are .syste-

a politician intervenes

own; he gives a

arranged before the

hint to the litigants set

Curious impediments are thrown

in the

way

of justice, and grotesque excuses have been given for the non-fulfilment of ordinary legal forms.

In

this

connection

a

story

may

be

told

which has a

WHERE BLACK RULES WHITE.

220

moral, but no end.

we

will

Da

call

In a certain

Costa and Co.

town there

Some

whom

a firm

is

years ago they

an arrangement with a Haytian to buy

for

them

made

certain

materials required in their business.

To

out his

carry

of the contract, and for the ex-

side

demand,

press purpose of procuring the various articles in

Haytian

the

went

Europe,

to

taking

him a

with

advance of some thousands from the company.

most of the Continental

Mecca of Haytians

the or

left,

Costa and Co

disappearance

and by the end of a year

He had no money

had

they

done

of a

favour

money, and took the matter remains.

it still

But, having

remove the

done

this,

The evidence was

of foreigners, and

— they

refused

occasion of Messrs. beautifully it

consistent

was not an

that they

had

for the plain-

it

a

verdict

in

was now necessary

of a simplicity

akin to

On

the

Costa's last appeal, the excuse

was

to

Da

so clear

doing from their characters.

stain of so

The course they adopted was genius

into

the judges manifestly thought

They had given

enough.

firm

complete

objected to the

was broken and judgment given

that a record tiffs.

naturally

of their

and there

court,

(and

at

nor had he any supplies to show.

Da

to

— Paris,

visited

spending a long interval

home empty-handed.

returned

so

cities,

He

large

execute the judgment.

with

Haytian traditions.

The

court

inferior court, quite the opposite) replied

at the

moment no money

to

buy the neces-

*-

-

!

AND THE STATUS OF THE WHITE.

JUSTICE

221

sary stamped paper to execute the judgment, and Messrs.

Da

Costa must wait until they had

To show justice in

—

at

gaol

small

the converse side of the shield of Republican

for

sum

moment

this

classes.

with

lower

the

as

among

purse and pull

man who

the

safely

;

days,

and, lastly, in the

As

of Police

On

due

the

made up

a

snug

weight

to

the

court.

Three

ready to try the case

sought cover.

Police

The

little

called the Chief

escort of his men, and, to

proceedings,

served

and marched them judges

black

— two

of

them

were

out

in a

few

a

body up

on the bench

forestalled trouble

engagements elsewhere, and the

recollecting pressing

the

day the case was

the

rounds of ammunition,

On

the balance brings

Haytian merchant sued the active Chief of

Police for debt.

to

into

the old

in

the scales of justice with a run.

Recently a

give

Occasionally

has the luck.

sword thrown

the

white,

is

themselves, the

extraneous influences are brought to bear.

down

similar

be divided into

whose opponent

black,

secondly,

;

biggest

the

may

their cases

First,

classes,

Roman

some

to a Haytian.

wholly or partially

man

more than one foreigner

is

of owing a dollar or

crime

the

Those who gain three

there

by

third

case was adjourned for a fortnight.

day fixed

for

the second hearing the Chief of

played trumps again,

the

double and there was no quorum.

judges departed

at

the

222

WHERE BLACK RULES WHITE.

•

Upon

this the

begged him

bear

to

in

mind

present himself before

to

He

Chief Justice wrote to the defendant.

and manner conforming

and

his duties as a citizen,

the Civil Tribune in a costume

to the laws of his country.

For answer, upon the appointed day the Chief doubled his escort, dressed himself in full uniform, served out

extra boxes of ammunition for his his

horse

the

into

postponed

court.

remains

it

at the

that political animus In

criminal

The law

man may

lie

There

of time.

He

Prince.

of his

in

the

hour of writing.

courts

remains

;

the

many

why and

for

no small period

and no record

the wherefore have is

without

head of the Government, came be

it

said that

he usually sends

to prison instead of shooting

extant,

still

law abolishing the penalty it

was consistently

exception,

held power in the island, until General Sam,

credit

at Port-au-

jail

years,

of death for political misdemeanours, but

at the

A

his lost crime.

in the constitution a

ignored by every President,

their

a dead letter.

Only the man himself

undergoing the punishment of is

trial

is

to-day a prisoner in the

been long forgotten.

There

reported

It is

move slowly about

awaiting

has been there for

offence

and rode

case was postponed, and

of habeas corpus

prison is

to carry,

was here the wheel within the wheel.

cases

business.

The

men

some

who has

who

into office. his political

is

now

To

his

enemies

them out of hand against the

crumbling arsenal wall, after the immortal principles of

his

JUSTICE

AND THE STATUS OF THE WHITE.

predecessors Salomon and Hippolyte.

gentleman chair,

at

which

who,

least

quite

is

But

he succeeds

if

on the cards,

I

could

223

name one

the Presidential

to

good

will revive the

old customs of the past. In

however, of the

spite,

general corruption and

very

deliberate miscarriage of justice, the Court of Cassation has

of late taken up an attitude which approximates more nearly to the universal idea of equity,

upon

own

their

Judicial

A

merits and not upon those of the litigants.

procedure

by humour.

and has decided some cases

A

is

in certain instances

Haytian owed a trader twenty-eight dollars.

judgment requiring the Haytian

week

week

thrown

first

instalment,

a

came

Haytian

send

money.

and was informed

expense came.

the

he, the

trader

forgive

untold rewards

in

married, a

What

if

One morn-

result.

He

to the trader's store.

much

poor man,

to the trader

Let

to

into prison for his failure.-

ing the

fore

dollars a

Haytian had not paid up, but that he should be

Three weeks passed with the same

said,

pay four

to the magistrate for the

In due time he sent for the

the

to

was given, and the trader agreed

into court

a messenger every

that

not untouched

man

to

was, he

whom

there-

good, he asked, would accrue

poor man, was thrown into prison?

him

his

debt,

and earn

thereby

a future state.

After some talk the trader gave him a letter of remission,

which he went

oft"

to present to the magistrate.

The

affair

WHERE BLACK RULES WHITE.

224

was

settled, but the

Haytian was struck by the bad grace

with which the magistrate dismissed him, and he forthwith returned to

the

trader

and asked him

the eight dollars already paid into court. surprised, " is

and

said he

if

he had received

The

trader looked

had received nothing.

Then, since you have remitted the debt, that eight dollars

mine," said the Haytian.

Accordingly he went off to the court to present

The

magistrate at once committed him to prison.

who had heard

the

story

Haytian was sent to prison

"For contempt of

court,"

asked

his claim.

A

consul

the magistrate what the

for.

was the

reply.

If

I

CHAPTER

XII.

THE HAYTIAN

PRESS.

were condemned to write down the names of

newspapers of Hayti, past and present,

the

spend a considerable time upon the

to

of their multiplicity for

news

the

should have

task.

The

not on account of any great

is

reason

demand

Black Republic, but because from a number

in the

of causes

I

all

of the

journals

daily

press

are

apt to be

short-lived.

Whenever leader,

may

there

address

in

its

is

in

generally

a

crop

and the inhabitants of

So each

particular.

train

— call

pamphlets of hfe

a revolution each party, each powerful

public

the

Port-au-Prince

brings

is

must perforce have an organ through which he

political

of newspapers,

them what you

will

commotion

proclamations,

— whose average length

limited to half-a-dozen issues.

Moreover,

a

paper which

starts

its

career

in

print as 15

WHERE BLACK RULES WHLrE.

226

"The Evening News

be suppressed on a Saturday,

on Monday under the

World;"

being

after

shortly as

whose

styles

"The

Mirror of the

down

put

up

turns

it

of the Republic." their

own

for

the

conducted by Haytian jour-

are

whose grasp upon foreign

affairs is

French.

Although there appears the

reappearance

its

appear to lend themselves to a rather

bombastic tone, and superlatively

makes

humour of

a

They

European reader. nalists

more

once

have

it

of (say)

alias

"The Thunderer

These journals

pass through various

when "The Evening News" happens

re-incarnations; so that to

may

"

of Hayti

newspapers,

to

circulation

be some competition is

among

counted by tens instead of

by thousands, and the means by which the chief Republican organs exist are drawn from the subsidies granted to them

by the free

State.

and

This system

fearless

to preserve

press.

In

naturally

any

case,

freedom of utterance when,

militates it

against

must be

at the first

a

difficult

symptom

of independence, the enterprising editor is dragged off to prison.

Ten years ago condition than published,

it

brutal

the Haytian press was in a is

to-day.

arrests

At

more healthy

that time grievances were

condemned, and the

evils of the

country, even cannibalism and snake-worship, were occasionally dealt with.

run

The

greatest newspaper of those days

by the Consul-General of the

Liberia.

rival

was

black Republic of

—

:

THE HAYTIAN At "

Le

PRESS.

227

the present time Port-au-Prince possesses two papers,

and " Le Nouvelliste," whose views upon

Soir "

questions

In form they are like

are absolutely colourless.

"The

page of

a single

St.

James's Gazette," but the paper

upon which they appear has vast margins. include

telegrams

leading

Haytian,

P'rench

Their contents an

sources,

by a

article

and a patchwork of utterly unimportant

When

local news.

print

from

local

they find themselves short of copy they

a eulogy of the President of Hayti, or of the editor

of the paper. In

the

under

column of one of these papers,

front

the

head

of

" P'oreign

Telegrams,"

directly

appeared the

following interesting announcement "

Salmon has removed

M.

and an ingrowing

He was

very

cisse

"

without pain or effusion of blood.

nail

manner

satisfied with the

Salmon operated.

M. C. Rigaud four corns

for

To-morrow

which Pedicure

be the turn of D. Nar-

will

and on PMday that of the

in

P^ditor of this paper."

Le Peuple." Another gem

is

the following:

—

"Extraordinary Fact. — One Bonaventure,

the

Port

doctor,

of the sons of Dr. Maitre

was a victim

last

night of

an attempted assassination accomplished under circumstances

which have yet to be explained. in the

he

house, and

received

all

several

the

Being

in his

bed alone

means of ingress absolutely

blows

from

a

poignard

1

closed,

We

have

WHERE BLACK RULES WHITE.

228

heard certain persons seriously lay

ourselves

ous crime to the charge of Satan has

accepted

await

revelations

with

believe that Justice

with a wise reserve.

this interpretation

further

We

!

this mysteri-

expectation." — "La

We

Revue

Expres."

The

of newspapers

price

half a dollar. ally

attains

ranges

from

five

centimes to

understand that their circulation occasion-

I

four

but

figures,

believe

I

would be

three

nearer the mark.

During the

Boer

earlier part of the

War

siderably at the hands of the Haytian press.

suffered con-

I

Their render-

ing of events, being drawn from the French point of view,

was

alarmist.

Under date in his

13th December, General "Forestier" includes

despatch from the Cape the following news of General

Methuen morning

:

— " The

in their position,

to the present

We

being

Boers

/

am

retired in

I

entrenched

good

order,

this

and up

safe.''

have heard a great deal

campaign against

perfectly

Hayti

us.

latel}'

lies,

as

of the French press

everyone knows, 4,000

miles distant from France, yet one of these Haytian papers,

which

I

have described above, published an

article

last

December, some extracts from which are worth quoting. Napoleon, risen from his

old

soldiers

conquered you

:

—

" for

his

tomb

at the Invalides,

The

English,

in

conquering

the

me

eternal

addresses

enemy who

she conquered you

THE HAYTIAN

— the

little

honour of the

to save the

have not the heart to defend Albion dies

.

.

And

.

The mercenaries

people of Africa.

Queen draw back, and

of the Old fall

229

English of Trafalgar and of Waterloo, recoil before

energy of a

the

PRESS.

are broken

flag that these

Albion

;

the officers

;

mercenaries

no longer

fights

,

.

.

thou, France, thou wilt look on and

thou wilt not budge

What

"

thou

then

is

forgotten

the blood that flows in thy veins

that

I

fought

Austerlitz,

at

at

twenty years to deliver

for

thee from her commercial yoke

That

?

Hast

?

I

conquered

at Jena,

Eylau, to chastise, not the Prussian, not

the Russian, not the Austrian, but to destroy the English?

Hast thou that

forgotten that thy last glory, the purest of

which

all,

up the end of the century with a ray of

lit

greatness and hope, the glory of Marchand and of his band

keepers

been torn from thee by

has

of heroes, ?

"And

thou

if

hast

not

forgotten

dost thou delay to avenge them " Already

Under

eyes,

their

thrown

suffice to

They

;

will

into

their

muzzle them.

why

island.

army.

cruisers,

In a few days their

an

gathered

notwithstanding

men

sorrows,

these

?

had

I

invade them.

100,000

of the earth "

Boulogne

at

preparing to

would

race of shop-

this

I

I

.

.

.

was

should have

To-day

20,000

Their vessels are at the end

thine are here. escort

thy transports,

which,

in

less

than

—

!

230

WHERE BLACK RULES WHITE.

twenty-four

hours,

the

not to

blow

my

of

sons a

disembark on

old Grenadiers

conquest that these

to

will

is

it

is

to give a vital

On coming

bethink thee of Bonaparte "

France,

It

!

remember Hoche

Republic,

!

accursed island

France, to arms

!

invite you,

I

insolents

this

1

to

an

end of these inspired words, the shade disappeared.

At times the

desire

to

purchase

some

contend

to

difficulties

editors of the Haytian papers

buy new

its

must postpone the

it

its

copies paid

of their debts on account. up,

you some war correspondence

will give

I

the Haytian style.

The

following were produced during

Dominican War or one or other of the many revolu-

the tions

:

"The two

armies

met;

two hours, which cost the the enemy's

Here

camp by

after

terrible

lasting

battle

of a man, our troops carried

life

assault."

to the height of the sublime sentiment

rising

of independence, indissoluble

the

one; three

fraternity

remained

in

drums, the

a

of Valliere shouted the cry

citizens !

us the whole of their forces

Honour

a

again: —

"To-day,

of

but said

newsagents who retailed

until the

To wind in

One organ announced

with.

forms,

have singular

The enemy launched

against

the lesson has been a terrible

;

and various other objects

trumpet,

hands of the troops of the Government.

to the Generals

A—

,

B

—

,

C—

,

D—

,

E—

,

&c."

—

THE HAYTIAN And

here

your

—

then

in the

your

steps.

have been

Soon, the

his

party

later

to

this

the

God

— that

patriot

enemy,

"

conclude,

I

the

fact

I

direct

efforts,

for

we defend

a

emptied the Treasury, sold during a night disturbance

and

fled to

P^urope.

give an advertisement of a different kind.

The undersigned wishes

public

Put your trust

of public liberty!"

tried

to overthrow the President,

To

1

of Armies blessing our arms,

crown our

will

just cause, a holy cause

week

fruitful

wisdom and the experience with which

complete triumph

A

:

promised to conduct you to victory, and

I

enterprises

first

231

an address from a General to his soldiers

is

"Soldiers!

PRESS.

that

since

to bring to the notice of the

his

return

from Panama,

now

almost six years ago, he has not meddled with any sums in

He

gold

or

trusts

meditate

silver

that

on the

belonging

having said

to this

an)'

person

whatsoever.

an impartial public

announcement." —

"

Le Peuple."

will

(Advt.)

CHAPTER

XIII.

THE IIAYTIAN PEOPLE AS They

TiiEV are kindly.

They

hearted.

They

I

KNEW THEM.

are hospitable.

They

are good-

are a song-loving and a cheerful people.

are ignorant.

They

are lazy.

They

are leavened

with the horrors of serpent-worship, and a certain, though I

think a diminishing, proportion of them consent

the least of

That West.

is

it)

the

And by

and pandered

have

sacrifice.

to.

for

those

who

description,

drink

a in

be said that they are brutally

it

reason

worst

never during

asked

say

good and bad of the Black Republic of the

Papalois their

alive I

human

In their defence, let

misgoverned. the

to

(to

of the

faults

my

of water

travels in

influence

vain.

all

in

these drawbacks, the wild districts

Small

farmers,

any other country would answer

men who had never

of

and superstitions are kept

Yet, in spite of all

secret

seen

me

or

to such a

before, dwelling

THE HAYTIAN PEOPLE AS

KNEW THEM.

I

me

nnor hnmp-backcu huts, have given

in

233

a mattress and

what meagre food they had, without ever expecting repayment, and indeed they were insulted It

is

it.

a country of gigantic contrasts, of no sort of medio-

The Haytian

crity.

offered

if I

sort of

Man

phere,

capable

Moon,

in the

other, a

entirely lacking in mental atmos-

of passing

light to blackest

one thing or the

either

is

instantaneously

from intensest

shadow, from kindly hospitality to hopeless

cruelty.

The

so-called

wild

You may

maligned.

people

of

chance,

as

the I

are

interior

did, to run

utterly

up against

some priest-dominated Vaudoux worshipper who

will

try

to poison

you by means of some obscure and potent drug.

You may

witness orgies and sacrifices,

be

to

on

all

certain

the

periods.

as

far

risk.

They go

although with greater

license at

with

you offend the

may

yours

the

rural

man

white

who

la

all

is

gets into trouble

them,

General de

Haytian

man is

in

his

that

He

powers, and, consequently,

is

is

power the

I

have

it.

said, for the

amongst them has

a black

fate,

concerned, becomes

but with the local authority

Place.

any out-

not be a very enviable

negro finds a white as

authorities in

what the negro's whim may make

Yet the foreigner

round, If

place,

the

precisely

not

year

when

result,

you can contrive

present and are willing to take the

of-the-way for

if

to deal,

— that

endowed with

is,

the

arbitrary

often of swollen pretensions.

WHERE BLACK RULES WHLrE.

234

He

boy

rules precisely as rules the biggest

at school

;

he

out a rough and ready justice that would be humo-

deals

rous were

it

not

He awards

terrific.

the penalty of death

with the same lightness of heart that a large boy bestows

on a smaller the harmless and necessary kick. judge broadly from

effects, this

towns matters are

the

loafer

nigger

deserving

not

is

he seeks the chance

When a

working on

barrel

small

He

up every

sink

it,

someone is

the

to

chained to an

offenders

pay; and,

As

fish

it

are

and

the

still

that

;

game

is

night.

drop

to

up again

is,

in the

his boat, picking

in

breaks up his foolish

prison

will

It

where

no

great

food

go on stealing his

is,

Generals,

who

until

police,

and there

he

He is

is

a

dead,

will

come along

Above

these petty

friends

higher, the Government,

all

by the

does him no good.

boots from the corpse.

the

cuously from

as he eats

arrested and clubbed

and then probably some of steal

and

in authority

iron bar.

thief of thieves,

and

wharfside

day and most of the

hangs about ships

jackdaw's hoard, he

away

the

all

The

praise.

he can lay hands on.

trifle

Occasionally

taken

much

The town-

different.

a lighter, his favourite

overboard,

hours.

of

rather

much frequency

with as

steals

off-hand system excellently

people.

suits the character of the

In

Yet, to

steal the soldiers'

who

steal promis-

and everywhere.

to the negro's position in the

Government, there are

^ ;.,-**

•A;^4