<SPAN name="startofbook"></SPAN>
<hr class="chap" />
<div class="figcenter bord" style="width: 450px;"><SPAN name="one" id="one"></SPAN>
<ANTIMG src="images/illus_001.jpg" width-obs="450" height-obs="257" alt="one" />
<div class="caption"><p class="center">ONE OF THE MAIN STREETS OF PORT-AU-PRINCE</p>
</div>
</div>
<hr class="chap" />
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<h1> HAITI<br/> <span class="s08">ITS DAWN OF PROGRESS AFTER<br/> YEARS IN A NIGHT OF REVOLUTION</span></h1>
<p class="center">J. DRYDEN KUSER</p>
<p class="center space-above">BOSTON<br/>
RICHARD G. BADGER<br/>
THE GORHAM PRESS</p>
<hr class="chap" />
<p class="center">
<span class="smcap">Copyright, 1921, by J. Dryden Kuser</span></p>
<p class="center space-above">
All Rights Reserved<br/>
<br/>
Made in the United States of America<br/>
The Gorham Press, Boston, U. S. A.</p>
<hr class="chap" />
<p class="center">
TO MY WIFE<br/>
<span class="b12">BROOKE RUSSELL KUSER</span><br/>
<span class="s08">THE SOURCE OF MY ORIGINAL INTEREST IN HAITI<br/>
AND A NEVER-TIRING AID IN THE PRESENT WORK.</span></p>
<hr class="chap" />
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</SPAN></span></p>
<h2>INTRODUCTION</h2>
<p>Haiti is a country of rapidly changing conditions.
Like others, emerging from revolution
and disorder to peace and the pursuits of
peace, it finds its possibilities unlimited.
Furthermore, under the Haitian-American
treaty, part of the government is being run
by the Haitians themselves in the three departments:
executive, legislative and judicial; and
a portion is controlled by the United States,
including the military. In such a two-party
control, there is naturally friction and this
causes frequent and changing disagreements.</p>
<p>Whereas in January, 1920, the bandit
trouble was serious, I have just found, during
a brief November trip, that this has ceased to
be an active danger. In its place there has
arisen, not a military worry, but a political one.<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</SPAN></span>
Haitian agitators, supported by ill-advised
Americans, have spread propaganda favoring
the withdrawal of the United States from
Haiti. Included in this propaganda have been
the absurd accusations against the marines of
cruelty toward the natives.</p>
<p>The question of any cruelty or unnecessary
killings has been conclusively disproven by the
findings of a Court of Inquiry sent to Haiti,
and which has recently published its findings.
As to the withdrawal of the United States
from Haiti—such a course would be a menace
to the world and a sad neglect of duty by the
United States. Any American acquainted
with Haitian conditions will agree that the
marines would scarcely have boarded the
American ships before the entire country
would be in a state of civil war, the lives and
property of foreigners endangered, and the
possibility of Haiti paying off her foreign debt
would be lost.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</SPAN></span></p>
<p>As opposed to this prospect of revolution,
we have a bright future for Haiti, if the United
States remains. The country is naturally rich
in its products and its soil, and labor is able to
work for cheaper wages than elsewhere. This
is a great incentive for American business to
invest its capital, which means that the country
will rapidly become rich again—as it once was
in the French days. But unlike conditions in
those days, the Haitian himself will share in
the future development and wealth.</p>
<p class="sig">
<span class="smcap">J. Dryden Kuser.</span></p>
<p><span class="smcap">Bernardsville, New Jersey.</span></p>
<hr class="chap" />
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</SPAN><br/><SPAN name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</SPAN></span></p>
<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
<div class="center">
<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="contents">
<tr>
<td align="left" colspan="2"><small>CHAPTER</small></td>
<td align="right"><small>PAGE</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="right">I</td>
<td align="left"><span class="smcap">Sargasso and Flying Fish</span></td>
<td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_11">11</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="right">II</td>
<td align="left"><span class="smcap">Cacos</span></td>
<td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_20">20</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="right">III</td>
<td align="left"><span class="smcap">Every Man's Land—A Bit of History</span></td>
<td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_38">38</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="right">IV</td>
<td align="left"><span class="smcap">Vaudoux</span></td>
<td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_52">52</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="right">V</td>
<td align="left"><span class="smcap">Public Education and Normil Charles</span></td>
<td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_63">63</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="right">VI</td>
<td align="left"><span class="smcap">The President</span></td>
<td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_74">74</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="right">VII</td>
<td align="left"><span class="smcap">A Morning Hunt</span></td>
<td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_77">77</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="right">VIII</td>
<td align="left"><span class="smcap">Pine Needles</span></td>
<td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_87">87</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="right">IX</td>
<td align="left"><span class="smcap">Cotton</span></td>
<td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_93">93</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="right">X</td>
<td align="left"><span class="smcap">Gourdes</span></td>
<td align="right"><SPAN href="#Page_101">101</SPAN></td>
</tr>
</table></div>
<hr class="chap" />
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_6" id="Page_6"></SPAN><br/><SPAN name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</SPAN></span></p>
<h2>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</h2>
<div class="center">
<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="illustrations">
<tr>
<td align="left"><span class="smcap"><SPAN href="#one">One of the Main Streets of Port-au-Prince</SPAN></span></td>
<td align="right"><i>Frontispiece</i></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left"> </td>
<td align="right"><small>FACING</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left"> </td>
<td align="right"><small>PAGE</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left"><span class="smcap"><SPAN href="#sifting">Sifting Coffee Along a Principal Street</SPAN></span></td>
<td align="right">13</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left"><span class="smcap"><SPAN href="#dess">Dessalines</SPAN></span></td>
<td align="right"><i>Following</i> 20</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left"><span class="smcap"><SPAN href="#open">The "Open" Market Just Below the Cathedral</SPAN></span></td>
<td align="right"><i>Following</i> 20</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left"><span class="smcap"><SPAN href="#entrance">Entrance to the "Closed" Market</SPAN></span></td>
<td align="right">28</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left"><span class="smcap"><SPAN href="#marine">Marine Patrol</SPAN></span></td>
<td align="right"><i>Following</i> 36</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left"><span class="smcap"><SPAN href="#hills">Hills Near Mirebalais</SPAN></span></td>
<td align="right"><i>Following</i> 36</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left"><span class="smcap"><SPAN href="#civil">Civil Prisoners of Port-au-Prince Making Chairs</SPAN></span></td>
<td align="right">45</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left"><span class="smcap"><SPAN href="#women">Women Carrying in to Market Baskets Which They Have Made</SPAN></span></td>
<td align="right"><i>Following</i> 52</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left"><span class="smcap"><SPAN href="#cathedral">The Cathedral</SPAN></span></td>
<td align="right"><i>Following</i> 52</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left"><span class="smcap"><SPAN href="#source">A Source of the Greatest Good—The Roman Catholic Sisters at One of the Many Convents on the Island</SPAN></span></td>
<td align="right">60</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left"><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</SPAN></span><span class="smcap"><SPAN href="#head">The Head Nurse at the Public Hospital with Her Corps of Haitian Nurses</SPAN></span></td>
<td align="right">61</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left"><span class="smcap"><SPAN href="#magi">Magistrar's Stand of Which There is One in Every Town</SPAN></span></td>
<td align="right"><i>Following</i> 68</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left"><span class="smcap"><SPAN href="#new">The New President's Palace</SPAN></span></td>
<td align="right"><i>Following</i> 68</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left"><span class="smcap"><SPAN href="#white">"White Wings" of Port-au-prince</SPAN></span></td>
<td align="right">76</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left"><span class="smcap"><SPAN href="#market">Market Women Leaving Town on Their "Burros"</SPAN></span></td>
<td align="right">77</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left"><span class="smcap"><SPAN href="#typical">Typical "Caille" Near Furcy</SPAN></span></td>
<td align="right"><i>Following</i> 84</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left"><span class="smcap"><SPAN href="#railway">Railway to Leogane</SPAN></span></td>
<td align="right"><i>Following</i> 84</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left"><span class="smcap"><SPAN href="#on">On the St. Marc Road After the Heavy Rains</SPAN></span></td>
<td align="right">92</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left"><span class="smcap"><SPAN href="#haitian">Haitian Women Washing Their Clothes in a Ditch</SPAN></span></td>
<td align="right"><i>Following</i> 100</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left"><span class="smcap"><SPAN href="#american">The American Club</SPAN></span></td>
<td align="right"><i>Following</i> 100</td>
</tr>
</table></div>
<hr class="chap" />
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_9" id="Page_9"></SPAN></span></p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_10" id="Page_10"></SPAN><br/><SPAN name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</SPAN></span></p>
<h2>HAITI</h2>
<h2><SPAN name="I" id="I">I</SPAN></h2>
<h3>SARGASSO AND FLYING FISH</h3>
<p>For the first two days out of New York
harbor flocks of Herring Gulls followed
us and occasionally an odd Robin and
a pair of Goldfinches appeared. But after
Hatteras was passed and the sea was calmer
the gulls left us and flying fish took their place.
Stationed at the bow I watched them dart out
of the foam and skim, sometimes a few feet,
often many yards. At night I took the same<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</SPAN></span>
post and the phosphorescent "stars of the sea"
shone very green against the yellow constellations
above.</p>
<p>By the third day ever-increasing quantities
of sargasso weed appeared and floated past.
Torn from their beds along tropical coasts,
these bits of weed act as the shelter for multifarious
forms of aquatic life which live as long
as the weed lives and die when it finally decays.
And so, although no sign of bird or other life
appeared above the water surface, we were surrounded
every moment by thousands of individuals
of dozens of species.</p>
<p>Our ship was the "Advance" of the American
government-controlled Panama R. R.
Steamship Company, which operates the service
between New York, Haiti and Panama.
Two steamers run to Panama via Port-au-Prince,
Haiti, three are exclusively for Haitian
ports, while the others do not stop at Haiti
en route to Panama. Beside the Panama line<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</SPAN></span>
there is the Dutch line of boats which runs
from New York to Haiti on regular sailings,
but aside from these two there are no other
lines which regularly run ships to Haiti. And
so the quickest way of travelling from Haiti
to another of the West Indies is via Panama.</p>
<div class="figcenter bord" style="width: 450px;"><SPAN name="sifting" id="sifting"></SPAN>
<ANTIMG src="images/illus_019.jpg" width-obs="450" height-obs="261" alt="sifting" />
<div class="caption"><p class="center">SIFTING COFFEE ALONG A PRINCIPAL STREET</p>
</div>
</div>
<p>Coming south, the first land appeared on
the fourth day, when the lighthouse of San
Salvador, re-named Watling's Island by the
British, showed the northern point of land
long before the rest of the flat surface was
visible. Bird Rock, the Fortune Islands and
Castle Island were passed during the next
twelve hours, and finally the high mountains
of eastern Cuba were twenty miles off our
starboard. Before these were out of sight,
the peak of Mole St. Nicholas, Haiti, arose
on the port bow. But we were by no means
yet at Port-au-Prince, our destination, for it
is a seven-hour sail from this point to the harbor
in the lower part of the bay. The bay<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</SPAN></span>
itself is over 100 miles long, and in the center
of it is the Island of Gonave, 10 by 40 miles,
to which all convicts were exiled from Haiti in
the French days, and many of whose present
inhabitants are descendents of these exiles.</p>
<p>After we had passed Gonave, the mountain
ranges on both sides became very close and we
could see the smoke of many fires high up on
their slopes. These fires, we later found out,
were those of the charcoal burners, who play
an important rôle on the island. The charcoal
is obtained by placing the wood which
has been gathered under a covering of earth
in such a way as to eliminate the undesired
gases and leave the charcoal. After sufficient
time, the earth is removed and the charcoal
carried for miles into town on the backs of
"burros." Charcoal is used entirely in Haiti
for kitchen fuel. Of the fires we saw in the
hills, all were probably not those of charcoal
burners, as it is the common thing for the<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</SPAN></span>
natives to burn off a section of the land which
they desire to use and to ascribe the fire to
spontaneous combustion.</p>
<p>At last the vari-colored lights of Port-au-Prince
peeped forth from among the foothills
on the right and we followed the channel in
by alignment with two huge red range lights,
one on the top of the Cathedral and the other
on Fort National. The beauty of coming into
Port-au-Prince is by daylight, when, not unlike
Serrento, it shows a background of 2800
foot mountains rising behind, and with the pellucid
green sea stretching out from the town.
A Haitian launch came alongside for the custom
officials to board. Our passports were
taken to be kept for overnight and recorded,
and we were then allowed to proceed to the
dock which is at the end of a long pier jutting
out from the land.</p>
<p>As we spun along to the house where we
were to visit we went over streets smoother<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</SPAN></span>
and wider than all but a few in the United
States. These streets, throughout most of
the town, were put down under contract with
an American firm in 1914, before American
occupation of Haiti, and are of excellent quality.
From the business district we came out
into the Champ de Mars, a laid-out park with
a bronze of Dessalines, the "Founder of Haitian
Independence," in the center; and at the
end a grandstand from which to watch the
sports or national festivities. Next to the
Champ de Mars is the new palace of the
President of Haiti. It is now at a stage of
near-completion, and one wing is already occupied
by the President and his family. This
building is the fourth palace to be built on the
same site, one of the others having been set
on fire and destroyed, and the other two ruined
through explosions. In the latter cases the
President had been unable to trust anyone
with the keeping of the national supply of<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</SPAN></span>
ammunition and was forced to keep it in his
own palace, so that in both cases the Presidents
were killed by means of their own powder.
On the lower side of the palace are the marine
barracks and the gendarme caserne, opposite
one another, and above the Champ de Mars
is the marine brigade headquarters.</p>
<p>At this point starts the residential section
of the town for both wealthy Haitians and
Americans and other foreigners. We rode
over narrow, quaint streets, after passing the
marine headquarters, until we came to Avenue
Christophe and our house, of old French style
and with peaked roof, which was at one time
used as the Presidential palace. Most of the
houses of Port-au-Prince are of this old French
style and show few traces of the original
Spanish. Around all the better houses there
are dense tropical growths with mangoes,
oranges, and guanavena or sour-sap hanging
over the porches. Many of the yards have<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</SPAN></span>
also one or two royal palms, with their great
white trunks reaching over fifty feet and with
leaves clustered at the top. At the very tip
of the tree's trunk is the heart, for which many
trees are cut down, as "heart of palm" is one
of the delicacies of the tropics. In the country
districts both the royal and cocoanut palm are
common. The two are somewhat similar but
can be easily told apart by the crooked growth
of the latter and also its darker and rougher
trunk.</p>
<p>The first morning after our arrival was
cloudy, which was very unusual, for thruout
the year in Port-au-Prince the mornings are
almost invariably clear. So is the remainder
of the day for the six months during the dry
season, but in the wet season it regularly rains
a downpour for about two hours late each
afternoon. November is the beginning of the
dry season, so for a couple of weeks after our
arrival it would still occasionally rain for a few<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</SPAN></span>
moments a day. But we missed having any
of the truly tropical rains which during the
summer flood the streets and sweep all before
them.</p>
<p>While the winter is for Port-au-Prince and
southern Haiti the dry season, the conditions
are exactly reversed in the northern half of
the republic. There the wet season commences
in November, to last for six months
until the next summer when all becomes dry
again. And so there is never a time in Haiti
when half of the island is not being well-watered
and the fruit and crops in season.</p>
<hr class="chap" />
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</SPAN></span></p>
<h2><SPAN name="II" id="II">II</SPAN></h2>
<h3>CACOS</h3>
<p>Although, in the days of the
French, Cap Haitien was the capital
of Haiti, to-day Port-au-Prince is the
capital as well as the most important town.
It is also the most modern town, being the
only one, for example, to have the paved
streets which I have referred to. In addition
it has a good telephone and electric lighting
system.</p>
<p>The first morning's tour of the shops in
Port-au-Prince made my former knowledge
of fair prices useless. Goods which it was
necessary to import from the United States,
such as silks and American-made cloths,
seemed exorbitant; perfumes and French
clothes, imported directly from Paris at a low<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</SPAN></span>
rate of duty sold at a considerably reduced
rate from the New York price; but naturally
the greatest difference in cost was those of
native goods. Mahogany grows plentifully
throughout the interior of Haiti and hence is
easily obtained. Its price is consequently low
and I purchased a solid mahogany small dinner
table for $6, which is the customary price.
But compare the price for such a piece in New
York! And then of course the native fruits
were either free along the roads or at a nominal
price in the markets. Alligator pears, bought
as a luxury in New York for 75 cents or a dollar
apiece, sell in Port-au-Prince for 5 pears
for 2 cents.</p>
<div class="figcenter bord" style="width: 450px;"><SPAN name="dess" id="dess"></SPAN>
<ANTIMG src="images/illus_029.jpg" width-obs="450" height-obs="374" alt="dess" />
<div class="caption"><p class="center">DESSALINES<br/>
<i>In the Champs de Mars</i></p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="figcenter bord" style="width: 450px;"><SPAN name="open" id="open"></SPAN>
<ANTIMG src="images/illus_030.jpg" width-obs="450" height-obs="258" alt="open" />
<div class="caption"><p class="center">THE "OPEN" MARKET JUST BELOW THE CATHEDRAL</p>
</div>
</div>
<p>In Port-au-Prince there are two markets,
the "open" and the "closed," of which the
latter is a roofed and walled structure and the
former held without cover on an open plaza,
directly beneath the wall around the Cathedral.
Here, together with alligator pears, are<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</SPAN></span>
sold bananas, limes, grapefruit, fish, meats,
dry goods and odds and ends which are found
in a department store. Here also "<i>rapadou</i>"—a
native candy made from brown sugar and
cocoanut—is for sale. This candy is also
peddled along the streets and trays full of it
are carried by the natives on their heads, whilst
they continually call attention to their ware
by calling it out at frequent intervals. Whatever
a Haitian has to carry, be it an armchair,
a piece of paper or a trayful of fine glassware,
he carries it upon his head. They have in this
way developed the ability to stand great weight
and certainly one beneficial result is the invariably
erect carriage of a Haitian caused
through the necessity of always maintaining
balance when he carries his goods.</p>
<p>Up to within a few weeks of our arrival the
native shops used to remain open in the evening.
When we arrived, however, they closed
each night at dark. This was because of a<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</SPAN></span>
scare which they had recently received when
a small band of revolutionary bandits, known
throughout Haiti as "cacos," attempted to
make a raid upon the town. In the old days
of unstable government the natives had become
accustomed to the existing government falling
every time the cacos arrived, and they were
not easily led to realize last September that it
is no longer possible now that the marines are
guarding the town. And hence for weeks
after the attack the shopkeepers regularly
shut themselves up in their houses at dark
each night.</p>
<p>For sometime after the Americans occupied
Haiti in 1915 there were no organized uprisings,
but within a year various causes have led
the wild tribes of the interior to join together
into various bands and attempt organized
raids.</p>
<p>The fighting of these cacos is extremely
difficult for three principal reasons; first, the<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</SPAN></span>
secret sympathy of some reputable and prominent
Haitians and the consequent impossibility
of obtaining any information from them;
second, the nature of the country which permits
the cacos to retreat into the mountainous
regions which are wild and contain many caves
and trails unknown to the whites; and third,
the manner in which the bandits fight. Like
the Indians they conduct a warfare of night
raids and of sniping, so that only a sort of
guerrilla war can be conducted against them.
And then too, as the cacos are not in uniform,
it is impossible to know who is or who is not
a caco, except when they are actually banded
together or carrying their arms.</p>
<p>But results are being slowly accomplished.
The towns are protected and guarded so that
when an attack is made it can be repulsed and
patrols sent out to round up as many of the
invaders as possible. In the interior districts
where the bandits congregate and make their<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</SPAN></span>
rendezvous, expeditions are being continually
sent out and the country honeycombed between
the different hill posts. Near L'Archahai
there is a cave which, dating from the earliest
records of Haitian history, has been credited
as being a bandit retreat. Here the cacos
are still supposed to meet and go into hiding,
but as the cave is a huge opening on the side of
a mountain, and inaccessible unless a rope ladder
be let down from someone already there, it
is quite inaccessible and impossible to attack.</p>
<p>In Haiti there are two different armies, so
to speak. The gendarmerie or national army
of Haiti consists of the enlisted men who are
Haitians and of officers in charge of them who
are American marines loaned to the Haitian
Government, in accordance with the provisions
of the treaty, to organize and train the Haitian
army so as to make it an efficient fighting
police force which is able to support, and preserve
against attack, the existing government.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</SPAN></span></p>
<p>The gendarmerie have abundantly proven,
in many recent cases when they have been led
by American officers, that they are thoroughly
trustworthy and loyal fighters. Nor is there
any doubt of their courage, for they are as
brave as any body of troops in the world. The
gendarmerie are used for guarding a town
after it has been once freed from active cacoism,
and everywhere in Haiti one sees their
white and red stone headquarters. The gendarmerie
are also used, together with the
marines, to go out into the hills on patrols for
routing the cacos and clearing up the country.</p>
<p>The second army is the occupation force of
American marines stationed in Haiti since the
intervention of 1915 to preserve order and protect
the nationals and property of Americans
and other foreigners in the country. For
those marines who are in search of real adventure
and fighting, even those who were in the
world war might well look with envy upon<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</SPAN></span>
the men who are doing patrol duty among the
Haitian hills. Alone or in company with the
gendarmes, they have had encounters so filled
with adventure that I will tell of one which
occurred shortly before our arrival.</p>
<p>Charlemagne Massena Peralte, a man who
came from the Hinche district, and of natural
ability as a leader, was of anti-white sympathies
and early after the American occupation
associated himself with a family named Zamor
in the northeast country around Hinche.
One of the Zamor brothers, Oreste Zamor, was
formerly a president of the republic and another
was the great leader of the north and is
now in the Port-au-Prince prison as a conspirator.
Charlemagne rose in the caco ranks
to the position of chief and was so successful
in his first encounters and attempts as to make
the name of Charlemagne known everywhere
as the supreme caco. Charlemagne was the
clever and guiding hand of all the revolutionary<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</SPAN></span>
attacks which occurred about this time,
so it became of the greatest importance to
capture him. Many attempts to do this were
made by the marines and the gendarmes, but
on each occasion his preparation for scouts and
ways of escape made it possible for him to
evade them.</p>
<p>In October, the location of Charlemagne
having been reported, two marines, officers in
the gendarmerie, volunteered to capture Charlemagne.
They made very careful preparations
to set out with twenty gendares and disguised
themselves by blackened skin and native
clothes. Both of the officers spoke Creole well,
but naturally with some foreign accent and so
it was necessary for them to speak as little as
was possible. When near the place where
Charlemagne was reported to be spending the
day, they met the first caco outposts who
stopped and questioned them. Claiming they<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</SPAN></span>
had an important message to deliver to Charlemagne,
giving the password and claiming such
extreme fatigue for the two officers that these
officers could barely answer the questions put
to them, the party succeeded in being passed.</p>
<div class="figcenter bord" style="width: 450px;"><SPAN name="entrance" id="entrance"></SPAN>
<ANTIMG src="images/illus_040.jpg" width-obs="450" height-obs="264" alt="entrance" />
<div class="caption"><p class="center">ENTRANCE TO THE "CLOSED" MARKET</p>
</div>
</div>
<p>A second and a third guard of Charlemagne's
were in the same way fooled and at
last the gendarmes came to a clearing. In
the center of the clearing were gathered together
a group of bandits around a fire, and
at the side of the fire sat a woman. Behind
her there was a sort of rude throne and here
sat the great Charlemagne. Scarcely had the
gendarmes seen the crowd collected here when
they were recognized and a signal given. The
woman lept to the fire and succeeded in brushing
and stamping it out. In the darkness
which followed, she and her followers escaped.
But hardly had the signal of detection been
given when Charlemagne was the aim for the<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</SPAN></span>
gendarme rifles, and when a new fire was
lighted he was found to be dead together with
a few of the crowd with him.</p>
<p>The belief in Haiti was a common one that
Charlemagne was a supernatural being who
was immune from rifle bullets or the weapons
of his adversaries. In fact, he himself boasted
that this was true. And so, upon his death,
pictures of him were taken and these the
marines spread broadcast throughout the republic
to prove to all Haitians that the invulnerable
Charlemagne was at last killed.</p>
<p>It is this kind of fighting which the marines
and gendarmes have to continually do in combatting
the caco trouble. After the death of
Charlemagne, Benôit Batraville, who was
formerly a sullen police chief in the mountain
town of Mirebalais, became the caco leader.
He had joined the caco ranks only shortly before
Charlemagne's death, and although not
nearly so clever a brigand as the supreme caco<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</SPAN></span>
was perhaps the most intelligent and the best
leader when Charlemagne died. Up to the time
of my departure in February, all attempts to
capture Benôit had failed but I have since
heard of his killing. It was during a skirmish
with the marines in which the latter penetrated
to the leader's rendezvous and although every
other person in the camp escaped, the officer
leading the marines had the good fortune to
kill Benôit.</p>
<p>And so another man of fair intelligence has
been eliminated from the bandit forces. This
has practically destroyed the caco power as
an offensive force, for it is the few men
whom the cacos have among them of brains
which make them at all a dangerous factor.
The bandits are with a few exceptions utterly
ignorant and unable to lead an attack unless
inspired and led by someone who has lived in
the towns and developed some intelligence.
To illustrate the almost unbelievable state of<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</SPAN></span>
mentality possessed by the cacos, I will tell
of the prisoners taken in one raid. After
the raid the prisoners were taken back to the
town to be temporarily held there awaiting
trial. When the men reached the house, they
were unable to walk up the stairs, as stairs
were new to them. They had never seen a
house of two stories before and did not know
what to make of the second floor.</p>
<p>I have mentioned a caco attempt to raid
Port-au-Prince just before our arrival, in
which some of the bandits reached town. By
January, over a month after we arrived, the
town had again assumed its normal state, and
fear of another attack was practically eliminated
from the minds of the natives. This was
the condition when, on the morning of January
15th, the telephone rang at 4 a.m. and we
heard that "3,000 cacos are marching into town
by the Hasco Road." The cacos, advancing
into town in column and with flags and conch-horns<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</SPAN></span>
blowing, divided, a quarter of a mile
from town, one column going along the water
front and reaching town by way of the slaughter
house, the other two columns turning farther
inland and advancing around Belleair
hill, by the radio station.</p>
<p>When the troops had nearly reached town
our marines opened fire with Brownings and
machine guns, but the natives broke ranks and
fired from around corners, and rushing into the
houses, fired upon the marines from the windows.
Gradually they were driven back, but
<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">en route</i> they had fired some of the native
"<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">cailles</i>," in the poor section of the town and
the light from this lit up the entire surrounding
country.</p>
<p>By daybreak many cacos were lying dead
along the entrance to the city, the attack had
been completely repulsed and the cacos driven
far from town. Over 150 were captured or
killed and but three of the marines wounded,<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</SPAN></span>
only one fatally. A large number of caco had
been pressed so hard on their flanks and front
that they were forced to retreat into a closed
valley back of Belleair and were there almost
completely wiped out by a volley of machine
guns.</p>
<p>All during the day patrols searched the
plains and outlying country. In this way they
captured singly or in groups many of the
brigands who were retreating to the hills.
One automobile full of townsmen, arriving
from Gonaïves, told of meeting the caco band,
or at least part of it and only escaping by a
miracle. The dents and holes made by the
bullets while the car ran the gauntlet between
the crowd, could be seen covering the body of
the car when it came into town.</p>
<p>In the afternoon a house-to-house search
was made in the district where the fighting
occurred and, asleep in his own house, the
police found and recognized Solomen Janvier.<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</SPAN></span>
Janvier is a man who formerly lived in Port-au-Prince
in the house where he was found.
But he had always been a revolutionist and for
many months previous to the raid had been
out in the hills with the cacos.</p>
<p>Janvier boasted, after he had been taken
to prison, that every attack which had been
made upon Port-Au-Prince during recent
years had been led by him; and that in the
present raid there had been three leaders leading
the different sections of the caco force, but
that the other two were cowards and had fled
before they reached town, he alone leading the
actual attack.</p>
<p>The number of cacos who reached the town
is uncertain. First reports gave the number
as 3,000, which was later reduced to 1,500, as
claimed by the men at Hasco, the sugar plant
of the American-Haitian Sugar Company, by
which the cacos passed on their way into town.
But, although there were many camp followers<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</SPAN></span>
who never entered and engaged in the fighting,
it is probable that the number of actual fighters
was about 300. On the morning after the
raid, our cook told me that she had heard in
the market places that morning that there were
2,000,000 cacos who had entered the town and
that 1,000,000 had been killed. This, I think,
was the wildest rumor I heard.</p>
<p>On the second day someone spread the
rumor that 2,000 more cacos were coming into
Port-au-Prince, and as it took some time to
prove the report false, there was great excitement
throughout the town. I went down
beyond the Champ de Mars, and, rushing in
every direction, were the natives, each returning
to his respective home. As soon as they
reached there, the windows and doors were
boarded and within a very short time every
house was closed and not a person was to be
seen upon the streets. And so another day
was lost to business, for all of the shops had<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</SPAN></span>
been closed since the raid because of the great
fear that the cacos were going to make a second
attack.</p>
<div class="figcenter bord" style="width: 450px;"><SPAN name="marine" id="marine"></SPAN>
<ANTIMG src="images/illus_051.jpg" width-obs="450" height-obs="270" alt="marine" />
<div class="caption"><p class="center">MARINE PATROL</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="figcenter bord" style="width: 450px;"><SPAN name="hills" id="hills"></SPAN>
<ANTIMG src="images/illus_052.jpg" width-obs="450" height-obs="292" alt="hills" />
<div class="caption"><p class="center">HILLS NEAR MIREBALAIS</p>
</div>
</div>
<p>In October, when the raid was made before
our arrival, the cacos escaped with a loss of
only a few men, but in January so many of
their number were killed or captured in town
and out in the plains during their retreat that
it will certainly make them wary of again invading
the town for a long time to come.</p>
<p>Benôit, himself, was in part of the fighting
during the January raid, but unfortunately
was among the bandits who escaped and was
soon back with his followers in the Mirebalais
hills, where he was eventually captured as I
have related.</p>
<hr class="chap" />
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</SPAN></span></p>
<h2><SPAN name="III" id="III">III</SPAN></h2>
<h3>EVERY MAN'S LAND—A BIT OF HISTORY</h3>
<p>The Republic of Haiti consists of the
western part of the island of Santo
Domingo, while the eastern end constitutes
the country of Santo Domingo. The
latter, while it has three times the territory,
claims but one-third the population of Haiti,
which is to-day estimated at 2,500,000. Columbus'
estimate of the combined population
of what is now Haiti and Santo Domingo was
as high as 2,000,000, but during the four intervening
centuries the change in race has been
complete. Scarcely a strain of aboriginal
blood is left; and no ancestor of the present
natives then even knew of the "new world."
Ownership of Haiti has changed hands four
times in this period, and revolution, crime and<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</SPAN></span>
barbarism have left indelible marks on the
pages of her history.</p>
<p>The men left in Haiti by Columbus and
those who followed the pioneers from Spain
have scant justification for their brutal treatment
of the Indians whom they met, and
among the disgraces committed by white men
in their dealings with the aborigines in America,
the acts of the Spaniards in Haiti and
Santo Domingo were among the most deplorable.</p>
<p>Before long, the Spaniards, having wiped
out the native Indians, were obliged to search
for labor to till their soil and to search for gold.
All of the metals possessed by the local redskins
had been stolen by the first-comers.
Turning naturally to African slaves to solve
the problem of labor, the Spaniards imported
the blacks in ever-increasing numbers.</p>
<p>The Spaniards had not long been settled in
this way before they were themselves forced<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</SPAN></span>
to contest rule over the island, for French adventurers
had come into the country and by
1697 the latter were so successful that most
of that portion of land now known as Haiti
was recognized by the Spanish to be under
French control.</p>
<p>The French continued the practice, commenced
by the Spaniards, of introducing negro
slaves and thousands were each year added to
the number already settled. Rapidly Haiti
became France's richest colony and the stories
of the magnificent estates and the luxury in
which wealthy planters and French noblemen
lived are pitiful in contrast with what was so
soon to follow. Pauline Bonaparte's estate
near "Mon Repos" on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince
lies in ruins and there remains little
trace of luxury about the huge pool where once
she held court and receptions at which much
of the nobility of France was present. It is
said that the wealthy Parisians used to send<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</SPAN></span>
their clothes to be washed in the waters of the
streams of Port-au-Prince regularly every six
months because of the extraordinary bluing
quality which was credited to the water.</p>
<p>While Haiti was thus becoming a treasure
island for the French, this wealth was at the
expense of the black slaves, whom the French
forced into overwork by extreme punishments.
And thus, while the nobility in France were
holding down their peasants to vaunt their
vanity in the effete displays of the court of
Louis XV, and thus foster the seeds of discontent
which bore such frightful fruit in the days
of the Guillotine, the French planters were doing
the self-same thing to a worse extent in
their treatment of the blacks in Haiti. Out
of their cruel servitude was to come the succession
of revolutions and the hatred of black
and white which to this day has kept Haiti in
the rearguard of civilization.</p>
<p>The era of the French revolution gave an<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</SPAN></span>
opening for the first negro rebellion, and led
by the example of the white planters who rebelled
against their own government, the mulattoes
organized to some extent and a man
named Oge attempted to obtain justice in both
Paris and from the local authorities. Failing,
he was sought as a rebel and after armed resistance
by himself and his followers he was
captured and executed.</p>
<p>Critical conditions soon led the French Constituent
Assembly to send three Commissioners
from France to restore order and also
issued a decree that "every man of color, born
of free parents should enjoy equal political
rights with the whites." However, the feeling
in Haiti was so strong against this act that
pressure was brought to bear upon Governor
Blanchelande which prevented his executing
the decree and pitched battles took place between
the whites and the blacks.</p>
<p>The French Government, largely through<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</SPAN></span>
incapable Commissioners whom they had sent,
was losing her grip on the control of Haitian
affairs, and at the same time there arose two
contending forces to control affairs there. In
the north the negros had succeeded in becoming
the stronger factor and a slave, named
Toussaint L'Overture, though at first faithful
to his master, soon saw the inevitable trend of
affairs and joined the rebels. He very quickly
proved his ability for leadership and was
soon chosen their chief.</p>
<p>In the meanwhile the English had, with a
ridiculously small force, taken St. Marc and
afterwards Port-au-Prince. After Toussaint
had firmly established himself in the north, he
marched southward to essay the attacking of
the English. Time after time he attempted to
force them to surrender, but each effort was
repulsed. Soon, however, the English realized
the impossibility of conquering Haiti, and
decided to evacuate. They treated with Toussaint<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</SPAN></span>
and left St. Marc and Port-au-Prince to
him and his party of the north.</p>
<p>At this point Toussaint showed his discerning
insight into the entire black versus white
situation at that time by allowing all foreigners
who sided with him to remain undisturbed in
the newly-acquired territory. But this action
did not meet with favor from all, and, chiefly
through the influence of Hedouville, many
whites were murdered contrary to the order of
Toussaint.</p>
<p>Rigoud, in control of the south, now opposed
Toussaint but was forced to make peace with
him when the French sent a commission and
supported Toussaint's claim to rule. Among
the generals of Toussaint was Dessalines who
commanded his troops in the north while Toussaint
was himself in the vicinity of Port-au-Prince.
Dessalines, like Hedouville, was
radically opposed to the equality policy of
Toussaint and while the latter was away he<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</SPAN></span>
was intolerant of the mulattos and murdered
thousands of them.</p>
<div class="figcenter bord" style="width: 450px;"><SPAN name="civil" id="civil"></SPAN>
<ANTIMG src="images/illus_063.jpg" width-obs="450" height-obs="278" alt="civil" />
<div class="caption"><p class="center">CIVIL PRISONERS AT PORT-AU-PRINCE MAKING CHAIRS</p>
</div>
</div>
<p>Toussaint, in spite of these disagreements
and violations of his orders, was nevertheless
supreme in Haiti. He now aspired to the
throne of Santo Domingo as well. Therefore,
all preparations completed, he set out upon his
new march of conquest and, not meeting a
single reverse, Toussaint, upon his return,
claimed possession of the entire island.</p>
<p>But here Toussaint made his fatal step.
Instead of declaring the independence of
Haiti he ruled it as a French colony with himself
as the self-appointed governor and with
his creed based upon equality for white, black
and mulatto. The result of this policy was
that when France was again at peace, Bonaparte
was able to make an attempt to again
bring Haiti back to the condition of slavery.
By false trickery the French General Leclerc
captured Toussaint and exiled him to the Alps,<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</SPAN></span>
where he soon died. Toussaint, the conqueror,
thus lost his chance of becoming Toussaint, the
founder of the republic.</p>
<p>War was now declared between France and
England and opportunity again arose for the
French to be driven from Haiti. Dessalines
with many of Toussaint's former generals accomplished
this task and declared the country
independent. Dessalines was made Governor-General
and declared the "Founder of Haitian
Independence." He is known everywhere
under this title to-day, and is far more revered
than Toussaint as the great national hero.
Inspired by the crowning of Bonaparte in
1804, Dessalines declared himself the first emperor
of Haiti and from that time on until his
death he continued to rule a one-man power of
terrorism and brutality.</p>
<p>Upon the death of Dessalines, rival claims
were made by the various sectional chiefs for
the crown of the new Haitian Empire. Out<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</SPAN></span>
of these leaders Christophe arose in the north
as the strongest contender and after proclaiming
himself King Henry I of Haiti, he
succeeded in practically eliminating all other
leaders except Petion who was very powerful
in the south. But these two rivals were forced
to unite their forces and strength in common
cause against the French who made a new but
unfruitful effort to regain possession of the
island.</p>
<p>Petion and Christophe were opposite types.
Petion was rather easy-going and it was this
which held his followers to him rather than any
show of force. But Christophe, second only
to Dessalines as a national hero, was even more
despotic than that emperor in the treatment
of his own people.</p>
<p>It was Christophe who built the great citadel
at Cap Haitien and who, taking his architect
up to show him the view from the cliff, pitched
him into eternity lest he might disclose his<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</SPAN></span>
knowledge of the secret passages which he had
designed. In building the Citadel, the ascent
was so steep as to make almost beyond the limits
of human endurance the carrying up of
heavy building materials. It is said that the
5000 men assigned to do this work refused,
and, upon hearing of this, Christophe had the
men lined up and every other man killed. He
then commanded the remaining 2500 to complete
the task or they should receive the same
fate as the others.</p>
<p>But this iron rule of Christophe proved to
be a boomerang for him and a man named
Boyer, who was by this time the leader in the
south, marched northward and declared Haiti
a republic and himself its first president. The
north was tired of Christophe and willingly
joined in with the cause of Boyer. Under
Boyer, Santo Domingo declared herself independent
and in allegiance to President Boyer<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</SPAN></span>
of Haiti, who thus became chief of the entire
island.</p>
<p>The next event was the demand by France
for indemnity and Boyer acceded to this demand
on condition that France sign a treaty
acknowledging the independence of Haiti.
This was agreed to and two treaties were
signed, but the indemnity always remained
practically unpaid, for revolution after revolution
made a collection of the indemnity through
a blockade impossible.</p>
<p>After the death of Boyer, strong rule was
lacking for a long time and the government
was ever-changing, being overthrown by each
succeeding revolution. This was largely due
to the fact that there was no ruler who was acceptable
to both the blacks and the mulattoes,
who were now the two constantly opposed
factors. It is said that the Haitian flag of
red and blue was formed from the French by<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</SPAN></span>
eliminating the white even as the white race
had been eliminated from the island, and leaving
only the blue for the blacks and the red
for the mullatoes. Nevertheless it is certain
that these two remaining colors could not live
in harmony together. No rule was long stable
and frequent and serious uprisings which resulted
in interference with the foreigners in
Haiti caused the diplomatic corps many a
critical problem. Law and order were unknown
and few were the presidents of that
period who died a natural death.</p>
<p>Finally, in 1915, the climax came. President
Sam was driven from his palace by
the mob, and chased by them through the
streets. Finally they followed him when he
sought refuge in the French territory of the
legation and he was there massacred and cut to
shreds before the eyes of the wife and children
of the French minister. Intervention by the
French was naturally imminent, but in order to<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</SPAN></span>
preserve the integrity of the Monroe Doctrine,
America took the lead and forced the existing
government of Haiti to accept a treaty which
temporarily allows America a sufficiently free
hand in Haiti to maintain law and order and to
help the Haitians build up a civilized and
stable government.</p>
<p>And so it is that we are to-day visiting Haiti
and that it is now possible to travel in a country
which was previously in the throes of continual
unrest. Whereas before the Occupation,
practically no administration was able to complete
its term of office, foreign business was
unable to hazard investments and personal
safety was uncertain; protection is now afforded
to the foreigner who comes to Haiti,
and equality of treatment in public for all
colors is the rule.</p>
<hr class="chap" />
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</SPAN></span></p>
<h2><SPAN name="IV" id="IV">IV</SPAN></h2>
<h3>VAUDOUX</h3>
<p>Haiti is one of the few countries
where State and Church still remain
united, and to-day the Catholic clergy
are under government pay. Roman Catholicism
first became the Haitian religion when, in
1836, the Pope was declared its head and given
the authority to appoint its bishops. The
priests are almost uniformly upright men who
are working along beneficial lines among the
natives and are one of the leading forces for
good in the country.</p>
<p>The masses in Haiti, however, do not believe
in straight Catholicism but in Vaudouxism.
This creed is of African origin and was introduced
into Haiti when the black slaves were
brought over by the Spanish and French. To<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</SPAN></span>
these original beliefs they have slowly accumulated
a few Indian superstitions and very
many of the ceremonies and attributes of
Christianity, so that Vaudouxism as it exists
in Haiti to-day is a unique religion.</p>
<div class="figcenter bord" style="width: 450px;"><SPAN name="women" id="women"></SPAN>
<ANTIMG src="images/illus_073.jpg" width-obs="450" height-obs="249" alt="women" />
<div class="caption"><p class="center">WOMEN CARRYING IN TO MARKET BASKETS WHICH THEY
HAVE MADE. LIKE EVERYTHING ELSE THEY ARE CARRIED
ON THEIR HEADS</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="figcenter bord" style="width: 450px;"><SPAN name="cathedral" id="cathedral"></SPAN>
<ANTIMG src="images/illus_074.jpg" width-obs="450" height-obs="249" alt="cathedral" />
<div class="caption"><p class="center">THE CATHEDRAL</p>
</div>
</div>
<p>Vaudoux is the deity of the Vaudouxists and
is represented as a venomless serpent. The
human leader of the creed is a high priest selected
by the followers of Vaudoux from
among themselves and is known as Papaloi,
and he in turn selects a high priestess who is
called Mamanloi (corruptions of the words
Papa Roi and Maman Roi). In these two
personages is supposed to be the divine spark.
But, mixed with this pure Vaudouxism, there
is much Christian ceremony, such as the inclusion
of the worship of the Virgin Mary and
the observance of Easter Day.</p>
<p>Like all primitive religious cults, the Vaudouxists
include in their rites sacrifices and
self-inflicted punishments. Animals of various<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</SPAN></span>
kinds are sacrificed at each meeting of
Vaudouxists and the highest offering is the
snow-white sacred goat. To the rhythm of
Vaudoux drums or tom-toms, the worshippers
dance themselves into excited passions for hour
after hour, until the chief dancers, who alone
remain, finally fall from utter exhaustion.
During this dance the men eat pieces of glass
and, dancing upon red-hot coals, they place
burning pieces of charcoal in their mouth.
And we read of the asceticism of the Middle
Ages and think of it as a bygone phrase!</p>
<p>Often at the Vaudoux meetings the participants
become maddened by the liquor and
revel, and debauchery finally prevails in its
lowest forms, until the meeting breaks up at
dawn. But the endurance of the chief dancers
who continue for five, six and seven hours without
ceasing for a moment, is truly marvelous.</p>
<p>So great is the fear of Vaudoux inbred in
the Haitian that even with those who are civilized<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</SPAN></span>
and cultured, many remain in awe of
Vaudoux or are restrained from exerting their
influence against it through fear of poisoning,
for the Haitians are arch-poisoners. And
thus, though many Haitians of the upper
classes are nominally good Catholics, they are
still to a more or less extent subservient to
Vaudoux superstitions and avoid openly opposing
the demonstrations of it by their countrymen.</p>
<p>Many of the presidents of Haiti were themselves
Vaudoux priests and but two among
them took any active measures toward repressing
it. These two were Geffrard and Boisson-Canal
and the act meant their downfall, for
Vaudouxism is habitually aided or winked at
by the Government. Toussaint L'Overture
was an out-and-out Catholic and took definite
measures against Vaudouxism, but in his day
the beliefs were not so strong and it was much
easier to repress its practice.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</SPAN></span></p>
<p>It is now impossible for the Vaudouxists to
openly hold their meetings near the towns and
they are forced to find some rendezvous among
the hills. But in the towns the natives still
hold their dances, where they dance the weird
"bambeula" to the beat of the tom-tom very
much as they do at the real Vaudoux meetings.
The tom-toms are made out of a hollow log and
two skins which are made taut over each end of
the log. The tom-tom beater is skilled and as
particular about his instrument and how it is
tuned up (by tightening or loosening the bindings
of the skins) as any violinist. The tom-tom
beater knows many different native tunes.</p>
<p>And so Vaudouxism still prevails the driving
religious force of most Haitians. The
most uncivilized are out-and-out worshippers
and regularly attend the Vaudoux rendezvous,
but the higher classes are ashamed to confess
their subservience to Vaudouxism to foreigners
and consequently many pose as Catholics<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</SPAN></span>
although sometimes they are themselves Papalois.
And then there are those Haitians who are
truly Catholics, and these are in most cases
those who have been educated abroad. They
are usually of the younger generation. But
as I have shown they dislike intensely to come
out openly against the practice of Vaudouxism
by other Haitians.</p>
<p>The elimination of Vaudouxism, in fact,
rests almost entirely upon the shoulders of the
Americans. And this elimination is imperative
for Vaudouxism is, not so much a religious evil,
but an unmoral and uncivilizing factor. It is
Vaudouxism, too, which makes more difficult
the fighting of the cacos; for Vaudoux priests
have, through their hold upon the religious
fear of the Vaudouxists, tremendous power
over all their doings. Upon the sounding of a
Vaudoux drum the priest can very often do
about what he wants with his followers. Probably
all of the caco chiefs are Vaudoux priests<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</SPAN></span>
and thus hold together bands which, freed from
religious scruples, would abandon their purpose
of brigandry. For example, in the January
raid, many of the cacos who had been
wounded, admitted that they had gone into
the attack only because of their belief that the
Vaudoux charms which they wore made them
invulnerable.</p>
<p>One Sunday while I was waiting at the
Gendarme headquarters at Leogane there
was being held there the weekly meeting of
the "Communale" and the Gendarme officer
told me that the chief of this force was one of
the natives who had always joined in every
revolution which had reached that part of the
country and the third chief was formerly an
ally of the great caco leader, Charlemagne. A
strange band, certainly, to be the guardians
of law and order. But it was, after all, reasonable.
These men were the most intelligent
in their neighborhood and then of course it was<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</SPAN></span>
infinitely better to have such men in a place
where their salaries would keep them law-abiding
than to have them outside the law and inciting
trouble against a less capable government
force.</p>
<p>It is very difficult to establish any sort of
efficient and just civil force because of the
ignorance of the vast majority of the Haitian
population. The number of intelligent, or
partly intelligent men in a country district is
small, and it is the intelligent men in these sections
who are usually in league with the cacos,
either openly or secretly. And with the
magistrates there is another obstacle which
prevents the execution of justice. Ever since
the beginnings of Haitian history, graft has
been so natural and accepted a thing with government
officials that it is inborn in the present
generation and time alone will ever wipe it out.</p>
<p>At present with a large number of the
magistrates impartial judgment is unknown<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</SPAN></span>
and the local law verdict goes to the highest
bidder. First one side buys up the judge and
then the other until finally one party is forced
to give in through lack of resources. The
chief drawback in attempting to eliminate such
graft is the ridiculously low pay given to a
magistrar. It is but natural for a judge to
seek outside gains in order that he may earn a
living. When a Haitian dies, and some of the
more prosperous of them have accumulated
fortunes of over a hundred thousand dollars,
the heirs or even outsiders who are on the spot
loot his wealth and leave nothing for any absent
members of the family. The latter are
unable to obtain justice later because the first-comers
have carefully bought up the local officials
with a portion of their new gains.</p>
<p>This unfair state of local government can
be remedied only slowly and by the gradual
elimination of the idea of graft as an expected<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</SPAN></span>
right of a government official. But as I have
pointed out the raising of the magistrate's salary
is a prerequisite. The low salary now
paid is of course due to the lack of funds which
hinders the development of the country at
every turn.</p>
<div class="figcenter bord" style="width: 450px;"><SPAN name="source" id="source"></SPAN>
<ANTIMG src="images/illus_084.jpg" width-obs="450" height-obs="303" alt="source" />
<div class="caption"><p class="center">A SOURCE OF THE GREATEST GOOD—THE ROMAN CATHOLIC
SISTERS AT ONE OF THE MANY CONVENTS ON THE ISLAND</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="figcenter bord" style="width: 450px;"><SPAN name="head" id="head"></SPAN>
<ANTIMG src="images/illus_087.jpg" width-obs="450" height-obs="313" alt="head" />
<div class="caption"><p class="center">THE HEAD NURSE AT THE PUBLIC HOSPITAL WITH HER CORPS
OF HAITIAN NURSES</p>
</div>
</div>
<p>Under the provisions of the American
treaty with Haiti, the entire financial situation
was placed, during the duration of the treaty,
in the hands of a financial advisor, who, having
been nominated by the President of the United
States, is appointed by the President of Haiti.
Addison P. Ruan was the first appointee and
served in Haiti for two years until he was
transferred to take the same post in Panama.
Following Mr. Ruan, John A. McIlhenny
came to Haiti and, realizing like his predecessor
the urgent need for money with which to
develop the country, he has been steadily at
work to put through a Haitian loan in the<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</SPAN></span>
United States. This is of course at present
impossible due to the abnormal financial situation
in this country.</p>
<p>The financial advisor in Haiti has the authority
to make all appropriations of the state
money and his word is final as to their expenditure.
In this respect Haiti is being run, during
the treaty period, in very much the same
way as India is governed by England, except
that no treasurer is needed in Haiti, as the
Haitian National Bank serves that purpose.</p>
<hr class="chap" />
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</SPAN></span></p>
<h2><SPAN name="V" id="V">V</SPAN></h2>
<h3>PUBLIC EDUCATION AND NORMIL CHARLES</h3>
<p>M. Dantes Bellegarde,
Minister of Public Instruction,
had told us that he would be glad
to show us through the schools of Port-au-Prince.
We therefore arranged a date and
set out one morning to make the tour. With
us went also the American Advisor to the
department, Mr. Bourgeois.</p>
<p>At the time the treaty was made between
Haiti and the United States, no provision was
arranged for the Department of Education,
as was done with the Sanitary and Engineering
Departments. Thus the development
made possible through the more direct assistance
from Washington has been unattainable
in the school work, and although the work we<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</SPAN></span>
saw being carried on was a remarkably inspiring
demonstration of accomplishments, yet the
small proportion which is being done of what
could be done if greater means were available
is quite discouraging. It is the same cry as
one raises on every hand: If only they had the
means!</p>
<p>Two years ago, three years after the treaty
was signed, Mr. Bourgeois came to Haiti, but
only in the capacity of an Advisor responsible
to the Haitian Government alone and not as
a league official. His force is largely restricted
to negative powers.</p>
<p>It is indeed fortunate that a mind of remarkable
keenness and a power for practical
work exists in the person of the present Minister,
M. Bellegarde. But should a man of
lesser force take his place, as has happened
within recent years, the result would be deplorable.
Also, M. Bellegarde could carry his
work much further if he had the proper financial<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</SPAN></span>
and other material aid of the United States
Educational Department.</p>
<p>Although compulsory educations is legally
a fact, there is, in reality, a force of teachers
and equipment for but 18,000 of the 200,000
children of the proper age. Many of these
children are in the country districts where good
teachers, who even in the city are at a premium,
are almost an unknown factor. This feature
is being remedied as far as practicable, all
the time, and the teachers in the rural schools
are being carefully examined. Some of these
have been found to be utterly unable to correct
their pupils' simple exercises and these teachers
are being dropped. But, though it is thus
very simple to drop an incompetent teacher, it
is a manifold more difficult task to replace him.
The pay for teachers is $6 per month and so,
even low as wages are in Haiti, the position
of teacher is not so lucrative as to have very
many applicants.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</SPAN></span></p>
<p>The salaries cannot be raised. It is the old
story of lack of money. Nearly half of the
annual appropriation for public instruction is
being swallowed up by the present salaries of
the present number of teachers. The remainder
is naturally barely sufficient to maintain
the existing schools. No new advances
are possible.</p>
<p>Fortunately, besides the public schools of
Haiti, there are numerous privately run ones,
nearly always under religious or parti-religious
supervision. The Catholics are the most
frequent benefactors and are doing by far the
greater part of the work. Originally, before
the present public school system was created,
these schools, missions, or convents were in
part supported by the state; but gradually this
assistance is being necessarily taken away.</p>
<p>Our first visit was to a school run by Belgian
Sisters. It was a school for girls only and was
still supported in part by the Government.<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</SPAN></span>
For the younger children the work consists
mostly of such studies as would be taught in a
primary school in the States, great stress being
laid upon the speaking of good French. This
is particularly important because the natural
tongue of the lower classes of natives is Creole,
which in Haiti consists of an ungrammatical
and corrupted language drawn principally
from the French, but also with traces of English,
Spanish and early Indian words. Some
Creole words seem to defy a tracing of their
origin. Although the natives may understand
you if you speak French to them, it is impossible
for you to make out what they say, though
you may know French perfectly.</p>
<p>"Vini non" is a Creole expression used continually
to mean "come here!" Its derivation
is certainly obscure. Nor is Creole the same
all over the republic. Each section has its
own dialect which is distinct.</p>
<p>After the children learn the first elements<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</SPAN></span>
of grammar school work, they begin to work
a part of the day at embroidery, sewing and
knitting. Thus the vocational work is gradually
increased and before the girls graduate
they are given training which fits them to be
efficient servants. Vocational schools of this
type are just what Haiti needs most of all.
They serve the double purpose of training the
natives to obtain a good living and they also
furnish a means by which the better-off may
secure good servants and workers.</p>
<p>Downstairs in the school building are the
school and work rooms—upstairs the dormitory.
The dormitory consists of one large
room covering the entire top of the house and
filled with cots for every boarder. For every
two cots there is also provided a washstand
which contains places where they may keep
their personal articles. The entire effect was
of an establishment thoroughly modern and
scrupulously clean. Besides these girls who<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</SPAN></span>
come from the country districts and board,
the school has also a great many day pupils
who live at their homes in town.</p>
<div class="figcenter bord" style="width: 450px;"><SPAN name="magi" id="magi"></SPAN>
<ANTIMG src="images/illus_097.jpg" width-obs="450" height-obs="315" alt="magi" />
<div class="caption"><p class="center">MAGISTRAR'S STAND—OF WHICH THERE IS ONE IN EVERY
TOWN</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="figcenter bord" style="width: 450px;"><SPAN name="new" id="new"></SPAN>
<ANTIMG src="images/illus_098.jpg" width-obs="450" height-obs="290" alt="new" />
<div class="caption"><p class="center">THE NEW PRESIDENT'S PALACE</p>
</div>
</div>
<p>The next school we went to was a non-vocational
one under the direction of an order of
French Brothers. It was solely for boys, just
as the first was only a girls' school, for the
morals of the country do not permit the adoption
of co-education, even though the pupils
are of the earliest ages.</p>
<p>The priests who conduct this institution are
certainly as fine a type of self-sacrificing men
who are aiding a truly worthy cause as I can
imagine. They see the tremendous possibilities
and without limiting their efforts to what
they could accomplish with a normal amount
of work they undertake almost superhuman
attempts. Of the Brothers who come to
Haiti, their average length of life after arriving
is but 12 years, so killing is their work.
The normal amount of work for a professor<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</SPAN></span>
in the United States is about 18 hours a week,
but the Brothers in Haiti teach for 8 hours
every single day. And every effort which
they put into it is unwasted and has a telling
effect in the result.</p>
<p>There are 11 grades of scholars taught by
the Brothers, from the earliest kindergarten
to the graduation class who would correspond
to high school students. The boys are given
work in geography, history, spelling, French,
mathematics and other things which would be
taught in any American school. I looked over
the copy books of the younger boys and the
neatness and excellent penmanship of even
children of six was amazing. All of the children
seemed to be naturally gifted at freehand
drawing. One little boy of eight, when
asked what his favorite subject was, replied:
"My national emblem." He drew therewith a
fine representation of a palm tree.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</SPAN></span></p>
<p>Although the order of Brothers is French,
not all of them are Frenchmen. Several are
Americans, a few Canadians and Portuguese,
and one, a Haitian Brother.</p>
<p>Our third and last visit was to the Ecôle
Normale d'lndustrie. The graduating pupils
here act as teachers of the younger ones.
This school is one of the public schools and as
we went through it, M. Bellegarde proudly
pointed to a particularly fine-looking little boy.
"That is my son." We went through many
classrooms full of scholars of different ages
studying in very much the same way as children
study in America. It seemed a cause
for hope to look at this public school through
which the Haitian children were being made
to see the advantages of education and the opportunity
to rise. When every Haitian child
will be able to have such instruction and training
then his generation will be able to throw off<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</SPAN></span>
the yoke of past superstitions and dispel the
ignorance which has been holding back the
masses.</p>
<p>Following this tour of the few schools which
time allowed us to visit, M. Bellegarde took us
to the studio of Normil Charles. M. Charles
is a Haitian sculptor who has remarkable
genius and is one of the leading sculptors of
the world. He studied in Paris for a number
of years, and has received many decorations
and honors. As we entered his studio, in front
of us we saw a huge bronze which he is doing
for the Government and which is to be placed
in the Champ de Mars. It is called "The
Benefactor" and is the statue of a great public-spirited
man. At his feet kneels a peasant
woman, with babe in arms, mourning his death.
The piece would certainly be a work of the
first class anywhere and the country may well
be proud that one of its citizens is its author.</p>
<p>In the studio, too, was the bust of Dessalines,<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</SPAN></span>
done by Charles, and which I had seen six
months before in the Pan-American Building
in Washington, where it remained for some
time.</p>
<p>M. Charles, himself, is a delightful man,
well-mannered and interesting. But he is indeed
a strange product of a country which for
so many years has been kept down by revolution
with the resulting isolation and lack of
opportunity to devote time to the pursuits of
peace.</p>
<hr class="chap" />
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</SPAN></span></p>
<h2><SPAN name="VI" id="VI">VI</SPAN></h2>
<h3>THE PRESIDENT</h3>
<p>From the studio of M. Charles, M.
Bellegarde took us to see the new palace.
It is a huge structure, quite like
a palace in appearance, and made of white
stucco. It is more than twice the size of our
White House and is shaped like the letter E,
with the three wings running back from the
front. In the main hall huge columns rise to
the ceiling and at each side a staircase winds
up to the second floor.</p>
<p>While we were starting to go through the
palace the guard had apprised President
Dartiguenave of our presence and we were
surprised and delighted to have him send word
that he would be glad to receive us. Although
the left wing of the building is to be the President's<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</SPAN></span>
private suite, it is as yet uncompleted
and he is at present occupying the opposite
end. We entered the President's office, where
he rose from his desk to meet us, and to usher
us through to the Cabinet room. This room
is large, like all the rooms—perhaps 40 feet
square—and with a long table in the center
surrounded by chairs. Here the President
meets his Cabinet.</p>
<p>The President is a man of medium height
and has the bearing of an aristocrat. His
hair and beard are gray which contribute to
his good appearance. He is rather light in
color and, indeed, is the first president for a
long time who has not been a black. The
President does not speak English but understands
and speaks French perfectly. Altogether
he is a delightful, cultured man and
a suitable head for the Republic.</p>
<p>From the balcony of the palace there is an
excellent view, overlooking the entire town and<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</SPAN></span>
the harbor beyond. The next room to visit
was the "Salle Diplomatique" where all official
receptions are held. This had just been decorated
but was as yet unfinished. The President
personally escorted us to it and afterwards
to his future private suite. He then
showed us downstairs and out to the car, where
we left both the President and M. Bellegarde.</p>
<div class="figcenter bord" style="width: 450px;"><SPAN name="white" id="white"></SPAN>
<ANTIMG src="images/illus_108.jpg" width-obs="450" height-obs="287" alt="white" />
<div class="caption"><p class="center">"WHITE WINGS" OF PORT-AU-PRINCE</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="figcenter bord" style="width: 450px;"><SPAN name="market" id="market"></SPAN>
<ANTIMG src="images/illus_111.jpg" width-obs="450" height-obs="293" alt="market" />
<div class="caption"><p class="center">MARKET WOMEN LEAVING TOWN ON THEIR "BURROS"</p>
</div>
</div>
<hr class="chap" />
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</SPAN></span></p>
<h2><SPAN name="VII" id="VII">VII</SPAN></h2>
<h3>A MORNING HUNT</h3>
<p>As I left the house one morning at two,
the yard boys next door were already
at work and in town the "white wings"—an
American institution—were about.
Three of us joggled along for 22 miles for an
early duck shoot and talked of many things,
among them concerning a proposed map of
Haiti. The existing one is grossly inaccurate
as is easily shown by an airplane flight or a
ship attempting to follow many of the channels.
There is no triangulation point in Haiti
and so the present coast line on the maps is the
result of a certain number of bearings from
off shore, with the remainder a matter of freehand
filling-in. The use of airplanes in heretofore
untried ways will be employed to aid<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</SPAN></span>
in the exact location of towns and be a means
of a great saving of tedious traverse work.</p>
<p>In town, life was already stirring, as I have
shown. This is nothing unusual for it is the
customary hour for the Haitian to begin his
day. By 6 the "gentlemen about town" are
in the streets with their canes and Stetsons,
debating the fall of the cabinet or the latest
development in the gourde situation. But out
in the country everything was still dark and
the market women had barely started to bring
their load into town. So we met no one—except
twice the marine patrol car on its route.</p>
<p>Just outside the portals marking the limits
of Port-au-Prince on which are inscribed the
words: "Peace, Justice, Work," is the historic
Pont Rouge. This is the spot where revolutionary
troops coming down from the mountains
and across the plains would first meet
the forces of the existing government of Port-au-Prince.
Here the great Dessalines, coming<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</SPAN></span>
into town at the head of his troops, met
what he believed to be a guard of his own
troops. His own general was leading them,
but had betrayed Dessalines, and the President
was soon left wounded in the roadway to die.
It had been Dessalines who, it is said, sported
himself by pulling out the eyes of his prisoners
with corkscrews.</p>
<p>The streets in Port-au-Prince are wide asphalt
pavements and would be adapted for
speeding but for the presence in the center and
sides promiscuously of unruly "burros," naked
babies playing in the dirt, odd Haitian pigs
looking like some new species of animal, and
pedestrians of strange sorts. This is true,
also, for some distance out on the Hasco road,
over which we went. But after a few miles
we came out upon one of the new roads which
has been put down throughout the island by
the Haitian Government under the supervision
of the Gendarmerie and of an engineering<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</SPAN></span>
force loaned to them by the United States.
In all, about 500 miles of excellent roadways
have been put down since the American intervention.</p>
<p>In this work the budget system is now used
and as every payment is actually handed out
by one of the American engineers himself, the
graft which was formerly rampant has been
eliminated. In the days of pre-American intervention
a sum of, let us assume, $50,000 was
voted to build a road. $5,000 of this regularly
went to the President and $500 to each Senator
who would vote for the appropriation. This
left, generally, about $10,000, or one-fifth, for
actual road building work.</p>
<p>The Haitians have proven to be good engineers
and except for the pay roll, large pieces
of work are often carried on by them without
assistance from the Americans.</p>
<p>The first part of the road which we struck
was excellent but after branching off the main<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</SPAN></span>
road to Pont Beudet we came to the new part.
Roads of this type, which is the one generally
used, are macadam with good foundation of
different sized stones and 20 feet in width.
The top dressing is a good binding gravel
which can be found within short distances
along almost all of the roads which they are
now building. A temporary track is run from
each gravel pit along the side of the road until
a mile or so on another pit is dug and the rails
taken up and laid down from the new pit on.
The gravel is thus carried to where it is needed
by a small engine and a few cars. There is in
this way no long-distance hauling.</p>
<p>Finally we turned off the new road to a
clearing through a cactus desert at the edge of
Lake Troucaiman. Above either shore two
mountain ranges run parallel for miles, far
above the lake. The lake itself is open water
in the central portion but by far the greater
part is filled with a mass of lily, mangrove and<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</SPAN></span>
reed growth. Often it is so dense as to be entirely
impenetrable.</p>
<p>When we arrived at Troucaiman it was not
yet daylight and only the candles in the few
"cailles" along the road could be seen. Upon
the approach of the car, five or six natives appeared,
knowing from past experience what
we had come for, and with our French and
their Creole, interspersed by numerous gestures,
we made our plans. Each of us started
out, alone in his own tiny dugout of about a
foot wide and four feet long and with his own
native in the back to pole him about. The
guides had taken off the few rags which they
wore and one by one we were shoved off. Part
of the time we were poled, part of the time the
craft stuck and the native had to wade along
beside to keep us going.</p>
<p>We went on and on in the blackness until
finally one could distinguish black shapes arising
from the water or whirring past. It came<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</SPAN></span>
at last—the gray dawn for which we had been
waiting. A teal went overhead with its characteristic
rapid flight. A slower-flying redhead
and later a scaup passed. And all
around were hundreds upon hundreds of
Egrets, great white forms which flappingly
arose when we approached too near.</p>
<p>To the natives there are four kinds of ducks:
"gens-gens," which is a species of tree duck;
"cécele" or blue-winged teal; "cucurem" or
ruddy duck; and any other duck is known as
"canard generale." All of the first three species
are abundant, as are also the scaup, baldpate,
redhead and Bahaman pintail.</p>
<p>We met at nine on the shore, which by daylight
looked very different than when we had
left it, and after some refreshments and comparing
of our respective bags, we started home.
There are no game laws in Haiti, so that your
bag is only limited by your lack of skill. Half
way in to Port-au-Prince is the spot where two<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</SPAN></span>
months before three Haitian engineers had
been murdered in the "caille" where they were
spending the night. The men were working
on the road I have spoken of, but as the caco
trouble had been active in that district just
before the men were murdered, these men had
been duly forewarned not to spend the night.</p>
<p>Frequently I used to go out on these shooting
trips, but not always to Troucaiman. Two
other spots were alternated, Miragôane in the
west and the salt lakes beyond Troucaiman.
These salt lakes are two decidedly brackish
bodies of water which lie on the border of Haiti
and Santo Domingo. They are at the end
of the Plain of the Cul-de-Sac, and a few miles
beyond the town of Thomaseau. The water
is as clear as a crystal and the scenery amid
these wonderful lakes and the mountains above
them is splendid.</p>
<p>In the opposite direction, and 70 miles west
of Port-au-Prince, is Lake Miragôane. It is<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</SPAN></span>
just beyond Petit Gôave. The lake is large,
being about eight miles long. In a part of
the lake we had particularly good teal shooting
and by moonlight thousands of "gens-gens"
would come in to feed in the shallows overnight.
Long before dawn they had vanished again.</p>
<div class="figcenter bord" style="width: 450px;"><SPAN name="typical" id="typical"></SPAN>
<ANTIMG src="images/illus_121.jpg" width-obs="450" height-obs="345" alt="typical" />
<div class="caption"><p class="center">TYPICAL "CAILLE" NEAR FURCY<br/>
<i>A few banana and coffee trees (on the left) are
all that each one has</i></p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="figcenter bord" style="width: 450px;"><SPAN name="railway" id="railway"></SPAN>
<ANTIMG src="images/illus_122.jpg" width-obs="450" height-obs="289" alt="railway" />
<div class="caption"><p class="center">RAILWAY TO LEOGANE</p>
</div>
</div>
<p>It is a difficult lake to shoot upon, however.
The mud flats from the shore are long and
reach far out into the lake so that it is practically
impossible to use a dugout for some distance.
Thus it was necessary to walk out in
shallow water and deep mud. The water,
very unlike the salt lake water, was thick,
filthy and always gave one an itching sensation
for hours after having been in it.</p>
<p>Beside the duck shooting at Miragôane,
there is excellent snipe shooting during certain
seasons and good guinea shooting also. It is
a strange thing to have guineas in Haiti.
The guinea is a native of Africa which only
reached the new world in a domesticated state.<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</SPAN></span>
The present birds are descendants of the domesticated
ones left by the French planters
during the revolution and which have reverted
to the wild state in the intervening generations.
Doves, as everywhere in Haiti are also abundant,
and form a good shoot and a good meal.</p>
<hr class="chap" />
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</SPAN></span></p>
<h2><SPAN name="VIII" id="VIII">VIII</SPAN></h2>
<h3>PINE NEEDLES</h3>
<p>The mountains had changed from green
to violet and from violet to black and
the new moon silhouetted the peaks
from 10,000 foot summits to the sea. From
Furcy, the next range to the east seemed within
hands' reach across the valleys and hills as
its mountains rose ten miles or ten hours by
trail away. Our sweaters and blankets felt
barely enough as the wind howled around us.
With closed eyes we knew from its tell-tale
sound that pine trees surrounded us and that
the winds were blowing stronger and stronger
through their needles.</p>
<p>We climbed the hill with difficulty over the
slippery matting of pine needles to pick
bananas along the road. And we were in the<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</SPAN></span>
tropics, with pine cones, palm and bananas
growing side by side. Thanking Providence
that I am alive while such country still exists,
untouched by man's civilization, I gazed for
dozens of miles over several mountain ranges
with their valleys and hills overlapping to the
sea on two sides of the island. These bits of
water looked far away indeed.</p>
<p>With only a rough, mountain-stream bed
winding for miles to the nearest town, we were
apart by so much from white man—but in
point of effect upon the country as far as before
Columbus saw the first redskin when he
landed on the north shore of the island.</p>
<p>Tucked away in the valleys we could see the
lights of many native "cailles" and we knew
that there were many more unseen. With
plaster and sticks for walls they are roofed by
thatching of straw overhanging the walls and
sloping up to a peak. In every part of Haiti
they are there, each the same with its 2 or 3<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</SPAN></span>
coffee trees, its few bananas and that is about
all. Along the road are the market women.
Every so often, perhaps once a week, they take
their bananas or coffee to town, a walk for
some of 18 hours' steady going, to sell it at the
Port-au-Prince market for about 50 cents
gold.</p>
<p>And the natives are satisfied—in fact they
do not want things to be any different. They
have enough to live on and have no desires
which more energy would gratify. For amusement
they have their cock fights, when all the
neighborhood gathers and each man brings his
trained rooster. And in the evenings they
have their native dances with tom-tom music
and native rum, <i>taffia</i>, <i>clairin</i> and <i>rum</i>, the
first entirely unrefined, the second somewhat
refined, and the third refined, though very
often not of an excellent grade. But some
Haitian rum can be easily obtained which is<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</SPAN></span>
excellent and of just about as good quality as
Jamaica rum.</p>
<p>And then, of course, besides the bananas
and coffee which they sell, the natives in the
hills burn charcoal and carry this, whenever
they need money, to town for 60 cts. a donkey
load.</p>
<p>We had left Port-au-Prince in the morning
by car to Petionville, 1200 feet above the sea,
and from there had changed to horseback.
With our pack-mules and gendarme guides
we left Petionville at noon and started the
winding trail up the first mountain range.
The going was slow as the trail is mostly steep
and in places merely a stream-bed filled with
loose rocks. Within the first hour we were
far up and could look upon Petionville just
below us and beyond it the broad plain of the
Cul-de-Sac with its many squares of bright
green sugar cane cut in the brown-gray cactus<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</SPAN></span>
land. As a background for this flat valley
rose the mountains of Mirebalais continuing
beyond the ends of the plain to the sea and to
the salt lakes. Just this side of the salt lakes
was a mass of water and reeds, looking very
insignificant, which was the familiar Troucaiman.
It was like an aërial photograph of this
entire section of the country but with perspective
and magnificently varied coloration.</p>
<p>And so we went on over the second range
to get our first glimpse of Kenskoff—a tiny
mountain village half-way up the third mountain
slope. We climbed up the winding trails
which sometimes consisted of cuts through the
mountains, but generally paths cut in the
mountainside, with the crest high above us and
the base far below. At Kenskoff is a tiny white
chapel with the Pope's flag of white and yellow
marking it from a long distance. This outpost
of Christianity is visited perhaps once a<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</SPAN></span>
month by the priest of the neighborhood on
his rounds.</p>
<p>After watering our horses and having a few
eggs and sandwiches, we left Kenskoff and
the mountains became more barren. A red-tailed
hawk soared in the valley below us and
from the roadside we flushed flocks of mourning
dove at every curve. And then we reached
Furcy, and around the side of the mountain
we suddenly came upon the entire panorama
of each succeeding range rolling up from the
distant ones, which were in Santo Domingo, to
drop from 10,000 feet to the valley below us
and rise again to our pathway of about one
mile high.</p>
<p>It was a clear night with a new moon, so
only a few tiny clouds floated below us in the
valleys and above only the black and gold of a
starlit night.</p>
<div class="figcenter bord" style="width: 450px;"><SPAN name="on" id="on"></SPAN>
<ANTIMG src="images/illus_132.jpg" width-obs="450" height-obs="283" alt="on" />
<div class="caption"><p class="center">ON THE ST. MARC ROAD AFTER THE HEAVY RAINS</p>
</div>
</div>
<hr class="chap" />
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</SPAN></span></p>
<h2><SPAN name="IX" id="IX">IX</SPAN></h2>
<h3>COTTON</h3>
<p>The week before Christmas we started
off on a motor trip as the guests of
Mr. and Mrs. H. P. Davis. Mr. Davis
is the Vice-President of the United West Indies
Corporation, an American concern which
is engaged in developing the resources of
Haiti. Although operating throughout the
Republic, the largest plantation of the company
is near St. Michel in the north-central
portion, where for miles the country is a vast
fertile plain and thus peculiarly valuable as
agricultural land. The soil is virgin—untouched
and unused except in the early Spanish
days, centuries ago, for cattle grazing. That
part of Haiti near and to the westward of
St. Michel was never in the possession of the<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</SPAN></span>
French as was the rest of the Republic, but
was held by the Spanish until driven back to
the present Dominican border by the Haitians
themselves.</p>
<p>The first day's ride of about seven hours
brought us to St. Michel. The route from
Port-au-Prince for two-thirds of the way is
along the bay to Gonaïves. From there the
road goes directly inland. The country
through which one passes during these hours
contains many changes, for from the fertile
plains outside of Port-au-Prince, where castor
bean and sugar cane are growing, there is
suddenly a cessation of verdant growth beyond
St. Marc, and for miles a near-desert
stretches out. The road is merely a clearing
of the cactus growth which closes in on either
side and consists of queer-looking species of
cacti. The soil is sandy, the air humid, and
the thorny mass on every side impenetrable.
Every now and then we would pass partly<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</SPAN></span>
wild mules kicking down the trunk of a cactus
to drink the water it contained; and as we
passed, some of the natives would rush madly
into the bushes from fright. It is not so long
since they saw their first motor and they are
still filled with fear when one appears.</p>
<p>From the plains of Dessalines, a few miles
south of Gonaïves, there is an excellent view
of the three old Haitian forts in the mountains
back of the plain. Here the Haitiens retreated
to wait until the forces should come
across the plains to attack them. It is easy
to see how difficult it was for any force to
attempt to attack the Haitians when once intrenched
in their forts, situated on cliffs and
with hidden trails leading to them.</p>
<p>Stopping for a moment in the plains, we
saw a woman coming up to the car. We
found out that she wished to sell her baby if
she could get a few gourdes (20-cent pieces
of our money but corresponding in Haiti to a<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</SPAN></span>
dollar) for it. Again at Gonaïves a small boy
begged us to take him home and keep him, in
exchange for which he would do any work we
might wish. This sort of temporary slavery
which many children enter into or are sold into
by their parents lasts generally until they are
of age, during which time they do any work
which you may assign them to. It is a common
custom.</p>
<p>From Gonaïves the road to St. Michel passes
through Ennery and it was on the outskirts of
this town that we stopped for luncheon. The
spot was a clearing in a forest with huge ancient
trees and little coffee bushes surrounding.
In the clearing were the stone pillars,
some still erect, some fallen, of what was once
the palace of Toussaint L'Overture.</p>
<p>Beyond Ennery there is a stiff climb for a
number of miles until finally one comes out on
the plateau which constitutes the plains of St.
Michel. Passing through the town, which is<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</SPAN></span>
at the southern end of the plain of Atalaye, we
went a short distance before arriving at the
headquarters of the plantation. Here we spent
the night. The main building is a very attractive
structure, all the rooms of which except
the kitchen and office being on the second
floor. All around is a second-story veranda
supported by wooden posts from below. We
sat late watching the headlights of the tractors
moving about ceaselessly over the plains.</p>
<p>The next day was spent in looking over the
plantation and seeing the new long staple cotton
which they are growing in large quantities.
Also, in the afternoon we had a long
ride across the plains and afterward a guinea
and dove shoot.</p>
<p>At 6 on the morning of the second day we
started out in our car for Cap Haitien. After
passing Ennery the road begins to climb up
and up, gaining the steep ascent only by curving
and recurving along the side of each mountain<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</SPAN></span>
slope. The range was the Puilboreaux
Mountains which climatically divide the island
into the north and south. In Port-au-Prince
and all of southern Haiti we were in the middle
of the dry season, as I have said. But after we
were over the summit of Puilboreaux all was
changed. The foliage, which on the southern
slope was dry, was now verdant and profuse,
the road muddy instead of dusty and everywhere
flowers of all kinds flourished. Each
woods had the orchids out in bloom.</p>
<p>Once over the top of Puilboreau, the view
is wonderful. Mountains miles away look very
near and just below it seems, though it is really
far, lies the valley of Plaisance with the little
white buildings of the town tucked away in the
center.</p>
<p>Before reaching the Cap, as Cap Haitian is
called throughout Haiti, it is necessary to ford
the Limbé River. Normally this is very simple
and a motor will cross over without any<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</SPAN></span>
trouble. Sometimes, however, in the floods
of the rainy season it becomes impassable and
crossing is impossible for days at a time. When
we arrived it was doubtful, but we were informed
that with the aid of the prisoners in
the gendarme prison there, it would be possible.
We started, pulled by a rope, pushed by
forty black figures with rags to indicate the
prison cloth, out into midstream under the direction
of a gendarme. But half way out we
stuck, the car filled with water to the seats and
only after everyone was up to his neck in
water beside the car helping to push it, did
we finally arrive on the other side.</p>
<p>Cap Haitien is to-day not a very important
town, compared to Port-au-Prince, but it was
the capital in the French days, and the center
of a large amount of commerce. It shows, unlike
other towns, decided traces of the Spanish
architecture. The harbor is beautiful and along
the side there runs a drive to the eastward.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</SPAN></span></p>
<p>The great sight of the north I did not see.
It is the Citadel and Sans Souci, the palace
of Christophe. In the mountains far above
the Cap the Citadel lay surrounded by mist
except for a few minutes early the next morning,
when the clouds were swept away and
we got one glimpse of the Citadel. But we
were unable to take the trail which winds up
to the palace and the Citadel because of the
heavy rains which at that time flooded the region.</p>
<div class="figcenter bord" style="width: 450px;"><SPAN name="haitian" id="haitian"></SPAN>
<ANTIMG src="images/illus_143.jpg" width-obs="450" height-obs="254" alt="haitian" />
<div class="caption"><p class="center">HAITIAN WOMEN WASHING THEIR CLOTHES IN A DITCH</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="figcenter bord" style="width: 450px;"><SPAN name="american" id="american"></SPAN>
<ANTIMG src="images/illus_144.jpg" width-obs="450" height-obs="263" alt="american" />
<div class="caption"><p class="center">THE AMERICAN CLUB</p>
</div>
</div>
<hr class="chap" />
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</SPAN></span></p>
<h2><SPAN name="X" id="X">X</SPAN></h2>
<h3>GOURDES</h3>
<p>The blood of the present-day Haitian is
largely a mixture of French and black.
The Indian aborigines were totally
eliminated from Haiti by the Spaniard, so that
unlike the most of Latin America, the Indians
or their descendants form no part of the population.
The Spaniard, in turn, was driven
from Haiti by the French before he had left
much of an imprint and his blood forms a negligible
factor to-day. The English, although in
Haiti, were there so short a time as to leave
no strain of British blood. And so the French
blood is predominant.</p>
<p>Also, all the closest connections of Haiti
are still with France, or were up to the time
of the American Occupation. Creole is based<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</SPAN></span>
more fundamentally upon French than any
other language and the conversation of the
higher classes is pure French. Many Haitians
go each year to Paris to study or to visit, and
many of the most prominent are educated
there.</p>
<p>When the Americans took the leading rôle
in Haiti there naturally arose with greater
force the race question. The feeling between
black and white is so much stronger between
most Americans and the black races than it is
in the case of Europeans, that it becomes a
serious problem. It is foolishly intolerant of
the American who goes to Haiti to assume an
attitude of mental or social superiority over
the Haitian because he is a black. It would be
equally absurd for the Haitian to attempt to
break through the walls of prejudice and to
expect all Americans and Haitians to mix with
ease. Although it is most certainly true that
America has an infinitely more thorough<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</SPAN></span>
knowledge and is more capable of government
than is Haiti, yet the Haitians have what many
Americans of even the upper classes often lack,
a knowledge of culture and excellent manners.</p>
<p>There is only one sane social attitude to take
in the dealings of Haitian and American. The
American must remember, as he should when
he travels anywhere, that he is dealing with
foreigners. He must value them according to
their own standards and live his own life according
to the standards of America. Let the
American in Haiti, if he does not care to mix
with the Haitians, not do so, but when he meets
them treat them as their education and culture
entitles them to be treated.</p>
<p>The Haitians understand well the attitude
of the Americans. They saw the failure of
the attempts in the early days to mix freely.
They now are anxious to meet the American
men but wait for the Americans to take any
initiative in a social way.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</SPAN></span></p>
<p>In Port-au-Prince there is the American
Club, whose membership is limited to Americans.
It is situated on Tourgeau Street, one
of the main residential streets, and has a most
attractive clubhouse. Beside it there are two
excellent clay tennis courts, where each afternoon
the men play and are later joined for
bridge or conversation by the ladies. Opportunity
there is, too, for rum punches and cocktails,
for Haiti is one of the "wet islands."</p>
<p>Every other Saturday night and in between
time upon the arrival of a foreign warship or
some occasion of this kind, dances are held at
the Club at which either the Gendarmerie band
or a small native string orchestra play.</p>
<p>The foreign personnel in Haiti consists
chiefly of the Marine officers and treaty officials
and their families. This is supplemented
by members of the diplomatic corps and business
men who are either engaged in business
in Haiti or who are there looking over the<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</SPAN></span>
country in view of future investments. And so
there is a good-sized foreign colony, mostly
American, in Port-au-Prince, which has a social
life all of its own.</p>
<p>There are two chief Haitian clubs—the
Cercle Bellevue and the Port-au-Prince. The
latter is a young men's club and is located
on the Champ de Mars next to Brigade Headquarters.
The Cercle Bellevue is the more
representative and has a beautiful building in
the upper part of town. Its members number
as well as the Haitians, certain Americans who
have been invited to join. Frequent dances
are given by the Cercle Bellevue and they are,
like all Latin American parties, far gayer and
more elaborate than the American ones. Rarely
does a party break up before 5 a.m.</p>
<p>Nowhere in the world could more elaborate
and yet correct entertainments be given than
the Haitians have. During my visit the Argentine
warship "Nuevo de Julio" came into<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</SPAN></span>
Port-au-Prince and was the occasion for many
entertainments, among them a luncheon to the
American officers which was held on board
and to which I was invited. It was one of the
most delightful luncheons to which I have ever
been. That night a state dinner was given by
the Minister of Foreign Affairs, M. Barau,
to the Argentine Officers, and to which the
American Commanding Officer and the Officer
of the Gendarmerie were also asked.
Mme. Barau is French while her husband is
of course a Haitian. No dinner anywhere, I
was told, could have been given which would
have been more appropriate or more delightful.</p>
<p>The national standard coin of Haiti is a
gourde, which is worth 20 cents in American
money. It is made in the form of our American
dollar, and means to the Haitian about
what a dollar means to an American. About
two years ago there was a scarcity of gourdes.<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</SPAN></span>
An attempt was made to have others printed,
but as the printing is done in Washington and
at that time the printers' strike was in full
swing, it was impossible to get the gourdes
for a long time. This led to great hoarding of
the gourdes, which resulted in their becoming
even scarcer and finally in their depreciation to
below 4 for a dollar. New gourdes were being
given out when I arrived and they were back
at their normal value of 5.</p>
<p>The shops in Port-au-Prince are mostly
Haitian. The West Indies Trading Company,
an American concern, it is true, has two
large stores at which much that is in American
department stores can be purchased. But
the rest are mostly native-owned. Simon
Vieux is the leading grocery, and knick-knacks
and odds-and-ends of every description can be
gotten at "Le Paradis des Dames," "Aux
Cents Mille Artiles," and "L'Ange Gardien."</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</SPAN></span></p>
<p>It was indeed with tremendous regret that I
finally left Haiti the first week in February.
Haiti, as I have shown, has a wonderful past
in the commerce and cultivation of the French
days and in the accomplishments of the heroes
who made and kept her independent. But
these records are only a preface to what a
marvellous future she should have. Haiti is
essentially a land of the future and of possibilities
of which to-day we see only the barest
vision. The curtain has already begun to rise
upon Haiti as an agricultural land of the first
class and more and more it will be opened up
and become again the rich country which it
once was. And in the future the Haitians and
foreigners together will reap the benefit and
they will be of great mutual aid to one another.</p>
<div class="tn"><h3>Transcriber's note:</h3>
<p>Minor typographical and punctuation errors have been corrected without note. Irregularities and inconsistencies in the text have been retained as printed.</p>
</div>
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