SCENES IN THE BLACK REPUBLICS.
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We know, from the preceding chapter, what was the fate of the aboriginal Indians found here by Columbus, and that of their descendants. They have long since been exterminated, and in their beautiful country now live these worthless blacks and mulattoes. In Hayti the negroes predominate, and in Domingo the mulattoes. Both republics are sunk in the depths of barbarism, and they have proven that the negro is not capable of governing himself. To ascertain the cause of this condition of things now existing in Hayti, we must appeal to history. We shall find that in this island, where African slavery was first introduced into America, was also set up the first government by the negroes themselves. The great expenditure of money, soldiers, planters, and sailors by the Spaniards, and their unsurpassed cruelties, in the end availed them nothing ; for three centuries after its discovery they were entirely dispossessed. In 1691, the western half of the island was ceded to France. In 1792, in the San Domingo portion, horrible atrocities were committed by the mulattoes upon the whites ; a war of races was now going on, which lasted many years, until the mulattoes were left in possession. In 1793, while the French RÊvolution was raging, the whites and blacks of Hayti were also struggling for supremacy ; terrible massacres of the white people followed, and all the horrors of the French Revolution were transferred across the Atlantic to Hayti. In 1795, Spain ceded to France the eastern part of the island. The negroes were emancipated by the French, and they have been exempt from slavery ever since. But they desired to be politically independent of France, and in 1801 the whole island was declared independent, with the now famous Toussaint L’Ouverture as supreme chief, or president for life. Napoleon, in order to reduce the colony under subjection to France, sent twenty-five thousand troops to Hayti. The blacks were compelled to retire to the mountains, and Toussaint was seized and carried prisoner to France, where he died in prison, in 1803. A negro named Dessalines succeeded to the com-