Puslapio vaizdai
PDF
„ePub“

lution from 1843 to 1888, there was a constantly increasing tendency on the part of persons born in Haiti partly of foreign origin or educated and reared abroad, to seek foreign nationality, the French law affording for this facilities which might result in making a considerable portion of the educated and well-to-do natives foreigners, but that tendency has recently been somewhat abated, and a late diplomatic discussion with the Government of France on the subject has resulted in an understanding satisfactory alike to both governments.

[merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

There are, as elsewhere noted, eleven ports in Haiti open to foreign commerce. Each one of them is an outlet to a comparatively large, populous, and productive country lying back of it. Generally, the exports and imports at these ports reach far beyond what one might be led to expect if one were guided by the appearance and size of the ports themselves and their immediate surroundings. For instance, careful and competent authorities have observed that the volume of business done at Port au Prince is as great as that of any other city of its size in the world. Whether or not this estimate be correct, it is true that Port au Prince is the point of outlet and source of supply to a populous back country extending for miles north, south, and east, and this is also true of Cape Haitien and Jacmel.

The seaports of Haiti impress unfavorably the newcomer to the Antilles and Central America, because he finds there very little of the aspect of neatness and prosperity that characterizes the towns and cities farther north. The wharves, where there are any at all, present a dilapidated appearance; the port service is not always prompt or efficient; the streets and sidewalks are poorly kept; of pavement, there is almost none; the stores and dwellings bear an irregular look; hotels are scarce and poor enough at best; in some places, the streets are not lighted, and the roads leading into and throughout the interior are in a very bad condition. Some of the causes for this disagreeable state of things are

Bull. 62- 4

49

earthquakes, as at Cape Haitien; fires, revolutions, governmental indifference at the port, and a general lack of confidence heretofore in the stability of things for the immediate future. Of course, there can be no guarantee against earthquakes, but it is to be observed that there has not, for many years, been any serious damage from that source. In regard to the other causes indicated, the general impression is that the Haitian people have, after all, profited by their sad experiences of the past, that it has finally and fully dawned upon them that revolutions not only bring no lasting gain to anybody there, but that they would now expose their country to great injury from without.

It can with confidence be stated that no Haitian of intelligence. now thinks it possible to keep his country in isolation or out of line in the onward march of the nations. With these prevailing opinions and with other favorable forces at work, it may be hoped that order and development will obtain in Haiti. The tendency of things there is clearly against irregular changes of government. Following in the order of geographical situation and beginning at the northwestern one of them, the open ports are as follows:

(1) Cape Haitien, or, as it is universally called in Haiti, “the Cape," is the second in size and importance in the Republic and is by many considered as the most picturesque city of all in the island. It is situated at the foot of a hill which slopes gradually to the sea. It fronts a commodious harbor and is hemmed in on three sides by mountains. Its population is estimated at 29,000 souls.* Under the rule of the French, it was the gay capital of the colony, and its wealth and splendors and luxury gained for it the name Little Paris, or the Paris of Santo Domingo. It was

*The estimates given in this chapter of the population of the towns and communes are taken from the "Nouvelle Géographie de l'Ile d'Haiti par Dantes Fortunate," (edition of 1888), which was issued under Government encouragement, and is used as a text-book in the public schools and colleges of the Republic. It is apparent that M. Fortunate, who had special facilities for preparing his work, has, in giving his estimates of the population of cities and towns, here and there confounded it with that of their entire communes. At all events, his estimates seem rather liberal, though in the aggregate, they do not exceed those given for the entire population.

[graphic][merged small]
« AnkstesnisTęsti »