CHAPTER 1

From the Period of its Discovery, by Columbus, to its highestState of Prosperity in 1789.

HAYTI, Hispaniola, or St. Domingo, the largest and most valuable of the WestIndia Islands, is situated in the Atlantic ocean, between the island of PuertoRico on the east, and Jamaica and Cuba on the west; a small part of the rocksand shelves which form the Bahama islands lie at no great distance to thenorth; and it is bounded on the south by the Caribbean sea, and ultimately bythe continent of South America. It lies in the latitude of 18 deg. 20 min. north,and in 68 deg. 40 min. west longitude from Greenwich. It is in length, accordingto the best accounts, more than 450 miles from east to west, and 150in breadth.

This beautiful island was the sixth discovered by the enterprising and unfortunateColumbus in his progress towards the discovery of a new world,of the honor of which, in the appropriation of a name, he was to be deprivedby the caprice of his contemporaries, in favor of an obscure adventurer, ofno other merit in the discovery, than that of having trodden in his steps. Itwas the first on which he formed a settlement, or made any stay in his firstvoyage, and appears to have afterwards received the principal marks of hisconsideration. To it he was directed by the natives of Cuba, where he hadpreviously landed, as more rich in its mines of that fertile ore with which itwas necessary to bribe the avarice of the Spaniards, to prolong that ardour ofdiscovery which it had cost him so much labour to excite.

Columbus first arrived at Hayti, for so this country was called by its natives,on the 6th day of December, 1492. He landed at a small bay, which he calledSt. Nicholas, and then named the island Espagnola, in honor of the countryby whose king he was employed: from thence he sailed along the northerncoast till he found a more convenient harbour, which he named Conception,and where he first had access to the inhabitants, through the means ofa female whom his people overtook, and prepossessed in their favor, by theusual means of trifling presents and gentle behaviour.

It is our wish to pursue in this place a sober narrative of fact, rather than togive loose to the fascinations of romantic description, or else the early Spanishwriters have handed down such accounts of the aborigines of Cuba, Hispaniola,and Jamaica, as would warrant the most extravagant eulogy on theirpersonal appearance, manners, and ingenuity. It may, however, naturally besupposed possessing the necessaries of life without labour, on a soil the mostfertile, and in a benignant climate, in a state of the utmost simplicity, andconsequently free from the general enemies to beauty, they would have personaladvantages not to be expected in their descendants under the combinedevils of slavery in a voluptuous state. Even the rigidity of history has beensoftened into the most pleasing descriptions of them: "They appeared," saysRobertson, "in the simple innocence of nature, entirely naked, their blackhair, long and uncurled, floated upon their shoulders, or was bound in tressesaround their heads.—They had no beards, and every part of their bodies wasperfectly smooth. Their complexion was of a dusky copper colour; their featuressingular, rather than disagreeable; their aspect gentle and timid; thoughnot tall, they were well shaped and active." "The industry and ingenuity of thisrace," says another elegant writer, "must have exceeded the measure of theirwants. Placed in a medium between savage life, properly so called, and therefinement of polished society, they were perhaps equally exempt from thebodily distresses and sanguinary passions of the former conditions, and fromthe artificial necessities and solicitudes of the latter." They were unquestionablythe most unoffending, gentle, and benevolent of the human race.

That there were some grounds for a belief in the ingenuity ascribed to themby Peter Martyr and others, as far as it related to their simple agriculture,and some progress in the arts of ornament as well as utility, may, perhaps, beproved by a fact of another nature which tends to illustrate the character ofthis people, while it may afford a lesson to our own times;—would that wecould not say to our own country.

When, among the numerous disasters of Columbus, he was wrecked on theeastern coast of the island, and if he had before impressed the natives withadmiration of the superior nature of their visitors, was now placed in a situationthe best calculated to prove their natural equality, and even to tempt byan unlucky opportunity any inclination to their injury, instead of the smallesthostility. Guacanahari, the cazique, or king of this division of their island, ofwhich it appeared to be governed by seven, having been informed of his misfortune,expressed great grief for his loss, and immediately sent aboard allthe people in the place in many large canoes; they soon unloaded the ship ofevery thing that was upon deck, as the king gave them great assistance: "Hehimself," says Columbus, who records it, "with his brothers and relations,took all possible care that every thing should be properly done both aboardand on shore; and from time to time he sent some of his relations weeping, tobeg of me not to be dejected, for he would give me all that he had. I can assureyour Highnesses," he adds, "that so much care would not have been taken ofsecuring our effects in any part of Spain; as all our property was put togetherin one place near his palace, until the houses which he wanted to preparefor the custody of it were emptied; he immediately placed a guard of armedmen, who watched during the whole night, and those on shore lamented asmuch as if they had been interested in our loss. They are supposed to havemigrated originally from the neighbouring continent, and are ascribed by SirWalter Raleigh to the Arrowauk tribe of Guiana.

Thus far we have preserved the necessary sobriety in collecting a descriptionof the first inhabitants of St. Domingo; but when we come to speak of theterritory itself, this caution ceases, for, no description that we have yet seenis adequate to the appearance, even at the present day, of a country which requiresall the aid of romance to imagine, much less to describe.—Of fertility,which it requires but the fostering hand of man to guide to all the purposesof life, and of a climate the most salubrious among the Antilles, and in whichlongevity is general.—"In these delightful countries too," observes Robertson,"Nature seemed to assume another form; every tree...