308 Notes on Haiti. [SEPT 



The uncultivated appearance of the country on approaching it from the 

 sea has been already noticed. " The same character prevails, though 

 to a less extent, on riding through it ; for although occasional patches 

 of cultivation do present themselves, they are so few when compared 

 with the dense masses of rank natural vegetation, as to sink into the 

 shade." Thus, to a stranger, the beautiful plain of the Cul-de-sac 

 would seem to be an old forest of logwood and of acacia ; although 

 within the last thirty years it was covered with sugar establishments not 

 inferior to any in the world. The cultivation of the sugar cane has 

 almost entirely ceased j and coffee is now the only important article for 

 exportation. 



To resist an attack of fever, the consul, in August, had a short cruise 

 in one of His Majesty's ships, during which he visited Cape Nicholas 

 Mole, of which, and its vicinity, he gives a very entertaining account. 

 Returning to the capital, he visited the highlands to the eastward of the 

 city, the coolness and salubrity of which are strongly contrasted with 

 the pestilential situation of the former. 



In the beginning of February he set out on a tour by Leaganus, &c., 

 through what was formerly the richest part of the country, towards 

 Cayes. He was accompanied by several persons of the consulate, and a 

 numerous cavalcade of horses and mules rendered necessary by the 

 impossibility of procuring any thing on the road. Along the road side 

 he passed in confused assemblages the broken utensils of sugar- works, 

 indicating what had formerly been. 



On the road to Grand Goave, there are considerable marks of cul- 

 tivation as compared with the neighbourhood of Port-au-Prince ; 

 " generally speaking, however, every thing is on a small scale when one 

 reflects on the magnitude of the establishments, of which the dejecta 

 membra are profusely scattered on every road that I had previously 

 passed over. On the right, not far from the town, lies the best estate 

 in the district, the property of a black officer. This perfection is 

 ascribed, by public report, to the use of club-law, which the gallant 

 colonel is said to administer with equal liberality and success. Among 

 other stories, it is said that on one occasion a blow from a cocomacac 

 (a heavy-jointed cane in common use in Haiti), knocked out the eye of a 

 loiterer." He was for a short time removed from his command ; but 

 the affairs of the Commune went on so badly during the absence of 

 coercion, that he was shortly reinstated. Petit Goave, now a Com- 

 mune, was formerly highly cultivated. Its produce is coffee. The 

 sugar-works have fallen into decay ; and in the absence of funds and 

 industry, the culture of the cane has entirely ceased. 



Count Leaumont and M. Duparc were formerly rich proprietors in this 

 district. At St. Michael, Mr. Mackenzie specially directed his inqui- 

 ries to the feelings of the people on the changes that had taken place, 

 and to their present actual condition. " When the group was com- 

 pleted by the presence of a blind black man, I felt satisfied that I should 

 not be deceived. I found all laudatores temporis acti, and all equally 

 dissatisfied. The whole party entered into a feeling and detailed con- 

 trast of their present condition, though free, with the care bestowed by 

 the planters on their slaves, in health, in sickness, in childhood, and in 

 old age ; even the blind beggar, who had been a slave of M. Duparc's, 

 deplored the revolution, to which he ascribed every misery that had 

 befallen the country as well as himself; and he contended that had he 



