1274 ( 1 I '.A AND POETO RICO 



at Jacmel, Port-au-Prince, Petit Gnaw, .ir-ivraie, Aux 

 ('ayes, and numerous other places in the \\ r est Indies. 

 The Spanish Royal Mail steamer calls at Port-au-Prince en 

 route to Cuba, Mexico, the United States, and Europe. 

 The Havana coasting-steamers between Havana and San- 

 tiago de Cuba and Porto Rico also call at Port-au-Prince. 

 Connection is had with Germany by the Hamburg Mail 

 Steamship Company. 



Haiti has numerous ports along its extensive littoral, 

 eleven of which are open to foreign commerce. Each of 

 these eleven ports, the principal of which will be described 

 later, is an outlet to a comparatively large, populous, and 

 productive country lying back of it. Generally the exports 

 and imports reach far beyond what one might be led to 

 expect if guided by the appearance and size of the ports 

 themselves. 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. These 

 seaports impress the visitor unfavorably, because he finds 

 there very little of the aspect of neatness and prosperity 

 which characterizes the other cities and towns of the An- 

 tilles. The wharves are dilapidated; the port service is 

 slow and inefficient ; the streets and sidewalks are poorly 

 kept; the stores and dwellings have an irregular look; 

 hotels are scarce and poor ; the streets are not lighted, and 

 the roads leading into and throughout the interior are in 

 a very bad condition. 



Besides the eleven ports fully open to foreign com- 

 merce, there are four at which vessels are permitted to 

 take cargo, but not formally to enter from or clear for the 

 high seas. They are Fort Liberte, on the northern coast, 

 east of Cape Haitien; Mole St. Nicolas, at the north- 

 western extremity of the island ; Anse d'Hainault, which 

 was once an open port, at the end of the western penin- 

 sula ; and Port-a-Piment, between Cape Tiburon and Aux 

 Cayes. 



There are also at least twenty other small ports not open 



