THE REPUBLIC OF HAITI 21 i 



stream, to Gros Morne, a commune of twenty-two thousand 

 inhabitants, there to connect by an offshoot with a road 

 projected to run through the great central plain of the 

 Artibonite. 



To the west of Cape Haitien, at the northwest end of the 

 Nicolas peninsula, is Mole St. Nicolas, the place where 

 Europeans first landed. This superb harbor, called the 

 Gibraltar of the New World, remained almost unsettled 

 until 1764, but has been successively peopled by French, 

 German, and English, and at different times immense sums 

 of money have been spent on its forts and walls, now dis- 

 mantled and ruined. The bay makes a fine picture from 

 the sea, and ships of the largest size can ride out the gales 

 with safety. This is the most important place at the 

 Haitian end of the island, commanding as it does the 

 Windward Channel between Haiti and Cuba. The western 

 coast is sterile and barren, the shores rising in level plains 

 or terraces called platforms, similar to those of eastern 

 Cuba. 



Gonaives, which is considered more purely a Haitian 

 town than any other on the seaboard, because its founda- 

 tion and origin were less due to the French colonists, is 

 situated opposite Port de Paix, on the southern side of the 

 northern peninsula. It is reached from Port de Paix by a 

 few hours' sail, going first westward to the Mole St. Nico- 

 las, and thence sailing to the east again. The commune 

 has a population of eighteen thousand, and the town is one 

 of the most thriving in the republic ; it is considered health- 

 ful, though situated in the midst of a sandy, Baity region. 

 In spite of the fact that it has more than once been dev- 

 astated by revolutions and fires, it still has an important 

 foreign commerce. It was from this port that Toussainl 

 L'Onvt'rtmv was embarked as a captive during a nighl in 

 June, 1802, on board the French frigate La Creole, and it 

 was here, too, that Dessalines issued the declaration of 

 Haitian independence, January 1, 1804. Within its dis- 

 trict in the interior are the communes of Terre Neuve 



