THE REPUBLIC OF HAITI 279 



some of the buildings devoted to commerce, to religious 

 worship, and to schools, the national foundry, and other 

 edifices, would be regarded as creditable to any country. 

 Most of the other buildings are strikingly shabby. There 

 are many small cottages and huts by the side of the few 

 decent-looking dwellings. The larger number of poorly 

 constructed houses are made of wood imported from the 

 United States. The church is a large wooden building 

 disfigured by numerous wretched paintings, in which the 

 Saviour is occasionally represented as an ill-drawn negro. 

 It is said that there are more than a thousand "busses" 

 (cabs) licensed to carry passengers in the city, at twenty 

 cents a "course" (ride from one place to another without 

 stopping) within the city limits. It is well, however, for 

 the stranger to make a strict bargain with his driver be- 

 fore going one rod beyond those limits. 



Port-au-Prince is well supplied with pure water brought 

 from the mountain-side in its rear. With its unstable 

 government (which pays no attention to sanitation) and 

 its great heat, this city ought to be the most unhealthful 

 place in the tropics, but it is not so. In a few of the more 

 commercial streets where foreigners reside, attention is paid 

 to cleanliness, but the remainder of the city is foul-smelling 

 and dirty. The most common diseases are bilious and 

 malarial fevers. Yellow fever is exotic in Haiti, being 

 always brought from abroad. Fevers of a typhoid type 

 are rare. Pulmonary diseases prevail among the natives. 

 Indeed, Haiti would be an excellent resort for persons 

 afflicted with certain diseases, and is freer from epidemics 

 than most other tropical countries. Cholera has never ap- 

 peared there, although smallpox and yellow fever fre- 

 quently break out. Physicians of Port-au-Prince say that 

 Haiti is more healthful than any other island in the An- 

 tilles. Furthermore, its environment of high mountains, 

 cutting off the trade-winds, is siieh as to make it the hot- 

 test place in the island; but, in spite of all that has been 

 said and written to the contrary, it is not now regarded as 



