1 6 NOTES OF A NATURALIST. 



wards received from a gentleman who resided for 

 some time at Port au Prince as the representative of 

 a European power, it is impossible for me to avoid 

 the conclusion that, in the hands of its black possessors, 

 this noble island has retrograded to a condition of 

 savagery little, if at all, superior to that of the regions 

 of tropical Africa whence they originally came. 



There may be but slight foundation for the report-s 

 as to the revival of cannibal customs in the interior of 

 the island ; but it would seem that the sanguinary 

 encounters so frequently recurring between the people 

 of the rival republics between whom the island is 

 divided, differ little in point of ferocity from those of 

 Ashantee or Dahomey. The political institutions, 

 caricatures of those of the United States, have pro- 

 duced in astonishing luxuriance all the abuses 

 characteristic of different types of misgovernment, and 

 the few men distinguished by superior intelligence 

 and a desire for rational progress have sought in vain 

 for support in efforts for reform. The condition of 

 the two republics, Hayti and San Domingo, seems to 

 be the rediictio ad absurdiim of the theories which 

 ascribe to free institutions an inherent power of 

 promoting human progress. 



April 3 was a day to be long remembered. Bar- 

 badoes to Jamaica is as Champagne or Mecklen- 

 burg compared to Switzerland or Tyrol, and now for 

 the first time the dream of tropical nature became 

 a reality. At six p.m. we passed Port Royal, and 

 about seven had cast anchor at Kingston. The 

 first impression on landing here is unfavourable. The 

 buildings are mean, the thoroughfares and side-paths 



