334 



HAYTI. 



frightened and ran, throwing both his daughter 

 and himself violently upon the pavement. He 

 was taken up insensible and carried into St. 

 Luke's Hospital, where, two days later, without 

 regaining consciousness, he died. 



HAYTI.* The civil war in which Hayti had 

 been involved for several years continued 

 throughout the year 1869. In January, the 

 rebels, under General Saget, advanced on Port 

 au Prince and laid siege to it. Cape Haytien 

 was also closely besieged by other revolutionary 

 forces. Jacmel was still in their possession and 

 able to resist the threatened attack by Salnave. 

 The latter remained continually at the seat of 

 war, conducting himself the military opera- 

 tions, and represented at Port au Prince by his 

 Secretary of State. A desperate encounter 

 took place on January 16, in which the Picos 

 (Salnave's troops) lost some 200 men in killed 

 and wounded, and were driven from their 

 position. The port of Salut was bombarded 

 and completely destroyed. The village of Tor- 

 becq, three miles from Aux Oayes, was burnt. 

 Salnave visited, with two war-ships, the forts, 

 and carried destruction everywhere. Business 

 was suspended in Aux Oayes, and the foreign 

 residents were seeking protection at their re- 

 spective consulates, and on the vessels in the 

 harbor. The conduct of the President roused 

 the indignation of the French admiral at St. 

 Marc ; when he saw two French barks towed 

 in by the Haytian gunboat Salnave as prizes, 

 he put to sea in the flag-ship Semiramis, and, 

 taking the two French vessels in tow of his 

 own ship, brought them into St. Marc's with 

 their national colors flying, and declared that 

 there was no effective blockade in Hayti ; that, 

 by the French treaty which gave the latter her 

 independence, France had a right to trade with 

 the southern ports of the republic, and that the 

 mere presence of a few gunboats on the coast 

 could not be considered by the French as an 

 effective blockade. 



In the beginning of March, Salnave was 

 again defeated, loosing 100 men and 8 pieces 

 of artillery. The insurgents commenced the 

 siege of Gonaives, to reenforce the garrison of 

 which Salnave had arrested 200 merchants and 

 others of Port au Prince. 



In the mean while the French admiral reiter- 

 ated his demand upon the Haytian Government 

 for the payment of the French debt, and com- 

 pelled Salnave to conclude a convention with 

 France, by which the latter was to receive 12 

 per cent, of the revenues toward the payment 

 of her claims. Her vessels were allowed to 

 enter all the ports of Hayti. 



Salnave was in a precarious situation, owing 

 to the state of his finances. The navy had not 

 received any pay for three months, and there 

 was dissatisfaction at the capital against him. 

 The blacks were jealous of the whites, and as- 

 sassinations were feared. 



The recklessness of Salnave's officers brought 

 r 8tatlstlc8 ' 8e AMERICAN ANNUAL CYCLOPEDIA for 



on new complications. They boarded the Brit- 

 ish mail steamer Cuba, seized the mail-bags 

 addressed to Mr. St. John, the British charge 

 d'affaires at Port au Prince, broke the seals in 

 spite of his remonstrances and protest, and 

 abstracted numerous private letters, and de- 

 livered over the balance to him. The con- 

 sequence was, that numerous arrests were 

 made, on the strength of information obtained 

 from the letters seized, while a number of 

 other parties were shot. The British steamer 

 Doris, twenty-four guns, under the command 

 of Captain Glynn, was sent to demand from 

 the Government at Port au Prince explanations 

 and satisfactory reparation for the insult, and 

 also to demand the immediate release of the 

 British sloop Dolphin, which, having a cargo 

 of merchandise for Aux Cayes, had been 

 seized. 



Soon after Salnave's arrival at Gonaives with 

 his war-ship Alexandre Petion, the Cacos (in- 

 surgents) made a vigorous and very desperate 

 attack, pressing far into the city, which they 

 at one time held, fighting with great bravery 

 and determination. The guns, however, of the 

 Alexandre Petion threw them into some con- 

 fusion, which was taken advantage of by the 

 Government forces, who drove them from their 

 position with considerable loss. 



At St. Marc the revolutionists acted with 

 spirit; they fortified the town, making it a 

 stronghold. The British steamer Doris had 

 meanwhile arrived at Port au Prince, and 

 notified the commander of the Haytian gun- 

 boat Salnave and the war-bark Trait d'Union 

 that neither of them would be permitted to 

 leave port until an apology and ample repara- 

 tion had been made for the insult offered to her 

 Majesty's mails. The same announcement was 

 made to the President (the effect of its delivery 

 was somewhat startling to the Haytian au- 

 thorities), who immediately hastened to the 

 Doris and assured the commander that the most 

 ample satisfaction would be given; but, as the 

 embargoed ships were on an important mission, 

 and thetr detention would be attended with' 

 great inconvenience, they requested that the 

 vessels might be permitted to proceed. The 

 English captain, however, was not so easily 

 imposed on; he expressed regret that their 

 detention should so seriously interfere with the 

 plans of the President, but that these were his 

 instructions. The steamer and bark were ac- 

 cordingly detained, and, lest either should slip 

 out to sea in the darkness of the night, a strict 

 watch was kept upon them, and the British 

 war-ships Doris and Jason kept their boats 

 manned and in readiness on alarm, to make 

 the captures if escape was attempted. 



On the 31st of March Salnave made the most 

 humiliating apology to the commanders of the 

 Doris and Jason, in the presence of Mr. St. 

 John, the British charge d'affaires, declaring 

 that he was utterly ignorant of the seizure of 

 the mail-bags, and at the time was far away 

 from the capital. He assured them of his 





