HAYTI. 



429 



treble its metallic reserve, and that they be 

 redeemed on presentation at the bank at Port- 

 au-Prince or at its branches in Hayti. 



The Army. The active army, on a peace 

 footing, consists of one battalion of artillery, 

 100 strong ; one regiment of foot, 200 men ; 

 one battalion of "chasseurs a pied," 150; one 

 squadron of cavalry, 100 horse these troops 

 forming the guard ; furthermore, those consti- 

 tuting the line, belonging to which there are 

 four battalions of artillery, 1,000 strong; six 

 regiments of foot, 3,200 ; and 46 companies of 

 " gendarmes " ; this places the numerical force 

 of the army at 6,828 men, kept up in part by 

 conscription for a seven years' term of service, 

 and partly by volunteers serving four years. 



The Haytian navy consists of one steam 

 man-of-war. 



The Insurrection. With the fall of Miragoane, 

 on Jan. 10, 1884, one of the most stubborn of 

 the insurrections that from time to time dis- 

 tress the Kepublic of Hayti came to an end. 

 The three towns held by the insurgents were 

 Jerernie, Jacmel, and Miragoane, on the coasts 

 of the long peninsula in the southern part of 

 the island. J6r6mie was the first to surrender, 

 Dec. 24, 1883, after a bloody combat ; Jacmel 

 followed its example on December 29th ; and 

 with the yielding of the third port, a revolt 

 which has cost hundreds of lives and mill- 

 ions of money, and which at one time threat- 

 ened to develop into a race - massacre, was 

 crushed on the spot of its origin. Apart from 

 the commercial interests of the United States 

 in this event, the rebellion derived importance 

 for us from the fact that it was set on foot by 

 an armed expedition starting from this coun- 

 try as a base. Boyer Bazelais and his followers, 

 who landed at Miragoane on the night of March 

 29, 1883, there surprising the garrison and cap- 

 turing the fort, had been conveyed thither by 

 an American fruiterer, the steamer Tropic. 

 This vessel had left Philadelphia with a secret 

 cargo of arms, uniforms, and munitions, and 

 had been boarded at the island of Inagua by 

 Bazelais and his followers, who immediately 

 put on the uniforms and drilled with the guns. 

 The complicity of the Tropic's officers in this 

 violation of the neutrality laws was formally 

 established by a Unite 1 States court, which 

 sentenced them to fine and imprisonment. 



Not long after the Tropic's expedition, the 

 Mary N. Hogan was seized by the United 

 States Government, on suspicion that she was 

 about to violate the neutrality laws in the 

 interest of the Haytian insurgents; and dur- 

 ing the latter part of November she was con- 

 demned. A little later the schooner E. G. 

 Erwin was detained on the same ground. Sub-, 

 sequently the Azelda and Laura, sailing under 

 the American flag, was promptly detained, at 

 the request of the Haytian consul-general. 



While the three ports named were occupied 

 by the insurgents, and the Haytian Govern- 

 ment forces by land and sea operating against 

 them, President Salomon issued a decree passed 



by the National Assembly of Hayti, amending 

 Article XXXI of the Constitution, whereby 

 trials by jury during the rebellion were sus- 

 pended for the crimes of forgery, counterfeit- 

 ing, incendiarism, and such as are of a political 

 nature; a law repealing the import duty on 

 Mexican coin ; a law opening to foreign com- 

 merce the ports of L'Anse d'Hainault and 

 Dame-Marie, on the south end of the island ; 

 a law closing to foreign commerce the ports 

 of Jacmel, Jeremie, and Miragoane, and a 

 proclamation announcing the crime committed 

 by the insurgents at Jacmel in murdering in 

 cold blood fourteen political prisoners, civil 

 and military. After being defeated by the 

 Government troops in an engagement on Au- 

 gust 3d, the insurgents retreated to the city, 

 and before the Government troops arrived, 

 assassinated the most influential Government 

 officers whom they had in their power, be- 

 cause on July 23d these officers had refused 

 to betray the Government of the republic and 

 join the rebellion. While President Salomon 

 was thenceforward straining every nerve to 

 quell the insurrection through a more system- 

 atic and powerful display of military and 

 naval resources, a most deplorable incident 

 occurred at the capital, Port-au-Prince, on 

 September 22d, in the shape of a rising against 

 his authority, accompanied by terrible excesses. 

 The cause of it seems to have been that the 

 local authorities endeavored to arrest two 

 young men known to be hostile to the Gov- 

 ernment. The insurgents began by attacking 

 at 11 A. M. the residence of the general com- 

 manding the troops of the district, and shot 

 him on the spot. The garrison then retreated 

 to the presidential palace, outside of the city 

 gates ; and the insurgents, thus finding them- 

 selves at liberty to do as they pleased, and 

 wreak their vengeful feelings on other inhab- 

 itants whom they considered their enemies, 

 fired on all such, causing a general stampede, 

 until at 6 p. M., when, after three hours' fight- 

 ing, President Salomon succeeded in dispers- 

 ing the assassins, who sought refuge in the 

 consulates. At this juncture the President had 

 lost control of his own troops, who, in common 

 with the rabble, set fire to the town and 

 plundered in all directions during the confu- 

 sion. The British war-steamer Fantom landed 

 a crew to protect the consulate, which the 

 mob threatened to burn down. These dreadful 

 scenes were prolonged till the afternoon of 

 September 23d, when foreign ministers and 

 consuls united in a protest, threatening the 

 city and palace with bombardment by the 

 men-of-war in the harbor, if order were not 

 restored immediately; and the city became 

 tranquil once more. The losses sustained by 

 foreign merchants, notably French, by fire, 

 were considerable, and in November the Hay- 

 tian Government was informed that an in- 

 demnity would be exacted. 



Toward the close of October President Sal- 

 omon issued another proclamation,, in which 



