CHAPTER IX. 



SAN DOMINGO (HAITI AND THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC). 

 I. — General Survey. 



eVN DOMINGO,* if this term be applied to the whole island, is the 

 second of the Antilles in size and population, but the first in 

 altitude, diversity of outline, picturesque prospects and the natural 

 fertility of its valleys. It is also the only island in the American 

 Mediterranean which does not depend politically on some European 

 power. Whether united in a single state, or, as has more frequently been the 

 case, constituting two distinct republics, both sections of Domingo have hitherto 

 succeeded in preserving their autonomy. 



Had this autonomy been vindicated by a white créole population it would 

 have ranked in modern history as an event of secondary importance, analogous to 

 that of the colonies on the mainland, which, according as they felt strong enough, 

 have successively asserted their independence of the mother countries. But in 

 this instance the rebels who compelled their former masters to recognise an 

 accomplished fact were blacks, slaves, and the descendants of slaves, people 

 formerly regarded by the whites as scarcely belonging to their common humanity. 

 The independence of Haiti, accomplished in the West Indian world in the midst 

 of the islands where slavery was still upheld with all its accompanying horrors, 

 appeared to the planters in the light of an unn:itural event. The general feeling 

 inspired by it amongst the slave-owners, whether French, English, Spaniards, 

 Dutch, Danes, or Americans, was one of horror. 



The very name of Haiti was proscribed on the plantations, as belonging to an 

 accursed land. Yet there can be no doubt that this example of a black community 

 enjo^'ing political freedom and self-government, living as freemen after a suc- 

 cessful revolution, tended indirectly to hasten the day of emancipation in the 

 surrounding insular groups. The fear of a disaster similar to that which over- 

 whelmed the San Domingo planters could not fail to bear fruits elsewhere. It 

 may be admitted that neither of the two republics, frequently exposed to foreign 

 wars, torn bv civil strife, or a prey to personal ambition, has yet succeeded in 



* Properly Santo Dominpro ; in correct Spanish usage tlie full form Santo is reserved exclusively for 

 St. Dominic, founder of the Order of Preachers. 



