2o6 



The National Geographic Magazine 



cattle, to be more remunerative than cut- 

 ting the throats of their victims on the 

 sea. 



The discord that naturally followed this 

 copartnership eventually resulted in the 

 French buccaneers gaining the mastery 

 over their British allies, forcing the latter 

 to take up their abode . on the Island of 

 Jamaica, and thus leaving the French in 

 possession of the Island of Tobago, and 

 naturally the northern coast of S'anto 

 Domingo also came under French juris- 

 diction. 



AN UNDESIRABLE ELEMENT 



From now on the French in the west 

 and Spanish people in the east wrestled in 

 almost continuous strife for the mastery 

 of Santo Domingo, thereby checking for 

 a while the progress of the island and 

 disposing the inhabitants to laziness and 

 vice. It should be noted that, unlike the 

 American continental emigrants, the 

 West Indian voyagers went forth to 

 seek gold only and had no thought of 

 making permanent settlements. They 

 therefore left behind them their sweet- 

 hearts and wives, to whom they expected 

 to return, and in order to increase the 

 value of the French possessions there 

 were introduced into the island at this 

 time a class of women who were but 

 little better than the buccaneers them- 

 selves. The mingling of the blood of this 

 refuse of European civilization gave to 

 their descendants characters as low as can 

 exist in human nature, and to this fact 

 is largely due the present condition of the 

 people here. 



In 1776 the line of demarkation be- 

 tween the French and Spanish portions of 

 the island was defined practically as it 

 exists today. After this settlement of 

 the boundary question the different colo- 

 nies became more friendly and business 

 between them increased, until finally, by 

 the treaty of Bole, signed July 22, 1795, 

 France came into possession of the whole 

 island ; but the formal abandonment of 

 the Spanish government of its control 

 did not take place until January 27, 1801. 



THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HAITI AND 

 SANTO DOMINGO 



Although the whole island was now 

 under French rule, the two parts, east and 

 west, were irremediably separated by the 

 interests of the different races. In the 

 eastern section the foreigners were in 

 numbers about as one to four of the 

 negroes ; in the western section of the 

 island the proportion of the blacks to 

 whites was much larger — at least 15 to 

 1. This disproportion of numbers in the 

 races accounts for the continued domina- 

 tion of the whites in the east, while the 

 western portion of the island later became 

 the Black Republic. 



Following the French supremacy, Haiti 

 proper rapidly rose in the scale of pros- 

 perity, becoming the principal colonial 

 gem in the French crown; but its prog- 

 ress was founded upon an insecure base 

 and a fall was inevitable. It is said that 

 fourteen hundred vessels were employed 

 in its trade, which was about two-thirds 

 of the whole external commerce of 

 France. 



Among the mulattoes, or free men of 

 color, were many of intellect and refine- 

 ment, who had been well educated in 

 France, such as Rigaud, Baurais, Petion, 

 Borgella, and Dumas, the father of the 

 celebrated novelist, and although they 

 were few in number, such men aspired to 

 a legal and civil equality with the whites, 

 and in striving for this they naturally felt 

 little sympathy with the slave population 

 and refused to connect themselves with 

 them until too late. To harmonize all the 

 conflicting interests of this mixture of 

 races was beyond the capacity of the 

 colonial government. 



When the French Revolution finally 

 broke out in France, throwing the whole 

 of Europe in consternation, it found the 

 French colonists quite ripe for a similar 

 outbreak. About eight hundred of the 

 mulattoes in Haiti had enlisted under the 

 name of the Royal Chasseurs and ac- 

 companied Count d'Estaing in his expe- 

 dition to Savannah during the war of the 

 American Revolution, taking part in our 



