496 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



The native cuisine is far superior to 

 the Spanish cooking of Cuba ; it is 

 French, or French colonial, and conse- 

 quently most appetizing. 



Haiti is abundantly well supplied with 

 fresh provisions — excellent vegetables, 

 good beef and mutton, splendid seafood, 

 and delicious fruit ; moreover, living is 

 far cheaper than in the United States or 

 Cuba. 



Haiti's limited railway "system"' 



A railway runs through the streets of 

 the city and extends southeastward as far 

 as the pretty little town of Leogane, pass- 

 ing through the truly lovely suburb Di- 

 quiny, an earthly paradise. The railway 

 is farther carried eastward to the shores 

 of Lake Azuey. 



The President's palace in Port au 

 Prince was blown up in the revolution of 

 1912. It was a rather ugly structure of 

 glistening gray white, with apparently a 

 good deal of corrugated iron about it. 

 It contained, however, some fine lofty 

 rooms. Some very handsome buildings 

 formerly existed in Port au Prince to the 

 northwest of the President's palace, but 

 under the rule of Xord Alexis, acts of 

 apparently deliberate incendiarism on the 

 part of the government took place, which 

 really destroyed almost a third of the 

 capital. 



To the east and north of the palace is 

 the great open space of the Champ de 

 Mars, which is well suited for the evolu- 

 tions of troops, and might be made a very 

 comely feature in future by being turfed 

 over and set with beds of flowers. In the 

 middle of this open space is a prepos- 

 terously vulgar statue of Dessalines. who 

 is regarded as the national hero of Haiti, 

 the people having, with typical ingrati- 

 tude, put on one side the real great man 

 of their history, the remarkable and 

 noble-hearted Toussaint 1'Ouverture. 



This tin statue of Dessalines is made to 

 carry a sword in each hand and to sup- 

 port with one arm an enormous painted 

 tin flag, which contains the national em- 

 blem of a palm tree, surmounted by brist- 

 ling cannon and war standards, together 

 with the motto "Liberte on la Mort!" and 

 "Mourir plutot que d'etre sous la domina- 

 tion de la Puissance.'' 



Port au Prince possesses a magnificent 



central market, worthy in structure and 

 design of a big French town. The in- 

 terior is very dirty; and apparently the 

 market dues are sufficiently heavy to 

 deter most of the country people from 

 using the place for the sale of produce. 



Every morning between six and eight 

 hundreds of country women may be seen 

 riding into the town on horses, mules, or 

 donkeys, borne sideways between enor- 

 mous panniers of produce. 



Much of the marketing goes on in the 

 open air, and these scenes are extremely 

 picturesque. In one corner a woman in 

 a long robe of deep ultramarine blue may 

 be selling fish of extraordinary loveliness, 

 painted with the colors of the gayest par- 

 rots. 



Elsewhere there are turkeys, fowls, 

 geese, ducks, sheep, goats, or even green 

 parrots and pigeons for sale ; enormous 

 quantities of maize, beans. Chili peppers, 

 avocadoes, pumpkins, ocroes, aubergines, 

 and, of course, firewood and charcoal, or 

 forage for the town-kept horses. 



WOMEN PREDOMINATE IN HAITI 



It is a good-humored, noisy crowd, 

 not requiring ordinarily any intervention 

 from the few policemen who march about 

 with large scarfs, bearing the words 

 "Force a la Loi." In the old days the 

 crowd, of course, was permeated with 

 soldiers in undress or full uniform, sol- 

 diers who, it is said, exacted a somewmat 

 cruel toll from all the market people. 



The reason why women predominate 

 among the country folk selling goods in 

 town is that the country men for genera- 

 tions have been afraid to descend from 

 their inaccessible mountains for fear of 

 being impressed into military service, and 

 having to redeem themselves from this 

 slaver}- by heavy payments. 



The military element in the past has 

 been the curse of Haiti. Formerly, from 

 early morning till dewy eve the streets 

 were paraded by noisy military bands; 

 soldiers in uniform or out of uniform 

 begged more or less truculently from the 

 passer by; officers in handsome uniforms 

 were accustomed to dash up and down 

 the streets on high-mettled horses, utterly 

 regardless <:>i the pedestrians. The air 

 was rent by salvoes of artillery or of 

 target practice. 



