H I S 
HISPA'NIAN,/ A native of Spain. 
HISPANIO'LA St. Domingo, or Hayti, one of the 
great Antilles, or Caribbee iflands, in the Weft Indies, 
about 480 miles in length from ealt to weft, and 150 in 
breadth from north to louth. This ifland was difcovered 
by Columbus, in the year 1491, who called it Hifpaniola, 
or Little Spain, in honour of the country by whofe fove- 
reign he was employed; but, giving the name ol St. Do¬ 
mingo to a city which he or his brother Bartholomew 
built in 1494, the whole ifland, in prqcefs of time, came to 
be fo called, as frequently as Hifpaniola. Hayti was the 
Indian name. He found the inhabitants entirely, naked, 
their black hair, long and uncurled, floating upon their 
{boulders, or bound in treffes round their heads. Their 
complexion was of a duiky copper colour; their afpeft 
gentle and timid; though not tall, they were well-lhaped 
and aftive. They were governed by feven caziques, or 
kings, who reigned each over a different diviflon of the 
ifland ; and, according to the report of Columbus to the 
Spanifti monarch, they were the moft unoffending, gentle, 
and benevolent, of the human race. Sir Walter Raleigh 
fuppofed, that they were defcended from the Arrawauk 
tribe of Guiana. 
The ifland of Hifpaniola is feparated from Cuba by a 
ftrait, called the Windward Paffage, about twelve leagues 
in width. Next to Cuba, it is the largeft ifland in the 
Weft Indies, the moft fertile, and the moft pleafant; be¬ 
ing fituated in the Atlantic Ocean, between the ifland of 
Jamaica and Cuba on the weft, and Porto Rico on the eaft. 
When firft difcovered, the Spaniards were received hofpi- 
tably by the natives ; but their frequent quarrels, from 
time to time, ended nearly in their extermination. This 
being the firft tranfatlantic difcovery by the Spaniards, it 
was the centre of their commerce, and was for fome time 
a very flourilhing colony ; but, after the difcovery of Peru 
it leems to have been neglected. In the middle of the fe- 
venteenth century, the French began to refort and fettle 
on the ifland ; the firft that came were Buccaneers ; but 
thefe were fome time afterwards followed by others, who 
became regular planters. The court of France pretended 
to difcourage thefe fettlers, but took no effectual means to 
prevent them ; and in the year 1697, by an article in the 
treaty of Rifwick, the Spaniards ceded the north-weft part 
of the ifland to the French, containing one of the fineft 
territories in the world. 
The climate of Hifpaniola, though hot, is healthy, ex¬ 
cept to new-comers. Some of the inhabitants upon it are 
faid to live to the uncommon age of 120. It is continu¬ 
ally refrefned by breezes and rains, and its falubrity is 
likewife, in a great meafure, owing to the beautiful va¬ 
riety of its furface, exhibiting hills and valleys, woods and 
rivers. It contains forefts of palms, elms, oaks, pines, be- 
fides leveral other forts of wood, not common and hardly 
known in Europe; and it is generally agreed, that the pine¬ 
apples, grapes, oranges, lemons, citrons, limes, dates, apri¬ 
cots, and other fruits, have a fuperior flavour in Hifpaniola. 
As to its produffs, both animal and vegetable, they are 
much the lame with thofe of the other Weft-Indian iflands. 
Crocodiles, or alligators, infeft its coaffs and rivers ; but 
they abound, at the fame time, with turtles. Befides 
the commodities already mentioned, Hifpaniola produces 
great plenty of indigo, cotton, cocoa, coffee, ginger, to¬ 
bacco, fait, wax, honey, and ambergrife, befides a variety 
of drugs and dyers’ woods. It abounded in gold mines, 
which the Spaniards exhaufted ; compelling the inhabi¬ 
tants, by the moft unheard-of cruelties, to work as Haves 
in exploring the bowels of the earth for this metal. 
Soon after the peace of Ryfwick, the French fet a lau¬ 
dable example of induftry and affivity in the ifland, wifely 
fuperfeding the value of gold mines 'by the introduftion 
of the moft valuable plantations ; and, in 1702, Port au 
Prince was made the feat of the French government. It 
is remarkable, that in proportion as the French liouriihed, 
the Spaniards decayed. From the year 1722, the French 
colony in Hifpaniola gradually rofe to the higheft pitch 
of proiperity. In 17 54,-the amount of the various com- 
H I S 203 
modifies of the colony was equal to 1,261,4691. fterling, 
and the imports from the mother-country amounted to 
1 >777>5°9l. fterling. There were 14,000 white inhabitants, 
nearly 4000 free mulattoes, and upwards of 172,000 ne¬ 
groes, which they had imported from Africa; 599 fugar 
plantations, 3379 of indigo, 98,946 cocoa-trees, 6,300,367 
cotton-plants, and near 22,000,000 caffia-trees; 63,000 
horfes and mules, 93,000 heads of horned cattle, 6,000,000 
banana-trees; upwards of 1,000,000 plots of potatoes; 
226,000 plots of yams ; and near 3,000,000 trenches of 
manioc. 
At the epoch of the French revolution, in 1789, the 
Spaniards had only four and twenty fugar-works. They 
paid with raw fugar, hides, timber, and piaftres,. for the 
finall number of cargoes they received from Europe. Bo¬ 
lides 11,000 heads of cattle, they furnilhed the •'French 
part of St. Domingo with horfes, mules, and fome to¬ 
bacco. Next to the ancient city of St. Domingo, their 
principal towns were Monte Chrifti, La Vega, St. Jago, 
Zeibo, St. Thome, Azua, and Ilabella; and, at the time 
of its ceflion to France, the Spanifti part of the ifland 
counted only 125,000 inhabitants, 110,000 of whom were 
free people, and 15,000 negro (laves. From 1776 till 
1789, the profperity of the French colony of Hifpaniola 
was at its greateft height. It was divided into the north¬ 
ern, weftern, and louthem, provinces. The principal towns 
were Cape Fran$ois, Fort Dauphin, Port de Paix, and 
Cape St. Nicholas. The produce of thefe different plan¬ 
tations, in 1788, confifted of 163,405,5001b. of fugar, 
68,151,0001b. of coffee, 6,289,0001b. of cotton, 930,0001b. 
of indigo, 150,0001b. of cacao, 34,453,0001b. of fyrufJ; 
worth in all, with fome lefs important articles, 13 5,763,000 
French livres. It was lent to France in 686 velfels of 
199,122 tons. The goods imported into the colony from 
different ports of France, in 465 veffels of 138,62410ns, 
amounted to the value of 54,578,000 French livres. At 
the ceflion of the Spanifti part 'of St. Domingo to the 
French, the whole ifland was divided into five depart¬ 
ments ; of the fouih, of the weft, of the north, of Sa- 
mana, and of l'Inganne. 
But France never enjoyed this great acceflion of Weft- 
Indian territory. Several years before the treaty of Bafle, 
the fpirit of revolt had broken out in the French part of 
St. Domingo, and in 1791 a moft alarming infurreflion 
of the negroes had deluged half of the northern province 
with blood. In two months upwards of 2000 white per- 
fons perifhed ; 1200 families were reduced to indigence ; 
180 plantations of fugar, about 900 of coffee, cotton, and 
iridigo, were deftroyed, and the buildings confumed by 
fire. Deftruetion every where marked the prog-refs of the 
blacks; and refiflance, fays Mr. Bryan Edwards, who was 
an eye-witnefs of their ravages, was confidered as una¬ 
vailing and hopelefs. From the northern province the 
rebellion Ipread to the welt, where it was, however, foon 
quelled by the concordat of the 1 2th of September. The 
wavering conduft of the firft national affenibly of France, 
however, with refpeft to the abolition of the negro-llavery; 
the decree of the legiflative alfembly, which acknowledged 
the political equality of the free negroes and people of 
colour with the whites ; the appointment of three com- 
miflioners noted for the violence of their republican prin¬ 
ciples ; and the arrival of a force of 8000 men in the 
month of September 1792, inftead of reftoring the peace 
of the colony, kept alive the flame of the '.ifcontent, 
which raged with frelh fury in 1793, when the two re¬ 
maining commiflioners of the convention, Santhonax and 
Polverel, proclaimed the emancipation of all the Haves 
in the colony.. O11 the 21ft of June, Macaya, a leader of 
the blacks, entered Cape Francois with upwards of 3000 
Haves, and began an md ifcriminate daughter of the French. 
Under thele civcumftances, fome of the planters invited 
the Britilh government to take poffeflion of St. Domingo. 
A fmall armament of about 870 rank and file, lent from 
Janiaica, took fort jeremie, and tire mole of Cape St. Ni¬ 
cholas. In the middle of January 1794, the Britilh troops 
entered Tiburon* and directed their views towards Port 
de 
