The People of Hayti. 131 
descent. The present President had ancestors of partly Indian 
blood. Indians in Hayti have all the rights of Blacks. 
LANGUAGE. 
The language of -the educated class, of .commerce, of the 
Courts, and of the Court, is the French; and a knowledge of 
it is absolutely essential to every one who intends to reside in 
Hayti. Hence the emigrant should provide himself with the 
necessary text-books, and a Dictionary for the purpose of ac¬ 
quiring it. The language of the common people is Creole. 
From an essay on this dialect, written during my second visit to 
Hayti, I subjoin as much as is necessary for the guidance of the 
emigrant. 
Haytian Creole, it is said, is easily acquired, but is so unlike 
the French that Frenchmen at first do not understand it. It 
presents three difficult elements to them: African words, French 
words mispronounced or abbreviated, and a peculiar grammat¬ 
ical or ungrammatical construction. There are several grades 
of this Haytian patois; some of them so nearly French that no 
translation is needed, — others so barbarous or bastard, (le gros 
Creole,') that hardly any resemblance can be traced to the 
mother tongue. The Creole of the Eastern Part, the mission¬ 
aries say, is much more nearly like the Spanish, than the dialects 
of the West resemble the French tongue. In the lowest Creole, 
the proportion of African words is probably about one twentieth ; 
but in the purest dialect the proportion is exceedingly small. 
“But the great speciality of the Creole,” says Mr. Bishop, in 
a manuscript now before me, “is abbreviation. Conjunctions 
and pronouns are mercilessly sacrificed. This gives rapidity to 
the language. There is a low idiom used by the vulgar in dis¬ 
tinction from that used by the more refined class. There is also 
a slight difference in different localities, similar to the provincial 
dialects in England, but not so widely different. The Creole 
can scarcely be acquired by any but a resident, and he must be 
a good hand at retaining words to do anything in it. A knowl¬ 
edge of it is essential to any one who has dealings with the 
