INTRODUCTION.

Fires, most of them incendiary, have swept over the cities; in the commercial quarters of Port-au-Prince, it would be difficult to find any houses that existed in 1863, and the fortunes of all have naturally suffered greatly.

When I reached Hayti in January 1863, the capital possessed several respectable public buildings. The palace, without any architectural beauty, was large and commodious, and well suited to the climate; the Senate, the House of Representatives, the dwellings occupied by several of the Ministers, and the pretty little theatre were all features that have now entirely disappeared.

The town of Pétionville or La Coupe, the summer and health resort of the capital where the best families sought a little country life during the great heats, was almost entirely destroyed during the revolution of 1868, and nothing has taken its place. People are still too poor to afford to rebuild.

Society also has completely changed. I saw at balls given in the palace in 1863 a hundred well-dressed, prosperous families of all colors; now, political dissensions would prevent such gatherings, even if there were a building in the city that could accommodate them, and poverty has laid its heavy hand more or less on all. It is the same, to a greater or lesser degree, in every other town of the republic.

Agriculture in the plains is also deteriorating, and the estates produce much less than formerly, though their staple produce is rum, used to stupefy and brutalize the barbarous lower orders.