INTRODUCTION.

With the followers of the Vaudoux in power, nothing else could have been expected.

I have brought my sketch of the history of Hayti down to the fall of President Boisrond-Canal in 1879, and I shall not touch on the rule of the present President of Hayti, General Salomon. I may say, however, that he is the determined enemy of the colored section of the community; he is credited with having been the chief adviser of the Emperor Soulouque in all his most disastrous measures, and the country is said to have sunk into the lowest depths of misery. The civil war, which by last accounts was still raging in Hayti, has been marked by more savage excesses than any previously known in Haytian history. The black authorities hesitate at no step to gain their object, which is to utterly destroy the educated colored class. They care not for the others; as they say, “A poor mulatto is a negro.” original: "Mulatte pauvre, li negue."

A few words as to the origin of this book. In 1867 I was living in the country near Port-au-Prince, and having some leisure, I began to collect materials and write rough drafts of the principal chapters. I was interrupted by the civil war and did not resume work until after I had left the country. It may be the modifying effect of time, but on looking over the chapters as I originally wrote them, I thought that I had been too severe in my judgments on whole classes, and have therefore somewhat softened the opinions I then expressed. Furthermore, the greater experience which an additional residence of seven years gave me enabled me