INTRODUCTION.

When the writer arrived at Jacmel, he found two men in prison for eating corpses, and on the day of his arrival, a man was caught eating a child. Near the same town, nine thousand people met at Christmas to celebrate Vaudoux rites. At Les Cayes, a child of English parents was stolen, and when the thieves were pursued, they threw the child into a well and killed it.

These are the statements made by the writer in Vanity Fair, and nearly all are probable. If correct, the open practice of Vaudoux worship and cannibalism must have made great strides since I left Hayti, and it shows how little a black government can do, or will do, to suppress them. The digging up and eating of corpses was not known during my residence there.

This communication to Vanity Fair provoked a reply in a journal published at Port-au-Prince called L’Œil on October 1, 1881. It denies everything, even the serious existence and power of the Vaudoux priests, and spends all its energies in abuse. The article is quite worthy of the editor Ever since the reign of Soulouque, professional authors have been paid by the Haytian Government to spread rose-tinted accounts of the civilization and progress of Hayti. But twenty-four hours in any town of that republic would satisfy the most skeptical that these semi-official accounts are unworthy of belief., who was one of the most active supporters of President Salnave, whose connection with the Vaudoux was notorious. It is in this angry spirit that the Haytians generally treat any public reference to their peculiar institution.