indies you go straight out from that southeast end of cuba as columbus did on the sixth of december fourteenth ninety two and bres the intervening fifty miles of rushing blue water with its flying fish and screaming sea birds you will come from broad bases on the ocean floor to make a heavily broken patch of telephone about the size of our own rugged state of maine from the water level though the mountains are not very high even the tallest is under nine thousand feet when  columbus on this particular island he called it is spun yola the spanish of the million or so at lac indians who were there before him already had a name for it they called it the land of mountains ip on the western third of the island an excellent harbor encourages shipping and daughter paris has the additional advantage of being on an important area between north and south america in columbus's day the indians thought but he came out of the sky and ships that really were great birds the spaniards what i'm used but today strangers from afar actually do the same than i t from the sky thought of priorities eyeteeth capital in all respects not only in transportation in trade the imposing twin towers notre dame cathedral there is a spiritual center for most of the citizens the impressive national palace where the president lives represents political authority and here the national school of medicine is a convenient symbol of higher education in a country where the population is approximately two hundred seventy five persons to the square miles that is a density greater than is recorded for any other republic in the americas the local market place prince shows a much greater density but it is merely the gathering spot of small tradesmen who deal principally in perishable food stuffs for metropolitan consumption one finds here in rich  ability that a special variation of french which is called carry on the people speak french but over ninety percent of the population is of african origin ip is one of the few independent negro nations in the world no point in lingering over the marketplace now though it's lunchtime and practically everybody is stopping for a snack unless news it is not especially hard a breeze almost always blows in from the sea to keep the  temperature at an average of seventy five degrees to eighty five degrees summer and winter while the teeming marketplace slows down into its noon day quiet we are given an opportunity to look into some of the other parts of the town's dwellings are not pretentious structures of more than one story are uncommon but each is its owner's castle it is the house of a free man in that concept that is overlooked the rude construction the lack of facilit that we have come to regard as our everyday conveniences for these people have something infinitely more precious than material wealth in a world that is battling the last stand of despotism the citizens of i show clearly with one exception where good and anglo saxon maypole have come from your guess is as good as any but these men with high ceremonial head dresses how reminiscent they are of processional figures in energy those indians died completely off in twenty five years they died mainly because they had known freedom and could not live without it also interest whatever passed before i would really know freedom again in fifteen seventeen negro slaves were brought from africa to repopulate the island the french took over in sixteen ninety seven constantly adding more slaves to increase the ilda their large plantations and by such slave labor making id extremely rich in trade these grotesque figures are memories of that century of the plantation through the tangle of the survivals comes to the powerful racial origin in africa that she factor in the hundred four when this was done mark not only are both of independence but an immense a patient from slavery the greater part of the republic is situated on two large peninsulas and that gives a relatively small country an extraordinarily long coastline it has no less than fourteen seaports among these is the city second in importance kept i t n columbus build a fortress here but tourists come to cap i t n less where he entertained his courtiers christophe was one of the black leaders who are always with toussaint louverture freeing their fellow slaves and driving out the french who had ruled them for more than a century on the trail above the ruins of sounds to see own hand stone walls and high and accessibility of no avail he feared his enemies and with reason back of each of the three hundred sixty five windows in his saddle was a cannon aimed at intruders who never it stands for the great change at the opening of the nineteenth century in europe's attitude toward the new world at the end of a refund reams of american conquest the train of disasters that christophe and his fellows caused the french persuaded napoleon that the price of western empire was too great he suddenly decided to sell out the united states making the louisiana purchase from him for fifteen million dollars so perhaps to those who use more than their lives in looking at id there is neither a stick nor a stone nor a living thing in all the republic which does not somehow symbolize the spirit of our own liberty our proud history might be far less than it is if christ e and his fellows had never lived or had prized their freedom less