The Sun.
London, England, 1842-06-22 00:00:00

DESTRUCTION OF THE CITY OF
CAPE HAYTIEN.

The city is remarkably beautiful, and must have been,
during its glory, the most agreeable residence in the Western
Archipelago."—lllacKxnuE, Consul-General in Hayti, 1628.

The city of Cape Haytien, which, together with its
vast population, according to the American accounts
lately received, has been almost totally destroyed by an
earthquake, is the capital of the island and republic of
Hayti, and lies in lon. 72 deg. 16 min. W., lat. 19
deg. 46 min. N. Of this city, which was once the
capital of the " Queen of the Antilles," which was
also the most fruitful spot upon earth, beautiful as
regarded its position, and forming an abode the most
delightful in the west, it becomes us now to speak of
and to particularise as of those things which " are
not," seeing that all trace of it has been swept away
from the spot which it occupied.
This town was founded in 1760, but was burnt in
1792 by the blacks : it was the last town retained by
the French in the island, but was surrendered by them
to the blacks in 1803, when it became the capital of
the black emperor, Henry Christophe. At the period
antecedent to this, when it suffered so severely by in-
testine convulsions, it contained a number of elegant
buildings, about 900 houses of stone and brick, and a
population of about 12,000 ; some said, at that period,
the population was 20,000, 12,000 being slaves.
Charles Mackenzie, however, who was for some years
her Majesty's Consul-General in Hayti, states, we
find on reference to his book, that the population of
Cape Haytien was 38,566. He states this calculation •
to have been derived from an American paper, pub-
lished at the time. that emigration of the black and
coloured population from the Continent to Hayti was
zealously promoted, for the purposes of increasing the -
resources of the republic, and it being a 'Government
statement, he thinks it every way worthy of credit.'
The city of Cape Haytien was situated on the
north coast of St. Domingo, and was built at the
base of a mountain, called Morne du Cap, which
screened it from the north and the west. It had a
variety of designations at different periods of its his-
tory : first of Cabo Santo; then, under the French,
of Lap Francais, Cap Republicain, Cap Henri ; and,
finally, that which it bore at the time of its destruc-
tion, that of Cap Haytien : though the Spaniards still
give it the aboriginal name of Guarico.
Built on a cape, at the, edge of a large plain, 60
miles long and 12 broad, bet Ween the sea and the moun-
tains, it possessed large, well-watered, and well-culti-
vated tracts. The central plain, which was the most
fruitful part, was cut through by straight roads, 40
feet broad, lined with hedges of lime and lemon trees,
leading to plantations which produced as great a
quantity of sugar as any spot of the same size in the
world.

There were two roads which led to Cape Haytien,
or as it was commonly called the Cape : one by
Enncrv, the other by Plaisance, over a steep mountain,
and called, from its steepness. L'Escalier, the pre-
cipices overhung by it strongly resembling the Corral
in Madeira. The road over it was paved, and was
constructed by a black colonel, named Thomas Du-
rocher, a native of one of the colonies, but there
called an Englishman.
On the summit of the mountain, at whose base the
town lav, a signal post was placed for announcing the
approach of vessels. The harbour extended to the
east and south, and formed a bay, at the bottom of
which was the small town- of Petite Anse, having
spacious and well-paved streets, with houses built
chiefly of stone, and disposed in handsome squares,
large markets, and fountains with copious supplies of
water.

Among its public buildings the town of Cape
Haytien possessed many of great note. The de-
fences towards the sea were strong and respectable,
and had been much attended to by Toussaint, Dessa-
lines, and Christophe. The arsenal was built in the
reign of Louis XV., whose initials appeared over the
gate and windows. The church was handsome, though
in 1828 it was greatly ruined. The theatre, the
College of the Jesuits, the Government House, and
two convents, of very considerable extent, were also
fine structures. .

The town of Cape llaytien, if it have suffered in
former times, it appears to have been chiefly by fires.
Before the revolution it was seven times seriously
injured by the flames, and twice (if not oftener) it has
been since nearly laid in ruins. It was the seat of
Government not only under the French, but also
under Toussaint and Christophe, and though, in that
respect, it at the recent moment held only a secondary
rank, yet in political importance and extent of trade
it was little inferior to the capital.
The inhabitants consisted of the same classes as
those of the . other towns of Hayti, but they were
generally accounted more accessible to strangers,
better informed, and blending more cordially among
themselves. Their veneration for Christophe was
great : they emphatically called him " l'homme," or
" le roi."

At the entrance of the town there was a public
walk planted with rows of trees, called " La Fossette,"
at one corner of which was the small burying-ground
to which Toussaint is said to have looked with much
anxiety, as the destined asylum of Le Clere's army.
At another spot was a small theatre, which Chris-
tophe caused to be erected in some incredibly short
time by some German artificers, to prove how
promptly his commands could be realized. On the
road to Limbe •'were two handsome residences of
stone, one occupied by an Engligb merchant, and the
other was, in the time of Christophe, a sort of club-
house for foreigners.
Hayti means, in the vernacular, "the mountainous,"
and is the Indian name of St. Domingo—the one of
the Antilles to which Columbus, on discovery, gave

the name of Espanola; or Hispaniola (Little Spain),
but which, by the I~ rench and English, has been
commonly called St. Domingo, from its capital.
We have before observed that the town was well
fortified ; indeed, towards the sea the ramparts were
very commanding, and were mounted with guns of
large calibre. A military force of about 5,000 men
was kept up here, part of which garrisoned in the
city, in the barracks; and the other divisions in sta-
tions on the plains. At no great distance were those
two stupenduous works of Christophe—his palace of
Sams Sonci, and the citadel Henry, or Fort Ferrier.
Speaking of this part of the world—the most salu-
brious portion of the Antilles—Robertson says, " In
this delightful tract of, country, nature seemed to as-
sume another form; every tree, plant, and form,
so differed from the ancient hemisphere, that Colum-
btts boasted of having discovered the original seat of
Paradise."

The Abbe Ray-nal grew equally eloquent on be-
holding these pleasant regions ; and the delighful ac-
counts-which are to be met with in every writer, on
their salubrity, loveliness, and climate, only render
more gloomy to the imagination, the dreadful event
which has just shrouded them in darkness and ruin.

THE LATE ELOPEMENT—APPRE-
HENSION OF THE FUGITIVES.
We copy the following from the Freeman's
Journal:—
The particulars of the elopement, on Monday last,
of Miss Eliza Kennedy, with John Devereaux,
Esq., appeared in the freeman of Wednesday. On
the previous day a warrant was issued by Mr.
Studdert for the apprehension of the fugitives.
The warrant was entrusted for execution to Con-
stable James Fitzgerald, 178 D. At half-past seven
o'clock on Tuesday afternoon that officer, accom-
panied by Mr. Megan, Mrs. Kennedy's solicitor, and
\ll-. Monaghan, the receiver over the minor's
property, proceeded in pursuit of the parties,
and learned at Enfield that they had passed
through there at half-past- ten o'clock the same
morning by the Galway day coach. Quick posting, by
short relays, brought the pursuers to Ballinasloe by
five o'clock the next morning. There the differeht
hotels were visited without loss of time, when, in less
than an hour, Miss K. and Mr. D. were most dis-
agreeably surprised, while in the act of sitting
down to breakfast at Grady's Hotel, after having
secured seats in the mail for Galway, to pass at seven
o'clock, by the intrusion of the agents_ of natural guar-
dians, legal rights, &c. The young lady appeared
very much distressed on the occasion, and altogether,
it would seem, on account of her companion. She
exclaimed that if any fault there was in it, it was
hers, not h's. But it was of no avail. The "happy
pair" were doomed to separation. Mr. Stud-
dert's warrant consigned Mr. Devereux to
the charge of the constable, while Miss Kennedy
was restored, by Mr. Alvan and Mr. Monaghan, tor
the domestic roof of her family at Peamont. The
luckless swain arrived in town at seven o'clock last
evening, when he was taken to the Bridewell-lane
station-house for the night.
The defendant has since been examined before the
Magistrates, and committed for trial ; but liberated
upon bail in two sureties of 501. each, and himself
in 1001.

The Echo des Vallees of Bagneres, in the Hautes
Fyrenses, States that a bear, .which had for some time haunted
tt.e forest between
. Heches and Sarrancobn, has lately destroyed
oil WrO,Willfn SO festers it 114016