New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1842-10-20

CAPE HAYTIES.-We have just received a let
ter from valued friend in Philadelphia, who has
recently arrived from Cape Hayden. Although II
was not intended for publication, We can see no
| impropriety in placing some extracts from II De
fore our readers, al d, as we think that They may
| be rather Interesting, take the liberty OF do
! ing -
g A few days after you parted from nae, sailed
for Cape Hayden ST. Domingo as supercaIgo o!
the brig -. was there As days and had much
trouble and difficulty with the cargo. | found my
consignee sick, and he afterward died gave
the consignment to another man, who soon tell
sick also. third man took charge, and died in
six days after, and left the fourth sick. All
the clerks. and all hands on board were sick, ex-
cept the Captain and myself; and one OF our men
died. In short, almost every body in the place
was sick while | was there, or had been prevl-
ously. The disease was bilious intermittent te-
yer, with some cases of black vomil, and was said
be occasioned by the animal and vegetable decay
going on beneath the ruins.
The newspaper accounts of the earthquake
were but little, if any, exaggerated. There Is lte-
rally not a whole tensntabe house left in the place;
and Of the 9 or -, 900 inhabitants, not less than
| three-fourths are beneath the ruins.
Here and there room is occupied in the old
town. but most of the survivors live in little val
ley called the Passette, running parallel to the
town, in nuts having neither fools windows,
and most of them inferior To the worst outhouses
on our farms. Of suffering. however, except
among the sick, there is little; vegetable
food, the Chief absolute necessary of life, is cheap
and administering il, 1t may be had for the
gathering. And of grief none. The peo-
pie appeared to be as gay and cheerful as If no
misfortune had belallen them. do not consider
this indifference characteristics of the people.
believe it TO be generally the case, where calam-
y is universal. Every man that his neigh
Dor is as badly off as himself. No eye is directed
with especial sympathy to him; and he soon
finds that waiing is superfuous and " won't pay"
And, not only this, but, in the excitement conse
quest to the breaking up OF all conventional ur-
engagements, civil and domestic, all external res
traint is removed, and each man becomes as bad
as he dares. Licentousness has greatly increased
since the earthquake. Almost every body aP-
peared to drink largely of GIN tafa, or other ar.
dent spirit and many man OF Standing keeps
concabne, openly, who has not taken the trouble
TO remove his wife from the ruins, and give her
decent burial. Marriage, however, has never
been favorite ceremony on the Island. he
President, himself, is not married. but lives with
the widow of Potion, the former President,
whom it is said, he seduced during the life of the
latter.
Some two or three hundred couples were mar
RED during the panic which succeeded the earth
quake but this is now over. Did you ever re-
mark that intense fear created intense thirst?
Within few minutes after the first shock, nearly
all the survivors were raging for water, and all
the fountains in the place, but one, were buried,
the struggling over this described to me as
like that of brutes in similar circumstances
Many remarkable instances related of tena-
city of life in the buried alive. | was told by an
English merchant one of the most respectable
men In the place, that little girl was taken out
of the ruins, alive nine days after the earthquake.
She was asked if she was hungry or thirsty. She
said no. If she in any pain from the bruises,
&c. She said no-she felt very well. But she
died the next day. youRg man who had boen
absent at Prince, returned seven days after
the earthquake. He inquired after the various
members Of his family. Nobody had seen them
He went to work among the ruins of his house
found his mother and sister dead, but took his Ia
Their ont alive and he is living now.
1t will be many years before Cape Haytien re
gain, its former mercantile Importance. No move
ment has yet been made towards It's renovation.
There is little money no credit, and no store
houses consequently only retail trade in the place,
at present. Nanlucket lnqulreI.