Cleveland daily leader. [volume] ([Cleveland, Ohio]) 1865-1873, 1865-11-15
Inmnicn and HaYtI.

~ 80 A+-@-S
that it would be utterly impossible to un-
ravel the tangled skein of his se~lf-contra-
dictions. Thus he talks of armed resis-
lance in Surrey, Middlesex and Cum
more'-districts in Jamaica-to the GET
frard government, which rules Hayti but
has nothing in the world to do with the
former country-speaks of Port au Prince
as a town in Jamaica, when its location is
in San Domingo, a hundred and seventy
miles east of the former island
and continues in "a series of absurdities
which we have not time to catalogue, all
caused by the supposition that jamaica
and Hayti are identical. The article is an
excellent specimen of the loose and blum
dering style of newspaper writing, INTO
which ever well informed men sometimes
permit themselves to fall.
As the mistake above noted is, however,
a common one, We think u few words of
explanation in regard to the two islands
and the two instructions will be of inter-
est.
Jamaica and Hayti are two separate is
lands, both belonging to the greater Antil-
les, peopled mainly by blacks, descendants
of Africans, and originally Spanish colo
mics. The island of Jamaica, however, is
now a dnnandenrv of Great Britain, while
Hayti is an Independent gover--a-
publican in form, and ruled by a negro
President. Jamaica is directly south of
the eastern end of Cuba. Its area is
$3.50 square miles, and its popula-
ton numbers about 4j0, 600, mainly
blacks. Its central colonial government
is located at Kingston and administered
by an English "Captain-G General and
Governor-in-Chief, appointed by the
English authorities. The island is one of
the richest districts in the West Indies,
and its products are luxuriant and valua-
BILE. The negroes of the Island were set
free by act of the British Parliament, Au-
gust LIST, 1887, and have since been their
own masters.
Hayti, on the other hand, comprises
only the eastern part of the Island Of San
Domingo, one hundred and seventy miles
due east from jamaica, and ten times its
size. Its history is stormy and %eventful.
Settled as a Spanish colony, it has been
commended for at different times by the
governments of France, England and
Spain. Its inhabitants consist of whites,
mulattoes and blacks, and, aside from the
squabbles which European powers have
had over it, it has been the scene of long
continued wars of races, in which these
three castles have contended for and al
ternately gained the mastery over each
other. In 1901 the blacks and mulattoes
of the entire Island, headed by the
intrepid Toussaint LOverture, sue
ceeded in establishing their indie
pendence-an independence which in
Hayti they havepractically possessed ever
since. In 1893 the island was divided
into two parts kingdom of negroes in
the eastern and larger but less %populous
part of the island, called San Domingo
and the republic of Hayti in the western
portion. These two governments, though
they nave bevn several times reunited and
again separated during their subsequent
history, are now distinct. Hayti consists
of a territory of 1850 square miles, in
habited by about 100000 inhabitants, of
whom 100000 are blacks. Its govern
ment is republican in form though it has
been imperial and monarchical several
times in the course of its history. Its
president is Falre Geflrard, Il mulatto. 1t
is also very rich in tropical products, and
during its subsection to Spain and France
was one of the greatest sugar producing
districts in America.
The two rebellions are as distinct and
separate in character as the islands them
selves. That in Hayti is an outbreak of
the negroes against the mild and liberal
rule of the mulatto Geffrard, caused part
ly by the individual ambition of its lead
ers and partlyby the jealousy of the blacks
against a mulatto ruler. 1t is headed by
Turin Salnave, a former general of Gef-
frard's, and al onetime assumed formidable
proportions, but is now mainly confined to
the town ofCape Haytien, on the nothern
coast, where the insurgents are hut up,
~blockaded, besieged, and SO hemmed in
that they must soon surrender. The less
organized but more horrible and barbarous
instruction in Jamaica, on the other hand,
is against the English authorities, and
finds its Immediate cause in an endeavor on
the part of the British t~ax-collectors to
through the courts the payment of
of taxes. The atrocities com
mitted by the insurgents, and the progress
ofthe British authorities in subduing them,
have been given our readers by the tel
We have briefly and hastily described
the location, government and history of
these two distinct islands, and given a
sketch of the organized rebellion in
one, and the more recent barbarous out
break in the other. The sketch has been
necessarily imperfect and brief, and many
interesting facts in regard to the history
and government of Hayti have been
omitted, which we hope to supply in an
other article.