The colored citizen., 1866-05-19
with loss to the +" bull-pups of one
man wounded and one horse. A renewal
Of the attack is expected
AN ENGLIsHMRN IN HAYTI.

Daily Ne1gS portions OF letter written
to that journal by Mr.. Henry Yates
Thompson, a gentleman known in this
country as the author Of proposition to
establish an American lectureship at the
University of Cambridge in England.
Mr.. T. has lately visited Jamaica and
Hayti, on his way to this country. He
remarks
81 defy any man to see even a little OF
the leading Haytians without being driven
to the opinion that the capacity OF men
of African or semi African descent for
social and intellectual elevation can only
be measured by their opportunities. |
have made the acquaintance in this insig-
nfcant town Jacmel of a mert hant who,
as far as color goes, is entirely, or al
most entirely, of African origin, who in
manners and conversation might orna
mcnt any drawingroom in Liverpool or
London. This man talks French and
English not sensibly and dramatically
only, but with the accent and ease of a
perfect gentleman. He has travelled,
life at least as long as that of his country !;
and prepared as | was, and as | suppose
all Englishmen are, to acknowledge the
capacity Of the African races for improve
ment, | own that it has been a surprise
to me to find, not from this instance only,
but from many instances both here and
at Port-au-Prince, that they have already
advanced so far"
We hope that when Mr.. Thompson
reaches our county, he will not fail to
place himself under the chaperonship
of some person Of African or semi African
origin, at convenient opportunities. in
order that he may again be surprised at
our advancement. We will undertake to-
convince him that it is by no means an
uncommon thing for such men to " talk
French and English sensibly and gram
matically. 1t is fact that they acquire
languages with pc ,ular facility and we
have met with many colored persons
whose acquisitions as linguists were so
respectable that they conld converse flu
emily in from two to six different tongues.
One of the persons alluded to was a cook on
on steamboat we'll acquainted with Eng
liSh, French, Spanish, Danish, Swedish,
Portuguese, and German, and whom we
have frequently heard when engaged in an
mated conversation with natives Anoth-
er, a colored girl in st. Louis, could con
verse readily in four different languages.
Forcolored men in Louisiana 70 speak
English, French, Spanish and Portuguese
is by no means uncommon. Then as to the
arts, we think our race has been in pro
pPPFti2n u its opportunities, as prolific
OF proncft tii"s' 0Utfoi - uIIGansun,
as landscape painter. ranks high in his
profession at home and in Europe, and
one of the finest scenery painters in Gin
cinnati is coored boy. Ball and Thorn
as stand among the first in their profess
sion. 4 co.ored man from New Orleans
is leader Of the orchestra in the theatre
at Marseiles, France, and another gradu-
ated recently with the highest honors
from the Musical Conservatory in Leip-
sic. Blind I ON astonishes the world by
his musical talent; and Cleveland Lnca,
black mar from GAINESVILLE. Ohio, is
organist at an English Cathedral in Sierra
Lione, position which commands sal
airy from the government Among our
orators we have Douglas, Ramond, Samp-
son, Garnett, Downing, Clark, Graham,
Lynch, Martin. Harper, and Day; of
lawyers, we have Langston, Rock, John
son, Morris; in sculpture. Edmonia Lew
is literature Vashon, Reason, Mitchell,
Nell, PUrviS, and Delaney. Our minis
ters, teachers, doctors, &C., are quite too
numerous for enumeration, and are many
of them men Of considerable literary cul-
ture and scholastic ability. A few years
since colored teacher who could cy-
pher to the Single Rule of Three" was
regarded as quite a prodigy; now tout
celia est change, and teachers whose ac-
quirements are simply sufficient to teach
" the three R's-reading, riting. and
rithmetic-are like Othello their occu-
patton is gone. We have some dozen of
newspapers, edited and published by col
ored men and their columns show bust
ness capacity, intelligence and thought.
Dur churches schools and other institu-
tions are fitted up with all the modern
improvements and visitor to our
schools will see little Africans and semi
Africans" demonstrating Sturm's Theo-
rem, and Descartes' Rule; while if Mr..
Thompson will drop in one of our church
es during his stay in our country, he will
probably hear logical and perhaps an
abstruse discourse, preluded by an oven
ture from Bach or Sphor, and followed
by an anthem fIom Handel, Mozart or
Beethoven.
The fact of the business, Mr. Thomp-
son, is, that we Africans and semi
Africans are good deal more like peo
pie than many suppose, and know good
deal more than many are willing to admit ,
and while it is true that we have vast
deal of ignorance among u.s. it is equally
true that we have a very respec table