Wichita eagle., 1889-07-07
VOLCANIC HAY4I.
Facts on Its History and the
Late Revolution There.
THE LONG NEGRO-MULATTO FEUD

The Lew Wauace-Beverly Tucker Com
mission-The Island of Santo Domingo
in q State of Retrogression - vaudoux
Worship and Cannibalism.
The appointment of Beverly Tucker and
Lew Wallace and almost immediate with
drawal of their names as United States com
missioners to Hay6, followed by the news Of
Hyppoite's triumph over Legitime, has re-
newed public interest in that island. At the
opportune monnt appears the work Of Sir
Spenser st. John, who was for twenty years
British consul general at Port au Prince and
is now her majesty's minister in Mexico
His conclusions On Hayti are briefly and
easily stated He considers the island in
state of rapid decay, and the people as inca
pable of any form of government save des-
potism.
The people of the interior, he says, have
reverted to the condition of a West African
tribe, given over to the worship Of Vaudoux
pronounced vo-doo, and often called Hoodoo
in the United States, the sacred snake, and
with the ceremonies Of that worship go child
murder, the digging up of corpses for their
lfse, LILO ia Ol uuiudu DlOOO u1iAeU WIN
rum, ferocious cannibalism, and the most
disgusting debauchery
A TALE OF HORRORS.
Such things should not be accepted without
such testimony as excludes all doubt Down
to few years ago the government tried from
time to time to repress cannibalisin, then tn
effort was abandoned, and the record Of one
of the last trials shows how common the prac-
tice was. In that case two of the guilty con-
fessed, but the first evidence was obtained by
a young creole who BACKED himself thorough
~ and mingled with the worshipers The
victim was young girl Sir Spenser ST.
John heard the trial, and says:
''She was thrown on the ground and held
by the head and feet while the Papaloi
(prieSt) cut her throat and let the blood run
into the receptacle prepared. Jeanne cooked
the flesh with Congo beans, but Roseide
Sunera, urged by the fearful appetite of
cannibal, cut from the palm of the dead
child piece of flesh and ate it raw. This I
heard her avow in open court.) Asked
which were the incest parts of child, she
answered, laughingly, the palm of the hand
and the inside Of the leg"
Froude reopened the inquiry and confirmed
the verdict of st. John. But this is too dis
gushing subject to pursue. What concerns
us more is the political condition and trade
of Hayti. The island contains about 81, 0OO
square miles, and Hayti is little over one
third of it, The Spanish or eastern part is
now called San Domingo, and the whole
island Santo Domingo, and surely no other
equal area has been in four centuries the
scene of such wanton cruelty. When the
Spaniards planted their settlement there (the
first in the New World the native Indians
numbered at least 100000; in forty years
they had shrunk to 60,O0o. The men were
literally worked to death in the mines After
1860 no Indians are mentioned in the census, |
and as far as can be known there is not now
a drop of Indian blood on all island
A BLOODY HISTORY
Then came the Brethren of the Coast !
the noted Buccaneers, and seized the west /
part and finally delivered it to France, Spain |
retaining the other end. The French brought !
negroes from the west coast of Africa, and |
Hayti soon took rank as the richest colony in
the world. At the outbreak of the French |
revolution the Haytian exports were over