The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-08-28
CAPE HAITIEN CITY.
B1CLSsIFUDEs OF THE "PARLs''
 OF THE
West Indaes-A Visit to sans soucI- Memories of TOussatnt L'OuVcI turo and the Black Cromwell.

 Especial Correspondence of the Journal
 and Courier.)
 Cape Haitien, Haiti, July % 1902
 This most interesting city of the Black Republic lies cn the north coast, a little west of Port de Paix and that celebrated stronghold of the buccaneers the island of La Tortue. It was the original Gaurico of the Spaniards, and afterwards the Cape Francis of the French. Then it figured for a while as Cape Henry; then Cape Christophe. Now days it is set down on all French maps as "Le Cap" and is known to foreigners who frequent these waters as "The Cape A deep curve in the shore line of the island admits a fine bay, backed by noble mountains that form famous landmark for mariners. Gaily-colored roofs and house-walls oc- cupy the long, narrow. crescent-shaped strip between the green heights and the sea. On the other side of the little bay, opposite the town, broad and fertile plain, filled with neglected coffee groves that were once fiuorishing plan tations, stretches away to the dim rnountain-line that marks the boundary between Haiti and Sante Domingo. From the deck of a passing steamer, the view is charming, in every direc- tion; and even ashore, though the ruin- ed city tells a pitiful tale of progress and destruction, magniflcence and. pow erty-it would be hard to find a>more romantically beautiful spot.
 When Cape Haitien was at it's best and the center of island commerce, it's houses and palaces ande innumerable churches were all of stone, it's broad streets we'll paved, its many public squares adorned with fountains and statues, and it's seventy-f1ve thousand inhabitants maintained degree of re- fined elegance which caused 1t to be justly called "The Paris of the West Indies" The title still clings to it-but oh, what a sad misnomer. To-day it's population numbers barely eleven thou sand, and you may traverse square af- ter square of crumbling ruins. through narrow paths, broken and obstructed at every step, which were once stately streets, and see on all sides the re- mains of churches, convents and pal aces, majestic even in decay. Luxuri- ant vegetation of the tropics runs riot over stately arches and pillars, groined wall and nitches; young palms and banana trees grow in unroofed halls and salas, whose noble proportions were once paved with Italian marble or Talavera tiles; the fountains are ot,o1xod witt, @ot b1sclyaf1 Or removed, and the deserted plaZas have long been used as dumping places for dead animals, tin cans and waste of ev- cry description.
 The lower streets that run parallel with the sea show some substantial buildings, mostly the warehouses of foreign merchants, who live in consid- erable luxury on the second floors of their business houses. But ramshackle wooden structures are the rule, and bamboo huts, thatched with straw, leaned against the tumble-down walls of ancient palaces. amid unspeakble squalor and degradation. Fully nine teen-twentieths of the inhabitants are jet black, with a few mulattoes oi varying shades. and a very small for eign colony. The native whites" SC called are really octoroons and qua droons, with an admixture of Frencf and Spanish blood. What they do fol a living is mystery. Except the stevedores around the wf,arves, and the women who keep small shops fo1 sale of fish, fruits and motions" have not seen any cf them king even a pretensa of working. Foreigners conduct all the commerce of the place which consists principally in exporting coffee and 1ogwood, and importing dry goods, drags, provisions, hardware, 6 little soap and a, good deal of per. fumery-most from the United States By the way, the chief article of dry goods is blue denim, from the Amoskeag company. of New England all the country people of Haiti, as vel as the lower classes in the towns being clothed, winter and summer, in that material. It looks like carrying coal! to New Castle to see large quantities ot imported sugar landed on this fertile island that once controlled the sugar markets of the world; but the fact is that the white planters are all gone and the great estates. from which sucf enormous incomes used to be derived do not yield enough sugar nowadays tc supply the miserable population witt rum; while coffee-now growing wild il the once carefully -cultiva ted groves. 1! of the poorest grades. To understand how this melancholy state of thing. came about. and why Cape Haitian i. so frequently referred to as "ill-fated. 1t Is necessary to go back few years
 As everybody knows. this riches island of the Caribbean Sea remained in possession of the Spaniards abou three hundred years during which tim they succeeded in "eonverting" all tn, aborigines by working them to deatl in the mines and on the plantations and had filled the places of the Indial slaves with horses of Africans. Thel the western and most valuable portion of the island was wrestled from Spail by the French buccaneers, who re named it Hayti and made it over t' Louis XIV. The Frenchmen were quicl to see the advtnages of this place-it beautiful bay, fine climate and the un exampled fertility of the surroundinl plains and they forthwith changed it :iame, Guarico. to Cape Haytien" ant made it their proudest city. They bull other cities and ls;d out farms and su gar-fields, and planted coffee all ove the island. where it now grows wild vast herds of cattle roamed the noun tains and the savannahs were dottet Nryif 1,I1rr Yf<f--