VIII. ARMY AND POLICE 276 IX. LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE 299 X. AGRICULTURE, COMMERCE, AND FINANCE 315 HAYTI; OR, THE BLACK REPUBLIC. CHAPTER I. GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF HAYTI. Standing on one of the lofty mountains of Hayti, and looking towards the interior, I was struck with the pertinence of the saying of the Admiral, who, crumpling a sheet of paper in his hand, threw it on the table before George III., saying, “Sire, Hayti looks like that.” The country appears a confused agglomeration of mountain, hill, and valley, most irregular in form; precipices, deep hollows, vales apparently without an outlet; water occasionally glistening far below; cottages scattered here and there, with groves of fruit-trees and bananas clustering round the rude dwellings. Gradually, however, the eye becomes accustomed to the scene; the mountains separate into distinct ranges, the hills are but the attendant buttresses, and the valleys assume their regular forms as the watersheds of the system, and the streams can be traced meandering gradually towards the ocean. If you then turn towards the sea, you notice that the valleys have expanded into plains, and the rushing torrents have become broad though shallow rivers, and the mountains that bound the flat, open country push their buttresses almost into the sea. This grand variety of magnificent scenery can be well observed from a point near Kenskoff, about ten miles in the interior from the capital, as well as from the great citadel built on the summit of La Ferrière in the northern province. Before entering into particulars, however, let me give a general idea of the country. The island of Santo Domingo is situated in the West Indies between 18° and 20° north latitude and 68° 20’ and 74° 30’ west longitude. Its greatest length is four hundred miles, its greatest breadth one hundred and thirty-five miles, and is calculated to be about the size of Ireland. Hayti occupies about a third of the island--the western portion--and, pushing two great promontories into the sea, it has a very large extent of coast-line. It is bounded on the north by the Atlantic Ocean, on the east by the republic of Santo Domingo, on the south by the Caribbean Sea, and on the west by the passage which separates it from Cuba and Jamaica.