Politically speaking, the Haytians are a hopeless people, and the most intelligent and best educated among them are more and more inclined to despair of the future of their country when they see the wreck that follows each wave of barbarism which every few years passes over their republic. President Geffrard, on going into exile in 1867, remarked to my Spanish colleague, that, putting aside all personal feelings and regrets, he could only foresee for his country a disastrous series of convulsions. He spoke prophetically; for Hayti has never recovered from the effects of the civil war which followed his expulsion, and he must have observed, from his secure retreat in Jamaica, how the leaders of every section of his enemies were, one by one, executed, killed in battle, or sent into exile. I will now attempt to examine some characteristic traits of the Haytian negro and mulatto. THE NEGRO. A French admiral once asked me, “Est-ce que vous prenez ces gens au sérieux?” And at first sight it is impossible to do so in Hayti; but after the eye becomes used to the grotesque, the study of the people is both interesting and instructive. To a foreigner accustomed to regard the negro as he is depicted by our latest travellers, a half-naked savage, brutal and brute-like, it is not possible to contemplate as otherwise than incongruous a black general with heavy gold epaulettes and gorgeous uniform galloping on a bedizened steed, surrounded by a staff as richly apparelled, and followed by an escort of as ragged a soldiery as ever Falstaff was ashamed to march with. The awkward figure, the heavy face, the bullet head, the uncouth features, the cunning bloodshot eyes, seen under the shade of a French officer’s cocked hat, raise the hilarity of the newcomer, which is not lessened when he discovers that this wretched imitation of a soldier declares himself the most warlike of a warlike race. But putting aside the absurdities which appear inherent to the blacks, you soon discover that there is something sympathetic in that stolid being. In treating of the Haytians, one must carefully separate the lower-class negro as he appears in a large commercial town from the black who lives in the plains or mountains. The former, brought into constant contact with the roughest of the white race, as represented by an inferior class of merchant seamen, is too often insolent and dishonest, whilst the countryman, who only sees a select few of the whites, appears to have an innate idea of their superiority, and almost always treats them with respect and deference, and with a hospitality and kindness which is not found in the cities.