Every one who mixes in Haytian society is struck by the paucity of black gentlemen to be met with at balls, concerts, or the theatre, and the almost total absence of black ladies. At some of the largest parties given by the late President Geffrard, I have counted but three black ladies to perhaps a hundred coloured; and although the gentlemen were more numerous, it was evident that their presence arose from their official positions, and not from a desire to mix with the society. There is a marked line drawn between the black and the mulatto, which is probably the most disastrous circumstance for the future prosperity of the country. A faithful historian, after carefully studying past events, can come to no other conclusion than that the low state of civilisation which still obtains in the island arises principally from this unmeaning quarrel. The black hates the mulatto, the mulatto despises the black; proscriptions, judicial murders, massacres have arisen, and will continue to arise as long as this deplorable feeling prevails. There is no sign of its abatement; on the contrary, never was it so marked as at the present day. A black Minister once said to me, “We blacks and whites like and respect each other, because we are of pure race, but as for those mulattoes”---- I remember, on my arrival in Port-au-Prince in 1863, having a conversation with a young mulatto lady, no longer in the freshness of youth, on the subject of intermarriage; and having faintly indicated that I thought she had been unwise in refusing the hand of one of the best-mannered, best-educated, and richest blacks in the country, I received a reply which completely surprised me, “Sir, you insult me to imagine I would marry a black. No, I will never marry any one but a white.” I soothed her as well as I could, but on looking at her faded charms, her unhealthy-looking skin, and her heavy under-jaw, I thought with reason that she might wait long; and, poor girl, she waited in vain till death released her. This contempt of the black is felt by nearly every coloured girl, and is bitterly resented. I have seen young mulatto women refusing to dance with blacks at a ball, and the latter, in fury, threatening to call out the father or brother of the offending beauty. Yet what can be more absurd than such a pretension or prejudice, when, but two generations removed, their mothers were African slaves! I have heard coloured women talking about their families and their aristocratic connections, when I have known that in a back-room, slowly fading away, was some black “mamselle,” the grandmother of the proud beauties. The blacks naturally feel and resent this childish insolence, and when they get the upper hand, as in the time of Soulouque and since, they unfortunately quench in blood their outraged feelings.