In the interior a well-to-do black lives openly with several women as wives, and I have seen the patriarch sitting at the door of the central house, with huts all around in which his younger wives lived, as they could not be made to dwell under the same roof. On Friday evenings he descends to market on a horse or mule, perhaps holding in his arms the latest born, while following in his train are a dozen women and sturdy children either carrying loads or driving beasts of burden. No one is mounted but himself. The French priests attempted to alter this state of things, but they did not succeed, as the wives, surrounding the intruder, asked him what was to be their position if the husband selected one among them and abandoned the rest. The priests have for the most part wisely decided not to meddle with the present, but rather endeavour to act upon the minds of the younger generation. They can hardly expect success as long as the numbers of women greatly exceed those of the men. The blacks, though in general kind to their children, neglect them, and the mortality is said to be great. They are, however, very passionate, and in their anger they use in correction the first thing that comes to hand. A Spanish friend with a tender heart was riding one day in the country when his attention was drawn by the piercing shrieks of a child. He turned his head, and saw a black woman holding a little boy by the arm and beating him with the handle of a broom. He rode up, and catching the next blow on the handle of his whip, said, “Don’t beat the child in that manner.” The woman looked up surprised at the interference, and coolly replied in their patois, “Consite, li nègue; li pas fait li mal.”--“Consul, it is a negro; it will do him no harm.” Another day he saw a gigantic black beating with his club an interesting-looking young negress, giving blows that only a black could stand without being maimed. Again he interfered, but both set upon him, first with foul words, and then with such menacing gestures, that he was too glad to put spurs to his horse and gallop away. He found he had been interfering in a domestic quarrel. The brutal use of the cocomacaque or club is universal, as I shall have to notice when describing the police. Under Toussaint’s regulations the use of the whip, as an unpleasant memento of slavery, was abolished, but the club was introduced. Dessalines, as Inspector-General of Agriculture, brought it into vogue. At Les Cayes he one day ordered a woman to be beaten for neglecting some agricultural work; she was far advanced in pregnancy, and her child was prematurely born whilst the punishment was being inflicted. Whenever Dessalines’ name is mentioned, it is associated with some act of fiendish cruelty.