“They hate their fathers and despise their mothers,” is a saying which is a key to the character of the mulatto. They hate the whites and despise the blacks, hence their false position. That they are looked down upon by the whites and hated by the blacks is the converse truth, which produces an unfortunate effect upon their character. They have many of the defects of the two races, and few of their good qualities. Those who have never left their country are too often conceited, and presumptuous to a degree which is scarcely credible; whilst many who have travelled appear but little influenced by bright examples of civilisation, or by their intercourse with civilised nations, retaining but the outward polish of a superficial French education. Foreigners who casually meet Haytians are often only struck by their agreeable manners, but to understand their real character one must live among them, hear their talk among themselves, or read the newspapers published for local circulation. Travel, indeed, has little outward effect on the majority; and they return to their own country more presumptuous than ever. It has struck many attentive observers that this outward parade of conceit is but a species of protest against the inferior position they occupy in the world’s estimation, and that with their advance in civilisation and education they will rise in the opinion of others, and thus lose the necessity for so much self-assertion. I believe this to be highly probable, but until the mulattoes are convinced of their present inferiority, the improvement must be slow indeed. It may be remarked, however, that those who have been educated in Europe from their earliest years show few or none of those defects which are implanted in them by their early associations. I have known coloured men whose first real knowledge of their own country was acquired in manhood, who were in every respect equal to their white companions, as manly and as free from absurd pretensions, and naturally without that dislike of foreigners which is instilled into home-educated mulattoes. These men, knowing the consideration in which they were held by all, had no necessity for any self-assertion.