Journal of Voyages: Containing an Account of the Author's being Twice Captured by the English and Once by Gibbs the Pirate...Dunham, Jacob
History
Journal of Voyages: Containing an Account of the Author's being Twice Captured by the English and Once by Gibbs the Pirate...
Dunham, Jacob
Voyages and travels
The laws of this country are very arbitrary, although they help to
encourage industry and suppress idleness and dissipation. The president
makes donations from the public lands to all poor individuals who will
cultivate them. After they take possession of a lot he obliges them to
cultivate it. To accomplish this, he sends a small military guard
through the new settlements, accompanied by an officer, who stops at
every house, where he makes the following inquiries: "Is this your house
and plantation?" which being answered in the affirmative, he proceeds,
"How large is your family?" The man answers, a wife and ---- children.
The officer then compels him to go and show him the plantation, and to
point out the number of coffee trees he has planted, &c. If, on
examining the premises the officer finds only a few trees, and is
convinced of the indolence of the occupant, he says, "You cannot
maintain your family by this, and must be a cheat, or steal, you must
therefore go with me," and he is obliged to join the army or navy.
The farmers being out of the cities and villages, are not allowed to
come to market except two days in each week, say Sundays and Wednesdays,
without a special permit. All persons found drinking or rioting about
public places or grog shops are immediately taken up under the vagrant
act, sent to prison, and then transported to the army or navy as a
punishment. The authorities of cities and villages license a limited
number of butchers in each town, and compel them to keep the market
supplied with meat every day, and limit the price to twelve and a half
cents per pound.
Since my last voyage to this Island the president, at the head of his
army, had many engagements with the royalists under the emperor
Christophe, whom he conquered, and had obtained possession of all his
dominions. The emperor, fearing he should be taken prisoner, committed
suicide by blowing his own brains out with his pistol. The president
took possession of his castle, where they found about seven millions of
dollars. By their wars with the French, and their internal wars among
themselves, they have reduced the male inhabitants so much that they now
estimate there is eleven females to one male, throughout all their
dominions.
Having disposed of my cargo and got a return freight on board, I sailed
for the port of Jerimie, where we arrived the twenty-fourth of July.
Here I collected about eight hundred dollars in coffee, which was due
from my last voyage. I sailed for New-York on the twenty-eighth, and
arrived at Staten Island after a passage of twenty-two days, where we
were compelled to perform a quarantine of thirty days, at the expiration
of which time we proceeded to the city, where I disposed of my cargo and
then returned with the schooner to Catskill, when we refitted her
previous to the next voyage.
CHAPTER XXII.
Schooner Combine.--Third Voyage.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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