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
and a half days; making the whole time gone only twenty-nine days, being
one of the most pleasant voyages I ever made. My acquaintance with the
owner was so short, that, after my return, when he came on board and
gave me his hand, I looked for some time before I could recollect him.
When I left Catskill I took with me only two or three changes of shirts,
&c. promising my family to return in a few days. In the journey I so
unexpectedly took there was nothing interesting, and I merely insert it
to keep up the chain of my voyages.
CHAPTER XVIII.
Schooner Felicity.
About the first of June, 1820, I chartered the Schooner Felicity in
New-York, and proceeded to Catskill, and took in a cargo for St.
Domingo; returned to New-York, and after shipping a crew, sailed on the
twenty-second of June for Port au Prince, in the Island of St. Domingo,
where we arrived after a passage of eighteen days, without the
occurrence of anything which would interest the reader. I found Port au
Prince to be a large but dirty city, no care being taken to clean the
streets, the yellow fever often raging here, particularly among the
shipping. The government is called a Republic, with a president elected
for life, receiving a salary of forty thousand dollars for his services,
and thirty thousand for his table expenses. The president being a
military chieftain, exercises great power over his subjects, who have
only the shadow of a Senate and Assembly, as they are subservient to his
will. The soil of the Island is very fertile, producing sugar-cane,
coffee, cocoa, and three crops of corn in one year; also, beans,
cabbages, water-mellons, and most kinds of garden vegetables: plantains,
yams, and every variety of tropical fruits in abundance. The Island at
this time was divided into three departments; the northern part was held
by a black royal Emperor, who styled himself Christoff, and exercised as
much power over his subjects as does the Emperor of Russia over his. The
southern part was owned by the Spaniards, as a Republic; the western by
the Republicans called Haytians, who were then at war with the Royalists
under the command of the black emperor. The war between those two
parties had been carried on for many years, and ended in the total
overthrow of the Royalists; the emperor blowing his brains out with his
pistol.
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