CHAPTER XII.
HAYTI.
In sketching an account of the people of Hayti, and
the struggles through which they were called to pass,
we confess it to be a difficult task. Although the
writer visited the Island thirty years ago, and has read
everything of importance given by the historians,
it is still no easy matter to give a true statement of
the revolution which placed the colored people in
possession of the Island, so conflicting are the accounts.
The beautiful island of St. Domingo, of which Hayti is a part, was pronounced by the great discoverer to be the "Paradise of God."
The splendor of its valleys, the picturesqueness of its mountains, the tropical luxuriance of its plains, and the unsurpassed salubrity of its climate, confirms the high opinion of the great Spaniard. Columbus found on the Island more than a million of people of the Caribbean race. The warlike appearance of the Spaniards caused the natives to withdraw into the interior. However, the seductive genius of Columbus soon induced the Caribbeans to return to their towns, and they extended their hospitality to the illustrious stranger.
