First Report From the Hayti Mission
By W. J. TANNER
SEPTEMBER 27, after a brief rest among our relatives in New Jersey and Maryland, we embarked for the West Indies once more, this time to make our field of labor Hayti, rather than Jamaica. The fifth day after leaving New York we spent seven hours at Inagua, one of the Bahama group of islands. Here we left some reading-matter. In these islands something was15done in the way of circulating our literature about ten years ago, by Brother C. F. Parmele. But the work was never followed up, and so far as the writer knows, the truth has no representative there at the present time; yet nearly fifty thousand souls are waiting for the last message. Early in the morning of October 3 we steamed into the harbor of Cape Haytien, the second town in size and importance in the republic, situated on the northern coast of the island, not far from the Santo Domingo line. Our ship had not long cast her anchor when a delegation from the little company of believers in Hayti came aboard to escort us ashore. The welcome that we received from our own people was very warm indeed, and we have also been made cordially welcome by many not of our faith, including the mayor, and also the delegate representing the president in this part of the republic. The friendliness shown us has been in marked contrast to the reports we had heard concerning the people and their attitude toward foreigners. In an American paper we read that the life of a white man is unsafe in Hayti; and a gentleman who had traveled in the island very extensively informed us that “the Haytiens never smile,” all of which we can certify is not only untrue, but also unjust to the people. As yet I have been unable to visit the two companies that profess to be keeping the Sabbath in the interior. Some, however, have come down to see us, and these have impressed us very favorably. After I have studied the situation more closely, I will write more fully concerning it. All about us we see evidences that the world is waiting for the last message. Two days ago an American, who was a fellow passenger coming down, and who has large business interests in Santo Domingo, called on us, and earnestly suggested that we open up work in the republic, as he thought the time was favorable. I have also learned from one of the sisters here, who was over in Turk Islands in August, that there she found a woman who had been keeping the Sabbath for over five years. She had been convinced of her obligation to keep it through reading her Bible alone. From the report that the sister brought back, there is quite an agitation in Turk Islands at present over the Sabbath question. Yes, here as elsewhere, the evidences all go to prove that the isles are indeed waiting for God’s law.