p. 14 | W. JAY TANNER by W. JAY TANNER

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D.C. · Jul 11, 1907

W. JAY TANNER

By W. JAY TANNER

Hayti

W. JAY TANNER

Hayti was discovered by Christopher Columbus, on Dec. 6, 1492. The name of the island is said to have meant, in the native Indian language, “high, mountainous land.” But Columbus thought that it resembled Spain, and therefore he gave it the name of Hispaniola, or “Little Spain.” Subsequently, under the French, it was for many years known as Saint Dominique; but on the declaration of Haytian independence in 1804, the aboriginal name was revived and adopted.

In point of size among the West Indian islands, Hayti is second only to Cuba, her next-door neighbor on the west. It has an area of over twenty-eight thousand miles, or more than the combined areas of Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. The present population is estimated at one million and a half. The republic of Hayti in the west, sometimes known as the Black Republic, because it is dominated by negroes, has two thirds of the population, and one third of the land area, of the island; while the remaining portion is under the rule of Santo Domingo.

At the time of its discovery, the island was well populated by Indians, whom the Spanish represent as mild and hospitable in habits and manners. But these have long since disappeared, and a mixed population, from Europe and Africa, has taken their place.

The history of the means by which the Spaniards exterminated the original inhabitants is somewhat similar to their relationship with the original Mexicans and Peruvians. “It would appear that the first rupture between the Indians and the Spaniards took place in 1493, at the garrison left by Columbus near Cape Haytien, on his first departure for Spain.” “History informs us that the Spaniards, having ill-treated the Indians, were fallen upon by them, and utterly exterminated. This unhappy event led to all the rest of the bloodshed and murder which afterward took place between the Spaniards and the natives of Hayti, thus showing how utterly vague is all merely nominal Christianity.

“Various indications of gold having presented themselves, the love of that idol was soon vehemently developed, and the unhappy Indians were, erelong, dragged forth from the quiet of ages past, and as slaves, to which state they were reduced, were compelled to hunt the worshiped metal either in the streams or in the mines. But the Indians of the tropics soon sank beneath this weight of woe, and even speedily disappeared, to the perpetual dishonor of their rapacious, though nominally Christian, masters.”

The case of the queen of Xaraqua

might be cited as an illustration of the perfidity and cruelty of the times. This queen ruled in the south, whereas the field of Spanish exploit was in the north. The latter had recently been in conflict with, and had conquered two cauques, or native chiefs, whose territory was near their own; and although the queen was on friendly terms with the Europeans, yet it was decided that she and her inoffensive people must be destroyed. To accomplish this, the Spanish governor sent word to the queen that he expected to pay her a friendly visit. He took with him five hundred well-armed troops, and was met in the way by the queen and the major part of her subjects, bearing palm branches and bouquets of tropical flowers. The queen did all she could to honor and feast her guests. In return for these favors, the Spaniards offered to feast the queen “in European style.”

In the course of this feast, ostensibly in honor of the queen, but in reality for the purpose of accomplishing her destruction, the commander ordered an evolution of the troops which brought the Spanish soldiers and the people in separate groups facing each other. The unsuspecting people, the queen in their midst, were regarding the wonderful doings of the Europeans with confidence and admiration, when suddenly, and without warning, the soldiers opened fire upon them. Needless to say the slaughter of the day was dreadful. Twelve of the defenseless natives were impaled together on a sharp stake, in honor, the historian tells us, of the twelve apostles! The queen herself was taken prisoner, bound, and dragged to the northern part of the island, where she was finally garroted, and her lifeless body left impaled.

But the cruel extermination of the Indians was not the only evil result of the Spaniards’ greed for gold. “The great scarcity of hands for working the mines, and for other exhausting toils which were first imposed on the Indians, soon originated the idea of seeking help elsewhere; hence Africa was thought of, and from whence the white man delayed not to drag by thousands the unhappy Africans from their ancient shores; and having shackled both soul and body, promptly set his more hardy limbs to work, thus soon lashing from him unbounded wealth.”

In 1602 the French wrested the western part of Hayti from the Spanish, and at different times the entire island has been under their control. However, the latter sought for wealth from the products of the soil, rather than from the already exhausted mines. “The elements and resources of every kind of wealth being found on these fertile shores, the active spirit of the French soon turned all to good account, and the result of their industrial powers became a subject of both wonder and admiration. Indeed, so great was the development of the unbounded resources of this fertile land, that it soon acquired the distinguished title of Le Paradis des Français (Paradise of the French) . . . Riches and luxury assumed a scale of even grandeur, as may be seen at the present day in the northern part of the Haytian republic, by such remains of ancient seats as plainly indicate the style of former days, when the positions of high and low were almost fabulous in their extremes of ease and misery.”

As might be expected, this abuse of power and of the blessing and bounties of nature, instead of following the evolution theory and developing into something still more grand and more worthy of the intelligence and refinement of the times and people, became the cause of fearful days for the colonists,—days that could be outmatched only by the reign of terror in the home land,—days that brought an end to the sovereignty of France over the richest and fairest of the Antilles.