grievances of Spain. The sentence imposed on Jose Santisi[1] was made a pretext for this haughtily aggressive attitude; but what in reality annoyed Spain was that the unfortunate Cuban refugees found a safe asylum on Haitian territory.[2] In his ultimatum[3] Captain Autran affected to see an insult to his country in the fact that the sentence inflicted on Jose Santisi, a Spaniard, having, on account of a technicality, been annulled by the Supreme Court (Cour de Cassation), the prisoner had not at once been set free. He at the same time, however, declared that Haiti had offended Spain in not having enforced a sentence passed upon a Cuban, Manuel Fernandez, which had also been declared void by the Supreme Court. Jose Santisi and Manuel Fernandez were both Spanish subjects, Cuba at that time not being an independent State; they were therefore entitled to the same protection from Spain. The judgments severally rendered against them having been reversed, they had, according to Haitian laws, to be tried again. Nevertheless, Captain Autran did his utmost to compel Haiti to discriminate; for, whilst demanding that Santisi be immediately set free, he insisted on the rigorous execution of the sentence against Fernandez. This contradictory demand did not prevent him from affirming in his letter to the British Consul at Port-au-
- ↑ After a trial by jury Jose Santisi was found guilty of arson and sentenced to death. He had set fire to the ice factory of Port-au-Prince, which was under his management, with a view of defrauding the French Insurance Company "Le Globe." This was the man on whose behalf Spain was trying to bully Haiti.
- ↑ "The conduct pursued by the Haitian Government is inconceivable, and I have the assurance that circumstances would never have arrived at the extreme in which they now are if the Cuban insurrection had not existed. Those separatists of the Greater Antilles who do not find in their breasts sufficient breath to meet the charge of the Spanish bayonets are scattered in the nearest foreign places, with the object of creating at every step international difficulties and to lend aid to those who have risen in arms. … But where those sympathies have cast deep roots and caused the perpetration of unheard-of wrongs, has been without dispute in the Republic of Haiti. … " (Letter of Commandant Autran to the British Consul, December 17, 1877. Foreign Relations of the United States, 1878, p. 424.)
- ↑ Le Moniteur, December 22, 1877.
