Hayti possesses a great diversity of climate. In the plains, where it is generally hot and moist, the thermometer often rises to 96° and sometimes to 100°; but in the highlands the readings are seldom above 76° or below 60°. In the most elevated parts a fire is sometimes agreeable. The seasons are divided into the wet and dry. Rains are heaviest and most frequent in May and June, when the rivers, some of which have but a scanty supply of water in the dry season, flood portions of the plains. Hurricanes are not so frequent as in the Windward Islands, but violent gales often occur. The prevailing winds are from the east.
Agriculture is very backward, and the implements used are rude. The staple productions for which the island was once famous are now imperfectly cultivated or neglected altogether. Mining, once profitably carried on, is generally abandoned from lack of capital, though some gold-washing still continues in the northern streams. Some mahogany and dyewoods are cut in the interior, and hides, wax, and honey are collected for export, but on a comparatively small scale. The business of the country is chiefly in the hands of foreigners, settled in the cities and larger towns.
The population of the island is about 700,000, of which 550,000 are subjects of the Haytian republic in the west, and 150,000 of the Dominican republic in the east. Of the Haytian population nearly 500,000 are of African descent, of the Dominican about 25,000. Of the mixed races about 125,000 are of Spanish, and 50,000 of French descent. There are also a few Germans, Italians, and natives of the United States, settled chiefly in the coast towns. The language of the eastern end of the island is Spanish, that of the western an impure French patois.
The history of Hayti begins with its discovery by Columbus, who landed at St Nicolas Mole, Dec. 6, 1492, having left Cuba the day before. The island was then occupied by about 2,000,000 people of a low type of humanity, who are described by the Spanish historians as feeble in intellect, and morally and physically defective. The natives called the island Haiti (mountainous country) and Quisquica (vast country). Columbus named it Espagnola (Little Spain), which was Latinized into Hispaniola. Adventurers from Europe, attracted chiefly by the exaggerated stories of gold, flocked thither, and the natives were reduced to slavery, although many made a gallant resistance. After about 30 years of grinding servitude, nearly all the aborigines had disappeared. A few negroes were brought into the colony as early as 1505, and in 1517 a royal edict authorized the importation from Africa of 4000 negroes a year. The blacks, stronger and better able to bear the labour which had been death to their predecessors, multiplied to such a degree that the island has finally passed into the hands of their descendants. About 1630 a mixed colony of French and English, who had been driven out of St Christophers by the Spaniards, established themselves in the island of Tortuga, where they soon grew formidable under the name of buccaneers. They at last obtained a footing on the mainland of Hayti, into which they had previously made only predatory excursions; and by the treaty of Ryswick (1697) the part of the island which they held was ceded to France. The colony, called Saint Domingue, languished for a while under the restrictions imposed on its trade by the mother country, but after 1722, when these were removed, it attained a high degree of prosperity, and it was in a flourishing state when the French Revolution broke out in 1789. The population was then composed of three classes, whites, free people of colour (mostly mulattos), and slaves. The free people of colour, some of whom were wealthy proprietors, demanded that the principles of the Revolution should be extended to them; this was opposed by the whites, who had previously engrossed all the public honours, and the two classes were already violently inflamed against each other when the national convention (1791) passed a decree giving to the mulattos all the rights of French citizens. The whites adopted at once the most violent measures, and appealed to the mother country for a reversal of the decree. But when the mulattos took up arms for their defence at the time of the insurrection of the plantation slaves (August 23, 1791), the whites endeavoured to conciliate them. In the meantime the home Government reversed the decree granting them political rights. The mulattos now took part with the blacks, and a most destructive war raged for several years, during which each party seemed to study to outdo the other in acts of cruelty. Commissioners were sent out from France, with full power to settle the quarrel, but could effect nothing. In 1793 the abolition of slavery in the colony was proclaimed. In September of the same year a British force invaded the island; but, though some partial advantages were gained, the climate made sad havoc among the troops, and prevented any solid success. Toussaint l’Ouverture, the leader of the blacks, came to the aid of the French, the home Government having in the meantime ratified the act of the commissioners in freeing the slaves. He was made commander-in-chief of the French army, and in 1798 forced the British to evacuate the island. By the treaty with Spain, made at Basel in 1795, France had acquired the title to the entire island, which now received the name of Saint Domingue.
