spend a few days among the country-people in order to "show him all the superstitious practises of the blacks"; he declined this invitation, remarking on page 208 [1] of his book that he regretted having missed the opportunity of seeing something new. St. John, whose assertions have done so much harm to the Republic of Haiti, thus admits that he has not witnessed the atrocities which he so glibly describes; he confesses that, being invited by a Haitian friend who probably wanted to convince him of the harmlessness of the superstitious practises of some of the peasants, he willingly let pass the opportunity to search into a matter seemingly of so much interest to him. After voluntarily abstaining from finding out the truth, he however gathered and published all the fabrications which reached his ears. In one instance it is a French priest who furnished him with the account of a human sacrifice;[2] at another time it is from a New York newspaper that he takes his story.[3]
It is most unwise to give credence to all one gathers from hearsay. If an illustration were necessary to make the reader cautious it might be found in Washington, where the good faith of a reliable newspaper was abused. In January, 1901, the Washington Post printed a sensational article, stating authoritatively that Professor Robert T. Hill, who had just returned from Haiti, had witnessed a vaudou ceremony whilst in the country; together with the following assertions which were attributed to Professor Hill, who was described as a government explorer in order to probably lend more strength to his statement: "Cannibalism is a conspicuous feature of these rites," said Professor
- ↑ Spenser St. John, Haiti or the Black Republic (1889 issue): "In the year 1873 an intimate Haitian friend, educated in France, the proprietor of an estate on the plain of Cul-de-Sac, invited me to spend a fortnight with him in the country, promising to show me all the superstitious practises of the negroes. I regret I did not accept, as at all events I should not have been called upon to witness a murder, and might have seen something new."
- ↑ Haiti or the Black Republic, p. 200.
- ↑ Ibid., p. 203.
