HAYTI, otherwise known as Htsr,t'smoLA. or ST. DOMINGO, is, after Cuba, the largest of the West Indian islands, now divided into the independent states of Hayti, and the Dominican republic (q.v.). It is nearly equidistant front Porto Rico on the e., and from Cuba and Jamaica on the w., with the Caribbean sea on the s., and with the Bahamas and the open ocean on the n. lies in n. lat. between 17° 37' and 20', and in w. long. between 08" 20' and 74° 28'. It belongs to the group of the Greater Antilles. and, like all the principal members of its series, its gTcatest length (about 400 ma.) is in the direction—from w. to c.—of the chain of which it forms a part; its greatest breadth is 160 in. Area, including the islands of Tortuga, Gonaive, etc., about 28,000 sq.m., and the pop. about 760,000. The country, as the native name implies, is mountainous, being traversed longitudinally by a ridge, which sends out lateral spurs, terminating in headlands on either coast. The range is of volcanic origin—a fact still corroborated by the frequent occurrence of terrible earthquakes. Cilia°, believed to be the loftiest summit, is said to be about 7,000 ft. above the level of the sea. The mountains, richly and heavily timbered, are understood to be susceptible of cultivation almost to their tops. With such a soil well watered, and with a climate tempered by the sea breezes, Hayti. as a whole, is perphaps the most fertile spot in the West Indies ; while its excellent harbors, more especially those in the bay of Gonaives on the w., offer considerable facilities to foreign trade—hurricanes, however, prevailing in Aug. and Sept. The rivers are inconsiderable, and useless for navigation. Besides several bodies of fresh water, the salt lake of Henriquillo, near the s, shore, claims par ticular notice, as indicating by its tidal action some subterranean communication with the Caribbean sea. The productions are coffee, logwood, mahogany, tobacco, cotton, cocoa, wax, ginger, and sugar; and mines of gold, silver, copper, tin, and iron, though not now are found in many places.
'Within little more than an age after 1402, the aborigines had been swept away by the remorseless cruelties of the Spaniards. In connection with this deplorable result, Hayti, already the seat of the first white settlement in America, became one of the earliest fields. in the western hemisphere, of negro servitude. Next came the bucaneers, during the 17th c., to avenge the red moan's wrongs; and as those marauders were chiefly French, the western portion of the island, which was their favoritc.hamit, was, in 1097, ceded to France by the peace of RysWiek, thus 'presenting the first ithportant break in; the unity of Spanish America. For nearly 100 years, the intruders imported vast rein forcements of Africans; while the mulattoes, who were a natural incident of the con comitant license, rapidly grew, both socially and politically. into an intermediate caste, being at once uniformly excluded from citizenship, and generally exempted from bond age. In 1791, under the influence of the French revolution, the mutual antipathies of the three classes—white, black, and mixed—burst forth into what may well be charac terized as the most vindictive struggle on record—a struggle which, before the close of the 18th led to the extermination of the once dominant Europeans, and the independ ence of the colored insurgents. Thus, as the emancipated bondmen mostly belonged, at least in form to the Church of Rome, Hayti now exhibited the only Christian com munity- of negro blood on either side of the Atlantic. In 1801 France sent out a power ful armament to recover her revolted dependency, treacherously seizing and deporting the deliverer of his brethren, Toussaint l'Ouverture. In 1803, however, she' was con strained to relinquish her attempt; and in 1804, Dessalines (q. v.), aping the example of Napoleon, proclaimed himself Emperor of Hayti; tints reviving the indigenous name of the island, which had been in disuse for upwards of 300 years.