Page:Haiti- Her History and Her Detractors.djvu/330

294 It is true that Haiti no longer exports sugar, through no fault of her own, however. A great deal of money would have been necessary to rebuild the sugar-mills; and the Haitians depended on their own resources, which were very limited, all the great Powers being ill-disposed toward them; at the outset they were thus compelled to undertake those branches of agriculture which did not demand a great outlay. Later on the exportation of sugar was prevented by the same economic reasons which have obliged the British colonies in the West Indies to give up this industry. In Jamaica, especially, the large estates which formerly were devoted to the cultivation of the sugar-cane have been transformed into banana plantations. In this respect the white colonists of the British West Indies have made no more headway than the Haitians, if the fact of their having ceased to export sugar was to be considered as indicating retrogression instead of progress.

The Haitians, however, have not abandoned the cultivation of the sugar-cane; they employ it for making rum and tafia, This rum, celebrated for its aroma and fine quality, was awarded three gold medals at the St. Louis Exposition. At Mon-Repos, Chateaublond, on the Ogorman and Vaudreuil sugar plantations, in the vicinity of Port-au-Prince, the sugar for inland consumption is made. This sugar was also awarded the gold medal at the St. Louis Exposition.

As to the other products, some of them have not only equalled but have considerably exceeded the yield of the most prosperous period of the French domination. One hundred years after taking over a devastated land the Haitians succeeded by their own unaided efforts in exporting 86,000,000 lbs. of coffee, viz., 18,000,000 more than in 1790, or twice the quantity exported in 1800-1801; 5,000,000 lbs. of cocoa, when the amount exported in 1790 was 150,000 lbs. and 648,518 lbs. in 1800-1801; 154,000,000 lbs. of logwood, compared to 6,000,000 lbs. in 1800-1801; 4,982,502 lbs. lignum vitæ and 30,576 feet of mahogany, whilst in 1790 only 1,500,000 were exported; and this without mentioning the honey, wax, orange