Where?" I enquired, thinking a place had been made for him on one of the government farms.

"Where?" he repeated, with amazement at the absurdity of my question. "Why, wherever I can find work." And that afternoon, despite the flooded condition of the trails and the torrential rains which were falling, he started north, seeking work where he could find it, and happy in the possession of all his limbs and of fair health, which is not the common lot of those who are drafted into the services of the government or the revolution in Hayti.

The revolution and civil war out of which General Simon has recently emerged victorious, was inevitable, but it was certainly hastened by the action of President Nord, who, anxious to assist the presidential campaign of his nephew, Camille Gabriel, removed Simon from his office as delegate of the south. For reasons which are more easy to understand than to explain to those who have never breathed the Haytian atmosphere and are unacquainted with the political ways of these truly black republicans, although General Simon has maintained himself in power for nearly a year, he is still generally regarded throughout the island as a mere stop-gap.

The true leading aspirants to the office are General Jean Gilles, delegate of the north, and Dr. Firmin. Gilles is a typical chief of the banditti hordes, who regard the public offices of the country as so many perquisites reserved for themselves alone. He is very popular with the soldiers in the north, who, in battle, have generally given a better account of themselves than have their brethren of the south. It will be a surprise

to many if Gilles does not soon attain the goal of his undisguised ambition.

Dr. Firmin* is still in the field, though not in Hayti. Doubtless he will present himself, and with armed force, before the revolutionary election, which is so orthodox in Hayti, is closed.

In his platform Dr. Firmin promises to make the civil branch of the government supreme, and he is supported by a Belgo-German firm which has made much money in selling war stores to previous administrations. Perhaps they have seen the error of their ways, and once their candidate is elected, will only submit peaceful wares to his attention, but, as a rule, the people of Hayti do not think so.

The solid opposition of the military banditti is at once the glory and the heavy handicap of Dr. Firmin's candidacy. An even more serious obstacle to his longcherished ambition is, I take it, the feeling among the people that if elected in one way or another Firmin— that is, the people-would have to pay the at present unsettled or "carried over " expenses of his two presidential campaigns and four revolutionary efforts.

Firmin at times, when it suits his purpose of the moment, claims to have in his candidacy the tacit support of the United States. There is, of course, no substantial basis to this claim other than the fact that on one or two occasions when Dr. Firmin, in exile, came to Washington, he was privately received by Mr. Root, then Secretary of State.

* Dr. Firmin's presidential aspirations were terminated by an unexpectedly peaceful death in April, 1912.

CHAPTER V

THE TRUTH ABOUT VOODOO

IN the West Indies, from Demerara to Honduras, from Panama to St. Thomas, when people tire of talking about the sugar tariff or the Governor's last garden. party, they as often as not, and rather oftener, I think, fall to talking about the cannibalistic practices and Voodoo crimes of the superstitious Haytian blacks. It is not a comfortable theme of conversation, but it is interesting as it comes so near home to them all.

All these weird and creepy stories and goosefleshraising rumours lend an interest to the sight of the shores of Hayti which is not aroused when the other islands swim into view upon the waves of the turquoise sea. When the first Haytian land-fall is made, West Indians, as well as travellers from more distant climes, throng the bridge and even the look-out aloft, if the captain permits, and begin to make discoveries. One of the most common of these rests upon nothing more substantial than the lazy columns of smoke which one sees so frequently floating slowly heavenward from the Haytian jungles and the highland forests. What is generally the fire of some lonely charcoal-burner, or a party of peasants making a clearing to be planted in the woodland, is by the power of imagination and of ignorance transformed into the scene of a cannibalistic feast. If there be a passenger on board who has been in Hayti, or, better still, lived there, his position of supreme au