About the first of June, 1820, I chartered the Schooner Felicity in New-York, and proceeded to Catskill, and took in a cargo for St. Domingo; returned to New-York, and after shipping a crew, sailed on the twenty-second of June for Port au Prince, in the Island of St. Domingo, where we arrived after a passage of eighteen days, without the occurrence of anything which would interest the reader. I found Port au Prince to be a large but dirty city, no care being taken to clean the streets, the yellow fever often raging here, particularly among the shipping. The government is called a Republic, with a president elected for life, receiving a salary of forty thousand dollars for his services, and thirty thousand for his table expenses. The president being a military chieftain, exercises great power over his subjects, who have only the shadow of a Senate and Assembly, as they are subservient to his will. The soil of the Island is very fertile, producing sugar-cane, coffee, cocoa, and three crops of corn in one year; also, beans, cabbages, water-mellons, and most kinds of garden vegetables: plantains, yams, and every variety of tropical fruits in abundance. The Island at this time was divided into three departments; the northern part was held by a black royal Emperor, who styled himself Christoff, and exercised as much power over his subjects as does the Emperor of Russia over his. The southern part was owned by the Spaniards, as a Republic; the western by the Republicans called Haytians, who were then at war with the Royalists under the command of the black emperor. The war between those two parties had been carried on for many years, and ended in the total overthrow of the Royalists; the emperor blowing his brains out with his pistol.

The president of this Republic lays heavy export duties on the produce of the Island. The stamp duties on paper are said to amount to over two millions per annum. All merchants and mechanics pay a heavy tax for licenses to carry on their business. Whites are excluded from carrying on their trades in their own names, or from purchasing real estate in this Republic. A white can take a black partner, male or female, and do business in his or her name. Most of the white men settled here prefer the latter. This government has a mint, and coin their own money, which contains ten per cent of silver mixed with other metal. They coin no pieces larger than twenty-five cents, none smaller than six and a quarter. This coin is considered a lawful tender, and the laws strictly prohibit the carrying of any foreign gold or silver out of the country, on penalty of forfeiting it. This compels any person selling a cargo there to lay the returns out in some of the produce of the Island, which is consequently the cause of heavy losses to the shippers. The inhabitants are a mixed race of black and white, varying in color from the blackness of charcoal to almost the whiteness of a snow-ball, and hundreds of them have to take hard oaths to satisfy the authorities that they have some black blood running through their veins, which entitles them to the rights of citizenship in the Island. I have seen many red-whiskered fair complexioned men pass themselves off for men of color. Their national religion is Roman Catholic, no other being tolerated, but strictly prohibited. The president keeps up a standing army of forty thousand men, well uniformed, disciplined and equiped. As I shall have to refer to their laws, customs and manners in my next voyage, I shall leave the subject for the present.

Not being able to sell my timber at Port au Prince without a sacrifice, my consignee applied to the government agent to purchase it, of which he acquainted the president, who gave me a letter addressed to the public administrator of Jerimie, and requesting me to proceed with my vessel and cargo to that port, which I immediately complied with, after getting a letter of address from an Italian Jew I found in Port au Prince, but who resided in Jerimie, addressed to Messrs. Laforet & Brier, to whom I consigned my vessel and cargo. On my arrival at that place my consignees sold to the administrator all the timber he wanted, and the remainder at an under price to individuals. My provisions sold at a saving. Jerimie contains about two hundred houses, most of them being in a dilapidated condition, in consequence of the constant alarm in which the inhabitants have been kept by a troop of banditti, headed by an insurgent colonel, who had deserted from the army, and had so terrified the people that the women and children took shelter in the forts during the night, while the men were kept under arms, being obliged to suspend all agricultural pursuits, and leave their villages to decay. A few months since, the chief of the banditti had been killed, his troops surrendered their arms and received a pardon from the president. The inhabitants were now making great preparations to repair their buildings and call back their former trade.

While in this port, the padre, or priest died; he was carried to the church in a chair, being tied fast to it, in a sitting posture, a book placed in his hands. The corpse remained in this situation until about four o'clock in the afternoon, when a marble slab was taken out of the floor, an excavation made in the ground, the body deposited in the hole with the clothes on, and then covered with a thick coat of lime.

A friend of mine, named Ghio, arrived here from Port au Prince in company with one Captain Mills, from New-York, and while he and the captain were walking the streets of Jerimie, Ghio for the first heard of the death of the padre, when bursting into a flood of tears, he exclaimed, "Captain Mills the poor padre is dead, and I suppose I shall have to fill his place again," weeping at the same time. After a moments pause, he said, "Captain Mills, it is a damned good berth, I can make ten dollars a day by it." Ghio acted as a substitute in the place of the deceased padre until his place was supplied by another.

I remained at Jerimie three or four weeks, employed in selling out my cargo and obtaining a return freight of coffee, &c. I procured many orders for house frames and other articles, and was strongly urged to bring out some carpenters and a blacksmith, whom the inhabitants promised to aid and assist in their business. Having disposed of all my cargo and taken on board my return freight, I proceeded to sea, bound to New-York, where I arrived in safety after a passage of eighteen days, sold my return cargo, and sailed for Catskill, where I arrived about the first of November. I then repaired the schooner and prepared for another voyage.