HORRORS OF A HAYTIAN PRISON.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VII, Issue 2129, 26 October 1885, Page 2

HORRORS OF A HAYTIAN PRISON.

C. A. Van Bokelen, of New York, exUnited States Consul-General at Port-au-Prince, arrived in Phiadelphia on August 28 from Port-au-Prince, He tells a remarkable story of an outrageous treatment at the hands of the jHaytian Government. While acting as Consul-General, Mr Yan Bokelen married a Haytian woman, and at the end of his term of office began dealing in paper money, of the Native Government, At this lie made considerable money, and then desired to invest part of his gains in real estate; but this was forbidden by the law of. Hayfci, which denies that right to any but a native of Hayti. He, however, evaded the law, and purchased a piece of property in Port-au-Prince, which transaction, reaching the ear.of President Solomon, he ;cause'd Van Bokelen's arrest, and had him locked up in a wretched dungeon in a Government prison at Port-au-Prince. His only companions were negroes of the most debased-type. Many of them were murderers and desperadoes, and very qften the prison, which is;a small and wretched structure Built on low ground, was crowded with 300 prisoners, van Bokelen boing the only. white man among them. His dungeon was,a narrow stone cell, which measured eight feet by

four, and the walls .were 5 constantly dripping with water. There .the unfortunate ex-Consul was forced to live from March, .1884, until Jupe 27, .1885;':'Tho place wils infested with rats'; and iniii. His health, which was robust whenlie was first imprisoned, is now entirely broken down, and he has become a victim to both consumption and chronio catarrh, while his face is pale and hag; gard, and gives every evidence of long suffering. Mr Van Bokelen says no attention was paid by President Solomon to letters from Secretary Freylinghuysen, and he was not released until Secretary Bayard wrote to the Haytian President demanding his instant release, stating at. the same time that if he was not released a United States man-of-war was about tobe despatched to Port-au-Prince, with in : sti'uctions to adopt severe measures if necessary. The truth of the story is vouched for.