Haiti: 'Land of Dark Majesty'

[first lines]

[a view of the harbor at Cap Haitien, Haiti, unfolds]

Narrator:
We have arrived in the harbor of Cap Haitien, on the north coast of Haiti, between Cuba and Puerto Rico, where the flagship of Christopher Columbus was wrecked in fourteen-hundred and ninety-two. At that time the land was inhabited by a friendly tribe of Indians. But they soon gave way to Spaniards, who in turn surrendered to the French, so that at the present time, Haiti is the only Latin American republic in which French is the official language.

[last lines]

[view of Henri Christophe's mausoleum]

Narrator:
And so, here lie the mortal remains of His Black Majesty, Henri Christophe, the mightiest monarch of the Negro race. Although he was powerful and clever, he was as despotic as the pharaohs who built pyramids. And now that all the fanfare that attended his life has subsided, Haiti has taken root again, and her people are going forward, progressing admirably under the guidance of democratic government. Nevertheless, the sun never sets on the harbor of Cap Haitien, that a voodoo voice in the wilderness of Haiti does not cry out, "Viva Henri Christophe." And it is said that it comes from the ghost of Henri Christophe himself.