The inhabitants of Haiti are negroes, or, to be more exact, nine-tenths are negroes and the rest mulattoes; the whites are not very numerous, and are principally foreign merchants and traders.
The President of Haiti is a colored man, named Tiresias Simon Sam, and the officers of the government are all colored people.
The language of the country is a dialect known as Creole French. The official reports of Haiti say that the President is elected for seven years, but that his term is generally cut short by insurrections.
A good many Germans have settled in Port-au-Prince, the capital city of Haiti, but, white people being so scarce in the island, the consuls are kept busy trying to secure justice for their countrymen.
Last fall, the German consul to Haiti, Count Schwerin, was asked to adjust the present difficulty.
The servant of a young German named Lueders was accused of committing some crime, and, according to the story, a dozen stalwart Haitian policemen went to Mr. Lueders' house and forcibly arrested him.
Mr. Lueders went to police headquarters to complain of the conduct of the officers, and was at once arrested and charged with interfering with the officers while doing their duty, and also with attempting to kill them.
He was at once fined $48 and sent to jail for a month.
Mr. Lueders claimed that he was innocent and could prove it, and asked for a second trial. When this was given him, he brought forward witnesses who proved that he had not attempted to interfere with the police.