(HAITI) Copy book of letters sent from the Haitian envoy in

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Estimate: $ 500 - $ 750

(HAITI.) Copy book of letters sent from the Haitian envoy in New York City. Ink-transfer copies on tissue of letters written by Clement Haentjens, Haitian Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary in New York, and (after July 1896) his successor Jacques Nicolas Léger. 318 pages plus original index of correspondents. 4to, 12 x 9 inches, disbound and partially rebacked; edge wear to index leaves, contents a bit fragile with tears to a few leaves, but generally intact and readable. New York, 13 April 1893 to 10 February 1898

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Almost all of the letters are in English, and most are addressed to Haitian consuls in other American and Canadian cities. Although envoys Haentjens and Léger were Haitians, the local consuls were apparently Americans hired to represent Haiti. Some letters discuss specific cargoes, most frequently lumber. On 2 January 1895, Haentjens confirmed a large shipment of doors directly to President Hyppolite. Envoy Léger's letter to the Boston consul dated 13 September 1897 asks for advice in increasing Haitian exports: "Furnish me with any information regarding the following, and of their possible value in Boston: Coffee, cocoa, guar wood & gum, logwood and logwood roots, mahogany, dry hides, goat skins, ginger bleached and unbleached, honey, cocoanuts, oranges, banana, and peanuts. All of these are produced in large numbers in Haiti and I should be glad to see them imported into the United States."
A letter to a Cincinnati lawyer dated 16 October 1895 discusses the sensitive subject of indemnities, explaining that the full total "was paid to the French government many years since, and by them distributed to the claimants. I must therefore refer you to the French government at Paris for a reply to your enquiry." Haentjens wrote to Philadelphia department store mogul John Wanamaker in December 1894, in response to a request for a picture of President Hyppolite. Another letter was written to Helen Pitts Douglass, widow of abolitionist leader (and former ambassador to Haiti) Frederick Douglass, regarding her "generous offer to present to the Seminaire Petit College St. Martial at Port au Prince a copy of Prof Ward's series of descriptive catalogues of his exhibit." An interesting look at Haiti's diplomatic corps during the era of its greatest prosperity. Provenance: Sold by the estate of bookseller John Jenkins to the consignor circa 1990.