1915, March–May: (The Worst Savagery: Guillaume Sam’s Hostages, Bobo’s Revolution, and the Two Hundred Bondsmen): As Guillaume Sam took office, the omens bri…

1915, March–May: (The Worst Savagery: Guillaume Sam’s Hostages, Bobo’s Revolution, and the Two Hundred Bondsmen): As Guillaume Sam took office, the omens briefly seemed favorable — the main reason was that he had money, some from Simon Sam and a shipload of Théodore’s New York banknotes worth no more than Bons Da but authentic in feel and therefore negotiable. Admiral Caperton had reported that Guillaume was a strong man but feared by the better class of Haitians on account of his harsh methods, while French Minister Pierre Girard later described this Black man in whom a marked sweetness of manner masked a nature authoritarian, vindictive, pitiless toward foes, cruel to those whose existence he considered a menace to his own security. Sam’s first act was to round up his enemies — when in March 1915 word came that Dr. Bobo, with the usual help of Desiderio Arias, was mounting an invasion, Guillaume Sam like many another noir ruler promptly began to seize hostages, mainly mulâtres and all elite. These, numbering at least two hundred and representing the best families of the republic, were shut away in the old jail as bondsmen for the tranquility of Port-au-Prince. Besides Oreste Zamor, who had incautiously slipped back from Santo Domingo, and Dr. Bobo’s Jamaican brother-in-law Thomas Woolley, there were the three sons of Edmond Polynice, General Jules Préval, General Gaspard Péralte of Hinche, three Chatelains, and such names as Nau, Colcis, Lafontant, Alexis, Vincent, Turnier, St. Hilaire, André, Élie, Douyon, and Paret. Guillaume Sam was not seeing ghosts — under the lead of Charles de Delva, Zamor’s chief of police now a refugee in the Portuguese consulate, a network of asylees linked with confederates in the city was indeed plotting still another coup and smuggling money north to Dr. Bobo. By the end of April, Bobo’s revolution had taken Fort Liberté, and on the 25th his advance guard entered the Cap. By mid-May, when a government army had cordoned them in, Bobo’s Cacos held a perimeter embracing the Cap, Fort Liberté, Terrier Rouge, Trou, Limonade, and Quartier Morin.