1830.] as they were, and as they are. 151 



tations, without the power of subsequently quitting them."* These laws 

 have been continued, and " the provisions (of the Code Rural} are as 

 despotic as those of any slave system that can be conceived" " the 

 labourer is deemed a vagabond, and liable to punishment, if he ventures 

 from his dwelling or farm without licence." t "Marriage is scarcely 

 thought of, and all the ties consequent on it have not even the shadow 

 of existence." J " The very little field labour effected is generally per- 

 formed by elderly people, principally Old Guinea negroes. No mea- 

 sures of the government can induce the young Creoles to labour, or 

 depart from their habitual licentiousness and vagrancy." " The laws 

 recognize no other punishment than fine and imprisonment, with hard 

 labour : although it is no uncommon thing to see the soldiery and mili- 

 tary police use the ' plat de sabre/ and coco macae, in a most cruel and 

 arbitrary manner, but almost always, from the natural obstinacy of the 

 negro, without the intended effect." " The few young females that live 

 on plantations seldom assist in any labour whatever, but live in a con- 

 stant state of idleness and debauchery." Such has been the melancholy 

 effects of premature emancipation in the French part of the island, 

 which at one time exported 47^500,000 French pounds of clayed, and 

 95,500,000 pounds of raw sugars ; but the inhabitants are now obliged 

 to smuggle, for their own consumption, two or three hundred hogsheads 

 from the slave owners of Cuba.|| 



The eastern, or late Spanish part of the island, was principally occu- 

 pied for breeding cattle but this branch of industry has also fallen 

 into decay ; and over most of this extensive district, ' ' the means of sub- 

 sistence, either for the traveller or his cattle, are so scanty, that it is 

 necessary to carry every thing, even corn for horses in passing over it."1T 

 In short, it caonot be denied that Hayti "has sunk under an odious 

 combination of the darkness, ferocity, vices, and superstitions of all 

 colours, and all nations, unredeemed by the virtues of any !" 



In Mexico, the free labour system does not seem to present more 

 encouraging results. 



Mr. Ward, who during the years 1825, 1826, and 1827, was his 

 Majesty's Charge d' Affaires in that country, addressed, in the early part 

 of the year 1826, an official letter from thence to the late Mr. Canning, 

 giving some account of the information he had ^obtained during a hasty 

 visit to the sugar valleys of Cuernavaca and Cuentla Amilpas, situated 

 about fifty miles from the capital, where, previous to the revolution, 

 very considerable sugar estates had been established and cultivated by 

 slave labour. On the approach of the insurgents, during that period, 



* Communications received at the Foreign Office relative to Hayti, p. 17. 



f Ibid. p. 22. 



Ibid. p. 24. 



Ibid. 



|| The plantation La Borde, at Cayes, was one of the most flourishing in the colony ; 

 " people of authority, at Cayes, declares, that at the commencement of the revolution, 

 there were 2,000 slaves on it, and that the produce was 2,000,000 pounds of clayed sugar." 

 i " As its character," says Mr. Mackenzie, " of being one of the most princely properties 

 in St.. Domingo was generally admitted, I visited it during my stay at Cayes, and found 

 the three sugar mills entirely destroyed, and unfit for use. All the dwelling-houses, which 

 had been of stone, and most substantial as well as elegant, were unroofed. Only one sugar 

 house retained its roof, and that was rapidly falling into decay. Not a cane was planted. 

 About sixteen labourers were hanging about, cultivating, I was told, only provisions for 

 their own use." Videy. 158. 



f Ibid. p. 107. 



