THE PEOPLE OF CUBA 103 



this island, and while the men as a class are no more con- 

 tinent than in Southern climates generally, the women, as 

 a rule, are loyal and virtuous. This respect for the mar- 

 riage tie alone shows the superiority of the Cuban charac- 

 ter over that of the French and English West Indian 

 colonies, where, as we will show, illegitimate births are the 

 rule and not the exception. 



The Cubans are mostly found in the provinces and pro- 

 vincial cities, especially in Pinar del Eio and the eastern 

 provinces of Santa Clara, Puerto Principe, and Santiago. 

 Seventy-five per cent, of the native population of the isl- 

 and is found outside of the Spanish capital of Havana, 

 which, being the seat of an unwelcome foreign despotism, 

 is a place where the full expression of Cuban life and char- 

 acter is held in subjection. While the Havanese have had 

 the freest communication with the United States during 

 the last three years of the revolution, Americans have had 

 little opportunity to hear from the true white Cuban 

 population. 



The laboring classes on the sugar-plantations are largely 

 negroes and Spanish peasants, many of the latter having 

 been introduced since the ten years' war and the abolition 

 of slavery. After the emancipation of the negroes in 1878, 

 like the Southern States and the other West Indies, Cuba 

 had to undergo a reorganization of its industrial system ; 

 and it may be said, to its credit, that the change was ac- 

 companied by far less distress and social debasement than 

 in the other regions mentioned. At first, in the universal 

 fear that the freedmen would not work, coolies and Chinese 

 were imported in large numbers ; but the former soon re- 

 turned home, and the importation of the latter did not long 

 continue, although a large remnant of them still remains 

 upon the island. 



In addition to the white Creole population, thirty-two per 

 cent, are black or colored using the latter word in its cor- 

 rect signification, of a mixture of the black and white races. 

 This black population of Cuba has been as little under- 



