THE PEOPLE OF CUBA 105 



cept Porto Rico, usually occupies the same indolent posi- 

 tion in human society as that ordinarily attributed to the 

 drone of the beehive. In Cuba he works the cane-fields, 

 loads the ships, carries burdens, and performs all of the 

 harder tasks of manual labor not as yet usurped by 

 woman in the United States, but completely monopolized 

 by her sex in the other West Indies. I do not mean to 

 say that many of his race are not depraved or dissipated, 

 as elsewhere, but I am of the opinion that the Cuban 

 darky is the equal as a laborer of his brother in our 

 Southern States, and superior to the darkies of the other 

 West Indian Islands. 



The experiences of the past have shown that there is no 

 possibility of Cuba becoming Africanized without constant 

 renewal by immigration. The five hundred and twenty 

 thousand people of African descent, one half of whom are 

 mulattos, represent the diminished survival of over one 

 million African slaves that have been imported. The Span- 

 iards had the utmost difficulty in acclimating and estab- 

 lishing the black man. While Jamaica and other West 

 Indian Islands are a most prolific negro-breeding ground, 

 the race could not be made to thrive in Cuba. 



Those persons who undertake to say what the social con- 

 ditions of Cuba would be under independence should look 

 elsewhere than to Haiti for a comparison. Even were the 

 population of Cuba black, as it is not, the colony of Jamaica 

 would afford a much better contrast. This island, only 

 about one tenth the size, and composed of mountainous 

 lands like the least fertile portion of Cuba, has a population 

 wherein the blacks outnumber the whites forty-four to one ; 

 yet, under the beneficent influence of the English colonial 

 system, its civilization is one of a much higher scale, pos- 

 sessing highways, schools, sanitation, and other public im- 

 provements equal to those of our own country, and such 

 as have never been permitted by Spain in Cuba. 



Another fact which will stand against the Africanizing 

 of Cuba is that it is highly probable that many of these five 



