390 CUBA AND PORTO RICO 



could not be easily replaced. Many suppose that the 

 present West Indian negro is the natural result of adap- 

 tation to a climate somewhat similar to that of his 

 ancestral home; but this is not altogether true, for it lias 

 been shown that he is in a degree a result of the survival 

 of the fittest, for the process of acclimation cost many lives 

 for every individual that survived. 



The black races of the West Indies, and their habits, are 

 most interesting studies. Gathered as they were from 

 numerous tribes of Africa and settled upon the different 

 islands, they naturally show not only differences in 

 inherited qualities, but in those habits acquired from 

 different masters for which the African is noted. Thus 

 there are English, French, Spanish, Irish, Scotch, and 

 Dutch negroes in the various islands. 



As a class these are industrious and orderly, varying in 

 these respects with the political condition of their mas- 

 ters ; but it is a singular fact that the great crimes of rape 

 and murder, which have been such a blot upon the record 

 of the American negroes, are almost unknown in the West 

 Indies. As Sir Henry Blake, lately governor of Jamaica, 

 remarked to the writer, a woman can travel alone from 

 one end to the other of that island, without thought of 

 danger. Furthermore, the horrible habit of lynching, 

 which prevails in our Southern States as an accompani- 

 ment of those crimes, is entirely unknown; in fact, but 

 few capital crimes are committed in the West Indies. 



Another quality concerning the West Indian negro is 

 the fact that the caste system, which exists there as a rule, 

 is quite different from that of the United States. Here 

 the negro is almost universally debarred from civil equal- 

 ity, and seems to have more strongly impressed upon him 

 the constant feeling that the white race is opposed to his 

 obtaining opportunities and civil advancement, although 

 our laws convey the impression that all men are equal. 

 In the more advanced West Indies, especially the British, 

 social equality is neither taught nor believed in by any 



