32,0 Voyage of the No vara. 



individuals to the bonded magazine, from wliicli each brought 

 1000 cigars without any further interference. 



Athough altogether more tobacco is raised on the island of 

 Luzon than in Cuba, yet the exportation from the former is 

 far less in quantity, for the reason already commented upon, 

 that a large portion of the tobacco so grown is consumed in the 

 country itself. Luzon provides to th, and Cuba tV th of the entire 

 production of tobacco on the earth, which amounts to 4,000,000 

 cwt.* There are indeed two countries which produce a far 



* Owing to the universal interest felt in tobacco, the use of which has spread 

 over the globe, till it has become a necessary of life to the civilized man as well as 

 the half-savage races of mankind, we subjoin by way of completing the information 

 above attained, the following remarks upon the tobacco culture in other possessions 

 of Spain, extracted from an unpublished journal, kept by a member of the Expedi- 

 tion, during a visit previously paid to the West Indies. 



" The best sites for growing tobacco in Cuba lie to the westward of the capital in 

 what is called the Vuelta abajo, between Rio Hondo and San Juan de Martinez, and 

 is about ten English miles in circumference ; the tobacco growTi on the Vuelta arriba 

 is usually of inferior quality. In 185fi there were in Cuba 10,000 plantations or 

 Vegas, with a superficial area of 8000 Caballerias, (about 414 square miles, I 

 Caballeria being equal to 160,371,041 English square yards, or 33,134 acres), culti- 

 vated by from 14,000 to 16,000 negro slaves. The total value of the capital emploj^ed 

 in this branch of culture (including manual labour, building utensils, draught animals, 

 &c.) maybe estimated at 13,000,000 piasters (£2,730,000), and the average weight of 

 tobacco produced at a million and a half arrobas, or 37,500,000 lbs. annually. Of 

 this quantity 400,000 arrobas, or 10,000,000 lbs., are consumed in Cuba itself, while the 

 rest is exported partly in the leaf, partly in the manufactured state. One Caballeria 

 of ground can produce on the average about 360 arrobas, or 9000 lbs., of which however 

 only ^th will be of superior quality. 



A " vega " usually consists of three Caballerias, which are in regular succession 

 devoted to the tobacco cultivation, so that while two are devoted to maize and other 

 vegetables for human subsistence, only the remaining third is under tobacco. The 

 season for sowing is in October or November, and the crop is got in in January or 

 February. On one Caballeria there are usually found under favourable circumstances 

 000,000 plants or Matas. Hence it results, that as the tobacco culture of Cuba 



