TOBACCO IN ST. DOMINGO. 



345 



the Spaniards shipped vast quantities to Europe, a very large 

 amount of which found its way to England, where it brought 

 fabulous prices. The Spaniards, by the application of the 

 lash and other cruelties, extorted from the negroes an amount 



ST. DOMINGO TOBACCO FIELD, 1535. 



of labor never equaled by any other task masters in the world. 

 Forcing these slaves to labor on the plantations from morning 

 until night, with the fierce rays of a tropical sun shining full 

 upon their uncovered backs, and goaded on to the perform- 

 ance of the severest toil, is it any wonder that the haughty 

 cavaliers of Spain grew rich from their industry, and feasted 

 on the products of the Indies. Cultivated on the rich soil of 

 this fertile island, the tobacco of St. Domingo had no com- 

 petitor, until the Spaniards began its culture a little later on 

 the island of Trinidad, the product of which in time stood at 

 the head of all the tobaccos of the Indies and of South 

 America. The tobacco trade at this time was wholly con- 

 trolled by the Spaniards, who, though successful in this 

 direction, made but slow progress in colonization. Compared 

 with the British colonies in the New World, the Spanish 

 possessions were weak and incompetent, and for all their 

 advantages in their great product, it was ultimately rivaled 



