242 



SPANISH SLAVE TRADE. 



tions. If the census, no doubt imperfect, of 1775, yielded 

 15,562 female, and 29,366 male slaves, we must not forget 

 that that enumeration comprehended the totality of the 

 island, and that the sugar plantations occupy even now but 

 a quarter of the slave population. After the year 1795, the 

 Consulado of the Havannah began to be seriously occupied 

 with the project of rendering the increase of the slave popu- 

 lation more independent of the variations of the slave-trade. 

 Don Francisco Arango, whose views were ever characterized 

 by wisdom, proposed a tax on the plantations in which the 

 number of slaves was not comprised of one-third females. 

 He also proposed a tax of six piastres on every negro brought 

 into the island, and from which the women (negras bozales) 

 should be exempt. These measures were not adopted, 

 because the colonial assembly refused to employ coercive 

 means ; but a desire to promote marriages, and to improve 

 the condition of the children of slaves, has existed since that 

 period, when a cedula real (of the 22nd April, 1804) recom- 

 mended those objects "to the conscience and humanity of 

 the planters." 



The first introduction of negroes into the eastern part of 

 the island of Cuba, took place in 1521, and their number did 

 not exceed 300. The Spaniards were then much less eager 

 for slaves than the Portuguese ; for, in 1539, there was a 

 sale of 12,000 negroes at Lisbon, as in our days (to the 

 eternal shame of Christian Europe) the trade in Greek 

 slaves is carried on at Constantinople and Smyrna. In the 

 sixteenth century the slave-trade was not free in Spain ; 

 the privilege of trading, which was granted by the court, was 

 purchased in 1586, for all Spanish America, by Gaspar de 

 Peralta ; in 1595, by Gomez Eeynel ; and in 1615, by An- 

 tonio Rodriguez de Elvas. The total importation then 

 amounted to only 3500 negroes annually; and the inha- 

 bitants of Cuba, who were wholly engaged in rearing cattle, 

 scarcely received any. During the war of succession, French 

 ships were accustomed to stop at the Havannah and to 

 exchange slaves for tobacco. The Asiento treaty with the Eng- 

 lish in some degree augmented the introduction of negroes ; 

 yet in 1763, although the taking of the Havannah and the 

 sojourn of strangers gave rise to new wants, the number of 

 in the jurisdiction of the Havannah did not amount 



