CUBA AND JAMAICA. 243 



to 25,000 ; and in the whole island, not to 32,000. The total 

 number of African negroes, imported from 1521 to 1763, 

 was probably 60,000 ; their descendants survive among the 

 free mulattos, who inhabit for the most part the eastern side 

 of the island. From the year 1763 to 1790, when the negro- 

 trade was declared free, the Havannah received 24,875 (by 

 the Compania de Tobacos 4957, from 1763 to 1766; by the 

 contract of the Marquess de Casa Enrile, 14,132, from 1773 

 to 1779 ; by the contract of Baker and Dawson, 5786, from 

 1786 to 1789). If we estimate the introduction of slaves 

 in the eastern part of the island during those twenty-seven 

 years (1763 to 1790) at 6000, \ve find from the discovery ot 

 the island of Cuba, or rather from 1521 to 1790, a total ot 

 90,875. "We shall soon see that by the ever-increasing 

 activity of the slave-trade, the fifteen years that followed 

 1790, furnished more slaves than the two centuries and a 

 half which preceded the period of the free trade. That acti- 

 vity was redoubled when it was stipulated between England 

 and Spain, that the slave-trade should be prohibited north 

 of the equator, from November 22nd, 1817, and entirely 

 abolished on the 30th May, 1820. The King of Spain ac- 

 cepted from England (which posterity will one day scarcely 

 believe), a sum of 400,000 pounds sterling, as a compen- 

 sation for the loss which might result from the cessation ot 

 that barbarous commerce. 



Jamaica received from Africa, in the space of three hun- 

 dred years, 850,000 blacks; or, to fix on a more certain 

 estimate, in one hundred and eight years (from 1700 to 

 1808) nearly 677,000 ; and yet that island does not now 

 possess 380,000 blacks, free mulattos and slaves. The island 

 of Cuba fur'nishes a more consoling result ; it has 130,000 

 free men of colour, whilst Jamaica, on a total population 

 half as great, contains only 35,000. 



On comparing the island of Cuba with Jamaica, the result 

 of the comparison seems to be in favour of the Spanish legis- 

 lation, and the morals of the inhabitants of Cuba. These 

 comparisons demonstrate a state of things in the latter island 

 more favorable to the physical preservation, and to the libe- 

 ration of the blacks ; but what a melancholy spectacle is 

 that of Christian and civilized nations, discussing which of 

 them has caused the fewest Africans to perish during the 



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