MEASUEES OP IMPBOVEMENT. 279 



taken advantage of those propitious circumstances, and of 

 the ascendency of some men of abilities over their country- 

 men, the state of society would have undergone progressive 

 changes ; and in our days, the inhabitants of the island of 

 Cuba would have enjoyed some of the improvements which 

 have been under discussion for the space ot thirty years. 

 The movement at Saint Domingo, in 1790, and those which 

 took place in Jamaica, in 1791, caused so great an alarm 

 among the haciendados of the island of Cuba, that in a Junta 

 economica it was warmly debated what measure could be 

 adopted to secure the tranquillity of the country. Regula- 

 tions were made respecting the pursuit of fugitive slaves,* 

 which, till then, had given rise to the most revolting excesses ; 

 it was proposed to augment the number of negresses on the 

 sugar estates, to direct more attention to the education of 

 children, to diminish the introduction of African negroes, to 

 bring white planters from the Canaries, and Indian planters 

 from Mexico, to establish country schools with the view of 

 improving the manners of the lower class, and to mitigate 

 slavery in an indirect way. These propositions had not the 

 desired effect. The junta opposed every system of immi- 

 gration, and the majority of the proprietors, indulging their 

 old illusions of security, would not restrain the slave-trade, 



* Reglamento sobre log Negros Cimmarrones de 26 de Dec. de 1796. 

 Before the year 1788, there were great numbers of fugitive negroes 

 (cimmarones) in the mountains of Jaruco, where they were sometimes 

 apalancados, that is, where several of those unfortunate creatures formed 

 small intrenchments for their common defence, by heaping up trunks of 

 trees. The maroon negroes, born in Africa (bozales), are easily taken ; 

 for the greater number, in the vain hope of finding their native land, 

 march day and night in the direction of the east. When taken, they are 

 BO exhausted by fatigue and hunger, that they are only saved by giving 

 them, during several days, very small quantities of soup. The Creole 

 maroon negroes conceal themselves by day in the woods, and steal pro- 

 visions during the night. Till 1790, the right of taking the fugitive 

 negroes belonging only to the Alcalde mayor provincial, an hereditary 

 office in the family of the Count de Bareto. At present, any of the inha- 

 bitants can seize the maroons, and the proprietor of the slave pays four 

 piastres per head, besides the food. If the name of the master is not 

 known, the Consulado employs the maroon negro in the public works. 

 This man- hunting, which, at Hnyti and Jamaica, has given so much fatal 

 celebrity to the dogs of Cuba, was carried on in the most creel manner 

 tefore the regulation which I have mentioned above. 



