8 MEXICO, CENTEAL AMEEICA, WEST INDIES. 



its inhabitants. Witliin a few years of the Spanish conquest, the West Indian 

 aborio-ines had almost completely disappeared. The natives of Haiti and Cuba, 

 by whom the first European mariners had been well received, have perished to a 

 man. The Carib populations of the smaller southern islands are also everywhere 

 represented, except in St. Yincent and Dominica, only by half-breeds. 



According to Bartholomew de las Casas " the Christians caused by their 

 tyrannies and infernal deeds the death of over twelve million souls — perhaps 

 even over fifteen millions — men, women, and children." However approximately 



Fig. 4. — Mexico befoee the Annexations to the United States. 

 Scale!: 27,000,000. 



Former 

 Territory. 



Present 

 Territory. 



620 Miles. 



correct may be this frightful estimate made by the famous " defender of the 

 Indians," it is absolutely certain that the massacres and grinding rule of the 

 Spaniards resulted in the extermination of the aborigines throughout the Antilles, 

 while those of Mexico and Central America have held their ground. 



Hence the necessity of introducing another race into the islands of that " Carib- 

 bean Sea," where the Caribs themselves have been replaced by the negroes. 

 African slaves were imported by millions to fill the void made b}^ the wholesale mas- 

 sacre of the natives. But no systematic records are now available to determine with 

 any accuracy the actual number of "human cattle " thus transferred from the eastern 



