352 



MEXICO, CENTRAL AMEEICA, WEST INDIES. 



million inhabitants of the Antilles, at least three millions belong to the mulatto 

 element. Yet this mongrel race has sprung up in spite of the severe enactments 

 promulgated against such miscegenation. In the French Antilles, whites convicted 

 of being the fathers of coloured children were mulcted in heavy fines, and their 

 offspring confiscated for the benefit of the hospitals without the option of ransom. 

 A repetition of the offence involved ear-cropping, and even hamstringing, in case 

 of repeated attempts at escape. 



Notwithstanding the measures taken to prevent combinations and conspiracies 

 on the part of the slaves, those of San Domingo, who were called in 1790 to 

 exercise their political rights, felt themselves also strong enough to vindicate their 

 right to the title of men. After two years of struggle they compelled the home 



Fig. 166. — Peeponderance of the White and Black Races in the West Indies. 



Scale 1 : 30,000,000. 



85- V/.oFGr. 



Preponderance of the whites. Prepondeiauce of the blacks. 



— — — ^——i i^— — 620 Miles. 



government to issue the edict cf emancipation which Bonaparte, eight years 

 afterwards, in vain attempted to revoke. This was the beginning of the new era 

 for the Antilles, where slavery was eventually abolished in the British colonies 

 in 1832, in the French islands in 1848. The work of social transformation was 

 completed in 1886, when the last slave was liberated in Cuba. 



Despite the differences of origin, the " Creoles " of the Antilles, that is, all 

 natives of the islands, whether white or coloured, present certain outward resem- 

 blances, due to their common environment. They are usually well-made, shapely, 

 vigorous and active, brave, lively, and quick-witted, but also at times vain- 

 glorious, untrustworthy, and indolent. A remarkable fact, attested by many 

 observers, is that the blacks and people of colour have moulded themselves in the 

 several islands on their former masters, reproducing their good qualities and short- 



