380 MEXICO, CENTEAL AMEEICA, WEST INDIES. 



according to whicli the whole population might be doubled in fifty years. It rose 

 from 600,000 in 1811 and 1,000,000 in 1841 to 1,521,000 in 1887 (last census), 

 and may now (1891) be estimated at 1,600,000. 



Under the old régime of absolute monopolies Cuba remained stationary, and 

 the first impulse to her subsequent prosperity was given by the British occupation 

 of the island in 1805. In ten months the hitherto-deserted port of Havana was 

 visited by over a thousand vessels, and trade and agriculture advanced by leaps 

 and bounds. After the restoration the old system was revived, but in 1818 free 

 trade was definitely established, and the island, instead of being a burden to the 

 mother country, contributed as much as £6,000,000 a year to her exhausted treasury. 



Rather more than a fourth of the land is either under tillage or pastures, and 

 the total value of the agricultural produce is estimated at about £200,000,000. 

 The staple produce is sugar, of which Cuba yields about one-fourth of the world's 

 crop, valued at £10,000,000 yearly, exclusive of rum and molasses. Some 2,600 

 square miles altogether are under sugar, and the plantations, mainly held by a 

 few great landowners, are supplied with the very finest machinery from the 

 European and American workshops. 



In the very first year of the discovery the envoys of Columbus reported the 

 practice of tobacco-smoking among the natives of Cuba. Since then the practice 

 has spread over the whole world, while the Cuban leaf has maintained its pre- 

 eminence. But in its annual production Cuba is surpassed not only by the 

 United States and the Eastern Archipelago, but even by France and Manila. 



Coffee, at one time the first, now ranks as the third colonial product in import- 

 ance. The island also grows cotton, cereals, manioc, and fruits, but in relatively 

 smaller quantities ; hence rice, wheat, bacon and other provisions have to be imported. 



The domestic animals introduced during the first years of the settlement have 

 here found a favourable environment ; but while multiplying they have become 

 more or less modified. The horse, of Andalusian stock, has lost in size, but gained 

 in staying power and vitality. Before the insurrection of 1868 this animal was 

 so numerous, especially in the central and eastern districts, that nobody travelled 

 on foot ; all the insurgents were mounted, and it was owing to this fact that they 

 v/ere able to hold out so long. Excellent mules are also bred and employed as 

 pack animals in all the hilly districts. But the camel, introduced from the Canaries, 

 failed, chiefly owing to the jigger [pulex penetrans), which attacked its feet. 



In certain parts of the island, especially in the Baracoa district, the ox is 

 used both as a pack and saddle animal, as in South Africa. The goat and sheep 

 have jjrospered less than the pig and horned cattle, the former losing all its 

 vivacity, the latter exchanging its fleece for hair. 



The land being mainly held by a few large planters, Cuba has developed 

 scarcely any local industries, so that most manufactured wares are imported. 

 Hence foreign trade has flourished, and the total annual exchanges are now 

 estimated at about £16,000,000 or £10 per head of the population. Besides this 

 foreign traffic, which is carried on chiefly with the United States and Spain, thou- 

 sands of small craft of less than 50 tons burden are engaged in the coasting trade. 



