TOBACCO IN ST. DOMINGO. 345 
the Spaniards shipped vast quantities to Europe, a very large 
amount of which found its way to England, where it brought 
fabulous prices. The Spaniards, by the application of the 
lash and other cruelties, extorted from the negroes an amount 
ST. DOMINGO TOBACCO FIELD, 1535. 
ef labor never equaled by any other task masters in the world. 
Forcing these slaves to labor on the plantations from morning 
until night, with the fierce rays of a tropical sun shining full 
upon their uncovered backs, and goaded on to the perform- 
ance of the severest toil, is it any wonder that the haughty 
-cavaliers of Spain grew rich from their industry, and feasted 
on the products of the Indies. Cultivated on the rich soil of 
this fertile island, the tobacco of St. Domingo had no com- 
petitor, until the Spaniards began its culture a little later on 
the island of Trinidad, the product of which in time stood at 
the head of all the tobaccos of the Indies and of South 
America. The tobacco trade at this time was wholly con- 
trolled by the Spaniards, who, though successful in this 
direction, made but slow progress in colonization. Compared 
with the British colonies in the New World, the Spanish 
possessions were weak and incompetent, and for all their 
advantages in their great product, it was ultimately rivaled 
