52 Humboldt's cuba. 



Chiapas, moved by the deepest compassion for the 

 native races, urged, upon the ground of humanity, 

 the substitution of African slaves for the natives in 

 the labor of the new communities. The hardships 

 of the poor Indian were dwelt upon with the same 

 fervor and zeal, the same heedless inconsistency, 

 that characterizes the appeals of the humanitarians 

 of the present day in behalf of the negro, and the 

 conscience of Europe gave an energetic impulse to 

 the new institution. Thus did a fallacious sentiment 

 of humanity give life to the new social system in 

 America, and work a change in the material con- 

 dition of man throughout the world, widely different 

 from that anticipated for it by its early apostles. 



The cultivation, in the New World, of the so-called 

 colonial staples, has produced effects far surpassing 

 those of all the gold discoveries in the world, from 

 those of Oibao to those of California and Australia. 

 Not only have the looms and the w r orld-wide com- 

 merce of Europe, drawn their richest springs of life 

 from the cultivation of cotton and sugar by the 

 slaves of America, but a revolution has been effected 

 by it, in the clothing and food of man everywhere, 

 that has wrought the happiest effects upon his social, 

 moral, and hygienic condition. The humbler classes 

 of the present age would deem it l d hardship to be 

 confined to the bacon and beer breakfasts of the 



