76 humboldt's cuba. 



slaves imported there are under more favorable con- 

 ditions for reproduction, than even those between 

 twenty and thirty, in the United States, from the fact 

 that, though they are of the productive age, a very 

 small portion of them have ever borne children. 



These facts lead us to believe that the conclusions 

 applicable to population in other countries, should be 

 modified in Cuba ; and that in their effects may be 

 found, the explanations of the seeming contradictions 

 between the supposed necessary decrease of the slave 

 population, and the position and rapid advance of the 

 island in population and material prosperity. The 

 number of slaves in Cuba we estimate, as will be 

 seen in the chapter on population in the following 

 work, at about six hundred and sixty thousand. 

 Their character in general is that of a very docile 

 and obedient class, and the distinctions of their 

 several native tribes are kept up of their own accord. 

 To this number we have to add about two hundred 

 and twentv thousand free blacks and mulattoes : 

 making a total of eight hundred and eighty thousand 

 Africans and their descendants. 



The white, or European race, as we have termed 

 it, numbers nearly five hundred and sixty-five thou- 

 sand. The official tables of 1846 give the following 

 as the numbers of the foreign born white population. 

 Natives of Spain, 27,264 (exclusive of the army, to 



