PEELIMINARY ESSAY. 



77 



which no Cubans are admitted) ; Canary Islands, 

 19,759 ; other Antilles, 1,361 ; United States, 1,256 ; 

 other parts of America, 2,334 ; France, 2,066 ; Great 

 Britain, 605 ; other countries, 842. 



The Spaniards are very nearly all office-holders 

 and traders, it being seldom that they purchase land 

 or real estate. Wielding thus the power and ready 

 capital of the country, their political influence is 

 great, while their impress upon the social character 

 of the community is very limited. The natives of 

 the Canary Islands are largely engaged in the minor 

 branches of agriculture, and assimilate readily with 

 the native whites. Many of the French are plant- 

 ers ; of the English, a large number are connected 

 with the mining interests. The great majority of 

 the American citizens in Cuba are machinists and 

 mechanics, in which class are also found large num- 

 bers of French and British subjects. To this fact we 

 trace the great contrast observed in the state of the 

 mechanic arts in Cuba and in the mother country, 

 and the much greater advance of the former in the 

 adoption of mechanical appliances to labor. The 

 machinists, carpenters, coopers, masons, carriage- 

 makers, smiths, &c, of Cuba, being mostly Ameri- 

 cans and French, or such as have learned the trades 

 in their shops, the manner of labor, tools, and style 

 of work in Cuba, resemble ours much more than 



