100 htjmbold/s CUBA. 



Florida forms the most southern link of that great 

 chain of republics whose northern boundary touches 

 the upper waters of the river St. Lawrence, and 

 which extends from the region of palms to that of 

 the most rigorous winter. The inhabitants of New 

 England believe that the progressive increase of the 

 blacks, the preponderance of the States they inhabit, 

 (the slave States,) and a preference for the culture of 

 the colonial staples, are public dangers. Therefore, 

 they do not wish to cross the Straits of Florida, the 

 present boundary of the great American confederacy, 

 except for the purposes of a free commerce based 

 upon an equality of rights. It is true they fear any 

 event which may throw Cuba into the hands of a 

 more formidable European power than Spain, but 

 undoubtedly they desire no less strongly that the 

 ties which formerly bound Cuba to Louisiana, Pensa- 

 cola, and St. Augustine, shall remain for ever broken. 



The vicinity of Florida has never been of much 

 importance to the trade of Havana, from the sterility 

 of her soil and her want of inhabitants and cultiva- 

 tion. But this is not the case with respect to the 

 coasts of Mexico, which, extending in a semi-circle 

 from the more frequented ports of Tampico, Vera 

 Cruz, and Alvarado to Cape Catoche, almost join 

 through the peninsular of Yucatan to the western 

 portion of Cuba. The illicit trade between Havana 

 and the port of Campeachy is not only very active, 



