186 



humboldt's cuba. 



We perceive by this table, that the free population 

 in Cuba is .64 of the whole population ; in the Eng- 

 lish Antilles it is barely .19. In all the Antilles the 

 colored population (blacks and mulattoes, free and 

 slave), forms a total of 2,360,000, or .83 of the entire 

 population. 



If the legislation of the Antilles, and the condition 

 of the colored population, does not soon experience 

 some salutary change, and if discussion without 

 action is continued, the political preponderance will 

 will pass into the hands of that class which holds the 

 power of labor, the will to throw off the yoke, and 

 valor to undergo great privations. This bloody 

 catastrophe will occur as the necessary consequence 

 of circumstances, and without the free negroes of 

 Haiti taking any part whatever, they continuing 

 always the isolated policy they have adopted. Who 

 shall dare to predict the influence which an African 

 Confederation of the Free States of the Antilles, 

 lying between Colombia, North America and Gua- 

 temala, might have in the politics of the New 

 World? 



The fear that such an event might be realized,, un- 

 doubtedly operates more powerfully upon the minds 

 of men, than do the principles of humanity and 

 justice ; but in all the islands the whites believe 

 themselves to be the strongest; for simultaneous 



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