POPULATION. 



195 



1791, could not have been less than 362,700 souls. 

 This has been augmented, during the years between 

 1791 and 1804, by the number of African negroes 

 imported, which, according to the custom-house 

 returns for that period, amounted to 60,393 ; by the 

 immigration from Europe and St. Domingo (5,000) ; 

 and by the excess of births and deaths, which, in 

 truth, is indeed small in a country where one-fourth 

 or one-fifth of the entire population is condemned to 

 live in celibacy. The result of these three causes of 

 increase, was estimated at 60,000, estimating an 

 annual loss of seven per cent, on the newly 

 imported negroes ; this gives approximately, for the 

 year 1804, a minimum of 432,080 inhabitants. 1 



3 1 estimated this number for the year 1804, to comprise, whites, 

 234,000, free-colored, 90,000, slaves, 180,000. (The census of 1817 

 has given, whites, 290,000, free colored, 115,000, and slaves, 225,000). 

 I estimated the slave population, graduating the production of 

 sugar at from 80 to 100 arrobes for each negro on the sugar 

 plantations, and 82 slaves as the mean population of each planta- 

 tion. There were, then, 250 of these. In the seven parishes 

 Guanajay, Managua, Batabano, Guines, Cano, Bejucal, and Guana- 

 bacoa, there were found, by an exact census, 15,130 slaves on 183 

 sugar plantations. — (MSS. Documents, p. 134. Representation of the 

 Consulado of Havana, 10th July, 1799.) It is difficult to ascertain 

 correctly, the ratio of the production of sugar to the number of 

 negroes employed on the estates, for there are some where barely 

 300 negroes produces 30,000 arrobes, while on others, 800 negroes 

 produce only 27,000 arrobes yearly. The number of whites can be 



