POPULATION. 



207 



Whites. 



Christenings, . . 87,047 

 Interments,. . .51,456 



Colored. 



74,302 

 57,762 



161,349 

 109,218 



Total. 



Increase, . . . 35,591 



16,540 



52,131 



4th. And because, that, in addition to the reasons 

 adduced by Baron Humboldt, for less returns by the 

 people than their actual numbers, that the taking of 

 a census "is always supposed by them to be not 

 only direful, but the precursor of new taxation a 

 capitation tax upon house servants was imposed in 

 1844, and a very general fear existed that it would 

 be extended to other classes. 



When the writer first went to Cuba, in 1834, he 

 was strongly impressed with the popular supposition 

 there, that the slave population diminished fully 

 eight per cent, annually, by death, and that this loss 

 w r as only partially compensated (about three per 

 cent.), by the importation of negroes from Africa, 

 which, at that time was not supposed to reach 

 twelve thousand a year. At this period, the mean 

 annual export of sugar was 550,000 boxes, and of 

 coffee, 330,000 bags (the two great staples), and the 

 mean annual value of imports was $17,000,000, and 

 of exports, $14,000,000, according to the official 

 valuations. During the seventeen years of our 

 residence there, the annual export of sugar steadily 

 increased until it exceeded 1,500,000 boxes ; that of 



