SLAVERY. 



215 



have seriously entertained projects for increasing the 

 slave population, independent of the fluctuations of 

 the slave-trade. Don Francisco de Arango, whoso 

 labors have always been pure and judicious, pro- 

 posed the imposition of a tax upon those plantations 

 which did not contain one-third females among their 

 slaves. He also proposed the imposition of a duty 

 of six dollars upon each male negro imported from 

 Africa. Although these measures were not adopted, 

 for the colonial juntas always refused to adopt coer- 

 cive measures, yet, from that time, there has arisen a 

 desire to increase the number of marriages, and to 

 take better care of the children of the slaves ; and a 

 royal order (22 April, 1804) recommends this policy 

 to u the sense of right, and the humanity of the 

 colonists." 



The census of 1817 gave, according to Poinsett, 

 60,322 female, and 106,521 male slaves. In 1771, 

 the proportion of female to male slaves was 1 to 1.9; 

 so that, in forty years, it had altered very slightly, it 

 being, in 1817, 1 to 1.7. The small amount of this 

 change must be attributed to the large number of 

 African negroes imported subsequently to 1791, and 

 to the fact that the importation of females has been 

 large, only during the years between 1817 and 1820: 

 the slaves retained as servants in the cities are only 

 a small fraction of the total number. In the district 

 of Batabano, which contained in 1818 a population 



