216 humboldt's cub a. 



of 2,078, with 13 sugar, and 7 coffee estates, there 

 were 2,226 male, and 257 female slaves ; proportion, 

 8 to 1. In San Juan de los Remedios, containing, in 

 1817, a population of 13,700, with 17 sugar, and 73 

 coffee estates, there were 1,200 male and 660 female 

 slaves ; proportion, 19 to l. 1 In the district of Feli- 

 pinas, having in 1819 a population of 13,026, there 

 were 2,494 male, and 997 female slaves ; proportion, 

 2.4 to 1. In all the island, the males are to the 

 females as 1.7 to 1 ; on the sugar estates alone, they 

 are barely 4 to 1. 



The first introduction of negroes (in the eastern 

 part of the island), occurred in 1521. >At that time, 

 the Spaniards were much less desirous than the Por- 

 tuguese of possessing slaves; for, in 1539, twelve 

 thousand negroes were sold in the city of Lisbon. 

 The trade in slaves was not free in the sixteenth cen- 

 tury, licenses for it being granted by the govern- 

 ment ; and, in 1586, Gaspar Peralta purchased the 

 monopoly for the whole of Spanish America. In 

 1595, it was sold to Gomez Raynal ; and again, in 

 1615, to Antonio Rodriguez de Elvas. 



The entire American importation then did not 

 exceed 3,500, yearly ; and the people of Cuba, occu- 

 pied exclusively in raising cattle, received very few. 

 During the war of the succession, the French traders 



1 Thus in the original. 



