RACES. 



233 



the descendants of the Indians who have disappeared 

 among the mestizos and zarribos (crossings of Indians 

 with whites and blacks) , but this consoling fact does 

 not present itself in contemplating the Antilles. 

 Such was the state of society there, at the beginning 

 of the sixteenth century, that the colonists did not 

 mix with the natives, as do the English in Canada, 

 except in rare instances. 



The Indians of Cuba have disappeared like the 

 Guanches of the Canary Islands, although in Guana- 

 bacoa, and in Teneriffe, within forty years, we have 

 seen some fallacious pretences renewed, by which 

 many families drew small pensions from the govern- 

 ment, under the pretext that Indian, or Guanche 

 blood circulated in their veins. No means now 

 exist to arrive at a knowledge of the population of 

 Cuba, or Haiti, in the time of Columbus ; but how 

 can we admit what some, in other respects judicious 

 historians, state, that when the island of Cuba was 

 conquered in 1511, it contained a million inhabi- 

 tants, of whom 14,000 only remained in 1517? The 

 statistical information which we find in the writings 

 of the bishop of Chiapa (Las Casas), is filled with 

 contradictions, and if it be true that the good Domi- 

 nican friar, Luis Bertram (who was persecuted by 

 the grantees, as the Methodists in our days are by 

 some English planters), predicted, on his return to 



