238 



humboldt's cuba. 



Since the sixteenth century, the progress of the 

 country has had a powerful influence on the relations 

 of the several classes of population to each other, 

 which vary in the grazing districts, and in those 

 where the country has been long since cleared ; in 

 the seaports and in the country towns ; in the dis- 

 tricts where the colonial staples are planted, and in 

 those which produce corn, vegetables and forage. 



I. The district of Havana experiences a decrease 

 in the relative white population of the capital, and 

 its vicinity, but not in the interior towns, nor in the 

 ontire Vuelta de Abajo. where the tobacco plant is 

 cultivated by free labor. In 1791, the census of 

 Don Luis de las Casas gave to the district of Havana 

 137,800 souls, in w T hich the proportion of whites, 

 free colored, and slaves were as 53 : 20 : 27. More 

 recently, in 1811, when the importations of slaves 

 were very large, these proportions were estimated as 

 46 : 12 : 42. 



In the districts containing the large plantations of 

 sugar and coffee, which are the districts of great 

 agricultural labor, the whites form barely one-third 

 of the population, and the proportions of class 

 (taking this expression in the sense of the proportion 

 of each to the total population), oscillates, for the 

 whites, between 30 and 36; for the free colored, 

 between 3 and 6 ; and for the slaves, between 58 and 



