240 



humboldt's cuba. 



a diminution in the total number of slaves. The 

 capitation tax laid on house servants, in 1844, 

 affords a partial reason for these diminished returns.] 



II. The progress of population is more exactly 

 known in the central and eastern portions of the 

 island, than in the western department. That of the 

 Cuatro Villas district has resulted from another 

 class of industry. In Santi Espiritu, where the 

 grazing haciendas increase, and in San Juan de los 

 Eemedios, where an active contraband trade is car- 

 ried on with the Bahama Islands, the proportion of 

 whites has increased between the years 1791 and 

 1811 ; while in the eminently fertile district of Trini- 

 dad, where the sugar culture has increased in an 

 extraordinary degree, it has diminished. 



[Note. — The law of population here expressed, 

 still obtains in these districts. In 1841 the relative 

 proportions of white, free colored, and slaves, were — 



Santi Espiritu 65 : 15 : 20 



Remedios 63 : 20 : 17 



Trinidad 37 : 22 : 41.] 



III. In the district of Puerto Principe the entire 

 population has been nearly doubled in twenty years, 

 and the white has increased eighty-nine per cent., as 

 in the best portion of the United States. Yet the 



