RACES. 



245 



1,600 or 1,800 caballerias of uncultivated land, are 

 gradually disappearing ; and, if the new settlements 

 at Guantanamo and Nuevitas have not experienced 

 the rapid growth which had been anticipated, 

 others, as for instance that of Guanajay, have been 

 very prosperous. {ExpeMmte de Don Franciseo de 

 Arango, 1798, MSS.) In the preceding pages, I have 

 stated with what facility the population of Cuba may 

 increase in future years. Being myself a native of 

 the cold North, that partakes in a small degree of 

 Nature's bounty, I remember that the mark of 

 Bradenburg, which is in a great degree sandy, 

 maintains, thanks to an administration favorable to 

 agriculture and industry, a population twice greater 

 than that of Cuba, on an area three times smaller 

 than hers. 



The unequal distribution of the population, the 

 want of inhabitants on a great part of the coasts, 

 together with the great extent of these, make the 

 military defence of the island an impossibility ; for, 

 neither the contraband trade, nor the debarcation of 

 an enemy can be prevented. Havana is, undoubt- 

 edly, a strongly fortified place, its works rivalling 



great seat of the sugar culture, and are both populous and prosper- 

 ous. They are intimately connected with Havana, and with the 

 ports of Matanzas and Cardenas, by a well-devised system of rail- 

 way. 



