COMMERCE. 307 



The population of the island of Cuba, which per- 

 haps, may increase within fifty years to a million, 

 may open to itself, through its own wants, an 

 immense field to native industry. 



Though the slave-trade should cease, and the 

 slaves pass slowly to the condition of freemen, and 

 society attain the power of self-government, without 

 being exposed to the violent fluctuations of civil 

 commotion, it would continue upon the path 

 marked out by nature for every mimerous and intel- 

 ligent community. The cultivation of sugar and 

 coffee would not, therefore, be abandoned, but like 

 that of cochineal in Mexico, of indigo in Guatemala, 

 and of cocoa in Venezuela, it would cease to be the 

 principal basis of national existence. An intelligent 

 and free agricultural people would succeed a slave 

 population that is without foresight or industry s 

 The capital which the commerce of Havana has 

 poured into the hands of the agriculturists during 

 the last fifteen years, is already beginning to change 

 the face of the country, and to this efficient power, 

 whose action is always increasing, there would 

 necessarily be added another — the development of 

 human knowledge, which is inseparable from the 

 progress of industry and of national wealth. On 

 the union of these two great springs of action depends 

 the future fate of the metropolis of the Antilles. 



