CULTIVATION OF SUGAR. 171 



a few days. Not remembering ever to have heard 

 of Senor Trego before, v^^e had not formed unalter- 

 ably any such intention, but it was manifest that all 

 the world, and we in particular, ought to know 

 Senor Trego ; and we concluded that we would do 

 him the honour of a visit as we passed through. 

 This gentleman had forty criados, or *servants, en- 

 gaged in making sugar. And, on entering the sugar ^ 

 region, I may suggest that Yucatan seems to present 

 some advantages for the cultivation of this necessa- 

 ry ; not in the interior, on account of the expense 

 of transportation, but along the coast, the whole 

 line from Campeachy to Tobasco being good for 

 that purpose, and within reach of a foreign market. 

 The advantages are, first, that slave labour is dis- 

 pensed withj and, secondly and consequently, no 

 outlay of capital is necessary for the purchase of 

 slaves. In Cuba or Louisiana the planter must 

 reckon among his expenses th^ interest upon the 

 capital invested in the purchase of slaves, and the 

 cost of maintaining them. In Yucatan he has to 

 incur no outlay of capital ; Indian labour is consid- 

 ered by those who have examined into the subject 

 in Cuba, as about the same with that of the negroes; 

 and by furnishing them constant employment, In- 

 dians can be procured in any numbers at a real per 

 day, which is less than the interest upon the cost of 

 a negro, and less than the expense of maintaining 

 him if he cost nothing. 



Resuming our journey, at the distance of a league 



