127 



chose to apply themselves to the cultivation of 

 cotton. He endeavoured to surround his ample 

 plantations with freemen, who, working as they 

 chose, either in their own land, or in the neigh- 

 bouring plantations, supplied him with day- 

 labourers at the time of harvest. Nobly occu- 

 pied on the means best adapted gradually to 

 extinguish the slavery of the Blacks in these 

 provinces, Count Tovar flattered himself with 

 the double hope of rendering slaves less neces- 

 sary to the landholders, and furnishing the freed- 

 men with opportunities of becoming farmers. 

 On departing for Europe he had parcelled out 

 and let a part of the lands of Cura, which 

 extend toward the West at the foot of the rock 

 of Las Viruelas. Four years after, at his return 

 to America, he found on this spot, finely culti- 

 vated in cotton, a little hamlet of thirty or 

 forty houses, which is called Punta Zamuro, and 

 which we after visited with him. The inhabi- 

 tants of this hamlet are almost all Mulattoes, 

 Zamboes, or free Blacks. This example of letting 

 out land has been happily followed by several 

 other great proprietors. The rent is ten piastres 

 for a vanega of ground, and is paid in money, 

 or in cotton. As the small farmers are often in 

 want, they sell their cotton at a very moderate 

 price. They sell it even before the harvest; 

 and these advances, made by rich neighbours, 

 place the debtor in a situation of dependance, 



