COMilEECE OF TUE HATANNAH. 
155 
fte most rigorous ■winter. The inhabitant of Ne'w England 
regards the inci’o.aaing augmentation of the black popula- 
*^|on, the preponderance of the slave states, and the predilec- 
I’on for the cultivation of colonial products, as a public 
danger; and earnestly wishes that the strait of Florida, the 
present limit of the great American confederation, may 
never be passed but with the views of free trade, founded 
nn equal rights. If he fears events which may place the 
llavannah under the dominion of a European power more 
formidable than Spain, he is not the less desirous that the 
political ties by which Louisiana, Pensacola, and Saint 
■A^ugustin of Florida, were heretofore united to the island 
of Cuba, may for ever be broken. 
. The extreme sterility of the soil, joined to the want of 
inhabitants and of cultivation, have at aU times rendered the 
proximity of Floi-ida of small importance to the trade of the 
rlavanmih; but the case is different on the coast of Mexico. 
The shores of that country, stretching in a semicircle from 
the frequented ports of Tampico, Vera Cruz, and Alvarado, 
10 Cape Catoche, almost toucli, by the peninsula of Yucatan, 
ine Western part of the island of Cuba. Commerce is ex- 
tremely active between the Ilavaunah and the port of Cam- 
Ponchy; audit increases, notwithstanding the new order of 
things in Mexico, because the trade, equally illicit with a more 
Oistant coast, that of Caracas or Columbia, employs but a small 
number of vessels. In such difficult times, the supply of salt 
^eat (tasajo), for the slaves, is more easily obtained from 
"Uenos Ayres, and the plains of Merida, than from those of 
T-umana, Jiarcclona, and Caracas. The island of Cuba, and tlie 
archipelago of the Philippines, have for ages derived from New 
"pain the funds necessary for their internal administration, 
and for keeping up their'fortifications, arsenals, and dock- 
yards. The Havannah was the military port of the New 
'* orld; and, till ISOS, annually received 1,800,000 piastres 
roin the Mexican treasury. At Madrid, it was long the 
nustom to consider the island of Cuba aud the archipelago 
nr the Philippines, as dependencies on Mexico, situated at 
^®ry unequal di stances east and west of Vera Cruz and 
l^capulco, but linked to the Mexican metropolis (then a 
n-uropean colony), by all the ties of commerce, mutual aid, 
•nrd ancient sympathies. Increased internal wealth has 
