DEPA.RTUEE FROM TIUSIDAI). 
199 
llie interest of this impression wns heighltned at the perio.l 
to which I here advert ; when Saint Domingo svas the centre 
of great political agitations, and threatened to involve the 
other islands in one of those samjwinary struggles which 
reveal to man the ferocity ot his nature. These threatened 
dangers were happily averted ; the storm was appeased on 
the spot which gave it birth ; and a free black population, 
far from troubling the peace of the neighbouring islands, 
has made some steps in the progress ot civilization, and haa 
promoted the establishment of good institutions. Porto Itico, 
Cuba, and Jamaica, with 370,000 whites and 885,000 men 
of colour, surround Hayti, where a population of 900,000 
negros and mulattos have been emancipated by tbeir own 
efforts. The negros, more inclined to cultivate alimentimy 
plants than colonial productions, augment with a rapidity 
only surpassed by the increase of the population ot the 
United States. 
CllAPTEii XXX. 
IWaji from Trinulad dc Cuba to Ttio Sinu.— Cartbasena.— Air Volcanos 
of Tui’baco.— Caulil of Maliates. 
On the morning of the I7th of March, wo caine within 
sight of the most eastern island of the group or the Desser 
Caymans. Comparing the reckoning with the chronometric 
longitude, I ascertained that the currents Imd borne ^ 
seventeen hours twenty miles westward. The island is cailea 
the English pilots Cmjman-brach, and by the Spaiiisn 
pilots, Cayman cliico oriental. It fonns a rocky wall, bare 
steep towards the south and south-east. I he north ana 
Korth-west part is low, sandy, and scantily covered with vege- 
tation. The rock is broken into narrow horizontal iMges- 
Uroin its whiteness and its proximity to the island of 
I supposed it to be of Jura limestone. I\ e approached the 
eastern extremity of Caiiman-hrack within the distance ot 
190 toises. The neighbouring coast is not entirely tree 
from danger and breakers ; yet the temperature ot the 
®ea had not sensibly diminished at its surtace^. Ihe chro- 
tiometer of Louis Berthoud gave me 82* 7' 37 for the longi- 
