238 
riUCQUENOY OF SUiCIDE8. 
dons. It is related that the Dominicau monk, Fray I;wy* 
Bertram, i«-ho was persecuted* by the encomenderos, as the 
Methodists now are by some English planters, predicted 
tliat ‘ the 200,000 Indians nhich Cuba contained, would 
perish the victims of the cruelty of Europeans.” If this be 
true, ne may at least conclude, that the native race was fai* 
Irom being extinct between the years 1555 and 1569 ; but 
according to Gomara (such is the confusion among the' 
historians ot those times) there were no lono'er any Indians 
on the island ot Cuba in 1553. To form an idea of tlio 
vagueness ot the estimates made by tlie first .Spanish travel- 
lers, at a period when the population of no province of the 
peninsula was ascertained, we have but to recollect that the 
number of inhabitants which Captain Cook and other 
navigators assigned to Otalieite and the Sandwich Islands, 
at a time W’hen statistics lurnished the most exact compa- 
risons, varied from one to five. We may conceive that the 
island of Cuba, surrounded with coasts adapted for fishing, 
might, irom the gi'eat tertility of its soil, afl’ord sustenance 
lor several millions of those Indians who have no desire for 
animal food, and who cultivate maize, inaiiioe, and other 
nourishing roots ; but had there been that amount of popu- 
lation, would it not have been manifest by a more advanced 
degree of civilization than the narrative of Columbus de- 
scribes ? Would the people of Cuba have remained more 
backw'ard in civilization than the inhabitants of the Lucaves 
Islands ? AVhatever activity may be attributed to causes ot 
destruction, such as the tyranny of tho conguisfadores, the 
faults of governors, the too severe labours of the gold- 
washings, the small-pox, aud the frequency of suicides,'!’ 
* See the curious revelations in Juan tie Slariela, Hitt, de todos lot 
Santos dc Espana, Ubro vii, p. 174 . 
t The rage of lianging themselves by whole families, in huts and 
caverns, as related by Garcilasso, was no doubt tlie effect of despair; ye* 
instead of lamenting the barbarism of the 5i.vteeuth centurv, it was 
attempted to e.xculpate the conpiisiadovet, by attributing the disappear- 
ance of the natives to iheir taste for txncide. See Patriota, tonif ih P- 
uO. Ivumerou^s sophisms of tliis kind are found in a work published by 
M. Nuu, on the humanity of the Spaniards in the conquest of America. 
Tills work 18 entitled, “ Reflexiones imparcialcs sobre la humanidad dc los 
Epafloles contra los pretendidos filosofos y politicos, para illustrar las 
historias de Raynal y Robertson ; escrito en Italiano por cl Abate Don 
