CUBA AND JAMAICA. 
213 
to 25,000 ; and intlie wHole island, not to 32,000. The total 
JiUfiiher of African negroes, imported from 1521 to 1763, 
probably 60,000 ; their descendants survive among the 
b'ee mulattos, who inhabit for the most part the eastern side 
of the island. From the year 1763 to 1790, when the negro- 
trade was declared free, the llavannah received 24,875 (by 
the Compahia de Tohacos 4957, from 1763 to 1766 ; by the 
contract of the Marquess de Casa Eiirile, 14,132, from 1773 
to 1770 ; by the contract of Baker and Dawson, 5786, from 
}-786 to 1789). If we estimate the introduction of slaves 
^0 the eastern part of the island during those twenty-seven 
lears (1763 to 1790) at 6000, we find from the discovery of 
the island of Cuba, or rather from 1521 to 1790, a total oi 
80,875. We shall soon see that ])y the ever-increasing 
Betivity of the slave-trade, the fifteen years that followed 
1790, furnished more slaves than the two centuries and a 
half which i>receded the period of the free trade. That acti- 
'^’ity was redoubled when it was stipulated between England 
-and Spain, that the slave-trade should be proliibited north 
■nf the equator, from November 22nd, 1817, and entirely 
abolished on the 30th May, 1820. The King of Spain ac- 
cepted from England (which posterity will one day scarcely 
believe), a sum of 400,000 pounds sterling, as a compen- 
sation for the loss wliich might result from the cessation of 
that barbarous commerce. 
Jamaica received from Africa-, in the space of throe hun- 
dred years, 850,000 blacks; or, to fix on a more certain 
estimate, in one hundred and eight years (from 1700 to 
1808) nearly 677,000 ; and yet that island does not now 
possess 380,000 blacks, free mulattos and slaves. The island 
■*•4 Cuba furnishes a more consoling result ; it has 130,000 
tree men of colour, whilst Jamaica, on a total population 
half as groat, contains only 35,000. 
On comparing the island of Cuba with Jamaica, the result 
■of the comparison seems to be in. favour of the Spanish legis- 
lation, and the morals of the inhabitants of Cuba. These 
■comparisons demonstrate a state of things in the latter island 
more favorable to the physical preservation, and to the libe- 
>’ation of the blacks ; but what a melancholy spectacle is 
that of Christian and civilized nations, discussing which of 
them has caused the fewest Africans to perish during the 
