Anahuac | Page 7

this satisfactory result, a
man like our Cuban Padre, though he may have argued but little and
preached even less, would have a hundred natives bound to him by
strong personal attachment, and ready to accept anything from him in
the way of teaching.
We paid a regular round of visits to the Floridan settlers, and were
delighted with their pleasant simple ways. It is not much more than
thirty years since they left Florida, and many of the children born since
have learnt to speak English. The patches of cultivated land round their
cottages produce, with but little labour, enough vegetables for their
subsistence, and to sell, procuring clothing and such luxuries as they
care for. They seemed to live happily among themselves, and to govern
their little colony after the manner of the Patriarchs.
Whether any social condition can be better for the black inhabitants of
the West Indies, than that of these settlers, I very much doubt. They are
not a hard-working people, it is true; but hard work in the climate of the
tropics is unnatural, and can only be brought about by unnatural means.
That they are not sunk in utter laziness one can see by their neat
cottages and trim gardens. Their state does not correspond with the idea
of prosperity of the political economist, who would have them work
hard to produce sugar, rum, and tobacco, that they might earn money to
spend in crockery and Manchester goods; but it is suited to the race and
to the climate. If we measure prosperity by the enjoyment of life, their
condition is an enviable one.
I think no unprejudiced observer can visit the West Indies without
seeing the absurdity of expecting the free blacks to work like slaves, as

though any inducement but the strongest necessity would ever bring it
about. There are only two causes which can possibly make the blacks
industrious, in our sense of the word,--slavery, or a population so
crowded as to make labour necessary to supply their wants.
In one house in the Floridan colony we found a _ménage_ which was
surprising to me, after my experience of the United States. The father
of the family was a white man, a Spaniard, and his wife a black woman.
They received us with the greatest hospitality, and we sat in the porch
for a long time, talking to the family. One or two of the mulatto
daughters were very handsome; and there were some visitors, young
white men from the neighbouring village, who were apparently come to
pay their devoirs to the young ladies. Such marriages are not
uncommon in Cuba; and the climate of the island is not unfavourable
for the mixed negro and European race, while to the pure whites it is
deadly. The Creoles of the country are a poor degenerate race, and die
out in the fourth generation. It is only by intermarriage with Europeans,
and continual supplies of emigrants from Europe, that the white
population is kept up.
On the morning of our departure we climbed a high lull of limestone,
covered in places with patches of a limestone-breccia, cemented with
sandstone, and filling the cavities in the rock. All over the hill we found
doubly refracting Iceland-spar in quantities. Euphorbias, in Europe
mere shrubs, were here smooth-limbed trees, with large flowers. From
the top of the hill, the character of the savannahs was well displayed.
Every water-course could be traced by its narrow line of deep green
forest, contrasting with the scantier vegetation of the rest of the plain.
As we steamed out of the river, rows of brilliant red flamingos were
standing in the shallow water, fishing, and here and there a pelican with
his ungainly beak. Our Chinese crew were having their meal of rice
when we walked forward, and the national chopsticks were hard at
work. We talked to several of them. They could all speak a little
Spanish, and were very intelligent.
The history of these Chinese emigrants is a curious one. Agents in
China persuade them to come out, and they sign a contract to work for
eight years, receiving from three to five dollars a month, with their food
and clothing. The sum seems a fortune to them; but, when they come to
Cuba, they find to their cost that the value of money must be estimated

by what it will buy. They find that the value of a black labourer is thirty
dollars a month, and they have practically sold themselves for slaves;
for there is no one to prevent the masters who have bought the contract
for their work from treating them in all respects as slaves. The value of
such a contract--that is, of the Chinaman himself, was from £30 to £40
when we were in the