Anahuac | Page 8

island. Fortunately for them, they cannot bear the
severe plantation-work. Some die after a few days of such labour and
exposure, and many more kill themselves; and the utter indifference
with which they commit suicide, as soon as life seems not worth having,
contributes to moderate the exactions of their masters. A friend of ours
in Cuba had a Chinese servant who was impertinent one day, and his
master turned him out of the room, dismissing him with a kick. The
other servants woke their master early next morning, with the
intelligence that the Chinese had killed himself in the night, to expiate
the insult he had received.
Of African slaves brought into the island, the yearly number is about
15,000. All the details of the trade are matter of general notoriety, even
to the exact sum paid to each official as hush-money. It costs a hundred
dollars for each negro, they say, of which a gold ounce (about £3 16s.)
is the share of the Captain-general. To this must be added the cost of
the slave in Africa, and the expense of the voyage; but when the slave
is once fairly on a plantation he is worth eight hundred dollars; so it
may be understood how profitable the trade still is, if only one slaver
out of three gets through.
The island itself with its creeks and mangrove-trees is most favourable
for their landing, if they can once make the shore; and the Spanish
cruisers will not catch them if they can help it. If a British cruiser
captures them, the negroes are made emancipados in the way I have
already explained.
Hardly any country in the world is so thoroughly in a false position as
England in her endeavours to keep down the Cuban slave-trade, with
the nominal concurrence of the Spanish government, and the real
vigorous opposition of every Spaniard on the island, from the
Captain-General downwards. Even the most superficial observer who
lands for an hour or two in Havana, while his steamer is taking in coals,
can have evidence of the slave-trade brought before his eyes in the
tattooed faces of native Africans, young and middle-aged, in the streets

and markets; just as he can guess, from the scored backs of the negroes,
what sort of discipline is kept up among them.
We slept on board the steamboat off the pier of Batabano, and the
railway took us back to Havana next morning.

CHAPTER II
.

HAVANA TO VERA CRUZ--VERA CRUZ TO MEXICO.
On the 8th of March, we went on board the "Méjico" steamer,
American-built, and retaining her American engineers, but in other
respects converted into a Spanish vessel, and now lying in the harbour
of Havana bound for Vera Cruz, touching at Sisal in Yucatan. At eight
o'clock we weighed anchor, and were piloted through the narrow
passage which leads out of the harbour past the castle of El Morro and
the fort of Cabañas, the view of whose ramparts and batteries caused
quite a flourish of trumpets among our Spanish fellow-passengers, who
firmly believe in their impregnability.
Among our fellow-passengers were a company of fifth-rate comedians,
going to Merida by way of Sisal. There was nothing interesting to us
about them. Theatrical people and green-room slang vary but little over
the whole civilized world. There were two or three Spanish and French
tradesmen going back to Mexico. They talked of nothing but the
dangers of the road, and not without reason as it proved, for they were
all robbed before they got home. Several of the rest were gamblers or
political adventurers, or both, for the same person very often unites the
two professions out here. Spain and the Spanish American Republics
produce great numbers of these people, just as Missouri breeds
border-ruffians and sympathizers. But the ruffian is a good fellow in
comparison with these well-dressed, polite scoundrels, who could have
given Fielding a hint or two he would have been glad of for the
characters of Mr. Jonathan Wild and his friend the Count.
On the morning of the third day of our voyage we reached Sisal, and as
soon as the captain would let us we went ashore, in a canoe that was
like a flat wooden box. This said captain was a Catalan, and a surly
fellow, and did not take the trouble to disguise the utter contempt he

felt for our inquisitive ways, which he seemed quite to take pleasure in
thwarting. It was the only place we were to see in Yucatan, a country
whose name is associated with ideas of tropical fruits, where you must
cut your forest-path with a machete, and of vast ruins of deserted
temples and cities, covered up with a mass of dense vegetation. But
here there was nothing of this