1846. however, is sometimes removed by hav 4,106 ing the children baptized as white by 13,222 the priest; or, by procuring witnesses to 5,837 give oath to their white extraction, and the fraud is winked at. The greater 3,780 portion of this class have procured their 4,778 freedom by purchase.

7,424

1,222

3,065

1,853

We have no later statements of the population of the principal cities and towns, except of the city of Havana. In the Diario de la Marina for January 1, 1852, it is stated that the population of Havana in 1849, was 142,002; and in 1850, 150,561 souls.

The population of Cuba is divided into four classes, of which the first are the native Spaniards, the most powerful portion. They comprise, with some exceptions, the merchants, the army, the clergy, and all the government offices, from the Captain-General down to the captain of partido. The Creoles form the second class, and are generally planters, farmers, or lawyers, but are most generally scrupulously excluded from the army and higher civil offices. They find no sympathy among the Spaniards, who treat them with open contempt and hauteur, though inferior to them in intelligence and enterprise. The Creole seeing himself, in his own native land, excluded from all offices in the government, in the army, and in the church, regards with no favorable eye those sent from Spain to rule over him, and to mend their fortunes at his expense by exacting to the utmost from his gains.†

The third class is made up of about an equal number of free mulattoes and free negroes, who are by law excluded from all civil offices. They compose a respectable part of the militia, and would play an active part in any revolutionary movement that might occur. The free colored population of Cuba have many privileges, and are more kindly treated and respected than the same class in our northern states. The Spaniard has not the same antipathy to color that the Anglo-Saxon ĥas. The free colored are forbidden by law to intermarry with the whites, and are also excluded from the learned professions. This obstacle,

The slaves of Cuba are divided into Africa; the ladinos, those imported bozales, those recently brought from before the law, in 1821, prohibiting the slave trade; and the criollos, those born on the island.* By the laws of Cuba, every owner of slaves is bound to instruct them in the Catholic religion, after the labor of the day has been finished, to the end that they may be baptized and partake of the sacrament. On Sundays and feast days they are not to be employed more than two hours for the necessary labors of the estate, the feeding of the animals, etc., except when the gathering of the crop admits of no delay. They are required to have daily six or eight plantains, or an equivalent in potatoes, yams, yucas, or other vegeta bles, eight ounces of meat or fish, and four ounces of rice or flour. The quan: tity of clothes is also prescribed, and also the treatment of the women. They are not to be worked more than nine or ten hours per day, except during the harvest of canes, when they may be employed sixteen hours daily. On Sundays and holidays they must be allowed to attend to their gardens and private occupations. Those only between sixteen and sixty can be tasked, and when liberated they must be allowed a permanent subsistence. A slave may purchase his liberty for a price fixed by three arbiters, one chosen by the master and two by the Sindico Procurador General. Liberty and a reward of $50 are to be bestowed on a slave who reveals a conspiracy. No slave can receive from his master, for any offence, more than twenty-five lashes; a crime requiring more must be punished only after a judicial investigation. A master who maltreats his slave, maims him, or otherwise seriously injures him, is compelled to sell him to another. A master violating the slave code may be fined from $20 to $200.

Bozal signies muzzled; ladino, versed in an idiom, or one who has been in the country a year. Criollo means Creole. The term bozal is also rendered nouvellement arrivé, en parlant d'un négre.

Treatment of Slaves-Classes of Nobility-Priesthood.

105

Such is a partial sketch of the Cuban but also for the exemption they confer slave code; but it is necessary to ob- from petty annoyances from captains of serve that its provisions and require- partidos, and other low officers of justice. ments are not strictly regarded. That A Cuban noble can only be tried by part regarding the religious and moral a high tribunal, and cannot be arrested government of the slaves is enforced for debt. Military officers, also, can only only so far as to secure them baptism be indicted before a military court; and burial in consecrated grounds. On and priests only before ecclesiastical a few Spanish estates, says the author of bodies. "Notes on Cuba," prayers are repeated The origin of many of the Cuban to them before going to work in the nobility, while it exposes them to the morning, and before retiring to their private derision of the untitled crowd, dormitories. He also says that the slaves creates among themselves a clannish of Cuba, compared with the manufactur- feeling, and presents an insuperable ing and mining classes of England, labor barrier to a general social spirit among less, and, so far as physical enjoyment the nobility. The marquis of 1832 looks goes, are better off. He declares the down with something like contempt on account of their being killed by over labor, "absurd tales."*

his younger brother of 1835; and those of the 17th or 18th century, counting largely on their pedigree and antiquity, hold themselves quite aloof from the mushroom $20,000" sugar noblemen" of the degenerate 19th. The tone of Cuban society is also eminently aristocratic, and certain classes are very exclusive. The native of old Spain does not conceal his hatred of foreigners and his contempt of the Creole.*

The untitled crowd is divided into the sugar planter, the coffee planter, the merchant, the liberal professions, and the literati. All below these form a single class with which the rest do not associate. The planter is one grade above the merchant. The bar and the bench are grossly corrupt and despised. Among the lower classes there is an absence of all refinement, religion, education and decency.

There is one other class of citizens in Cuba that we must notice, before leaving this branch of our subject. We allude to the "Nobility of Cuba." These consist of twenty-nine marquises and thirty counts, more than half of whom have been created since 1816. From 1816 to 1833 Ferdinand VII. created eleven marquises and fifteen counts. Most of them had acquired their wealth by sugar plantations, and are jocosely called sugar noblemen." They often adopt the names of their estates, as the Marquis de Santa Lucia, the Conde de CosaRomero. The Marquis del Real Socorro obtained his title by presenting a large sum of money to the government when its coffers were empty; and a few others had theirs conferred for military and other services to the state. The greatest number have, however, been bought, no Nor is the moral character of the consideration being paid to aught but the higher classes of Cuba quite above suswealth of the individual, the mother picion. Their outward decorum may be, country thus taxing the idle arrogance of to a great extent, says a shrewd writer, her colonists. The price paid for a only in appearance, and there is much patent of nobility has varied from reason to believe that the grossest im$20,000 to $50,000, the purchaser being morality and irreligion prevails among compelled to entail a certain amount of property with the title.

them. Religion has become, in fact, in Cuba, a mere mockery, the priesthood One in Cuba is struck with the num- being plunged into the grossest imber of estates held by titled owners. morality, and given to a daily violation Many of them are very extensive, and of all those rules of conduct which are are rented out, paying a fixed annual so strictly enjoined by the Catholic tribute; so that a large plantation may churches of the United States. often be obtained for a yearly tax, with- priests of Cuba and Mexico have beout paying any purchase money. Many come the scandal of the whole Catholic wealthy persons in Cuba have purchased world; and it would be a gross calumny titles of nobility, not only on account of on the enlightened Catholic citizens of the rank they give possessors in society, the United States, to insinuate that they

*Notes on Cuba, pp. 249–203.

*Notes on Cuba, pp. 196-198.

The

countenanced Catholicism as it now profitable investments. By means of the exists in Cuba, if even they admit it to be Catholicism at all. The most open infidelity prevails in Cuba, and the priests as a class are universally despised.

MANUFACTURES. Of these the most important are the making of sugar, molasses, and rum; the preparation of coffee, the manufacture of cigars, the bleaching of wax, and the manipulation of the minor staples of the island. Manufactures, indeed, of any other description, are not to be looked for in any country where the population are not impelled to them by the barrenness of the soil. Salt is manufactured to a limited extent.

.INTERNAL COMMUNICATION - RAILROADS.-The means of communication between the interior and the coast are very imperfect generally. The common roads are badly constructed, or rather not constructed at all, and during the rainy season are, in general, impassable for wheel carriages. The evil is diminished by the long and narrow form of the island, which enables the planters to bring their produce to a place of shipment without any very long land journeys. The number of coasting vessels is in consequence very considerable. There are three principal high roads, under the care of the Junto de Fomento; but they are always in bad condition, and quite impassable during the rainy season. They conduct to all parts of the island.

rail-road to Batabano, and the steamers on the southern coast, St. Jago de Cuba can be reached in four days from Havana, and the journey to Jamaica is thus greatly expedited.* Communication with all parts of the island by water is effected by means of steamers, which ply regularly. The number of coasting vessels is very great. The number that entered the port of Havana, in 1851, was 3,523.†

CURRENCY-Paper money is unknown in Cuba. The circulating medium, like that of Old Spain, consists exclusively of the precious metals. The coins in use are Spanish doubloons, or ounces of gold, which are a legal tender for seventeen hard dollars; also the subdivisions of the doubloon-the half being $8 40; the quarter, $4 20; the eighth, $2 10; and the sixteenth, $1 50. Mexican and Columbian doubloons are also a legal tender for $16. Their aliquot parts are worth 8, 4, 2, and $1, respectively. Of silver coins, the Spanish dollar, and its divisions, and also Mexican, United States and South Ame rican dollars, are a legal tender at their nominal value.

The only incorporated banking establishment at Havana, is that called the Royal Bank of Ferdinand VII., which was created in 1827. The capital of this bank, amounting to a million of dollars, was provided by the Spanish gov. ernment. Its business is confined to the discounting of promissory notes and bills There are six rail-roads on the island. of exchange; and the directors are proThe oldest road, finished in 1838, leads hibited from engaging in any other from Havana to Guines, in the interior, speculation, however lucrative it may a distance of forty-five miles. It now appear, under the penalty of being held belongs, we believe, to a company, who personally responsible. The rate of dishave extended a branch from San count is fixed at 10 per cent. per anFelipe to Batabano; another from. Rin- num. No individual or house is accomcon to San Antonio is progressing, and modated beyond $10,000 for three another from Guines to Los Palos. The months. No new discount is allowed rail-road from Regla to the mines of to any party who has been guilty of the Prosperidad has been abandoned. The slightest irregularity, for the space of one from Matanzas to Sabanilla is com- three years afterwards. All property, plete. That from Cardenas to Bemba, even a wife's dowry, is liable for a debt and that from Jucaro to beyond Altami- due the bank. sal are long since finished, as also that from Puerto Principe to Nuevitas. On all these roads the accommodations for passengers are not excelled by any road in the United States. The engines are generally under the care of Americans, and also the general management of the roads. These roads have all proved

The Colonial Minister of Finance is president of the bank. The directors of the bank, three in number, are held responsible for their proceedings to the government, in the sum of $10,000 each, giving mortgages to that amount

*Notes on Cuba, pp. 336-7.
t Diario de la Habana.

Manufactures-Rail-Roads-Currency-Education.

on real estate. Each director has one of the three keys of the strong box. There are also private banking-houses at Havana, which discount bills, and deal in exchanges.*

EDUCATION. In the whole island of Cuba, education is at a very low ebb. According to the latest and most favorable accounts, the schools are as follows:

Of white male children.. female "

Of colored male.

female

Total Schools in Cuba.......

129
79

6

8

222

107

The Sociedad Patriotica was established in 1790, and its name is now changed to that of the Real Sociedad Economica de la Habana, in which the term Royal usurps the place of Patriotic. This Royal Society of Havana is divided into four principal sections-on Education, Agriculture, Commerce and Popular Industry, and the History of Cuba. There is attached to the institution a public library, kept in the old convent of San Domingo, and is open daily, except on Sundays and festivals. The society publishes monthly a memorial of its la

The pupils of these schools are divid- bors, which is more or less valuable

From this, then, it appears, that out of the whole population of Cuba, which is about 1,000,000, there are only 9,082 children, of all grades, who attend school Of this number, only 3,757 are educated gratuitously. The remaining 5,325 attend school at their own expense. Of the 3,757 pupils, 540 are educated by the once flourishing "Sociedad Patriotica," whose resources were derived from the personal subscriptions of the members, and the voluntary contributions of citizens; 2,111 by local subscriptions; and the remaining 1,106 gratuitously taught by the professors.

means.

The latest official returns show that the number of free children, in the isle of Cuba, between the ages of five and fifteen, is 99,599; of whom, as before stated, only 9,082 have the benefit of schools, and these chiefly by private No appropriations from the general treasury of Cuba are made for public instruction, although the revenue of the island is about $22,000,000. So far from receiving aid from the treasury, the schools have actually been deprived by it; for when the custom-houses have taken charge of collecting the local taxes established for public instruction, ten per cent. commission has been deducted for the service; and large sums imposed on commerce and trade for this purpose, have been, and are to this day, withheld and unaccounted for by the treasury. In Cuba only one free child in 63 attends school.

* Trumbuil's Cuba, pp. 87-102.

for statistics regarding the past and present condition of the island. It has branches in nine of the principal towns of Cuba, which are in correspondence with it. The parent society in Havana has numbered from its foundation 300 members. Its corresponding members are 63.†

There is at Havana the Royal University, embracing a medical and law school, and chairs on all the natural sciences. The medical school was reorganized in 1842, and the present requisitions for graduation, among others, are a classical education, and six years study of medicine. The ordeal through which foreign candidates for licenses to practice are now compelled to pass, is rigid in the extreme, and the expenses amount to nearly $400. Several of the professors are French, and the school has a very respectable standing ‡

We take occasion here to observe, that it is with the greatest satisfaction that we find ourselves enabled to record so favorable an account of medical education in Cuba. With all her faults, she deserves the credit of duly appreciating the importance of making medicine truly what it professes to be-a learned profession. She lays down, as the first requisite for a physician, a classical educa tion; and to this she adds a six years' course of medical study. Our American schools will, many of them, be disposed to consider, as unnecessary, such a severe training; but it is just what it ought to be every where. Here in the United States we have disgraced—yes, 1 repeat it-we have disgraced the medical profession, by omitting the classical education altogether, and by reducing

Under the eye of the Censorship. + Notes on Cuba, p. 213-14.

Notes n Cuba, by a Physician, 1844, p. 215.

the course of medical studies to two book-keeping, arithmetic, stenography, courses of lectures, of four months each! and the English and French languages. The consequences of this are notorious, Of the actual condition of any of the and the medical profession is disgraced. above-named institutions we have no A medical diploma, from an American positive knowledge. medical school, is now a piece of worth- A museum of natural history was less lumber. The only way that this established at Havana, in 1838, of which disgrace can be blotted out, is to return the learned naturalist, Don Felipe S. to those requisites of a learned profes- Poye, was appointed Director; without sion-a thorough classical education, the walls of the city a botanical garden and a medical course embracing a term was also laid out, which, in 1844, was of years. under the care of Professor Auber.

Education in Cuba is in a lower state than in almost any other civilized country. Some idea can be formed of this dearth of education from the number of pupils in the schools of its principal towns and cities. At Guines, a town of 16,000 inhabitants, of whom 2,612 are whites, there are only 235 scholars in all the schools. Matanzas, with a population of 16,986, of whom 10,000 are whites, has only 815 pupils, and 16 schools. In very popular sections of the island, the dearth of schools is very remarkable. Nueva Filipina, with a population of more than 30,000, had, in 1844, but one school of forty boys. Guanabacoa, one of the oldest towns in Cuba, with a population of 10,000, had only one free school of thirty boys in 1844.

Besides the Royal University at Havana, there are several other institutions of learning. Among these are the Royal Seminary of San Carlos y San Ambrosio, founded in 1773; a girl's seminary, founded in 1691; a free school of sculpture and painting, founded by the Sociedad Economica, in 1818; a mercantile school, also free, and many private institutions for instruction in the elementary branches of education.

;

Among the private institutions of learning at Havana, at the present time, are the Real Colegio de Humanidades de Jesus y Jose, in the calle de Acosta the Colegio de Ninas de Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes, directed by Dona Caridad Santi, in which institution is taught the catechism, reading, writing, Spanish grammar, geography, French, English, Italian, drawing, music, dancing, politeness, (urbanidad,) needlework, etc. It has six professors. There is al. so the High School of Professor Macsimo Dominguez de Gironella, an institution similar to our best high schools in New. Orleans. From the Havana papers it appears that there are also several mercantile academies, in which are taught

It is agreed by all recent writers on Cuba, that there exists a lamentable dearth of schools in Cuba. Of the white Creoles no liberally educated persons are found except among the more wealthy portion, who send their sons to Europe and the United States for their education. The middle class has but an elementary education; and the lowest class, which is by far the most numerous, is without any education at all sunk into the grossest ignorance.

Gen. O'Donnell, a former Captain-GeneThe suppression of infant schools by ral of Cuba, is well known. An order has recently been made, by the Cuban authorities, which in effect prohibits parents from sending their children to the United States for purposes of educa tion; and such parents, deprived of driven to the expedient of proving ill means of liberal education at home, are health, or feigning it, in their children, in order to obtain passports for them.*

Such is the state of education in Cuba

at the present time, according to the best authorities. Though the people are taxed beyond any other known community in the world, the white popula tion paying annually to the government more than $12,000,000, (so say the gov ernment returns, but in reality it is nearly double that sum,) they are almost entirely destitute of schools. It was announced in the Diario de la Marina, of January 1, 1852, that the government free schools, distributed between Ha were about to establish nineteen primary vana, Matanzas, and Puerto Principe; also two normal schools at Havana; but we are not aware that the schools have as yet been established.

AGRICULTURE. The chief agricultu ral products of Cuba are sugar, coffee, and tobacco. The cultivation of these

"Cuba and the Cubans," p. 184. † Notes on Cuba, p. 251.