Island of Cuba.

doctrines and practical precepts of the gospel as their masters the Spaniards, the very by-word of Europe for their ignorance and bigotry, as well as for their shameful system of government in the new world, And is it thus he is to persuade his readers that Spain, enlightened Spain, has done more to propagate religion in the western hemisphere than the educated sons of England!

Of the Spanish written code I do not profess myself able to speak with confidence; but having more than once visited Cuba, its most valuable colony, and seen the actual state of the slaves there, I can most solemnly avouch, that in dress and in appearance, they are decidedly inferior to the slaves in Jamaica; nor is this my own opinion only, for I have heard the same remark made by others. Whether this may be attributable to the influx of Africans, or whether they are worked harder, or allowed less time for the cultivation of their grounds, I shall not say, because I had not full means of ascertaining: but a fair conclusion on this point may be drawn from the fact, that neither in the Havannah, nor St. Jago de Cuba, the two principal towns, are the negro markets supplied with poultry, vegetables, fruit, esculent roots, &c. at all so abundantly as at Kingston; from which it certainly would appear, that they raise less of those articles, or find less demand for them.

As to religion, the church doors, it is true, are

always open; but, except on one occasion, I never saw above a dozen persons at a time inside one of them; and these were women whom, from their sable robes and dejected countenances, I concluded to be mourners. The one occasion alluded to was a festival of the patron Saint of a church a few miles out of the city of St. Jago. The concourse was immense; the church was surrounded with tents, completely full of people dancing, drinking, smoking segars, and engaged at every kind of gambling.

One of my acquaintance, whom I met there, directed my attention to a large awning, one side of which was fixed to the church wall pretty high, and the other, descending like the roof of a house, was supported by low posts at some distance, forming under it a spacious shed. I observed that it looked like the sail of a vessel. 'Yes,' answered he, and perhaps it will amuse you to learn how it came here. Last August, a schooner called the Esperanza, on a voyage to the main, encountered a dreadful storm; the sailors, apprehensive of perishing, implored protection from the patron saint of this church; and vowed that if spared to return, the main sail of the schooner should be given as an acknowlegement. The good saint heard their prayer, abated the storm, and brought them safely into port. The day after their arrival, the master of the vessel was not a little astonished at meeting four of his men lugging the mainsail of his vessel up one of the

steep streets of St. Jago; and enquiring the cause, they stated it to him as I have mentioned. He remonstrated; he durst do no more; and even offered them a sum of money for the saint, which he assured them would be much more acceptable; but they were not to be turned aside from the fulfilment of their vow; and here the sail is, and, as you see, a good one.'

Is this the kind of religion which produces so much happiness among the slaves in the Spanish colonies? if so, the Sunday negro market of Jamaica certainly ought not to be abolished. Whatever influence the exterior ceremonies of the Roman Catholic religion may have on the minds of the negroes, if they ever go to church, it is impossible that the priests in the towns, engaged as they constantly are at the billiard tables, can command much of their veneration. What priests or churches there are in the interior of the country, for the instruction of the plantation slaves, I do not know; and I find no information on the subject in Mr. Stephen's book, notwithstanding the very perfect knowledge he pretends to have of the state of religion in the Spanish colonies. I hope he will tell us, in the second division of his work, how many churches there are in this island, 700 miles long; how far distant one may be from a place of worship by the nearest road; and what is the average number of persons committed to the care of each billiard-playing priest.

As to tranquillity, for which he represents the

Spanish colonies as so pre-eminent,' my impression was very different indeed. Contrary to any thing I had ever witnessed in Jamaica, I here saw that every gentleman coming from the country into town or going out of it, carried a holster on his saddle, with a pair of loaded pistols. Does this bespeak tranquillity? Shortly also before my first visit in 1814, a serious disturbance had taken place among the slaves in an inland district, which had created considerable alarm. I was moreover informed that several hordes of runaway slaves had collected in the interior, and bid defiance to any means the government possessed to dislodge them; nor, considering the immense number of Africans I then saw pouring in, could I wonder that such should be the case. These circumstances left on my mind an impression, that the colony was in a state very different from that 'pre-eminent tranquillity' Mr. Stephen describes. One advantage,-for such, as regards character, it seems to be--the Spanish colonies certainly do possess over those with which they have been contrasted they publish no newspapers in Cuba, except a sort of official Gazette, and consequently, as it admits nothing of this kind, any acts of cruelty committed, or occasional alarms, can scarcely be known in the next island; and are still less likely to be heard of in Europe.

The coloured and white classes are so completely amalgamated, that they are scarcely distinguishable: the few white people you see, espe

cially the men, have the most forbidding aspect to the eye of a stranger that can well be imagined. They are universally shabby in their dress, dirty, ignorant, bigoted, and indolent; with exception of the Catalonians, who are not deficient in activity and enterprize. These occupy all the retail shops, and active situations-are the very life of the community, and seem to form the only tie that connects the colony with the mother country.

However good the written Spanish code may be, it is not easy to see how it can have much practical influence in a colony where little or no regard is paid to the authority of the mother country. Even in the public offices, bribery is not only practised, but in fact justified, as the sole means the officers have of being paid. That the law, which entitles a slave who has the means, to purchase his freedom, is more liberal than that of Jamaica, I admit; but the actual benefit resulting from it to the slaves depends upon the manner in which they are treated generally on the plantations—what means are afforded them of acquiring sufficient property to purchase freedom-how the price is ascertained, and by what practical mode the emancipation is effected. These are important points on which the value of the law wholly depends; to speak of them would require a practical and minute knowledge of the plantation economy in Cuba, which I do not possess; only, as already stated, I thought the