CHAPTER XIII.

THE INHABITANTS AND SOCIAL STATE OF CUBA.

Aborigines.

The aborigines of Cuba were of a mild and inoffensive dispo-sition, but of a melancholy temperament, and being treatedas slaves by the Spaniards shortly after the discovery of theisland, their numbers rapidly decreased. A state of bondage,in which they were forced to work at gold-washing and otheremployments, being intolerable to their natures, many com-mitted suicide; and the introduction of European diseases madeso great a havoc, that in less than a century the race becameextinct. Few or none of the American Indians seem to havethe dispositions fitted for enduring a condition of slavery suchas exists, or has existed, in the West Indian Islands.

Negroes and Chinese.

But what a wonderful constitution, bodily and mental,has the African! Caught while roaming at large in hisnative country; confined in the hold of a ship until he istransported 3000 miles across the seas, and then treated inall respects as a beast of burden,—however violent has beenthe change from freedom to bondage, and from ease to labour,he is found bearing up under his privations most won-drously. His frame becomes robust, and so far fitted for thetask demanded of him ; and so long as he is possessed ofhealth, his merry heart does not forsake him in the depths ofhis degradation. I have often stood and wondered at thepowerful young slave, bom in Africa, applying himself sovigorously to his hard toil with apparent resignation andcheerfulness. He is capable of enduring enormous hardships,