orange at Genoa survives the fall of snow, and a degree of cold equal to 19 or 20 of Fahrenheit. We have seen the orange in Carolina within a few years resist cold when the thermometer of Fahrenheit descended to 12, (11" on the cent. thermometer below 0) and suffer no injury but the destruction of the very small and tender branches, and the loss of the crop of the ensuing summer. Under other circumstances, however, that is, when severe cold has occurred early in the fall or late in the spring, or has been accompanied by a sleety rain, this tree has been killed to the surface of the earth with the thermometer of Fahrenheit between 18 and 22°.

Hurricanes are much more rare in Cuba than at St. Domingo, Jamaica or the smaller Antilles. The centre of this chain of islands appears to be the seat of suffering from their frequent occurrence, and, as with us, they generally happen in August and September. They were formerly supposed to be periodical, but observation has effaced this opinion. In the Caribbean Islands, in twenty-five years, from 1770 to 1795, there were seventeen hurricanes, whilst at Martinique, from 1788 to 1804, not one was felt, yet the same island was devastated by three in the course of the year 1642.

The oscillations of the mercury in the barometer are very inconsiderable under the equator; they become more indicative of atmospheric changes as we approach the temperate zones, but accompany rather than foretell these changes within the tropics. In the great hurricane of the 27th and 28th August, 1794, at the Havana, careful observations taken every hour or half hour, shewed that from the commencement to the height of the gale, the mercury gradually fell from 29.95 to 29.50, and then as gradually rose until at its termination it had reached the height of 30.01, the indication of clear and settled weather.

Humboldt appears not to have noticed the quantity of rain which annually falls in Cuba. From the information we can collect from other sources, it does not equal the amount we should expect in a tropical island. In the Anales de Ciencias, &c. the quantity for the year 1828, is given as 33. 3: we suspect this was a dry year, and it would require observations continued through at least ten years to give a tolerably fair average.

We have presented to our readers the peculiarities and the advantages this island exhibits as the gifts of nature. We will now view it under another aspect, and see how much it has been indebted for its improvements to the efforts of man.

Cuba, with all its advantages, was for a long time neglected by the Spaniards. The settlements on the island were early;

they date from the year 1511, when, in pursuance of the orders of Don Diego Colomb, Velasquez landed at Puerto de Palmas, near Cape Maysi, and subdued the Cacique Hatuey, who, a fugitive from St. Domingo, had retired into the south-eastern part of Cuba, and become the head of a confederacy of native chieftains. Baracoa was commenced in 1512, Santiago de Cuba in 1514, and San Christobal de la Havana, in its present situation,* in 1519. But for many years the island remained almost without culture, and when the search for metals was diverted into new channels, was divided and distributed into hatos and protreros or cattle-farms of different descriptions, and abandoned very much to the rearing of stock, an occupation: to which the Spaniards have always manifested much attachment. To this circumstance Cuba is, perhaps, at this day indebted for the comparatively large white population which it possesses, and also for the number of free-coloured people which the enumeration of its inhabitants discloses; although this latter class of its inhabitants is rather the production of cities than of the country.

It was by the capture of the Havana by the British in 1762, that the first great impulse was given to the permanent improvement of Cuba. The importance of its position, as the key of Mexico, as a point of communication with all the territory that surrounds the Caribbean Sea, was seen and felt by Spain the instant it was occupied by an enemy. When it was restored, the expense lavished on the fortifications of the Havana to secure it against all future assaults, the encouragement offered by the Crown to the settlement and cultivation of the country by wealthy proprietors, perhaps, also some stimulus given to the commercial spirit of the people by the example and opinions of the British during their short occupation of the island, led to the great and still progressing improvements that have distinguished its subsequent history. Another important accession to the wealth and agricultural intelligence of Cuba, took place when a great number of French colonists, with the wrecks and remnants of their property, were driven over to Cuba by the disastrous convulsions of St. Domingo. Until this period, the agriculture of the island had been rude and slovenly, the manufacture of sugar imperfect, the preparation of coffee defective, its culture, in fact, scarcely known, and the great sources of wealth which have since been opened to the island, in a great measure neglected. It may be remarked that the improve

The city was at first, in 1515, located on the southern side of the Island, but, on account of its commercial advantages, removed to its present position.

ment, we may say, the establishment of the culture of sugar in Louisiana, may be dated from the same period and the same cause. A third great period in the prosperity of Cuba may be dated from the time when a liberal policy, in contradistinction to its practice in all other cases, was adopted by the Spanish government in the administration of this island. To the Havana many privileges were granted from an early period, which were gradually enlarged, until at length, since 1822, an entire freedom of trade with all nations of the world has been wisely allowed, and the benefits of this liberality have been felt not only by the colony, but by the parent state.

The following tables will show the population of Cuba at different periods, as far as documents have been obtained, or exist to ascertain these facts. In 1762, at the time of the capture of the Island by the British, the population was estimated at less than 200,000; of this number, 32,000 were slaves.

The estimate made by Humboldt for the year 1825, not by actual enumeration, but from the calculation of probabilities, is as follows:

In a preceding number of this Journal,* we have already given the opinion of Mr. Abbot, that the number of the slaves in Cuba was quite or nearly double the amount supposed by Humboldt. Many circumstances will support this conjecture. There has always been an apprehension in the Spanish West Indies, as well as elsewhere, that whenever a census has been ordered, these inquests into the population were designed as the basis

* Southern Review, No. 7-p. 135.

of taxation, and were to be the precursors of some heavy assessments on the colonial estates. When to this is added, the carelessness, perhaps also the indifference on the part both of proprietors and officers, and the certainty that the errors will not correct themselves, but be invariably on one side, it is not unreasonable to suppose, that the number not only of the slaves, but of all classes of inhabitants exceeds very considerably the returns of the authorized census. Humboldt himself remarks, that in 1804 he examined, together with persons who possessed great local knowledge, the enumeration of Don Luis de las Casas, (1791) and it appeared to them, that the population could not at that time have been less than 362,700, while the official census gave but 272, 141. A new census was ordered in 1828, but its details have only partially reached us. The city of Havana has increased in population and wealth, in the same proportion as other parts of the island. The following table will show the number of its inhabitants at different periods.

When to this is added, remarks Humboldt, the troops of the garrison, the mariners, the monks, the "religieuses" of all descriptions, and the strangers not domiciliated, who all pass under the head of transeuntes, the whole population of the city and its suburbs, cannot at this day (1825) be less than 130,000. The kindness of a friend has put into our hands the census of the Havana for the year 1828. The following are the aggregate numbers of each class of citizens:

In a letter from one of the most intelligent inhabitants of Cuba, which accompanied this census, it was remarked, "This census is defective as to the number of the inhabitants. You may safely add 10,000. The inhabitants were generally apprehensive that the object of it was the acquisition of data in order to impose a direct or capitation ax on them, and, therefore, many concealed the names of part of their slaves, and others even absconded, so as to escape the notice of the police officers employed in that operation." When, besides, we further notice that some of the adjacent villages or suburbs (arrabalos) included by Humboldt, are not comprehended in this census, we may, with great probability, allow 130,000 as the number of inhabitants of the Havana for 1828.

The following table will shew the increase of the city of Matanzas in ten years :

The most remarkable feature in the population of Cuba, when compared with all the other islands of the West-Indies, unless we except, perhaps, the other Spanish island of Porto Rico, is the great proportion of the white population. This is owing, in a great measure, to the manner in which the island was originally settled. The first emigrants were poor, they settled on the hills and open plains to take care of cattle, they afterwards added the care of bees, and some cultivated small fields of that tobacco for which this island has been so celebrated. They were, and continue to be a careless, unenlightened, indolent race. Their stock, and the plantains which grow in spite of them, furnish their food, and the skins of their cattle supply them with much of their clothing. Of this class of proprietors, a recent traveller* remarked, that they seemed to have no care but to bury the money which the superintendant of their hatos brought them for their cattle, and again to dig it up when they went to the cockpit to gamble, or were obliged to pay the expenses of those interminable lawsuits which they bequeath from generation to generation. These people, however, constitute the physical force of the Island.

*

Massa sur l'Ile de Cuba, 1825, p. 302. We quote from Humboldt.