ualities which fit him for
tracing the runaway slaves are almost entirely acquired by careful
training. This is accomplished by experts in the business, who are
sometimes Monteros, and sometimes French overseers of plantations who
are out of work or regular engagement. Each estate keeps some of these
dogs as a precautionary measure, but they are seldom called into use
of late, for so certain is the slave that he will be instantly
followed as soon as missed, and inevitably traced by the hounds, that
he rarely attempts to escape from his master unless under some
peculiarly aggravating cause. It may even be doubted whether a slave
would be pursued to-day were he to attempt to escape, because slavery
is so very near its last gasp. In one respect this is an advantage to
the negroes, since the master, feeling this indifference, grants the
blacks more freedom of action. So perfect of scent is the Cuban
bloodhound that the master has only to obtain a bit of clothing left
behind by the runaway and give it to the hound to smell. The dog will
then follow the slave through a whole population of his class, and
with his nose to the ground lead straight to his hiding-place.

For three centuries Cuba has been the hotbed of African slavery. Few,
if any, have been imported during the last thirty years, that is to
say since 1855, during which year some cargoes were successfully run.
In 1816, the Spanish government, in a solemn treaty, declared its
conviction of the injustice of the slave trade. On the 23d of
September, 1817, in consideration of four hundred thousand pounds
sterling paid as an equivalent by Great Britain, Spain ratified a
treaty proclaiming that the slave trade should cease throughout all
the dominions of that country on the 30th day of May, 1820, and that
it should not afterwards be lawful for any Spanish subject to purchase
slaves. It was further declared by the home government that all blacks
brought from Africa subsequent to that date should be at once set
free, and the vessel on which they were transported should be
confiscated, while the captain, crew, and others concerned should be
punished with ten years' penal servitude. Yet, as all the world knows,
this was nothing more than a dead letter so far as Cuba was concerned,
and so late as 1845, statistics show an arrival of imported slaves
from Africa of fifteen thousand negroes annually, for the previous
twenty years. Tacon, Governor-General from June, 1834, until Apr