e said, to get correct returns. No person of intelligence in Cuba,
however desirous to put the number at the lowest, has stated it to me at
less than 500,000. Many set it at 700,000. I am inclined to think that
600,000 is the nearest to the truth.

The census makes the free blacks, in 1857, 125,000. It is thought to be
200,000, by the best authorities. The whites are about 700,000. The only
point in which the census seems to agree with public opinion, is in the
proportion. Both make the proportion of blacks to be about one free
black to three slaves; and make the whites not quite equal to the entire
number of blacks, free and slave together.

To ascertain the condition of slaves in Cuba, two things are to be
considered: first, the laws, and secondly, the execution of the laws.
The written laws, there is no great difficulty in ascertaining. As to
their execution, there is room for opinion. At this point, one general
remark should be made, which I deem to be of considerable importance.
The laws relating to slavery do not emanate from the slave-holding mind;
nor are they interpreted or executed by the slave-holding class. The
slave benefits by the division of power and property between the two
rival and even hostile races of whites, the Creoles and the Spaniards.
Spain is not slave-holding, at home; and so long as the laws are made in
Spain, and the civil offices are held by Spaniards only, the slave has
at least the advantage of a conflict of interests and principles,
between the two classes that are concerned in his bondage.

The fact that one Negro in every four is free, indicates that the laws
favor emancipation. They do both favor emancipation, and favor the free
blacks after emancipation. The stranger visiting Havana will see a
regiment of one thousand free black volunteers, parading with the troops
of the line and the white volunteers, and keeping guard in the Obra Pia.
When it is remembered that the bearing arms and performing military duty
as volunteers is esteemed an honor and privilege, and is not allowed to
the whites of Creole birth, except to a few who are favored by the
government, the significance of this fact may be appreciated. The Cuban
slave-holders are more impatient under this favoring of the free blacks
than under almost any other act of the government. They see in it an
attempt, on the part of the authorities, to secure the sympathy and
cooperation of the free blacks, in case of a revolutionary mov