transplanted improves physically, at least. They are remarkably healthy;
indeed, all classes of slaves are so, except when an epidemic breaks
out among them, and then it rages more fearfully far than with the
whites. Thus the cholera and small-pox always sweep them off by hundreds
when these diseases get fairly introduced among them. If a negro is sick
he requires just twice as much medicine as a white man to affect him,
but for what reason is a mystery in the practice of the healing art. The
prevailing illness with them is bowel complaints, to which they are
always more or less addicted, and their food is therefore regulated to
obviate this trouble as far as possible, but they always eat freely of
the fruits about them, so ripe and inviting, and so plentiful, too, that
half the crop and more, usually rots upon the ground ungathered. The
swine are frequently let loose to help clear the ground of its
overburdened and ripened fruits.

The slaves upon the plantations in all outward circumstances seem quite
thoughtless and happy; the slave code of the island, which regulates
their government, is never widely departed from. The owners are obliged
to instruct them all in the Catholic faith, and they are each baptized
as soon as they can understand the signification of the ceremony. The
law also provides that the master shall give a certain quantity and
variety of food to his slaves; but on this score slaves rarely if ever
have cause of complaint, as it is plainly for the planter's interest to
keep them in good condition. There is one redeeming feature in Spanish
slavery, as contrasted with that of our southern country, and that is,
that the laws favor emancipation. If a slave by his industry is able to
accumulate money enough to pay his _first cost_ to his master, however
unwilling the planter may be to part with him, the law guarantees him
his freedom. This the industrious slave can accomplish at farthest in
seven years, with the liberty and convenience which all are allowed.
Each one, for instance, is permitted to keep a pig, and to cultivate a
small piece of land for his own purposes, by raising corn; the land
yielding two crops to the year, they can render a pig fat enough, and
the drovers pay fifty dollars apiece to the slaves for good ones. This
is a _redeeming_ feature, but it is a bitter pill at best.

There are doubtless instances of cruelty towards the slaves, but the
writer is forced to acknowledge that he never wi