mport
savages from some distant land for the express purpose of making slaves
of them. The other reason was his fear that if many negroes were
imported they and the Indians would so outnumber the whites as to be a
grave menace.

Nevertheless the slave trade was established and soon attained
considerable proportions. It became so flourishing that presently the
Spanish government forbade private parties to conduct it save under
special charter from the crown and on payment of a considerable royalty
on each negro imported. Ostensibly, this was because it was feared that
too many negroes might be imported, so as to endanger the security of
the colonists, as Velasquez had suggested; but in fact it was largely
for the sake of the revenue which thus accrued to the royal treasury.
The popular sentiment in Cuba was generally in favor of slavery. It was
held that thus only could sufficient labor be secured for the
development of the resources of the island. The number of negroes never
was as great as some colonists urged that it should be, to wit, three
male and three female slaves for every white householder, but it is
probable that before the middle of the century the negro population of
the island outnumbered the European.

Treatment of the slaves was on the whole humane. The negroes were
forbidden to carry weapons, or to go about in companies of more than
four. They were at times subjected to physical punishment by their
masters for misdemeanors, though generally such discipline was required
to be administered by the authorities. Miscegenation between Europeans
and negroes was prohibited under penalty, and as an additional safeguard
against it slaves were required to be imported in equal numbers of the
sexes, and all were required to be married. It may be doubted if a
similar regard for their sexual morals was ever exhibited elsewhere.
There was a provision under which it was possible for industrious and
faithful slaves to purchase their freedom, and a considerable number of
them did so; after which they became members of the community with
almost the same legal rights and privileges as the Europeans.

There was, it is pleasant to record, never the prejudice against the
negro in Cuba that prevailed in the states of North America. He was a
slave, but he was a man. He was a social and political inferior, because
of his enslavement; but he was mentally and spiritually the peer of his
master. The text "Cursed be Canaan" was ne