he
Paseo Tacon is now Carlos III. The "new prison" is the _Carcel_, or jail,
at the northern end of the Prado, near the fortress of La Punta. Don Miguel
may have been disliked for his methods and his manners, but he certainly
did much to make his rule memorable.

There is no reliable information that shows the progress of the island
during the 19th Century. Even the census figures are questioned. A reported
432,000 total population in 1804 is evidently no more than an estimate, yet
it is very likely not far from the actual. Concerning their distribution
throughout the island, and the number engaged in different occupations,
there are no records. There are no acceptable figures regarding the
respective numbers of whites and blacks. Nor is there any record of the
population in 1895, the year of the war for independence. From the definite
tabulation, under American auspices, in 1899, showing 1,576,797, it has
been estimated that the number in 1895, was a little less than 1,800,000,
the difference being represented by the disasters of the war, by the result
of reconcentration, and by departures during the disturbance. The general
result seems to be that the population was practically quadrupled. A
somewhat rough approximation would show the blacks as multiplied by three,
to an 1899 total of 505,000, with the whites multiplied by four, to a total
of 1,067,000. Nor are there figures of trade that afford any proper clue
to the growth of industry and commerce. There are records of imports
and exports from about 1850 onward, but before that time the matter of
contraband trade introduces an element of uncertainty. An American official
pamphlet on Cuban trade carries the statement, "the ascertainment of full
and exact details of the commerce of Cuba prior to the close of Spanish
dominion in the island is an impossibility. The Spanish authorities, as
a rule, published no complete returns of Cuban trade, either foreign or
domestic. Except with regard to Spain and the United States, most of the
existing commercial statistics of Cuba, prior to 1899, are fragmentary
and merely approximative. Spain and the United States have always kept a
separate and distinct trade account with Cuba; but the United Kingdom,
France, Germany, and other European countries excepting Spain, formerly
merged their statistics of trade with Cuba in one general item embracing
Cuba and Porto Rico, under the heading of "Spanish West Indies." Since
1899, however, al