insurrection was at last
quelled, and peace restored. The Governor stood his trial in Denmark, to
be acquitted, and to have his declaration of complete emancipation
confirmed.

Slavery still continued in the Dutch possessions until 1863, and even
then it was only replaced by compulsory labour for ten years, leaving
the final emancipation until 1873. Yet with all that there were no
disturbances to hurry on the process or cause trouble. In Cuba a law was
passed in 1870 to give freedom to all above the age of sixty, as well as
to children born after the passing of the Act. This, however, was not
enforced on account of internal dissensions, and although Porto Rico
gave her slaves their liberty on the 23rd of March, 1873, the Cuban
Emancipation Bill was not passed by the Spanish Senate until February,
1880, and under that law slavery only came to an end on the 6th of
October, 1886.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

XV.

RESULTS OF EMANCIPATION.

The slave emancipation was a terrible blow to the West Indies, and one
from which many of the islands have not yet recovered. It was, the
planters said, the second attempt to ruin them, the first having been
the abolition of the slave-trade. The party who brought it about looked
to see their _protegees_ become a contented, hard-working peasantry, in
place of driven cattle, as they called them. The planters, on the
contrary, were morally certain that as free men they would not work, and
without a labour supply their estates would be utterly ruined. The
British taxpayer grumbled at having to pay twenty millions, but this was
a mere sop for the estate owners. With the loss of their human chattels
the plantations in many cases became utterly valueless; for the negroes
congregated round certain centres, leaving most of the outlying places
without enough people to keep up the cultivation. Labour had been
degraded by the system, and now the full effects of such influence began
to be felt.

[Illustration: NEGRESS, GUIANA.]

[Illustration: NEGRESS FISH-SELLERS, GUIANA.]

The compensation money, in many cases, went towards paying off mortgages
and other claims, the holders of which saw the impending ruin and
hastened to save themselves as far as possible. But it was not enough
even for that, for many plantations had liens of half the appraised
value of the land, buildings, and slaves. The last security being
entirely gone the others became worthless, and, as no one cared to