ere also was the scene of that great labour experiment, the African
slave-trade. The atrocities of the Spaniards caused the depopulation of
the Greater Antilles, and led to the importation of negroes. Whatever
may be said against slavery, there can hardly be any question that the
African has been improved by his removal to another part of the world
and different surroundings. True, he has not progressed to the extent
that was expected by his friends when they paid such an enormous sum for
his enfranchisement; still, there are undoubtedly signs of progress.

The white colonists in the West Indies never settled down to form the
nucleus of a distinct people. Since the emancipation the islands have
been more and more abandoned to the negroes and coloured people, with
the result that although the government is mostly in the hands of the
whites, they are in such a minority as to be almost lost. In Cuba there
appears to be such a feeling of patriotism towards their own island that
probably we shall soon hear of a new republic, but elsewhere in the
islands our hopes for the future must lie in the negroes and coloured
people.

On the mainland the original inhabitants were not exterminated as in the
large islands, and consequently we have there a most interesting
process in course of accomplishment--the development of one or more
nations. Here are the true Americans, and as the Gaul was merged in the
Frank, and the Briton in the Saxon, so the Spaniard has been or will
ultimately be lost in the American. At present the so-called Spanish
republics are in their birth-throes--they are feeling their way. Through
trouble and difficulty--revolution and tyranny--they have to march on,
until they become stronger and more fitted to take their places among
other nations. Out of the struggle they must ultimately come, and it
will be a most interesting study for those who see the result.

In Hispaniola we have also a nation in the course of development--an
alien race from the old world. More backward than the Americans, the
Africans of Haiti are struggling to gain a position among other nations,
apparently without any good result. The nation is yet unborn, and its
birth-throes are distressing. We look upon that beautiful island and
feel sad that such a paradise should have fallen so low. As a race the
negro has little of that internal power that makes for progress--he must
be compelled to move on. Some are inclined to look upon him as in the