decree freeing more than fifteen thousand _emancipados_ in the space of
a fortnight; that of May 25th, enrolling and arming negroes and
mulattoes; the project for importing negroes and mulattoes from Africa,
under the name of free apprentices; the institution of free schools for
the instruction of the blacks, while the whites are abandoned to their
own resources; and, finally, the legalization of the intermarriages of
blacks and whites, which last measure has actually been carried into
effect, to the indignation of the Creoles,--all these measures show the
determination of the Spanish government to bring about the emancipation
of slavery, and the social equalization of the colored and white
population, that it may maintain its grasp upon the island, under
penalty of a war of races, which could only terminate in the extinction
of the whites, in case of a revolutionary movement.

The proclamation of the third of May, alluded to above, and disclosing
some of the abolition plans of the government, produced a startling
sensation. In it the captain-general said: "It is time for the planter
to substitute for the rapid but delusive advantages derived from the
sale of human flesh, safer profits, more in harmony with civilization,
religion and morals;" and that "the time had come to make the life of
the slave sweeter than that of the white man who labors under another
name in Europe." The proclamation, coupled with that conferring
exclusive educational advantages on colored persons, roused even the
Spaniards; some of the wealthiest and most influential of whom held
secret meetings to discuss the measures to be adopted in such a crisis,
in which it was resolved to withhold all active aid from the government,
some going so far as to advocate the making of common cause with the
Creoles. The mere hint of a fusion between the Spaniards and Creoles,
whom it has been the policy of the colonial government to alienate from
each other, was sufficient to excite the fears of the captain-general;
and accordingly, on the 31st of May, he published a sort of explanatory
manifesto, designed to allay the alarm of the Spaniards, and
conflicting, in several points, with that of the 3d. "Her Majesty's
government," says the document of the 31st, "is well aware that the
unhappy race (the Africans), once placed among civilized men, and
protected by the religion and the great laws of our ancestors, is, in
its so-called slavery, a thousand times happier th