rom the coast of
Africa, but from the American continent and southwestern Asia.

In one of the afternoons of Holy Week, I saw amid the crowd on the _Plaza
de Armas_, in Havana, several men of low stature, of a deep-olive
complexion, beardless, with high cheek-bones and straight black hair,
dressed in white pantaloons of cotton, and shirts of the same material
worn over them. They were Indians, natives of Yucatan, who had been taken
prisoners of war by the whites of the country and sold to white men in
Cuba, under a pretended contract to serve for a certain number of years. I
afterward learned, that the dealers in this sort of merchandise were also
bringing in the natives of Asia, Chinese they call them here, though I
doubt whether they belong to that nation, and disposing of their services
to the planters. There are six hundred of these people, I have been told,
in this city.

Yesterday appeared in the Havana papers an ordinance concerning the
"Indians and Asiatics imported into the country under a contract to
labor." It directs how much Indian corn, how many plantains, how much
jerked-pork and rice they shall receive daily, and how many lashes the
master may inflict for misbehavior. Twelve stripes with the cowskin he may
administer for the smaller offenses, and twenty-four for transgressions of
more importance; but if any more become necessary, he must apply to a
magistrate for permission to lay them on. Such is the manner in which the
government of Cuba sanctions the barbarity of making slaves of the
freeborn men of Yucatan. The ordinance, however, betrays great concern for
the salvation of the souls of those whom it thus delivers over to the lash
of the slave-driver. It speaks of the Indians from America, as Christians
already, but while it allows the slaves imported from Asia to be flogged,
it directs that they shall be carefully instructed in the doctrines of our
holy religion.

Yet the policy of the government favors emancipation. The laws of Cuba
permit any slave to purchase his freedom on paying a price fixed by three
persons, one appointed by his master and two by a magistrate. He may,
also, if he pleases, compel his master to sell him a certain portion of
his time, which he may employ to earn the means of purchasing his entire
freedom.

It is owing to this, I suppose, that the number of free blacks is so large
in the island, and it is manifest that if the slave-trade could be
checked, and these laws remain