unaltered, the negroes would gradually
emancipate themselves--all at least who would be worth keeping as
servants. The population of Cuba is now about a million and a quarter,
rather more than half of whom are colored persons, and one out of every
four of the colored population is free. The mulattoes emancipate
themselves as a matter of course, and some of them become rich by the
occupations they follow. The prejudice of color is by no means so strong
here as in the United States. Five or six years since the negroes were
shouting and betting in the cockpits with the whites; but since the
mulatto insurrection, as it is called, in 1843, the law forbids their
presence at such amusements. I am told there is little difficulty in
smuggling people of mixed blood, by the help of legal forms, into the
white race, and if they are rich, into good society, provided their hair
is not frizzled.

You hear something said now and then in the United States concerning the
annexation of Cuba to our confederacy; you may be curious, perhaps, to
know what they say of it here. A European who had long resided in the
island, gave me this account:

"The Creoles, no doubt, would be very glad to see Cuba annexed to the
United States, and many of them ardently desire it. It would relieve them
from many great burdens they now bear, open their commerce to the world,
rid them of a tyrannical government, and allow them to manage their own
affairs in their own way. But Spain derives from the possession of Cuba
advantages too great to be relinquished. She extracts from Cuba a revenue
of twelve millions of dollars; her government sends its needy nobility,
and all for whom it would provide, to fill lucrative offices in Cuba--the
priests, the military officers, the civil authorities, every man who fills
a judicial post or holds a clerkship is from old Spain. The Spanish
government dares not give up Cuba if it were inclined.

"Nor will the people of Cuba make any effort to emancipate themselves by
taking up arms. The struggle with the power of Spain would be bloody and
uncertain, even if the white population were united, but the mutual
distrust with which the planters and the peasantry regard each other,
would make the issue of such an enterprise still more doubtful. At present
it would not be safe for a Cuba planter to speak publicly of annexation to
the United States. He would run the risk of being imprisoned or exiled."

Of course, if Cuba were to be a