The Construction Of New Fortifications On A Gigantic Plan* Threw A Great Deal Of Money Suddenly Into Circulation (* It Is Affirmed That The Construction Of The Fort Of Cabana Alone Cost Fourteen Millions Of Piastres.); Later The Slave-Trade Became Free And Furnished Hands For The Sugar Factories.

Free trade with all the ports of Spain and occasionally with neutral states, the able administration of Don Luis

De Las Casas, the establishment of the Consulado and the Patriotic Society, the destruction of the French colony of Saint Domingo,* (* In three successive attempts, in August 1791, June 1793, and October 1803. Above all the unfortunate and sanguinary expedition of Generals Leclerc and Rochambeau completed the destruction of the sugar factories of Saint Domingo.) and the rise in the price of sugar which was the natural consequence, the improvement in machines and ovens, due in great part to the refugees of Cape Francois, the more intimate connection formed between the proprietors of the sugar factories and the merchants of the Havannah, the great capital employed by the latter in agricultural establishments (sugar and coffee plantations), such have been successively the causes of the increasing prosperity of the island of Cuba, notwithstanding the conflict of the authorities, which serves to embarrass the progress of affairs.

The greatest changes in the plantations of sugar-cane and in the sugar factories, took place from 1796 to 1800. First, mules were substituted (trapiches de mulas) for oxen (trapiches de bueyes); and afterwards hydraulic wheels were introduced (trapiches de agua), which the first conquistadores had employed at Saint Domingo; finally the action of steam-engines was tried at Ceibabo, at the expense of Count Jaruco y Mopex. There are now twenty-five of those machines in the different sugar mills of the island of Cuba. The culture of the sugar-cane of Otaheite in the meantime increased. Boilers of preparation (clarificadoras) were introduced and the reverberating furnaces better arranged. It must be said, to the honour of wealthy proprietors, that in a great number of plantations, a kind solicitude is manifested for sick slaves, for the introduction of negresses, and for the education of children.

The number of sugar factories (yngenios) in 1775 was 473 in the whole island; and in 1817 more than 780. Among the former, none produced the fourth part of the sugar now made in the yngenios of second rank; it is consequently not the number of factories that can afford an accurate idea of the progress of that branch of agricultural industry.

The first sugar-canes carefully planted on virgin soil yield a harvest during twenty to twenty-five years, after which they must be replanted every three years. There existed in 1804, at the Hacienda de Matamoros, a square (canaveral) worked during forty-five years. The most fertile soil for the production of sugar is now in the vicinity of Mariel and Guanajay. That variety of sugar-cane known by the name of Cana de Otahiti, recognised at a distance by a fresher green, has the advantage of furnishing, on the same extent of soil, one-fourth more juice, and a stem more woody, thicker, and consequently richer in combustible matter.

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