Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 3 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
- Page 397 of 635 - First - Home
The Population Of The Island Of Cuba,
Which In Fifty Years Will Perhaps Exceed A Million, May Open By Its
Own Consumption An Immense Field To Native Industry.
If the
slave-trade should cease altogether, the slaves will pass by degrees
into the class of free men; and society, being reconstructed, without
suffering any of the violent convulsions of civil dissension, will
follow the path which nature has traced for all societies that become
numerous and enlightened.
The cultivation of the sugar-cane and of
coffee will not be abandoned; but it will no longer remain the
principal basis of national existence than the cultivation of
cochineal in Mexico, of indigo in Guatimala, and of cacao in
Venezuela. A free, intelligent and agricultural population will
progressively succeed a slave population, destitute of foresight and
industry. Already the capital which the commerce of the Havannah has
placed within the last twenty-five years in the hands of cultivators,
has begun to change the face of the country; and to that power, of
which the action is constantly increasing, another will be necessarily
joined, inseparable from the progress of industry and national
wealth - the development of human intelligence. On these united powers
depend the future destinies of the metropolis of the West Indies.
In reference to what has been said respecting external commerce, I may
quote the author of a memoir which I have often mentioned, and who
describes the real situation of the island. "At the Havannah, the
effects of accumulated wealth begin to be felt; the price of
provisions has been doubled in a small number of years.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 397 of 635
Words from 108504 to 108771
of 174507
