Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 3 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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The Local Authorities, Or Rather The Rich Proprietors, Forming The
Ayuntamiento Of The Havannah, The Consulado And The Patriotic Society,
Have on several occasions shown a disposition favourable to the
amelioration of the condition of the slaves.* (* Dicen nuestros Indios
Del Rio Caura cuando se confiesan que ya entienden que es pecado
corner carne humana; pero piden qua se les permita desacostumbrarse
poco a poco; quieren comer la carne humana una vez al mes, despues
cada tres meses, hasta qua sin sentirlo pierdan la costumbre. Cartas
de los Rev Padres Observantes Number 7 manuscript. [Our negroes of the
River Caura say, when they confess, that they know it is sinful to eat
human flesh; they beg to be permitted to break themselves of the
custom, little by little: they wish to eat human flesh once a month,
and afterwards once every three months, until they feel they have
cured themselves of the practice.]) If the government of the
mother-country, instead of dreading the least appearance of
innovation, had taken advantage of those propitious circumstances, and
of the ascendancy of some men of abilities over their countrymen, the
state of society would have undergone progressive changes; and in our
days, the inhabitants of the island of Cuba would have enjoyed some of
the improvements which have been under discussion for the space of
thirty years. The movement at Saint Domingo in 1790 and those which
took place in Jamaica in 1794 caused so great an alarm among the
haciendados of the island of Cuba that in a Junta economica it was
warmly debated what measure could be adopted to secure the
tranquillity of the country.
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