One Day I Stood Upon The Quay At Matanzas And Saw The Slaves Unloading The
Large Lighters Which Brought Goods From The Spanish Ships Lying In The
Harbor - Casks Of Wine, Jars Of Oil, Bags Of Nuts, Barrels Of Flour.
The
men were naked to the hips; their only garment being a pair of trowsers.
I
admired their ample chests, their massive shoulders, the full and muscular
proportions of their arms, and the ease with which they shifted the heavy
articles from place to place, or carried them on their heads. "Some of
these are Africans?" I said to a gentleman who resided on the island.
"They are all Africans," he answered, "Africans to a man; the negro born
in Cuba is of a lighter make."
When I was at Guines, I went out to look at a sugar estate in the
neighborhood, where the mill was turned by water, which a long aqueduct,
from one of the streams that traverse the plain, conveyed over arches of
stone so broad and massive that I could not help thinking of the aqueducts
of Rome. A gang of black women were standing in the _secadero_ or
drying-place, among the lumps of clayed sugar, beating them small with
mallets; before them, walked to and fro the major-domo, with a cutlass by
his side and a whip in his hand, I asked him how a planter could increase
his stock of slaves. "There is no difficulty," he replied, "slaves are
still brought to the island from Africa.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 351 of 396
Words from 94892 to 95146
of 107287
