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MEXICO IN 1827.
39

The sugar, coffee, and indigo, which abound in many parts of the country, and which, though not at present exported, are raised in sufficient quantities for a very large home consumption, are all cultivated by free men. There is not a single slave in the valley of Cuĕrnăvācă, or in the environs of Ŏrĭzāva and Cōrdŏvă, which are the great marts for sugar, and coffee. The whole labour is performed there by the Indians, and mixed breeds, and a want of hands is seldom, or ever, known. I shall give, upon this subject, some additional details in the following section, which treats of the productions of the Mexican soil. Here, it only remains for me to add, that in the New World, as in the Old, Great Britain has done all that in her lay towards ameliorating the condition of the African race. The abolition of the slave-trade was made a sine quâ non condition of her intercourse with the New American States. It is pleasing to reflect on the readiness, with which this wish was complied with in Mexico: I have no doubt, however, that it will bring with it its own reward, as policy is hardly less interested than humanity in the removal of those laws, which, by perpetuating the distinction of master and slave, endanger the safety of the whole body politic, by setting the interests of one portion of society in direct opposition to those of all the rest.