CHAPTER XXVIII.
CUBA AND PORTO RICO.
Cuba, the stronghold of Spain, in the western world,
has labored under the disadvantages of slavery for
more than three hundred years. The Lisbon merchants
cared more for the great profits made from the
slave-trade, than for the development of the rich
resources of this, one of the most beautiful of the
West India Islands, and therefore, they invested
largely in that nefarious traffic. The increase of
slaves, the demand for sugar and the products of the
tropics, and the inducement which a race for wealth
creates in the mind of man, rapidly built up the city
of Havana, the capital of the Island. The colored
population of Cuba, like the whites, have made but
little impression on the world outside of their own
southern home. There is, however, one exception in
favor of the blacks. In the year 1830, there appeared
in Havana a young colored man, whose mother had
recently been brought from Africa. His name was
Placido, and his blood was unmixed. Being with a
comparatively kind master, he found time to learn to
