The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1853-07-07

=, NEAR GARDENS, Nay 10, 1853.

To the Editor of the National Era.
After longer stay in the city than | had
proposed when left the Vuelto Abajo, have
at last reached this point in nay trip to the
northeastern quarter of this magnificent island
The eastern section of Cuba 10 styled, in a gen
eral way, the Yuelta Arriba just as the western
is called the Vuelta Abaio--the terms signi-
| flying respectively as near as may be- the
upper and lower districts. The distinction is
however purely arbitrary, though the differ
ence in nature and appearance between the
sections thus designated is very remarkable.
The Vuelta Arriba contains the finest estates
of the island Limonar, near Matanzas, and
the neighborhoods Of Sagua-la- Grande and
of Cardenas ought to be visited by every
traveller who wishes to carry away with
him just idea of the fertility of the famous
cred earth" of Cuba, and Of the enterprise
of her planters The creole hates over.ex
ton, and puts himself TO no pains that he can
avoid in order to attain any object He wor-
ships tomorrow; his motto h "neper do to-day
what can be done to-norrow,r md to this rule
of conduct he adheres with scrupulous fidelity
Nor can the most uneasy Yankee take courage
| toquestion the fitness of this rule to the Cuban
climate and the Circumstances of the creole,
when he sees how successfully, with what pre-
vailing neatness and economy, and to what
results of profit, the huge estates Of the north
east are managed. The face of the country
wears the comfortable smile Of assured pros
perity. The railway from Havsna to Cardenas
and Matanzas, 10 tolerably welliaid and we'll
managed road, differing from our best second
class roads chiefly in this--that the rate Of
travel is only half as rapid and the tariff Of
fares twice as high as with usD the great Ha-
yana railway runs. for the most part, through
| regions cultivated like a garden--vegetable
| patches, plantan- orchards, and csne-felds sue
ceedng each other in al almost unbroken sue
cession And when, leaving the railway, the
traveller takes his way more slowly on horse
back or in the volante, through the intricate
highways and byways, he is astonished equally
at the magnificent extent and at the profuse
productiveness of the great estates through
which his course lies for mile after mile.
Plantations are by no means uncommon here
| on which from four to six hundred slaves are
employed, and | have seen some ON which
gangs Of from one thousand to fourteen
hundred are worked" These huge estates,
principalties in SIZE yield most princely reve-
nues The original outlay upon large sugar
estate is very great, and the expenses of man,
agement proportionately heavy especially in
those places where the improved French ma
chnery is used, under the charge of educated
and intelligent 6xtneers The salaries of
engineers on tke estates worked in the old
fashioned Yanner average about one hundred
and twenty dollars per month"; and these engi-
neeS are engaged only for the six months Of
l the grinding season. But the French trains
are conducted by persons of superior education
and standing who are tempted to come hither
from France or England by the offer of perma-
nent situations at much higher salaries Four
or FIVE such persons are frequently found in
charge of the different departments Of great
sugar estate. To the amount thus expended
we must add the wages of number of white
subordinates the cost of maintaining large
gang of negroes, the value of the cattle and
horses annually destroyed by the hard work Of
hauling the canes three days in the week 10
the grinding house, from fields often scattered
over an area of several miles, the casual cost Of
repairs, the various incidental expenses inevi.
table on so great an estate, and In No great
majority of cases, the amount u interest annu.
ally due on the large sums whish the planter
is obliged from time TO time - sorrow, in q
country where money has an extraordinar,
value Yet 80 productive is the soil Of tn
Vuelta Arriba and no steady tho demand fo
the planters crop, that there are few of thu
great sugar planters who do not clear, over anC
above this large outlay, fine annual income
from their estates Incomes OF fifty, sixty
eighty, and one hundred thousand dollars q
year, are by no means rare in Cuba. The
tcorst enemy, even, of the sugar planter-fre
which is more feared by him than any other
calamity-is powerless to interrupt seriously
the prosperity of great estate. One disaf
fected slave, one envious montero, when the
season is dry and the grinding we'll begun, haf
but to drop lighted match or q halEburnt
cigar in some remote Canayeral The swift
wind does the rest, and in q few hours causes
thousands of dollars to vanish into thin air
But the fields are again planted, or the canes
again spring up, and the next years harvest
restores things to their original status. Thus
encouraged by nature, the Cuban planter is
generally one Of the most enterprisng Of agri.
culturists. The ruinous practice Of absentee
ism, which prevailed to so great an extent in
Jamaica, and generated that almost universal
bankruptcy which the change produced by
| emancipation only brought to light and had no
share in cansng-the rulnous practice of ab-
senteeism is comparatively unknown in Cuba
Almost ali the planters residing in the island,
in Havana, Trinidad, Santiago de Cuba, or
Matanzas, are enabled to visit their estates
frequently, and do actually and for the most
part take the management of their property
into their own hands. In the place Of the ig-
norant INSCRIPTIONS persons, TO whom. the
Anglo-Wes Indian estates were often eptrust-
ed, the Cuban proprietor puts, as resident
manager or administrator on his estate
some person of character and intelligcnce-in
most cases a member of his own family. The
| difference between the results Of these systems
| is enormous. The Jamaica estates, given up
to sordid "middlemen," went to rack and
ruin !" mortgage was added to mortgage, pccu-
latisn followed population, till the day Of gen
eral account hurriedly brought on by the
Emancipation Act, revealed to thc astonished
proprietor the complete destruction OF bis
property Nor was this all The negroes in
Jamaica were of course subjected to much
worse treatment than those OF Cuba, and the
terrible statistics of mortality.is the English
island throw into the shade even the formi-
| dable destructiyeness of tho cholera years in
the Spanish colony.
| Those persons, then, who argue from the ex-
ample Of the alleged prcstratlon OF the English
West Indies by emancipation, to the probabili-
| ty Of like results as consequences OF emanci-
patton in Cuba, leave out OF the question one
| Of its most important elements jamaica was
in a decsyed condition, financially and eco
nomically, before the abolition Of Slavery;
Cuba is 10 a prosperous condition, financially
and economically Moreover, the proportion
between the blacks and the whites Of Cuba is
yery different from that which existed between
| the races in the English islands; and this is
also an important element to be taken INTO the
account in estimating the probable results of
emancipation. In Jamaica, for instance, the
capital of the country was chiefly locked up in
the large estates of the great proprietors The
white population, other than the planters, was
few in number and poor in means: 10 Cuba,
the numbers Of the different conditions Of men
are stated BY the best authorities, in round
numbers at 40, 900 for the whites 10000 for
the free blacks. and $50, 900 for the slaves