The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1898-10-21
BIG Sugar Estates in the Pearl
Of the Antilles"
THE OWNERS AND MANAGERS
Social Feature -Treatr1 ent OF the
Labor-Ration Day and Food.
Whipping.
(The Century,.

CThe Century,.
Coffee plantations, though so beau
ItifuI. have not increased in numbers
of late years; iq fact, many of them
have been changed into sugar estates,
which are more profitable, and render
! the owner socially more important.
| The owner usually resides in Havana,
where his family may enjoy the pleas
ures of cultivated society and have the
luxuries OF city; he therefore en-
ploys a sort of middleman, called a
ajor-domo. TO manage his estate. The
owner wants all the money he can get
to maintain his establishment in Ha-
vana, and the major-domo seeks 10
increase his percentage, and thus the
poor slaves are ground 10 the dust, and
at times the cruelties practiced are
barbarous. The mayOrals are usually
Canary Islanders. a hOt-tempered and
cruel race, and being without the re-
straint OF the presence Of the owner,
are vindictively oppressive, and IN
their inhuman punishments often take
| life The horrors which have been
perpetrated in Cuba by the lash would
disgrace barbarians.
One striking fact attesting the hard
ships Of slave life on a sugar estate
| is that children are very rarely seen
there. Save men in their vigOr are
more profitable, and hence in large
| force of several hundred men only
ln lob
and hardships which these women en-
dure tend TO prevent increase, and the
| few children born usually die in in
fancy from neglect. There is no care
taken to prevent this result, as they
say it is cheaper to supply the losses
| on the plantations by new importa-
| tons than by the rearing OF children.
The climate, fortunately, is so mild
| that the slaves need but little cloth
| ing. and a wide palm hat and cloth
about the loins are their costume in
the fields, the sun seeming to have but
little effect upon their black skins.
Every week there is ration day, on
which they are drawn up in long lines,
and a few pounds of black-looking
beef brought from Buenos Ayres are
thrown at the feet of each, which at
night each cooks to suit himself. In
addition. a coarse meal or small homl-
nv Cbran and alb is boiled, and put in
trough, from which they eat it every
informing with a spoon, paddle, or
their hands as they choose.
The Africans brought into Cuba are
generally from the coast of Mozam-
Ibioue, and are called Locoomees and
lCaravalees. They are large, stout
linen, of logged will, and at times are
livery obstinate.
All these creatures believe implicit
lily in the transmigration of souls, and
THAT if they commit suicide they so
Immediately back to Africa. To check
this evil, when a suicide occurs, the
lmayOral makes each of the slaves
bring bundle of wood and build a
funeral pyre, on which the body Is
burned The ashes are then scattered
in the air by the survivors, in whose
Iopinion the dead negro's soul is thus
prevented from returning to Africa.
In scattering the ashes they sigh audi
bly,, Aha, Aha" as if expressing grief
THAT the soul OF their companion can
no longer go home.
The appearance Of the sugar estates
is the very opposite of the beautiful
coffee plantations. Wide fields of mo-
notonous green stretch themselves to
the horizon on every side, while here
and there the royal palm lifts its tuft-
ed head above the verdant level. The
mayoraIs house, the sugar works, and
: the dingy barracoons for the slaves
: are the only objects TO break the mo-
: notony Of the desoIate scene. When
, first planted, the cane is laid length
wise in trenches or burrows. about
five or six feet apart, and then cover
ed. From each eye Ihere is an eye
to each sound joint a sloOt springs
, up, and sends out others, forming q
t bunch Of canes; and thus the fields
are covered with the most luXurianJ
green.
Every year the crop is cut at the
ground, and the next season another
crop springs up from the roots, which
are called raUtoons. These TatJOons
will yield crops in this way for several
years, the length of time depending
on the miIdness OF the climate. In
Louisiana only three or four crops are
gathered from one planting, while in
Cuba eighteen or twenty are thus OBJ
tanned. The grinding OF the cane be-
gins about the last of October, and
continues until the beginning of the
rainy. season, a period OF nearly six
months. This is the time Of greatest
labor on the estate; and. without in