If we measure prosperity by the enjoyment of life, their condition is an enviable one.
I think no unprejudiced observer can visit the West Indies without seeing the absurdity of expecting the free blacks to work like slaves, as though any inducement but the strongest necessity would ever bring it about.

There are only two causes which can possibly make the blacks industrious, in our sense of the word,--slavery, or a population so crowded as to make labour necessary to supply their wants.
In one house in the Floridan colony we found a _menage_ which was surprising to me, after my experience of the United States.

The father of the family was a white man, a Spaniard, and his wife a black woman.
They received us with the greatest hospitality, and we sat in the porch for a long time, talking to the family.

One or two of the mulatto daughters were very handsome; and there were some visitors, young white men from the neighbouring village, who were apparently come to pay their devoirs to the young ladies.

Such marriages are not uncommon in Cuba; and the climate of the island is not unfavourable for the mixed negro and European race, while to the pure whites it is deadly.