into his debt for time lost that his freedom by purchase, or even after the expiration of the original term, was improbable if not impossible.

As many of the Chinese had become fugitives, instructions for a general enrollment of Chinese were issued December 31, 1868, and again December 13, 1871. By a royal decree of 1870 Chinese who had been discharged after fulfilling the terms of their contract were permitted to remain in the island, whereas prior to this they were obliged to leave or be reindentured.

Between 1853 and 1873 there were shipped from China to Cuba 132,435 Chinese, of whom 3,973-13 per cent died en route or shortly after their arrival. These losses, the large number of fugitives, the willingness of free negroes to work, the immigration of other coolies, the continuation of the slave trade, which appeared to thrive notwithstanding the attempts to stop it, seem to have put a stop to the importation of Chinese, which ceased in 1873.

By a convention between China and Spain, signed at Pekin November 17, 1877, the emigration of Chinese subjects under contract as authorized in Article X of the treaty of 1864 was discontinued, and the emigration of Chinese into Cuba or elsewhere was declared free, Chinese subjects in Cuba to be treated as the subjects of the most. favored nation, thus permitting them to leave the island unless under judicial supervision. It was also agreed on the part of Spain to expatriate at its own expense all Chinese who formerly had literary occupation or an official position in China, and their families, also old men unable to work, and Chinese orphan girls.

Owing to the large percentage of criminals among the Chinese, a decree was issued October 15, 1878, by the captain-general requiring all Chinese whose contracts had been terminated to either recontract or leave the island within two months.

By the census of 1861 the number of Chinese is stated to be 34,834, of whom 57 were women. On December 31, 1877 there were 43,811. Whether this is the maximum number of Chinese in the island at any one period can not be determined.

Their gradual disappearance has been attributed to many causes, among them the suppression of negro slavery, the large number of free black and colored Cubans willing to work, and their superiority as laborers over the Chinese, the low wages paid them, the excessive labor imposed on them, and the frequent insurrections which disturbed. the island. Be this as it may, Chinese immigration had practically ceased in 1873, and the few who now remain in the island are mainly old men, employed as truck gardeners, laundrymen, or day laborers. The small number of women as compared with the number of men resulted probably from restrictions, which in the beginning not only prevented women from leaving China, but from landing in Cuba.

DISCUSSION OF THE POPULATION.

THE TOTAL POPULATION.

The total population of Cuba, including the Isle of Pines and the neighboring keys, was, on October 16, 1899, 1,572,797.1

The latest prior census was taken under Spanish authority in 1887. The total population as returned by that census was 1,631,687. Whether that census was correct may be a matter of discussion, but if incorrect, the number of inhabitants was certainly not overstated.

Comparing the total population of these two censuses, it is seen that the loss in the twelve years intervening amounted to 58,895, or 3.6 per cent of the population in 1887. This loss is attributable to the recent civil war and the reconcentration policy accompanying it, but the figures express only a part of the loss from this cause. Judging from the earlier history of the island and the excess of births over deaths, as shown by the registration records, however imperfect they may be, the population probably increased from 1887 up to the beginning of the war, and at the latter epoch reached a total of little less than 1,800,000. It is probable, therefore, that the direct and indirect losses by the war and the reconcentration policy, including a decrease of births and of immigration and an increase of deaths and of emigration, reached a total not far from 200,000.

The earliest census of Cuba of which there is record was taken in 1774. Others were taken in 1792, 1817, 1827, 1841, 1861, 1877, and 1887. The following table shows the population at each of these successive censuses, with the absolute increase in intervening periods and the average rate of increase per decade:

It will be seen that the increase between 1774 and 1792 was at the average rate of 31 per cent per decade; from 1792 to 1817, twenty-five years, the rate of increase was 34 per cent per decade; in the ten years

1

1All statements of population presented in this volume refer to the organization of the island as it existed at the date of the census, October 16, 1899. Many changes have been made since that date in the number and limits of municipal districts, but it would be obviously impossible to modify the census figures to accord with these changes. Such modifications might be made in the total population, but it would be impossible to carry them through the classifications of the population by sex, age, race, conjugal condition, nativity, etc., since the changes have been made, as a rule, by using the ward as a unit, while the classifications of the population have not been made in terms of this small unit.