Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 3 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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In A Circuit Of Twenty-Five Leagues Round The Havannah The
Caballeria May Be Estimated At Two Or Three Thousand Piastres.
For a
produce* of 32,000 arrobas (or 2000 cases of sugar) the yngenio must
have at least three hundred negroes.
(* There are very few plantations
in the whole island of Cuba capable of furnishing 40,000 arrobas;
among these few are the yngenio of Rio Blanco, or of the Marquess del
Arca, and those belonging to Don Rafael Ofarrel and Dona Felicia
Jaurregui. Sugar-houses are thought to be very considerable that yield
2000 cases annually, or 32,000 arrobas (nearly 368,000 kilogrammes.)
In the French colonies it is generally computed that the third or
fourth part only of the land is allotted for the plantation of food
(bananas, ignames and batates); in the Spanish colonies a greater
surface is lost in pasturage; this is the natural consequence of the
old habits of the haciendas de ganado.) An adult and acclimated slave
is worth from four hundred and fifty to five hundred piastres; a bozal
negro, adult, not acclimated, three hundred and seventy to four
hundred piastres. It is probable that a negro costs annually, in
nourishment, clothing and medicine, forty-five to fifty piastres;
consequently, with the interest of the capital, and deducting the
holidays, more than twenty-two sous per day. The slaves are fed with
tasajo (meat dried in the sun) of Buenos Ayres and Caracas; salt-fish
(bacalao) when the tasajo is too dear; and vegetables (viandas) such
as pumpkins, munatos, batatas, and maize.
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