The next point to be considered is the population of Cuba. There has been no official census taken since 1887. Then the entire population was estimated at 1,631,687. Of these about one-fifth were natives of Spain, 10,500 were whites of foreign blood, 485,187 were free negroes, about 50,000 were Chinese and the rest native Cubans. It may be interesting to note the percentage of whites and blacks, and to see how the negro element has been decreasing both relatively and absolutely during late years. At the present time the negroes are in all probability not more than one-fourth of the entire population. Per Year. White. Negro. Cent. 1804 234,000 198,000 45.8 1819 239,830 213,203 47. 1830 332,352 423,343 56. 1841 418,291 589,333 58.4 1850 479,490 494,252 50.75 1860 632,797 566,632 47. 1869 797,596 602,215 43. 1877 985,325 492,249 33. 1887 1,102,689 485,188 30.55 The island is divided into six political divisions, each province taking the name of its capital city: Havana, Matanzas, Santa Clara, Puerto Principe, Santiago de Cuba and Pinar del Rio. The figures in the following table give the population by provinces, as well as the density of population (number of inhabitants per square kilometer.) Square Provinces. Inhabitants. Kilometers. Density. Pinar del Rio 225,891 14,967 15.09 Habana 451,928 8,610 52.49 Matanzas 259,578 8,486 30.59 Santa Clara 354,122 23,083 15.34 Puerto Principe 67,789 32,341 2.10 Santiago de Cuba 272,379 35,119 7.76 --------- ------- ----- Totals 1,631,687 122,606 13.31 In Cuba, under Spanish rule, the Roman Catholic is the only religion tolerated by the government. There are no Protestant or Jewish places of worship. A decree promulgated in Madrid in 1892 declares that, while a person who should comply with all other requirements might be permitted to remain on the island, he would not be allowed to advance doctrines at variance with those of the established church. As Catholicism is a state religion, its maintenance is charged to the revenues of the island, and amounts to something like $400,000 a year. Education in Cuba is, or has been, at a very low ebb. That is due, as many other things are, to the wretched, short-sighted policy of Spain, the country which has never completely emerged from the darkness of barbarism. She was afraid to give education to the Cubans, thinking that she could better dominate them in their ignorance. There is a royal university in Havana, and a collegiate institute in each of the six provinces, the number of students in all amounting to nearly three thousand, but these come almost without exception from the ranks of the well-to-do.