public, serving also as market-place, where the inhabitants, according to Arrate, provided themselves "copiously" with all they wanted. Native writers also dwell upon the good manners of the Havanese, calling them the most polite and social people of Spanish America, much given to imitating the French customs and manners, which were then in vogue at the Spanish court of Madrid, both in their dress and their conversation, as also in the furnishings of their houses and the good table they set their guests. These descriptions of Cuba and Cuban life tally well with those of the foreigners quoted by the author, and indicate the progress made by the island, and especially by Havana, in the sixth and seventh decades of the century. The economic conditions of the island underwent a great change during the sixth decade of the century. Up to this time, the majority of the people had been engaged in agriculture and led a more or less simple, rustic life. The products of her soil were consumed on the spot. Her mines were neglected because the gold and silver which had been discovered in the earlier part of Cuba's history and which had roused the jealousy of other countries were not sufficient in quantity to justify the labor needed for working them. With the increasing number of negro slaves, the possibilities of exploiting all the rich natural resources of the island were multiplied. Among the products that came into prominence was sugar. Not ordinarily consumed, it brought forty three cents a pound. John Atkins, the British surgeon and author of that interesting book of travel in Spanish America referred to in a previous chapter, had declared the sugar of Cuba the best in the world; and it was indeed so considered in the market. It became soon one of the most important articles of Cuba's commerce. The cheapened labor encouraged enterprises which the Spanish would have been physically unable to carry through.