In Porto Rico, Dubois, a mulatto, paid the penalty of his head for his boldness and patriotism. There were in Cuba, in 1862, two hundred and twenty-one thousand four hundred and seventeen free colored people, and three hundred and sixty-eight thousand five hundred and fifty slaves. In Porto Rico, in the same year, there were two hundred and forty-one thousand and fifteen free colored people, and forty-one thousand seven hundred and thirty-six slaves. When the English troops invaded the Island of Cuba, in 1762, the negroes behaved so well during the siege at Havana, that a large number of them received from Governor Prado’s hands, and in the name of the King, their letters of emancipation, in acknowledgment of their gallantry and good services. CHAPTER XXIX SANTO DOMINGO. Although not strictly a Spanish possession, Santo Domingo may be counted in, with the people already enumerated in the West Indies. Its history is identical with that of Hayti. Forming a part of the same Island, and inhabited by blacks, mulattoes, and whites; and being part of the battle-ground upon which the negroes fought the French, in the revolution which freed the Island from its former masters. Santo Domingo has passed through all the scenes of blood and desolation, only in a milder form, that their neighbors of the other end of the Island have experienced. Santo Domingo has been under Spanish, French, and Haytian rule, and often a republic of her own, the latter of which she now enjoys. It was during the government of Boyer that the Spanish or Dominican part of the Island was united with the French part. In relation to this matter, gross misrepresentations have been made;--it has been urged in defence of the Dominican claim to an independent government, an independence based upon nullification, that they were beaten down, trampled upon, and almost crushed before they would unite with a nation of blacks. The facts are these: at the time of Boyer’s election, the Spanish part of the Island was independent, but its situation was most precarious; the war between Spain and her revolted provinces in South America was at its height, and the Columbian privateers which thronged the Caribbean sea were continually plundering the people along the shores of the Spanish coast; moreover, there were many persons in that division of the Island who were inclined to favor a union with the patriots of South America, but by far the largest number opposed this suggestion. Such was the state of things at the commencement of Boyer’s administration. After maturely reflecting upon the difficulties by which they were surrounded, the feeble government of the Spanish part sought protection in a union with the Haytians, and Boyer was formally solicited by them to grant his consent to the annexation of the Eastern part. This request was complied with, and the Eastern region became a part and parcel of that republic.