Page:The rising son, or, The antecedents and advancement of the colored race (IA risingsonthe00browrich).pdf/273

 is the religious painter, José Campeche, a mulatto. These are only a few known and acknowledged as colored, but should we search the sources of every family in Cuba and Porto Rico, we are sure that more or less, we could trace the African blood in the greatest number of our most illustrious citizens.

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.