1. _Its History and Progress_.--The first year of the present century
found here but 750 inhabitants. In 1810 there were 2,540; in 1820,
9,602; in 1830, 24,381; in 1840, 46,382. At present the population is
estimated at 80,000. The coloured population forms one twenty-fifth, or
4 per cent., of the whole. The native Europeans form one-fifth of the
white population.
2. _Its Trade and Commerce_.--The principal trade is in pork. Hence
the nickname of _Porkapolis_. The yearly value of pork packed and
exported is about five millions of dollars, or one million of guineas!
As a proof of the amazing activity which characterizes all the details
of cutting, curing, packing, &c., I have been credibly informed that
two men, in one of the pork-houses, cut up in less than thirteen hours
850 hogs, averaging 300 lbs. each,--two others placing them on the
block for the purpose. All these hogs were weighed singly on scales in
the course of eleven hours. Another hand trimmed the hams, 1,700
pieces, in "Cincinnati style," as fast as they were separated from the
carcases. The hogs were thus cut up and disposed of at the rate of more
than one per minute! And this, I was told, was not much beyond the
ordinary day's work at the pork-houses.
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