Saint-Domingue quickly came to overshadow the east in both wealth and population. Nicknamed the "Pearl of the Antilles," it became the richest colony in the West Indies and one of the richest in the world. Large sugar cane plantations were established and worked by hundreds of thousands of African slaves who were imported to the island.[citation needed] In 1754, the population numbered 14,000 whites, 4,000 free mulattoes and 172,000 negroes.[4]