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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..91acda5 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #50196 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/50196) diff --git a/old/50196-0.txt b/old/50196-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 8a995f6..0000000 --- a/old/50196-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,4372 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Rambles in Cuba, by Anonymous - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license - - -Title: Rambles in Cuba - -Author: Anonymous - -Release Date: October 13, 2015 [EBook #50196] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RAMBLES IN CUBA *** - - - - -Produced by WebRover, Chris Curnow, Chuck Greif and the -Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net -(This file was produced from images generously made -available by The Internet Archive) - - - - - - - - - - Some typographical errors have been corrected; a list follows the - text. Archaic usages in English and incorrect spellings of Spanish - have not been corrected. (note of etext transcriber) - - - - - - [Illustration] - - - - - RAMBLES IN CUBA. - - [Illustration: colophon] - - NEW YORK: - _Carleton, Publisher, Madison Square._ - LONDON: S. LOW, SON & CO. - MDCCCLXX. - - Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1870, by - - GEORGE W. CARLETON, - - In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States - for the Southern District of New York. - - Stereotyped at - THE WOMEN’S PRINTING HOUSE, - Eighth Street and Avenue A, - New York. - - - - - - -CONTENTS. - - - I. - - PAGE - - In the Tropics--First View of Havana--Entering the - Bay--Surrounded--Landed--A Street in Havana--“Queen’s Hotel”--A - Breakfast--The Harbor--The Coolies--The Plaza de Armas--Cuban Women--A - Volante--Fine Avenues--A Priest--Shopping.....7 - - II. - - Celebrating a Victory--General Serrano--A Cuban Sacristan--His View - of Mary Magdalene--Sunday--The Theatre de Tacon--General Serrano’s - Wife--A “Norther”--The Fish Market--Brilliancy of the Fish--A - Venerable Cosmopolite--The Slaves--The Chain Gang--The Cerro--A - Count’s Country-house--No Twilight--Oranges--Polyglot Dinner--Lottery - Ticket.....17 - - III. - - Drive to the Sea-shore--Evening Boat-ride--Splendor of the - Waters--Campo del Marte--Low Mass--The “Madonna”--Beautiful - Children--Church of San Filipo--Sacred Names--The Mount of - Jesus--Corruption of the Clergy--Cuba Misrepresented in Books--Growing - “used to it”--A Creole--Cascarilla--Warm Weather--The Cortina.....30 - - IV. - - Departing Guests--The Varieties--On Board, but not Gone--No - Chimneys--Dog-Pails--Horses’ Tails--Tall Negroes--Ecclesiastical - Torchlight Procession--Watchmen--Leaving Havana--In the - Country--Stopped--Seeking a Breakfast--A Cuban Village--A Primitive - Well--A Peculiar Palm--Guiness--Our Quarters therein.....45 - - V. - - A Palm-grove--A Planter’s Household--Coolies as compared with - Negroes--Anecdotes of Coolies--Robbers--Heterogeneous Dinner--Creole - Politeness.....60 - - VI. - - “Nice pretty House in the Country”--Wrong Side of the Horse--Discovery - in Mental Photography--Visit to the Country-house--Not to be - obtained--Contrast of Palms and Bamboos--The Youth of Tropical - Nature--A Remarkable Phenomenon--House of the Marquis of V---- -- - “Le Armistad”--Burial of an Officer’s Child--A Shock--“Cafetal”--“La - Providencia”--A Sugar Plantation--The “Royal Highway”--A Grand - View.....67 - - VII. - - It Rains--The Effect--No Miserere--Guirappa-seeking--A - Skeleton Horse--B----’s Pantomimes--A Day More--The Bells of - Guiness--Market Day--An Invitation--Another Plantation--A Remarkable - Tree--Palm-Sunday--A Sundayless World--Dreamland--I Didn’t - Smoke--Cushioned Heads.....84 - - VIII. - - Dear old Mr. R---- -- Chess and Whist and Life--Good Friday--A - Religious Procession--The Silence of the Town--The Miserere--To - Matanzas--Company in the Cave--Father M----’s approach to - Matanzas--The Bay--Valley of the Yumuri--The Plaza--The Dominica--The - Ensor House--Easter Sunday--The Paseo--Steamer to Havana--A Night on - Board--“Queen’s Hotel”--Tricks on a Travelling Author--Theft on the - Almanac.....97 - - IX. - - A Discovery for the Benefit of Smugglers--The Steamer Karnak--Adieu, - Cuba!--An English Ship--Nassau--The Negro Custom-officer--English - Hotel--An Ex-President--What the Island is and has--The Negro - Element--The “Eastern Road”--The Air--The Beau Monde--Turtle - Houses.....113 - - X. - - The Military Church--The Zouave Costume--Sunday come again--Twilight - Rambles--The Kirk--Miscegenation--A Private Misery--The Old Fort--Lazy - Negroes--Wrecking--The Town Library--Shopping--The Zouave Band--The - Search for Coolness--The Government House--Silver Key--Buying - Shellwork--Nassau grows Purgatorial--Farewell to Nassau.....124 - - - -[Illustration] - - - - -RAMBLES IN CUBA. - - - - -I. - - _In the Tropics--First View of Havana--Entering the - Bay--Surrounded--Landed--A Street in Havana--“Queen’s Hotel”--A - Breakfast--The Harbor--The Coolies--The Plaza de Armas--Cuban - Women--A Volante--Fine Avenues--A Priest--Shopping._ - - -HAVANA, March 1, 18--. - -The first dawn of day found me already on deck, to assure myself we had -really arrived at the shores of a tropical-world. - -I was not disenchanted. A mist had possessed, like a dream, the blue -quiet of the entire bay, half dissolving its masts and sails, softening -the picturesque battlements of Morro Castle, throwing over the walls, -domes, and spires of the city an air of hoary distance so complete that -I half fancied those solitary palm-trees waved their arms over some city -half-buried in the mirage of deserts, or the pages of some mediæval -romance. - -But the dream departs, and so must we. Stirring music from the two -men-of-war lying at anchor unite with the first sounds from the long, -low barracks close by, and with the signal guns from the Morro, to say -that the sun is risen, and consequently we may go on shore. - -First comes the pilot,--a stout Spaniard in supernaturally white -trousers and inexplicably thick overcoat. He sits under the awning of -his boat, and is rowed by twelve bronze, attenuated creoles, dressed in -wide-mouthed jackets, bare feet, much hair,--a few wearing turbans. - -The steps are lowered; the pilot comes on deck, says good-morning to the -captain, in dislocated English, and goes forward to his duty. - -We make the difficult entrance of the bay, to find ourselves assailed by -every species of small craft. All have awnings, are rowed by negroes, -black to hyperbole (B---- says coal would make a white mark on them), or -by coolies, or creoles; and all are importuning us, with frantic -gestures, imploring or menacing looks, bad Spanish or worse English, to -let them carry us ashore. - -Here come boats laden with oranges, or shells, corals, and sponges -for sale; there a pocket edition of a steamboat brings the -health-officer,--without whose inspection no one can come here, even for -his health,--and presently a more elegantly ornamented boat, with -oarsmen in livery, brings the Captain-General’s aid-de-camp, dressed as -if freshly emerged from a Paris bandbox, and anxiously inquiring if -there is news from Spain. Captain ---- replies that there is a victory -over the Moors, and that he brings important dispatches from the Spanish -minister at Washington, which he must deliver in person. Therewith he -accompanies the officer to the Government House, the bundle of documents -under his arm. - -Meanwhile the passengers are in great perplexity what hotel to go to, -and I am beginning to feel that sense of desolation and isolation so -natural to a stranger in a strange land, when B---- appears, bringing a -gentleman with a kindly English face, and introduces Mr. S----. At once -we are at home and in safe hands. His boat waits for us. In five minutes -we are in the Custom House to get a permit in exchange for our passports -(for both an enormous fee is demanded), and to await the luggage. This -is soon ranged on great tables before us; all the trunks are opened at -once; travellers, servants, Spaniards, negroes, anybody, as well as the -officials, can critically inspect the mysteries of ladies’ linen and -laces. - -The hotel being distant but a block, we walk in the street. A Cuban lady -would as soon think of walking a rope, and would do it as well. - -Do not figure to yourself Broadway: when I talk of a street in Havana, I -mean a fissure; an opening, in extremely straitened circumstances, -between two stone walls, which the Cubans, being diminutive people, are -able to get through. The sidewalks are in proportion. By dint of -cautious and careful attention to the exigencies of my centre of -gravity, I was able much of the time to get a foothold on the outer -edge of them, while my crinoline, repulsed by the wall on one side, -attracted in self-defence Mr. S----, who walked down in the street on -the other. - -We have not even time to glance at the inconceivable novelties on every -hand, for “Queen’s Hotel”, the first English sign we have seen, is here -over the arched gateway. We walk through an open passage leading to the -court, and up the marble steps to an elegant saloon. This hotel, like -every other in the city, is overflowing; so we are obliged to take, for -a few days, “the room behind the curtain;” that is, one end of the -parlor, with only a calico wall between our prospective sleep and the -rows--not groups--of English, Irish, French, but mostly American guests. -I say rows, because the chairs here are always placed in two straight -lines in front of the long open windows, thus bringing their occupants -in a perpetual _vis-à-vis_. - -Meantime, Creole and negro waiters are bringing in breakfast to the -adjoining room, which, is partitioned from the airy courtyard only by -high arches and pillars. Every thing looks temptingly fresh and -clean,--quite the reverse of all we have heard of the filth and bad -cooking of Cuba. Fried fruits in great variety, numerous mosaics from -the animal, vegetable, and I know not what kingdoms of nature, of which -I can only remember the name _picadille_, vary the bill of fare. _Café -au lait_ comes in after breakfast is over. - -_Night._--All day guns have been firing, flags flying from balconies, -windows, and housetops, and endless preparations for a grand -illumination to-night in honor of the victory. - -This afternoon we took the steam ferry across the bay, to get a view of -the harbor decked with its flags, and to see the sugar storehouses on -the other shore. - -This is our first sight of coolies in native costume and usual Cuban -occupation. They look not only small, but weak, and extremely feminine -in face and form. They are mostly naked to the waist, where some sort of -a sash confines short loose trousers, and, in the boys, nothing at all. -The faces, more cheerful and adroit in expression than those of the -negroes, are of a brown reddish hue, as if the light came upon them from -a bright copper sun. - -To-night we walked to the Plaza de Armas. It is filled with trees, four -of them palms, and with blooming flowers, mostly large, brilliant, -odorless, and unknown to me. During all this time, the band played -sweetly from the opera of Lucia de Lammermoor, and swarthy, moustached -and cigared men, and gaudily-dressed and ill-walking ladies, promenaded -round and round the walks, while their carriages waited outside the -gates. - -How opaque are these faces! The outside is well enough, admirably -chiselled and toned, but it does not hint of anything behind. They too -often lack the only beautiful features that can be in a man’s -face,--intellect and sensibility. I wonder where Cuban people keep their -souls! Yet for all that, this is a scene of enchantment,--the intense -light in those stars, buried so deep in the intense blue; the dazzling -brightness of the vertical moon, that makes everybody walk upon his own -shadow; the pure breeze, coming fresh from over the sea; the many lights -from the palace balconies, revealing high, open windows, and through -them gay forms and foreign aspects. - -_Friday, March 2._--This morning stayed in my room to rest, for I have -commenced with too large doses of the tropics. But who can rest in the -midst of thunderings like these,--guns, bands of music, shouts of -rejoicing? I hope the Spaniards will not gain any more victories over -the Moors until I get away from them. - -This evening my first ride in a volante. Cuba is more Spanish than Spain -itself: for here we have the quaint, the characteristic Spain; the Spain -as it was when Don Quixote created it and was created by it; the Spain -isolated; the Spain which Paris and European civilization have little -touched or tainted; the Spain which, in want of religion, has the -absence of progression. But these grotesque volantes! They strike me as -something saved whole out of the general change and wreck of the past. -They consist of two long shafts, with a little low-seated and low-topped -kind of a _tête-à-tête_ at one end, which usually contains three bright, -gauzy clouds, enveloping three plump, dark-eyed ladies in bare head, -neck, and arms,--the youngest and prettiest always between and a little -in front of the other two. At the other end of the shafts is fastened a -minute horse; his tail is carefully braided, and tied with a string to -the left side of the saddle, upon which sits, the postillion, in boots -and livery. Sometimes a second horse is added, upon which the postillion -sits to guide the first; but this is superfluous, and merely, like the -rich mountings of silver on the horse and volante, to display the wealth -of the owner. - -The gait of these horses is peculiar and indescribable. It is not a -trot, nor a pace, nor a canter, but a kind of combination of all, and -disdainful avoidance of each. It is a parody on quadrupedal -peripatetics. They are born to it. It is hereditary. It never entered -into the head--or rather feet--of a Cuban Rozinante, that there are -horses in the world not orthodox in this mode of locomotion. It gives -the rider, too, the most ridiculous motion imaginable,--as if the saddle -were a cushion, but a pin-cushion, with the pins stuck the wrong way. - -Mr. S----, who accompanied us, said, on our return, that, when paying -the _callisero_, he asked him if he had an _escudo_ in change. “Oh, -yes!” said the darkey, and took the coin out of his ear. - -We drove at once past the walls of the city, upon the _Paseo de Isabel -Segunda_ and the _Paseo Tacon_,--said to be the finest avenues in this -hemisphere,--with their five or six rows of magnificent palms, their -smooth, broad roads, statues, fountains, and gardens, and, far in the -distance, the luxurious plains, the graceful green slopes of hills and -mountains, the wonderfully tall, solitary palms and cocoa-trees, -standing like imposing sentinels to keep the voluptuous vegetation from -running riot, and over all the doting sunlight bathing its pet island in -a never-ending tide of fervor. - -No wonder these people love gay hues, paint their houses in the -brightest colors, wear dresses and carry umbrellas dyed in rainbows; for -nature sets the example of brilliancy everywhere. The phosphoric waters -surrounding the island reply to every touch, every question, of oar, -with “colors dipped in heaven.” Even the smallest fishes have, almost -without exception, selected their scaly wardrobes from prismatic -excesses. - -Last evening a game of whist, with a Catholic priest to complete the -party. He is a charming, accomplished Irishman; is more clever at -repartee, and more graceful in compliment, than any man I ever saw. What -infinitely delicate things he said! and all with as much feeling as if -he had learned both flattery and feeling in courts, instead of -catechisms. But he is so extravagantly fond of the game, and scolded -B---- so tempestuously, yet politely, for little mistakes, that I was -thankful to have the indulgent face of Mr. S---- for partner, instead of -that of the charming priest. He deplores the religious condition of -Cuba, and ridicules every thing else in it; shrugs his shoulders -sententiously at all these patriotic ebullitions, and declares that -volantes are just fit to carry chickens in. I even heard him, yesterday, -at breakfast, imitating the sing-song tone of the Cuban priests in their -masses, the comical expression of his face equalling the irresistibly -funny intonations of his voice. - -_Saturday evening, March 3d._--A shopping excursion, with Mr. S---- for -guide and interpreter. In some shops they knew a little French, but less -English. I was obliged to use French for articles of attire which Mr. -S---- could not manage in Spanish, and, among us all--three or four -clerks usually looking on to help and laugh--I think a linguistical hash -was concocted as droll as any vegetable or animal arrangement that comes -on our hotel tables; and that is saying a great deal, when you consider -the oils, peppers, and garlics that are pressed into the service. - -Here merchants do not name the shops after themselves, as Americans do, -but more modestly and tastefully. The shop is christened with a name of -its own, as in Europe. For instance, on one corner you have _Pobre -Diablo_ (Poor Devil), and on the corner opposite _Rico Diablo_ (Rich -Devil); then we have all the saints--and sinners--in the Calendar, so -that the shop can change hands without losing its identity. Shops -containing magnificent goods have often a very humble appearance, -because ladies do not walk the streets, or leave their volantes--those -darling volantes, which are their feet, their couches, their homes, the -body of which they are the soul, and which I have many times seen -standing, much at home, in the corners of their parlors! So all the -goods are kept in great boxes, and carried out to the volantes, where my -lady condescends to sit in state and in attire to inspect, and, without -knowing it, to pay twice the value of all she buys. - -On coming home, we took another turn in the _Plaza de Armas_, where -festivities still continue. We are fortunate to be here at this time, -for it is a continual holiday, and will be so nearly all of next week. -Illuminations of all sorts, fine bands of music, awnings and flags of -red and yellow,--the national colors of Spain,--carriages and volantes -full of richly-dressed people, promenaders in Sunday-costume--all these -are to be met in every street of the city. I have been much amused at -promiscuous Moors in effigy, hanging out of the windows, in the centre -of huge doorways, or dangling from a cord over our heads in the middle -of the street. They are usually in full Moorish costume, and pierced -pathetically through the heart. Our driver flourished his whip -vigorously in passing, mostly ending by a patriotic cut at the devoted -images. - -Close by this promenade we found a refreshing seat and ice-cream in the -famous Dominica. The cream was fruit-flavored and built up pyramidally -in an overgrown wineglass. On the plate under it, lay a long brown coil, -looking like a cigar, and tasting like a baked combination of brown -sugar, well-beaten eggs, and flour. This is designed as a spoon to eat -the towering cream with, and to eat with the towering cream. Many ladies -sit at the tables, but more remain before the doors and windows in their -volantes, receiving sweet liquids from the waiters, and dispensing -sweeter and more liquid glances to the admiring cavaliers gathered -around them. - -[Illustration] - - - -[Illustration] - - - - -II. - - _Celebrating a Victory--General Serrano--a Cuban Sacristan--His - View of Mary Magdalene--Sunday--The Theatre de Tacon--General - Serrano’s Wife--A “Norther”--The Fish Market--Brilliancy of the - Fish--A Venerable Cosmopolite--The Slaves--The Chain Gang--The - Cerro--A Count’s Country-house--No Twilight--Oranges--Polyglot - Dinner--Lottery Ticket._ - - -SUNDAY, March 4th. - -This morning high mass was celebrated, and the _Te Deum_ sung in the -Cathedral. As this is in honor of the victory, all the church -dignitaries and officers of state were in attendance, dressed in their -respective uniforms. First came Captain-General Serrano, whose title in -Spain is Marquis de San Antonio. He is heralded by a grand flourish of -martial music from the band, which had just played the national air of -Spain. He is a rather fine-looking man, with a massive bald head and -penetrating eye; the countenance expressing weight of character, -stirring experiences in life, a consciousness of power and -responsibility. He is said to be the father of two of the children of -the Queen of Spain. Her marble statue has just been erected in one of -the principal squares, and is nightly illuminated to receive the -admiration and homage of the loyal multitude. Following him, as next in -office, comes the Governor of the Island, whose resemblance to Mr. S---- -has often caused them to be mistaken for each other; the latter -sometimes finding honors thrust upon him of which he is wholly -unambitious. Then come all the military, civil, and marine officers, in -gold lace, epaulets, ribbons, stars, and decorations of all devices, the -whole retinue filling the church, except the centre, where a few ladies -in black veils kneel upon bright-colored mats, which servants in livery -bring under their arms and spread for the ladies’ dainty dresses to -cover. A few of these mats are brought by negresses with shawls thrown -over their heads instead of veils. As soon as the mat is spread, the -mistress drops upon it, crossing herself too rapidly and adroitly for -Protestant eyes to follow, all the time saying her prayers and looking -devoutly at the image of the Virgin standing in the centre of the altar. -The negress kneels respectfully upon the bare floor by her side or -behind her. Mr. S---- pointed out to me several counts, marquises, and -other notabilities, refreshing to the republicanism of Yankee optics. -Meanwhile the chancel is filling with bishops, priest, and friars, in -magnificent costumes, and soon the grand _Te Deum_ swells over the -kneeling multitude. Governor, lords, ladies, and soldiers, bowed on the -same floor with the negro slave. It floats on over the floating incense; -then it ascends and seems to pause like a halo around the painted heads -of saints and apostles listening in the ceiling. Just in front of us -knelt Count----, a friend of Mr. S----, leaning upon a diamond-headed -cane, and looking incessantly at his watch, to see how soon the -ceremonies and unaccustomed posture would come to an end. - -After all was over, the sacristan, dressed in a blue woollen gown and -wide embroidered white cambric collar, escorted us over the edifice. Its -external, so quaint and unique, so like a relic of the middle ages, with -towers and walls marred and rent, and crumbling with the rapid effects -of the moist climate rather than of time, did not indicate so much -beauty and art as existed within. It is chiefly in the Moorish style, -the numerous paintings mostly from Rome, and nearly all copies from the -best masters. The sacristan made himself jolly; offered to robe me in -the bishop’s vestments and ornament me with the crosiers, and staffs, -and mitres, and what-nots, in the robing-room. But I, being less -familiar with these sacred emblems than he, felt less contempt, and -declined the honor. One of the paintings, a dark old dilapidated affair -hanging in an ante-room, represents Christ talking earnestly to Mary -Magdalene. She turns her coquettish head from him in a most coquettish -way, and with a look of more affected than real shame and sorrow. The -old fellow pointed it out to us, and, with a significant twinkle, said -to Mr. S----, in Spanish,-- - -“That was Jesus Christ’s _woman_.” - -To Mr. S----’s exclamation of astonishment, he replied,-- - -“Of course he was a man, like the rest of us.” - -We paused before the modest tomb of Columbus, whose remains were -interred in the chancel of the Cathedral many years ago, with respectful -ceremonies and magnificence. His bas-relief in marble is placed in much -the same position as the bust of Shakspeare in the Avon church. From the -Cathedral we passed to the miniature garden separating it from the -seminary. This contains flowers, trees, shrubs, a fountain in the -centre. The sacristan picked me a bouquet of pretty purple and pink -blossoms without odor, bowing to my “_gracias_” most graciously, and -upon receiving a little fee, instead of “begging for two reals more,” as -D---- says he did upon his departure, the old man seemed surprised that -he received anything at all. - -Staid American eyes are struck by the spiritual stolidity of these -people. Favorites of nature, crowned forever by her flowers, inspired by -her fresh and friendly breezes, basking always in her fondest sunlight, -they receive all these gifts in forgetfulness of the giver. It being -Sunday, all kinds of festivities riot in increased abandonment. The -shops, unlike those of most towns in Europe, are open; tailors and -shoemakers are at their work in little dark dens resembling those to -which the mechanics of Naples retreat on rainy days; and, though -forbidden by law, Sunday trade flourishes thriftily, as if Sundays and -religions were an impertinent restriction upon a Cuban’s right to life, -liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. - -_Monday, 5th._--This morning we walked on the _Cortina_ to inhale the -cool sea breezes which there defy the scorching tyranny of even this -sun. How refreshing, after panting through those hot, fuming, dusty, -noisy streets, to sit under that dense shade, upon the marble seats, -with the tired city hidden behind you, and the blue tranquil bay -sleeping in its brightness before! The Morro lies peacefully on the -other side, brown, and dim, and silent as a weary lion. From the -lighthouse of the castle are floating flags of various colors, to me -inexplicable. But Mr. S---- explains. The different shapes and colors -indicate the kind and nationality of any vessel that is descried making -for the port; so that long before even the glasses of watchers in the -city can discern anything, it is known by these flags that preparations -must be made to receive the newcomer; that friends are approaching, or -friends must be left behind; that partings and meetings are to resume -their tyranny in the world. - -_Evening._--The _Theatre de Tacon_, or Opera House, disappointed us. It -is large, airy, and convenient, but plain and bare to a degree. It being -“Commandment Night,”--that is, the Captain-General having signified his -intention of being present, and the rejoicings not yet over--the usual -opera was omitted. First, a national anthem, sung by one hundred -performers. Then followed a Spanish comedy, capitally acted, I could be -sure, though as good as ignorant of the language. Then came some divine -airs from the opera of the Bohemian Girl, sung by Gassier. Her voice is -full, sustained, in some passages, touching. But the _embonpoint_! Alas, -why must women of the poetical South always be so unpoetically fat! Or -why are we not blind to the incongruity of passion and adipose tissue. -These Spaniards are critical and enthusiastic judges of music; never -tolerate a bad thing; applaud and hiss vociferously. - -But to me the attraction of the evening was the lovely marquise, wife of -the Captain-General (sometimes I can understand how a port may be -absolutely panic-struck with a woman’s beauty). A Creole by birth, with -a fortune of several millions, she married Serrano, who became -embassador to France, where he spent the greater part of her wealth in -maintaining the honor of Spain, by a magnificence which is said to have -eclipsed that of the Emperor. So he is sent here to recruit; that is, to -rob the Cubans of a million or two, as his predecessors have done. The -Governor’s box was only two boxes from ours, so that I could distinctly -watch every shade of her expression. La señora looked sad, absent; she -assumes a pensive attitude irresistibly charming in one so lovely and so -necessarily the observed of all observers. Her personal charms are -enough to excite all the enthusiasm the Cubans feel for her, but her -Creole birth renders it unbounded. She wore her dark hair thrown back -from a completely classical head and face; a subdued fire indicating -rare power of passion and suffering burns in her eyes; her nose, mouth, -and chin, are full of sensitive delicacy; in every curve of the -exquisite bust and slender figure, grace achieves a very pathos of -perfection. She was draped in some gauzy fabric floating about her like -a dream; large dark roses on hair, bosom, and dress, the only ornament. -People say she sighs for the life in Paris, and that she was for a long -time the rival of the Empress. Who knows? who can unravel the web of -suffering which stifles out the life and hope from any woman’s heart? -The most comical scenes scarcely wakened a smile on her face; but her -husband, sitting at her right, smiled and patted his white kids with -very accurate and well-timed condescension. The box in which they sat is -gaily hung, the national coat of arms placed over the centre. They went -out between every act to receive guests in an adjoining saloon. We found -more beauty among the women than writers on Cuba had promised us. -Regular, I may say, exquisite, features are very common; and these, -illuminated by dark, deep eyes, with effective and well-manœuvered -glances, make as lovely women as is possible, where intellect and soul -seem to exile themselves behind so much of what elsewhere than on a lady -would be called fat. All are in full, the fullest possible, dress; all -are displaying great eloquence of skill in manipulating their lace and -jewelled fans; all are, or aspire to be, the magnets for the dark, -handsome eyes and well-levelled opera-glasses in the pit below. It was -curious, among all that tumultuous sea of masculine heads in the -parquette, to see not one with fair hair--all black with youth, gray -with manhood, white or bald with age. - -_Tuesday, 6th._--The thermometer has fallen from 90 to 75 degrees. This -is the result of a “norther,” which drives the cold waters of the -Atlantic furiously into our bay; changes the usual moist perspiring -atmosphere into a husky dryness; turns the roads, almost the -paving-stones, into dust; shrivels and browns the foliage in the -country; and with its cold puts the low-necked dresses, pantings, and -fans of our hotel-ladies in their trunks. So we ventured on a walk, even -at high noon, to our favorite _Cortina_, keeping on the shady side, and -stopping at the fish market. It is palpably true that God set his dyed -bow in the heavens; but I did not before know that he also set it in the -floods to reassure us that we should have no more floods,--else where -did these fishes learn this trick of exaggerated brightness? Of all the -myriads ranged on the endlessly long metallic tables, I do not remember -one in quaker costume. Everywhere a fantastic variety of colors and -gradations and combinations of shades. Joseph’s coat would have looked -plain beside them. May not the excessive phosphorescence, latent, or -developed in the native waters of these fishes, explain in some way -their pre-eminence of color? - -_Wednesday, March 7th._--At last we have a room possessing the -fundamental doctrines of a room, viz., four walls of its own. It was -formerly the library of the bishop, who built the palace and lived in it -several years, and is now, by the way, enormously rich, and “they say” -hints not egregiously pious. Our room has an ambitious window, from -which we always see the sky, and nothing else. The door, protected by -fanciful iron gratings, opens upon the dining-room. The floor, of the -usual black and white marble, resembles a chess-board with the squares -placed diagonally. As queen of this chess-board, I am in a fair way to -be checkmated, as well as its king, if the jolly priest continues his -jolly suppers. The rest of the room would suit me well enough, if it -were not so discouragingly convenient. With the exception of a kind of -wooden-tiled ceiling, and one of the beds furnished with stretched -canvass instead of a mattress, you might suppose yourself commonplacely -domiciled in a respectable hotel in Yankeedom. - -_Thursday, 8th._--This morning Mr. S. brought his venerable friend Mr. -R----. He is a Frenchman, though born in Baltimore and educated in -England; has lived indefinitely on the Continent; is waiting to die in -Cuba. He is delightful, thoroughly a cosmopolite, speaks many languages, -knows everything and everybody. Long intimacy with this government, its -officers, and many of the nobility, has made him _au fait_ in the policy -and intrigues as well as customs and characteristics of the island. Lady -Wortly is indebted to him for her anecdotes of Cuba. I have been able to -correct many false impressions received from various writers; for -instance:-- - -The line of separation between Creoles and Spaniards is not distinctly -drawn. The Creoles sympathize in these victorious rejoicings; would be -perfectly satisfied with an allegiance to Spain, if they could have a -voice in their own government. Creole ladies are lighter in color, -better educated, less rigid in forms of etiquette and propriety than the -Spanish. But everywhere the negro blood is so intermixed, that it is -impossible to make a distinct separation between any of the races; a -fact of difficult management in the event of self-government, or any -step towards it. He says there are not fifty families in the island -untainted by African blood. It seems very natural that a dark race -should have less repugnance to a black race than white people have. - -We all know the greater leniency of the laws here, with regard to -slaves, than in the United States. I find, in addition, that there is, -in Cuba, much more indulgence and affection between master and slave, -unless it be on the remote plantations. In our drives, particularly -through the suburbs, I continually see negroes and their Creole -mistresses, dressed equally well, lounging on the balconies, not as -equals, but in a way that indicates affectionate intimacy, and a gayety -too abundant to suggest the true _dolce far niente_. I am told that, -almost without exception, masters here would be willing to free their -slaves in case of remuneration. - -Among the many foolish arrangements of this government, the chain-gang -seems to be a wise one. It is a penitentiary on the highway. My author -on Cuba, says of this chain-gang, “It is Sunday; but no rest for them.” -The truth is, they always rest on Sunday, unless unusual circumstances -occur; as, for instance, a road that must be finished for some great -occasion. - -_Thursday evening, March 9th._--This evening drove to the _Cerro_, three -miles distant, to visit the country house of Count Fernandino, an -intimate friend of Mr. R----, who accompanied us. Contrary to Mr. R----’s -expectations, the family, consisting of the old widowed count, and -his son and daughter-in-law, had not yet left their winter residence in -the city. An old family servant, however, conducted us everywhere, with -equal pride and pleasure. The house is a quaint, irregular structure. -You stumble everywhere upon recesses, balconies, unexpected rooms, and -general surprises. In the drawing-room are two genuine Claude Lorraines, -and two Vernets. I was sorry to be hurried away from them to the -billiard-room; the octagon library, the high, large, open piazza, roofed -with vines and paved with marble, where two hundred dancers find -fantastic toe-room; the curious chambers, busts, statues, curiosities -everywhere. - -But the grounds we only saw from the tower, and without them we have -seen nothing. They are extensive and beautiful; here a rustic bridge -crosses the mysteriously winding brook which branches into a fanciful -bathing-house, hung with pictures of naiads and water-gods; there stands -a little airy temple overhung by doting cypresses, and sacred to its -only inhabitant,--an exquisite marble Venus. Wherever chance leads your -steps, it will be sure to reveal some new beauty of tree, or flower, or -shrub, or arbor, or rustic seat; some avenue looking far out upon the -wonderful campagna. As the short and sudden twilight comes, a lovely -waterfall catches the light coming from the distant Morro, with level, -and distinct, and separate rays over the city spires and roofs, over its -pale, irregularly planted lights and absorbing shadows. Many of the -trees and shrubs are from Europe and Asia. The gardener gave me a spray -from an Australian tree, imported when a small slip, for which the count -paid seven hundred dollars. He also gave me two handfuls of bouquets, -some of them from his own private nursery, by which he makes a hundred -dollars per month, in addition to his wages. Mr. R---- tells me that, in -the last hurricane, most of the trees in these grounds were prostrated; -that he saw the count and countess, when they first discovered the -desolation, crying like children. The great difficulty in gardening here -is to repress vegetation, it being nearly impossible to curb its rank -luxuriance. If left to itself, any garden will in two or three years -become a dense impenetrable tangle of trees, vines, flowers, and weeds. -But it is time to hurry away from all this loveliness. A few minutes ago -we were watching the sunset emparadising both heaven and earth; now, -before we have time for a second sigh at its departure, night has -dropped upon us like a silent and intangible avalanche, with no -interluding, apologistic twilight to warn or to reconcile us. - -_March 10th._--Rose this morning, as usual, at six. So soon as bathed -and dressed, commenced the day in the customary national style; namely, -by a vigorous attack upon a pyramid of huge oranges, which B---- has -just brought in, paying twelve cents for ten. He gives me two-thirds of -each, for the remaining third and the privilege of peeling them. I am -commanded by high authority to devour twelve every morning; until I -achieve that I cannot be said to like oranges, or even to eat them. - -After the nine o’clock breakfast, appeared the white head of Mr. R----, -and, immediately after, a portable set of chess-men, with which he -challenged me to a game. He has not played much for twenty-eight years. -I did not play much before that time; so, not unequally yoked together, -we fought long and desperately; and who do you think won? My modesty -declines to answer. - -Dinner at four, with the usual English courses and bill of fare, except -an interspersion of here and there a Spanish or French dish; for -instance,--garlic, onions, and oil, flavored with a piece of stewed -beef; or, further down the table, the same trio thinly populated with -tripe and potatoes; or, on two cross corners of each table, a square -pile of rice, polished with oil and rouged with juice of tomatoes. Then -many new fruits, as the manna, sapote, and others which I will describe -when I know them better. By five o’clock we have usually manifested -fully our approval of all dinners in general, and of polyglott dinners -in particular. The _café noir_ is then dispatched to make the peace, and -we are ready for the cigar, the drive, or the siesta. I do not quite yet -smoke the cigars myself as I see many Havanese ladies doing; but I have -bought a lottery ticket!--the ninth--and the drawing comes on the 22d -inst. Never say you have been to Havana, unless you have bought a -lottery ticket. They are a native production. - -[Illustration] - - - - -III. - - _Drive to the Sea-shore--Evening Boat-ride--Splendor of the - Waters--Campo del Marte--Low Mass--The “Madonna”--Beautiful - Children--Church of San Filipo--Sacred Names--The Mount of - Jesus--Corruption of the Clergy--Cuba Misrepresented in - Books--Growing “used to it”--A Creole--Cascarilla--Warm - Weather--The Cortina._ - - -SATURDAY, March 11th. - -This morning we drove, or more properly rode, for no one drives in a -volante, to the sea-shore. Although the sun was burning down upon us -with his customary ardor, a “norther” cooled his ferver so effectually -as to make a thick shawl necessary. Thicker boots were indispensable to -save the feet from the sharp points of coral rocks over which we must -walk, upon leaving the volante. With the assistance of our “norther,” a -high tide dashed the waves in furious beauty over the low, unresisting -shore, and with a muffled thunder straight out of the heart of infinity. -I wonder if any familiarity can ever breed a feeling of even -acquaintanceship with this “roar of torn ocean.” Was it not a pretty -scene for us as we stood there,--the graceful, yet frowning Morro, with -its white wave-washed feet, growing from the promontory across the bay, -its fluttering flags foretelling ships like a presentiment, its towers -warming and brightening in the parting smiles of the sun, with a very -human pathos of joy! Far out on the restless sea, more restless ships -toss and tack and veer their sails; clouds, dream thin, and -sunset-souled. How blue they make the sea! How white the dark waves are -painting them! - -Behind us in the west rises a rough, high bluff, flanked by endless -lines of barracks; on the outer wall, a solitary sentinel paces and -watches us; under its shadow stands our waiting volante and the sunburnt -_callisero_. Nothing more is visible except the sky-questioning palms -behind the bluff--far in the south the strange city of this strange -clime. Nothing anywhere is familiar save the quiet, tender sky above; -and that is so blue, so intense, so twice a sky, so profound in its -passion of beauty, that you wonder how sorrow and death can live beneath -it! - -I do not marvel that the people of sun-lands do not greatly aspire, or -labor, or achieve. What need of this threefold weariness, this getting -of spiritual bread by spiritual brain-sweat, when happiness falls down -upon their heads all day long out of the sky; when feeling, which is a -thousand times better than thought, buds and blossoms out of every -sunbeam, and night is but a sudden sigh, a languishing wink of this -regal lover between caresses. - -_Evening._--And the most interesting we have spent in Havana. - -To describe a boat-ride upon the phosphorescent waters of this bay, one -should, alas! have some powers of description. I can only outline it in -a homely way and leave the rest to your imagination. - -All our previous nights have been without twilight. The only apparent -change was in the color, not the quality, of light; the warm gold, -blanching into a colder, purer blaze, fitting the mind and eye for its -enjoyment: it is the quantity not the intensity of daylight. But -to-night the sun dies under the western sea, and an azure which is -neither light nor darkness, fills the void. The stars discover through -it their happy images below, and our throbbing oars--oars no longer, but -living light--rival the pulsations of the stars. - -All this time our “trackless way” is distinctly blazing far behind, -while far below our cutting keel leaves its cicatrice; an antipodean -milky-way, and our prow, like a Yankee boreas, carries its snowcloud in -its teeth. There flies a fish with planetary speed, invisible in air, -but in its native element a mistress “at home.” Even the oscillation of -our little boat causes flashes of softest light in the surrounding air, -by which our faces are brightened to reveal the beautiful peace and -pleasure each feels. - -We lean and look in the water at our side, and see the myriad -scintillations that come and go with ever-changing variety, and then -think, that to each spark is attached an organized body, with -circulating medium and force, with sensations more or less acute; and -that in this bay of some three square miles, is a galaxy of worlds; -every globule a world of itself, inhabited by perfect and sentient -beings, each with its hopes, fears, and perhaps its loves and hates, and -therefore sorrows; and then we remember that the whole tropical waters -which girdle the globe are equally crowded with life. - -_Saturday, 11th._--The rejoicings profess to have reached a patriotic -climax,--a grand display of all the troops on the island, which is twice -the number of the whole military force of the United States. With the -only vacant seat in our English carriage filled at last by our venerable -friend Mr. N----, we drove out to the Campo del Marte. We found it -difficult and delightful, steering our way through the archipelago of -carriages and volantes filled with ladies in full ball costume, many of -the faces and figures striking, a few very handsome; so that with -well-rewarded patience and time, we obtained a good position. - -The poverty of republican eyes is imbibantly observant of all -appurtenances of royalty. First dashes past the knighted -Governor-General, doffing cap and plume, and bowing with great dignity -to the bowing multitude. Following are body-guard and staff, counts, -marquises, and other nobility in uniform, crosses and decorations of -honor. - -The gentlemen informed me that the troops marched well. I am sure the -regiments of negroes thought so, and enjoyed the supposition. We -returned home to whist and delightful conversation on all things new and -old, followed by the most cordial imaginable of good-nights and -hand-shakings. - -_Sunday._--Early this morning to a Jesuit mass--low mass, and so very -low that it could not be heard at all. Two priests only officiated, both -meek-faced, keeping “custody of eyes;” one of them with the most -remarkable intellectual and characteristic head I ever saw, the other -with the devoutest, purest face. All the devotees, mostly women and -girls, and liveried servants, knelt upon mats placed over the marble -floor. All the ladies were gracefully arrayed in black lace Spanish -veils, which, like moonlight on the Coliseum, “leaves that beautiful -which still was so, and makes that which was not.” They were repeating -their prayers; those who could read, from books, those who could not, -from memory; and all the time the young and pretty ones were rolling -their dark fascinating eyes around upon my escort of gentlemen, except -when the moment came for crossing themselves and looking devoutly -towards an image of the Virgin execrably done in wax. - -I find the only way to extract good instead of disgust from scenes like -this, is to ignore the wax and the tawdry ornaments, and to remember -only the divinely sweet woman who loved Christ as I fear none of us have -loved him; who suffered for him as none of us shall be honored by -suffering for him; the only woman who united to the virgin’s charm the -mother’s hallowing rapture; the woman whom God loved more than all -earthly women, making her the mother of his son. You must think of the -sanctity she has given to all motherhood. You must remember the -elevation and delicacy she has given to the love of many pure and wise -priests, who through the dark centuries loved no woman but her; who -centred in her the love that might not be human nor for the human. Think -of all this, and then see if you can wonder that the devout imaginations -of the learned as well as of the ignorant Romanist have found a female -element in the Trinity, and in worshipping the Father and Son have also -most tenderly adored her who was a link between them; her through whom -God is no longer an avenging God, and through whom Christ longs and -makes ready for us. - -The church, to my great surprise, though belonging to the Jesuits, -displays no wealth and no taste; forlornly ugly pictures, clumsy tawdry -flowers, and atrocious statues everywhere. Many things, however, were -interesting enough to repay us for the trouble of getting up so early -and walking so far. - -Nothing could surpass the extremely graceful attitude of the ladies, or -the universal beauty of the children, especially of the boys. How -exquisitely regular and clear cut are their features! how transparent -their large, soft, black eyes! how intelligent their whole expression! I -am told that all Spanish boys and girls are remarkably precocious. At -thirteen they promise to be geniuses, sing, paint, even write poetry -that would not only startle a Northern mother, but frighten her with a -certainty of the imminent dissolution of her cherub. After that age the -tropical child remains savingly in _statu quo_, if he does not -perceptibly degenerate. - -Having still twenty minutes before breakfast, we drove quickly to the -fashionable church of San Filipo. Found it having more pretension than -the Jesuit (“Belen”) church, but not more taste. Abundance of tinsel, -plenty of yellowed grotesque, semi-arabesque carvings on tinselled -columns and what-not, but no beauty, unless, perchance, under the happy -veil of some worshipping angel. - -_Sunday evening._--Is it a question of piety, or of taste, that so many -places have holy names? “Jesus dil monto” “Jesus Maria,” “Las dace -Apostles;” the latter being a battery of guns under the Morro, intended -to convert enemies’ ships into enemies’ wrecks--a highly apostolic mode -of conversion. - -To end our Sabbath we ascended the Mount of Jesus and walked in a garden -of cocoa-trees supposed to occupy relatively the position of Gethsemane. - -Really the straight, tall lines of boles with their parachute tops, in a -rapidly diminishing light, do produce a very novel impression--half -rural, half architectural. One may fancy aisles and naves, transepts and -choirs; the roofs, however, are real, made of leaves fourteen feet long, -drooping like the mitres of a groin, and gothicizing a roof through -which a few slender green rays penetrate--enough to reveal form without -detail. But no marble gives sound to our footsteps; grass, poor a cow -would say, but grass, for a carpet, and old cocoa-nuts to stumble over, -bring us down to earth again. Here we are rewarded by some pretty -flowers, which are the only beauties in this land of beauty who can -wander “in maiden’s meditation, fancy free.” It is an effort to mount -the Pisgah before us, but we must on to the very top, for our ankles are -goaded by living spurs that lie lurking in the grass. - -But we are spaciously rewarded, for there lies Havana in its whole -extent before us; the level line of sea behind it; the Morro guarding -it; the Principe fort threatening it; the bay reflecting it and the -setting sun gilding it; palms on every hand outline their greens against -the intensely azure sky behind, and white walls glance out of the -luxuriant foliage, proud that humanity has a home within them. Low-like -mounds fill up the background like priests with shaven crowns, but all -with beauteous vestments sweeping to their feet, running over the plains -between them, up the adjacent ones, round the next--an interminable -reticulation of life and loveliness. The embroidery on God’s footstool -is here wrought with a lavish and loving hand. - -Wonderful tropics! The normal home of man; the only soil and sun in -which could grow the fair and fatal tree of knowledge or of life. - -No sinister cold, no smoke-tarnished atmosphere, no death-bearing fogs, -no fierce animal energy, no gross crimes; all is sunny and perpetual -youth. Eden unquestionably was not more than twenty-three or thirty -degrees from the equator. But the intermittent flash of the light in the -tower of the Morro startles every half minute the sudden nightfall, and -we hasten to return, in love with nature, and reconciled to ourselves. - -_Monday, March 13th._--This morning came Mr. R----, bringing an -unexpected armful of books, with which we are to equip ourselves for a -visit to the country, where we are making arrangements to go. Commenced -the morning by chess, in which I am now habitually ruined, and ended, as -usual, by a long conversation, in which I am listener-in-chief, an -interested if not a brilliant or eloquent one. - -Mr. R---- is a Romanist, but I learn from him more of the corruption of -the clergy of the island than an uninitiated Protestant or Romanist -either could invent. Priests in the country are badly salaried, often -unable to get enough to pay their cooking and washing. So they become -entangled in a peculiar kind of reciprocity with some negress or -quadroon, who in time comes to live openly with them, and is recognized, -and not unfrequently respected and acknowledged socially, as the mother -of their large families. I find residents here indignant at visitors who -come and skip over the surface of the country, necessarily, if they -write at all, as superficial as false and absurd. Madame ----’s book is -said to be a tissue of falsehoods, as well as that of D----, which I had -supposed photographic. Every one, in fact, but Humboldt, has assumed a -knowledge to hide ignorance. Cuba seems to be the least abused because -least investigated country which has got into books. - -Mr. R---- accepted our invitation to dinner. Like all Frenchmen, he -prefers claret to other wines, and, like all old men who wish to live -long, eats nothing. - -_Thursday, 15th._--Who can wonder that sailors never tire of seeing the -sea. With what a loyal instinct the old retired captain seeks the -shelter of some wave-worn cliff where the familiar spray may kiss his -weather-beaten cheek, and the cry of the deep be the lullaby of his last -sleep. Primeval forests want light; prairies are “stale and flat” if not -“unprofitable;” mountain ranges, those petrified waves of earth, are -groups of individuals: but ocean is one, an adequate expression of -extent illimitable, of bulk immeasurable, of depth unfathomable, of -force irresistible, of life everlasting. It is the eternity of time. But -here in Cuba, where so much is transitory and fugitive, where the -accumulation of wealth to expend elsewhere is the aim of all, the -æsthetic claims of the sea are unregarded. The backs of the houses are -universally turned towards it. The Cubans smother palaces in narrow -streets, rejecting the air which has learned purity and inspiration from -the sea, for siroccos of dust and heat. Ugly wharves abound, so do -batteries to make might right. It is only in refinement without -degeneracy, in taste without tinsel, in wealth without avarice, that you -find the loving adornment of ocean’s shores. - -We rode, while thinking and saying these things, to Chomero, a little -bay with little cottages on its little sandy shore; little shrubs, -little shells, and little life. A square fort guards it in sinister -silence; a large railway station promises to turn the little Chomero -into the large suburban Carmelo, and straight streets, straight avenues, -and right angles threaten to make it as ugly as the tasteless plans of -architects could devise. - -But deliciously sweet is the air; deliciously sweet the new old story -of the sea, and deliciously sweet the _mareschino_ with which we flavor -our _aqua pura_. All things return to their original starting point. -Existence is a rounding of circles. The sun, a tired prodigal, returns -to the parent arms of the horizon; like Socrates, his last act is to -bathe, which he does in the returning tide, and he returns to _el Hotel -de la Reina_, there to chat with Father, C---- or play with Señor R----, -or, better still, to lounge on the sofas and fan our tropical thoughts -into tropical dreams. - -_Saturday, 17th._--At last our days are come to have a family -resemblance. I must even confess to a kind of monotony, a -stereotypedness, in their lineaments. I grow to look upon all these -extravagant novelties with _sang froid_, to ride through the streets -reclining in my volante with rarely being amused, and never startled, -that Spanish gentlemen sitting against the walls in rows, or standing at -the corners in groups, one and all, smile and bow, as if I were an old -friend. I am not a bit shocked to see negro and Creole and Spanish -little boys standing in the doors or running about at play with more -backs than shirts--in short, as innocent of clothing as their -great-greatest-grandpapa was when, overtaken by that unfortunate -after-dinner nap, and the angel performed the delicate surgical -operation of taking the still crooked rib from his side, and was not -obliged to waken him by unbuttoning his jacket. I can promenade the -balcony of our hotel without any uncomfortable nervousness because all -the upper and under clerks in the store opposite collect at once to -gape and criticize and express in some way the admiration a Cuban -gentleman is conscientiously bound to feel whenever he sees a wonder. I -can see the lottery venders thrust their tickets into my hand at the -corner of every street when going to church, in all public places and -most private ones, without one puritanical spasm. I am obliged to find -Sunday turned into a general holiday without thinking an earthquake is -coming to-morrow, and to hear the ship’s bell and car’s whistle mingling -with the church bell without expecting a consequent and immediate -steam-boiler explosion. I have even ceased wondering at this eternity of -sunshine, and find it is silly to keep expecting blindness from its -piercing light. I forgot to inquire why it cannot scald these -deliciously cool breezes, or why these strong airs, always blowing upon -the sunshine, as if it were a great plateful of hot gumbo soup, cannot -manage to cool it. - -If it be true that many microscopic beings which are vegetables in the -shade become ripened into animals in the sun, then what happens to -animals that live in the sun as much as we do? what are we to ripen to? -Angels naturally--but sadly sunburnt. - -This evening, my first acquaintance with a Creole, and one who is not -only willing, but proud, to own it. He speaks English hesitatingly and -solves a difficult riddle--it _is_ possible for a Creole countenance to -express, not only intellectuality, but genius, even spirituality. How -polite are these people! Being an amateur artist, he invited me -to-morrow to his studio; offered at once to contribute to my -portefolio, and to lend any pictures I may choose to copy while on the -island. Conversation turning upon the famous cascarilla, a powder made -of eggshells, and universally used on the skin by these ladies to make -black white, all the gentlemen, strange to say, advocated its use. Upon -this I expressed an intention of getting some immediately and using it -liberally. Señor at once replied, “Oh, I shall be only too happy to send -it to you!” and sure enough, after he left, a beautifully ornamented box -of the ornament, found itself on my dressing-table. - -You must never express a particular admiration for any thing one of -these people possesses, or he will at once present it to you, from his -plantation to his pipe; and the latter is the surer test of his -politeness. The other day I asked Mr. R---- where I could find a -bookstore keeping some little views of Havana. The same evening came a -great book containing all I wished, beautifully executed. Last evening -on the _Cortena_, he took out a little microscope to examine some -parasitic flowers I had gathered from the walls of the Cathedral (all -the old walls of buildings are covered with such plants). I could not -help exclaiming at the great power and convenience of the little -instrument, when, what should come this morning but Mr. R---- with a -bright new microscope in his hand, begging I would do him the favor to -accept it! - -With all our interest in this Creole, I could not help a sensation of -relief, when he rose to bid us good-night. It is so difficult talking -with a foreigner who can only comprehend your simplest words, which -express your simplest ideas. You feel like a child talking to a child, -knowing all the time that you are without the innocence or beauty of -children. And this repression of thought, instead of repressing the -voice, gives one an unconquerable instinct to raise it to its highest -pitch. One seems to think that an immense quantity of sound will hide an -immense lack of sense; that they do not understand because they do not -hear; that one is not so dumb as _they_ are deaf. - -_Sunday, March 18th._--For the first time the heat is oppressive, -enervating. We did not even summon courage for the early mass, the only -religious service in a city which can boast one distinguishing -peculiarity--it practises as much as it preaches, for it almost never -preaches at all. What is better than the _Cortina_ when you talk of -fresh airs, and fresh shade, and fresh silence? So for the _Cortina_ we -set out, stopping by the way at the Cathedral. Here we find half a dozen -sincere-looking devotees kneeling in different parts of the quaint, -cool, serene temple; humble their birth, no doubt, as well as posture, -for they kneel upon the bare marble, with no mat and no appearance of -discomfort. When prayers are said and crossing done, they depart, silent -and unnoticed as they enter; and we, with only the gratification of -curiosity where worship should be, do the same. - -Arrived at the promenade, we find an insinuating mist and an unusual -event, a south wind, legitimatizing all this languor. Everybody in -Havana pouts when the wind hails from the equator, and shivers when it -comes out of a temperate zone. Both changes are so slight that a -Northerner, accustomed as he is to the fiercely rapid changes at home, -observes nothing different from usual. The ordinary wind here, which -baffles all the scorching proclivities of this sunshine; which comes -fresh and unworn over the salt and laboring seas; which makes this -island an Eden of never-failing green,--this strong and pure, and -gentle, as all that is strong should be, angel of mercy, is always an -east wind. I am glad that I came to Havana to learn that the sole errand -of an east wind in the world is not to manufacture influenzas, -consumptions, gout-twinges, blue devils, and growlery-mongers. - -To-night a long conversation with Father C---- who has just returned from -an expedition to the interior for the purpose of collecting -contributions for “me chur-r-r-rch” in Ireland. We talked of the -Eucharist, of confessions, of indulgences, of rites and popes; in half -an hour I learned more of Romanism from a Romanist’s point of view, than -in a liberal share of twenty-eight years of my former life. He confessed -that the corruptions of the church forced on the Reformation. I am sure -the wary priest rather more than half expected to convert me, and I -amused myself down in my sleeve at his amiable hallucination, while at -the same time I reflected how surely the fogs of prejudice and -sectarianism clear away before the inevitably advancing sun of -knowledge. - -[Illustration] - - - - -IV. - - _Departing Guests--The Varieties--On Board, but not Gone--No - Chimneys--Dog-Pails--Horses’ Tails--Tall Negroes--Ecclesiastical - Torch-light Procession--Watchmen--Leaving Havana--In the - Country--Stopped--Seeking a Breakfast--A Cuban Village--A Primitive - Well--A Peculiar Palm--Guiness--Our Quarters Therein._ - - -MONDAY, March 19th. - -One by one, our guests have left the hotel. The swarthy Portuguese -gentleman whose acquaintance we made on shipboard, and who told us so -much of the interiors of Asia and Africa, where he has spent much time. -I am meditating the purchase of a camel to take home with me, to ride -for health and pleasure. Think of the panic of the unsophisticated -people of E---- at seeing a genuine live dromedary, philosophically -promenading their streets with the valley on his back populated by your -rejoicing and philosophical humble servant. Soon after this departure -went the handsome and villainous-looking Russian, whom we suspect to -have been a serf, because he told B---- one evening a long story of his -feats and difficulties on leaving Russia without a passport. He has -travelled all over the world, but in intellect will perpetually live, -and irremediably die, a serf. The young, honest-eyed Scotchman, too, -who played operas for me all one morning with so much skill and -amiability, who has had his throat ventilated by three bullets in three -battles, and is travelling--not consequently--for health, is gone to New -Orleans. The diamond-labelled widow from Boston, worth an undoubted -million, is gone to Matanzas, accompanied by her much-smiling daughter, -and the daughter’s blue-nosed governess. The latter should always be -seen with the ears, for she talked well. The gentleman with consumption -is gone from the adjoining room, so that my nights are no longer made -hideous by his sepulchral cough. He goes to the south of France--so -expect his wife and daughter--I expect to an ocean grave. Also is -departed the dandy from New York, having, like the beast in Daniel’s -vision, a mouth speaking great things, but differing from that other -biblical beast, the Israelites’ calf, in that the ancient calf was -_made_ of ornaments, while this modern one only _wears_ them. The -aldermanic Englishman, with ruddy wife, are gone like a comfort from the -other end of the table, leaving us to their roast beef and ale. The -pretty school-girl and incipient belle from Baltimore, has relieved the -parlor atmosphere of the perfumery of her beaux, and the piano of -gymnastic or belligerent manipulations extraordinary, but not, alas! -unheard of. Indeed, we are left almost alone, for mine hostess declares -she is losing money at four dollars per day in gold. Cannot afford it; -disinclines any longer to endure the imposition of servants and -shopmen--retires to the United States in disgust. Meanwhile the -chamber-maid, having taken a fancy to me, opens for my use the large -parlor in front of my bedroom, where I receive friends and reign supreme -in a room spacious and lofty enough for a church, and retaining all the -odor of sanctity left in it by the Bishop. - -This evening we are to pack our trunks, to put on travelling attire, to -say good-by to our friends, to fee the servants who have served us, and -to take a volante for the steamer to Matanzas; but to say we leave here -to-night for Matanzas, would be a choice and especial piece of -presumption. I will tell you why. Last Saturday evening, we rehearsed -all the above-mentioned performance. Our Havanese friends came to say -adieus. Mr. P---- so full of regrets and kind speeches. Mr. M---- -sitting by the parlor table, so long writing letters of introduction, -that we did not ask for, to his friends in Matanzas, and then hurrying -down to see that the state-rooms we had secured in the morning were all -right, and to introduce us to the captain. Mr. R---- accepted B----’s -invitation to take a seat in my volante. These public volantes never -hold more than two, and consequently, B---- paid for his amiability by -walking. Nothing doubting, we arrived at the steaming steamer; luggage -is unfastened in great haste; we quickly alight, when, forsooth, the -steamer does not particularly go to-night, not indeed until Monday next. -The wind, it is said, took it in its head this morning to blow a -suggestion breath for an hour; a prophetic flash of lightning was -supposed to have been seen about four o’clock. Every body takes it as a -matter of course, and I am obliged to smother my vexation behind an -appearance of amiability. - -A few more novelties, before going, I must bequeathe to you and to my -memory, putting them in the hands of paper and ink for my safe -keeping--then we will have done for the present with Havana. Did you -ever think of one curious result of being really a city of the sun, -viz., it is a city without chimneys. All the box stoves, and air-tight -stoves, and best parlor ditto, were cast, if at all, in the foundry of -Jupiter; all the steam and hot-air furnaces, instead of being interred -in the cellars, are placed in the topmost garret of all garrets; the -great vanity of inventions and ornaments in the shape of fireplaces, -grates with their artistic devices, their pretty screens and shades, and -the glowing faces and toasting feet before them. All these are snugly -built in an architectural niche not made with hands, while their fires -are kindled and formed not by the lungs of bellowses, but by the -early-rising wings of enterprising angels. Ever since making this -discovery I feel quite philosophically inclined to regard the fact that -every man, or at any rate every man and a half you meet, carries his -household fire about with him, using a cigar for fuel, and his devoted -nose for a chimney. - -Last night, while passing some highly respectable shops, we saw a pail -of water standing in the door of each. B---- said, “Can you guess what -those are for?” Of course I could not. He replied, “The law commands -them to be provided in every house at certain seasons, so that all dogs -may drink when they wish, and thus diminish the danger of hydrophobia.” - -It is not less curious that horses’ tails are braided by law, a fine -following each omission. For aught I know, the law dictates the member -of strands in the braid; that it must be done by a governmental barber, -greased as if it were human, and always tied, as it is, to the left side -of the saddle. This hen-hussy government also directs at what precise -age children must cease to be models for statues and become the victims -of tailors and dress-makers. - -I wonder nobody seems to have observed how remarkably tall the larger -number of these negroes are. The women particularly are not only tall -and erect, but magnificent in outline, having an eye to which their -dresses are exceedingly low in the neck and short in the sleeves. They -are absolutely statuesque. The Spanish and Creole ladies look dumpish, I -might say dwarfish, beside them. - -But the drawback upon all goings forward, the voluminous reiteration of -feminine folking, must be performed; and we must again test the frailty -of tropical locomotive veracity and steamboat protestations. - -_Tuesday, 20th._--We simply didn’t go last night because the steamer -didn’t; reason not yet transpired. I am becoming so used to these -failures of plans and probabilities, that I think nothing would -disappoint me now, but a want of disappointment. However, I was not -sorry that this last detention gave me an opportunity to witness a very -interesting spectacle. A torchlight procession of priests and friars -and mourners and friends, to say mass over a dying person. We were -first drawn to the balcony by the incessant singing of a peculiarly -toned bell, and then we saw them slowly and solemnly marching far below -us, down the dark and narrow street, heralded by the strange bell in the -hands of one of the novices, and going with devout faith in its absolute -efficacy to shrive a human soul--its last earthly help in its last -earthly extremity. The effect was much like that of the _Misericordia_ -in the cities of Italy, except that you miss here the quaintness and -impressiveness of the black or white dominos. I did not care for the -superstition; I only felt a profound awe, a solemn sense of mystery and -fitness; I only marvelled that people can ever scorn or ridicule any -faith that is sincere in heart. - -At half-past ten we retired, just as the watchman was commencing his -round of duty. Few things are more novel to us than this. The curious -whistle is a kind of prelude to the monotonous tone with which he, every -half-hour, slowly pacing up and down, lantern and spear in hand, -announces the hour of the night and the state of the weather. He keeps a -sharp lookout on the weather as well as other vagrants, and clearly -feels a responsibility in the matter. I have learned all the words he -uses to tell us that the moon is shining, or clouds are obscuring it; if -it is cold enough to encourage an extra blanket, or if a norther or -_sérocco_ is getting the upper hand of things; which hour is giving up -the ghost, or which is like a soul “rolling from out the vast.” But I -can never comprehend what he says, the words are so drawled and twisted -to suit the tune, which my English ears understand to be musical and not -unsuited to a lullaby, and at the same time so many other watchmen in -neighboring streets are mingling their echoes and refrains. - -_Guiness, Wednesday, March 21st._--At last! With the earliest dawning of -the dawn we found ourselves actually leaving Havana, and that not by the -boat, which it had become our turn to disappoint. How tired the watchmen -looked as we passed them! lantern lights burnt out, long ancient looking -spears carried listlessly by their sides, the guardianship of the -weather left in the hands of the coming Apollo. The busy markets are -already open; shopmen unfastening shutters; life beginning to awake and -throb through the great body of Havana. Its soul, whether great or -small, is scarcely yet awakened into any circulation through the -channels of art or literature. The bells are ringing, drums beating, and -guns firing, for it is five o’clock. The day is up betimes. The -_morning_ and _evening_ here are the first day, and every day. Noon is -but a shorter panting, gilded, interluding night, when all sleep who -can, and all long for sleep who cannot. But the carriage stops in the -midst of an articulating human mass. How it hurries and bustles! how -many faces it has, and every one a different variety of brown or a new -invention in the shades of black. - -Presently the gentlemen come with tickets, separate ones for baggage and -passage, and obtained with much difficulty and circumlocution, as the -rule is that baggage must be sent the night before--which ours was not. -No sooner are we settled in the cool cane seats than--will you believe -it?--a whistle, the modern screech of a steam-whistle, is heard, and we -start precisely punctual to the minute. Therefore, I assert, and will -maintain that it is conceivable, it is not contrary to all the laws of -nature, it is possible for a promise to be kept this side the Tropic of -Cancer. But how am I to become reconciled to all this comfort and speed, -this steam-engine, this trail insinuating itself so complacently through -these celestial plains, snorting and blowing and smoking through these -orange-groves, past these waving royal palms, in the midst of sights and -sounds such as lulled Eve into slumber upon the bridal night of her -birth! O insatiate Yankeedom! with all the lurid sins you have to answer -for, will not this alone secure you a life lease in Purgatory? But I -have no time for unpatriotic indignation. Fields of belligerent looking -pineapples; orchards of bananas twenty feet high, with immense leaves -all torn into rags by the wind; groves of cocoa-nuts that look like -sentimental palms in delicate health, with the green clustered fruit -hanging round their necks like an affectionate necklace; cacti, the -prickly pear growing fifteen feet high, and fences of the kinds I have -cultivated in pots with so much care; vegetables, familiar and -unfamiliar, for the Havana market; everywhere trees of gayest plumage, -the blossoms so large and brilliant, that you grow incredulous and -wonder if your eyes are not become telescopic. As you approach the -interior, immense corn-fields greet you with their sweetened breath, -looking like corn-fields of the Southern States grown delicate and pale -from close confinement, a thickened growth that excludes the air. - -At nine o’clock the train stops at a village named Bejucal. But for some -reason it does not start again. B---- inquires to find we are to remain -three hours--some failure in the engine. So we do what nobody else does, -walk half a mile under our umbrellas to examine the town and get a -breakfast. See if you do not think this a droll sight for American eyes. -A village containing over a thousand inhabitants, every house in it, -except the church, of one high story, roofed with large red earthen -tiles, built of stone covered with clay or plaster, and painted in all -possible colors that are bright. Not a pane of glass visible, all the -immense windows being only grated and then filled with idle, staring -women and naked children. Every house opens directly upon the sidewalk; -and in the whole extent of streets, gardens, and courtyards, here in -this land of miraculous vegetation, not a tree to be seen. But I have no -eyes or curiosity left. I am one huge unreconciled appetite. - -We stop at a house with larger rooms, larger windows, and larger -basements than the rest; where rows of breakfast-tables, each with a -caster in the centre and a tall black wine-bottle on either side, -promise a drop, possibly a mouthful, of comfort to the perishing inner -woman. But the tablecloths! Even my great hunger hasn’t stomach for -them all, overlaid and underlaid as they are - - “With food-prints that perhaps another, - Sitting o’er their various stain, - A forlorn and famished sister - Seeing still might eat again.” - -Not so I. Consequently a private room is ordered with a breakfast in it, -and while preparing to fill up the vaccuum, not of the within, we sally -out for a reconnoitre. Just at the back door, we stumble upon--you do -not guess?--a veritable theatre,--boxes, galleries, pit, stage with -decorations for scenes, painted curtains, trap-door opening upon the -prompter’s den, and niches properly placed for footlights. But the boxes -are only stalls with rough board partitions, the seats are wooden -benches, the galleries are an upper loft still retaining remnants of -former hay, the floor is of mother earth unmodified by pavement or -broom, and in fact we have every evidence that this temple is devoted to -horses and oxen by day, and to the muse of the histrionic art by night. -But this aching void which nature has the good sense to abhor! “Will -breakfast never be ready? It is eleven o’clock! I wish I hadn’t seen the -tablecloths.” Ah, here comes an agile quadroon announcing it in Spanish, -which does not get itself translated. We go to a little bedroom from -which a cot has been hastily ejected, and sit down to a table loaded -with fresh fruits of great variety and abundance, in addition to the -usual bountiful breakfast of the country, and, best of all, clean linen -under them. You are right: we revel, we luxuriate, and to this hour I -sit and think of that breakfast with a gastronomic satisfaction none the -less because we paid five dollars for it. We are now ready for any -adventure at the disposal of the remaining hour, and set out for the -ruins of an old castle said to have been built by the Marquis de San -Phillippi and honored by the presence of King Ferdinand VII. at a ball, -while he was _incognito_ in this country. Now the walls are crumbling to -dust; one or two window-shutters flap disconsolately in the wind, -parasitic plants grow over the mouldering arches where a dead past -sleeps its sleeps and dreams its dreams. - -The church, Moorish in architecture, is just across the Plaza, and -invites, but the sun threatens, and we decide for a tempting grove near -the railway station. - -As we walk over the very clean pavement, stared at by wondering groups -of villagers, a woman rushes up to us breathlessly explaining that she -knows where the English person who lives here is to be found, and will -be very willing to show us the way. - -Mr. S---- thanks her, with the assurance that we are only waiting for -the train; and we soon find ourselves reclining beatifically under -deliciously breathing trees, whose shadows are thick as night with -darkness. - -I must not forget to mention a primitive kind of well we saw when again -_en route_. It was like an ordinary well: an old white horse walking -away from it when the bucket was full and backing to it after it was -emptied into the cask on the cart, and must go down for more. - -We came also for the first time upon a peculiar species of palm, -distinguishable from the royal palm only by an enormous swelling half -way up the trunk. I pronounced them dropsical. B---- was more brilliant, -declaring they resembled a snake, that had fallen into the misfortune of -swallowing a toad,--an idea which Mr. S---- developed in a drawing which -I copied and am saving to show you. Very many of these singular trees -grow crookedly--vegetable leaning towers suggesting the idea that a -variation from the perpendicular may be peculiarly incident to trees as -well as tropical towers and morality. - -It is an interesting fact that instead of undressing with the indelicate -precipitancy of our trees at home, the palm-tree drops only one leaf -every lunar month,--a replenishing of its wardrobe which is dignified as -well as rhythmical. - -On the subject of palms I find authors in Cuba again inaccurate. It is -asserted that they are of no use, when it is true that of all the -several hundreds of varieties found on the island every one is useful. A -gentleman who has lived here in the country many years says, “They are -the most useful tree we have.” They give food to animals, thatches to -roofs, brooms to housemaids, cords to tobacconists, hats to men, besides -being used for numerous other purposes. - -The young palm often reminds one of an overgrown aquatic weed; very many -resemble a gigantic pencil-case, the trunk quite straight and equal -until you approach the top, where it suddenly diminishes, looking loose -as if it would shove up and down like the pencil point. - -Arrived at Guiness, the volante does not come as we expected from the -plantation where we are invited to spend a week or more. We go--not to a -_fonda_, for they are usually only miserably dirty inns, but to a -private boarding-house, with which Mr. S---- is already acquainted. Here -we find what we have so much desired--a characteristic Cuban house with -characteristic Creole customs, although our landlord is a fat, -good-natured Frenchman, and his wife a tall, stately, imposing negress. -Her history is a little interesting. A sister of hers had a daughter, -whose father was a wealthy Spaniard, and who sent her to Paris to be -educated. Soon after she died, leaving this aunt $10,000, with which she -purchased her freedom, and, I conjecture, the French husband. - -As we enter the door, large enough for a camel, she greeted us with a -hospitable smile and graceful bow, at the same time motioning us to sit -in the row of rocking-chairs standing accurately in front of the huge -window. I am told that unlike ordinary parallel lines these have been -known to absolutely meet. If I do not mistake, the occasion is apt to be -when an appreciative señor finds a pretty Creole for a _vis-à-vis_. - -The house is a fac-simile of nearly all these houses. Massive stone, -directly upon the street. It is of one high story; tiles keep out the -heat; the pointed roof and bare rafters inside giving a bare-like -effect, which the brick-paved floor tries to counteract, and the -enormous doorways to maintain. - -A curtain with curious embroidery at the bottom conceals this door which -separates this _sala_ from my chamber. There I find plenty of finest -linen and the clean odor which should always sanctify bedrooms. Canvas -stretchers across the cot-like bedsteads make a delightfully cool and -clean mattress. Carefully embroidered pillow-cases endeavor to excite -our admiration, and brightly colored pictures of saints and martyrs on -the wall, our devotion. - -At three comes a Spanish jumble of sounds which mean, “Dinner is ready.” -We walk out on a back piazza, overlooking the pretty courtyard with its -shrubs and flowers, while we are sheltered from the sun by -thickly-growing and blossoming vines. - -Our chairs are a curious kind of wooden frame covered with some sort of -hairy skin stretched tightly across the back and bottom; our floor is of -clean cement; our soup is colored a bright yellow with saffron; our fish -is fresh and white from the Carribean Sea; our rice is pearls set in -sweet oil; our green peas have lost their identity by the same process; -our water--unlike the quality of mercy--is strained, and through a -filter; while our beef, like all the beef we have found in Cuba, is -suspiciously dark and tough. Yet we have faith, remembering that the -colored bipeds are much higher in the market than the quadrupeds. In -addition to all this, our table is loaded with nondescript dishes of -Creole names and ingenuity, and all are ranged in one stiff row down the -middle of the table. Opposite me sits a Creole gentleman who has not -only belonged to the army (it has been asserted that Creoles are not -permitted to enter the army in any capacity), but has been an officer in -Spain. We strike up a conversation in French, and imagine my admiration -for the flexibility of his politeness, when he inquires how long I lived -in Paris. Between dessert and coffee he leaves the table to smoke, -apologizing to Mr. S---- by saying he is so much of a Spaniard that he -must smoke before taking coffee, and he does not like to do it at the -table in the presence of an American lady. - -I confess it made me feel a little peculiar to see our French landlord -sitting complacently at the head of the table with his bona-fide negro -wife standing as complacently behind his chair to serve us. - -After dinner I am attracted to the water-filter standing in one corner. -It is a large moss-covered porous stone, with a cavity in the top where -the water and charcoal are placed; the water creeping through the stone -drop by drop, into the vessel below. I wish I could remember the name of -the island where it is found, and, indeed, of which it is the -foundation. - -[Illustration] - - - - -V. - - _A Palm-grove--A Planter’s Household--Coolies as compared with - Negroes--Anecdotes of Coolies--Robbers--Heterogeneous - Dinner--Creole Politeness._ - - -THURSDAY, March 22d. - -This morning comes intelligence that death has occurred in the family of -the owner of the plantation and that his sister is become insane. Our -visit there is necessarily abandoned. However, we are not uncomfortable -in our present quarters, and its independence reconciles us to the -disappointment; for you must know a Cuban planter would as soon think of -taking pay for the air and sunshine you breathe in his house as for any -amount of board, lodging, or attendance he might give you. - -To-day, we discovered an inviting grove of palms just outside the town, -and, unwisely careless of the threatenings of the sun, set out to find -them. They looked very near, over the tops of the houses, and so tall -that, like vegetable Mother Gooses, they seemed to be “sweeping the -cobwebs from the sky,” but, as we walk on, seem to recede farther and -farther. The sun waxes and waxes; our fatigue becomes exhaustion; but we -find, as did Macbeth, that to return is as difficult as to go on; so on -we go--melt--utterly dissolve--until, at last, we reach a lovely -garden, and with permission from the major domo, drop down upon the -roots of a tree in the midst of many of the best fruit and ornamental -trees of the country. Was there ever shade so profound, perfumes so -delicious, orange-trees so dark-leaved and bright-fruited! - -The ground around us is covered with a great variety of fallen fruits of -which we do not even know the names. They are left quite at the mercy of -various fat, black, lazy, meandering pigs that at first look to you like -overgrown rats--for, like all the hogs of Cuba, they are entirely -without bristles, as smooth-shaven as if just from the razor of the -barber. - -Presently, we discover a little house behind the trees, apparently -unoccupied. The same idea occurs to us all at once--if we could get it -to live in while we remain. We go for the major-domo, who conducts us -inside. Rude enough, indeed, for the most rural or romantic tastes, and -with eight great black--so black that you could not see them--negroes -sitting in the middle of the middle room. They are all dressed in spots; -that is, a few rags still cling, by chance, or by preternatural -adhesion, to different parts of the body; and all are busily filling -some sort of a demijohn with a kind of black bran much grown and used -here. Not too inviting, certainly, neither, is the stifling, -annihilating walk before us, in a sun whose furnace is heated seven -times hotter than before. We survive, I could never tell how, to find -that the dinner at home has scarcely survived an hour’s waiting for us, -and I go to rest till soup and fish are over. - -Immediately after dinner, a Chinaman rides up to the door, leading three -horses. A friend of Mr. S----, a sugar planter, hearing of our arrival, -sends the horses, with an invitation for us to visit his estate. So soon -as habited, I select the horse that wears the side-saddle. He starts off -at once in the delightful and peculiar gait of Creole horses,--not an -ornamental one, as I somewhere said before, but well suited to the -climate, perhaps a result of it,--an amble, giving exhilarating -exercise, without fatigue. - -The plantation is but a league distant, and very soon the tall white -chimneys and low roofs reveal our saccharine destination. Flocks of -decently dressed and moderately happy-faced negroes and coolies are at -work in the corn-fields. As we pass on an odor as of nice sweet cake -while in the progress of baking greets us from the boiling sugar, with a -savory familiarity; then a glimpse through the trees of blue walls and -red tiles suggests the family mansion. - -What can be so fresh and peaceful as that pretty, low, rambling house, -nestled in among the greenery, with the huge trees behind it giving that -background so indispensible to beauty in houses, while on all sides -stranger varieties of trees, flowers, and shrubs breathe upon us the -sweetness of their welcome! - -Our hostess, a charming lady from the United States, living here twenty -years, meets us on the piazza with a graceful hospitality. The gentlemen -go to the sugar-house or _ingenio_, which yields an income of from -seventy-five to a hundred thousand per year, with two hundred and fifty -negroes and coolies to perform the work. I am taken into the grounds and -gardens by Mrs. D---- and her son; where among all that is new I find a -great variety of cactuses, many twenty or thirty feet high; ripe -oranges, perfectly green in color; mignionette and allspice trees; tall -trees of blooming oleanders; also cape jasmines and the night-blooming -cereus. - -We talk much of the coolie system. Although less amiable than negroes, -Mrs. D---- prefers them on account of their superior activity, -ingenuity, and intelligence. Nearly all of them can read and write, and -have some proficiency in arithmetic and geography. Beside being very -passionate, they consider their persons sacred: many of them would die -rather than endure any bodily chastisement. Several murders have -occurred on this plantation among them, but we learned on the way home -that Mr. D---- had the matter hushed up in some way to save their lives -and his money. To illustrate the character of these antipodes of ours: A -celestial in Havana, supposing himself detected in a theft, confessed -his guilt to the unsuspecting owner of the property, also a Chinaman, -who at once tied his hands behind his back and commenced leading him -through the streets backward. The authorities stopped this, to the great -indignation of the persecutor, because he could not do as people always -did in his own country. But the companions of the thief all deserted -him, refused to eat, sleep, or speak with him, not on account of his -guilt, but of the bodily degradation he had suffered, and the next -morning in despair he went and hanged himself. Mr. R---- told me of a -cook of his (they make the best cooks in the world) who was attacked by -a disease for which the doctor, fearing it to be infectious, sent him to -the hospital. While there he was attended by the noble Sisters of -Charity, of whose unselfish though sometimes mistaken devotion I hear so -much. When he was cured one of the nuns said to Mr. R----, “Do take care -of him, for he is a good Christian; and as he desired it, we have -baptized him.” Afterwards his master, knowing so well the tenaciousness -of the idolatry of the Chinese, said to him, “How come it that you were -baptized?”--“Oh,” said the fellow, “my head was very hot, and I thought -I would let them put a little water on to cool it.” This _was_ being -Cooley! - -A little event has just occurred on our plantation, from which I am -wandering. One of the laborers, a Chinaman, it is suspected (because the -negroes are such cowards), threw into one of the wheels of the machinery -an iron bolt of some sort to prevent its operation, and so give them all -a holiday. The master, not being able to discover the offender, forced -them all to work harder than ever through the week, and all the -following Sunday. - -But night is coming on and we must go in spite of urgent invitations to -remain, and many expressed regrets from our kind hostess that her house -is already too full of visitors to admit us permanently, and so, -promising to “Come soon and spend the day,” we encounter the darkness, -and I many misgivings of possible robbers. And why should I not? The -country, from all accounts is full of them. Everybody goes armed. Not -one man do you meet, from the elegant señor down to the stupidest negro, -without pistols in his saddle and a long sword at his side, which I -always see brushing against the hedges as they ride in the country, or -rattling on the pavement as they walk in town. - -My fears are somewhat quieted by the assurance that nobody accompanied -by a lady has ever been attacked or in all probability will be, an -assurance more interesting than convincing, it must be confessed. -However, somewhat armed and strengthened by my weakness, we ride through -the bristling hedges and star-lighted air until tremor is forgotten in -the sweet enchantment of the scene, and we are sorry to see the lights -of Guiness rising one by one out of the darkness. - -_Friday, March 23d._--These people have unquestionably the most -heterogeneous tastes in the world. At dinner to-day I counted ten dishes -entirely new to me,--all but two, intricate complications of flesh, -fish, or fowl, but mostly of vegetables, compounds which no ingenuity of -chemist could hope to resolve back to their elements. How think you, is -unsophisticated American digestion to make terms with this marked array? -How not to disappoint the attentive hostess who expects you to encounter -them all unflinchingly, and end them, not yourself, victoriously? - -During dinner we happened to mention our intention of procuring horses -and riding twice a day in search of adventures and an appetite, when -what does a polite Creole opposite do but offer me the use of his own -horse as long as I stay: it is in Matanzas and he will be only too happy -to send for it. - -I found my French useful to decline and to express thanks more ample -than the Spanish “_gracias_.” - -[Illustration] - - - -[Illustration] - - - - -VI. - - _"Nice pretty House in the Country”--Wrong Side of the - Horse--Discovery in Mental Photography--Visit to the Country - House--Not to be obtained--Contrast of Palms and Bamboos--The Youth - of Tropical Nature--A Remarkable Phenomenon--House of the Marquise - of V----“Le Armistad”--Burial of an Officer’s Child--A - Shock--“Cafetal”--“La Providencia”--A Sugar Plantation--The “Royal - Highway”--A Grand View._ - - -This evening comes Mr. S---- from Father P----, full of a nice pretty -house we are to get in the country. Immediately a horse resembling an -overgrown rat is procured, warranted amiable with ladies, and we prepare -for investigation. - -Imagine my dismay when about to mount, to find the side-saddle turned to -the right of the horse instead of the left. It is indeed the ordinary -style of this extraordinary country. I remember seeing ladies in long, -white habits, riding in this way in the suburbs of Havana, quite at -ease, and unsuspicious of the droll figure they were making. I have, -however, seen or been told that ladies in the south of Europe are taught -both modes of riding, still, I am not inclined to try a new horse in a -new manner; so, after a change of saddles, we find ourselves sailing off -in the stereotyped gait of the Cuban horse, than which nothing can be -more safe, or less calculated for the display of horsewomanship. The -scene is exquisite; we could ask no change in “the day, the place, the -hour, the sunshine and the shade,” except that one might excuse the low, -red afternoon sun from peering up so inquisitively as it does under -one’s eyelids. - -How dense and massive are these great cactus hedges on either side of -the road! and how their fierceness is softened or masked by thick vines -creeping and penetrating everywhere, with blossoms and perfumes in their -hands! - -My equestrian experiences continually reimpress upon me a discovery I am -making in the philosophy of mental photography of scenery. - -Riding towards the east is far more inspiriting than going towards the -west. Travelling to the south is equally more cheering than to the -north. I find that western views, however intrinsically beautiful, have -in them an accent of sadness, of departure, of farewells. It is there -that the sun, and moon, and stars go down to be buried, leaving behind -them a consciousness that all bright and fair and tender things must -also drop into a night of death. - -Eastern views, on the contrary, however rude and desolate, are yet seen -and beautified through an atmosphere of hope. A sweet sense of promise -always comes up from under the orient; there is an inherent life and -light in it that no stalking shades can terrify. - -Northern views, though outwardly full of grace and beauty, have always -about them a haunting desolation. You think only of those “thrilling -regions of thick-ribbed ice,” with no heart beating under the ribs, no -blood in the veins, no kindling in the fixed eye. You fall into -shivering reveries about the unbending attitude of those hyperborean -scenes, wondering if it is their backbone, the north pole that keeps -them there forever, so stiff and stark. You see those ice fields -inhabited mostly by the longing looks, the gasping yearnings of lost -souls who are condemned to burn forever in flames that do not purify or -consume. - -But southern views, though they may be insipid or uncouth in material -form and feature, are always sweet with the very soul of passion and -poetry. They cry out for you in advance to all sorrow and hopelessness -and death,-- - - “Avaunt thy miscreated front.” - -But the low roofs and bright walls of the house we are seeking have -discovered us through the trees. - -We enter the long, straight avenue of palms interspersed with laden -orange-trees, and are met at the door, not by simply the _mayoral_, as -we had expected, but by the son of the proprietor who, contrary to our -information, lives here with his family. - -We are shown to the _sala_, the living and dining-room combined. Here -sits the pretty, pale mistress sewing on little dresses, while her child -of two years totters up to meet us, three large fourths of her -comfortable little brown delicious form visible. - -Our errand is of course baffled, but we sit talking until the host -invites us to visit the grounds. They are large, cultivated with great -care and watered by a kind of inundation. Numbers of exotic fruits are -shown us among others, well grown American apples, which it has been -said, like peaches, will not grow in the tropics. Think of apples nearly -ripe in the month of March! - -After having made our adieus we turn our horses’ heads towards the wild, -primitive-looking forest across the plantation. Directly we find a -serpentine path through the dark, rich, reddish-brown soil, the only -soil in which oranges and many other tropical fruits will grow; which -stains the men’s feet who work in it, or shoes if they have them; browns -the oxen, carts, everything that it touches; and which is grateful as -“music after howling,” to sun-dazzled eyes. - -I have not before been so much impressed by the exquisite contrast of -palms and bamboo-trees growing together. The strange, sombre palm, with -its erect, uncompromising trunk, its long, straight, dark leaves, -looking so doric, so rich in individuality, and then, nestled quite -under its very shadow, you often see a clump of the slender willowy, -delicate bamboo, its pale green leaves, so soft and fine and feathery. -It is the vegetable masculine and feminine attraction. Or it is not -unlikely that a stern warrior, and an ethereal post would be drawn -together by the same contrasts. - -As the path narrows and the forest thickens, these dull things are -obscured by densely woven vines, which everywhere hover over these -trees, making the forests at times so dense, that it must be a very -small bird or breeze to get through them: as for a man, he might as well -attempt to wedge his way into the future before the present has cut a -way for him. - -But we do not care to have night shading these shadows with her black -crayons, and so, at the first opening, turn our horses’ heads, and amble -homeward, beneath the thrillings of those great ardent hearts up in the -blue bosom of the sky; those stars so large and fair that we need no -astronomer to suggest that it is only distance which keeps them from -being suns. - -_Saturday, 24th._--When we had drunk the delicious coffee and milk, or, -more accurately, milk and coffee, which our landlady brings so soon as -we are awake, or should be, we hurried off for the early ride. - -What can be more fresh and innocent, more externally young, than this -tropical nature! She is a robust Titaness, it is true, but always out of -her strong comes forth sweetness, and no riddle either. How readily she -justifies the taste which decks her in these early mornings with all her -jewels! And then she is so tender, so peaceful, so serene. Her tears, -thank heaven, like those of infants, are not tears of sorrow. Her -tempests, tornadoes, and straits of passion have been studiously kept -from us. It is true one misses that “sense of promise everywhere” with -which our Northern springs console their sweet virgin hearts, for nature -is always here in her fruition of beauty; “her every future is already -in her every present.” “The world,” says Plato (and he knows), “is God’s -epistle to mankind.” Here the manuscript is written in a large, generous -hand; the ink flowed freely; the thoughts are largely outlined. - -Even the people, in spite of numerous reports of robberies, have almost -universally an innocent and amiable expression of countenance and the -most unoffending, respectful way in the world. Even the horses, I am -constantly assured, are never vicious. A lady might ride at random any -of the native species with safety. It may be that an habitual and -contented indolence is largely among the causes, but it strikes me that -harmlessness is the most apparent characteristic of these children of -the sun. - -I must have forgotten to tell you of a remarkable phenomenon which we -met every morning coming in to market from the country, or already -arrived when we leave. It moves like an animal; its physiognomy is that -of a vegetable. The first thing you see advancing upon you is a huge -heap of corn-stalks, called fodder, I think, at home, and mollacca here. -It is very high above, and trails upon the ground below. By careful -examination, you may discover at one end of it a muzzled appearance -resembling a horse’s head; from the other extremity dangles a possible -appendage you would declare to be his tail, while sometimes, by careful -scanning and difficult investigation, you may count four feet under the -thing, upon which it seems to move. Sometimes, eight or ten of these -mysterious apparitions are fastened in a procession by a rope, pace -slowly along with one negro to drive or conduct it, often sitting -astride on the top of this superstructure. After many investigations, I -venture to affirm that the framework of this architecture is actually a -horse buried, yet alive and doing well. It would also have amused you to -see the great sun-umbrellas nearly all these countrymen carry on -horseback; not of the dark orthodox colors, but a bright light red -alternated with blue or yellow, tipped with black, or purple bordered -with green: an attempt to eclipse the sun in more ways than one. - -After breakfast we with our umbrellas walked over to accept the -invitation of Father M---- to see his garden, or rather the garden in -the courtyard of the Marquis of V----, in whose vacant house the priest -lives alone and free of expense. Finding that he had not yet returned -from morning mass, we took the liberty of avoiding the scorching sun of -the garden by rambling through the great deserted corridors, chambers, -and antechambers, all built and furnished in Spanish style and only -occupied, like most of the great houses out of the cities, one or two -months of every year. Presently, after I had duly ensconced myself to -rest in one corner of a sofa behind the door of the grand drawing-room, -came in the priest, jolly as the priests of romance, saluting us with a -stunning volley of Spanish and politeness; we replying in smiles and -nods which Mr. S---- did not translate, and in English, which he did. -The reverend father is a short man even for a Creole, and when sitting -suggests the form of a pyramid; but the little twinkling gray eyes -situated near the apex of the structure suggested anything rather than -the sepulchral. After we had seen and duly admired some of the frescoes -in the rooms and all the distant views from different upper piazzas and -windows, the priest, with the air of one who is doing you an uncommon -favor, invited us to visit his sanctum. I put on a look of becoming -gravity and awe, and, with a feeling of profound grief at my ignorance -of the mysteries of science, and, alas! of art and theology, and with -profound gratification that there are some works, even in Cuba, where -science and wisdom find refuge, where learning and piety shake hands, I -follow the father and the gentlemen follow me. - -We enter a dark, long passage leading to this cell of midnight vigils -and occult research; the door slowly opens, I reverently enter -upon--heaps of tinsel leaves and flowers, with scissors and glue and all -the paraphernalia for flower-making; piles of bouquets lie on the bed, -all with silver leaves exactly alike, and each one with a brick-red rose -in the centre. They are to decorate the church on Easter Sunday; they -are the only proofs of piety and science and lore that the sanctum of -our jolly priest possesses. - -After dinner, Father M---- came in, bringing a gentleman who said we -could have a house of his in the country. We go at once on our horses, -to find a river of remarkably clear and pure water running behind the -house among the trees, all most inviting; but the house is wretchedly -dilapidated, kitchen to be built, and, withal, a Creole overseer is to -occupy one half of it. Thus nonplussed, we resign all thought of a -permanent location in the country, and decide to spend our time in -travelling over the island so soon as the interest of Guiness is -exhausted. - -From this place we ride to Le Armistad, the _ingenio_ of Mr. D----, our -first Guiness friend, with the hope of getting some _guirappa_ or -cane-juice to drink. It is said to have remarkable fattening as well as -curative power. But the machinery is silent, the chimneys are smokeless, -the odor of nice sweet cake only regales the nostrils of the memory; and -so, redisappointed, we turn again toward home, and ride through the -hedges by the light of a Venus that has a halo as distinct as you may -have seen around the moon. Instead of fast horsemen with dangling sword -and pistol-equipped saddle, we only meet sleepy-looking market-men -returning home astride the collapsed panniers, which in the morning -bulged at each side of their horses like huge saddle-bags, stuffed with -all kinds of fruits or poultry, and these poor horses would think -themselves fortunate if fruits and ducks and chickens were all that is -packed upon their devoted backs. Not only all the fodder and charcoal go -to town in this way, but I saw this morning four exhausted-looking -creatures wilting along through the mid-day sun with chairs, tables, and -bedsteads, piled high upon their backs, and sometimes a -good-for-nothing-looking negro mounted on the top of all openly -rejoicing in that “bad eminence.” - -_Sunday, March 25th._--Awoke too late and too weary for early mass this -morning. Immediately after breakfast I was attracted to the window by -martial music and a procession. The landlady came in, saying it was the -burial of an officer’s child. First came the musicians, mulattoes with -handsome serious faces; after them boys in the dress of novices, then -the priests in robes. But no relatives or mourners were to be seen, for -the immediate friends of the dead never go to the burial, do not leave -their houses on these occasions. It is not considered decent or -appropriate anywhere on the island. One is constantly impressed with the -truth that geographical nearness has little to do with real nearness. -All the customs of this country ally it much more nearly to Europe than -to America. - -I stood looking carelessly on at the long procession, with only -curiosity excited, when I am attracted by the peculiarly sad and solemn -and tender expression in the faces of the soldiers who follow. I see -tearful eyes turned toward the centre of the group. I look--what an -apparition! Never shall I forget the shock, the thrill, the agony of the -sight. Upon an open litter carried in the hands of these soldiers it -lay, the little angel face of rarest possible loveliness, wreathed with -flowers that are pale and fair, but not so fair and pale as itself. The -little dead hands full of white flowers are raised and clasped in a -supplicating attitude, the little heavenly form, just the fatal and -familiar size, is robed in a trailing white satin shroud, and over this -unearthly vision shines the burning sun with mocking glare, and upon it -stare the passers-by with indifferent faces through which no broken -heart has ever looked. But with this wonderful image some mother’s soul -at home is blackened, with this wonderful image the blackness of the -grave will be brightened. Ah, that grave! It will hold another dead -infant upon its heart, _but it will give back none in return_! - -_March 26th._--Again this morning from bed to horse for a little free -air, a little hour to enjoy this wonderfully sweet and delicious nature -before the sun begins his reign of tyranny, and, to all who have the -temerity to encounter his personal presence, reign of terror. - -Among untried points of the compass, we remember due south as one. Here -we very soon find ourselves and the road entering upon a long avenue -formed by hedges that have grown to trees, often meeting over our heads. -These are filled with birds and flowers of all songs and perfumes; -through them we catch glimpses of scattered cocoa-nut groves and wide -cane-fields. - -Presently we come upon a high, ornamented, close-locked gate, the first -of the kind we have seen, and as unlike a sketch I made of it as a -pretty gate must almost be to a bad drawing of it. On approaching more -nearly we find written upon it “_Cafetal_.” We look over the side fence -and discover a wide avenue of palms leading to the concealed house, and -on both sides the pretty coffee-plant, with its small, dark-green -leaves. All over the wide fields it is growing under the shade of a -great variety of trees,--the cocoa-nut, orange, palm etc.; for you must -know the coffee-plant has the feminine peculiarity of always needing -shelter and protection, as well as of causing palpitations, -exhilarations, trepidations, and nervousness generally. - -What a shame and sin it was to turn all these shady, poetical _cafetals_ -into horrid _ingenios_ with their treeless, monotonous, endless fields -of cane, their dreary smoking chimneys, their steaming engines, and -broiling machinery of men and women! - -In the perpetual battles between gold and beauty, it is likely, I fear, -the latter will not win until it has the millennium for an ally. - -As we were turning away from the closed gate, a huge piece of midnight, -bungled into human shape, and dressed, or rather undressed, so as to -display the herculean proportions of the entire morning and evening of -his body, having the noon in eclipse, came up to us, holding out an -immense charcoal paw, accompanied by a beseeching jumble of chopped -Spanish. - -B---- put in it a piece of silver, which the black-meat looked at so -contemptuously as to quite spoil his attempt at a civil “_gracias_.” - -_Evening._--We ventured to penetrate the inviting avenue of this -morning; found it leads to the beautiful _Cafetal_ of “La Providencia.” -The grounds lovely, with overgrown ornamental trees and shrubs, and -pretty brook of rural and domestic habits. Just beyond we met the -administrator with his wife and sister, returning on horseback from the -“south side.” where we had much wished to extend our own ride. The -_pros_ why we should go are:--this is just the season for the sea-cow; -they are being caught in large numbers, and I am positively assured by -those who should know, that they are the real original mermaid--the -prosaic suggestion of all the romantic ballads and traditions. But the -_cons_ that confront our enthusiasm are mostly the roads, which are so -bad as to be dangerous; the horses we met had been almost buried in the -mud, and it is a severe test of the strength of the most vigorous -person. So we yield to the urgencies of that wretched bugbear, -invalidism, and, finally, to the invitation of the party, to go back -with them to the house. Here we are urged to remain to dinner, which is -waiting in the large living-room where we sit, but the sun is already -set, and we excuse ourselves, accepting at last some fruit and a glass -of _guirappa_. - -By the time we have passed the grounds night is lapping over the edge of -day without any perceptible clasp of twilight. And those hedges so high -and thickly woven! The starlight scarcely contrives to get through them. -How easily an army of robbers might conceal there and rush upon us, -unarmed as we are, and the darkness robbing us of our only -protection--my sex, and its weakness and appeal to gallantry. Our horses -even instinctively press close to each other and quicken their pace. But -the darkness, or the invisible hand and heart that fashion it, protects -us safely home. Here we are just in time for the usual evening music on -the plaza, a pretty square in the heart of the little town, made and -ornamented by concha, with much taste and expense. It is like all the -plazas I have seen, an imitation of the one at Havana; with exactly four -palm-trees, with shrubs and flowers and statues; with small -bilious-looking men, and belles with regular oriental features, soft and -dark eyes, fat forms, pretty ball dresses, and an awkward mode of -progression which they fancy is walking. - -_Tuesday, 27th._--To-day we explored our way to a new sugar plantation, -the first I have seen where the cane is ground by oxen instead of the -usual steam-engine. I have always pitied those poor oxen and horses -pacing round and round in the mill, round and round with the rounding -months and years; but these wretched beings who drive them, with long -whips or rather poles in their hands, calling out to the long train of -animals at every step, as they follow them, in hideous monotonous, -guttural tones that never end; fifty in number, all young and mostly -females; night and day, day and night; and several overseers with the -invariable long whip in hand to watch at every step,--it made me -heart-sick, and glad enough to turn from the entrance of the building, -where we sat on our horses, and ride up to the house of the _mayoral_ -for a glass of water. His wife, with an interesting Creole face and -Spanish tongue, insists that we dismount, which accordingly we do, and -wait while the slip-shod negress (negresses here are always slip-shod) -goes to the sugar-house for _guirappa_. We learn that the plantation -belongs to Marquise Somebody, who only comes once in two or three -years, occupying the family house across the green, which, though ample -and well built, has not a tree, a shrub, a leaf to turn it into a home. -As we wait, a small chain-gang passes by us, coolies and negroes linked -together at their work; not an uncommon appendage to a plantation, and -in fact essential with coolies, who are quite certain to commit suicide -if whipped. The lady tells me by proxy that she much prefers negroes to -coolies because they are so much more amiable. - -This being the reverse of opinions frequently expressed to me, I infer -that the preference indicates the character of the employer quite as -much as that of the servants. - -We return home with the eight o’clock morning sun applying itself with -the vigor and precision of a hot flatiron to the back of our necks. Here -we cool off and rest ourselves for the substantialest of breakfasts, -only to be surpassed by the substantialest of appetites. - -As a daily increasing strength allows a daily increase of circuit in our -excursions, we this evening ventured toward the attractive range of -mountains stretched across the northern horizon. Our course soon led us -upon the “Royal Highway,” a broad, smooth military road leading to -Havana; presently we turned upon a wandering equestrian path, with the -appearance of once having been the rough bed of some mountain stream. -And this is not improbable, for the entire luxuriously fertile plain of -Guiness is watered by streams born and matured here; their course and -the amount of water each plantation shall receive being regulated by -the government. - -The water for the towns we see carried in little casks, upon the backs -of the horses. - -The soil on those barren heights being too sterile for the luxurious -tastes of the sugar-cane, Indian corn, vegetables for the markets, and -many unfamiliar plants are cultivated by the simple, contented-looking -Creoles, whom we find living in these little scattered cottages, with -their high-pointed thatched roofs, few or no windows, and multitudinous -appendages of goats and children. - -Arrived at the top of one mountain, we find another still towering above -us, evidently commanding the northern view, so nothing remains but to -pick our way across the valley and its hill, and inquire the best path -of the wondering mountaineers. As we go on the squalidness increases; -the soil becomes more stony and obdurate; the whole aspect of the -country, with the exception of here and there a stray palm, Mr. S---- -tells us, is precisely like that of the poorer parts of Ireland. - -At one point we come across oxen toiling up a hill with an immense -hogshead of water, upon a real Yankee sled; at another we meet a dashing -horseman, who reins up to salute us. Mr. S---- praises his horse, when he -replies, with a bow full of native grace, “It is always at the service -of your worship.” - -But here we are at last, upon the very pinnacle of this temple, -beholding the kingdoms of Cuba and the glory thereof. - -East and west of us mountains--those pyramids of nature, which will -never, like those of man, forget their maker--are rising and falling to -suit their own ideas of grace and majesty; north and south are stretched -fair and smiling plains and valleys, with all their strong contrasts and -harmonious blendings of colors: the horizon on the south is caressed by -the soft, sunny, sky-blue waters of the Carribean Sea, looking like the -beginning of a new firmament; the northern horizon is washed by the -darker and wilder waves of the Atlantic; and over all is poured, in -bewildering floods, the glory and passion of a tropical sunset. - -[Illustration] - - - -[Illustration] - - - - -VII. - - _It Rains--The Effect--No Miserere--Guirappa-seeking--A Skeleton - Horse--B----’s Pantomimes--A Day More--The Bells of - Guiness--Market Day--An Invitation--Another Plantation--A - Remarkable Tree--Palm-Sunday--A Sundayless World--Dreamland--I - Didn’t Smoke--Cushioned Heads._ - - -WEDNESDAY, 28th. - -Ever since our arrival in Cuba, nature has kept in her after-dinner -mood; but to-day, for the first time, clouds are come over the sky with -another motive than that of simple ornament. If every cloud is an -angel’s face, and no angel’s faces elsewhere, then are we not blessed -with angelic physiognomies? For the first time these gauzy waves have -ceased to vagabondize over our heads like mere apparitions of loveliness -that cannot discover or remember their own errands in the world. In -short, the rain has poured in torrents, in desperate cataracts, for two -hours. Every thing, as well as the roses, is “dripping and drowned.” The -streets are rushing rivers. - -But I do not see that nature is especially glad, or even conscious of -the change, unless it be in sympathy with our gladness; for it is here -that she seems always to have within her, and in the atmosphere she -breathes, a fountain of perpetual freshness and youth. - -So many weeks of heat and drouth at home would calcine everything to -ashes; but now we see all vegetation bright as when it was born. Nature -is here a goddess of immortal youth sipping invisible nectar and -ambrosia, and forever ministering to her favorites from the secret of -her reservoirs. - -So the rain having made us domestic, I sit behind the grates of the -swelling window, mending gloves, sewing on buttons (they foresaw the -rain), listening to ludicrous passages from Handy Andy, taking lessons -in cribbage, studying Spanish verbs, and watching the enraptured little -boys sailing miniature boats in the street; or the stately negresses -passing by with the rain dripping from umbrellas upon their bare -shoulders; or the omnipresent soldiers hurrying along to get out of the -rain and give me a glimpse of the irresistibly comical cut of their -semi-skirted coats. I do not know how better to describe these coats -than that they always remind me of the pathetic condition of those -redoubtable three blind mice after - - “They all ran after the farmer’s wife, - And she cut off their tails with the carving knife.” - -This evening we mustered courage, India-rubbers, and umbrellas, and went -to the cathedral to hear the _Miserere_. This being Holy Week, it was to -be chanted every night. But the rain, that could not keep away -curiosity, had quenched the fire of devotion. No one else came, and we -wandered about in the silent aisles listening to no music but the -echoings of our own voices through the high arches, and our footsteps -over the marble floor. We saw by the dim light of the wax tapers, only -vague outlines of statues and pictures draped in black crape for the -sadness of the Passion-week. - -Presently, through the deepening darkness, we saw emerge the black-robed -figures of two pale, melancholy-looking young priests, moving about like -spectres in the chancel, arranging images and ornaments, and, though -unconscious of our presence, always kneeling and making the sign of the -cross when passing the image of the Virgin. - -_Thursday, March 29th._--Again _guirappa_-seeking at the plantation, for -our morning cordial. Young Mr. D----, who brought it, poured out the -great pitcher nearly full that was left upon the ground. I exclaimed at -his wastefulness, when he replied that it is free as water. The negroes -and dogs all drink what they choose, and invariably grow fat in sugar -time. Seeing close by a great black heap resembling a coal-pit, I -inquired its nature. He said it was the animal charcoal with which the -sugar is discolorized; that it comes only from Europe and nothing else -can take its place. Thus the greatest whiteness and purity is obtained -only by means of the blackest substance, as the whitest souls have grown -fair through the darkest suffering, and sometimes, it may be, sin. - -Directly a Chinese servant came from the house with the incomparable -coffee and milk always used to pacify Cuban hunger until the late -breakfast hour arrives. We swallowed their coffee, and they our thanks, -with an equal appearance of pleasure. - -In bowing ourselves away from the shadow of the building, where our -horses had been standing, we turned upon a curious spectacle,--one of -those skeleton horses that one so often sees moving mechanically about -here under their enormous burdens. The horses pass for living, but I -have more than once inclined to the supposition that it is the galvanic -life which may be given to animals after death. As I was saying, one of -these posthumous nags was slowly coming up the road, with a -comfortable-visaged tin-pedlar mounted astride the roof of the edifice -of which the horse was the basement, and between the two, and branching -out each side of them, a huge pannier, plethoric with all the -paraphernalia appertaining to a tin-pedlar. Over the top were dangling -strings of tin basins and baking pans; long-handled dippers were hitting -the poor animal’s ears at every step he took; and as he turned up to the -house of one of the under overseers, I saw the man pull out from unknown -depths wooden spoons, sticks of tape, molasses candy, yards of calico, -china dolls, and tin boxes of shoe-blacking. - -Mr. S---- is gone to Havana, and we are left quite at the mercy of our -French, and the little Spanish we manage to extract from the grammar and -dictionary. Nobody but our host understands a word of French, and in his -absence you can imagine our mute helplessness. If anybody were to come -in at that open door and ask permission to cut my throat, I should -hardly be able to decline the civility or to express any opinion of my -own on the subject. B----, however, as you know, is admirably ingenious -in pantomime, so when we wish any thing I stand in the door, repeating -by rote words I have just picked out of the dictionary, while he is -stationed near talking with nose, eyes, hands, and feet, by way of -explanation; as you remember, in the infancy of the drama among the -Greeks, one performer stood out in the front of the stage repeating the -words while the actors in the background gesticulated the play in -pantomime. All this, as you may imagine, is infinitely amusing to the -always-present retinue of staring servants (there are at least two and a -baby to every guest). These darkeys take great pride in my success in -making my wants known, by using the hissing whistling “ps-s-s-s-s-t,” -with the tongue between the teeth, which always and everywhere answers -in place of bells to call servants, and which I can do like a native. - -I had nearly forgotten to mention a little incident that occurred the -day of our arrival, and has since been frequently repeated. Dinner had -just gone out, and we were sitting enjoying our exclusive knowledge of -the English language, which makes us almost as much isolated as if we -had the luxury of a separate table and house, and keeps the curiosity of -the rest of the company in an absolutely abnormal condition of -activity,--thus we were sitting and talking while waiting for the -supplement, the amen to our dinner, viz., the cup of _caffé noir_ (and, -mind you, this word _noir_ is by no means figurative: this after-dinner -coffee is so black and opaque that if an elephant were in the bottom of -the cup you could not see him). Well, as was I trying to say, we were -sitting waiting and talking, when an unaccustomed noise was heard upon -the brick pavement of the parlor; we looked, and lo! what should we see -walking majestically through the parlor, through the doors, through our -piazza, dining-room, through the walk of the courtyard, but the very -fine, well-kept American horse of Monsieur, mine host. B---- and I were -of course sufficiently amused, and the rest of the company sufficiently -astonished at our amusement: the only novelty to them was that the horse -came alone, without the volante. - -_Friday, March 30th._--This morning, as every morning, I was not -awakened by the bells and clocks of Guiness; though, for the matter of a -capacity to rupture sleep, they might have been invented by all the imps -of discord. You can no more comprehend than you can describe them. It -would be interesting to know where can have been found metal so base to -produce sounds so execrable that “sweet bells jangled out of tune” would -be heavenly harmony compared with them. You would suppose they been -tuned by an earthquake. If I had to manage to endure them, I should see -to it and have my hours longer, or farther apart. But yet, as I said, it -was not the “braying, horrible discord” of the bells that sent Queen Mab -off in a hysteric fit; it was, alas! the earlier five o’clock sounds of -washings and scrubbings in the next rooms. Such scourings and pourings -and dashings of walls and floors, and of all supposable things, were -surely never heard out of Holland, where, Leigh Hunt tells us, the women -wash everything but the water. - -Much as I doat on cleanliness, I find it a poor exchange to pay for it -in the more precious commodity of sleep, and I record myself to you as a -wretched victim to this diurnal deluge of neatness. - -On our way to the _ingenio_ I mustered Spanish enough to beg a -cane-stalk of the negresses who were cutting it down with great rapidity -in the fields, using huge sharp knives that I could scarcely lift. They -eagerly gave us more than we could carry, enough to keep us _sucking_ -all the way home, and a six weeks to come. Willis says, “Nobody can -starve here: the cane-fields are all open; and if hungry, one has only -to cut a stick and suck.” We discovered this morning still another sugar -plantation, but distrusting the availability of our Spanish, only rode -past the sugar-house without asking for _guirappa_. As we passed a gate -near which groups of women were at work, one of them came up with -outstretched hand, begging countenance, and some sort of a jumble, and -all the rest started to follow her example; but being purseless, and -with no great mind to use a purse if I had had it, I shook my head and -said, “_No hablo Espagnol_,” emphasizing the remark by a decided -application of my horsewhip to the horse. - -_Saturday, 31st._--This evening we promised ourselves another visit to -our mountain, but an unusual amount of heat and exhaustion forbade the -ascent, and very soon found me reclining under the irresistible shadow -of trees that knew how to make shade, while B---- galloped off to -reconnoitre. But I soon found myself comparing myself to Gulliver when -he became populated with Liliputians, so many insects shared in my taste -for shade and solitude; and I was glad enough when B---- made his -perspiring appearance. - -This being market-day, we found great amusement in watching the peasants -astride their panniers which bestrode the horses. In addition to being -stuffed monstrously with vegetables, over the edge of most of the -panniers were dangling chickens, ducks, and Guinea-hens, tied together -by their feet, feathers ruffled, wings flapping backwards, heads -dangling downwards, and an expression on their faces of pious -resignation adapted to the study of bigger bipeds. All the poor things -were alive, but one was sure must die of vertigo or apoplexy, before -they could by any possibility reach the town. Here we noticed -particularly the tethering of the horses and cattle, a custom -indispensable in a country where there are no fences and rarely hedges. -One end of the rope being tied around the animal’s neck, the other is -fastened to a tree or shrub or stake driven in the ground, or sometimes -to the long, strong grass. Thus localized, they are allowed food and -exercise to the full capacity of the rope, but no farther. Each one is -made a hermit, ruminating round and round in his solitude and his -circle, which, instead of increasing, is sure to diminish, for the rope -gets tangled in knots, or twisted around sticks, or the animal’s own -legs, so that prudence soon forces a sedentary life upon him. Not -unfrequently these ropes were lying in ambush across our path, often so -hidden by the grass that neither ourselves nor our horses discovered -them until we were nearly caught in the snare. Imagine the interesting -frights and ingenious summersaults that we escaped! - -I must not forget a remarkable tree we discovered across the fields, -which attracted so much our fancy that we immediately turned off, -overleaping hedges and ditches (small ones) to examine it. Its outward -proportions were on the most magnificent scale, eclipsing in size all -its neighbors and all the trees we have before seen, but the trunk -proved to be nearly or quite hollow. B---- rode in through the gothic -opening, turned his horse around inside, and came out again, and I might -have done the same thing at the same time. It would make a dwelling -absolutely larger than some of the inhabited huts I have seen here. That -admirable disciplinarian, the old woman who lived in her shoe, etc., -would here have found “ample room and verge enough” for all her surplus -of light infantry, while those who had to go to bed without molasses or -bread could have amused themselves with the echoes of their own -squallings, for the cavity sounded hollow, like a great unfurnished -room. But at the time I only thought how much the tree resembled those -magnificent lives spreading out so fair and grandly, reaching so near -their kindred blue that in the eyes of the world they are fulfilling all -of a high and happy destiny. You must approach very near, perhaps -penetrate the abysses of their being, to find that the great heart is -gone; its place is only supplied by hollow echoes and aching void. - -_April 1st._--Palm Sunday--like all the other Cuban Sundays, except that -two, or at most three, men have passed on horseback, with long palm -branches in their hands. - -A south wind again, more enervating than can well be imagined by those -who have never felt it come hot and hissing from the equator. It is an -incipient sirocco, and always sends the Italians to bed. Of course, too -languid for the early, and only mass, coming as it does, before -breakfast: the rest of the day we have only to endure with the aid of a -fan, and to watch the altitudes of the thermometer. - -I have not yet recovered from the uncomfortable sensation of living in a -Sundayless world,--a world which being so elaborate in its upholstery, -is supposed to have required the full seven days to complete it, leaving -no rest or hallowing for anybody. - -You can well understand that writing to you, or anybody, on these hot -but heavenly days, is simply a contrivance for inking over my dulness. -As you suspect, I am getting to live quietly here, dreaming away life, -without much help of books, it is true, but, what is better still, -without much hindrance from them either. - -After all, why not take a little time to dream a few little dreams in -this large dream of life? Death will come soon enough to tap us on the -forehead, or it may be to shake us rudely, and then we shall be wide -awake, and for a long time. Besides, if it takes a long time to dream -one’s dreams, it takes as long time to undream them; and you know--who -does not?--that they are a kind of atmosphere which penetrates where -everything _is_ as much as where everything _is not_. - -I also assure you that pen and ink have no natural, or so far as I am -concerned, acquired relations with these transcendent tropical nights we -are having now; nights when you can feel this wonderful moonlight, -creeping in its slippers of silence, over all the longing darkness, -through all the sleeping lids of this softly breathing nature, -sprinkling them all the time with its white juice-of-love-in-idleness. -Sometimes, you lie its willing and helpless victim, until all your -unpastured emotions come to be swayed by it, as by a shepherd’s voice. -Again you can think of it only as growing, growing, more and more, wider -and deeper, all over the world, like a blanched and intangible parasite, -which no morning will ever dare with profane fingers to pull up by the -roots. - -_Tuesday, April 3d._--Yesterday we remembered the invitation of the -major domo of the sugar plantation, where oxen instead of steam get the -saccharineness out of sugar-cane, as we do out of babies--by squeezing. -The consequence was that the rough Creole saw the sun and us dawning -upon him at the same distinguished moment; that we dismounted to be -conducted over the establishment; that the trampling feet of oxen, the -monotonous and endless cries of their female drivers, rang in my ears as -repulsively as they did at first, and still keep doing, in spite of all -my efforts to banish them; that we stood beside the boiling cauldron, -where two withered old men were stationed to skim off the scum, and -remind one of the witches in Macbeth bent over their cauldron to catch -the scum, the “Bubble, bubble, Toil and trouble” of human destiny. While -I stood looking at this strange scene, our conductor, with great -_empressment_, drew from his pocket two fine cigars, offering one to me, -and the other to B----, and was sorely chagrined and puzzled that I -declined it. I was obliged to resort to the plea of invalidism to pacify -him. From this we went to the refining house, where little inverted tin -pyramids, full of sugar, were setting all over the floors, with thick -layers of black clay spread over their heads, and little tubs, to catch -the molasses, set under the opening in their feet. This apartment opened -into the one for drying in which these little vessels had been emptied; -the whitened sugar lay evenly all over the floor, and a fat negress -walked over it with a rake in her hand, and the shoes she was born in on -her feet. - -I noticed here, as often before, deep scars on the women’s necks, -cheeks, and arms, frightfully disfiguring, and painfully suggestive, but -I was relieved to find it is only the effects of their favorite custom -of tattooing. I thought before, that nature and the most servile of -drudgery had carried the ugliness of these poor wretches to the -extremest verge of possibility, but I find that, in that “deep,” as -well as in all others, there is still a “lower deep.” - -We were also puzzled to divine the import of immense round cushions -fastened securely upon nearly all the women’s heads, but soon discovered -they were to make a comfortable seat for the immense burdens of sugar -going from one house to another; for all the ordinary burdens we had -before seen, carried on the head (negroes here have no idea that their -heads were made for any other use) had been simply with the aid and -comfort of the woolly padding of nature. - -[Illustration] - - - -[Illustration] - - - - -VIII. - - _Dear old Mr. R---- -- Chess and Whist and Life--Good Friday--A - Religious Procession--The silence of the Town--The Miserere--To - Matanazas--Company in the Cave--Father M----’s approach to - Matanzas--The Bay--Valley of the Yumuri--The Plaza--The - Dominica--The Ensor House--Easter Sunday--The Paseo--Steamer to - Havana--A Night on board--“Queen’s Hotel”--Tricks on a Travelling - Author--Theft on the Almanac._ - - -THURSDAY, April 5th. - -Yesterday the train brought dear old Mr. R---- to see us. In addition to -our former chess and conversations on literature and art, he reads -French, gives me lessons in Spanish, and occupies all the time that -would otherwise have made this a bigger if not a wiser or a better -letter. - -I have often suggested to you the resemblance between the game of chess -and the game of life. It occurs to me at this moment, that, if this be -true, fatalism must also be true. These inhabitants of chessdom are -forced about by an inevitable will; their success and ruin are equally -beyond their own let or hindrance. They are created as we are, with -certain powers and spheres for action and being; with certain -possibilities which, whether they will or not, may become -impossibilities, but with, alas! impossibilities which must remain such. - -From an inevitable force of circumstances, the great and powerful in -chess may become weak; the insignificant may have a greatness thrust -upon them. The humble pawn can at times act with the dignity of a queen; -the queen is often less powerful than the little plebeian beside her. -The bishops, in their attempts to serve royalty, often sacrifice -themselves; the knights sometimes ruin the queen they are sworn to -protect. The queen has the position many other women would like,--she is -the only female in her empire. But, alas! this dizzying distinction -sometimes spoils her wits: in trying to rule her allies and conquer her -enemies, she is too apt to destroy herself and her kingdom. Her king and -lord lives mostly in _statu quo_-ism. He would be her admiring imbecile -except that he has found out the secret of endless life: “The king never -dies.” He may at times, it is true, be a wandering Jew, but he is an -immortal one; he can well afford to be besotted with inertia, for he is -too wise to die. But this wisdom is also his fatality. All that he and -his queen or subjects do or refrain from doing is foreordained; their -entire existence seems to me an admirable illustration of the doctrine -of predestination. - -If, however, you wish to find an example of life as it is, of man as he -is in these strugglings between the inevitable providence (which in -this other game we call chance) and his own free will, between -circumstances and character, ability and materials, we must go to the -game of whist. Here you are always balancing the _must be_ with the _may -be_; you are recalling the past, and from it foreseeing the future. You -are calculating the chances, you are making desperate and uncertain -ventures, which may result in disappointing success or brilliant -failure. And here is life, this unfathomable life of ours; this -wrestling with hidden and unprecedented elements, this combating an -unguessed destiny; more than all, this yielding with an equal grace to -its fondness or its hate. Here, as in life, honor is for the successful; -but true greatness is for him who uses most wisely and most valiantly -the much or the little that is given him. - -_Friday, 6th_, has brought back Mr. S----, with intelligence that the -steamer leaves for Nassau on the 14th inst. So we must be off at once to -Matanzas, if at all; and Trinidad, and all other places must, alas! be -given up, from the lateness of the season and the excess of heat. - -This evening was celebrated by a grand religious procession, one of the -ceremonies of Good Friday. At five o’clock, low, muffled sounds of music -were heard approaching. Presently the band appeared, draped in mourning; -following it, drawn by black horses, came a great hearse, with heavy -pall and waving plumes, and on the top of this, under a white shroud, -was plainly visible the sharp outline of a human figure; blood spots -were on the edge of the shroud, and above them, drooping on one side, -with matted and stained hair, lay the agonized, ghastly face, in wax, of -the crucified Saviour. It was horrible! - -I felt myself grow sick and faint, but looked around in vain for a -corresponding horror in the faces of the other spectators. They stared -on with only a little less than their usual gayety and indifference, and -turned with curiosity, as I did for relief, to the remainder of the -procession. Next came a line of priests in sable robes, and officers of -government with crape on their arms, all with uncovered heads, and -carrying in their hands immense wax candles that flickered and paled -before the light of the receding sun. The procession paused a few -minutes before each of the principal houses, while the dead march kept -beating on. But now they have passed, and here comes an august, standing -figure, mounted upon a high carriage: we soon discover it to be the -Virgin following her son to the grave. - -Her dress is of long, trailing black velvet; upon her head is a faded -crown; the face is horribly wan and white, with an expression in it of -excruciating torture and despair, and, alas! what is this carried, high -in the pale, uplifted hand! We shudder, we are faint, we look again; it -is--a deeply flounced, elegantly embroidered white pocket-handkerchief! - -Behind all this follows an indiscriminate mass of men, women, and -children; but I have seen enough, and go back to the house, wondering -over the strange things in heaven and earth and our philosophies. - -Mr. S---- tells us so much of the elaborate celebrations and ceremonies -in Havana, during these Easter days, that we regret not having gone back -to witness them. Yesterday, the streets in all parts of the city were -filled by ladies walking to and from all the different churches; the -great ambition and proof of piety being, to visit as many as possible -during the day. All were dressed in deep black. This is the only day of -the year when dainty Havanese female feet press the pavements. Not a -sound was to be heard over the entire city. All shops closed, carriages -and vehicles of all kinds forbidden to stir, as was the case in Guiness; -profound silence reigns because Christ is dead, and no profane sound -must disturb his slumbers. In most of the churches an image of the dead -Christ lay in a tomb surrounded by burning tapers, and all the signs of -burial. Even some of the private houses, opening as they do on the -streets, discovered in the principal room, to passers by, the same -ghostly image partly covered by a black pall, while the family and -guests sit around it in deep mourning, which is, or should be, enlivened -only by occasional sobs. - -_Friday evening, 10 o’clock._--We are just returned from the Cathedral. -As we entered, the _Miserere_ was being sung by two young priests and -our friend Father M----; the organ accompaniment played by a young -priest. The pathetic strains, here mournful as the sob of a broken -heart, there subdued into the tones of resignation, then suddenly -struggling out in an energy like despair, seemed to thrill all the -hearts of the kneeling worshippers. They were composed entirely of -black-robed women; for you must know, devotion here is entirely a -feminine accomplishment: the men only stand around against the wall to -admire the performer, apparently quite forgetting the performance. - -I perceived on one side a regularly arranged pyramid of wax candles. At -certain periods of the ceremony one of the lights was extinguished, then -another and another; when all were out the services were to close; but -finding my strength waning faster than the lights, I came home to make a -hurried note of sounds and scenes that I do not attempt to describe, of -ceremonies that have all the grotesqueness and absurdity of those of -Rome without their dignity and grandeur. The piety of Cuba seems to -think that the next best thing to being in Rome and doing as the Romans -do, is to be out of Rome and do more than Romans do. - -_Saturday, April 7th._--At nine o’clock this morning we found ourselves -waiting at the pretty and fanciful American depot for the Havana train. -As soon as fairly seated in the American car, in came our jolly friend -the priest, accompanied by a large number of officers; we find that he -is chaplain of the regiment. Officers have taken the little private -sitting-room one always finds in these cars. They amuse themselves more -than us by uproarious singing and laughter. As we start the priest -crosses himself, laughing, and accompanying it by a muttered prayer; all -we hear is “Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.” He says this is so that if -any accident happens it shall not be his fault. One of the sharply -moustached officers is the first to get out his cigars and offer one to -me, with a look of some concern that I decline, but all the rest of the -ladies accept, and soon every man in the car, but one woman, is smoking -and happy. But presently Father M---- discovers a pretty Creole lady -acquaintance quietly smoking her cigar, at the other end of the car; he -leaves me with a phrase characteristic of Spanish politeness,--“I kiss -your feet, señora.” - -_Saturday._--San Nicola and the other little towns on our way present -uniform features. In all varieties of new palms in groves and avenues; -hogsheads of molasses waiting to get their tickets on the cars; low huts -with thatched roofs, or else the ordinary Cuban house with nearly all -its rooms opening on the street, exposing the occupants to the curiosity -of travellers. These people seem to be as ignorant of private life as -unconscious that they are leading a public one. How much is the privacy -and sanctity of domestic life a matter of climate? - -This being within a few days of the season of cock-fighting, these -redoubtable warriors, tied securely by unwilling feet, were being -carried in large numbers to the numerous fighting rendezvous. Their -spurs _were_ very long with which to “prick the sides” of their masters’ -“intents,” otherwise I saw nothing to distinguish them from our humble, -domestic, barnyard citizen at home, who crows and struts out his day, -and dies “unwept, unhonored,” etc. - -The approach to Matanzas, through a ravine between two mountains, is far -famed, and certainly deserves no small credit for the hasty glimpse it -gives you of an ordinarily interesting town and an extraordinarily -interesting bay, and beyond this an even range of mountains which surely -were not born great, nor have they achieved greatness, although many -travellers and descriptions have thrust greatness upon them. - -I will not blacken and mar the myriad-hued brightness of that bay with -ink; nor will I attempt to chronicle the phosphorescent miracles which -are all day long being performed by the gulf stream and the concealed -rocks over which it washes and breaks in sunny foam and dripping -rainbows. It is so marvellously uttered in colors that words would do it -wrong. - -_Evening._--It being well established that the only sane thing to do -upon our arrival was, soon as possible, to see the renowned valley of -the Yumuri, we accordingly walked from the dinner-table into our waiting -volante to go and see the renowned valley of the Yumuri. - -We drove at once as far up the Cumbri mountain as is consistent with -horse and carriage possibility, the rest of the way trusting to the -unwillingness of feet that walk under the burden of an old fatigue and a -new dinner. - -Inversely, like Milton’s pandemonium, above the highest peak, a higher -peak still beckoned us up with false assurances, until at last this is -really the very final topmost top, and we are distinctly rewarded for so -much patience. - -On one hand the heavy-walled, gaudily-painted city, with its tumultuous -life, its busy human ascent of toil and gain and fashion; on another -side the throbbing pulse of the bay, sometimes quickening to a fever -like a poet’s eye in fine frenzy rolling, and again stilling to an echo -silent as a dream of silence; on another side still, interwinding hills -and mountains clad in ample verdure, and pretty country seats; and here, -on this side, lies the peaceful little mountain-ringed Yumuri valley. It -is a tiny, but deep and choicely-inlaid casket. There are groves of dark -palms; pale, pea green cane-fields interspersed with dark patches of the -brown soil for contrast; little glancing quicksilver brooks; thatched -cottages buried among flowers and trees, whence come happy voices of -children; here a herd of cattle quietly grazing, there a solitary -market-boy wending sleepily home on his sleepy horse,--and all this full -to the brim, to the very mountain-ring of the faint, fading glance of a -sun that is just breathing his last upon his bed on the western horizon. - -And now, the thickening twilight is just able to reveal to us the path -leading to our volante; the famous cave is far off and out of the -question; and soon we are leaving nature and her spells behind; faster -and faster we descend, until soon city lights and city sounds direct us -to the Plaza. Here the band is playing and promenading, bare-headed -ladies are enjoying the cool air and the warm admiration so grateful to -us women in warm climates. - -We leave our volante to join the gauzy, chattering stream, and suddenly -stumble upon--none other than the gentlemanly Creole officer who was our -table _vis-à-vis_ at Guiness. Offering me his arm, the rest following, -we walked round and round the flower-scented grounds, listening to all -the music that could insert itself between the pauses of our -conversation. Very soon fatigue and faintness drive us in to the -_Dominica_, a restaurant of which Matanzas is justly proud,--to my -taste, with its cheerful frescoes, much more inviting than the one at -Havana. Here we find ice-cream, frozen juice of pineapples and other -fruits, _orchata_ (almond juice), and a strip, a mere parallelogram of a -breath of sponge-cake to eat with them. But I am too weary for any -refreshment that can be found outside a pair of clean linen sheets. -B---- hisses “ps-s-s-s-st” for a volante and directs the driver to go at -once to the “Ensor House.” - -_Easter Sunday, April, 8th._--Just too late for the grand procession -which celebrated this morning, glorious as all Easter mornings should -be. We tried to reconcile ourselves by attending high mass at the -Cathedral. Even here, at eight o’clock, the ceremonies were closing; we -had only time to catch a glimpse of the gold-laced robes of the priest -as he disappeared behind the chancel, and a hasty scrutiny of the -perfect flower-bed of kneeling beauties covering the entire floor of the -building. I was taken completely by storm. So much and so rare beauty -concentrated in so little time and space! Every woman, old and young, -was in full dress: white silk, with lace flounces, a long white lace -veil thrown, like an exquisite fancy, over head and shoulders, instead -of the usual black mantilla, was the most favorite and _recherché_ -costume. - -Here in Matanzas is a decided sprinkling of the Anglo-Saxon blood, just -enough to flush and brighten the skin and to remove two or three of the -strata of fat, which are so universal with the white ladies of Havana. -Many are even so delicate in coloring, that the winds of heaven must -have considerately passed by them on the other side. Still the ladies of -Matanzas almost invariably retain the classically regular features, the -dark fascinating eyes, the grace of posture, the meaning movement, the -language of the fan, the perfect busts and arms copied from a more -luxurious Venus de Medici. I cannot indeed say how much of all this -effect was owing to the contagious admiration of a circle of señors, who -had also come to the sanctuary for worship, preferring however, in all -good taste, truly to offer their devotions at the shrines of living -virgins in flesh and blood and moire antique, to that of a dead one in -tinsel and wax. Nor can I vouch for the effect of cascarilla -artistically applied; for these ladies are all allowed amateurs in its -use. I tried however, to forget all this--to enjoy by faith as well as -by sight; and I did succeed in bringing away with me an impression of -loveliness that would be an actual inheritance to an artist. - -From the Cathedral we drove to the somewhat incipient Paseo. It is an -unfinished sentence, yet prettily punctuated,--here by commas in the -shape of vine-porched cottages, there by a long dash of green fields; -now a parenthesis made by brackets of palm-trees including a little -bright piece of the bay, uttering itself in a low tone of voice; -presently an exclamation point, made of mounted cannon; and finally a -full architectural period at the end--the country house of Count -Somebody, or possibly of the Austrian Ambassador. - -I am not sorry that we leave by steamer to-night for Havana. Most -travellers, I believe, prefer Matanzas; but to me it lacks the chief -charm of its elder sister,--the quaintness and novelty, while I find -little to supply their place. Undoubtedly it is far more modern in its -spirit, and for a resident might have more social congeniality: but when -you consider that the sights are all seen; the heat so terrific that the -presentation of our letters of introduction becomes formidable; that -there is little left for us but a questionable amalgamation of American -and Spanish cookery, and unutterable suffocation in a room carefully -constructed to admit all of the sun and none of the air,--will you not -allow that in this instance a moderate, though possibly somewhat -habitual desire for change is fairly legitimate? - -_Havana, April 9th._--The hour of nine o’clock last night, if it had not -been totally blind with the darkness, would have seen us tumbling down -from the shore to one of the little row-boats that serve you up to the -waiting steamer for Havana. Learning that the cabins below were mere -dens, we all remained on deck till the clocks on shore struck eleven, -then twelve; then till the steamer began to manifest signs of life; then -until - - “The ship was cleared, - The harbor cleared, - Merrily we did drop - Below the kirk, below the hill, - Below the lighthouse top,” - -and we began to plunge in darkness and the broad ocean; and then one -little hour more for the moon to rise out of this black sepulchre like -its guardian ghost; we wait for it to say its say of beauty, and to -brighten the farewell we take of Mr. S----, who leaves in the morning -before we are awake, and whose constant kindness has been beyond return. - -Now at last we really go; and what think you is the way to the ladies’ -cabin? None other than directly through the gentlemen’s saloon, where -the occupants all lie in open berths, and in most ghostly states of -attire. I catch one glimpse of horizontal whiteness, draw my veil, seize -B----’s arm, eventuate at the farther end. Here numerous nasal -ebullitions (why will nobody submit to calling the thing snoring, if he -himself is the offender? - - “All men think all men” snorers “but themselves”) - -are exchanged for intimations of equally fabulous sea-sickness, and I -find myself safely arrived in the ladies’ cabin, where babies are -prevailing to a sleepless extent. - -Here my mattress, sheets, counterpane, are utterly ignored or forsworn -in a cane-bottomed berth. Without any unpinning or unhooking delay, I -follow the example of the groups of shady-faced ladies around me, not of -Christabel when - - “Her gentle limbs she did undress, - And lay down in her loveliness.” - -This morning, after a delightful slumber all the sweeter because -unexpected, I was awakened at daylight by a rattling of spoons, cups, -and saucers. It is my companions taking their cup of coffee,--that -inevitable potion without which you could never convince newly awakened -Cuban men and women of their personal identity, or of the possibility of -the world wagging one step farther. - -We had already been lying an hour or more in the bay of Havana. Very -soon all the passengers are gone but ourselves; we, the only foreigners, -are left alone to wait the hour when a volante can be obtained. B---- -goes as fast as possible to secure rooms at the hotel. One Chinese -waiter offers me milkless coffee; another bushy-headed antipode stands -in the door, with pail and mop in hand, waiting for me to go. At last, -with patience in a precarious condition, I rush out on one side of the -vessel to get out of the way, and I am driven thence by the observing -disposition of a swarthy man lying in his berth in a little vessel -moored next to our own: he leans on his coatless elbow with an air of -cool curiosity that is unendurable. Then I go to the other side, where -dirty drippings from the upper deck, suggest anew the superfluity of my -presence and drive me, this time fluctuating on the precincts of -ill-temper, out to the gentlemen’s cabin. Here I met B---- tired out -with looking for a volante, and the disappointment of not finding rooms -at Mrs. A----’s where we hoped to go for a change. - -At last, after a deal of English and Spanish nobody understands, and of -pantomimes that would have enlightened “blocks, and stones, and worse,” -etc., we find ourselves re-established at Queen’s Hotel, in a room -which, it is plain to see, if there were light enough in it to see -anything, was made for some uncompleted individual,--one in whom had -never been breathed the breath of life, or who had breathed it all out -again, with little hope of a second respiratory experiment. - -_Tuesday, April 10th._--Last night arrived a young Bostonian, who, like -ourselves, has been adventuring in the interior. He tells us he knows -well the young man who gave a well-known author on Cuba all the facts in -his book except the few the author learned personally. He says the -person is a great practical joker, and plumes himself on the humbugging -he achieved. - -The day has passed in farewell sight-seeings and shoppings, the latter -consisting mostly of the purchase of Spanish fans and linen dresses. And -now I am ready to part from Cuba with scarcely a regret, yet carrying -with me only fresh experiences and smiling memories. The sun in this -social as well as material firmament has been cloudless, or with only -rare veils to brighten its brightness. - -I have, it may be, hung on the walls of my life some new pictures, which -will help to keep it from the ravages of time, somewhat as the paintings -of Protogones saved the city of Rhodes from the destruction of its -enemies. - -I do not yet recover from the impression that I have committed a kind of -theft upon nature, or the almanacs, or the thermometers--or all of them; -for I have stolen and luxuriated in an extra summer; so that this -twice-flowered year is likely to be for me the impendingly pious - - “Next year after never, - When two Sundays come together” - -[Illustration] - - - -[Illustration] - - - - -IX. - - _A Discovery for the Benefit of Smugglers--The Steamer - Karnak--Adieu, Cuba!--An English Ship--Nassau--The Negro - Custom-officer--English Hotel--An Ex-President--What the Island is - and has--The Negro Element--The “Eastern Road”--The Air--The Beau - Monde--Turtle Houses._ - - -APRIL 11th. - -Last evening, after visits from nearly all our friends; after a long -walk in search of Spanish books, to find them much dearer than in New -York; after looking as a matter of curiosity at the diamonds which are -so lavishly displayed in the shops, to find them all singularly -yellow,--I retired to sleeplessness and suffocation in my air-tight -room. I awoke this morning with only life enough left in me to rejoice -in the prospect of the little sea-voyage before us. - -At ten comes Mr. R---- to accompany us to the wharf, where we found -other friends awaiting us, with row-boat and swarthy boatman ready to -carry us out to the steamer. - -And here, as a conscientious narrator of important and dignified -historical events, I have to record an item of experience, an -unintentional experiment, that possibly may be of service to future -female travellers. - -So soon as our volante reached the landing, the custom-house officer -appeared, received my keys, proceeded with official composure to examine -the trunks. But the instant the top of the first was raised, up popped, -most ferociously, in his face, a white skeleton--a hooped petticoat! At -the last moment I discovered it lying on the top of the wardrobe in the -hotel, and in great haste had stuffed it in the top of the trunk I was -locking. As you may guess, a general shout of laughter followed from the -watching bystanders and my friends, and I soon found my chagrin giving -way before the irresistibly funny scene, and joined in the merriment. -B---- took the thing, flourished it for my benefit, and crowded it back -again. He then pointed to the other trunks, but the nonplussed officer -solemnly shook his head, declaring himself quite satisfied. He expressed -doubts about our being people likely to carry contraband articles. -Hereafter, when you wish to smuggle cigars, linen, or guava jelly, you -have only to cram an apparition of this sort--a jack-in-the-box--in the -top of your trunk, and you are safe. - -But here we are at the steamer. Our friends come on deck; we sit talking -until the last moment arrives for setting sail; they descend the -step-ladder to the little boat, and their waving handkerchiefs are soon -lost among the shipping. - -A pretty, fair-haired girl sits near me, whom, from her resemblence to -the captain, I perceive to be his daughter. Presently she asks me to go -to the other end of the ship to see the anchor drawn up--always a -cheerful sight when fifteen or twenty ruddy Englishmen march regularly -round and round at the work, while the pleasant roundelay all sing -directs their movements. - -And now “the last link is broken which binds me to” this happy clime; we -float down through the winding bay; past ships of all nations; past our -favorite Cortina; the Punto; the Morro, that was the first to welcome -and is the last to leave us; and now the low shores are receding fast in -the distance, and the bright walls and brown tiles and pleasant friends -fade out again into the past and the forever. - -_Thursday, 12th._--We are glad of this opportunity to know a thoroughly -English ship-captain, officers, crew, custom, and discipline. Nothing -can be better fitted to inspire confidence than the fresh, honest, -intelligent face of Captain B----, with his rough sailor dress, and -manners whose bluffness cannot conceal the completely affable and -well-bred gentleman under them. - -The passengers are so few that we are beginning to know them all. -Various miscellaneous gentlemen of as many different nations; three or -four Spanish ladies and gentlemen, some with children and servants; -captain’s daughter and ourselves, complete the list. One of the -Spaniards, who is to leave wife and eldest son in New York while he -goes with the youngest son, a poor little sea-sick thing, to Germany, to -school, speaks English and French with some fluency, while--a not -unfrequent occurrence in Cuban families--the wife knows and cares only -for Spanish. He has been pronouncing difficult Spanish words to me while -his pretty wife laughs kindly at my attempts and helps him in his -self-appointed task. So what with this novel sociality and a summer sea -as beautiful and almost as calm as the sky, we get, instead of -sea-sickness, delicious sleep and rare gusto for this English roast -beef; instead of enervation, health that waxes with every hour. - -_Evening._--Nothing could be more enchanting than this air and sunshine, -this bright crystal sea, this gently-moving ship, this entire voyage. A -few low reefs and coral islands are becoming visible with our glasses; -also many vessels lying quietly here and there,--wreckers I am told, -which do a most flourishing business in these regions; indeed I learn -that wrecking is the chief and all-absorbing occupation of Nassau, for -which we are bound. - -If genuine storms and honest ignorance of these dangerous passages do -not supply a sufficient number of wrecks to satisfy the gambling tastes -of the wreckers, and of the merchants who make fortunes by their spoils, -it is found easy enough to make bargains with unprincipled captains, by -which, for a certain sum, a wreck can be achieved at a given time with -unfailing certainty. This is so managed that captain and wreckers shall -make a comfortable little speculation of the affair and nobody lose -anything except the all unsuspicious insurance company or the innocent -owners of the vessel. - -_Nassau, New Providence, Royal Victoria Hotel, April 13th._--After being -rocked gently to sleep, and then sung into deep slumbers all night by -these pure-voiced ocean nurses, I was awakened this morning by the -firing of guns announcing our entrance in the bay of Nassau. This city -is to be our destiny for the next month, at the end of which the next -regular steamer goes north. It is thought prudent to graduate in this -way the change from the heat of Havana to the probable cold of New York. - -We hung on deck to reconnoitre this little item of our future, and to -find ourselves anchored in the brightest, lightest possible pea-green -water, through which the clean, beautiful bottom is so clearly revealed, -that the numerous swarming boats seem to be floating in an atmosphere -only a little more dense and colored than the delicious nectar we are -breathing. - -While waiting for the inevitable custom-house officer, we lean over the -deck railing to watch this phantom loveliness, and the boatmen that are -urging us in English that sounds as droll as did the Spanish at first in -Havana, to buy their wares. These consist of the only exports of the -island,--sponges, bananas, pineapples; some of the larger boats have the -bottoms covered with living turtles, others are half full of huge conch -shells, or varieties of smaller shells arranged regularly in partitional -boxes. - -Presently the captain comes and points out the just arrived -custom-house officer, a regal-looking negro, dressed in uniform. While -B---- goes with him to examine the luggage, the captain shows us the -white pilot-boat from which one of his men was knocked overboard on the -last voyage, by the rough waves in this bay. The negroes who were rowing -him fled in affright: before help could arrive he had gone down for the -last time, and was never seen again. But a few days after, a shark was -caught and killed, and safely in his stomach lay the man’s hand, -immediately recognizable by the sleeve and cuff; beside it lay a goat’s -head and horns, and various other trophies of a shark’s victories. - -But now we must go: the boat waits for us here, and the hotel carriage -on shore. A farewell with our Spanish friends, by whose cards I find, as -I have before been informed, that the husband and wife in Cuba have -distinctly different names; the name on the card of one gives you no -clue to name or address of the other. - -An English carriage brought us up the English road, past the English -faces to the English-built hotel here on the hill, overlooking the -English town, the bright bay, and outstretched ocean that owe allegiance -to Her Majesty. Even the hotel belongs to the British government. - -The high upper parlor opens upon a piazza commanding a noble and -extensive view. While waiting here for my room,--its occupants go north -in this steamer,--a quiet, elderly gentleman, with much blandness and -benevolence in his not extraordinary face, entered, and sitting down by -the table addressed some kind and casual remarks, evidently intended to -make a stranger feel at home, while I, tired of this long silent sitting -and waiting, was glad enough of any change. On going down stairs I found -I had been conversing with ex-President P----, who has been here since -January for the health of his invalid wife, and also possibly to find a -place where he can escape being lionized, and enjoy the retired literary -leisure of which he is fond. - -At half-past two came dinner. It is so late in the season, that not more -than a dozen guests are left. Turtle soup of nicest and freshest quality -commenced the ceremony, turtle pie helped to continue it, so did turtle -steak, otherwise you might imagine yourself at an ordinary American -hotel except that beef and mutton, and ducks and chickens, appear in an -excellent state of mummification, as if they had all died of a lingering -consumption, and would severally assist us to follow their example. The -climate of the tropics is ill-adapted to our domestic animals. We are -told that the best American cows die here after a few months, even if -brought in the fall. Still it is a question, if want of care, and a -general shiftlessness in all matters of the sort, have not more sins of -animal murder to answer for than this delicious climate. The residents -confess as much. By the way, can you guess the proper, legitimate name -of the natives of New Providence? Not, as they are sometimes called, -“Bahamaites,” or “Nassauers,” or “West Indians,” but _Conchs_. - -This evening our first drive; pleasant, but exhausting, I much fear; all -that the island has of novelty or interest, measuring, as it does, only -fourteen miles in length and eight in width. In the first place, it is -not only founded upon a rock, but it _is_ a rock; the _debris_ of coral -reefs up to within a few inches of the surface. This surface is clothed -with a light soil, which in the country is clothed with a light verdure, -mostly of shrubs, briers, and weeds, interspersed here and there with -stray dwarfed palms and cocoas. Occasionally the curious cotton-tree is -found, with wide patriarchal branches covered with delicate green -leaves, or else with a long, large pod full of perfect cotton to all -appearances, perhaps intents, but not purposes, for it is proved to be -useless. The roots of this tree, doubtless for want of soil, grow very -much out of the ground, living in the air almost as much as the -branches. In the town and its suburbs, oranges, bananas, sabadillas, -mangoes, etc., are cultivated extensively, giving the whole place from a -distance the air of an inhabited garden. - -The streets and roads are a phenomenon. Every one is of solid rock -covered with some kind of cement most dazzling to the eyes in its -whiteness; so much so, that strangers are advised to never go out -without veils. I see many of the inhabitants wearing blue and green -glasses. But no rain or drought can affect them; never mud, never dust; -always as smooth and white and clean as the cement floors in the parlors -of Havana. - -I am more than anything else impressed with the quantity and quality of -the negro element. There are, according to statistics, eight black to -one white person, but in passing the streets you would suppose the -pepper to be more than the rule, and the salt less than the exception. -Bless me! how they bubble and swarm in every street, every corner, every -alley, every hut; to each man two women, to each woman at least a dozen -babies; and men, women, and children always idle, and intensely -contented with their idleness; fat, and lusty, and happy, and -good-for-nothing. I think no one can come from a slave country to this -without acknowledging the obtrusive difference, the increased appearance -of happiness; if jolly contentedness can be called so. And rapidly as -they increase in the States, no colored fertility can match this, where -babies are undoubtedly indigenous to the soil, cuticle though it is. -Every way I turn I expect to see a head just budding from the ground, -hands sprouting, wool germinating, or possibly a foot grown uppermost, -with the rest of the dawning body just bursting from the ground, and -like Milton’s hind, or calf, or some other quadruped in Eden, “pawing to -get free.” - -If I were to ask one of these bouncing negresses, as Willis did, what -curiosity or product peculiar to the island I could find to carry home, -I should unquestionably get the same answer,--except that his, being on -the island of Martinique, was in French,--“_Bien que les enfants. En -voulez-vous?_” - -_Saturday, April._--This evening a drive on the “Eastern Road,” the -Paseo of Nassau. - -I thought the air in Cuba unparalleled, but this is freer, purer; an -always fresh and warm-enough seabreeze. It has a richness, roundness, -completeness; it is not a thin, sharp, cutting melody, but a perfectly -elaborated harmony. In what a gentle, healing affectionate way it -possesses one, interpenetrating all the sensitive fevered fibres of the -lungs like a blessing, or like a spirit full of blessings, bringing with -it vitality, repose, and life! - -In our drive we met all the _beau monde_ of Nassau, the government -officers and families, with their always English faces and figures, -which are in strikingly redundant contrast with the consumptive -Americans seated up and down our hotel table. One thing assures me that -I am not in Spanish Cuba, with her tenacity for national customs and -habits; a tenacity for which I, coming from the shifting fancies of -Yankeedom, sincerely honor her. It is this: We are once more in a land -of gloves and bonnets. How stiff are these London exported bonnets -compared with those exquisitely graceful Spanish veils, or prettier -hair-ornamented Spanish heads; and as for the gloves, I can now -understand without surprise that when Cubans first saw foreigners -wearing gloves they supposed them used to hide some frightful blemish or -deformity. - -Our drive lay along the shore of this extraordinary bay, with its long -parallel lines of brightest, lightest blue and pea-green, contrasting -with the dark ultramarine purples and browns of all hues and densities, -sometimes shading into each other, again preserving themselves, in spite -of all republican efforts of the wind, clearly distinct. The cause of -this phenomenon, I am told, is still a disputed question among the -scientific. On the other side of the bay are built the cottages of -wreckers and fishermen, the latter including those who dive for sponges, -many of which we saw lying about in immense heaps; also those who dive -for conch shells, which are exported in large quantities to France to be -used in various artistic manufactures. The shores are covered with -superannuated and dilapidated conchs, bleaching in the sun and calcining -in the waves. - -Another novelty is the turtle houses, built of poles out in shallow -water, in such a way that the water can get freely in and out, while the -self-roofed crawlers do neither the one nor the other. - -[Illustration] - - - -[Illustration] - - - - -X. - - _The Military Church--The Zouave Costume--Sunday come - again--Twilight Rambles--The Kirk--Miscegenation--A Private - Misery--The Old Fort--Lazy Negroes--Wrecking--The Town - Library--Shopping--The Zouave Band--The Search for Coolness--The - Government House--Silver key--Buying Shellwork--Nassau grows - Purgatorial--Farewell to Nassau._ - - -SUNDAY, April 15th. - -One of the ladies having invited me to accompany her to the military -church, we started early, hoping to arrive in time for the military -music and procession, but both were over. Everybody was quietly -assembled in the church, a plain, old-fashioned building, with large -windows wide open, and between them numerous tablets and inscriptions. -Two clergymen officiated; the English officers occupied the front pews; -a few chance visitors besprinkled the body of the church, while thickly -packed in the background, or blackground, were the soldiers with tall, -fine forms, Moorish features, and jet-black skins. The gallery was also -filled by them; the services and hymns were played by their band, and -sung by their choir; all the colored people above and below responded -heartily from open prayer-books during the entire service, and listened -with intelligent interest to the sermon. This was a farewell discourse -from their young pastor of the last year: it was appropriate in spirit, -but so mouthed and mumbled that I scarcely comprehended a word of it. - -When, at last the services were over, the black soldiers,--for all the -soldiers on the island are black,--with their white officers, filed in a -long procession while performing certain military evolutions, and then -marched off to the music of a quiet march. - -A novel feature of all this was the quaint and picturesque Zouave -costume of the soldiers, which has within a few months been -adopted,--the bright red embroidered jacket, white sleeves, full blue -Turkish trousers, caught just below the knee into a leathern leggin -which half conceals the shoe; the pretty red cap, with a white turban -twisted gracefully around the crown, from which hangs a huge yellow silk -tassel,--all this entire wild and oriental dress harmonizes so -completely with these black, well-formed, often handsome faces and -stately forms, and with this gorgeous sunlight and tropical brightness -of coloring everywhere, that these soldiers seem things wholly unique -and original, beings born just as they are from the burning maternal -heart of this bounteous nature. How mean and modern these -Parisian-dressed men looked beside them! Never were stove-pipe hats so -high and stiff--mathematical tailoring so prim and prosaic and square -cut![A] - - [A] The Zouave costume having been so universally worn by soldiers of - the United States, since the above was written, it has, of course, - lost what was its greatest charm--its novelty. - -In every thing we constantly see the complete dissimilarity of the -islands of Cuba and New Providence, and in nothing more than in the -recognition of Sunday. A few hours’ sail floats you down through -centuries; from much poetry, it is true, alas! to much prose, but -nevertheless from the dark ages to one of civilization, and from a chain -of weeks linked together by no golden clasp into a country where one -seventh of the time the Presence comes so near that you can hear--if you -have ears to hear--the trailing of its robes down the dismal steps of -all the following week. - -_Monday, 16th._--Last evening we commenced a twilight ramble which -terminated at the kirk. - -As our walk had been a little long, we sat down to rest, before -arriving, on a little retired rock, commanding bay, city, and clouds of -perfumes from neighboring gardens. Presently a tremendous explosive -sound took place just behind us, and continued on in a perpetual -thundering till we came near being as much petrified as the rock under -us. I had only sense enough left to discover that it was undoubtedly the -church-bell inviting to the house of quiet. But why so tremendous a -summons? Is it to ring out the piety of the entire island? or to break -into shivering fragments the after-dinner naps of the church-goers? or -to deafen them in defence of the stupid sermon to come? or perchance it -may be to call the mermaids and respectable shell-conchs, and other -residents of the surrounding vasty deep? With my questions still -unanswered, we arose to go, and on turning the first corner found that -close behind the wall where we had been sitting, in a little low shelter -for the purpose, situated in the remotest corner of the church grounds, -was the ordinary-sized bell, that had seemed terrifically loud, not from -its size, but from its proximity. Why this wretched attempt at a -campanile is preferred to our method of enthroning the bell on the -pinnacle of the temple, I cannot divine. - -The kirk we found even plainer and less tasteful than the established -church of the morning. The noble-faced but prosy clergyman, a -Presbyterian in gown and scarf of the Episcopal clergy; the excellent -though a little shrill-voiced choir, composed entirely of mulattoes. -Just before services began, a handsome lady, well dressed, and whiter -than myself, walked into one of the central pews, followed by a tall, -equally well dressed and perfectly black husband. This is the only -negation of races I have seen, and I cannot tell if it is often -paralleled. - -_Monday evening._--I impart to you a private piece of misery. My windows -overlook, and, still worse, overlisten the poultry yard, where -med-_lays_ and _mêlèes_ and sound-_lays_ make the “nights hideous,” as -well as the mornings. The reason is, these West Indian chickens have no -respect for almanacs. They not only ignore the comings and goings of the -sun, but they have no shadow of respect for his definite intentions -that everybody should sleep in his absence. In short, which means in -long, very long, they crow all night, insisting on waking at eleven -o’clock to inform me that the daylight has gone, just as conscientiously -as at one to assert that it is coming, and at four to suggest that it -has just arrived. The geese, the turkeys, the guinea-hens, and, most -vociferous of all, the ducks, are equally assiduous in performing their -vocal responsibilities. No wonder they turn to universal lungs and come -on the table pathetic carcasses, painful relics, poultryitic proof that -bipeds fare best when sound is sacrificed to substance. - -A drive this evening on the “Western Road,” which, like all the other -roads, is of smooth solid rock. It lies along the sea shore, where -shells are said to abound; but my enthusiasm, as well as feet, was sadly -dampened by fruitless searchings on the sharp wave-riddled rocks, and -the equally infertile sand-beach. - -A little way out of town stand the curious ruins of a fort, built by the -Spaniards when they possessed this island; for you must know, it was -handed about from one government to another, changing hands half a dozen -times or more before England could get a secure hold. Victoria now finds -it a constant drain on her treasury, but, good mother that she is! her -feeble children are nourished and supported with no less fidelity than -that with which the strong ones sustain her. - -The fort is circular, with a curious pointed, perfectly solid wing on -one side, the design of which nobody can now discover. Another fort, -built by the Spaniards on the hill opposite my window, has the same -singular appendage, which is, however, well preserved and appropriated -to some military use. - -The ruined fort which we passed possesses a subterranean passage, -leading to the government house, in which are numerous mysterious -apartments, having the always-attractive reputation of being haunted. At -various times, various ladies and gentlemen have undertaken to penetrate -them, but these irreverent pursuers of spirits under difficulties are -always summarily dismissed by the inhospitable ghost. - -Farther on, we found numerous desolated plantations, presided over by -dilapidated country houses. It is universally found, that since the -emancipation of the slaves, some thirty years since, the impoverished -owners are obliged to abandon their estates. - -The negroes now cannot be coaxed or hired or driven to work more than is -absolutely necessary to keep soul and body from a divorce. No public -improvements have been built since the emancipation. It is doubtless -true that the wrecking trade, which of late years is become so -flourishing, has, in its speculating, I may say gambling, influences, -had a tendency to destroy legitimate industry. What is the use of -working their black fingers to the bone, when any day an ill wind may -blow them enough good or goods to make everybody rich? when any wind -that is good for anything, and knows what it is about, comes to them -dressed in silks and satins of the latest fashion, sometimes with a -Paris bonnet on its head, sometimes loaded with jewelry which it lays -at their feet, and begs they will be good enough to accept as a present. - -_April 17th._--The town library is well filled with books, excellently -bound, none of them in paper or muslin. It has also a respectable number -of curiosities; there we pass a pleasant early morning hour. - -To-day my first shopping excursion in Havana. We heard enticing accounts -of the great bargains to be made here, not only in wrecked goods, but in -English importations free of duty. I found, however, nothing of the -sort; on the contrary, heaps of wrecked and damaged goods lying about -the doors of the shops, or strewn upon the sidewalks; mostly sell as -high as the same thing uninjured in New York. - -These merchants are constantly in the practice of wetting and wilting -their superannuated goods in salt water and then displaying them as -wrecked articles, thus imposing on foreigners and ignorant customers, -who suppose that, as a matter of course, they are making “stunning -bargains.” - -After dinner, like everybody else, we drove to hear the Zouave band. On -Tuesday and Friday afternoons they find themselves the centre of a large -admiring carriage audience. On benches ranged immediately around them, -are seated crowds of colored nurses with English infants, while older -children are running and playing everywhere with the sweet inexhaustible -happiness which children find in every clime under the sun. - -These Africans play operatic music with expression as well as -precision. Like all the negroes of these English islands, they are -taught reading, writing, and the elements of an ordinary school -education. The surgeon of the army tells me that their ready emotional -nature and quickness for time and tune, nearly atone for the, to them, -unattainable intellectual and artistic culture ordinarily necessary to -the full expression of these musical compositions. - -We everywhere find coolness the thing most sought by these adopted -children of the sun. Witness their universal white linen umbrellas to -whose blinding glare no coolness could ever reconcile me. Witness also -the prevailing thick, white flannel coats, vests, and trousers worn by -the gentlemen as a morning and business dress. In a country where dust -and mud are matters of merely books and faith, and where perspiration is -a matter for draughts of air to manufacture fevers of, this soft, cool, -non-conducting dress has its advantages. - -As we were coming out from tea this evening, General P---- called over -the bannisters to know if we were ready for the usual game of whist. We -found him in the upper parlor, seated opposite the rocking-chair, which -nobody will occupy at whist but myself. I find in him qualities not -often combined in a whist-player,--scientific skill, and what I am far -more capable of appreciating, patience and kind encouragement for the -mistakes of his partner. - -_Wednesday evening, April 17th._--This morning the General knocked at -our door to say that the United States Consul would be here at -half-past three, with his carriage, to carry us up to the Government -House, this being the reception day of Mrs. B----, its mistress. We -went, accordingly, to find the walks and house filled with coming and -going guests. On sending in cards we were at once ushered into the -drawing-room, where was her ladyship seated in one corner of a sofa, -without crinoline, which she has never worn. There is character for you! -Her dress and cap were of some gauzy material tinctured with purple; the -same color looked from the underside of her point lace collar and cuffs, -and after my turn was over for commonplaces, I had leisure, or seized it -from the stupid conversation of Doctor somebody on the other side of me, -to discover that the lady’s face was full of culture and spirit, and -that her high-toned guests perfectly agreed with me in the opinion. A -grand piano occupied one side of the octagon room, its polished feet, -like those of its mistress, standing upon a bare, shining oak floor; the -wide open windows commanded a triple view of sea, valley, and forest. As -we came out Mr.----, the graceful bachelor consul, registered our names -in a book kept for the purpose and then brought us home. - -_Friday, April 20th._--A boat ride yesterday morning, followed by a long -exhausting walk on the bare beach of Hog Island, which lies stretched -out in front of Nassau for the apparent purpose of making a harbor. All -this fatigued out of me every writing possibility. But to-day we sailed -delightfully over to Silver Key, one of the many uninhabited little -islands that lie within a few hours’ sail of Nassau. The gentlemen were -obliged to wade from the boat to the shore; the ladies were curiously -carried in the arms of the sailors. But we soon forgot the awkwardness -of this novel locomotion in the exciting pleasure of collecting the -pretty shells, corals, sea-fans, and sea-stars, with which we loaded our -pockets, pocket-handkerchiefs, and the arms of the sailors and -gentlemen. - -Our sailors insist that all these little islands still contain gold and -silver, buried long ago by the pirates, who first of all discovered and -inhabited them. It is true that a fruitless expedition from the United -States once came to make search. - -As we passed down the bay, we had a new view of the two or three -“slavers” that lie at anchor. One of them was years ago tossed on the -shore and nearly wrecked by a tornado. The others are noble ships left -deserted to waste and decay in the storms and sunshine. They are fair -but doomed and desolate monuments of a foul traffic, and of a silent -wrath which corrodes their falling masts and haunts like black ghosts -their misery-memoried cells. - -_April 21st._--This afternoon looking for shell-work, for which Nassau -is famous. Among other manufactures, we found two maiden sisters living -alone in a little rose-vined cottage. The room was full of natural -curiosities, drawings, and a variety of handiwork discoursing decided -taste and talent. They sold me some very curious sponges and sea-fans, -and kindly gave me a spirited drawing in water colors, representing a -native woman carrying her baby in a bag on her back, according to a -very general custom here. We found these maidens truly intelligent and -polite. Since our return we learn that their mother was a perfectly -black negro, their father formerly a governor of the island. - -We ended our drive by visiting a famous banyan-tree, and by an attempt -to stretch it, which hordes of provokingly critical mosquitoes -frustrated. This tree most commonly grows as a parasite on the Pride of -India, a fine native tree, which is often at last hugged to death by its -_soi-distant_ friend. - -Returned home after dark, past cottages and country-houses in which not -a single light was burning, a precautionary defence against mosquitoes. - -_May 7th._--All these languid days a constant south wind, bringing -intense incapacity for every effort. My pen, a seldom skipping -grasshopper, is indeed become a burden; it refuses to help me “lift the -weight of the superincumbent hour,” even for you. - -Our second week here made to us the fatal revelation that Nassau had -exhausted its claims to interest. Since that time the heat alone has -been enough to legitimize its claim to being a mild Purgatory, from -which no prayers, penances, or even money could release us, there being -no escape except by the monthly steamer. - -A few pleasant events, it is true, have medicated this ennui. Amongst -them was a musical soiree, for which General P---- procured us tickets, -an amateur affair for benevolent purposes. It had a charming duett or -two on the harp and piano, one on the cornet, extremely graceful. Then -there was an evening out to tea; then there were a few kindly lent -books. But the crowning event was the welcome advent of the steamer on -its way to Havana, once more establishing us in a world from which we -seem to have been vanished a century. It brought fresh news, fresh -letters, fresh promises of home. - -Floods of rain came too, at last, drowning out the heat, baptizing these -air-gormandizing trees, filling the drained wells with assurances that -we will not just now - - “Die of thirst with all the waters near.” - -It is a curious fact that the tide rises and falls regularly every day -in these wells. With the exception of one or two small lakes in the -interior, no other water is found on the island, which may help to -explain the fact that it had no indigenous animals. - -_Thursday night, May 10th._--I sit alone by the waxen taper in my room -to write my parting with Nassau--to end for the present my -pen-peregrinations. But I fear I cannot muster one decorous sigh for the -occasion. Everybody is going; there will be many partings but few -farewells. I will leave with you and with memory those tropical -experiences, knowing that, whatever _you_ may do with them, memory is -like all other sextons--he buries more than he exhumes. The full-packed -trunks, carpet-bags, and boxes of curiosities around me, are welcome -reminders that early to-morrow morning the good ship Karnak will -breathe a welcome breath through her two great red nostrils and will -wind and puff her way around the lighthouse in search of us. - -THE END. - - * * * * * - -[Illustration] - - - - A Catalogue of - BOOKS - ISSUED BY - CARLETON, - NEW YORK. - - [Illustration] - - Madison Square, - _corner of_ - 5th Avenue and Broadway. - - 1870. - - - -[Illustration] - - “_There is a kind of physiognomy in the titles - of books no less than in the faces of - men, by which a skilful observer - will know as well what to expect - from the one as the - other._”--BUTLER. - - - -[Illustration] - - - NEW BOOKS - And New Editions Recently Issued by - CARLETON, Publisher, New York, - [Madison Square, corner Fifth Av. and Broadway.] - - - N. B.--THE PUBLISHERS, upon receipt of the price in advance, will - send any of the following Books by mail, POSTAGE FREE, to any part - of the United States. This convenient and very safe mode may be - adopted when the neighboring Booksellers are not supplied with the - desired work. State name and address in full. - - -Marion Harland’s Works. - - ALONE.-- A novel 12mo. cloth, $1.50 - HIDDEN PATH.-- do. do. $1.50 - MOSS SIDE.-- do. do. $1.50 - NEMESIS.-- do. do. $1.50 - MIRIAM.-- do. do. $1.50 - THE EMPTY HEART.-- do. do. $1.50 - HELEN GARDNER’S WEDDING-DAY.-- do. $1.50 - SUNNYBANK.-- do. do. $1.50 - HUSBANDS AND HOMES.-- do. do. $1.50 - RUBY’S HUSBAND.-- do. do. $1.50 - PHEMIE’S TEMPTATION.--_Just Published._ do. $1.50 - - -Miss Muloch. - - JOHN HALIFAX.--A novel. With illustration. 12mo. cloth, $1.75 - A LIFE FOR A LIFE.-- do. do. $1.75 - - -Charlotte Bronte (Currer Bell). - - JANE EYRE.-- A novel. With illustration. 12mo. cloth, $1.75 - THE PROFESSOR. - do. do. do. $1.75 - SHIRLEY. - do. do. do. $1.75 - VILLETTE.-- do. do. do. $1.75 - - -Hand-Books of Society. - - THE HABITS OF GOOD SOCIETY; thoughts, hints, and anecdotes, - concerning nice points of taste, good manners, and the art - of making oneself agreeable. 12mo. cloth, $1.75 - - THE ART OF CONVERSATION.--A sensible and instructive work, - that ought to be in the hands of every one who wishes to - be either an agreeable talker or listener. 12mo. cloth, $1.50 - - ARTS OF WRITING, READING, AND SPEAKING.--An excellent book - for self-instruction and improvement. 12mo. cloth, $1.50 - - HAND-BOOKS OF SOCIETY.--The above three choice volumes - bound in extra style, full gilt ornamental back, uniform in - appearance, and in a handsome box. $5.00 - - - - -Mrs. Mary J. Holmes’ Works. - - LENA RIVERS. A novel. 12mo. cloth, $1.50 - DARKNESS AND DAYLIGHT.-- do. do. $1.50 - TEMPEST AND SUNSHINE.-- do. do. $1.50 - MARIAN GREY.-- do. do. $1.50 - MEADOW BROOK.-- do. do. $1.50 - ENGLISH ORPHANS.-- do. do $1.50 - DORA DEANE.-- do. do. $1.50 - COUSIN MAUDE.-- do. do. $1.50 - HOMESTEAD ON THE HILLSIDE.-- do. do. $1.50 - HUGH WORTHINGTON.-- do. do. $1.50 - THE CAMERON PRIDE.-- do. do. $1.50 - ROSE MATHER.-- do. do. $1.50 - ETHELYN’S MISTAKE.--_Just Published._ do. do. $1.50 - - -Miss Augusta J. Evans. - - BEULAH.-- A novel of great power. 12mo. cloth, $1.75 - MACARIA.-- do. do. do. $1.75 - ST. ELMO.-- do. do. do. $2.00 - VASHTI.-- do. do. _Just Published._ do. $2.00 - - -Victor Hugo. - - LES MISÉRABLES.--The celebrated novel. One large 8vo volume, - paper covers, $2.00; cloth bound, $2.50 - LES MISÉRABLES.--Spanish. Two vols., paper, $4.00; cl., $5.00 - JARGAL.--A new novel. 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Illustrated. $2.00 - - -Typographical errors corrected by the etext transcriber: - -makes everbody walk=> makes everybody walk {pg 12} - -she maried Serrano=> she married Serrano {pg 22} - -Whatever chance leads your steps=> Wherever chance leads your steps {pg -27} - -a Nothern mother=> a Northern mother {pg 35} - -acceped our invitation=> accepted our invitation {pg 38} - -for his amibility=> for his amiability {pg 47} - -she purshased her freedom=> she purchased her freedom {pg 57} - -when an appreciative señor find a pretty=> when an appreciative señor -finds a pretty {pg 57} - -with permissien from the major domo=> with permission from the major -domo {pg 61} - -trees of the the country=> trees of the country {pg 61} - -the sweetnes of their welcome=> the sweetness of their welcome {pg 62} - -have occured on this plantation=> have occurred on this plantation {pg -63} - -tremor is forgetten=> tremor is forgotten {pg 65} - -not to dissappoint=> not to disappoint {pg 75} - -under ones eyelids=> under one’s eyelids {pg 68} - -jolly priest posesses=> jolly priest possesses {pg 74} - -image some mothers’s soul=> image some mother’s soul {pg 77} - -our enthusiam=> our enthusiasm {pg 77} - -and several overseeers=> and several overseers {pg 80} - -carressed by the soft=> caressed by the soft {pg 83} - -vertigo or apolexy=> vertigo or apoplexy {pg 91} - -the major dome=> the major domo {pg 94} - -To Matanazs=> To Matanazas {pg 97} - -entirely a feminine accomplisment=> entirely a feminine accomplishment -{pg 102} - -lady aquaintance=> lady acquaintance {pg 103} - -occurence in Cuban families=> occurrence in Cuban families {pg 116} - -measuring, as it does, only fourteen feet in length and eight in width=> -measuring, as it does, only fourteen miles in length and eight in width -{pg 120} - -sincerly honor her=> sincerely honor her {pg 122} - -an ameteur affair=> an amateur affair {pg 134} - - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Rambles in Cuba, by Anonymous - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RAMBLES IN CUBA *** - -***** This file should be named 50196-0.txt or 50196-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/0/1/9/50196/ - -Produced by WebRover, Chris Curnow, Chuck Greif and the -Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net -(This file was produced from images generously made -available by The Internet Archive) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license - - -Title: Rambles in Cuba - -Author: Anonymous - -Release Date: October 13, 2015 [EBook #50196] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RAMBLES IN CUBA *** - - - - -Produced by WebRover, Chris Curnow, Chuck Greif and the -Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net -(This file was produced from images generously made -available by The Internet Archive) - - - - - - -</pre> - -<hr class="full" /> - -<p class="figcenter"> -<a href="images/cover_lg.jpg"> -<img src="images/cover.jpg" width="267" height="450" alt="cover -image not available" /></a> -</p> - -<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="" -style="border: 2px black solid;margin:auto auto;max-width:50%; -padding:1%;"> -<tr><td><p>Some typographical errors have been corrected; -<a href="#transcrib">a list follows the text</a>.<br /> -Archaic usages in English and incorrect spellings of Spanish have not been corrected.</p> - -<p class="c"><a href="#CONTENTS">Contents.</a></p> -<p class="c">(etext transcriber's note)</p></td></tr> -</table> - -<p><a name="page_3" id="page_3"></a></p> - -<p class="figcenter"> -<img src="images/i_title.png" width="450" height="167" alt="decorative image not available" /> -</p> - -<h1>RAMBLES IN CUBA.</h1> - -<p class="c"><img src="images/colophon.png" -width="50" -height="35" -alt="colophon not available" -/><br /><br /><br /> -NEW YORK:<br /> -<i>Carleton, Publisher, Madison Square.</i><br /> -<small>LONDON: S. LOW, SON & CO.<br /> -MDCCCLXX.<a name="page_4" id="page_4"></a><br /> -<br /><br /> -Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1870, by<br /> - -GEORGE W. CARLETON,<br /> - -In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District<br /> -of New York.<br /> -<br /> -Stereotyped at<br /> -<span class="smcap">The Women’s Printing House</span>,<br /> -Eighth Street and Avenue A,<br /> -New York.</small></p> - -<p><a name="page_5" id="page_5"></a></p> - -<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS.</h2> - -<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="" -style="margin:auto auto;max-width:80%;"> - -<tr><th align="center" colspan="2"><a href="#I">I.</a></th></tr> - -<tr><td> </td><td><span class="smcap">Page</span></td></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top" class="hang">In the Tropics—First View of Havana—Entering the Bay—Surrounded—Landed—A -Street in Havana—“Queen’s Hotel”—A Breakfast—The -Harbor—The Coolies—The Plaza de Armas—Cuban Women—A -Volante—Fine Avenues—A Priest—Shopping</td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_7">7</a></td></tr> - -<tr><th align="center" colspan="2"><a href="#II">II.</a></th></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top" class="hang">Celebrating a Victory—General Serrano—A Cuban Sacristan—His View of -Mary Magdalene—Sunday—The Theatre de Tacon—General Serrano’s -Wife—A “Norther”—The Fish Market—Brilliancy of the Fish—A -Venerable Cosmopolite—The Slaves—The Chain Gang—The Cerro—A -Count’s Country-house—No Twilight—Oranges—Polyglot Dinner—Lottery -Ticket</td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_17">17</a></td></tr> - -<tr><th align="center" colspan="2"><a href="#III">III.</a></th></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top" class="hang">Drive to the Sea-shore—Evening Boat-ride—Splendor of the Waters—Campo -del Marte—Low Mass—The “Madonna”—Beautiful Children—Church -of San Filipo—Sacred Names—The Mount of Jesus—Corruption -of the Clergy—Cuba Misrepresented in Books—Growing “used -to it”—A Creole—Cascarilla—Warm Weather—The Cortina</td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_30">30</a></td></tr> - -<tr><th align="center" colspan="2"><a href="#IV">IV.</a></th></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top" class="hang">Departing Guests—The Varieties—On Board, but not Gone—No Chimneys—Dog-Pails—Horses’ -Tails—Tall Negroes—Ecclesiastical Torchlight -Procession—Watchmen—Leaving Havana—In the Country—Stopped—Seeking -a Breakfast—A Cuban Village—A Primitive Well—A -Peculiar Palm—Guiness—Our Quarters therein</td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_45">45</a></td></tr> - -<tr><th align="center" colspan="2"><a href="#V">V.</a></th></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top" class="hang">A Palm-grove—A Planter’s Household—Coolies as compared with Negroes—Anecdotes -of Coolies—Robbers—Heterogeneous Dinner—Creole -Politeness<a name="page_6" id="page_6"></a></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_60">60</a></td></tr> - -<tr><th align="center" colspan="2"><a href="#VI">VI.</a></th></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top" class="hang">“Nice pretty House in the Country”—Wrong Side of the Horse—Discovery -in Mental Photography—Visit to the Country-house—Not to be obtained—Contrast -of Palms and Bamboos—The Youth of Tropical Nature—A -Remarkable Phenomenon—House of the Marquis of V—— — “Le -Armistad”—Burial of an Officer’s Child—A Shock—“Cafetal”—“La -Providencia”—A Sugar Plantation—The “Royal Highway”—A -Grand View</td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_67">67</a></td></tr> - -<tr><th align="center" colspan="2"><a href="#VII">VII.</a></th></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top" class="hang">It Rains—The Effect—No Miserere—Guirappa-seeking—A Skeleton -Horse—B——’s Pantomimes—A Day More—The Bells of Guiness—Market -Day—An Invitation—Another Plantation—A Remarkable -Tree—Palm-Sunday—A Sundayless World—Dreamland—I Didn’t -Smoke—Cushioned Heads</td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_84">84</a></td></tr> - -<tr><th align="center" colspan="2"><a href="#VIII">VIII.</a></th></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top" class="hang">Dear old Mr. R—— — Chess and Whist and Life—Good Friday—A Religious -Procession—The Silence of the Town—The Miserere—To Matanzas—Company -in the Cave—Father M——’s approach to Matanzas—The -Bay—Valley of the Yumuri—The Plaza—The Dominica—The -Ensor House—Easter Sunday—The Paseo—Steamer to Havana—A -Night on Board—“Queen’s Hotel”—Tricks on a Travelling Author—Theft -on the Almanac</td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_97">97</a></td></tr> - -<tr><th align="center" colspan="2"><a href="#IX">IX.</a></th></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top" class="hang">A Discovery for the Benefit of Smugglers—The Steamer Karnak—Adieu, -Cuba!—An English Ship—Nassau—The Negro Custom-officer—English -Hotel—An Ex-President—What the Island is and has—The Negro -Element—The “Eastern Road”—The Air—The Beau Monde—Turtle -Houses</td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_113">113</a></td></tr> - -<tr><th align="center" colspan="2"><a href="#X">X.</a></th></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top" class="hang">The Military Church—The Zouave Costume—Sunday come again—Twilight -Rambles—The Kirk—Miscegenation—A Private Misery—The -Old Fort—Lazy Negroes—Wrecking—The Town Library—Shopping—The -Zouave Band—The Search for Coolness—The Government -House—Silver Key—Buying Shellwork—Nassau grows Purgatorial—Farewell -to Nassau</td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_124">124</a></td></tr> -</table> - -<p><a name="page_7" id="page_7"></a></p> - -<h1>RAMBLES IN CUBA.</h1> - -<h2><a name="I" id="I"></a> -<img src="images/i_007.png" width="450" height="64" alt="decorative image not available" /> -<br />I.</h2> - -<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang"><i>In the Tropics—First View of Havana—Entering the -Bay—Surrounded—Landed—A Street in Havana—“Queen’s Hotel”—A -Breakfast—The Harbor—The Coolies—The Plaza de Armas—Cuban -Women—A Volante—Fine Avenues—A Priest—Shopping.</i></p></div> - -<p class="r"> -<span class="smcap">Havana</span>, March 1, 18—.<br /> -</p> - -<p class="hang"><span class="letra"> -<img src="images/letr_t.png" -width="60" -height="59" -alt="T" -class="dropcap" -/></span>HE first dawn of day found me already on deck, to assure myself we had -really arrived at the shores of a tropical-world.</p> - -<p>I was not disenchanted. A mist had possessed, like a dream, the blue -quiet of the entire bay, half dissolving its masts and sails, softening -the picturesque battlements of Morro Castle, throwing over the walls, -domes, and spires of the city an air of hoary distance so complete that -I half fancied those solitary palm-trees waved their arms over some city -half-buried in the mirage of deserts, or the pages of some mediæval -romance.<a name="page_8" id="page_8"></a></p> - -<p>But the dream departs, and so must we. Stirring music from the two -men-of-war lying at anchor unite with the first sounds from the long, -low barracks close by, and with the signal guns from the Morro, to say -that the sun is risen, and consequently we may go on shore.</p> - -<p>First comes the pilot,—a stout Spaniard in supernaturally white -trousers and inexplicably thick overcoat. He sits under the awning of -his boat, and is rowed by twelve bronze, attenuated creoles, dressed in -wide-mouthed jackets, bare feet, much hair,—a few wearing turbans.</p> - -<p>The steps are lowered; the pilot comes on deck, says good-morning to the -captain, in dislocated English, and goes forward to his duty.</p> - -<p>We make the difficult entrance of the bay, to find ourselves assailed by -every species of small craft. All have awnings, are rowed by negroes, -black to hyperbole (B—— says coal would make a white mark on them), or -by coolies, or creoles; and all are importuning us, with frantic -gestures, imploring or menacing looks, bad Spanish or worse English, to -let them carry us ashore.</p> - -<p>Here come boats laden with oranges, or shells, corals, and sponges for -sale; there a pocket edition of a steamboat brings the -health-officer,—without whose inspection no one can come here, even for -his health,—and presently a more elegantly ornamented boat, with -oarsmen in livery, brings the Captain-General’s aid-de-camp, dressed as -if freshly emerged from a Paris bandbox, and anxiously inquiring if -<a name="page_9" id="page_9"></a>there is news from Spain. Captain —— replies that there is a victory -over the Moors, and that he brings important dispatches from the Spanish -minister at Washington, which he must deliver in person. Therewith he -accompanies the officer to the Government House, the bundle of documents -under his arm.</p> - -<p>Meanwhile the passengers are in great perplexity what hotel to go to, -and I am beginning to feel that sense of desolation and isolation so -natural to a stranger in a strange land, when B—— appears, bringing a -gentleman with a kindly English face, and introduces Mr. S——. At once -we are at home and in safe hands. His boat waits for us. In five minutes -we are in the Custom House to get a permit in exchange for our passports -(for both an enormous fee is demanded), and to await the luggage. This -is soon ranged on great tables before us; all the trunks are opened at -once; travellers, servants, Spaniards, negroes, anybody, as well as the -officials, can critically inspect the mysteries of ladies’ linen and -laces.</p> - -<p>The hotel being distant but a block, we walk in the street. A Cuban lady -would as soon think of walking a rope, and would do it as well.</p> - -<p>Do not figure to yourself Broadway: when I talk of a street in Havana, I -mean a fissure; an opening, in extremely straitened circumstances, -between two stone walls, which the Cubans, being diminutive people, are -able to get through. The sidewalks are in proportion. By dint of -cautious and careful attention to the exigencies of my centre of -gravity, I was able much of the time to get a foothold on<a name="page_10" id="page_10"></a> the outer -edge of them, while my crinoline, repulsed by the wall on one side, -attracted in self-defence Mr. S——, who walked down in the street on -the other.</p> - -<p>We have not even time to glance at the inconceivable novelties on every -hand, for “Queen’s Hotel”, the first English sign we have seen, is here -over the arched gateway. We walk through an open passage leading to the -court, and up the marble steps to an elegant saloon. This hotel, like -every other in the city, is overflowing; so we are obliged to take, for -a few days, “the room behind the curtain;” that is, one end of the -parlor, with only a calico wall between our prospective sleep and the -rows—not groups—of English, Irish, French, but mostly American guests. -I say rows, because the chairs here are always placed in two straight -lines in front of the long open windows, thus bringing their occupants -in a perpetual <i>vis-à-vis</i>.</p> - -<p>Meantime, Creole and negro waiters are bringing in breakfast to the -adjoining room, which, is partitioned from the airy courtyard only by -high arches and pillars. Every thing looks temptingly fresh and -clean,—quite the reverse of all we have heard of the filth and bad -cooking of Cuba. Fried fruits in great variety, numerous mosaics from -the animal, vegetable, and I know not what kingdoms of nature, of which -I can only remember the name <i>picadille</i>, vary the bill of fare. <i>Café -au lait</i> comes in after breakfast is over.</p> - -<p><i>Night.</i>—All day guns have been firing, flags flying from balconies, -windows, and housetops, and<a name="page_11" id="page_11"></a> endless preparations for a grand -illumination to-night in honor of the victory.</p> - -<p>This afternoon we took the steam ferry across the bay, to get a view of -the harbor decked with its flags, and to see the sugar storehouses on -the other shore.</p> - -<p>This is our first sight of coolies in native costume and usual Cuban -occupation. They look not only small, but weak, and extremely feminine -in face and form. They are mostly naked to the waist, where some sort of -a sash confines short loose trousers, and, in the boys, nothing at all. -The faces, more cheerful and adroit in expression than those of the -negroes, are of a brown reddish hue, as if the light came upon them from -a bright copper sun.</p> - -<p>To-night we walked to the Plaza de Armas. It is filled with trees, four -of them palms, and with blooming flowers, mostly large, brilliant, -odorless, and unknown to me. During all this time, the band played -sweetly from the opera of Lucia de Lammermoor, and swarthy, moustached -and cigared men, and gaudily-dressed and ill-walking ladies, promenaded -round and round the walks, while their carriages waited outside the -gates.</p> - -<p>How opaque are these faces! The outside is well enough, admirably -chiselled and toned, but it does not hint of anything behind. They too -often lack the only beautiful features that can be in a man’s -face,—intellect and sensibility. I wonder where Cuban people keep their -souls! Yet for all that, this is a scene of enchantment,—the intense -light in those stars, buried so deep in the intense blue; the dazzling<a name="page_12" id="page_12"></a> -brightness of the vertical moon, that makes everybody walk upon his own -shadow; the pure breeze, coming fresh from over the sea; the many lights -from the palace balconies, revealing high, open windows, and through -them gay forms and foreign aspects.</p> - -<p><i>Friday, March 2.</i>—This morning stayed in my room to rest, for I have -commenced with too large doses of the tropics. But who can rest in the -midst of thunderings like these,—guns, bands of music, shouts of -rejoicing? I hope the Spaniards will not gain any more victories over -the Moors until I get away from them.</p> - -<p>This evening my first ride in a volante. Cuba is more Spanish than Spain -itself: for here we have the quaint, the characteristic Spain; the Spain -as it was when Don Quixote created it and was created by it; the Spain -isolated; the Spain which Paris and European civilization have little -touched or tainted; the Spain which, in want of religion, has the -absence of progression. But these grotesque volantes! They strike me as -something saved whole out of the general change and wreck of the past. -They consist of two long shafts, with a little low-seated and low-topped -kind of a <i>tête-à-tête</i> at one end, which usually contains three bright, -gauzy clouds, enveloping three plump, dark-eyed ladies in bare head, -neck, and arms,—the youngest and prettiest always between and a little -in front of the other two. At the other end of the shafts is fastened a -minute horse; his tail is carefully braided, and tied with a string to -the left side of the saddle, upon which sits,<a name="page_13" id="page_13"></a> the postillion, in boots -and livery. Sometimes a second horse is added, upon which the postillion -sits to guide the first; but this is superfluous, and merely, like the -rich mountings of silver on the horse and volante, to display the wealth -of the owner.</p> - -<p>The gait of these horses is peculiar and indescribable. It is not a -trot, nor a pace, nor a canter, but a kind of combination of all, and -disdainful avoidance of each. It is a parody on quadrupedal -peripatetics. They are born to it. It is hereditary. It never entered -into the head—or rather feet—of a Cuban Rozinante, that there are -horses in the world not orthodox in this mode of locomotion. It gives -the rider, too, the most ridiculous motion imaginable,—as if the saddle -were a cushion, but a pin-cushion, with the pins stuck the wrong way.</p> - -<p>Mr. S——, who accompanied us, said, on our return, that, when paying -the <i>callisero</i>, he asked him if he had an <i>escudo</i> in change. “Oh, -yes!” said the darkey, and took the coin out of his ear.</p> - -<p>We drove at once past the walls of the city, upon the <i>Paseo de Isabel -Segunda</i> and the <i>Paseo Tacon</i>,—said to be the finest avenues in this -hemisphere,—with their five or six rows of magnificent palms, their -smooth, broad roads, statues, fountains, and gardens, and, far in the -distance, the luxurious plains, the graceful green slopes of hills and -mountains, the wonderfully tall, solitary palms and cocoa-trees, -standing like imposing sentinels to keep the voluptuous vegetation from -running riot, and over all the doting sunlight bathing its pet island in -a never-ending tide of fervor.<a name="page_14" id="page_14"></a></p> - -<p>No wonder these people love gay hues, paint their houses in the -brightest colors, wear dresses and carry umbrellas dyed in rainbows; for -nature sets the example of brilliancy everywhere. The phosphoric waters -surrounding the island reply to every touch, every question, of oar, -with “colors dipped in heaven.” Even the smallest fishes have, almost -without exception, selected their scaly wardrobes from prismatic -excesses.</p> - -<p>Last evening a game of whist, with a Catholic priest to complete the -party. He is a charming, accomplished Irishman; is more clever at -repartee, and more graceful in compliment, than any man I ever saw. What -infinitely delicate things he said! and all with as much feeling as if -he had learned both flattery and feeling in courts, instead of -catechisms. But he is so extravagantly fond of the game, and scolded -B—— so tempestuously, yet politely, for little mistakes, that I was -thankful to have the indulgent face of Mr. S—— for partner, instead of -that of the charming priest. He deplores the religious condition of -Cuba, and ridicules every thing else in it; shrugs his shoulders -sententiously at all these patriotic ebullitions, and declares that -volantes are just fit to carry chickens in. I even heard him, yesterday, -at breakfast, imitating the sing-song tone of the Cuban priests in their -masses, the comical expression of his face equalling the irresistibly -funny intonations of his voice.</p> - -<p><i>Saturday evening, March 3d.</i>—A shopping excursion, with Mr. S—— for -guide and interpreter. In some shops they knew a little French, but less -English.<a name="page_15" id="page_15"></a> I was obliged to use French for articles of attire which Mr. -S—— could not manage in Spanish, and, among us all—three or four -clerks usually looking on to help and laugh—I think a linguistical hash -was concocted as droll as any vegetable or animal arrangement that comes -on our hotel tables; and that is saying a great deal, when you consider -the oils, peppers, and garlics that are pressed into the service.</p> - -<p>Here merchants do not name the shops after themselves, as Americans do, -but more modestly and tastefully. The shop is christened with a name of -its own, as in Europe. For instance, on one corner you have <i>Pobre -Diablo</i> (Poor Devil), and on the corner opposite <i>Rico Diablo</i> (Rich -Devil); then we have all the saints—and sinners—in the Calendar, so -that the shop can change hands without losing its identity. Shops -containing magnificent goods have often a very humble appearance, -because ladies do not walk the streets, or leave their volantes—those -darling volantes, which are their feet, their couches, their homes, the -body of which they are the soul, and which I have many times seen -standing, much at home, in the corners of their parlors! So all the -goods are kept in great boxes, and carried out to the volantes, where my -lady condescends to sit in state and in attire to inspect, and, without -knowing it, to pay twice the value of all she buys.</p> - -<p>On coming home, we took another turn in the <i>Plaza de Armas</i>, where -festivities still continue. We are fortunate to be here at this time, -for it is a continual holiday, and will be so nearly all of next week. -Illuminations of all sorts, fine bands of<a name="page_16" id="page_16"></a> music, awnings and flags of -red and yellow,—the national colors of Spain,—carriages and volantes -full of richly-dressed people, promenaders in Sunday-costume—all these -are to be met in every street of the city. I have been much amused at -promiscuous Moors in effigy, hanging out of the windows, in the centre -of huge doorways, or dangling from a cord over our heads in the middle -of the street. They are usually in full Moorish costume, and pierced -pathetically through the heart. Our driver flourished his whip -vigorously in passing, mostly ending by a patriotic cut at the devoted -images.</p> - -<p>Close by this promenade we found a refreshing seat and ice-cream in the -famous Dominica. The cream was fruit-flavored and built up pyramidally -in an overgrown wineglass. On the plate under it, lay a long brown coil, -looking like a cigar, and tasting like a baked combination of brown -sugar, well-beaten eggs, and flour. This is designed as a spoon to eat -the towering cream with, and to eat with the towering cream. Many ladies -sit at the tables, but more remain before the doors and windows in their -volantes, receiving sweet liquids from the waiters, and dispensing -sweeter and more liquid glances to the admiring cavaliers gathered -around them.</p> - -<p class="figcenterend"> -<img src="images/i_016.png" width="120" height="82" alt="decorative image not available" /> -</p> - -<p><a name="page_17" id="page_17"></a></p> - -<h2><a name="II" id="II"></a> -<img src="images/i_017.png" width="450" height="67" alt="decorative image not available" /> -<br /> -II.</h2> - -<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang"><i>Celebrating a Victory—General Serrano—a Cuban Sacristan—His -View of Mary Magdalene—Sunday—The Theatre de Tacon—General -Serrano’s Wife—A “Norther”—The Fish Market—Brilliancy of the -Fish—A Venerable Cosmopolite—The Slaves—The Chain Gang—The -Cerro—A Count’s Country-house—No Twilight—Oranges—Polyglot -Dinner—Lottery Ticket.</i></p></div> - -<p class="r"> -<span class="smcap">Sunday</span>, March 4th.<br /> -</p> - -<p class="hang"><span class="letra"> -<img src="images/letr_t.png" -width="60" -height="59" -alt="T" -class="dropcap" -/></span>HIS morning high mass was celebrated, and the <i>Te Deum</i> sung in the -Cathedral. As this is in honor of the victory, all the church -dignitaries and officers of state were in attendance, dressed in their -respective uniforms. First came Captain-General Serrano, whose title in -Spain is Marquis de San Antonio. He is heralded by a grand flourish of -martial music from the band, which had just played the national air of -Spain. He is a rather fine-looking man, with a massive bald head and -penetrating eye; the countenance expressing weight of character, -stirring experiences in life, a consciousness of power and -responsibility. He is said to be the father of two of the children of -the Queen of Spain. Her marble statue has just been erected in one of -the principal squares, and is nightly<a name="page_18" id="page_18"></a> illuminated to receive the -admiration and homage of the loyal multitude. Following him, as next in -office, comes the Governor of the Island, whose resemblance to Mr. S—— -has often caused them to be mistaken for each other; the latter -sometimes finding honors thrust upon him of which he is wholly -unambitious. Then come all the military, civil, and marine officers, in -gold lace, epaulets, ribbons, stars, and decorations of all devices, the -whole retinue filling the church, except the centre, where a few ladies -in black veils kneel upon bright-colored mats, which servants in livery -bring under their arms and spread for the ladies’ dainty dresses to -cover. A few of these mats are brought by negresses with shawls thrown -over their heads instead of veils. As soon as the mat is spread, the -mistress drops upon it, crossing herself too rapidly and adroitly for -Protestant eyes to follow, all the time saying her prayers and looking -devoutly at the image of the Virgin standing in the centre of the altar. -The negress kneels respectfully upon the bare floor by her side or -behind her. Mr. S—— pointed out to me several counts, marquises, and -other notabilities, refreshing to the republicanism of Yankee optics. -Meanwhile the chancel is filling with bishops, priest, and friars, in -magnificent costumes, and soon the grand <i>Te Deum</i> swells over the -kneeling multitude. Governor, lords, ladies, and soldiers, bowed on the -same floor with the negro slave. It floats on over the floating incense; -then it ascends and seems to pause like a halo around the painted heads -of saints and apostles listening in the ceiling.<a name="page_19" id="page_19"></a> Just in front of us -knelt Count——, a friend of Mr. S——, leaning upon a diamond-headed -cane, and looking incessantly at his watch, to see how soon the -ceremonies and unaccustomed posture would come to an end.</p> - -<p>After all was over, the sacristan, dressed in a blue woollen gown and -wide embroidered white cambric collar, escorted us over the edifice. Its -external, so quaint and unique, so like a relic of the middle ages, with -towers and walls marred and rent, and crumbling with the rapid effects -of the moist climate rather than of time, did not indicate so much -beauty and art as existed within. It is chiefly in the Moorish style, -the numerous paintings mostly from Rome, and nearly all copies from the -best masters. The sacristan made himself jolly; offered to robe me in -the bishop’s vestments and ornament me with the crosiers, and staffs, -and mitres, and what-nots, in the robing-room. But I, being less -familiar with these sacred emblems than he, felt less contempt, and -declined the honor. One of the paintings, a dark old dilapidated affair -hanging in an ante-room, represents Christ talking earnestly to Mary -Magdalene. She turns her coquettish head from him in a most coquettish -way, and with a look of more affected than real shame and sorrow. The -old fellow pointed it out to us, and, with a significant twinkle, said -to Mr. S——, in Spanish,—</p> - -<p>“That was Jesus Christ’s <i>woman</i>.”</p> - -<p>To Mr. S——’s exclamation of astonishment, he replied,—</p> - -<p>“Of course he was a man, like the rest of us.<a name="page_20" id="page_20"></a>”</p> - -<p>We paused before the modest tomb of Columbus, whose remains were -interred in the chancel of the Cathedral many years ago, with respectful -ceremonies and magnificence. His bas-relief in marble is placed in much -the same position as the bust of Shakspeare in the Avon church. From the -Cathedral we passed to the miniature garden separating it from the -seminary. This contains flowers, trees, shrubs, a fountain in the -centre. The sacristan picked me a bouquet of pretty purple and pink -blossoms without odor, bowing to my “<i>gracias</i>” most graciously, and -upon receiving a little fee, instead of “begging for two reals more,” as -D—— says he did upon his departure, the old man seemed surprised that -he received anything at all.</p> - -<p>Staid American eyes are struck by the spiritual stolidity of these -people. Favorites of nature, crowned forever by her flowers, inspired by -her fresh and friendly breezes, basking always in her fondest sunlight, -they receive all these gifts in forgetfulness of the giver. It being -Sunday, all kinds of festivities riot in increased abandonment. The -shops, unlike those of most towns in Europe, are open; tailors and -shoemakers are at their work in little dark dens resembling those to -which the mechanics of Naples retreat on rainy days; and, though -forbidden by law, Sunday trade flourishes thriftily, as if Sundays and -religions were an impertinent restriction upon a Cuban’s right to life, -liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.</p> - -<p><i>Monday, 5th.</i>—This morning we walked on the <i>Cortina</i> to inhale the -cool sea breezes which there<a name="page_21" id="page_21"></a> defy the scorching tyranny of even this -sun. How refreshing, after panting through those hot, fuming, dusty, -noisy streets, to sit under that dense shade, upon the marble seats, -with the tired city hidden behind you, and the blue tranquil bay -sleeping in its brightness before! The Morro lies peacefully on the -other side, brown, and dim, and silent as a weary lion. From the -lighthouse of the castle are floating flags of various colors, to me -inexplicable. But Mr. S—— explains. The different shapes and colors -indicate the kind and nationality of any vessel that is descried making -for the port; so that long before even the glasses of watchers in the -city can discern anything, it is known by these flags that preparations -must be made to receive the newcomer; that friends are approaching, or -friends must be left behind; that partings and meetings are to resume -their tyranny in the world.</p> - -<p><i>Evening.</i>—The <i>Theatre de Tacon</i>, or Opera House, disappointed us. It -is large, airy, and convenient, but plain and bare to a degree. It being -“Commandment Night,”—that is, the Captain-General having signified his -intention of being present, and the rejoicings not yet over—the usual -opera was omitted. First, a national anthem, sung by one hundred -performers. Then followed a Spanish comedy, capitally acted, I could be -sure, though as good as ignorant of the language. Then came some divine -airs from the opera of the Bohemian Girl, sung by Gassier. Her voice is -full, sustained, in some passages, touching. But the <i>embonpoint</i>! Alas, -why must women of the poetical South<a name="page_22" id="page_22"></a> always be so unpoetically fat! Or -why are we not blind to the incongruity of passion and adipose tissue. -These Spaniards are critical and enthusiastic judges of music; never -tolerate a bad thing; applaud and hiss vociferously.</p> - -<p>But to me the attraction of the evening was the lovely marquise, wife of -the Captain-General (sometimes I can understand how a port may be -absolutely panic-struck with a woman’s beauty). A Creole by birth, with -a fortune of several millions, she married Serrano, who became -embassador to France, where he spent the greater part of her wealth in -maintaining the honor of Spain, by a magnificence which is said to have -eclipsed that of the Emperor. So he is sent here to recruit; that is, to -rob the Cubans of a million or two, as his predecessors have done. The -Governor’s box was only two boxes from ours, so that I could distinctly -watch every shade of her expression. La señora looked sad, absent; she -assumes a pensive attitude irresistibly charming in one so lovely and so -necessarily the observed of all observers. Her personal charms are -enough to excite all the enthusiasm the Cubans feel for her, but her -Creole birth renders it unbounded. She wore her dark hair thrown back -from a completely classical head and face; a subdued fire indicating -rare power of passion and suffering burns in her eyes; her nose, mouth, -and chin, are full of sensitive delicacy; in every curve of the -exquisite bust and slender figure, grace achieves a very pathos of -perfection. She was draped in some gauzy fabric floating about her like -a dream; large<a name="page_23" id="page_23"></a> dark roses on hair, bosom, and dress, the only ornament. -People say she sighs for the life in Paris, and that she was for a long -time the rival of the Empress. Who knows? who can unravel the web of -suffering which stifles out the life and hope from any woman’s heart? -The most comical scenes scarcely wakened a smile on her face; but her -husband, sitting at her right, smiled and patted his white kids with -very accurate and well-timed condescension. The box in which they sat is -gaily hung, the national coat of arms placed over the centre. They went -out between every act to receive guests in an adjoining saloon. We found -more beauty among the women than writers on Cuba had promised us. -Regular, I may say, exquisite, features are very common; and these, -illuminated by dark, deep eyes, with effective and well-manœuvered -glances, make as lovely women as is possible, where intellect and soul -seem to exile themselves behind so much of what elsewhere than on a lady -would be called fat. All are in full, the fullest possible, dress; all -are displaying great eloquence of skill in manipulating their lace and -jewelled fans; all are, or aspire to be, the magnets for the dark, -handsome eyes and well-levelled opera-glasses in the pit below. It was -curious, among all that tumultuous sea of masculine heads in the -parquette, to see not one with fair hair—all black with youth, gray -with manhood, white or bald with age.</p> - -<p><i>Tuesday, 6th.</i>—The thermometer has fallen from 90 to 75 degrees. This -is the result of a “norther,” which drives the cold waters of the -Atlantic furiously<a name="page_24" id="page_24"></a> into our bay; changes the usual moist perspiring -atmosphere into a husky dryness; turns the roads, almost the -paving-stones, into dust; shrivels and browns the foliage in the -country; and with its cold puts the low-necked dresses, pantings, and -fans of our hotel-ladies in their trunks. So we ventured on a walk, even -at high noon, to our favorite <i>Cortina</i>, keeping on the shady side, and -stopping at the fish market. It is palpably true that God set his dyed -bow in the heavens; but I did not before know that he also set it in the -floods to reassure us that we should have no more floods,—else where -did these fishes learn this trick of exaggerated brightness? Of all the -myriads ranged on the endlessly long metallic tables, I do not remember -one in quaker costume. Everywhere a fantastic variety of colors and -gradations and combinations of shades. Joseph’s coat would have looked -plain beside them. May not the excessive phosphorescence, latent, or -developed in the native waters of these fishes, explain in some way -their pre-eminence of color?</p> - -<p><i>Wednesday, March 7th.</i>—At last we have a room possessing the -fundamental doctrines of a room, viz., four walls of its own. It was -formerly the library of the bishop, who built the palace and lived in it -several years, and is now, by the way, enormously rich, and “they say” -hints not egregiously pious. Our room has an ambitious window, from -which we always see the sky, and nothing else. The door, protected by -fanciful iron gratings, opens upon the dining-room. The floor, of the -usual black and white marble, resembles a chess-board with the<a name="page_25" id="page_25"></a> squares -placed diagonally. As queen of this chess-board, I am in a fair way to -be checkmated, as well as its king, if the jolly priest continues his -jolly suppers. The rest of the room would suit me well enough, if it -were not so discouragingly convenient. With the exception of a kind of -wooden-tiled ceiling, and one of the beds furnished with stretched -canvass instead of a mattress, you might suppose yourself commonplacely -domiciled in a respectable hotel in Yankeedom.</p> - -<p><i>Thursday, 8th.</i>—This morning Mr. S. brought his venerable friend Mr. -R——. He is a Frenchman, though born in Baltimore and educated in -England; has lived indefinitely on the Continent; is waiting to die in -Cuba. He is delightful, thoroughly a cosmopolite, speaks many languages, -knows everything and everybody. Long intimacy with this government, its -officers, and many of the nobility, has made him <i>au fait</i> in the policy -and intrigues as well as customs and characteristics of the island. Lady -Wortly is indebted to him for her anecdotes of Cuba. I have been able to -correct many false impressions received from various writers; for -instance:—</p> - -<p>The line of separation between Creoles and Spaniards is not distinctly -drawn. The Creoles sympathize in these victorious rejoicings; would be -perfectly satisfied with an allegiance to Spain, if they could have a -voice in their own government. Creole ladies are lighter in color, -better educated, less rigid in forms of etiquette and propriety than the -Spanish. But everywhere the negro blood is so intermixed, that it is -impossible to<a name="page_26" id="page_26"></a> make a distinct separation between any of the races; a -fact of difficult management in the event of self-government, or any -step towards it. He says there are not fifty families in the island -untainted by African blood. It seems very natural that a dark race -should have less repugnance to a black race than white people have.</p> - -<p>We all know the greater leniency of the laws here, with regard to -slaves, than in the United States. I find, in addition, that there is, -in Cuba, much more indulgence and affection between master and slave, -unless it be on the remote plantations. In our drives, particularly -through the suburbs, I continually see negroes and their Creole -mistresses, dressed equally well, lounging on the balconies, not as -equals, but in a way that indicates affectionate intimacy, and a gayety -too abundant to suggest the true <i>dolce far niente</i>. I am told that, -almost without exception, masters here would be willing to free their -slaves in case of remuneration.</p> - -<p>Among the many foolish arrangements of this government, the chain-gang -seems to be a wise one. It is a penitentiary on the highway. My author -on Cuba, says of this chain-gang, “It is Sunday; but no rest for them.” -The truth is, they always rest on Sunday, unless unusual circumstances -occur; as, for instance, a road that must be finished for some great -occasion.</p> - -<p><i>Thursday evening, March 9th.</i>—This evening drove to the <i>Cerro</i>, three -miles distant, to visit the country house of Count Fernandino, an -<a name="page_27" id="page_27"></a>intimate friend of Mr. R——, who accompanied us. Contrary to Mr. R——’s expectations, the family, consisting of the old widowed count, and -his son and daughter-in-law, had not yet left their winter residence in -the city. An old family servant, however, conducted us everywhere, with -equal pride and pleasure. The house is a quaint, irregular structure. -You stumble everywhere upon recesses, balconies, unexpected rooms, and -general surprises. In the drawing-room are two genuine Claude Lorraines, -and two Vernets. I was sorry to be hurried away from them to the -billiard-room; the octagon library, the high, large, open piazza, roofed -with vines and paved with marble, where two hundred dancers find -fantastic toe-room; the curious chambers, busts, statues, curiosities -everywhere.</p> - -<p>But the grounds we only saw from the tower, and without them we have -seen nothing. They are extensive and beautiful; here a rustic bridge -crosses the mysteriously winding brook which branches into a fanciful -bathing-house, hung with pictures of naiads and water-gods; there stands -a little airy temple overhung by doting cypresses, and sacred to its -only inhabitant,—an exquisite marble Venus. Wherever chance leads your -steps, it will be sure to reveal some new beauty of tree, or flower, or -shrub, or arbor, or rustic seat; some avenue looking far out upon the -wonderful campagna. As the short and sudden twilight comes, a lovely -waterfall catches the light coming from the distant Morro, with level, -and distinct, and separate rays over the city spires and roofs, over its -pale, irregularly planted lights and absorbing shadows. Many of the -trees and<a name="page_28" id="page_28"></a> shrubs are from Europe and Asia. The gardener gave me a spray -from an Australian tree, imported when a small slip, for which the count -paid seven hundred dollars. He also gave me two handfuls of bouquets, -some of them from his own private nursery, by which he makes a hundred -dollars per month, in addition to his wages. Mr. R—— tells me that, in -the last hurricane, most of the trees in these grounds were prostrated; -that he saw the count and countess, when they first discovered the -desolation, crying like children. The great difficulty in gardening here -is to repress vegetation, it being nearly impossible to curb its rank -luxuriance. If left to itself, any garden will in two or three years -become a dense impenetrable tangle of trees, vines, flowers, and weeds. -But it is time to hurry away from all this loveliness. A few minutes ago -we were watching the sunset emparadising both heaven and earth; now, -before we have time for a second sigh at its departure, night has -dropped upon us like a silent and intangible avalanche, with no -interluding, apologistic twilight to warn or to reconcile us.</p> - -<p><i>March 10th.</i>—Rose this morning, as usual, at six. So soon as bathed -and dressed, commenced the day in the customary national style; namely, -by a vigorous attack upon a pyramid of huge oranges, which B—— has -just brought in, paying twelve cents for ten. He gives me two-thirds of -each, for the remaining third and the privilege of peeling them. I am -commanded by high authority to devour twelve every morning; until I -achieve that I cannot be said to like oranges, or even to eat them.<a name="page_29" id="page_29"></a></p> - -<p>After the nine o’clock breakfast, appeared the white head of Mr. R——, -and, immediately after, a portable set of chess-men, with which he -challenged me to a game. He has not played much for twenty-eight years. -I did not play much before that time; so, not unequally yoked together, -we fought long and desperately; and who do you think won? My modesty -declines to answer.</p> - -<p>Dinner at four, with the usual English courses and bill of fare, except -an interspersion of here and there a Spanish or French dish; for -instance,—garlic, onions, and oil, flavored with a piece of stewed -beef; or, further down the table, the same trio thinly populated with -tripe and potatoes; or, on two cross corners of each table, a square -pile of rice, polished with oil and rouged with juice of tomatoes. Then -many new fruits, as the manna, sapote, and others which I will describe -when I know them better. By five o’clock we have usually manifested -fully our approval of all dinners in general, and of polyglott dinners -in particular. The <i>café noir</i> is then dispatched to make the peace, and -we are ready for the cigar, the drive, or the siesta. I do not quite yet -smoke the cigars myself as I see many Havanese ladies doing; but I have -bought a lottery ticket!—the ninth—and the drawing comes on the 22d -inst. Never say you have been to Havana, unless you have bought a -lottery ticket. They are a native production.<a name="page_30" id="page_30"></a></p> - -<h2><a name="III" id="III"></a> -<img src="images/i_030.png" width="450" height="57" alt="decorative image not available" /> -<br /> -III.</h2> - -<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang"><i>Drive to the Sea-shore—Evening Boat-ride—Splendor of the -Waters—Campo del Marte—Low Mass—The “Madonna”—Beautiful -Children—Church of San Filipo—Sacred Names—The Mount of -Jesus—Corruption of the Clergy—Cuba Misrepresented in -Books—Growing “used to it”—A Creole—Cascarilla—Warm -Weather—The Cortina.</i></p></div> - -<p class="r"> -<span class="smcap">Saturday</span>, March 11th.<br /> -</p> - -<p class="hang"><span class="letra"> -<img src="images/letr_t.png" -width="60" -height="59" -alt="T" -class="dropcap" -/></span>HIS morning we drove, or more properly rode, for no one drives in a -volante, to the sea-shore. Although the sun was burning down upon us -with his customary ardor, a “norther” cooled his ferver so effectually -as to make a thick shawl necessary. Thicker boots were indispensable to -save the feet from the sharp points of coral rocks over which we must -walk, upon leaving the volante. With the assistance of our “norther,” a -high tide dashed the waves in furious beauty over the low, unresisting -shore, and with a muffled thunder straight out of the heart of infinity. -I wonder if any familiarity can ever breed a feeling of even -acquaintanceship with this “roar of torn ocean.” Was it not a pretty -scene for us as we stood there,—the graceful, yet frowning Morro, with -its white wave-washed feet, growing from the promontory across<a name="page_31" id="page_31"></a> the bay, -its fluttering flags foretelling ships like a presentiment, its towers -warming and brightening in the parting smiles of the sun, with a very -human pathos of joy! Far out on the restless sea, more restless ships -toss and tack and veer their sails; clouds, dream thin, and -sunset-souled. How blue they make the sea! How white the dark waves are -painting them!</p> - -<p>Behind us in the west rises a rough, high bluff, flanked by endless -lines of barracks; on the outer wall, a solitary sentinel paces and -watches us; under its shadow stands our waiting volante and the sunburnt -<i>callisero</i>. Nothing more is visible except the sky-questioning palms -behind the bluff—far in the south the strange city of this strange -clime. Nothing anywhere is familiar save the quiet, tender sky above; -and that is so blue, so intense, so twice a sky, so profound in its -passion of beauty, that you wonder how sorrow and death can live beneath -it!</p> - -<p>I do not marvel that the people of sun-lands do not greatly aspire, or -labor, or achieve. What need of this threefold weariness, this getting -of spiritual bread by spiritual brain-sweat, when happiness falls down -upon their heads all day long out of the sky; when feeling, which is a -thousand times better than thought, buds and blossoms out of every -sunbeam, and night is but a sudden sigh, a languishing wink of this -regal lover between caresses.</p> - -<p><i>Evening.</i>—And the most interesting we have spent in Havana.</p> - -<p>To describe a boat-ride upon the phosphorescent waters of this bay, one -should, alas! have some<a name="page_32" id="page_32"></a> powers of description. I can only outline it in -a homely way and leave the rest to your imagination.</p> - -<p>All our previous nights have been without twilight. The only apparent -change was in the color, not the quality, of light; the warm gold, -blanching into a colder, purer blaze, fitting the mind and eye for its -enjoyment: it is the quantity not the intensity of daylight. But -to-night the sun dies under the western sea, and an azure which is -neither light nor darkness, fills the void. The stars discover through -it their happy images below, and our throbbing oars—oars no longer, but -living light—rival the pulsations of the stars.</p> - -<p>All this time our “trackless way” is distinctly blazing far behind, -while far below our cutting keel leaves its cicatrice; an antipodean -milky-way, and our prow, like a Yankee boreas, carries its snowcloud in -its teeth. There flies a fish with planetary speed, invisible in air, -but in its native element a mistress “at home.” Even the oscillation of -our little boat causes flashes of softest light in the surrounding air, -by which our faces are brightened to reveal the beautiful peace and -pleasure each feels.</p> - -<p>We lean and look in the water at our side, and see the myriad -scintillations that come and go with ever-changing variety, and then -think, that to each spark is attached an organized body, with -circulating medium and force, with sensations more or less acute; and -that in this bay of some three square miles, is a galaxy of worlds; -every globule a world<a name="page_33" id="page_33"></a> of itself, inhabited by perfect and sentient -beings, each with its hopes, fears, and perhaps its loves and hates, and -therefore sorrows; and then we remember that the whole tropical waters -which girdle the globe are equally crowded with life.</p> - -<p><i>Saturday, 11th.</i>—The rejoicings profess to have reached a patriotic -climax,—a grand display of all the troops on the island, which is twice -the number of the whole military force of the United States. With the -only vacant seat in our English carriage filled at last by our venerable -friend Mr. N——, we drove out to the Campo del Marte. We found it -difficult and delightful, steering our way through the archipelago of -carriages and volantes filled with ladies in full ball costume, many of -the faces and figures striking, a few very handsome; so that with -well-rewarded patience and time, we obtained a good position.</p> - -<p>The poverty of republican eyes is imbibantly observant of all -appurtenances of royalty. First dashes past the knighted -Governor-General, doffing cap and plume, and bowing with great dignity -to the bowing multitude. Following are body-guard and staff, counts, -marquises, and other nobility in uniform, crosses and decorations of -honor.</p> - -<p>The gentlemen informed me that the troops marched well. I am sure the -regiments of negroes thought so, and enjoyed the supposition. We -returned home to whist and delightful conversation on all things new and -old, followed by the most cordial imaginable of good-nights and -hand-shakings.<a name="page_34" id="page_34"></a></p> - -<p><i>Sunday.</i>—Early this morning to a Jesuit mass—low mass, and so very -low that it could not be heard at all. Two priests only officiated, both -meek-faced, keeping “custody of eyes;” one of them with the most -remarkable intellectual and characteristic head I ever saw, the other -with the devoutest, purest face. All the devotees, mostly women and -girls, and liveried servants, knelt upon mats placed over the marble -floor. All the ladies were gracefully arrayed in black lace Spanish -veils, which, like moonlight on the Coliseum, “leaves that beautiful -which still was so, and makes that which was not.” They were repeating -their prayers; those who could read, from books, those who could not, -from memory; and all the time the young and pretty ones were rolling -their dark fascinating eyes around upon my escort of gentlemen, except -when the moment came for crossing themselves and looking devoutly -towards an image of the Virgin execrably done in wax.</p> - -<p>I find the only way to extract good instead of disgust from scenes like -this, is to ignore the wax and the tawdry ornaments, and to remember -only the divinely sweet woman who loved Christ as I fear none of us have -loved him; who suffered for him as none of us shall be honored by -suffering for him; the only woman who united to the virgin’s charm the -mother’s hallowing rapture; the woman whom God loved more than all -earthly women, making her the mother of his son. You must think of the -sanctity she has given to all motherhood. You must remember the -elevation and delicacy she<a name="page_35" id="page_35"></a> has given to the love of many pure and wise -priests, who through the dark centuries loved no woman but her; who -centred in her the love that might not be human nor for the human. Think -of all this, and then see if you can wonder that the devout imaginations -of the learned as well as of the ignorant Romanist have found a female -element in the Trinity, and in worshipping the Father and Son have also -most tenderly adored her who was a link between them; her through whom -God is no longer an avenging God, and through whom Christ longs and -makes ready for us.</p> - -<p>The church, to my great surprise, though belonging to the Jesuits, -displays no wealth and no taste; forlornly ugly pictures, clumsy tawdry -flowers, and atrocious statues everywhere. Many things, however, were -interesting enough to repay us for the trouble of getting up so early -and walking so far.</p> - -<p>Nothing could surpass the extremely graceful attitude of the ladies, or -the universal beauty of the children, especially of the boys. How -exquisitely regular and clear cut are their features! how transparent -their large, soft, black eyes! how intelligent their whole expression! I -am told that all Spanish boys and girls are remarkably precocious. At -thirteen they promise to be geniuses, sing, paint, even write poetry -that would not only startle a Northern mother, but frighten her with a -certainty of the imminent dissolution of her cherub. After that age the -tropical child remains savingly in <i>statu quo</i>, if he does not -perceptibly degenerate.</p> - -<p>Having still twenty minutes before breakfast, we<a name="page_36" id="page_36"></a> drove quickly to the -fashionable church of San Filipo. Found it having more pretension than -the Jesuit (“Belen”) church, but not more taste. Abundance of tinsel, -plenty of yellowed grotesque, semi-arabesque carvings on tinselled -columns and what-not, but no beauty, unless, perchance, under the happy -veil of some worshipping angel.</p> - -<p><i>Sunday evening.</i>—Is it a question of piety, or of taste, that so many -places have holy names? “Jesus dil monto” “Jesus Maria,” “Las dace -Apostles;” the latter being a battery of guns under the Morro, intended -to convert enemies’ ships into enemies’ wrecks—a highly apostolic mode -of conversion.</p> - -<p>To end our Sabbath we ascended the Mount of Jesus and walked in a garden -of cocoa-trees supposed to occupy relatively the position of Gethsemane.</p> - -<p>Really the straight, tall lines of boles with their parachute tops, in a -rapidly diminishing light, do produce a very novel impression—half -rural, half architectural. One may fancy aisles and naves, transepts and -choirs; the roofs, however, are real, made of leaves fourteen feet long, -drooping like the mitres of a groin, and gothicizing a roof through -which a few slender green rays penetrate—enough to reveal form without -detail. But no marble gives sound to our footsteps; grass, poor a cow -would say, but grass, for a carpet, and old cocoa-nuts to stumble over, -bring us down to earth again. Here we are rewarded by some pretty -flowers, which are the only beauties in this land of beauty who can -wander “in maiden’s meditation, fancy free.” It is an effort<a name="page_37" id="page_37"></a> to mount -the Pisgah before us, but we must on to the very top, for our ankles are -goaded by living spurs that lie lurking in the grass.</p> - -<p>But we are spaciously rewarded, for there lies Havana in its whole -extent before us; the level line of sea behind it; the Morro guarding -it; the Principe fort threatening it; the bay reflecting it and the -setting sun gilding it; palms on every hand outline their greens against -the intensely azure sky behind, and white walls glance out of the -luxuriant foliage, proud that humanity has a home within them. Low-like -mounds fill up the background like priests with shaven crowns, but all -with beauteous vestments sweeping to their feet, running over the plains -between them, up the adjacent ones, round the next—an interminable -reticulation of life and loveliness. The embroidery on God’s footstool -is here wrought with a lavish and loving hand.</p> - -<p>Wonderful tropics! The normal home of man; the only soil and sun in -which could grow the fair and fatal tree of knowledge or of life.</p> - -<p>No sinister cold, no smoke-tarnished atmosphere, no death-bearing fogs, -no fierce animal energy, no gross crimes; all is sunny and perpetual -youth. Eden unquestionably was not more than twenty-three or thirty -degrees from the equator. But the intermittent flash of the light in the -tower of the Morro startles every half minute the sudden nightfall, and -we hasten to return, in love with nature, and reconciled to ourselves.</p> - -<p><a name="page_38" id="page_38"></a><i>Monday, March 13th.</i>—This morning came Mr. R——, bringing an -unexpected armful of books, with which we are to equip ourselves for a -visit to the country, where we are making arrangements to go. Commenced -the morning by chess, in which I am now habitually ruined, and ended, as -usual, by a long conversation, in which I am listener-in-chief, an -interested if not a brilliant or eloquent one.</p> - -<p>Mr. R—— is a Romanist, but I learn from him more of the corruption of -the clergy of the island than an uninitiated Protestant or Romanist -either could invent. Priests in the country are badly salaried, often -unable to get enough to pay their cooking and washing. So they become -entangled in a peculiar kind of reciprocity with some negress or -quadroon, who in time comes to live openly with them, and is recognized, -and not unfrequently respected and acknowledged socially, as the mother -of their large families. I find residents here indignant at visitors who -come and skip over the surface of the country, necessarily, if they -write at all, as superficial as false and absurd. Madame ——’s book is -said to be a tissue of falsehoods, as well as that of D——, which I had -supposed photographic. Every one, in fact, but Humboldt, has assumed a -knowledge to hide ignorance. Cuba seems to be the least abused because -least investigated country which has got into books.</p> - -<p>Mr. R—— accepted our invitation to dinner. Like all Frenchmen, he -prefers claret to other wines, and, like all old men who wish to live -long, eats nothing.</p> - -<p><i>Thursday, 15th.</i>—Who can wonder that sailors never tire of seeing the -sea. With what a loyal instinct the old retired captain seeks the -shelter of<a name="page_39" id="page_39"></a> some wave-worn cliff where the familiar spray may kiss his -weather-beaten cheek, and the cry of the deep be the lullaby of his last -sleep. Primeval forests want light; prairies are “stale and flat” if not -“unprofitable;” mountain ranges, those petrified waves of earth, are -groups of individuals: but ocean is one, an adequate expression of -extent illimitable, of bulk immeasurable, of depth unfathomable, of -force irresistible, of life everlasting. It is the eternity of time. But -here in Cuba, where so much is transitory and fugitive, where the -accumulation of wealth to expend elsewhere is the aim of all, the -æsthetic claims of the sea are unregarded. The backs of the houses are -universally turned towards it. The Cubans smother palaces in narrow -streets, rejecting the air which has learned purity and inspiration from -the sea, for siroccos of dust and heat. Ugly wharves abound, so do -batteries to make might right. It is only in refinement without -degeneracy, in taste without tinsel, in wealth without avarice, that you -find the loving adornment of ocean’s shores.</p> - -<p>We rode, while thinking and saying these things, to Chomero, a little -bay with little cottages on its little sandy shore; little shrubs, -little shells, and little life. A square fort guards it in sinister -silence; a large railway station promises to turn the little Chomero -into the large suburban Carmelo, and straight streets, straight avenues, -and right angles threaten to make it as ugly as the tasteless plans of -architects could devise.</p> - -<p>But deliciously sweet is the air; deliciously sweet<a name="page_40" id="page_40"></a> the new old story -of the sea, and deliciously sweet the <i>mareschino</i> with which we flavor -our <i>aqua pura</i>. All things return to their original starting point. -Existence is a rounding of circles. The sun, a tired prodigal, returns -to the parent arms of the horizon; like Socrates, his last act is to -bathe, which he does in the returning tide, and he returns to <i>el Hotel -de la Reina</i>, there to chat with Father, C—— or play with Señor R——, -or, better still, to lounge on the sofas and fan our tropical thoughts -into tropical dreams.</p> - -<p><i>Saturday, 17th.</i>—At last our days are come to have a family -resemblance. I must even confess to a kind of monotony, a -stereotypedness, in their lineaments. I grow to look upon all these -extravagant novelties with <i>sang froid</i>, to ride through the streets -reclining in my volante with rarely being amused, and never startled, -that Spanish gentlemen sitting against the walls in rows, or standing at -the corners in groups, one and all, smile and bow, as if I were an old -friend. I am not a bit shocked to see negro and Creole and Spanish -little boys standing in the doors or running about at play with more -backs than shirts—in short, as innocent of clothing as their -great-greatest-grandpapa was when, overtaken by that unfortunate -after-dinner nap, and the angel performed the delicate surgical -operation of taking the still crooked rib from his side, and was not -obliged to waken him by unbuttoning his jacket. I can promenade the -balcony of our hotel without any uncomfortable nervousness because all -the upper and under clerks in the store opposite collect<a name="page_41" id="page_41"></a> at once to -gape and criticize and express in some way the admiration a Cuban -gentleman is conscientiously bound to feel whenever he sees a wonder. I -can see the lottery venders thrust their tickets into my hand at the -corner of every street when going to church, in all public places and -most private ones, without one puritanical spasm. I am obliged to find -Sunday turned into a general holiday without thinking an earthquake is -coming to-morrow, and to hear the ship’s bell and car’s whistle mingling -with the church bell without expecting a consequent and immediate -steam-boiler explosion. I have even ceased wondering at this eternity of -sunshine, and find it is silly to keep expecting blindness from its -piercing light. I forgot to inquire why it cannot scald these -deliciously cool breezes, or why these strong airs, always blowing upon -the sunshine, as if it were a great plateful of hot gumbo soup, cannot -manage to cool it.</p> - -<p>If it be true that many microscopic beings which are vegetables in the -shade become ripened into animals in the sun, then what happens to -animals that live in the sun as much as we do? what are we to ripen to? -Angels naturally—but sadly sunburnt.</p> - -<p>This evening, my first acquaintance with a Creole, and one who is not -only willing, but proud, to own it. He speaks English hesitatingly and -solves a difficult riddle—it <i>is</i> possible for a Creole countenance to -express, not only intellectuality, but genius, even spirituality. How -polite are these people! Being an amateur artist, he invited me -to-morrow to<a name="page_42" id="page_42"></a> his studio; offered at once to contribute to my -portefolio, and to lend any pictures I may choose to copy while on the -island. Conversation turning upon the famous cascarilla, a powder made -of eggshells, and universally used on the skin by these ladies to make -black white, all the gentlemen, strange to say, advocated its use. Upon -this I expressed an intention of getting some immediately and using it -liberally. Señor at once replied, “Oh, I shall be only too happy to send -it to you!” and sure enough, after he left, a beautifully ornamented box -of the ornament, found itself on my dressing-table.</p> - -<p>You must never express a particular admiration for any thing one of -these people possesses, or he will at once present it to you, from his -plantation to his pipe; and the latter is the surer test of his -politeness. The other day I asked Mr. R—— where I could find a -bookstore keeping some little views of Havana. The same evening came a -great book containing all I wished, beautifully executed. Last evening -on the <i>Cortena</i>, he took out a little microscope to examine some -parasitic flowers I had gathered from the walls of the Cathedral (all -the old walls of buildings are covered with such plants). I could not -help exclaiming at the great power and convenience of the little -instrument, when, what should come this morning but Mr. R—— with a -bright new microscope in his hand, begging I would do him the favor to -accept it!</p> - -<p>With all our interest in this Creole, I could not help a sensation of -relief, when he rose to bid us good-night. It is so difficult talking -with a foreigner<a name="page_43" id="page_43"></a> who can only comprehend your simplest words, which -express your simplest ideas. You feel like a child talking to a child, -knowing all the time that you are without the innocence or beauty of -children. And this repression of thought, instead of repressing the -voice, gives one an unconquerable instinct to raise it to its highest -pitch. One seems to think that an immense quantity of sound will hide an -immense lack of sense; that they do not understand because they do not -hear; that one is not so dumb as <i>they</i> are deaf.</p> - -<p><i>Sunday, March 18th.</i>—For the first time the heat is oppressive, -enervating. We did not even summon courage for the early mass, the only -religious service in a city which can boast one distinguishing -peculiarity—it practises as much as it preaches, for it almost never -preaches at all. What is better than the <i>Cortina</i> when you talk of -fresh airs, and fresh shade, and fresh silence? So for the <i>Cortina</i> we -set out, stopping by the way at the Cathedral. Here we find half a dozen -sincere-looking devotees kneeling in different parts of the quaint, -cool, serene temple; humble their birth, no doubt, as well as posture, -for they kneel upon the bare marble, with no mat and no appearance of -discomfort. When prayers are said and crossing done, they depart, silent -and unnoticed as they enter; and we, with only the gratification of -curiosity where worship should be, do the same.</p> - -<p>Arrived at the promenade, we find an insinuating mist and an unusual -event, a south wind, legitimatizing all this languor. Everybody in -Havana pouts<a name="page_44" id="page_44"></a> when the wind hails from the equator, and shivers when it -comes out of a temperate zone. Both changes are so slight that a -Northerner, accustomed as he is to the fiercely rapid changes at home, -observes nothing different from usual. The ordinary wind here, which -baffles all the scorching proclivities of this sunshine; which comes -fresh and unworn over the salt and laboring seas; which makes this -island an Eden of never-failing green,—this strong and pure, and -gentle, as all that is strong should be, angel of mercy, is always an -east wind. I am glad that I came to Havana to learn that the sole errand -of an east wind in the world is not to manufacture influenzas, -consumptions, gout-twinges, blue devils, and growlery-mongers.</p> - -<p>To-night a long conversation with Father C—— who has just returned from -an expedition to the interior for the purpose of collecting -contributions for “me chur-r-r-rch” in Ireland. We talked of the -Eucharist, of confessions, of indulgences, of rites and popes; in half -an hour I learned more of Romanism from a Romanist’s point of view, than -in a liberal share of twenty-eight years of my former life. He confessed -that the corruptions of the church forced on the Reformation. I am sure -the wary priest rather more than half expected to convert me, and I -amused myself down in my sleeve at his amiable hallucination, while at -the same time I reflected how surely the fogs of prejudice and -sectarianism clear away before the inevitably advancing sun of -knowledge.<a name="page_45" id="page_45"></a></p> - -<h2><a name="IV" id="IV"></a> -<img src="images/i_045.png" width="450" height="57" alt="decorative image not available" /> -<br /> - -IV.</h2> - -<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang"><i>Departing Guests—The Varieties—On Board, but not Gone—No -Chimneys—Dog-Pails—Horses’ Tails—Tall Negroes—Ecclesiastical -Torch-light Procession—Watchmen—Leaving Havana—In the -Country—Stopped—Seeking a Breakfast—A Cuban Village—A Primitive -Well—A Peculiar Palm—Guiness—Our Quarters Therein.</i></p></div> - -<p class="r"> -<span class="smcap">Monday</span>, March 19th.<br /> -</p> - -<p class="hang"><span class="letra"> -<img src="images/letr_o.png" -width="60" -height="60" -alt="O" -class="dropcap" -/></span>NE by one, our guests have left the hotel. The swarthy Portuguese -gentleman whose acquaintance we made on shipboard, and who told us so -much of the interiors of Asia and Africa, where he has spent much time. -I am meditating the purchase of a camel to take home with me, to ride -for health and pleasure. Think of the panic of the unsophisticated -people of E—— at seeing a genuine live dromedary, philosophically -promenading their streets with the valley on his back populated by your -rejoicing and philosophical humble servant. Soon after this departure -went the handsome and villainous-looking Russian, whom we suspect to -have been a serf, because he told B—— one evening a long story of his -feats and difficulties on leaving Russia without a passport. He has -travelled all over the world, but in intellect will perpetually live, -and irremediably die, a serf. The<a name="page_46" id="page_46"></a> young, honest-eyed Scotchman, too, -who played operas for me all one morning with so much skill and -amiability, who has had his throat ventilated by three bullets in three -battles, and is travelling—not consequently—for health, is gone to New -Orleans. The diamond-labelled widow from Boston, worth an undoubted -million, is gone to Matanzas, accompanied by her much-smiling daughter, -and the daughter’s blue-nosed governess. The latter should always be -seen with the ears, for she talked well. The gentleman with consumption -is gone from the adjoining room, so that my nights are no longer made -hideous by his sepulchral cough. He goes to the south of France—so -expect his wife and daughter—I expect to an ocean grave. Also is -departed the dandy from New York, having, like the beast in Daniel’s -vision, a mouth speaking great things, but differing from that other -biblical beast, the Israelites’ calf, in that the ancient calf was -<i>made</i> of ornaments, while this modern one only <i>wears</i> them. The -aldermanic Englishman, with ruddy wife, are gone like a comfort from the -other end of the table, leaving us to their roast beef and ale. The -pretty school-girl and incipient belle from Baltimore, has relieved the -parlor atmosphere of the perfumery of her beaux, and the piano of -gymnastic or belligerent manipulations extraordinary, but not, alas! -unheard of. Indeed, we are left almost alone, for mine hostess declares -she is losing money at four dollars per day in gold. Cannot afford it; -disinclines any longer to endure the imposition of servants and -shopmen—retires to the United States in disgust. Meanwhile<a name="page_47" id="page_47"></a> the -chamber-maid, having taken a fancy to me, opens for my use the large -parlor in front of my bedroom, where I receive friends and reign supreme -in a room spacious and lofty enough for a church, and retaining all the -odor of sanctity left in it by the Bishop.</p> - -<p>This evening we are to pack our trunks, to put on travelling attire, to -say good-by to our friends, to fee the servants who have served us, and -to take a volante for the steamer to Matanzas; but to say we leave here -to-night for Matanzas, would be a choice and especial piece of -presumption. I will tell you why. Last Saturday evening, we rehearsed -all the above-mentioned performance. Our Havanese friends came to say -adieus. Mr. P—— so full of regrets and kind speeches. Mr. M—— -sitting by the parlor table, so long writing letters of introduction, -that we did not ask for, to his friends in Matanzas, and then hurrying -down to see that the state-rooms we had secured in the morning were all -right, and to introduce us to the captain. Mr. R—— accepted B——’s -invitation to take a seat in my volante. These public volantes never -hold more than two, and consequently, B—— paid for his amiability by -walking. Nothing doubting, we arrived at the steaming steamer; luggage -is unfastened in great haste; we quickly alight, when, forsooth, the -steamer does not particularly go to-night, not indeed until Monday next. -The wind, it is said, took it in its head this morning to blow a -suggestion breath for an hour; a prophetic flash of lightning was -supposed to have been seen about four o’clock. Every body takes it as a -matter<a name="page_48" id="page_48"></a> of course, and I am obliged to smother my vexation behind an -appearance of amiability.</p> - -<p>A few more novelties, before going, I must bequeathe to you and to my -memory, putting them in the hands of paper and ink for my safe -keeping—then we will have done for the present with Havana. Did you -ever think of one curious result of being really a city of the sun, -viz., it is a city without chimneys. All the box stoves, and air-tight -stoves, and best parlor ditto, were cast, if at all, in the foundry of -Jupiter; all the steam and hot-air furnaces, instead of being interred -in the cellars, are placed in the topmost garret of all garrets; the -great vanity of inventions and ornaments in the shape of fireplaces, -grates with their artistic devices, their pretty screens and shades, and -the glowing faces and toasting feet before them. All these are snugly -built in an architectural niche not made with hands, while their fires -are kindled and formed not by the lungs of bellowses, but by the -early-rising wings of enterprising angels. Ever since making this -discovery I feel quite philosophically inclined to regard the fact that -every man, or at any rate every man and a half you meet, carries his -household fire about with him, using a cigar for fuel, and his devoted -nose for a chimney.</p> - -<p>Last night, while passing some highly respectable shops, we saw a pail -of water standing in the door of each. B—— said, “Can you guess what -those are for?” Of course I could not. He replied, “The law commands -them to be provided in every house at certain seasons, so that all dogs -may drink when<a name="page_49" id="page_49"></a> they wish, and thus diminish the danger of hydrophobia.”</p> - -<p>It is not less curious that horses’ tails are braided by law, a fine -following each omission. For aught I know, the law dictates the member -of strands in the braid; that it must be done by a governmental barber, -greased as if it were human, and always tied, as it is, to the left side -of the saddle. This hen-hussy government also directs at what precise -age children must cease to be models for statues and become the victims -of tailors and dress-makers.</p> - -<p>I wonder nobody seems to have observed how remarkably tall the larger -number of these negroes are. The women particularly are not only tall -and erect, but magnificent in outline, having an eye to which their -dresses are exceedingly low in the neck and short in the sleeves. They -are absolutely statuesque. The Spanish and Creole ladies look dumpish, I -might say dwarfish, beside them.</p> - -<p>But the drawback upon all goings forward, the voluminous reiteration of -feminine folking, must be performed; and we must again test the frailty -of tropical locomotive veracity and steamboat protestations.</p> - -<p><i>Tuesday, 20th.</i>—We simply didn’t go last night because the steamer -didn’t; reason not yet transpired. I am becoming so used to these -failures of plans and probabilities, that I think nothing would -disappoint me now, but a want of disappointment. However, I was not -sorry that this last detention gave me an opportunity to witness a very -interesting spectacle. A torchlight procession of priests and friars -and<a name="page_50" id="page_50"></a> mourners and friends, to say mass over a dying person. We were -first drawn to the balcony by the incessant singing of a peculiarly -toned bell, and then we saw them slowly and solemnly marching far below -us, down the dark and narrow street, heralded by the strange bell in the -hands of one of the novices, and going with devout faith in its absolute -efficacy to shrive a human soul—its last earthly help in its last -earthly extremity. The effect was much like that of the <i>Misericordia</i> -in the cities of Italy, except that you miss here the quaintness and -impressiveness of the black or white dominos. I did not care for the -superstition; I only felt a profound awe, a solemn sense of mystery and -fitness; I only marvelled that people can ever scorn or ridicule any -faith that is sincere in heart.</p> - -<p>At half-past ten we retired, just as the watchman was commencing his -round of duty. Few things are more novel to us than this. The curious -whistle is a kind of prelude to the monotonous tone with which he, every -half-hour, slowly pacing up and down, lantern and spear in hand, -announces the hour of the night and the state of the weather. He keeps a -sharp lookout on the weather as well as other vagrants, and clearly -feels a responsibility in the matter. I have learned all the words he -uses to tell us that the moon is shining, or clouds are obscuring it; if -it is cold enough to encourage an extra blanket, or if a norther or -<i>sérocco</i> is getting the upper hand of things; which hour is giving up -the ghost, or which is like a soul “rolling from out the vast.” But I -can never comprehend what he<a name="page_51" id="page_51"></a> says, the words are so drawled and twisted -to suit the tune, which my English ears understand to be musical and not -unsuited to a lullaby, and at the same time so many other watchmen in -neighboring streets are mingling their echoes and refrains.</p> - -<p><i>Guiness, Wednesday, March 21st.</i>—At last! With the earliest dawning of -the dawn we found ourselves actually leaving Havana, and that not by the -boat, which it had become our turn to disappoint. How tired the watchmen -looked as we passed them! lantern lights burnt out, long ancient looking -spears carried listlessly by their sides, the guardianship of the -weather left in the hands of the coming Apollo. The busy markets are -already open; shopmen unfastening shutters; life beginning to awake and -throb through the great body of Havana. Its soul, whether great or -small, is scarcely yet awakened into any circulation through the -channels of art or literature. The bells are ringing, drums beating, and -guns firing, for it is five o’clock. The day is up betimes. The -<i>morning</i> and <i>evening</i> here are the first day, and every day. Noon is -but a shorter panting, gilded, interluding night, when all sleep who -can, and all long for sleep who cannot. But the carriage stops in the -midst of an articulating human mass. How it hurries and bustles! how -many faces it has, and every one a different variety of brown or a new -invention in the shades of black.</p> - -<p>Presently the gentlemen come with tickets, separate ones for baggage and -passage, and obtained with much difficulty and circumlocution, as the -rule<a name="page_52" id="page_52"></a> is that baggage must be sent the night before—which ours was not. -No sooner are we settled in the cool cane seats than—will you believe -it?—a whistle, the modern screech of a steam-whistle, is heard, and we -start precisely punctual to the minute. Therefore, I assert, and will -maintain that it is conceivable, it is not contrary to all the laws of -nature, it is possible for a promise to be kept this side the Tropic of -Cancer. But how am I to become reconciled to all this comfort and speed, -this steam-engine, this trail insinuating itself so complacently through -these celestial plains, snorting and blowing and smoking through these -orange-groves, past these waving royal palms, in the midst of sights and -sounds such as lulled Eve into slumber upon the bridal night of her -birth! O insatiate Yankeedom! with all the lurid sins you have to answer -for, will not this alone secure you a life lease in Purgatory? But I -have no time for unpatriotic indignation. Fields of belligerent looking -pineapples; orchards of bananas twenty feet high, with immense leaves -all torn into rags by the wind; groves of cocoa-nuts that look like -sentimental palms in delicate health, with the green clustered fruit -hanging round their necks like an affectionate necklace; cacti, the -prickly pear growing fifteen feet high, and fences of the kinds I have -cultivated in pots with so much care; vegetables, familiar and -unfamiliar, for the Havana market; everywhere trees of gayest plumage, -the blossoms so large and brilliant, that you grow incredulous and -wonder if your eyes are not become<a name="page_53" id="page_53"></a> telescopic. As you approach the -interior, immense corn-fields greet you with their sweetened breath, -looking like corn-fields of the Southern States grown delicate and pale -from close confinement, a thickened growth that excludes the air.</p> - -<p>At nine o’clock the train stops at a village named Bejucal. But for some -reason it does not start again. B—— inquires to find we are to remain -three hours—some failure in the engine. So we do what nobody else does, -walk half a mile under our umbrellas to examine the town and get a -breakfast. See if you do not think this a droll sight for American eyes. -A village containing over a thousand inhabitants, every house in it, -except the church, of one high story, roofed with large red earthen -tiles, built of stone covered with clay or plaster, and painted in all -possible colors that are bright. Not a pane of glass visible, all the -immense windows being only grated and then filled with idle, staring -women and naked children. Every house opens directly upon the sidewalk; -and in the whole extent of streets, gardens, and courtyards, here in -this land of miraculous vegetation, not a tree to be seen. But I have no -eyes or curiosity left. I am one huge unreconciled appetite.</p> - -<p>We stop at a house with larger rooms, larger windows, and larger -basements than the rest; where rows of breakfast-tables, each with a -caster in the centre and a tall black wine-bottle on either side, -promise a drop, possibly a mouthful, of comfort to the perishing inner -woman. But the tablecloths!<a name="page_54" id="page_54"></a> Even my great hunger hasn’t stomach for -them all, overlaid and underlaid as they are</p> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">“With food-prints that perhaps another,<br /></span> -<span class="i2">Sitting o’er their various stain,<br /></span> -<span class="i1">A forlorn and famished sister<br /></span> -<span class="i2">Seeing still might eat again.”<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p class="nind">Not so I. Consequently a private room is ordered with a breakfast in it, -and while preparing to fill up the vaccuum, not of the within, we sally -out for a reconnoitre. Just at the back door, we stumble upon—you do -not guess?—a veritable theatre,—boxes, galleries, pit, stage with -decorations for scenes, painted curtains, trap-door opening upon the -prompter’s den, and niches properly placed for footlights. But the boxes -are only stalls with rough board partitions, the seats are wooden -benches, the galleries are an upper loft still retaining remnants of -former hay, the floor is of mother earth unmodified by pavement or -broom, and in fact we have every evidence that this temple is devoted to -horses and oxen by day, and to the muse of the histrionic art by night. -But this aching void which nature has the good sense to abhor! “Will -breakfast never be ready? It is eleven o’clock! I wish I hadn’t seen the -tablecloths.” Ah, here comes an agile quadroon announcing it in Spanish, -which does not get itself translated. We go to a little bedroom from -which a cot has been hastily ejected, and sit down to a table loaded -with fresh fruits of great variety and abundance, in addition to the -usual bountiful breakfast of the country, and, best of all, clean linen -under them. You are right: we revel,<a name="page_55" id="page_55"></a> we luxuriate, and to this hour I -sit and think of that breakfast with a gastronomic satisfaction none the -less because we paid five dollars for it. We are now ready for any -adventure at the disposal of the remaining hour, and set out for the -ruins of an old castle said to have been built by the Marquis de San -Phillippi and honored by the presence of King Ferdinand VII. at a ball, -while he was <i>incognito</i> in this country. Now the walls are crumbling to -dust; one or two window-shutters flap disconsolately in the wind, -parasitic plants grow over the mouldering arches where a dead past -sleeps its sleeps and dreams its dreams.</p> - -<p>The church, Moorish in architecture, is just across the Plaza, and -invites, but the sun threatens, and we decide for a tempting grove near -the railway station.</p> - -<p>As we walk over the very clean pavement, stared at by wondering groups -of villagers, a woman rushes up to us breathlessly explaining that she -knows where the English person who lives here is to be found, and will -be very willing to show us the way.</p> - -<p>Mr. S—— thanks her, with the assurance that we are only waiting for -the train; and we soon find ourselves reclining beatifically under -deliciously breathing trees, whose shadows are thick as night with -darkness.</p> - -<p>I must not forget to mention a primitive kind of well we saw when again -<i>en route</i>. It was like an ordinary well: an old white horse walking -away from it when the bucket was full and backing to it<a name="page_56" id="page_56"></a> after it was -emptied into the cask on the cart, and must go down for more.</p> - -<p>We came also for the first time upon a peculiar species of palm, -distinguishable from the royal palm only by an enormous swelling half -way up the trunk. I pronounced them dropsical. B—— was more brilliant, -declaring they resembled a snake, that had fallen into the misfortune of -swallowing a toad,—an idea which Mr. S—— developed in a drawing which -I copied and am saving to show you. Very many of these singular trees -grow crookedly—vegetable leaning towers suggesting the idea that a -variation from the perpendicular may be peculiarly incident to trees as -well as tropical towers and morality.</p> - -<p>It is an interesting fact that instead of undressing with the indelicate -precipitancy of our trees at home, the palm-tree drops only one leaf -every lunar month,—a replenishing of its wardrobe which is dignified as -well as rhythmical.</p> - -<p>On the subject of palms I find authors in Cuba again inaccurate. It is -asserted that they are of no use, when it is true that of all the -several hundreds of varieties found on the island every one is useful. A -gentleman who has lived here in the country many years says, “They are -the most useful tree we have.” They give food to animals, thatches to -roofs, brooms to housemaids, cords to tobacconists, hats to men, besides -being used for numerous other purposes.</p> - -<p>The young palm often reminds one of an overgrown aquatic weed; very many -resemble a gigantic<a name="page_57" id="page_57"></a> pencil-case, the trunk quite straight and equal -until you approach the top, where it suddenly diminishes, looking loose -as if it would shove up and down like the pencil point.</p> - -<p>Arrived at Guiness, the volante does not come as we expected from the -plantation where we are invited to spend a week or more. We go—not to a -<i>fonda</i>, for they are usually only miserably dirty inns, but to a -private boarding-house, with which Mr. S—— is already acquainted. Here -we find what we have so much desired—a characteristic Cuban house with -characteristic Creole customs, although our landlord is a fat, -good-natured Frenchman, and his wife a tall, stately, imposing negress. -Her history is a little interesting. A sister of hers had a daughter, -whose father was a wealthy Spaniard, and who sent her to Paris to be -educated. Soon after she died, leaving this aunt $10,000, with which she -purchased her freedom, and, I conjecture, the French husband.</p> - -<p>As we enter the door, large enough for a camel, she greeted us with a -hospitable smile and graceful bow, at the same time motioning us to sit -in the row of rocking-chairs standing accurately in front of the huge -window. I am told that unlike ordinary parallel lines these have been -known to absolutely meet. If I do not mistake, the occasion is apt to be -when an appreciative señor finds a pretty Creole for a <i>vis-à-vis</i>.</p> - -<p>The house is a fac-simile of nearly all these houses. Massive stone, -directly upon the street. It is of one high story; tiles keep out the -heat; the<a name="page_58" id="page_58"></a> pointed roof and bare rafters inside giving a bare-like -effect, which the brick-paved floor tries to counteract, and the -enormous doorways to maintain.</p> - -<p>A curtain with curious embroidery at the bottom conceals this door which -separates this <i>sala</i> from my chamber. There I find plenty of finest -linen and the clean odor which should always sanctify bedrooms. Canvas -stretchers across the cot-like bedsteads make a delightfully cool and -clean mattress. Carefully embroidered pillow-cases endeavor to excite -our admiration, and brightly colored pictures of saints and martyrs on -the wall, our devotion.</p> - -<p>At three comes a Spanish jumble of sounds which mean, “Dinner is ready.” -We walk out on a back piazza, overlooking the pretty courtyard with its -shrubs and flowers, while we are sheltered from the sun by -thickly-growing and blossoming vines.</p> - -<p>Our chairs are a curious kind of wooden frame covered with some sort of -hairy skin stretched tightly across the back and bottom; our floor is of -clean cement; our soup is colored a bright yellow with saffron; our fish -is fresh and white from the Carribean Sea; our rice is pearls set in -sweet oil; our green peas have lost their identity by the same process; -our water—unlike the quality of mercy—is strained, and through a -filter; while our beef, like all the beef we have found in Cuba, is -suspiciously dark and tough. Yet we have faith, remembering that the -colored bipeds are much higher in the market than the quadrupeds. In -addition to all this,<a name="page_59" id="page_59"></a> our table is loaded with nondescript dishes of -Creole names and ingenuity, and all are ranged in one stiff row down the -middle of the table. Opposite me sits a Creole gentleman who has not -only belonged to the army (it has been asserted that Creoles are not -permitted to enter the army in any capacity), but has been an officer in -Spain. We strike up a conversation in French, and imagine my admiration -for the flexibility of his politeness, when he inquires how long I lived -in Paris. Between dessert and coffee he leaves the table to smoke, -apologizing to Mr. S—— by saying he is so much of a Spaniard that he -must smoke before taking coffee, and he does not like to do it at the -table in the presence of an American lady.</p> - -<p>I confess it made me feel a little peculiar to see our French landlord -sitting complacently at the head of the table with his bona-fide negro -wife standing as complacently behind his chair to serve us.</p> - -<p>After dinner I am attracted to the water-filter standing in one corner. -It is a large moss-covered porous stone, with a cavity in the top where -the water and charcoal are placed; the water creeping through the stone -drop by drop, into the vessel below. I wish I could remember the name of -the island where it is found, and, indeed, of which it is the -foundation.<a name="page_60" id="page_60"></a></p> - -<h2><a name="V" id="V"></a> -<img src="images/i_060.png" width="450" height="86" alt="decorative image not available" /> -<br /> - -V.</h2> - -<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang"><i>A Palm-grove—A Planter’s Household—Coolies as compared with -Negroes—Anecdotes of Coolies—Robbers—Heterogeneous -Dinner—Creole Politeness.</i></p></div> - -<p class="r"> -<span class="smcap">Thursday</span>, March 22d.<br /> -</p> - -<p class="hang"><span class="letra"> -<img src="images/letr_t.png" -width="60" -height="59" -alt="T" -class="dropcap" -/></span>HIS morning comes intelligence that death has occurred in the family of -the owner of the plantation and that his sister is become insane. Our -visit there is necessarily abandoned. However, we are not uncomfortable -in our present quarters, and its independence reconciles us to the -disappointment; for you must know a Cuban planter would as soon think of -taking pay for the air and sunshine you breathe in his house as for any -amount of board, lodging, or attendance he might give you.</p> - -<p>To-day, we discovered an inviting grove of palms just outside the town, -and, unwisely careless of the threatenings of the sun, set out to find -them. They looked very near, over the tops of the houses, and so tall -that, like vegetable Mother Gooses, they seemed to be “sweeping the -cobwebs from the sky,” but, as we walk on, seem to recede farther and -farther. The sun waxes and waxes; our fatigue becomes exhaustion; but we -find, as did Macbeth, that to return is as difficult as to go on; so on -we go—melt—utterly dissolve—until, at last, we reach a lovely<a name="page_61" id="page_61"></a> -garden, and with permission from the major domo, drop down upon the -roots of a tree in the midst of many of the best fruit and ornamental -trees of the country. Was there ever shade so profound, perfumes so -delicious, orange-trees so dark-leaved and bright-fruited!</p> - -<p>The ground around us is covered with a great variety of fallen fruits of -which we do not even know the names. They are left quite at the mercy of -various fat, black, lazy, meandering pigs that at first look to you like -overgrown rats—for, like all the hogs of Cuba, they are entirely -without bristles, as smooth-shaven as if just from the razor of the -barber.</p> - -<p>Presently, we discover a little house behind the trees, apparently -unoccupied. The same idea occurs to us all at once—if we could get it -to live in while we remain. We go for the major-domo, who conducts us -inside. Rude enough, indeed, for the most rural or romantic tastes, and -with eight great black—so black that you could not see them—negroes -sitting in the middle of the middle room. They are all dressed in spots; -that is, a few rags still cling, by chance, or by preternatural -adhesion, to different parts of the body; and all are busily filling -some sort of a demijohn with a kind of black bran much grown and used -here. Not too inviting, certainly, neither, is the stifling, -annihilating walk before us, in a sun whose furnace is heated seven -times hotter than before. We survive, I could never tell how, to find -that the dinner at home has scarcely survived an hour’s waiting for us, -and I go to rest till soup and fish are over.<a name="page_62" id="page_62"></a></p> - -<p>Immediately after dinner, a Chinaman rides up to the door, leading three -horses. A friend of Mr. S——, a sugar planter, hearing of our arrival, -sends the horses, with an invitation for us to visit his estate. So soon -as habited, I select the horse that wears the side-saddle. He starts off -at once in the delightful and peculiar gait of Creole horses,—not an -ornamental one, as I somewhere said before, but well suited to the -climate, perhaps a result of it,—an amble, giving exhilarating -exercise, without fatigue.</p> - -<p>The plantation is but a league distant, and very soon the tall white -chimneys and low roofs reveal our saccharine destination. Flocks of -decently dressed and moderately happy-faced negroes and coolies are at -work in the corn-fields. As we pass on an odor as of nice sweet cake -while in the progress of baking greets us from the boiling sugar, with a -savory familiarity; then a glimpse through the trees of blue walls and -red tiles suggests the family mansion.</p> - -<p>What can be so fresh and peaceful as that pretty, low, rambling house, -nestled in among the greenery, with the huge trees behind it giving that -background so indispensible to beauty in houses, while on all sides -stranger varieties of trees, flowers, and shrubs breathe upon us the -sweetness of their welcome!</p> - -<p>Our hostess, a charming lady from the United States, living here twenty -years, meets us on the piazza with a graceful hospitality. The gentlemen -go to the sugar-house or <i>ingenio</i>, which yields an<a name="page_63" id="page_63"></a> income of from -seventy-five to a hundred thousand per year, with two hundred and fifty -negroes and coolies to perform the work. I am taken into the grounds and -gardens by Mrs. D—— and her son; where among all that is new I find a -great variety of cactuses, many twenty or thirty feet high; ripe -oranges, perfectly green in color; mignionette and allspice trees; tall -trees of blooming oleanders; also cape jasmines and the night-blooming -cereus.</p> - -<p>We talk much of the coolie system. Although less amiable than negroes, -Mrs. D—— prefers them on account of their superior activity, -ingenuity, and intelligence. Nearly all of them can read and write, and -have some proficiency in arithmetic and geography. Beside being very -passionate, they consider their persons sacred: many of them would die -rather than endure any bodily chastisement. Several murders have -occurred on this plantation among them, but we learned on the way home -that Mr. D—— had the matter hushed up in some way to save their lives -and his money. To illustrate the character of these antipodes of ours: A -celestial in Havana, supposing himself detected in a theft, confessed -his guilt to the unsuspecting owner of the property, also a Chinaman, -who at once tied his hands behind his back and commenced leading him -through the streets backward. The authorities stopped this, to the great -indignation of the persecutor, because he could not do as people always -did in his own country. But the companions of the thief all deserted -him, refused to eat, sleep, or speak with him, not on account of his -guilt, but of the<a name="page_64" id="page_64"></a> bodily degradation he had suffered, and the next -morning in despair he went and hanged himself. Mr. R—— told me of a -cook of his (they make the best cooks in the world) who was attacked by -a disease for which the doctor, fearing it to be infectious, sent him to -the hospital. While there he was attended by the noble Sisters of -Charity, of whose unselfish though sometimes mistaken devotion I hear so -much. When he was cured one of the nuns said to Mr. R——, “Do take care -of him, for he is a good Christian; and as he desired it, we have -baptized him.” Afterwards his master, knowing so well the tenaciousness -of the idolatry of the Chinese, said to him, “How come it that you were -baptized?”—“Oh,” said the fellow, “my head was very hot, and I thought -I would let them put a little water on to cool it.” This <i>was</i> being -Cooley!</p> - -<p>A little event has just occurred on our plantation, from which I am -wandering. One of the laborers, a Chinaman, it is suspected (because the -negroes are such cowards), threw into one of the wheels of the machinery -an iron bolt of some sort to prevent its operation, and so give them all -a holiday. The master, not being able to discover the offender, forced -them all to work harder than ever through the week, and all the -following Sunday.</p> - -<p>But night is coming on and we must go in spite of urgent invitations to -remain, and many expressed regrets from our kind hostess that her house -is already too full of visitors to admit us permanently, and so, -promising to “Come soon and spend the day,” we encounter the darkness, -and I many misgivings<a name="page_65" id="page_65"></a> of possible robbers. And why should I not? The -country, from all accounts is full of them. Everybody goes armed. Not -one man do you meet, from the elegant señor down to the stupidest negro, -without pistols in his saddle and a long sword at his side, which I -always see brushing against the hedges as they ride in the country, or -rattling on the pavement as they walk in town.</p> - -<p>My fears are somewhat quieted by the assurance that nobody accompanied -by a lady has ever been attacked or in all probability will be, an -assurance more interesting than convincing, it must be confessed. -However, somewhat armed and strengthened by my weakness, we ride through -the bristling hedges and star-lighted air until tremor is forgotten in -the sweet enchantment of the scene, and we are sorry to see the lights -of Guiness rising one by one out of the darkness.</p> - -<p><i>Friday, March 23d.</i>—These people have unquestionably the most -heterogeneous tastes in the world. At dinner to-day I counted ten dishes -entirely new to me,—all but two, intricate complications of flesh, -fish, or fowl, but mostly of vegetables, compounds which no ingenuity of -chemist could hope to resolve back to their elements. How think you, is -unsophisticated American digestion to make terms with this marked array? -How not to disappoint the attentive hostess who expects you to encounter -them all unflinchingly, and end them, not yourself, victoriously?</p> - -<p>During dinner we happened to mention our intention of procuring horses -and riding twice a day in<a name="page_66" id="page_66"></a> search of adventures and an appetite, when -what does a polite Creole opposite do but offer me the use of his own -horse as long as I stay: it is in Matanzas and he will be only too happy -to send for it.</p> - -<p>I found my French useful to decline and to express thanks more ample -than the Spanish “<i>gracias</i>.”</p> - -<p class="figcenter"> -<img src="images/i_066.png" width="120" height="60" alt="decorative image not available" /> -</p> - -<p><a name="page_67" id="page_67"></a></p> - -<h2><a name="VI" id="VI"></a> -<img src="images/i_067.png" width="450" height="72" alt="decorative image not available" /> -<br /> - -VI.</h2> - -<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang"><i>"Nice pretty House in the Country”—Wrong Side of the -Horse—Discovery in Mental Photography—Visit to the Country -House—Not to be obtained—Contrast of Palms and Bamboos—The Youth -of Tropical Nature—A Remarkable Phenomenon—House of the Marquise -of V——“Le Armistad”—Burial of an Officer’s Child—A -Shock—“Cafetal”—“La Providencia”—A Sugar Plantation—The “Royal -Highway”—A Grand View.</i></p></div> - -<p class="hang"><span class="letra"> -<img src="images/letr_t.png" -width="60" -height="59" -alt="T" -class="dropcap" -/></span>HIS evening comes Mr. S—— from Father P——, full of a nice pretty -house we are to get in the country. Immediately a horse resembling an -overgrown rat is procured, warranted amiable with ladies, and we prepare -for investigation.</p> - -<p>Imagine my dismay when about to mount, to find the side-saddle turned to -the right of the horse instead of the left. It is indeed the ordinary -style of this extraordinary country. I remember seeing ladies in long, -white habits, riding in this way in the suburbs of Havana, quite at -ease, and unsuspicious of the droll figure they were making. I have, -however, seen or been told that ladies in the south of Europe are taught -both modes of riding, still, I<a name="page_68" id="page_68"></a> am not inclined to try a new horse in a -new manner; so, after a change of saddles, we find ourselves sailing off -in the stereotyped gait of the Cuban horse, than which nothing can be -more safe, or less calculated for the display of horsewomanship. The -scene is exquisite; we could ask no change in “the day, the place, the -hour, the sunshine and the shade,” except that one might excuse the low, -red afternoon sun from peering up so inquisitively as it does under -one’s eyelids.</p> - -<p>How dense and massive are these great cactus hedges on either side of -the road! and how their fierceness is softened or masked by thick vines -creeping and penetrating everywhere, with blossoms and perfumes in their -hands!</p> - -<p>My equestrian experiences continually reimpress upon me a discovery I am -making in the philosophy of mental photography of scenery.</p> - -<p>Riding towards the east is far more inspiriting than going towards the -west. Travelling to the south is equally more cheering than to the -north. I find that western views, however intrinsically beautiful, have -in them an accent of sadness, of departure, of farewells. It is there -that the sun, and moon, and stars go down to be buried, leaving behind -them a consciousness that all bright and fair and tender things must -also drop into a night of death.</p> - -<p>Eastern views, on the contrary, however rude and desolate, are yet seen -and beautified through an atmosphere of hope. A sweet sense of promise -always comes up from under the orient; there is an<a name="page_69" id="page_69"></a> inherent life and -light in it that no stalking shades can terrify.</p> - -<p>Northern views, though outwardly full of grace and beauty, have always -about them a haunting desolation. You think only of those “thrilling -regions of thick-ribbed ice,” with no heart beating under the ribs, no -blood in the veins, no kindling in the fixed eye. You fall into -shivering reveries about the unbending attitude of those hyperborean -scenes, wondering if it is their backbone, the north pole that keeps -them there forever, so stiff and stark. You see those ice fields -inhabited mostly by the longing looks, the gasping yearnings of lost -souls who are condemned to burn forever in flames that do not purify or -consume.</p> - -<p>But southern views, though they may be insipid or uncouth in material -form and feature, are always sweet with the very soul of passion and -poetry. They cry out for you in advance to all sorrow and hopelessness -and death,—</p> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">“Avaunt thy miscreated front.”<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p>But the low roofs and bright walls of the house we are seeking have -discovered us through the trees.</p> - -<p>We enter the long, straight avenue of palms interspersed with laden -orange-trees, and are met at the door, not by simply the <i>mayoral</i>, as -we had expected, but by the son of the proprietor who, contrary to our -information, lives here with his family.</p> - -<p>We are shown to the <i>sala</i>, the living and dining-room combined. Here -sits the pretty, pale mistress sewing on little dresses, while her child -of two years<a name="page_70" id="page_70"></a> totters up to meet us, three large fourths of her -comfortable little brown delicious form visible.</p> - -<p>Our errand is of course baffled, but we sit talking until the host -invites us to visit the grounds. They are large, cultivated with great -care and watered by a kind of inundation. Numbers of exotic fruits are -shown us among others, well grown American apples, which it has been -said, like peaches, will not grow in the tropics. Think of apples nearly -ripe in the month of March!</p> - -<p>After having made our adieus we turn our horses’ heads towards the wild, -primitive-looking forest across the plantation. Directly we find a -serpentine path through the dark, rich, reddish-brown soil, the only -soil in which oranges and many other tropical fruits will grow; which -stains the men’s feet who work in it, or shoes if they have them; browns -the oxen, carts, everything that it touches; and which is grateful as -“music after howling,” to sun-dazzled eyes.</p> - -<p>I have not before been so much impressed by the exquisite contrast of -palms and bamboo-trees growing together. The strange, sombre palm, with -its erect, uncompromising trunk, its long, straight, dark leaves, -looking so doric, so rich in individuality, and then, nestled quite -under its very shadow, you often see a clump of the slender willowy, -delicate bamboo, its pale green leaves, so soft and fine and feathery. -It is the vegetable masculine and feminine attraction. Or it is not -unlikely that a stern warrior, and an ethereal post would be drawn -together by the same contrasts.<a name="page_71" id="page_71"></a></p> - -<p>As the path narrows and the forest thickens, these dull things are -obscured by densely woven vines, which everywhere hover over these -trees, making the forests at times so dense, that it must be a very -small bird or breeze to get through them: as for a man, he might as well -attempt to wedge his way into the future before the present has cut a -way for him.</p> - -<p>But we do not care to have night shading these shadows with her black -crayons, and so, at the first opening, turn our horses’ heads, and amble -homeward, beneath the thrillings of those great ardent hearts up in the -blue bosom of the sky; those stars so large and fair that we need no -astronomer to suggest that it is only distance which keeps them from -being suns.</p> - -<p><i>Saturday, 24th.</i>—When we had drunk the delicious coffee and milk, or, -more accurately, milk and coffee, which our landlady brings so soon as -we are awake, or should be, we hurried off for the early ride.</p> - -<p>What can be more fresh and innocent, more externally young, than this -tropical nature! She is a robust Titaness, it is true, but always out of -her strong comes forth sweetness, and no riddle either. How readily she -justifies the taste which decks her in these early mornings with all her -jewels! And then she is so tender, so peaceful, so serene. Her tears, -thank heaven, like those of infants, are not tears of sorrow. Her -tempests, tornadoes, and straits of passion have been studiously kept -from us. It is true one misses that “sense of promise<a name="page_72" id="page_72"></a> everywhere” with -which our Northern springs console their sweet virgin hearts, for nature -is always here in her fruition of beauty; “her every future is already -in her every present.” “The world,” says Plato (and he knows), “is God’s -epistle to mankind.” Here the manuscript is written in a large, generous -hand; the ink flowed freely; the thoughts are largely outlined.</p> - -<p>Even the people, in spite of numerous reports of robberies, have almost -universally an innocent and amiable expression of countenance and the -most unoffending, respectful way in the world. Even the horses, I am -constantly assured, are never vicious. A lady might ride at random any -of the native species with safety. It may be that an habitual and -contented indolence is largely among the causes, but it strikes me that -harmlessness is the most apparent characteristic of these children of -the sun.</p> - -<p>I must have forgotten to tell you of a remarkable phenomenon which we -met every morning coming in to market from the country, or already -arrived when we leave. It moves like an animal; its physiognomy is that -of a vegetable. The first thing you see advancing upon you is a huge -heap of corn-stalks, called fodder, I think, at home, and mollacca here. -It is very high above, and trails upon the ground below. By careful -examination, you may discover at one end of it a muzzled appearance -resembling a horse’s head; from the other extremity dangles a possible -appendage you would declare to be his tail, while sometimes, by careful -scanning and difficult<a name="page_73" id="page_73"></a> investigation, you may count four feet under the -thing, upon which it seems to move. Sometimes, eight or ten of these -mysterious apparitions are fastened in a procession by a rope, pace -slowly along with one negro to drive or conduct it, often sitting -astride on the top of this superstructure. After many investigations, I -venture to affirm that the framework of this architecture is actually a -horse buried, yet alive and doing well. It would also have amused you to -see the great sun-umbrellas nearly all these countrymen carry on -horseback; not of the dark orthodox colors, but a bright light red -alternated with blue or yellow, tipped with black, or purple bordered -with green: an attempt to eclipse the sun in more ways than one.</p> - -<p>After breakfast we with our umbrellas walked over to accept the -invitation of Father M—— to see his garden, or rather the garden in -the courtyard of the Marquis of V——, in whose vacant house the priest -lives alone and free of expense. Finding that he had not yet returned -from morning mass, we took the liberty of avoiding the scorching sun of -the garden by rambling through the great deserted corridors, chambers, -and antechambers, all built and furnished in Spanish style and only -occupied, like most of the great houses out of the cities, one or two -months of every year. Presently, after I had duly ensconced myself to -rest in one corner of a sofa behind the door of the grand drawing-room, -came in the priest, jolly as the priests of romance, saluting us with a -stunning volley of Spanish and politeness; we <a name="page_74" id="page_74"></a>replying in smiles and -nods which Mr. S—— did not translate, and in English, which he did. -The reverend father is a short man even for a Creole, and when sitting -suggests the form of a pyramid; but the little twinkling gray eyes -situated near the apex of the structure suggested anything rather than -the sepulchral. After we had seen and duly admired some of the frescoes -in the rooms and all the distant views from different upper piazzas and -windows, the priest, with the air of one who is doing you an uncommon -favor, invited us to visit his sanctum. I put on a look of becoming -gravity and awe, and, with a feeling of profound grief at my ignorance -of the mysteries of science, and, alas! of art and theology, and with -profound gratification that there are some works, even in Cuba, where -science and wisdom find refuge, where learning and piety shake hands, I -follow the father and the gentlemen follow me.</p> - -<p>We enter a dark, long passage leading to this cell of midnight vigils -and occult research; the door slowly opens, I reverently enter -upon—heaps of tinsel leaves and flowers, with scissors and glue and all -the paraphernalia for flower-making; piles of bouquets lie on the bed, -all with silver leaves exactly alike, and each one with a brick-red rose -in the centre. They are to decorate the church on Easter Sunday; they -are the only proofs of piety and science and lore that the sanctum of -our jolly priest possesses.</p> - -<p>After dinner, Father M—— came in, bringing a gentleman who said we -could have a house of his in the country. We go at once on our horses, -to find a river of remarkably clear and pure water running<a name="page_75" id="page_75"></a> behind the -house among the trees, all most inviting; but the house is wretchedly -dilapidated, kitchen to be built, and, withal, a Creole overseer is to -occupy one half of it. Thus nonplussed, we resign all thought of a -permanent location in the country, and decide to spend our time in -travelling over the island so soon as the interest of Guiness is -exhausted.</p> - -<p>From this place we ride to Le Armistad, the <i>ingenio</i> of Mr. D——, our -first Guiness friend, with the hope of getting some <i>guirappa</i> or -cane-juice to drink. It is said to have remarkable fattening as well as -curative power. But the machinery is silent, the chimneys are smokeless, -the odor of nice sweet cake only regales the nostrils of the memory; and -so, redisappointed, we turn again toward home, and ride through the -hedges by the light of a Venus that has a halo as distinct as you may -have seen around the moon. Instead of fast horsemen with dangling sword -and pistol-equipped saddle, we only meet sleepy-looking market-men -returning home astride the collapsed panniers, which in the morning -bulged at each side of their horses like huge saddle-bags, stuffed with -all kinds of fruits or poultry, and these poor horses would think -themselves fortunate if fruits and ducks and chickens were all that is -packed upon their devoted backs. Not only all the fodder and charcoal go -to town in this way, but I saw this morning four exhausted-looking -creatures wilting along through the mid-day sun with chairs, tables, and -bedsteads, piled high upon their backs, and sometimes a -good-for-nothing-looking<a name="page_76" id="page_76"></a> negro mounted on the top of all openly -rejoicing in that “bad eminence.”</p> - -<p><i>Sunday, March 25th.</i>—Awoke too late and too weary for early mass this -morning. Immediately after breakfast I was attracted to the window by -martial music and a procession. The landlady came in, saying it was the -burial of an officer’s child. First came the musicians, mulattoes with -handsome serious faces; after them boys in the dress of novices, then -the priests in robes. But no relatives or mourners were to be seen, for -the immediate friends of the dead never go to the burial, do not leave -their houses on these occasions. It is not considered decent or -appropriate anywhere on the island. One is constantly impressed with the -truth that geographical nearness has little to do with real nearness. -All the customs of this country ally it much more nearly to Europe than -to America.</p> - -<p>I stood looking carelessly on at the long procession, with only -curiosity excited, when I am attracted by the peculiarly sad and solemn -and tender expression in the faces of the soldiers who follow. I see -tearful eyes turned toward the centre of the group. I look—what an -apparition! Never shall I forget the shock, the thrill, the agony of the -sight. Upon an open litter carried in the hands of these soldiers it -lay, the little angel face of rarest possible loveliness, wreathed with -flowers that are pale and fair, but not so fair and pale as itself. The -little dead hands full of white flowers are raised and clasped in a -supplicating attitude, the little heavenly form, just the fatal and -familiar size, is robed in a trailing<a name="page_77" id="page_77"></a> white satin shroud, and over this -unearthly vision shines the burning sun with mocking glare, and upon it -stare the passers-by with indifferent faces through which no broken -heart has ever looked. But with this wonderful image some mother’s soul -at home is blackened, with this wonderful image the blackness of the -grave will be brightened. Ah, that grave! It will hold another dead -infant upon its heart, <i>but it will give back none in return</i>!</p> - -<p><i>March 26th.</i>—Again this morning from bed to horse for a little free -air, a little hour to enjoy this wonderfully sweet and delicious nature -before the sun begins his reign of tyranny, and, to all who have the -temerity to encounter his personal presence, reign of terror.</p> - -<p>Among untried points of the compass, we remember due south as one. Here -we very soon find ourselves and the road entering upon a long avenue -formed by hedges that have grown to trees, often meeting over our heads. -These are filled with birds and flowers of all songs and perfumes; -through them we catch glimpses of scattered cocoa-nut groves and wide -cane-fields.</p> - -<p>Presently we come upon a high, ornamented, close-locked gate, the first -of the kind we have seen, and as unlike a sketch I made of it as a -pretty gate must almost be to a bad drawing of it. On approaching more -nearly we find written upon it “<i>Cafetal</i>.” We look over the side fence -and discover a wide avenue of palms leading to the concealed house, and -on both sides the pretty coffee-plant, with its small, dark-green -leaves. All over<a name="page_78" id="page_78"></a> the wide fields it is growing under the shade of a -great variety of trees,—the cocoa-nut, orange, palm etc.; for you must -know the coffee-plant has the feminine peculiarity of always needing -shelter and protection, as well as of causing palpitations, -exhilarations, trepidations, and nervousness generally.</p> - -<p>What a shame and sin it was to turn all these shady, poetical <i>cafetals</i> -into horrid <i>ingenios</i> with their treeless, monotonous, endless fields -of cane, their dreary smoking chimneys, their steaming engines, and -broiling machinery of men and women!</p> - -<p>In the perpetual battles between gold and beauty, it is likely, I fear, -the latter will not win until it has the millennium for an ally.</p> - -<p>As we were turning away from the closed gate, a huge piece of midnight, -bungled into human shape, and dressed, or rather undressed, so as to -display the herculean proportions of the entire morning and evening of -his body, having the noon in eclipse, came up to us, holding out an -immense charcoal paw, accompanied by a beseeching jumble of chopped -Spanish.</p> - -<p>B—— put in it a piece of silver, which the black-meat looked at so -contemptuously as to quite spoil his attempt at a civil “<i>gracias</i>.”</p> - -<p><i>Evening.</i>—We ventured to penetrate the inviting avenue of this -morning; found it leads to the beautiful <i>Cafetal</i> of “La Providencia.” -The grounds lovely, with overgrown ornamental trees and shrubs, and -pretty brook of rural and domestic habits. Just beyond we met the -administrator with his wife and sister, returning on horseback from the -“south side.<a name="page_79" id="page_79"></a>” where we had much wished to extend our own ride. The -<i>pros</i> why we should go are:—this is just the season for the sea-cow; -they are being caught in large numbers, and I am positively assured by -those who should know, that they are the real original mermaid—the -prosaic suggestion of all the romantic ballads and traditions. But the -<i>cons</i> that confront our enthusiasm are mostly the roads, which are so -bad as to be dangerous; the horses we met had been almost buried in the -mud, and it is a severe test of the strength of the most vigorous -person. So we yield to the urgencies of that wretched bugbear, -invalidism, and, finally, to the invitation of the party, to go back -with them to the house. Here we are urged to remain to dinner, which is -waiting in the large living-room where we sit, but the sun is already -set, and we excuse ourselves, accepting at last some fruit and a glass -of <i>guirappa</i>.</p> - -<p>By the time we have passed the grounds night is lapping over the edge of -day without any perceptible clasp of twilight. And those hedges so high -and thickly woven! The starlight scarcely contrives to get through them. -How easily an army of robbers might conceal there and rush upon us, -unarmed as we are, and the darkness robbing us of our only -protection—my sex, and its weakness and appeal to gallantry. Our horses -even instinctively press close to each other and quicken their pace. But -the darkness, or the invisible hand and heart that fashion it, protects -us safely home. Here we are just in time for the usual evening music on -the plaza, a pretty square in the heart of the little town,<a name="page_80" id="page_80"></a> made and -ornamented by concha, with much taste and expense. It is like all the -plazas I have seen, an imitation of the one at Havana; with exactly four -palm-trees, with shrubs and flowers and statues; with small -bilious-looking men, and belles with regular oriental features, soft and -dark eyes, fat forms, pretty ball dresses, and an awkward mode of -progression which they fancy is walking.</p> - -<p><i>Tuesday, 27th.</i>—To-day we explored our way to a new sugar plantation, -the first I have seen where the cane is ground by oxen instead of the -usual steam-engine. I have always pitied those poor oxen and horses -pacing round and round in the mill, round and round with the rounding -months and years; but these wretched beings who drive them, with long -whips or rather poles in their hands, calling out to the long train of -animals at every step, as they follow them, in hideous monotonous, -guttural tones that never end; fifty in number, all young and mostly -females; night and day, day and night; and several overseers with the -invariable long whip in hand to watch at every step,—it made me -heart-sick, and glad enough to turn from the entrance of the building, -where we sat on our horses, and ride up to the house of the <i>mayoral</i> -for a glass of water. His wife, with an interesting Creole face and -Spanish tongue, insists that we dismount, which accordingly we do, and -wait while the slip-shod negress (negresses here are always slip-shod) -goes to the sugar-house for <i>guirappa</i>. We learn that the plantation -belongs to Marquise Somebody, who only comes once in two or three<a name="page_81" id="page_81"></a> -years, occupying the family house across the green, which, though ample -and well built, has not a tree, a shrub, a leaf to turn it into a home. -As we wait, a small chain-gang passes by us, coolies and negroes linked -together at their work; not an uncommon appendage to a plantation, and -in fact essential with coolies, who are quite certain to commit suicide -if whipped. The lady tells me by proxy that she much prefers negroes to -coolies because they are so much more amiable.</p> - -<p>This being the reverse of opinions frequently expressed to me, I infer -that the preference indicates the character of the employer quite as -much as that of the servants.</p> - -<p>We return home with the eight o’clock morning sun applying itself with -the vigor and precision of a hot flatiron to the back of our necks. Here -we cool off and rest ourselves for the substantialest of breakfasts, -only to be surpassed by the substantialest of appetites.</p> - -<p>As a daily increasing strength allows a daily increase of circuit in our -excursions, we this evening ventured toward the attractive range of -mountains stretched across the northern horizon. Our course soon led us -upon the “Royal Highway,” a broad, smooth military road leading to -Havana; presently we turned upon a wandering equestrian path, with the -appearance of once having been the rough bed of some mountain stream. -And this is not improbable, for the entire luxuriously fertile plain of -Guiness is watered by streams born and matured here; their course and -the amount of water each<a name="page_82" id="page_82"></a> plantation shall receive being regulated by -the government.</p> - -<p>The water for the towns we see carried in little casks, upon the backs -of the horses.</p> - -<p>The soil on those barren heights being too sterile for the luxurious -tastes of the sugar-cane, Indian corn, vegetables for the markets, and -many unfamiliar plants are cultivated by the simple, contented-looking -Creoles, whom we find living in these little scattered cottages, with -their high-pointed thatched roofs, few or no windows, and multitudinous -appendages of goats and children.</p> - -<p>Arrived at the top of one mountain, we find another still towering above -us, evidently commanding the northern view, so nothing remains but to -pick our way across the valley and its hill, and inquire the best path -of the wondering mountaineers. As we go on the squalidness increases; -the soil becomes more stony and obdurate; the whole aspect of the -country, with the exception of here and there a stray palm, Mr. S—— -tells us, is precisely like that of the poorer parts of Ireland.</p> - -<p>At one point we come across oxen toiling up a hill with an immense -hogshead of water, upon a real Yankee sled; at another we meet a dashing -horseman, who reins up to salute us. Mr. S—— praises his horse, when he -replies, with a bow full of native grace, “It is always at the service -of your worship.”</p> - -<p>But here we are at last, upon the very pinnacle of this temple, -beholding the kingdoms of Cuba and the glory thereof.<a name="page_83" id="page_83"></a></p> - -<p>East and west of us mountains—those pyramids of nature, which will -never, like those of man, forget their maker—are rising and falling to -suit their own ideas of grace and majesty; north and south are stretched -fair and smiling plains and valleys, with all their strong contrasts and -harmonious blendings of colors: the horizon on the south is caressed by -the soft, sunny, sky-blue waters of the Carribean Sea, looking like the -beginning of a new firmament; the northern horizon is washed by the -darker and wilder waves of the Atlantic; and over all is poured, in -bewildering floods, the glory and passion of a tropical sunset.</p> - -<p class="figcenter"> -<img src="images/i_083.png" width="120" height="65" alt="decorative image not available" /> -</p> - -<p><a name="page_84" id="page_84"></a></p> - -<h2><a name="VII" id="VII"></a> -<img src="images/i_084.png" width="450" height="63" alt="decorative image not available" /> -<br /> - -VII.</h2> - -<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang"><i>It Rains—The Effect—No Miserere—Guirappa-seeking—A Skeleton -Horse—B——’s Pantomimes—A Day More—The Bells of -Guiness—Market Day—An Invitation—Another Plantation—A -Remarkable Tree—Palm-Sunday—A Sundayless World—Dreamland—I -Didn’t Smoke—Cushioned Heads.</i></p></div> - -<p class="r"> -<span class="smcap">Wednesday</span>, 28th.<br /> -</p> - -<p class="hang"><span class="letra"> -<img src="images/letr_e.png" -width="60" -height="60" -alt="E" -class="dropcap" -/></span>VER since our arrival in Cuba, nature has kept in her after-dinner -mood; but to-day, for the first time, clouds are come over the sky with -another motive than that of simple ornament. If every cloud is an -angel’s face, and no angel’s faces elsewhere, then are we not blessed -with angelic physiognomies? For the first time these gauzy waves have -ceased to vagabondize over our heads like mere apparitions of loveliness -that cannot discover or remember their own errands in the world. In -short, the rain has poured in torrents, in desperate cataracts, for two -hours. Every thing, as well as the roses, is “dripping and drowned.” The -streets are rushing rivers.</p> - -<p>But I do not see that nature is especially glad, or even conscious of -the change, unless it be in sympathy with our gladness; for it is here -that she seems always to have within her, and in the atmosphere<a name="page_85" id="page_85"></a> she -breathes, a fountain of perpetual freshness and youth.</p> - -<p>So many weeks of heat and drouth at home would calcine everything to -ashes; but now we see all vegetation bright as when it was born. Nature -is here a goddess of immortal youth sipping invisible nectar and -ambrosia, and forever ministering to her favorites from the secret of -her reservoirs.</p> - -<p>So the rain having made us domestic, I sit behind the grates of the -swelling window, mending gloves, sewing on buttons (they foresaw the -rain), listening to ludicrous passages from Handy Andy, taking lessons -in cribbage, studying Spanish verbs, and watching the enraptured little -boys sailing miniature boats in the street; or the stately negresses -passing by with the rain dripping from umbrellas upon their bare -shoulders; or the omnipresent soldiers hurrying along to get out of the -rain and give me a glimpse of the irresistibly comical cut of their -semi-skirted coats. I do not know how better to describe these coats -than that they always remind me of the pathetic condition of those -redoubtable three blind mice after</p> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">“They all ran after the farmer’s wife,<br /></span> -<span class="i1">And she cut off their tails with the carving knife.”<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p>This evening we mustered courage, India-rubbers, and umbrellas, and went -to the cathedral to hear the <i>Miserere</i>. This being Holy Week, it was to -be chanted every night. But the rain, that could not keep away -curiosity, had quenched the fire of devotion. No one else came, and we -wandered<a name="page_86" id="page_86"></a> about in the silent aisles listening to no music but the -echoings of our own voices through the high arches, and our footsteps -over the marble floor. We saw by the dim light of the wax tapers, only -vague outlines of statues and pictures draped in black crape for the -sadness of the Passion-week.</p> - -<p>Presently, through the deepening darkness, we saw emerge the black-robed -figures of two pale, melancholy-looking young priests, moving about like -spectres in the chancel, arranging images and ornaments, and, though -unconscious of our presence, always kneeling and making the sign of the -cross when passing the image of the Virgin.</p> - -<p><i>Thursday, March 29th.</i>—Again <i>guirappa</i>-seeking at the plantation, for -our morning cordial. Young Mr. D——, who brought it, poured out the -great pitcher nearly full that was left upon the ground. I exclaimed at -his wastefulness, when he replied that it is free as water. The negroes -and dogs all drink what they choose, and invariably grow fat in sugar -time. Seeing close by a great black heap resembling a coal-pit, I -inquired its nature. He said it was the animal charcoal with which the -sugar is discolorized; that it comes only from Europe and nothing else -can take its place. Thus the greatest whiteness and purity is obtained -only by means of the blackest substance, as the whitest souls have grown -fair through the darkest suffering, and sometimes, it may be, sin.</p> - -<p>Directly a Chinese servant came from the house with the incomparable -coffee and milk always used to pacify Cuban hunger until the late -breakfast<a name="page_87" id="page_87"></a> hour arrives. We swallowed their coffee, and they our thanks, -with an equal appearance of pleasure.</p> - -<p>In bowing ourselves away from the shadow of the building, where our -horses had been standing, we turned upon a curious spectacle,—one of -those skeleton horses that one so often sees moving mechanically about -here under their enormous burdens. The horses pass for living, but I -have more than once inclined to the supposition that it is the galvanic -life which may be given to animals after death. As I was saying, one of -these posthumous nags was slowly coming up the road, with a -comfortable-visaged tin-pedlar mounted astride the roof of the edifice -of which the horse was the basement, and between the two, and branching -out each side of them, a huge pannier, plethoric with all the -paraphernalia appertaining to a tin-pedlar. Over the top were dangling -strings of tin basins and baking pans; long-handled dippers were hitting -the poor animal’s ears at every step he took; and as he turned up to the -house of one of the under overseers, I saw the man pull out from unknown -depths wooden spoons, sticks of tape, molasses candy, yards of calico, -china dolls, and tin boxes of shoe-blacking.</p> - -<p>Mr. S—— is gone to Havana, and we are left quite at the mercy of our -French, and the little Spanish we manage to extract from the grammar and -dictionary. Nobody but our host understands a word of French, and in his -absence you can imagine our mute helplessness. If anybody were to come -in at that open door and ask permission to cut my throat, I should -hardly be able to decline<a name="page_88" id="page_88"></a> the civility or to express any opinion of my -own on the subject. B——, however, as you know, is admirably ingenious -in pantomime, so when we wish any thing I stand in the door, repeating -by rote words I have just picked out of the dictionary, while he is -stationed near talking with nose, eyes, hands, and feet, by way of -explanation; as you remember, in the infancy of the drama among the -Greeks, one performer stood out in the front of the stage repeating the -words while the actors in the background gesticulated the play in -pantomime. All this, as you may imagine, is infinitely amusing to the -always-present retinue of staring servants (there are at least two and a -baby to every guest). These darkeys take great pride in my success in -making my wants known, by using the hissing whistling “ps-s-s-s-s-t,” -with the tongue between the teeth, which always and everywhere answers -in place of bells to call servants, and which I can do like a native.</p> - -<p>I had nearly forgotten to mention a little incident that occurred the -day of our arrival, and has since been frequently repeated. Dinner had -just gone out, and we were sitting enjoying our exclusive knowledge of -the English language, which makes us almost as much isolated as if we -had the luxury of a separate table and house, and keeps the curiosity of -the rest of the company in an absolutely abnormal condition of -activity,—thus we were sitting and talking while waiting for the -supplement, the amen to our dinner, viz., the cup of <i>caffé noir</i> (and, -mind you, this word <i>noir</i> is by no means figurative: this<a name="page_89" id="page_89"></a> after-dinner -coffee is so black and opaque that if an elephant were in the bottom of -the cup you could not see him). Well, as was I trying to say, we were -sitting waiting and talking, when an unaccustomed noise was heard upon -the brick pavement of the parlor; we looked, and lo! what should we see -walking majestically through the parlor, through the doors, through our -piazza, dining-room, through the walk of the courtyard, but the very -fine, well-kept American horse of Monsieur, mine host. B—— and I were -of course sufficiently amused, and the rest of the company sufficiently -astonished at our amusement: the only novelty to them was that the horse -came alone, without the volante.</p> - -<p><i>Friday, March 30th.</i>—This morning, as every morning, I was not -awakened by the bells and clocks of Guiness; though, for the matter of a -capacity to rupture sleep, they might have been invented by all the imps -of discord. You can no more comprehend than you can describe them. It -would be interesting to know where can have been found metal so base to -produce sounds so execrable that “sweet bells jangled out of tune” would -be heavenly harmony compared with them. You would suppose they been -tuned by an earthquake. If I had to manage to endure them, I should see -to it and have my hours longer, or farther apart. But yet, as I said, it -was not the “braying, horrible discord” of the bells that sent Queen Mab -off in a hysteric fit; it was, alas! the earlier five o’clock sounds of -washings and scrubbings in the next rooms. Such scourings and pourings -and dashings of walls<a name="page_90" id="page_90"></a> and floors, and of all supposable things, were -surely never heard out of Holland, where, Leigh Hunt tells us, the women -wash everything but the water.</p> - -<p>Much as I doat on cleanliness, I find it a poor exchange to pay for it -in the more precious commodity of sleep, and I record myself to you as a -wretched victim to this diurnal deluge of neatness.</p> - -<p>On our way to the <i>ingenio</i> I mustered Spanish enough to beg a -cane-stalk of the negresses who were cutting it down with great rapidity -in the fields, using huge sharp knives that I could scarcely lift. They -eagerly gave us more than we could carry, enough to keep us <i>sucking</i> -all the way home, and a six weeks to come. Willis says, “Nobody can -starve here: the cane-fields are all open; and if hungry, one has only -to cut a stick and suck.” We discovered this morning still another sugar -plantation, but distrusting the availability of our Spanish, only rode -past the sugar-house without asking for <i>guirappa</i>. As we passed a gate -near which groups of women were at work, one of them came up with -outstretched hand, begging countenance, and some sort of a jumble, and -all the rest started to follow her example; but being purseless, and -with no great mind to use a purse if I had had it, I shook my head and -said, “<i>No hablo Espagnol</i>,” emphasizing the remark by a decided -application of my horsewhip to the horse.</p> - -<p><i>Saturday, 31st.</i>—This evening we promised ourselves another visit to -our mountain, but an unusual amount of heat and exhaustion forbade the -ascent, and very soon found me reclining under the irresistible<a name="page_91" id="page_91"></a> shadow -of trees that knew how to make shade, while B—— galloped off to -reconnoitre. But I soon found myself comparing myself to Gulliver when -he became populated with Liliputians, so many insects shared in my taste -for shade and solitude; and I was glad enough when B—— made his -perspiring appearance.</p> - -<p>This being market-day, we found great amusement in watching the peasants -astride their panniers which bestrode the horses. In addition to being -stuffed monstrously with vegetables, over the edge of most of the -panniers were dangling chickens, ducks, and Guinea-hens, tied together -by their feet, feathers ruffled, wings flapping backwards, heads -dangling downwards, and an expression on their faces of pious -resignation adapted to the study of bigger bipeds. All the poor things -were alive, but one was sure must die of vertigo or apoplexy, before -they could by any possibility reach the town. Here we noticed -particularly the tethering of the horses and cattle, a custom -indispensable in a country where there are no fences and rarely hedges. -One end of the rope being tied around the animal’s neck, the other is -fastened to a tree or shrub or stake driven in the ground, or sometimes -to the long, strong grass. Thus localized, they are allowed food and -exercise to the full capacity of the rope, but no farther. Each one is -made a hermit, ruminating round and round in his solitude and his -circle, which, instead of increasing, is sure to diminish, for the rope -gets tangled in knots, or twisted around sticks, or the animal’s own -legs, so that prudence<a name="page_92" id="page_92"></a> soon forces a sedentary life upon him. Not -unfrequently these ropes were lying in ambush across our path, often so -hidden by the grass that neither ourselves nor our horses discovered -them until we were nearly caught in the snare. Imagine the interesting -frights and ingenious summersaults that we escaped!</p> - -<p>I must not forget a remarkable tree we discovered across the fields, -which attracted so much our fancy that we immediately turned off, -overleaping hedges and ditches (small ones) to examine it. Its outward -proportions were on the most magnificent scale, eclipsing in size all -its neighbors and all the trees we have before seen, but the trunk -proved to be nearly or quite hollow. B—— rode in through the gothic -opening, turned his horse around inside, and came out again, and I might -have done the same thing at the same time. It would make a dwelling -absolutely larger than some of the inhabited huts I have seen here. That -admirable disciplinarian, the old woman who lived in her shoe, etc., -would here have found “ample room and verge enough” for all her surplus -of light infantry, while those who had to go to bed without molasses or -bread could have amused themselves with the echoes of their own -squallings, for the cavity sounded hollow, like a great unfurnished -room. But at the time I only thought how much the tree resembled those -magnificent lives spreading out so fair and grandly, reaching so near -their kindred blue that in the eyes of the world they are fulfilling all -of a high and happy destiny. You must approach very near, perhaps -penetrate<a name="page_93" id="page_93"></a> the abysses of their being, to find that the great heart is -gone; its place is only supplied by hollow echoes and aching void.</p> - -<p><i>April 1st.</i>—Palm Sunday—like all the other Cuban Sundays, except that -two, or at most three, men have passed on horseback, with long palm -branches in their hands.</p> - -<p>A south wind again, more enervating than can well be imagined by those -who have never felt it come hot and hissing from the equator. It is an -incipient sirocco, and always sends the Italians to bed. Of course, too -languid for the early, and only mass, coming as it does, before -breakfast: the rest of the day we have only to endure with the aid of a -fan, and to watch the altitudes of the thermometer.</p> - -<p>I have not yet recovered from the uncomfortable sensation of living in a -Sundayless world,—a world which being so elaborate in its upholstery, -is supposed to have required the full seven days to complete it, leaving -no rest or hallowing for anybody.</p> - -<p>You can well understand that writing to you, or anybody, on these hot -but heavenly days, is simply a contrivance for inking over my dulness. -As you suspect, I am getting to live quietly here, dreaming away life, -without much help of books, it is true, but, what is better still, -without much hindrance from them either.</p> - -<p>After all, why not take a little time to dream a few little dreams in -this large dream of life? Death will come soon enough to tap us on the<a name="page_94" id="page_94"></a> -forehead, or it may be to shake us rudely, and then we shall be wide -awake, and for a long time. Besides, if it takes a long time to dream -one’s dreams, it takes as long time to undream them; and you know—who -does not?—that they are a kind of atmosphere which penetrates where -everything <i>is</i> as much as where everything <i>is not</i>.</p> - -<p>I also assure you that pen and ink have no natural, or so far as I am -concerned, acquired relations with these transcendent tropical nights we -are having now; nights when you can feel this wonderful moonlight, -creeping in its slippers of silence, over all the longing darkness, -through all the sleeping lids of this softly breathing nature, -sprinkling them all the time with its white juice-of-love-in-idleness. -Sometimes, you lie its willing and helpless victim, until all your -unpastured emotions come to be swayed by it, as by a shepherd’s voice. -Again you can think of it only as growing, growing, more and more, wider -and deeper, all over the world, like a blanched and intangible parasite, -which no morning will ever dare with profane fingers to pull up by the -roots.</p> - -<p><i>Tuesday, April 3d.</i>—Yesterday we remembered the invitation of the -major domo of the sugar plantation, where oxen instead of steam get the -saccharineness out of sugar-cane, as we do out of babies—by squeezing. -The consequence was that the rough Creole saw the sun and us dawning -upon him at the same distinguished moment; that we dismounted to be -conducted over the establishment;<a name="page_95" id="page_95"></a> that the trampling feet of oxen, the -monotonous and endless cries of their female drivers, rang in my ears as -repulsively as they did at first, and still keep doing, in spite of all -my efforts to banish them; that we stood beside the boiling cauldron, -where two withered old men were stationed to skim off the scum, and -remind one of the witches in Macbeth bent over their cauldron to catch -the scum, the “Bubble, bubble, Toil and trouble” of human destiny. While -I stood looking at this strange scene, our conductor, with great -<i>empressment</i>, drew from his pocket two fine cigars, offering one to me, -and the other to B——, and was sorely chagrined and puzzled that I -declined it. I was obliged to resort to the plea of invalidism to pacify -him. From this we went to the refining house, where little inverted tin -pyramids, full of sugar, were setting all over the floors, with thick -layers of black clay spread over their heads, and little tubs, to catch -the molasses, set under the opening in their feet. This apartment opened -into the one for drying in which these little vessels had been emptied; -the whitened sugar lay evenly all over the floor, and a fat negress -walked over it with a rake in her hand, and the shoes she was born in on -her feet.</p> - -<p>I noticed here, as often before, deep scars on the women’s necks, -cheeks, and arms, frightfully disfiguring, and painfully suggestive, but -I was relieved to find it is only the effects of their favorite custom -of tattooing. I thought before, that nature and the most servile of -drudgery had carried the ugliness of these poor wretches to the -extremest<a name="page_96" id="page_96"></a> verge of possibility, but I find that, in that “deep,” as -well as in all others, there is still a “lower deep.”</p> - -<p>We were also puzzled to divine the import of immense round cushions -fastened securely upon nearly all the women’s heads, but soon discovered -they were to make a comfortable seat for the immense burdens of sugar -going from one house to another; for all the ordinary burdens we had -before seen, carried on the head (negroes here have no idea that their -heads were made for any other use) had been simply with the aid and -comfort of the woolly padding of nature.</p> - -<p class="figcenter"> -<img src="images/i_096.png" width="120" height="79" alt="decorative image not available" /> -</p> - -<p><a name="page_97" id="page_97"></a></p> - -<h2><a name="VIII" id="VIII"></a> -<img src="images/i_097.png" width="450" height="88" alt="decorative -image not available" title="" /> -<br /> - -VIII.</h2> - -<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang"><i>Dear old Mr. R—— — Chess and Whist and Life—Good Friday—A -Religious Procession—The silence of the Town—The Miserere—To -Matanazas—Company in the Cave—Father M——’s approach to -Matanzas—The Bay—Valley of the Yumuri—The Plaza—The -Dominica—The Ensor House—Easter Sunday—The Paseo—Steamer to -Havana—A Night on board—“Queen’s Hotel”—Tricks on a Travelling -Author—Theft on the Almanac.</i></p></div> - -<p class="r"> -<span class="smcap">Thursday</span>, April 5th.<br /> -</p> - -<p class="hang"><span class="letra"> -<img src="images/letr_y.png" -width="60" -height="60" -alt="Y" -class="dropcap" -/></span>ESTERDAY the train brought dear old Mr. R—— to see us. In addition to -our former chess and conversations on literature and art, he reads -French, gives me lessons in Spanish, and occupies all the time that -would otherwise have made this a bigger if not a wiser or a better -letter.</p> - -<p>I have often suggested to you the resemblance between the game of chess -and the game of life. It occurs to me at this moment, that, if this be -true, fatalism must also be true. These inhabitants of chessdom are -forced about by an inevitable will; their success and ruin are equally -beyond their own<a name="page_98" id="page_98"></a> let or hindrance. They are created as we are, with -certain powers and spheres for action and being; with certain -possibilities which, whether they will or not, may become -impossibilities, but with, alas! impossibilities which must remain such.</p> - -<p>From an inevitable force of circumstances, the great and powerful in -chess may become weak; the insignificant may have a greatness thrust -upon them. The humble pawn can at times act with the dignity of a queen; -the queen is often less powerful than the little plebeian beside her. -The bishops, in their attempts to serve royalty, often sacrifice -themselves; the knights sometimes ruin the queen they are sworn to -protect. The queen has the position many other women would like,—she is -the only female in her empire. But, alas! this dizzying distinction -sometimes spoils her wits: in trying to rule her allies and conquer her -enemies, she is too apt to destroy herself and her kingdom. Her king and -lord lives mostly in <i>statu quo</i>-ism. He would be her admiring imbecile -except that he has found out the secret of endless life: “The king never -dies.” He may at times, it is true, be a wandering Jew, but he is an -immortal one; he can well afford to be besotted with inertia, for he is -too wise to die. But this wisdom is also his fatality. All that he and -his queen or subjects do or refrain from doing is foreordained; their -entire existence seems to me an admirable illustration of the doctrine -of predestination.</p> - -<p>If, however, you wish to find an example of life as it is, of man as he -is in these strugglings between<a name="page_99" id="page_99"></a> the inevitable providence (which in -this other game we call chance) and his own free will, between -circumstances and character, ability and materials, we must go to the -game of whist. Here you are always balancing the <i>must be</i> with the <i>may -be</i>; you are recalling the past, and from it foreseeing the future. You -are calculating the chances, you are making desperate and uncertain -ventures, which may result in disappointing success or brilliant -failure. And here is life, this unfathomable life of ours; this -wrestling with hidden and unprecedented elements, this combating an -unguessed destiny; more than all, this yielding with an equal grace to -its fondness or its hate. Here, as in life, honor is for the successful; -but true greatness is for him who uses most wisely and most valiantly -the much or the little that is given him.</p> - -<p><i>Friday, 6th</i>, has brought back Mr. S——, with intelligence that the -steamer leaves for Nassau on the 14th inst. So we must be off at once to -Matanzas, if at all; and Trinidad, and all other places must, alas! be -given up, from the lateness of the season and the excess of heat.</p> - -<p>This evening was celebrated by a grand religious procession, one of the -ceremonies of Good Friday. At five o’clock, low, muffled sounds of music -were heard approaching. Presently the band appeared, draped in mourning; -following it, drawn by black horses, came a great hearse, with heavy -pall and waving plumes, and on the top of this, under a white shroud, -was plainly visible the sharp outline of a human figure; blood spots -were on the edge<a name="page_100" id="page_100"></a> of the shroud, and above them, drooping on one side, -with matted and stained hair, lay the agonized, ghastly face, in wax, of -the crucified Saviour. It was horrible!</p> - -<p>I felt myself grow sick and faint, but looked around in vain for a -corresponding horror in the faces of the other spectators. They stared -on with only a little less than their usual gayety and indifference, and -turned with curiosity, as I did for relief, to the remainder of the -procession. Next came a line of priests in sable robes, and officers of -government with crape on their arms, all with uncovered heads, and -carrying in their hands immense wax candles that flickered and paled -before the light of the receding sun. The procession paused a few -minutes before each of the principal houses, while the dead march kept -beating on. But now they have passed, and here comes an august, standing -figure, mounted upon a high carriage: we soon discover it to be the -Virgin following her son to the grave.</p> - -<p>Her dress is of long, trailing black velvet; upon her head is a faded -crown; the face is horribly wan and white, with an expression in it of -excruciating torture and despair, and, alas! what is this carried, high -in the pale, uplifted hand! We shudder, we are faint, we look again; it -is—a deeply flounced, elegantly embroidered white pocket-handkerchief!</p> - -<p>Behind all this follows an indiscriminate mass of men, women, and -children; but I have seen enough, and go back to the house, wondering -over the<a name="page_101" id="page_101"></a> strange things in heaven and earth and our philosophies.</p> - -<p>Mr. S—— tells us so much of the elaborate celebrations and ceremonies -in Havana, during these Easter days, that we regret not having gone back -to witness them. Yesterday, the streets in all parts of the city were -filled by ladies walking to and from all the different churches; the -great ambition and proof of piety being, to visit as many as possible -during the day. All were dressed in deep black. This is the only day of -the year when dainty Havanese female feet press the pavements. Not a -sound was to be heard over the entire city. All shops closed, carriages -and vehicles of all kinds forbidden to stir, as was the case in Guiness; -profound silence reigns because Christ is dead, and no profane sound -must disturb his slumbers. In most of the churches an image of the dead -Christ lay in a tomb surrounded by burning tapers, and all the signs of -burial. Even some of the private houses, opening as they do on the -streets, discovered in the principal room, to passers by, the same -ghostly image partly covered by a black pall, while the family and -guests sit around it in deep mourning, which is, or should be, enlivened -only by occasional sobs.</p> - -<p><i>Friday evening, 10 o’clock.</i>—We are just returned from the Cathedral. -As we entered, the <i>Miserere</i> was being sung by two young priests and -our friend Father M——; the organ accompaniment played by a young -priest. The pathetic strains, here mournful as the sob of a broken -heart, there subdued into the tones of resignation, then suddenly -struggling<a name="page_102" id="page_102"></a> out in an energy like despair, seemed to thrill all the -hearts of the kneeling worshippers. They were composed entirely of -black-robed women; for you must know, devotion here is entirely a -feminine accomplishment: the men only stand around against the wall to -admire the performer, apparently quite forgetting the performance.</p> - -<p>I perceived on one side a regularly arranged pyramid of wax candles. At -certain periods of the ceremony one of the lights was extinguished, then -another and another; when all were out the services were to close; but -finding my strength waning faster than the lights, I came home to make a -hurried note of sounds and scenes that I do not attempt to describe, of -ceremonies that have all the grotesqueness and absurdity of those of -Rome without their dignity and grandeur. The piety of Cuba seems to -think that the next best thing to being in Rome and doing as the Romans -do, is to be out of Rome and do more than Romans do.</p> - -<p><i>Saturday, April 7th.</i>—At nine o’clock this morning we found ourselves -waiting at the pretty and fanciful American depot for the Havana train. -As soon as fairly seated in the American car, in came our jolly friend -the priest, accompanied by a large number of officers; we find that he -is chaplain of the regiment. Officers have taken the little private -sitting-room one always finds in these cars. They amuse themselves more -than us by uproarious singing and laughter. As we start the priest -crosses himself, laughing, and accompanying it by a muttered prayer; all -we hear is “Father, Son, and<a name="page_103" id="page_103"></a> Holy Ghost.” He says this is so that if -any accident happens it shall not be his fault. One of the sharply -moustached officers is the first to get out his cigars and offer one to -me, with a look of some concern that I decline, but all the rest of the -ladies accept, and soon every man in the car, but one woman, is smoking -and happy. But presently Father M—— discovers a pretty Creole lady -acquaintance quietly smoking her cigar, at the other end of the car; he -leaves me with a phrase characteristic of Spanish politeness,—“I kiss -your feet, señora.”</p> - -<p><i>Saturday.</i>—San Nicola and the other little towns on our way present -uniform features. In all varieties of new palms in groves and avenues; -hogsheads of molasses waiting to get their tickets on the cars; low huts -with thatched roofs, or else the ordinary Cuban house with nearly all -its rooms opening on the street, exposing the occupants to the curiosity -of travellers. These people seem to be as ignorant of private life as -unconscious that they are leading a public one. How much is the privacy -and sanctity of domestic life a matter of climate?</p> - -<p>This being within a few days of the season of cock-fighting, these -redoubtable warriors, tied securely by unwilling feet, were being -carried in large numbers to the numerous fighting rendezvous. Their -spurs <i>were</i> very long with which to “prick the sides” of their masters’ -“intents,” otherwise I saw nothing to distinguish them from our humble, -domestic, barnyard citizen at home,<a name="page_104" id="page_104"></a> who crows and struts out his day, -and dies “unwept, unhonored,” etc.</p> - -<p>The approach to Matanzas, through a ravine between two mountains, is far -famed, and certainly deserves no small credit for the hasty glimpse it -gives you of an ordinarily interesting town and an extraordinarily -interesting bay, and beyond this an even range of mountains which surely -were not born great, nor have they achieved greatness, although many -travellers and descriptions have thrust greatness upon them.</p> - -<p>I will not blacken and mar the myriad-hued brightness of that bay with -ink; nor will I attempt to chronicle the phosphorescent miracles which -are all day long being performed by the gulf stream and the concealed -rocks over which it washes and breaks in sunny foam and dripping -rainbows. It is so marvellously uttered in colors that words would do it -wrong.</p> - -<p><i>Evening.</i>—It being well established that the only sane thing to do -upon our arrival was, soon as possible, to see the renowned valley of -the Yumuri, we accordingly walked from the dinner-table into our waiting -volante to go and see the renowned valley of the Yumuri.</p> - -<p>We drove at once as far up the Cumbri mountain as is consistent with -horse and carriage possibility, the rest of the way trusting to the -unwillingness of feet that walk under the burden of an old fatigue and a -new dinner.</p> - -<p>Inversely, like Milton’s pandemonium, above the highest peak, a higher -peak still beckoned us up<a name="page_105" id="page_105"></a> with false assurances, until at last this is -really the very final topmost top, and we are distinctly rewarded for so -much patience.</p> - -<p>On one hand the heavy-walled, gaudily-painted city, with its tumultuous -life, its busy human ascent of toil and gain and fashion; on another -side the throbbing pulse of the bay, sometimes quickening to a fever -like a poet’s eye in fine frenzy rolling, and again stilling to an echo -silent as a dream of silence; on another side still, interwinding hills -and mountains clad in ample verdure, and pretty country seats; and here, -on this side, lies the peaceful little mountain-ringed Yumuri valley. It -is a tiny, but deep and choicely-inlaid casket. There are groves of dark -palms; pale, pea green cane-fields interspersed with dark patches of the -brown soil for contrast; little glancing quicksilver brooks; thatched -cottages buried among flowers and trees, whence come happy voices of -children; here a herd of cattle quietly grazing, there a solitary -market-boy wending sleepily home on his sleepy horse,—and all this full -to the brim, to the very mountain-ring of the faint, fading glance of a -sun that is just breathing his last upon his bed on the western horizon.</p> - -<p>And now, the thickening twilight is just able to reveal to us the path -leading to our volante; the famous cave is far off and out of the -question; and soon we are leaving nature and her spells behind; faster -and faster we descend, until soon city lights and city sounds direct us -to the Plaza. Here the band is playing and promenading, bare-headed -ladies are enjoying the cool air and the<a name="page_106" id="page_106"></a> warm admiration so grateful to -us women in warm climates.</p> - -<p>We leave our volante to join the gauzy, chattering stream, and suddenly -stumble upon—none other than the gentlemanly Creole officer who was our -table <i>vis-à-vis</i> at Guiness. Offering me his arm, the rest following, -we walked round and round the flower-scented grounds, listening to all -the music that could insert itself between the pauses of our -conversation. Very soon fatigue and faintness drive us in to the -<i>Dominica</i>, a restaurant of which Matanzas is justly proud,—to my -taste, with its cheerful frescoes, much more inviting than the one at -Havana. Here we find ice-cream, frozen juice of pineapples and other -fruits, <i>orchata</i> (almond juice), and a strip, a mere parallelogram of a -breath of sponge-cake to eat with them. But I am too weary for any -refreshment that can be found outside a pair of clean linen sheets. -B—— hisses “ps-s-s-s-st” for a volante and directs the driver to go at -once to the “Ensor House.”</p> - -<p><i>Easter Sunday, April, 8th.</i>—Just too late for the grand procession -which celebrated this morning, glorious as all Easter mornings should -be. We tried to reconcile ourselves by attending high mass at the -Cathedral. Even here, at eight o’clock, the ceremonies were closing; we -had only time to catch a glimpse of the gold-laced robes of the priest -as he disappeared behind the chancel, and a hasty scrutiny of the -perfect flower-bed of kneeling beauties covering the entire floor of the -building. I was taken completely by storm. So much and so<a name="page_107" id="page_107"></a> rare beauty -concentrated in so little time and space! Every woman, old and young, -was in full dress: white silk, with lace flounces, a long white lace -veil thrown, like an exquisite fancy, over head and shoulders, instead -of the usual black mantilla, was the most favorite and <i>recherché</i> -costume.</p> - -<p>Here in Matanzas is a decided sprinkling of the Anglo-Saxon blood, just -enough to flush and brighten the skin and to remove two or three of the -strata of fat, which are so universal with the white ladies of Havana. -Many are even so delicate in coloring, that the winds of heaven must -have considerately passed by them on the other side. Still the ladies of -Matanzas almost invariably retain the classically regular features, the -dark fascinating eyes, the grace of posture, the meaning movement, the -language of the fan, the perfect busts and arms copied from a more -luxurious Venus de Medici. I cannot indeed say how much of all this -effect was owing to the contagious admiration of a circle of señors, who -had also come to the sanctuary for worship, preferring however, in all -good taste, truly to offer their devotions at the shrines of living -virgins in flesh and blood and moire antique, to that of a dead one in -tinsel and wax. Nor can I vouch for the effect of cascarilla -artistically applied; for these ladies are all allowed amateurs in its -use. I tried however, to forget all this—to enjoy by faith as well as -by sight; and I did succeed in bringing away with me an impression of -loveliness that would be an actual inheritance to an artist.</p> - -<p>From the Cathedral we drove to the somewhat<a name="page_108" id="page_108"></a> incipient Paseo. It is an -unfinished sentence, yet prettily punctuated,—here by commas in the -shape of vine-porched cottages, there by a long dash of green fields; -now a parenthesis made by brackets of palm-trees including a little -bright piece of the bay, uttering itself in a low tone of voice; -presently an exclamation point, made of mounted cannon; and finally a -full architectural period at the end—the country house of Count -Somebody, or possibly of the Austrian Ambassador.</p> - -<p>I am not sorry that we leave by steamer to-night for Havana. Most -travellers, I believe, prefer Matanzas; but to me it lacks the chief -charm of its elder sister,—the quaintness and novelty, while I find -little to supply their place. Undoubtedly it is far more modern in its -spirit, and for a resident might have more social congeniality: but when -you consider that the sights are all seen; the heat so terrific that the -presentation of our letters of introduction becomes formidable; that -there is little left for us but a questionable amalgamation of American -and Spanish cookery, and unutterable suffocation in a room carefully -constructed to admit all of the sun and none of the air,—will you not -allow that in this instance a moderate, though possibly somewhat -habitual desire for change is fairly legitimate?</p> - -<p><i>Havana, April 9th.</i>—The hour of nine o’clock last night, if it had not -been totally blind with the darkness, would have seen us tumbling down -from the shore to one of the little row-boats that serve you up to the -waiting steamer for Havana. Learning that the cabins below were mere -dens, we all<a name="page_109" id="page_109"></a> remained on deck till the clocks on shore struck eleven, -then twelve; then till the steamer began to manifest signs of life; then -until</p> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">“The ship was cleared,<br /></span> -<span class="i1">The harbor cleared,<br /></span> -<span class="i1">Merrily we did drop<br /></span> -<span class="i1">Below the kirk, below the hill,<br /></span> -<span class="i1">Below the lighthouse top,”<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p class="nind">and we began to plunge in darkness and the broad ocean; and then one -little hour more for the moon to rise out of this black sepulchre like -its guardian ghost; we wait for it to say its say of beauty, and to -brighten the farewell we take of Mr. S——, who leaves in the morning -before we are awake, and whose constant kindness has been beyond return.</p> - -<p>Now at last we really go; and what think you is the way to the ladies’ -cabin? None other than directly through the gentlemen’s saloon, where -the occupants all lie in open berths, and in most ghostly states of -attire. I catch one glimpse of horizontal whiteness, draw my veil, seize -B——’s arm, eventuate at the farther end. Here numerous nasal -ebullitions (why will nobody submit to calling the thing snoring, if he -himself is the offender?</p> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">“All men think all men” snorers “but themselves”)<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p class="nind">are exchanged for intimations of equally fabulous sea-sickness, and I -find myself safely arrived in the ladies’ cabin, where babies are -prevailing to a sleepless extent.<a name="page_110" id="page_110"></a></p> - -<p>Here my mattress, sheets, counterpane, are utterly ignored or forsworn -in a cane-bottomed berth. Without any unpinning or unhooking delay, I -follow the example of the groups of shady-faced ladies around me, not of -Christabel when</p> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">“Her gentle limbs she did undress,<br /></span> -<span class="i1">And lay down in her loveliness.”<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p>This morning, after a delightful slumber all the sweeter because -unexpected, I was awakened at daylight by a rattling of spoons, cups, -and saucers. It is my companions taking their cup of coffee,—that -inevitable potion without which you could never convince newly awakened -Cuban men and women of their personal identity, or of the possibility of -the world wagging one step farther.</p> - -<p>We had already been lying an hour or more in the bay of Havana. Very -soon all the passengers are gone but ourselves; we, the only foreigners, -are left alone to wait the hour when a volante can be obtained. B—— -goes as fast as possible to secure rooms at the hotel. One Chinese -waiter offers me milkless coffee; another bushy-headed antipode stands -in the door, with pail and mop in hand, waiting for me to go. At last, -with patience in a precarious condition, I rush out on one side of the -vessel to get out of the way, and I am driven thence by the observing -disposition of a swarthy man lying in his berth in a little vessel -moored next to our own: he leans on his coatless elbow with an air of -cool curiosity that is unendurable. Then I go to the other side, where -dirty drippings from the upper deck,<a name="page_111" id="page_111"></a> suggest anew the superfluity of my -presence and drive me, this time fluctuating on the precincts of -ill-temper, out to the gentlemen’s cabin. Here I met B—— tired out -with looking for a volante, and the disappointment of not finding rooms -at Mrs. A——’s where we hoped to go for a change.</p> - -<p>At last, after a deal of English and Spanish nobody understands, and of -pantomimes that would have enlightened “blocks, and stones, and worse,” -etc., we find ourselves re-established at Queen’s Hotel, in a room -which, it is plain to see, if there were light enough in it to see -anything, was made for some uncompleted individual,—one in whom had -never been breathed the breath of life, or who had breathed it all out -again, with little hope of a second respiratory experiment.</p> - -<p><i>Tuesday, April 10th.</i>—Last night arrived a young Bostonian, who, like -ourselves, has been adventuring in the interior. He tells us he knows -well the young man who gave a well-known author on Cuba all the facts in -his book except the few the author learned personally. He says the -person is a great practical joker, and plumes himself on the humbugging -he achieved.</p> - -<p>The day has passed in farewell sight-seeings and shoppings, the latter -consisting mostly of the purchase of Spanish fans and linen dresses. And -now I am ready to part from Cuba with scarcely a regret, yet carrying -with me only fresh experiences and smiling memories. The sun in this -social as well as material firmament has been cloudless, or with only -rare veils to brighten its brightness.<a name="page_112" id="page_112"></a></p> - -<p>I have, it may be, hung on the walls of my life some new pictures, which -will help to keep it from the ravages of time, somewhat as the paintings -of Protogones saved the city of Rhodes from the destruction of its -enemies.</p> - -<p>I do not yet recover from the impression that I have committed a kind of -theft upon nature, or the almanacs, or the thermometers—or all of them; -for I have stolen and luxuriated in an extra summer; so that this -twice-flowered year is likely to be for me the impendingly pious</p> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">“Next year after never,<br /></span> -<span class="i1">When two Sundays come together”<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p class="figcenter"> -<img src="images/i_112.png" width="120" height="66" alt="decorative image not available" /> -</p> - -<p><a name="page_113" id="page_113"></a></p> - -<h2><a name="IX" id="IX"></a> -<img src="images/i_113.png" width="450" height="97" alt="decorative image not available" /> -<br /> - -IX.</h2> - -<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang"><i>A Discovery for the Benefit of Smugglers—The Steamer -Karnak—Adieu, Cuba!—An English Ship—Nassau—The Negro -Custom-officer—English Hotel—An Ex-President—What the Island is -and has—The Negro Element—The “Eastern Road”—The Air—The Beau -Monde—Turtle Houses.</i></p></div> - -<p class="r"> -<span class="smcap">April</span> 11th.<br /> -</p> - -<p class="hang"><span class="letra"> -<img src="images/letr_l.png" -width="60" -height="60" -alt="L" -class="dropcap" -/></span>AST evening, after visits from nearly all our friends; after a long -walk in search of Spanish books, to find them much dearer than in New -York; after looking as a matter of curiosity at the diamonds which are -so lavishly displayed in the shops, to find them all singularly -yellow,—I retired to sleeplessness and suffocation in my air-tight -room. I awoke this morning with only life enough left in me to rejoice -in the prospect of the little sea-voyage before us.</p> - -<p>At ten comes Mr. R—— to accompany us to the wharf, where we found -other friends awaiting us, with row-boat and swarthy boatman ready to -carry us out to the steamer.</p> - -<p>And here, as a conscientious narrator of important<a name="page_114" id="page_114"></a> and dignified -historical events, I have to record an item of experience, an -unintentional experiment, that possibly may be of service to future -female travellers.</p> - -<p>So soon as our volante reached the landing, the custom-house officer -appeared, received my keys, proceeded with official composure to examine -the trunks. But the instant the top of the first was raised, up popped, -most ferociously, in his face, a white skeleton—a hooped petticoat! At -the last moment I discovered it lying on the top of the wardrobe in the -hotel, and in great haste had stuffed it in the top of the trunk I was -locking. As you may guess, a general shout of laughter followed from the -watching bystanders and my friends, and I soon found my chagrin giving -way before the irresistibly funny scene, and joined in the merriment. -B—— took the thing, flourished it for my benefit, and crowded it back -again. He then pointed to the other trunks, but the nonplussed officer -solemnly shook his head, declaring himself quite satisfied. He expressed -doubts about our being people likely to carry contraband articles. -Hereafter, when you wish to smuggle cigars, linen, or guava jelly, you -have only to cram an apparition of this sort—a jack-in-the-box—in the -top of your trunk, and you are safe.</p> - -<p>But here we are at the steamer. Our friends come on deck; we sit talking -until the last moment arrives for setting sail; they descend the -step-ladder to the little boat, and their waving handkerchiefs are soon -lost among the shipping.<a name="page_115" id="page_115"></a></p> - -<p>A pretty, fair-haired girl sits near me, whom, from her resemblence to -the captain, I perceive to be his daughter. Presently she asks me to go -to the other end of the ship to see the anchor drawn up—always a -cheerful sight when fifteen or twenty ruddy Englishmen march regularly -round and round at the work, while the pleasant roundelay all sing -directs their movements.</p> - -<p>And now “the last link is broken which binds me to” this happy clime; we -float down through the winding bay; past ships of all nations; past our -favorite Cortina; the Punto; the Morro, that was the first to welcome -and is the last to leave us; and now the low shores are receding fast in -the distance, and the bright walls and brown tiles and pleasant friends -fade out again into the past and the forever.</p> - -<p><i>Thursday, 12th.</i>—We are glad of this opportunity to know a thoroughly -English ship-captain, officers, crew, custom, and discipline. Nothing -can be better fitted to inspire confidence than the fresh, honest, -intelligent face of Captain B——, with his rough sailor dress, and -manners whose bluffness cannot conceal the completely affable and -well-bred gentleman under them.</p> - -<p>The passengers are so few that we are beginning to know them all. -Various miscellaneous gentlemen of as many different nations; three or -four Spanish ladies and gentlemen, some with children and servants; -captain’s daughter and ourselves, complete the list. One of the -Spaniards, who is to leave wife and eldest son in New York while he<a name="page_116" id="page_116"></a> -goes with the youngest son, a poor little sea-sick thing, to Germany, to -school, speaks English and French with some fluency, while—a not -unfrequent occurrence in Cuban families—the wife knows and cares only -for Spanish. He has been pronouncing difficult Spanish words to me while -his pretty wife laughs kindly at my attempts and helps him in his -self-appointed task. So what with this novel sociality and a summer sea -as beautiful and almost as calm as the sky, we get, instead of -sea-sickness, delicious sleep and rare gusto for this English roast -beef; instead of enervation, health that waxes with every hour.</p> - -<p><i>Evening.</i>—Nothing could be more enchanting than this air and sunshine, -this bright crystal sea, this gently-moving ship, this entire voyage. A -few low reefs and coral islands are becoming visible with our glasses; -also many vessels lying quietly here and there,—wreckers I am told, -which do a most flourishing business in these regions; indeed I learn -that wrecking is the chief and all-absorbing occupation of Nassau, for -which we are bound.</p> - -<p>If genuine storms and honest ignorance of these dangerous passages do -not supply a sufficient number of wrecks to satisfy the gambling tastes -of the wreckers, and of the merchants who make fortunes by their spoils, -it is found easy enough to make bargains with unprincipled captains, by -which, for a certain sum, a wreck can be achieved at a given time with -unfailing certainty. This is so managed that captain and wreckers shall -make a comfortable little speculation of the affair and nobody lose -anything<a name="page_117" id="page_117"></a> except the all unsuspicious insurance company or the innocent -owners of the vessel.</p> - -<p><i>Nassau, New Providence, Royal Victoria Hotel, April 13th.</i>—After being -rocked gently to sleep, and then sung into deep slumbers all night by -these pure-voiced ocean nurses, I was awakened this morning by the -firing of guns announcing our entrance in the bay of Nassau. This city -is to be our destiny for the next month, at the end of which the next -regular steamer goes north. It is thought prudent to graduate in this -way the change from the heat of Havana to the probable cold of New York.</p> - -<p>We hung on deck to reconnoitre this little item of our future, and to -find ourselves anchored in the brightest, lightest possible pea-green -water, through which the clean, beautiful bottom is so clearly revealed, -that the numerous swarming boats seem to be floating in an atmosphere -only a little more dense and colored than the delicious nectar we are -breathing.</p> - -<p>While waiting for the inevitable custom-house officer, we lean over the -deck railing to watch this phantom loveliness, and the boatmen that are -urging us in English that sounds as droll as did the Spanish at first in -Havana, to buy their wares. These consist of the only exports of the -island,—sponges, bananas, pineapples; some of the larger boats have the -bottoms covered with living turtles, others are half full of huge conch -shells, or varieties of smaller shells arranged regularly in partitional -boxes.</p> - -<p>Presently the captain comes and points out the<a name="page_118" id="page_118"></a> just arrived -custom-house officer, a regal-looking negro, dressed in uniform. While -B—— goes with him to examine the luggage, the captain shows us the -white pilot-boat from which one of his men was knocked overboard on the -last voyage, by the rough waves in this bay. The negroes who were rowing -him fled in affright: before help could arrive he had gone down for the -last time, and was never seen again. But a few days after, a shark was -caught and killed, and safely in his stomach lay the man’s hand, -immediately recognizable by the sleeve and cuff; beside it lay a goat’s -head and horns, and various other trophies of a shark’s victories.</p> - -<p>But now we must go: the boat waits for us here, and the hotel carriage -on shore. A farewell with our Spanish friends, by whose cards I find, as -I have before been informed, that the husband and wife in Cuba have -distinctly different names; the name on the card of one gives you no -clue to name or address of the other.</p> - -<p>An English carriage brought us up the English road, past the English -faces to the English-built hotel here on the hill, overlooking the -English town, the bright bay, and outstretched ocean that owe allegiance -to Her Majesty. Even the hotel belongs to the British government.</p> - -<p>The high upper parlor opens upon a piazza commanding a noble and -extensive view. While waiting here for my room,—its occupants go north -in this steamer,—a quiet, elderly gentleman, with much blandness and -benevolence in his not extraordinary<a name="page_119" id="page_119"></a> face, entered, and sitting down by -the table addressed some kind and casual remarks, evidently intended to -make a stranger feel at home, while I, tired of this long silent sitting -and waiting, was glad enough of any change. On going down stairs I found -I had been conversing with ex-President P——, who has been here since -January for the health of his invalid wife, and also possibly to find a -place where he can escape being lionized, and enjoy the retired literary -leisure of which he is fond.</p> - -<p>At half-past two came dinner. It is so late in the season, that not more -than a dozen guests are left. Turtle soup of nicest and freshest quality -commenced the ceremony, turtle pie helped to continue it, so did turtle -steak, otherwise you might imagine yourself at an ordinary American -hotel except that beef and mutton, and ducks and chickens, appear in an -excellent state of mummification, as if they had all died of a lingering -consumption, and would severally assist us to follow their example. The -climate of the tropics is ill-adapted to our domestic animals. We are -told that the best American cows die here after a few months, even if -brought in the fall. Still it is a question, if want of care, and a -general shiftlessness in all matters of the sort, have not more sins of -animal murder to answer for than this delicious climate. The residents -confess as much. By the way, can you guess the proper, legitimate name -of the natives of New Providence? Not, as they are sometimes<a name="page_120" id="page_120"></a> called, -“Bahamaites,” or “Nassauers,” or “West Indians,” but <i>Conchs</i>.</p> - -<p>This evening our first drive; pleasant, but exhausting, I much fear; all -that the island has of novelty or interest, measuring, as it does, only -fourteen miles in length and eight in width. In the first place, it is -not only founded upon a rock, but it <i>is</i> a rock; the <i>debris</i> of coral -reefs up to within a few inches of the surface. This surface is clothed -with a light soil, which in the country is clothed with a light verdure, -mostly of shrubs, briers, and weeds, interspersed here and there with -stray dwarfed palms and cocoas. Occasionally the curious cotton-tree is -found, with wide patriarchal branches covered with delicate green -leaves, or else with a long, large pod full of perfect cotton to all -appearances, perhaps intents, but not purposes, for it is proved to be -useless. The roots of this tree, doubtless for want of soil, grow very -much out of the ground, living in the air almost as much as the -branches. In the town and its suburbs, oranges, bananas, sabadillas, -mangoes, etc., are cultivated extensively, giving the whole place from a -distance the air of an inhabited garden.</p> - -<p>The streets and roads are a phenomenon. Every one is of solid rock -covered with some kind of cement most dazzling to the eyes in its -whiteness; so much so, that strangers are advised to never go out -without veils. I see many of the inhabitants wearing blue and green -glasses. But no rain or drought can affect them; never mud, never dust;<a name="page_121" id="page_121"></a> -always as smooth and white and clean as the cement floors in the parlors -of Havana.</p> - -<p>I am more than anything else impressed with the quantity and quality of -the negro element. There are, according to statistics, eight black to -one white person, but in passing the streets you would suppose the -pepper to be more than the rule, and the salt less than the exception. -Bless me! how they bubble and swarm in every street, every corner, every -alley, every hut; to each man two women, to each woman at least a dozen -babies; and men, women, and children always idle, and intensely -contented with their idleness; fat, and lusty, and happy, and -good-for-nothing. I think no one can come from a slave country to this -without acknowledging the obtrusive difference, the increased appearance -of happiness; if jolly contentedness can be called so. And rapidly as -they increase in the States, no colored fertility can match this, where -babies are undoubtedly indigenous to the soil, cuticle though it is. -Every way I turn I expect to see a head just budding from the ground, -hands sprouting, wool germinating, or possibly a foot grown uppermost, -with the rest of the dawning body just bursting from the ground, and -like Milton’s hind, or calf, or some other quadruped in Eden, “pawing to -get free.”</p> - -<p>If I were to ask one of these bouncing negresses, as Willis did, what -curiosity or product peculiar to the island I could find to carry home, -I should unquestionably get the same answer,—except that his, being on -the island of Martinique, was in French,—“<i>Bien que les enfants. En -voulez-vous?</i><a name="page_122" id="page_122"></a>”</p> - -<p><i>Saturday, April.</i>—This evening a drive on the “Eastern Road,” the -Paseo of Nassau.</p> - -<p>I thought the air in Cuba unparalleled, but this is freer, purer; an -always fresh and warm-enough seabreeze. It has a richness, roundness, -completeness; it is not a thin, sharp, cutting melody, but a perfectly -elaborated harmony. In what a gentle, healing affectionate way it -possesses one, interpenetrating all the sensitive fevered fibres of the -lungs like a blessing, or like a spirit full of blessings, bringing with -it vitality, repose, and life!</p> - -<p>In our drive we met all the <i>beau monde</i> of Nassau, the government -officers and families, with their always English faces and figures, -which are in strikingly redundant contrast with the consumptive -Americans seated up and down our hotel table. One thing assures me that -I am not in Spanish Cuba, with her tenacity for national customs and -habits; a tenacity for which I, coming from the shifting fancies of -Yankeedom, sincerely honor her. It is this: We are once more in a land -of gloves and bonnets. How stiff are these London exported bonnets -compared with those exquisitely graceful Spanish veils, or prettier -hair-ornamented Spanish heads; and as for the gloves, I can now -understand without surprise that when Cubans first saw foreigners -wearing gloves they supposed them used to hide some frightful blemish or -deformity.</p> - -<p>Our drive lay along the shore of this extraordinary bay, with its long -parallel lines of brightest, lightest blue and pea-green, contrasting -with the dark ultramarine purples and browns of all hues and densities,<a name="page_123" id="page_123"></a> -sometimes shading into each other, again preserving themselves, in spite -of all republican efforts of the wind, clearly distinct. The cause of -this phenomenon, I am told, is still a disputed question among the -scientific. On the other side of the bay are built the cottages of -wreckers and fishermen, the latter including those who dive for sponges, -many of which we saw lying about in immense heaps; also those who dive -for conch shells, which are exported in large quantities to France to be -used in various artistic manufactures. The shores are covered with -superannuated and dilapidated conchs, bleaching in the sun and calcining -in the waves.</p> - -<p>Another novelty is the turtle houses, built of poles out in shallow -water, in such a way that the water can get freely in and out, while the -self-roofed crawlers do neither the one nor the other.</p> - -<p class="figcenter"> -<img src="images/i_123.png" width="120" height="76" alt="decorative image not available" /> -</p> - -<p><a name="page_124" id="page_124"></a></p> - -<h2><a name="X" id="X"></a> -<img src="images/i_124.png" width="450" height="78" alt="decorative image not available" /> -<br /> - -X.</h2> - -<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang"><i>The Military Church—The Zouave Costume—Sunday come -again—Twilight Rambles—The Kirk—Miscegenation—A Private -Misery—The Old Fort—Lazy Negroes—Wrecking—The Town -Library—Shopping—The Zouave Band—The Search for Coolness—The -Government House—Silver key—Buying Shellwork—Nassau grows -Purgatorial—Farewell to Nassau.</i></p></div> - -<p class="r"> -<span class="smcap">Sunday</span>, April 15th.<br /> -</p> - -<p class="hang"><span class="letra"> -<img src="images/letr_o.png" -width="60" -height="60" -alt="O" -class="dropcap" -/></span>NE of the ladies having invited me to accompany her to the military -church, we started early, hoping to arrive in time for the military -music and procession, but both were over. Everybody was quietly -assembled in the church, a plain, old-fashioned building, with large -windows wide open, and between them numerous tablets and inscriptions. -Two clergymen officiated; the English officers occupied the front pews; -a few chance visitors besprinkled the body of the church, while thickly -packed in the background, or blackground, were the soldiers with tall, -fine forms, Moorish features, and jet-black skins. The gallery was also -filled by them; the services and hymns<a name="page_125" id="page_125"></a> were played by their band, and -sung by their choir; all the colored people above and below responded -heartily from open prayer-books during the entire service, and listened -with intelligent interest to the sermon. This was a farewell discourse -from their young pastor of the last year: it was appropriate in spirit, -but so mouthed and mumbled that I scarcely comprehended a word of it.</p> - -<p>When, at last the services were over, the black soldiers,—for all the -soldiers on the island are black,—with their white officers, filed in a -long procession while performing certain military evolutions, and then -marched off to the music of a quiet march.</p> - -<p>A novel feature of all this was the quaint and picturesque Zouave -costume of the soldiers, which has within a few months been -adopted,—the bright red embroidered jacket, white sleeves, full blue -Turkish trousers, caught just below the knee into a leathern leggin -which half conceals the shoe; the pretty red cap, with a white turban -twisted gracefully around the crown, from which hangs a huge yellow silk -tassel,—all this entire wild and oriental dress harmonizes so -completely with these black, well-formed, often handsome faces and -stately forms, and with this gorgeous sunlight and tropical brightness -of coloring everywhere, that these soldiers seem things wholly unique -and original, beings born just as they are from the burning maternal -heart of this bounteous nature. How mean and modern these -Parisian-dressed men looked beside them! Never were stove-pipe hats so -high and stiff—<a name="page_126" id="page_126"></a>mathematical tailoring so prim and prosaic and square -cut!<a name="FNanchor_A_1" id="FNanchor_A_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_A_1" class="fnanchor">[A]</a></p> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_A_1" id="Footnote_A_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_A_1"><span class="label">[A]</span></a> The Zouave costume having been so universally worn by -soldiers of the United States, since the above was written, it has, of -course, lost what was its greatest charm—its novelty.</p></div> - -<p>In every thing we constantly see the complete dissimilarity of the -islands of Cuba and New Providence, and in nothing more than in the -recognition of Sunday. A few hours’ sail floats you down through -centuries; from much poetry, it is true, alas! to much prose, but -nevertheless from the dark ages to one of civilization, and from a chain -of weeks linked together by no golden clasp into a country where one -seventh of the time the Presence comes so near that you can hear—if you -have ears to hear—the trailing of its robes down the dismal steps of -all the following week.</p> - -<p><i>Monday, 16th.</i>—Last evening we commenced a twilight ramble which -terminated at the kirk.</p> - -<p>As our walk had been a little long, we sat down to rest, before -arriving, on a little retired rock, commanding bay, city, and clouds of -perfumes from neighboring gardens. Presently a tremendous explosive -sound took place just behind us, and continued on in a perpetual -thundering till we came near being as much petrified as the rock under -us. I had only sense enough left to discover that it was undoubtedly the -church-bell inviting to the house of quiet. But why so tremendous a -summons? Is it to ring out the piety of the entire island? or to break -into shivering fragments the after-dinner naps of the church-goers? or -to deafen them in<a name="page_127" id="page_127"></a> defence of the stupid sermon to come? or perchance it -may be to call the mermaids and respectable shell-conchs, and other -residents of the surrounding vasty deep? With my questions still -unanswered, we arose to go, and on turning the first corner found that -close behind the wall where we had been sitting, in a little low shelter -for the purpose, situated in the remotest corner of the church grounds, -was the ordinary-sized bell, that had seemed terrifically loud, not from -its size, but from its proximity. Why this wretched attempt at a -campanile is preferred to our method of enthroning the bell on the -pinnacle of the temple, I cannot divine.</p> - -<p>The kirk we found even plainer and less tasteful than the established -church of the morning. The noble-faced but prosy clergyman, a -Presbyterian in gown and scarf of the Episcopal clergy; the excellent -though a little shrill-voiced choir, composed entirely of mulattoes. -Just before services began, a handsome lady, well dressed, and whiter -than myself, walked into one of the central pews, followed by a tall, -equally well dressed and perfectly black husband. This is the only -negation of races I have seen, and I cannot tell if it is often -paralleled.</p> - -<p><i>Monday evening.</i>—I impart to you a private piece of misery. My windows -overlook, and, still worse, overlisten the poultry yard, where -med-<i>lays</i> and <i>mêlèes</i> and sound-<i>lays</i> make the “nights hideous,” as -well as the mornings. The reason is, these West Indian chickens have no -respect for almanacs. They not only ignore the comings and goings of the -sun, but they have no shadow of<a name="page_128" id="page_128"></a> respect for his definite intentions -that everybody should sleep in his absence. In short, which means in -long, very long, they crow all night, insisting on waking at eleven -o’clock to inform me that the daylight has gone, just as conscientiously -as at one to assert that it is coming, and at four to suggest that it -has just arrived. The geese, the turkeys, the guinea-hens, and, most -vociferous of all, the ducks, are equally assiduous in performing their -vocal responsibilities. No wonder they turn to universal lungs and come -on the table pathetic carcasses, painful relics, poultryitic proof that -bipeds fare best when sound is sacrificed to substance.</p> - -<p>A drive this evening on the “Western Road,” which, like all the other -roads, is of smooth solid rock. It lies along the sea shore, where -shells are said to abound; but my enthusiasm, as well as feet, was sadly -dampened by fruitless searchings on the sharp wave-riddled rocks, and -the equally infertile sand-beach.</p> - -<p>A little way out of town stand the curious ruins of a fort, built by the -Spaniards when they possessed this island; for you must know, it was -handed about from one government to another, changing hands half a dozen -times or more before England could get a secure hold. Victoria now finds -it a constant drain on her treasury, but, good mother that she is! her -feeble children are nourished and supported with no less fidelity than -that with which the strong ones sustain her.</p> - -<p>The fort is circular, with a curious pointed, perfectly solid wing on -one side, the design of which nobody can now discover. Another fort, -built by<a name="page_129" id="page_129"></a> the Spaniards on the hill opposite my window, has the same -singular appendage, which is, however, well preserved and appropriated -to some military use.</p> - -<p>The ruined fort which we passed possesses a subterranean passage, -leading to the government house, in which are numerous mysterious -apartments, having the always-attractive reputation of being haunted. At -various times, various ladies and gentlemen have undertaken to penetrate -them, but these irreverent pursuers of spirits under difficulties are -always summarily dismissed by the inhospitable ghost.</p> - -<p>Farther on, we found numerous desolated plantations, presided over by -dilapidated country houses. It is universally found, that since the -emancipation of the slaves, some thirty years since, the impoverished -owners are obliged to abandon their estates.</p> - -<p>The negroes now cannot be coaxed or hired or driven to work more than is -absolutely necessary to keep soul and body from a divorce. No public -improvements have been built since the emancipation. It is doubtless -true that the wrecking trade, which of late years is become so -flourishing, has, in its speculating, I may say gambling, influences, -had a tendency to destroy legitimate industry. What is the use of -working their black fingers to the bone, when any day an ill wind may -blow them enough good or goods to make everybody rich? when any wind -that is good for anything, and knows what it is about, comes to them -dressed in silks and satins of the latest fashion, sometimes with a -Paris bonnet<a name="page_130" id="page_130"></a> on its head, sometimes loaded with jewelry which it lays -at their feet, and begs they will be good enough to accept as a present.</p> - -<p><i>April 17th.</i>—The town library is well filled with books, excellently -bound, none of them in paper or muslin. It has also a respectable number -of curiosities; there we pass a pleasant early morning hour.</p> - -<p>To-day my first shopping excursion in Havana. We heard enticing accounts -of the great bargains to be made here, not only in wrecked goods, but in -English importations free of duty. I found, however, nothing of the -sort; on the contrary, heaps of wrecked and damaged goods lying about -the doors of the shops, or strewn upon the sidewalks; mostly sell as -high as the same thing uninjured in New York.</p> - -<p>These merchants are constantly in the practice of wetting and wilting -their superannuated goods in salt water and then displaying them as -wrecked articles, thus imposing on foreigners and ignorant customers, -who suppose that, as a matter of course, they are making “stunning -bargains.”</p> - -<p>After dinner, like everybody else, we drove to hear the Zouave band. On -Tuesday and Friday afternoons they find themselves the centre of a large -admiring carriage audience. On benches ranged immediately around them, -are seated crowds of colored nurses with English infants, while older -children are running and playing everywhere with the sweet inexhaustible -happiness which children find in every clime under the sun.</p> - -<p>These Africans play operatic music with expression<a name="page_131" id="page_131"></a> as well as -precision. Like all the negroes of these English islands, they are -taught reading, writing, and the elements of an ordinary school -education. The surgeon of the army tells me that their ready emotional -nature and quickness for time and tune, nearly atone for the, to them, -unattainable intellectual and artistic culture ordinarily necessary to -the full expression of these musical compositions.</p> - -<p>We everywhere find coolness the thing most sought by these adopted -children of the sun. Witness their universal white linen umbrellas to -whose blinding glare no coolness could ever reconcile me. Witness also -the prevailing thick, white flannel coats, vests, and trousers worn by -the gentlemen as a morning and business dress. In a country where dust -and mud are matters of merely books and faith, and where perspiration is -a matter for draughts of air to manufacture fevers of, this soft, cool, -non-conducting dress has its advantages.</p> - -<p>As we were coming out from tea this evening, General P—— called over -the bannisters to know if we were ready for the usual game of whist. We -found him in the upper parlor, seated opposite the rocking-chair, which -nobody will occupy at whist but myself. I find in him qualities not -often combined in a whist-player,—scientific skill, and what I am far -more capable of appreciating, patience and kind encouragement for the -mistakes of his partner.</p> - -<p><i>Wednesday evening, April 17th.</i>—This morning the General knocked at -our door to say that the United States Consul would be here at -half-past<a name="page_132" id="page_132"></a> three, with his carriage, to carry us up to the Government -House, this being the reception day of Mrs. B——, its mistress. We -went, accordingly, to find the walks and house filled with coming and -going guests. On sending in cards we were at once ushered into the -drawing-room, where was her ladyship seated in one corner of a sofa, -without crinoline, which she has never worn. There is character for you! -Her dress and cap were of some gauzy material tinctured with purple; the -same color looked from the underside of her point lace collar and cuffs, -and after my turn was over for commonplaces, I had leisure, or seized it -from the stupid conversation of Doctor somebody on the other side of me, -to discover that the lady’s face was full of culture and spirit, and -that her high-toned guests perfectly agreed with me in the opinion. A -grand piano occupied one side of the octagon room, its polished feet, -like those of its mistress, standing upon a bare, shining oak floor; the -wide open windows commanded a triple view of sea, valley, and forest. As -we came out Mr.——, the graceful bachelor consul, registered our names -in a book kept for the purpose and then brought us home.</p> - -<p><i>Friday, April 20th.</i>—A boat ride yesterday morning, followed by a long -exhausting walk on the bare beach of Hog Island, which lies stretched -out in front of Nassau for the apparent purpose of making a harbor. All -this fatigued out of me every writing possibility. But to-day we sailed -delightfully over to Silver Key, one of the many uninhabited little -islands that lie within a few hours<a name="page_133" id="page_133"></a>’ sail of Nassau. The gentlemen were -obliged to wade from the boat to the shore; the ladies were curiously -carried in the arms of the sailors. But we soon forgot the awkwardness -of this novel locomotion in the exciting pleasure of collecting the -pretty shells, corals, sea-fans, and sea-stars, with which we loaded our -pockets, pocket-handkerchiefs, and the arms of the sailors and -gentlemen.</p> - -<p>Our sailors insist that all these little islands still contain gold and -silver, buried long ago by the pirates, who first of all discovered and -inhabited them. It is true that a fruitless expedition from the United -States once came to make search.</p> - -<p>As we passed down the bay, we had a new view of the two or three -“slavers” that lie at anchor. One of them was years ago tossed on the -shore and nearly wrecked by a tornado. The others are noble ships left -deserted to waste and decay in the storms and sunshine. They are fair -but doomed and desolate monuments of a foul traffic, and of a silent -wrath which corrodes their falling masts and haunts like black ghosts -their misery-memoried cells.</p> - -<p><i>April 21st.</i>—This afternoon looking for shell-work, for which Nassau -is famous. Among other manufactures, we found two maiden sisters living -alone in a little rose-vined cottage. The room was full of natural -curiosities, drawings, and a variety of handiwork discoursing decided -taste and talent. They sold me some very curious sponges and sea-fans, -and kindly gave me a spirited drawing in water colors, representing a -native woman carrying<a name="page_134" id="page_134"></a> her baby in a bag on her back, according to a -very general custom here. We found these maidens truly intelligent and -polite. Since our return we learn that their mother was a perfectly -black negro, their father formerly a governor of the island.</p> - -<p>We ended our drive by visiting a famous banyan-tree, and by an attempt -to stretch it, which hordes of provokingly critical mosquitoes -frustrated. This tree most commonly grows as a parasite on the Pride of -India, a fine native tree, which is often at last hugged to death by its -<i>soi-distant</i> friend.</p> - -<p>Returned home after dark, past cottages and country-houses in which not -a single light was burning, a precautionary defence against mosquitoes.</p> - -<p><i>May 7th.</i>—All these languid days a constant south wind, bringing -intense incapacity for every effort. My pen, a seldom skipping -grasshopper, is indeed become a burden; it refuses to help me “lift the -weight of the superincumbent hour,” even for you.</p> - -<p>Our second week here made to us the fatal revelation that Nassau had -exhausted its claims to interest. Since that time the heat alone has -been enough to legitimize its claim to being a mild Purgatory, from -which no prayers, penances, or even money could release us, there being -no escape except by the monthly steamer.</p> - -<p>A few pleasant events, it is true, have medicated this ennui. Amongst -them was a musical soiree, for which General P—— procured us tickets, -an amateur affair for benevolent purposes. It had a charming duett or -two on the harp and piano, one<a name="page_135" id="page_135"></a> on the cornet, extremely graceful. Then -there was an evening out to tea; then there were a few kindly lent -books. But the crowning event was the welcome advent of the steamer on -its way to Havana, once more establishing us in a world from which we -seem to have been vanished a century. It brought fresh news, fresh -letters, fresh promises of home.</p> - -<p>Floods of rain came too, at last, drowning out the heat, baptizing these -air-gormandizing trees, filling the drained wells with assurances that -we will not just now</p> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">“Die of thirst with all the waters near.”<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p>It is a curious fact that the tide rises and falls regularly every day -in these wells. With the exception of one or two small lakes in the -interior, no other water is found on the island, which may help to -explain the fact that it had no indigenous animals.</p> - -<p><i>Thursday night, May 10th.</i>—I sit alone by the waxen taper in my room -to write my parting with Nassau—to end for the present my -pen-peregrinations. But I fear I cannot muster one decorous sigh for the -occasion. Everybody is going; there will be many partings but few -farewells. I will leave with you and with memory those tropical -experiences, knowing that, whatever <i>you</i> may do with them, memory is -like all other sextons—he buries more than he exhumes. The full-packed -trunks, carpet-bags, and boxes of curiosities around me, are welcome -reminders that early to-morrow<a name="page_136" id="page_136"></a> morning the good ship Karnak will -breathe a welcome breath through her two great red nostrils and will -wind and puff her way around the lighthouse in search of us.</p> - -<p class="c"> <br />THE END.</p> - -<p class="figcenter"> -<img src="images/i_136.png" width="120" height="65" alt="decorative image not available" /> -</p> -<hr /> -<p><a name="page_137" id="page_137"></a></p> - -<p class="figcenterend"> -<img src="images/catalog.png" width="325" height="500" alt="A Catalogue of -BOOKS -ISSUED BY -CARLETON, -New York. -Madison Square, -corner of -5th Avenue and Broadway. -1870." title="" /> -</p> - -<p><a name="page_138" id="page_138"></a></p> - -<p class="figcenter"> -<img src="images/i_a_002.png" width="150" height="34" alt="decorative image not available" /> -</p> - -<p class="c"> -“<i>There is a kind of physiognomy in the titles<br /> -of books no less than in the faces of<br /> -men, by which a skilful observer<br /> -will know as well what to expect<br /> -from the one as the<br /> -other.</i>”—<span class="smcap">Butler.</span><br /> -</p> - -<p class="c"><a name="page_139" id="page_139"></a> - -<img src="images/colophon.png" - class="figcenter" -width="50" -height="35" -alt="colophon not available" -/></p> - -<p class="c"> -NEW BOOKS<br /> -And New Editions Recently Issued by<br /> -CARLETON, Publisher, New York,<br /> -[Madison Square, corner Fifth Av. and Broadway.]<br /> -</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>N. B.—<span class="smcap">The Publishers</span>, upon receipt of the price in advance, will -send any of the following Books by mail, <small>POSTAGE FREE</small>, to any part -of the United States. This convenient and very safe mode may be -adopted when the neighboring Booksellers are not supplied with the -desired work. State name and address in full.</p></div> - -<p class="c">Marion Harland’s Works.</p> - -<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> -<tr><td class="sml">ALONE.—</td><td align="center">A novel</td><td align="center">12mo. cloth,</td><td align="center">$1.50</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">HIDDEN PATH.—</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.50</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">MOSS SIDE.—</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.50</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">NEMESIS.—</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.50</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">MIRIAM.—</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.50</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">THE EMPTY HEART.—</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.50</td></tr> -<tr><td colspan="2" class="sml">HELEN GARDNER’S WEDDING-DAY.—</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.50</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">SUNNYBANK.—</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.50</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">HUSBANDS AND HOMES.—</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.50</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">RUBY’S HUSBAND.—</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.50</td></tr> -<tr><td colspan="2">PHEMIE’S TEMPTATION.—<i>Just Published.</i></td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.50</td></tr> -</table> - -<p class="c">Miss Muloch.</p> - -<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> -<tr><td class="sml">JOHN HALIFAX.—A novel.</td><td align="center">With illustration.</td><td align="center">12mo.</td><td align="center">cloth,</td><td align="center">$1.75</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">A LIFE FOR A LIFE.—</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.75</td></tr> -</table> - -<p class="c">Charlotte Bronte (Currer Bell).</p> - -<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> -<tr><td class="sml">JANE EYRE.—</td><td align="center">A novel.</td><td align="center">With illustration.</td><td align="center">12mo. cloth,</td><td align="center">$1.75</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">THE PROFESSOR. -</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.75</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">SHIRLEY. -</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.75</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">VILLETTE.—</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.75</td></tr> -</table> - -<p class="c">Hand-Books of Society.</p> - -<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> - -<tr><td class="hang"><span class="sml">THE HABITS OF GOOD SOCIETY</span>; thoughts, hints, and anecdotes,<br /> -concerning nice points of taste, good manners, and the art<br /> -of making oneself agreeable.</td><td align="right"> 12mo. cloth, $1.75</td></tr> - -<tr><td class="hang"><span class="sml">THE ART OF CONVERSATION.</span>—A sensible and instructive work,<br /> -that ought to be in the hands of every one who wishes to<br /> -be either an agreeable talker or listener.</td><td align="right">12mo. cloth, $1.50</td></tr> - -<tr><td class="hang"><span class="sml">ARTS OF WRITING, READING, AND SPEAKING.</span>—An excellent book<br /> -for self-instruction and improvement.</td><td align="right">12mo. cloth, $1.50</td></tr> - -<tr><td class="hang"><span class="sml">HAND-BOOKS OF SOCIETY.</span>—The above three choice volumes<br /> -bound in extra style, full gilt ornamental back, uniform in<br /> -appearance, and in a handsome box.</td><td align="right">$5.00</td></tr> -</table> - -<p><a name="page_140" id="page_140"></a></p> - -<p class="c">Mrs. Mary J. Holmes’ Works.</p> - -<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> -<tr><td class="sml">LENA RIVERS.</td><td align="center">A novel.</td><td align="center">12mo. cloth,</td><td align="center">$1.50</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">DARKNESS AND DAYLIGHT.—</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.50</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">TEMPEST AND SUNSHINE.—</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.50</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">MARIAN GREY.—</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.50</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">MEADOW BROOK.—</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.50</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">ENGLISH ORPHANS.—</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">do</td><td align="center">$1.50</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">DORA DEANE.—</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.50</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">COUSIN MAUDE.—</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.50</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">HOMESTEAD ON THE HILLSIDE.—</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.50</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">HUGH WORTHINGTON.—</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.50</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">THE CAMERON PRIDE.—</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.50</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">ROSE MATHER.—</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.50</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">ETHELYN’S MISTAKE.—<i>Just Published.</i></td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.50</td></tr> -</table> - -<p class="c">Miss Augusta J. Evans.</p> - -<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> -<tr><td class="sml">BEULAH.—</td><td align="center" colspan="2">A novel of great power.</td><td> </td><td align="center">12mo. cloth,</td><td align="center">$1.75</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">MACARIA.—</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td> </td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.75</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">ST. ELMO.—</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td> </td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$2.00</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">VASHTI.—</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center"><i>Just Published.</i></td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$2.00</td></tr> -</table> - -<p class="c">Victor Hugo.</p> - -<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> -<tr><td class="sml">LES MISÉRABLES.—The celebrated novel. One large 8vo volume paper covers, $2.00;</td><td align="center"> cloth bound,</td><td align="center"> $2.50</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">LES MISÉRABLES.—Spanish. Two vols., paper,</td><td align="center">$4.00; cl.,</td><td align="center">$5.00</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">JARGAL.—A new novel. Illustrated.</td><td align="center">12mo. cloth,</td><td align="center">$1.75</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">CLAUDE GUEUX, and Last Day of Condemned Man.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.50</td></tr> -</table> - -<p class="c">Algernon Charles Swinburne.</p> - -<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> -<tr><td class="sml">LAUS VENERIS, AND OTHER POEMS.—</td><td align="center">12mo. cloth,</td><td align="center">$1.75</td></tr> -</table> - -<p class="c">Captain Mayne Reid’s Works—Illustrated.</p> - -<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> -<tr><td class="sml">THE SCALP HUNTERS.—</td><td align="center">A romance.</td><td align="center">12mo. cloth,</td><td align="center">$1.75</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">THE RIFLE RANGERS.—</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.75</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">THE TIGER HUNTER.—</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.75</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">OSCEOLA, THE SEMINOLE.—</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.75</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">THE WAR TRAIL.—</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">do</td><td align="center">$1.75</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">THE HUNTER’S FEAST.—</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.75</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">RANGERS AND REGULATORS.—</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.75</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">THE WHITE CHIEF.—</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.75</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">THE QUADROON.—</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.75</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">THE WILD HUNTRESS.—</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.75</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">THE WOOD RANGERS—</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.75</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">THE MAROON.—</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.75</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">LOST LEONORE.—</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.75</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">THE HEADLESS HORSEMAN.—</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.75</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">THE WHITE GAUNTLET.—</td><td align="center"><i>Just Published.</i></td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.75</td></tr> -</table> - -<p><a name="page_141" id="page_141"></a></p> - -<p class="c">A. S. Roe’s Works.</p> - -<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> -<tr><td class="sml">A LONG LOOK AHEAD.—</td><td align="center">A novel</td><td align="center">12mo. cloth,</td><td align="center">$1.50</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">TO LOVE AND TO BE LOVED.—</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.50</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">TIME AND TIDE.—</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.50</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">I’VE BEEN THINKING.—</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.50</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">THE STAR AND THE CLOUD.—</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.50</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">TRUE TO THE LAST.—</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.50</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">HOW COULD HE HELP IT?—</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.50</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">LIKE AND UNLIKE.—</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.50</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">LOOKING AROUND.—</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.50</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">WOMAN OUR ANGEL.—</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.50</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">THE CLOUD ON THE HEART.—</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.50</td></tr> -</table> - -<p class="c">Orpheus C. Kerr.</p> - -<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> -<tr><td class="sml">THE ORPHEUS C. KERR PAPERS.—Three vols.</td><td align="center">12mo. cloth,</td><td align="center">$1.50</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">SMOKED GLASS.—New comic book. Illustrated.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.50</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">AVERY GLIBUN.—A powerful new novel.—</td><td align="center">8vo. cloth,</td><td align="center">$2.00</td></tr> -</table> - -<p class="c">Richard B. Kimball.</p> - -<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> -<tr><td class="sml">WAS HE SUCCESSFUL?—</td><td align="center">A novel.</td><td align="center">12mo. cloth, $1.75</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">UNDERCURRENTS.—</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.75</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">SAINT LEGER.—</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.75</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">ROMANCE OF STUDENT LIFE.—</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.75</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">IN THE TROPICS.—</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.75</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">HENRY POWERS, BANKER.—</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.75</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">TO-DAY.—A novel.</td><td align="center"><i>Just published.</i></td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.75</td></tr> -</table> - -<p class="c">Comic Books—Illustrated.</p> - -<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> -<tr><td class="sml">ARTEMUS WARD, His Book.—Letters, etc.</td><td align="center">12mo. cl.,</td><td align="center">$1.50</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml"><span class="ditto">DO.</span>His Travels—Mormons, etc.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.50</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml"><span class="ditto">DO.</span>In London.—Punch Letters.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.50</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml"><span class="ditto">DO.</span>His Panorama and Lecture.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.50</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">JOSH BILLINGS ON ICE, and other things.—</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.50</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml"><span class="ditto">DO.</span>His Book of Proverbs, etc.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.50</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">WIDOW SPRIGGINS.—By author “Widow Bedott.”</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.75</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">FOLLY AS IT FLIES.—By Fanny Fern.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.50</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">CORRY O’LANUS.—His views and opinions.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.50</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">VERDANT GREEN.—A racy English college story.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.50</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">CONDENSED NOVELS, ETC.—By F. Bret Harte.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.50</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">THE SQUIBOB PAPERS.—By John Phœnix.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.50</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">MILES O’REILLY.—His Book of Adventures.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.50</td></tr> -</table> - -<p class="c">“Brick” Pomeroy.</p> - -<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> -<tr><td class="sml">SENSE.—</td><td align="center" colspan="3">An illustrated vol. of fireside musings.</td><td align="center">12mo. cl.,</td><td align="center">$1.50</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">NONSENSE.—</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">comic sketches.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.50</td></tr> -<tr><td colspan="2" class="sml">OUR SATURDAY NIGHTS.—</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center" colspan="2">pathos and sentiment.</td><td align="center">$1.50</td></tr> -</table> - -<p class="c">Joseph Rodman Drake.</p> - -<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> -<tr><td class="sml">THE CULPRIT FAY.—A faery poem.</td><td align="center">12mo. cloth,</td><td align="center">$1.25</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">THE CULPRIT FAY.—An illustrated edition. 100 exquisite illustrations.</td><td align="center"> 4to., beautifully printed and bound.</td><td align="center">$5.00</td></tr> -</table> - -<p><a name="page_142" id="page_142"></a></p> - -<p class="c">Children’s Books—Illustrated.</p> -<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> -<tr><td class="sml">THE ART OF AMUSING.—With 150 illustrations.</td><td align="center">12mo. cl.,</td><td align="center">$1.50</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">FRIENDLY COUNSEL FOR GIRLS.—A charming book.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.50</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">THE CHRISTMAS FONT.—By Mary J. Holmes.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.00</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">ROBINSON CRUSOE.—A Complete edition.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.50</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">LOUIE’S LAST TERM.—By author “Rutledge.”</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.75</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">ROUNDHEARTS, and other stories.— do.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.75</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">PASTIMES WITH MY LITTLE FRIENDS.—</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.50</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">WILL-O’-THE-WISP.—From the German.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.50</td></tr> -</table> - -<p class="c">M. Michelet’s Remarkable Works.</p> - -<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> -<tr><td colspan="2" class="sml">LOVE (L’AMOUR).—Translated from the French.</td><td align="center">12mo. cl.,</td><td align="center">$1.50</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">WOMAN (LA FEMME).—</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.50</td></tr> -</table> - -<p class="c">Ernest Renan.</p> - -<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> -<tr><td colspan="2" class="sml">THE LIFE OF JESUS.—Translated from the French.</td><td align="center">12mo. cl.,</td><td align="center">$1.75</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">THE APOSTLES.—</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.75</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">SAINT PAUL.—</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.75</td></tr> -</table> - -<p class="c">Popular Italian Novels.</p> - -<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> -<tr><td class="sml">BEATRICE CENCI.—By Guerrazzi, with portrait.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.75</td></tr> -</table> - -<p class="c">Rev. John Cumming, D.D., of London.</p> - -<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> -<tr><td class="sml">THE GREAT TRIBULATION.—</td><td align="center">Two series.</td><td align="center">12mo. cloth,</td><td align="center">$1.50</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">THE GREAT PREPARATION.—</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.50</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">THE GREAT CONSUMMATION.—</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.50</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">THE LAST WARNING CRY.—</td><td> </td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.50</td></tr> -</table> - -<p class="c">Mrs. Ritchie (Anna Cora Mowatt).</p> - -<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> -<tr><td class="sml">FAIRY FINGERS.—A capital new novel.</td><td align="center">12mo. cloth,</td><td align="center">$1.75</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">THE MUTE SINGER.— do.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.75</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">THE CLERGYMAN’S WIFE.—and other stories.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.75</td></tr> -</table> - -<p class="c">T. S. Arthur’s New Works.</p> - -<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> -<tr><td class="sml">LIGHT ON SHADOWED PATHS.—</td><td align="center">A novel.</td><td align="center">12mo. cloth,</td><td align="center">$1.50</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">OUT IN THE WORLD.—</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.50</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">NOTHING BUT MONEY.—</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.50</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">WHAT CAME AFTERWARDS.—</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.50</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">OUR NEIGHBORS.—</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.50</td></tr> -</table> - -<p class="c">Geo. W. Carleton.</p> - -<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> -<tr><td class="sml">OUR ARTIST IN CUBA.—</td><td align="center" colspan="2">With 50 comic illustrations.</td><td align="center">$1.50</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">OUR ARTIST IN PERU.—</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.50</td></tr> -<tr><td colspan="2" class="sml">OUR ARTIST IN AFRICA.—(<i>In press</i>) </td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.50</td></tr> -</table> - -<p class="c">John Esten Cooke.</p> - -<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> -<tr><td class="sml">FAIRFAX.—</td><td align="center">A brilliant new novel.</td><td align="center">12mo. cloth,</td><td align="center">$1.75</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">HILT TO HILT.—</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.50</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">HAMMER AND RAPIER.—</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.50</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">OUT OR THE FOAM.—</td><td align="center">do. <i>In press.</i></td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.75</td></tr> -</table> - -<p><a name="page_143" id="page_143"></a></p> - -<p class="c">How to Make Money</p> - -<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> - -<tr><td class="sml">AND HOW TO KEEP IT.—A practical, readable book, that ought<br /> -to be in the hands of every person who wishes to earn<br /> -money or to keep what he has. One of the best books ever<br /> -published. By Thomas A. Davies.</td><td align="center" valign="bottom">12mo. cloth,</td><td align="center" valign="bottom">$1.50</td></tr> -</table> - -<p class="c">J. Cordy Jeaffreson.</p> - -<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> - -<tr><td class="sml">A BOOK ABOUT LAWYERS.—A collection of interesting anecdotes<br /> -and incidents connected with the most distinguished<br /> -members of the Legal Profession.</td><td align="center" valign="bottom">12mo. cloth,</td><td align="center" valign="bottom">$2.00</td></tr> -</table> - -<p class="c">Fred. Saunders.</p> - -<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> - -<tr><td class="sml">WOMAN, LOVE, AND MARRIAGE.—A charming volume about<br /> -three most fascinating topics.<br /> -</td><td align="center" valign="bottom">12mo. cloth,</td><td align="center" valign="bottom">$1.50</td></tr> -</table> - -<p class="c">Edmund Kirke.</p> - -<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> -<tr><td colspan="2" class="sml">AMONG THE PINES.—Or Life in the South.</td><td align="center">12mo. cloth,</td><td align="center">$1.50</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">MY SOUTHERN FRIENDS.—</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.50</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">DOWN IN TENNESSEE.—</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.50</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">ADRIFT IN DIXIE.—</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.50</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">AMONG THE GUERILLAS.—</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.50</td></tr> -</table> - -<p class="c">Charles Reade.</p> - -<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> - -<tr><td class="sml">THE CLOISTER AND THE HEARTH.—A magnificent new novel—the -best this author ever wrote.</td><td align="center"> 8vo. cloth,</td><td align="center"> $2.00</td></tr> -</table> - -<p class="c">The Opera.</p> - -<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> - -<tr><td class="sml">TALES FROM THE OPERAS.—A collection of clever stories, based<br /> -upon the plots of all the famous operas.</td><td align="center" valign="bottom"> -12mo. cloth,</td><td align="center" valign="bottom"> $1.50 -</td></tr> -</table> - -<p class="c">Robert B. Roosevelt.</p> - -<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> -<tr><td class="sml">THE GAME-FISH OF THE NORTH.—Illustrated.</td><td align="center">12mo. cloth,</td><td align="center">$2.00</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">SUPERIOR FISHING.—</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$2.00</td></tr> -<tr><td colspan="2" class="sml">THE GAME-BIRDS OF THE NORTH.—</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$2.00</td></tr> -</table> - -<p class="c">By the Author of “Rutledge.”</p> - -<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> -<tr><td colspan="2" class="sml">RUTLEDGE.—A deeply interesting novel.</td><td align="center">12mo. cloth,</td><td align="center">$1.75</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">THE SUTHERLANDS.—</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.75</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">FRANK WARRINGTON.—</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.75</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">ST. PHILIP’S.—</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.75</td></tr> -<tr><td colspan="2" class="sml">LOUIE’S LAST TERM AT ST. MARY’S.—</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.75</td></tr> -<tr><td colspan="2" class="sml">ROUNDHEARTS AND OTHER STORIES.—For children.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.75</td></tr> -<tr><td colspan="2" class="sml">A ROSARY FOR LENT.—Devotional Readings.</td><td align="center">do.</td><td align="center">$1.75</td></tr> -</table> - -<p class="c">Love in Letters.</p> - -<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> -<tr><td class="sml">A collection of piquant love-letters.</td><td align="center">12mo. cloth,</td><td align="center">$2.00</td></tr> -</table> - -<p class="c">Dr. J. J. Craven.</p> - - <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> -<tr><td align="center" class="sml">THE PRISON-LIFE OF JEFFERSON DAVIS.—</td><td align="center">12mo. cloth,</td><td align="center"> $2.00</td></tr> -</table> - -<p class="c">Walter Barrett, Clerk.</p> - -<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> -<tr><td class="sml">THE OLD MERCHANTS OF NEW YORK.—</td><td align="center">Five vols. cloth,</td><td align="center">$10.00</td></tr> -</table> - -<p class="c">H. T. Sperry.</p> - -<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> -<tr><td class="sml">COUNTRY LOVE <i>VS.</i> CITY FLIRTATION.—</td><td align="center">12mo. cloth,</td><td align="center">$2.00</td></tr> -</table> - -<p><a name="page_144" id="page_144"></a></p> - -<p class="c">Miscellaneous Works.</p> - -<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> -<tr><td class="sml">THE HONEYMOON.—A humorous story, with illustrations.</td><td align="right">$1.50</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">WOMEN AND THEATRES.—A new book, by Olive Logan.</td><td align="right">$1.50</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">WARWICK.—A new novel by Mansfield Tracy Walworth.</td><td align="right">$1.75</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">SIBYL HUNTINGTON.—A novel by Mrs. J. C. R. 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Smith.</td><td align="right">$1.50</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">THE RUSSIAN BALL.—An Illustrated Satirical Poem.</td><td align="right">50</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">THE SNOBLACE BALL.— <span class="ditto">do.</span> <span class="ditto">do.</span></td><td align="right">50</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">AN ANSWER TO HUGH MILLER.—By Thomas A. Davies.</td><td align="right">$1.50</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">COSMOGONY.—By Thomas A. Davies.</td><td align="right">$2.00</td></tr> -<tr><td class="sml">RURAL ARCHITECTURE.—By M. Field. Illustrated.</td><td align="right">$2.00</td></tr> -</table> - -<p><a name="transcrib" id="transcrib"></a></p> - -<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="" -style="padding:2%;border:3px dotted gray;"> -<tr><th align="center">Typographical errors corrected by the etext transcriber:</th></tr> -<tr><td align="center">makes everbody walk=> makes everybody walk {pg 12}</td></tr> -<tr><td align="center">she maried Serrano=> she married Serrano {pg 22}</td></tr> -<tr><td align="center">Whatever chance leads your steps=> Wherever chance leads your steps {pg 27}</td></tr> -<tr><td align="center">a Nothern mother=> a Northern mother {pg 35}</td></tr> -<tr><td align="center">acceped our invitation=> accepted our invitation {pg 38}</td></tr> -<tr><td align="center">for his amibility=> for his amiability {pg 47}</td></tr> -<tr><td align="center">she purshased her freedom=> she purchased her freedom {pg 57}</td></tr> -<tr><td align="center">when an appreciative señor find a pretty=> when an appreciative señor finds a pretty {pg 57}</td></tr> -<tr><td align="center">with permissien from the major domo=> with permission from the major domo {pg 61}</td></tr> -<tr><td align="center">trees of the the country=> trees of the country {pg 61}</td></tr> -<tr><td align="center">the sweetnes of their welcome=> the sweetness of their welcome {pg 62}</td></tr> -<tr><td align="center">have occured on this plantation=> have occurred on this plantation {pg 63}</td></tr> -<tr><td align="center">tremor is forgetten=> tremor is forgotten {pg 65}</td></tr> -<tr><td align="center">not to dissappoint=> not to disappoint {pg 75}</td></tr> -<tr><td align="center">under ones eyelids=> under one’s eyelids {pg 68}</td></tr> -<tr><td align="center">jolly priest posesses=> jolly priest possesses {pg 74}</td></tr> -<tr><td align="center">image some mothers’s soul=> image some mother’s soul {pg 77}</td></tr> -<tr><td align="center">our enthusiam=> our enthusiasm {pg 77}</td></tr> -<tr><td align="center">and several overseeers=> and several overseers {pg 80}</td></tr> -<tr><td align="center">carressed by the soft=> caressed by the soft {pg 83}</td></tr> -<tr><td align="center">vertigo or apolexy=> vertigo or apoplexy {pg 91}</td></tr> -<tr><td align="center">the major dome=> the major domo {pg 94}</td></tr> -<tr><td align="center">To Matanazs=> To Matanazas {pg 97}</td></tr> -<tr><td align="center">entirely a feminine accomplisment=> entirely a feminine accomplishment {pg 102}</td></tr> -<tr><td align="center">lady aquaintance=> lady acquaintance {pg 103}</td></tr> -<tr><td align="center">occurence in Cuban families=> occurrence in Cuban families {pg 116}</td></tr> -<tr><td align="center">measuring, as it does, only fourteen feet in length and eight in width=> measuring, as it does, only fourteen miles in length and eight in width {pg 120}</td></tr> -<tr><td align="center">sincerly honor her=> sincerely honor her {pg 122}</td></tr> -<tr><td align="center">an ameteur affair=> an amateur affair {pg 134}</td></tr> -</table> - -<hr class="full" /> - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Rambles in Cuba, by Anonymous - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RAMBLES IN CUBA *** - -***** This file should be named 50196-h.htm or 50196-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/0/1/9/50196/ - -Produced by WebRover, Chris Curnow, Chuck Greif and the -Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net -(This file was produced from images generously made -available by The Internet Archive) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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