ness.

There was in his character, as in his writings, a singular evenIn politics a moderate Whig, prudent, timid, and somewhat cold in temperament, his kindliness of heart and religious principles, his wit and knowledge, saved from merely negative goodness both the man and the author. Yet a neutral tint, a calm tone, a repugnance to excess in style, in manners, and in opinion, were his characteristics. He lacked emphasis and fire; but their absence is fully compensated by grace, truth, and serenity. It is not only among the mountains and by the sea-shore that Nature hoards her beauty, but also on meadow-slopes and around sequestered lakes; and in like manner human life and thought have their phases of tranquil attraction and genial repose, as well as of sublime and impassioned development.

ART. VI.-1. Cuba and the Cubans. Comprising a History of the Island of Cuba, its present Social, Political, and Domestic Condition; also its Relation to England and the United States. New York : Samuel Hueston and George Putnam. 1850.

2. Letter of Mr. Everett to the Comte de Sartiges. Department of State. Washington, Dec. 1, 1852. 32d Congress, 2d Session. Senate Ex. Doc., No. 13.

CUBA is fitly called the Queen of the Antilles. Proudly does she stretch her long coast, indented with fine harbors, easterly into the broad ocean, and westerly into the very mouth of the Gulf of Mexico, as if intended by Nature to be the motherly protector of the Caribbees and of an immense extent of continental coast. The island is also extraordinarily rich in soil, and very equable and generally salubrious in climate, the sea-breeze springing up in the forenoon with great punctuality as soon as the freshness of the morning has departed, and continuing till the curtain of night shuts out the solar rays. Months may elapse without a sprinkling of rain; and yet there is an elasticity of atmosphere equal to that VOL. LXXIX. NO. 164. 10

So.

of our October, while the heat cannot be surpassed by the dog-days of our August. We may have been accustomed to regard the rainy season as most intolerably gloomy. But not It is very commonly spoken of as even pleasanter than the winter or dry season; for though there is daily and very copious rain, it seldom continues more than an hour at a time, and though the soil of the island forms a soft mud, often a foot or two deep, yet the air is invigorating and vegetation most luxuriant.

The three kinds of soil- the black, the red, and the mulatto are all of surpassing richness, and may all be seen by the traveller on the line of the railroads, and they have almost the softness of flour as tested by the thumb and finger. The red soil is as red as brick-dust, and at first deceives the foreigner into the belief that it cannot be fertile. But he cannot fail to see the growth of palm, plantain, oranges, coffee, and cane which it nourishes, and he is provokingly convinced of its impalpable fineness by the way in which it penetrates even glossy starched linen and the pores of his flesh, and by finding himself completely reddened from head to foot, beyond easy relief by soap or scrubbing-brush. We quite laughed at the idea that we should redden our washing-water and our towels by it for many days after returning to our Havana lodgings; but we found it even so. The soil, though thus fine, is not clayey; but the black has all the appearance of an exceedingly rich loam, as have the red and mulatto also, except in point of color. It readily crumbles under the hoe, yet retains the moisture well, and is often of almost immeasurable depth. One may travel for miles over the extensive savannas, and not meet with a stone; and then, on ascending a hill, may be jolted over innumerable loose masses of limestone, often as large and angular as paving-blocks of granite. We ascended to the summit of one such hill, perhaps a thousand feet above the surrounding plains, and feasted our eyes with a view that was perfectly enchanting. The principal features of the landscape were the cane-fields, often of hundreds of contiguous acres, the palm-trees, occasional lofty ceibas, the tall white chimneys of the sugar-houses, and the residences of the planters surrounded by the barracoons of the negroes.

And though the palms sometimes weary the eye with their identity of form, so strikingly contrasting with the infinite variety of our noble elms, yet they have a cleanness, luxuriance, and stateliness which cannot be surpassed; and the ceiba or cotton-tree rises to a height of a hundred feet or more, and then sends forth its horizontal branches covered with foliage and peculiarly fitted to shelter the earth from the parching rays of the tropical sun.

Travellers have said that there is no more beautiful scenery on the island than in the neighborhood of Matanzas, and surely there need not be, to satisfy the most scrutinizing lovers of nature. The ride upon the Cumbre, a high ridge of land that lies between the city and the ocean, commanding a view of both, as also of the valley of the Yumuri and of the high mountain ranges that stretch back into the interior, affords to the stranger almost all varieties of scenery in the space of a few hours. It was in this lovely vicinity, on a plantation belonging to an American, that takes the name of Cumbre from its locality, that our late Vice-President sojourned while in Cuba, and it was there that he took the oath of office. The yalley of the Yumuri is so surrounded by abrupt hills, that it is difficult to gain access to it except along the banks of its river. But the river is very beautiful, and the deep gorge in the rocks through which it passes as it emerges from the valley is wonderfully grand, in some parts scarcely wide enough to admit of a carriage-way beside the stream, and solemnly darkened by the overshelving rocks.

One can hardly give a correct impression of society in Cuba without some description of the style of building in the cities and the character of the streets. Havana, the capital of Cuba, contains about one hundred and thirty-five thousand inhabitants, and with its suburbs not less than two hundred thousand. Its appearance is that of an Oriental city. As in the great emporiums of the East, the buildings are chiefly of stone and stucco, and the streets narrow, in order that they may be kept well shaded, often so narrow that no room whatever is appropriated for sidewalks. Where sidewalks are constructed, they are of stone, sometimes but one foot and rarely three feet wide, while the carriage-way is a con

glomeration of limestone and cement very white and dazzling, and ground on the surface into a fine dust, exceedingly irritating to the eyes and gritty to the mouth. To prevent these annoyances, many of the principal streets are in the process of being paved with New England granite, which is imported at considerable expense. The houses are of as great variety of height as the hills of the country,- generally of one, not uncommonly of two, but rarely of three stories. The principal rooms are often from fifteen to eighteen feet high. The windows are generally without glass, those on the ground floor being covered with a heavy iron grating to keep out intruders. It is hard to rid one's self of the impression that he is in a city of jails, though the convicts certainly look remarkably well-dressed and happy. In the evening everybody within doors seems exposed to passers-by. It is said the ladies regard it as a compliment to be looked at, so that strangers and stragglers may stare as much as they please without incurring the charge of impudence or verdancy. The large double doors to the main entrance of the Havana dwelling admits the volante, horse and all, or, what is rarely used, the carriage and pair. The vehicles are kept just within the entrance when not in use, and the horses, it may chance, under some of the best dormitories of the tenement. Yet everything is so clean that the custom is no nuisance. What strikes one strangely in Havana is, that there is no Beacon Street or Fifth Avenue, no aristocratic row. A most palace-like house will be found. opposite or adjoining a mean and filthy hut, and indeed it is customary for a rich man to buy out his neighbor's right to build a second story, in order to have the more extensive" view and the purer air. Women wear veils, but no bonnets, and those of the higher classes are rarely seen on the streets, except in volantes or other carriages.

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The population may be divided into several classes, the Spaniards, the Creoles, the free-colored, the slaves, and the foreigners.

Of these, the natives of old Spain are the most aristocratic, holding all important offices of government, often possessing titles of nobility, and including in their number the most wealthy of the merchants and planters. They regard the Cre

oles, though entirely of Spanish extraction, as another and very inferior race; and though they mingle with them and employ them in business, they have very little social affinity with them. There is, however, no such thing in Cuba as a rank high enough to cut one off from attendance upon the bull-fights and cock-fights, or from participation in the lottery or even in the slave-trade.

On all the railroads there are three classes of cars, in which the prices are nearly in the proportion of one, two, and three. The first class are rarely occupied except by the Castilians and foreigners, not often by the latter, unless they are ignorant of the customs of the country. The Yankee, of course, thinks that he must ride in the first-class car, that is, must do as he would at home; but respectability requires it no more in Cuba than in England, and his spirit of economy and his republican sentiments will chime in together to make him better contented even with the hard benches and rickety cars of the second or third class. These being entirely open at the sides, he receives no annoyance to the olfactories, as with us, unless he sits to the leeward of fumigations of strong tobacco.

Foreigners, judging from the obvious and public vices of the Cubans, are apt to paint their character in dark colors. According to the statistics of crime in the city of Havana for 1853, two thousand seven hundred and nine persons were imprisoned, of whom seventy-seven were convicted of murder, four hundred and seventy-nine of wounding with dangerous weapons, forty-five of rape, twenty-seven of abduction, two hundred and twenty-one of robbery, and seven hundred and ninety of minor offences. There were during the same year one hundred and sixty-three suicides.* The gambling propensity which is universally indulged must occasion some recklessness in other respects. The billiard-rooms and the cockpits, which are found everywhere, are of course accompanied by their correlatives, dram-shops and still darker dens of depravity. In Cuba, but perhaps no more than elsewhere, these are places of intense attraction for the viciously disposed of

* In Boston, with a population differing very little in numbers from that of Havana, there were committed, during the year 1853, on the charge of murder, eight; of rape, three; of robbery, sixteen; and there were fifteen cases of suicide.