The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1853-04-14


or OF packets. They even carry their own
mailsj from Columa to Havana on horseback,
over horrible roads, though there is steam
boat and railway communication all the way
10 such a land all signs fail, and don't dare to
risk my letters by sending them out Of the reg
ular course.
We lead lotus-eating life here Nobody is
in anybody's else way. We live like the Thel-
emites of Rabelais. All our days are employ
ed, I" scion notre vouloir ct franc arbitre. Notre
regle nest que cette clause Fails ce que YOU
dras
We breakfast about nine, and then either
read or lounge across the fowery fields to the
sugar-house, and watch the golden bubblipg in
the great watts, and inhale the odorous vapors
(most genial to the lungs) or, sitting under tho
broad piazza, sketch the graceful palm trees
which surround tho house, or the long. cared
mules browsing in the fields We dine at three,
queer tropical dinners of yucas and yams, of
plantains and egg plants, with little unconsid-
cred trifies, which you too at a later date will
prize-such as green peas, asparagus, and the
like. In the afternoon, sometimes ride out on
a pacing poney, sometimes in the wildly bounc-
ing volante. We ride by the lake, TO startle
the strange birds, paroquets and parrots, little
humming birds, and now and then great scar
let hamingo, or over to the village to see the
horde of ill-visaged citizens howl and shout
over cock-fght or down to the Vega to in
quire into the state of the crops. Then the sun
sets in floods Of golden light over the purple
hills, and the sudden night comes down, as if
the string of the curtain were broken, over the
cane-felds and the savannas, and the huge moon
and the new strange consultations come out
into the sky.
The temperature of this region is far pleas
anter than that Of Havana InvaIids come here
from other parts of the Island for the Vuelta
Abajo, besides producing the best tobacco in
the world, is notable, also for its exemption
from the diseases which invade the other re-
gions Of Cuba To-day, it being now twelve
! o'clock, the thermometer in the shade stands
at "a degrees, but we have fine breeze blow
ing from the mountains The mornings have
been cool for the season. the mercury on one
occasion, the 9th Of February, having actual
ly stood at 90 degrees, at o'clock A. M! As
! sit beneath the broad-spreading piazza, on this
june day In March, | see nothing but green
fields and flowers as far as the eve can reach
Not cloud is in the skies they are deem blue
as at midsummer. The low, broad, red roofs Of
the somewhat distant sugar-houses glow in the
the warm sunlight. The gentle breeze, which
strs pleasantly the air around me, is Just strong
enough to waken the crisp rustic of the droop-
ing palm branches, and does not seem to shake
the heavy foliage of the magnificent ceybas
Just opposite me is a huge forest trunk, COM
pletely mastered and appropriated by the dead
ly parasite, the jaqueymacho, whose closely set
shining dark green leaves with their irregular
outline, look as if they were embroidered upon
the soft sky. Great crows fly chattering about
the broad savanna, the bright hues Of paro-
quets glance ever and anon in the light, and
countless pine hnnets wheel about the trees,
keeping up a continual and delicate singing.
The hills to the north have put or their noon
day purple and to the south the bright yellow
green of the cane-feds makes merry the hori-
zon. | took my law books when came out
into the verandah but conspiracy Of ideness
was framed against me by the frolic gentle in
fuences of the day, and the solemn array of
judges, the wigged pageantry of the bench and
BAR vanished into thin air.
MARCH 10 1853.
Life runs on oiled wheels with us here, and
yet Notwithstanding un almost unequaled
kindness and hospitality, | begin to feel weary
OF the monotonOus ease of such an existence
We are so isolated and so quiet that some.
times have feeling as if were fixed here for
ever-such feeling rs may have dmly glow
cred in the mind of an antediluviap toad when
the cavity of his refuge began to petrify and
the wallS to form, which for thousand years
were to shut him out from the sunlight and
the green ponds | shall probably go to Ha
vana on the Goth, reaching the city on Sunday
morning, in time to witness tho magnificent
bull fight with which the holy Easter day is h
be celebrated, and the new Plaza dc Toros opened
A troop of Torcros have just arrived from
Spain, headed by Juan Pastor of Seville one
the most famous matadores of old Spain. S,
we shall see the thing in its glory, and the PEG
, pie In all the plenitude of their patriotism an,
, their piety. The authorize will be very care
|, fui to arrange anrythin9in the true Castillo
E style, tor they gre trying hard to quicken tn
Spanish feeling among the people, fselM
,, very mucl pn the decline at present TIL
Havana papers in the Government pay dwel
very constantly on the hatred of the aAnglo
Amerieanos to the "raza Espanola Cato
|, lca," as displayed in the California rascalities
But it will not do. 1t will take something NOR
loyalty
On Sunday evening we drove over to the
village or city of Pihar del Rio, called com
monty Pinar de las Rijas, by reason of the in
Vulnerable lawsuits and quarrelssth CARR
ed on. 1t is queer dirty town, containing
1000 inhabitants and 30 shops for it is the
chefiieu Of the Department, aud all the tobacco
planters of the ncighborhood waste their sub
stance there in luxuries and folies Divers
lawyers also reside there Lieutenant Gov
ernor there holds his court, and in the bar.
racks arc lodged thousand Spanish troops
On this particular occasion, we arrived there
by moonlight. The shops were all alight; the
curtains drawn aside from the huge windows
OF the houses, revealed their brilliant interiors
showing that even in this out-ofthe-way place
there are splenddly furnished rooms, and danes
as fond as those Of Havana of being gazed at like
beasts in menagerie We made very pleas
ant call upon a gentleman of the place, and
then being hidden Ego in good hour" We rode
up to the Plaza, an irregular piece of ground
decorated with prepOsterous little church, q
meny-colOred Governors house, and sundry
mscellaneous-lo huts, novels, and bar
racks. All, however, was then picturesque for
while two sides OF the Plaza were deep in
shadow the church front and tower stood out
boldly in the strangely mingling light of the
new moon and the torches OF the military
band We sat 10 the volante and listened 10
some airs from La Figlia del Reggimento q in
different well Played The drive home through
the moonlt gullies and over the wild savanna,
I was very pleasant the brigand business, for.
| perly 80 thriving here having been put an end
TO for the present.
L., MARCH Is, 1853.
Ono day is so like another here, that cur
manner Of life offers very little variety Dis
covering the different kinds Of magnificent
trees in the woods visiting the tobacco planta-
tions and the sugar houses, rambling through
the cane-felds, between the lofty rows Of the
graceful plants, Watching the diversified forms
Of viciousnes displayed by the mules at their
troughs, or strolling over the savanna, and
down through the guava groves to the Laguna
do San Matteo--these are the chief occupations
Of the day, when the heat permits me TO 20
out. OF course, in such life each change In