The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1853-04-14
Mr.. BUCHANAN M1NrsrEn TO ENGLAND.


The Senate adjourned last Monday sine die,
after having confirmed the nomination of MIR.
Buchanan as Minister to England-another
FAMILIAR LETTERS FROM CUBA, JAMAICA, AND
HAYI
MARCH A. 1853
To the Editor of the National Era:
To-day the President goes into power. /
wonder if he will enjoy his inaugural honors
as much as do the reality Of this delicious
day! But this date also reminds me that my
letters must be quickly finished in order to
catch the returning steamer. Did | say to you
that found by accident, at our hotel, the Herr
Satter, the painter of the cosmoramas He
introduced me to many pretty sites AROUND
Havana, commanding the loveliest views of the
city, the harbor, and the rich, green country
the sloping, highly cultivated hills and the
graceful palm groves. In these pleasant excur-
sions always tried to talk with the peasants
and found that they could understand me more
easily than | them, from which gather that
they must speak most atrocious Spanish. They
seemed good-natured race with strange
mixture of familiarity and dignity in their
ably more thoroughly Spanish than those of
Havana. Nothing can be more solidly built,
nothing more squalidly dirty If it be true
that picturesqueness demands dirt in profu-
sion then are these hamlets marvellously pic
turesque. Such rich browns and blacks in the
interiors such fine besmooched red roofs
have daily lamented the want of box of
colors or at least of some tinted crayons but
such things are not to be procured here, 80
that content myself with trying TO fix the
strange hues in my mind In the evenings we
have had the same cloudless, moonlit skies, in
vitng all the world to the Plaza de Armas, to
hear Verdi's changing music played by clang-
ing bands. Once broke in upon this agreea-
BILE custom, by going to the Teatro Tacon.
There is no Opera now at Havana, but the
house was well worth seeing. There is nothing
like it in Europe, for the display of the audi
ence.
Then came the walk, at dusk, past the long
rows of Moresque houses, with their immense
windows, within which and behind the iron
gratings stand, like the wax-women in shop
windows, the impassive, full-dressed Creole
beauties zen plein clair de lune,p or ode gaz,"
as the case may be- now and then giving signs
of vitality by the cigar smoke which curls
gracefully upward from their parted lips but
generally rapt in sublimities of contemplation,
that make them all unconscious of the gazing
crowd without.
Thus passed away the interval between the
dispatch of my last letter and my departure
from the city. There are several railways in
Cuba, but they can hardly run so many trains
on them all in q week as pass over the Eastern
railroad in single day for on the road from
Havana to Matanzas, which unites the two
most important cities of Cuba, there are but
two trains, one each way, daily, and that one
starts at half past six in the morning My
English companion and myself being reused
by candle-light took the eternal cup Of morn
ing coffee, and having put our trunks, &C.,
into large basket, saw the same shouldered
and then headed by a gigantic African, who
started off with them at a rapid trot Things
at the railway station passed much as in
America, for in this country we have all the
nuisances of monarchy without its privileges
and, nous VOLTA lance in almge Cambridgeport-
built car, my companion for Matanzas and |
for Batabano. We ran through beautiful
country fertile and well titled past orchards
of fine fruit trees, among which the dark gls-
tening leaves and shining fruit, the golden
lamps in green night" of the orange, and
the long ranks of the dwarfish conical pine ap-
pie, were best known to me, to San Felipe and
from thence past groves of the lofty bush-top-
ped cocoa, and hedges of the plumy, beautiful
bamboo, to the Almacen de Batabano, place
half billiard room and half Posads, where, at
the end of very long pier, lay the great white
Yankee-lcoking steamer, General Concha AZ
ter some hours delay, we: steamed OF into-a
perfectly calm tropical sea. The deck was
crowded with Monteros in their huge cloaks
siNer-hilted swords and yellow leather boots
and the cabin filed with passengers, whose
cigars and approximations made the scene very
: like those Of my dear native land, especially a
tthe boat was built in New York, and fnishe
in the approved New York manner, all but tb
|, berths These, instead of any mattrass or tn
: like, revealed nothing but q stout piece
J brown hide tightly stretched along the bottom
furnishing as cool and satisfactory couch 70
, a short cOasting trip as could be wished Al
q ter dinner, o Spanish dinner served with gravi
, ty and composure and SO consumed, we walk
ed the deck until sunset, admiring the Dol,
outline of the mountains of the Vuelta Abaic
which We kept in sight all the afternoon, an,
then went down to witness tho gambling II
the saloon. The Spaniards play constantly
but with moderation, and the game of Mont
was carried on by the majority of the passen
gers with no noise, and in solemn vet good
humored way, all the evening The moon
light on the ocean was most exquisite. TIL,
Isla de Pinos was on our left hand and as W.
glided swiftly on over the tranquil waters
peace on the sea and in the air. no sail II
sight, could hardly believe that we were
cleaving the same waves over which the 6end
ish pirates of the Gulf and the Spanish MAR
had so often and so busily piled their dreadful
trade. Nothing has ever seemed more horri
BILE to mo than the contrast between the sin gu
larry placid beauty of the Cuban landscape,
!, and the Cuban waters, and the association,
which the sight of them awakens. Before Co
lumbus, all human memories here are blank
after him. they are oil bloodshed and blight. The
adventures Of Ojeda and his companions arc
very romantic, to be sure; but very cruel and
base were these heroes Of Mr.. Irving and
since them what catalogue Of horrors. piracy
massacre-the slow humiliation of the igno
rant Indians, the long agony Of the enslavcd
negroes! 1t is heart sickening even to think Of
the works of man in this magnificent Arch.
pelago -
About nine O'Clock in the evening. (stuck
fast in the mud, for the waters are MY shoal
along shore, and quietly, rs we seemed Testified
to stay in one place all night turned into my
cool berth, and lulled 10 sleep by the quiet ite-
ration from the Monte table, of Serenta qua
tro!n "Veinte dos!n soon forgot the Cuban
moon, the pirates, and the Spanish Main. Wa
reached Columa at A. NJ, The moon still
high. There found negro calesero with a
volante, and giving a scat with me to jaunty
gray-headed Spsniard, whose road seemed to be
the same as mine, we started of. But what
road an accidental road tres accidente. The
pun is bad, but the road was worse. Now up,
now down, now plugging up to the girths Of
the horses in small river, now running tilted
at an angle of forty-6ve degrees along 0 sand
bank, away we went at full speed. But as my
companion seemed to think il all right, tried
to fall into his way Of thinking, and we talked
away in very composed manner, considering
the angular eYolutions which our carriage was