The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1853-07-28

happened TO be staying in certain town, at
the house of highly respectable and inteli-
gent gentleman who was suspected by the au-
thorities of republican SIN, and convicted of in
der endence and manness of character This
fact was sufficient to make the Brazilian odious
TO the authorities. and his hospitable enter.
tainer learned one day that the Captain di
Partido intended to summon his guest, to &C
count for certain suspicious remarks he was
accused of having made IL was very import
AIT for the Brazilian to complete his inyestiga-
tons in that quarter, and he took serious
thought with his friend as to the best way Of
disarming the hostility Of the suspicious Dog
berry in question. The summons at last came,
the accused appeared and answered several
questions, as to his occupation and purposes,
satisfactorily enough. "Why have You not
tobacco culturel" asked the still Jealous eff
oial Perhaps shall 90 there but have
no strong wish to visit such country as that;
the Americans are no favorites Of mine,n was
the answer. Instantly the face of the Spauiard
frightened he relaxed in the sharpness Of his
queries, politely accepted token Of regard
rendered by the Brazilian, and dismissed him,
quite satisfied that man who disliked the
accused Yankee pirates must be safe and
worthy person.
CAFETAL -.
We rode over to this pretty place, last even
ing, by bride path through thick wood,
gloriously lighted up by the magnificent moon
light, and | spent an hour in the verandah,
watching the flights of living mcteors that
have now begun to decorate the night OF
course mean the famous euculios which I
have now for the first time seen in all their
splendor. These creatures are Of the size of
a large beetle, and they carry their light like
the lamps of steamer, about amidships on
each side, and considerably absft their eyes.
They are favored insects; for, while their eyes
enable them to 60 about perfectly well by
daylight, these lanterns allow them to find
their way through the darkest hight and deepest
wood. A bright little boy Of four summers
for, as the northern nations reckoned life by
winters, the children Of this luxurious cline
alone have the right TO count it by sum-
mers,) the son of a creole friend Of mine, on
seeing these superb insects for the first time,
gave them name remarkably appropriate
and poetical. The watchmen of Havana
march in procession to their posts, every night
two and two each man carrying in his hand
large lighted lantern and this little city boy,
who had often witnessed their double file of
moving lights, exclaimed, as soon as he looked
out on the lines of glittering creatures flying
towards the house" Al = papa! papa ! los
Serenos de los bichos ~ ''the watchmen of the
insects" And yet no earthly watchmen bear
such brilliant torches as these aerial police
men Their light is very clear and strong, tso
strong, that it is really possible to read, at
night, very well, by the help of single cucul-
lo,) and yet most ethereally delicate--a soft,
immaterial luminousness of fine green hue,
precisely similar to the delicious effolgence
emitted by that queen of gems, the emerald.
But no emerald ever gladdened the eyes of Inca
or of Sultan with such an intensity of beau
tiful radiance as these impartial messengers of
light shower indferently into the verandah Of
the noble and the baracon of the slave Forty
or fifty are sometimes TO be seen shut up in q
little wooden cage, whence, if carefully washed
morning aud night and fed with sugar cane,
lit fed with sugar, they are apt to enrich their
legs with the saccharine particles, in which
case they turn upon each other, like Kilkenny
cats they will continue to pour out a food of
brilliancy sufficient to illuminate the cottage Of
the monteros for eight or ten successive nights.
The nature Of this light | do not know but
the whole of the under part Of the body seems
to be transparent, and the light appears to me
to be misunderstanding and fading like those
bottled.up amoras which Professor Used to
exhibit TO US at Cambridge. Last night the
calm eternal stars looked hardly more divine
than these stars of summer, that seemed sent
to cheat us poor moths out of our g devotion to
something afar from the sphere Of our SORROW
into desire for more accessible though more
evanescent joys. So we caught some, and gave
them to a little girl, who forthwith hung then
around her light dress saying that " God had
made them with hooks to fAsten on little girls
gowns" Whatever the purpose may have
been, the hooks are certainly there.
Did God also make mahogany trees to b.
hacked into canoesl We saw couple Of AT
ricansI to-day, hewing away, to convert su
perb mahogany trunk, some seven feet in diam
eter, into mere vulgar "dug-out," sup
pose MIR. Ruskin would say, better so--bette
be true as an honest, clumsy dug-out, thar
come to lie with smooth and vanished face
in polite society, as the deceitful veneering of {
pine-wood dinner. table. w. H. II.