, 1888-01-15

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est error In its course involves certain de-
struction. To the east the rock in which
stands Moro Castle, rises straight from the
bottom of the channel hundreds of feet.
But a few rods to the west is a sunken
reef over which the breakers seethe and
spume to the low walls of LaPunta fort.
Scylla and Charybdis are more than here;
while that other more dangerous rock, the
sudden and murderous stupidity of Span
ish rule, threatens with the deadly peril
OF not permitting vessels to enter in
storm unless Moro Castle signals the fact
that Havana's lazy pilots consent to
emerge from their safe ~siestas, and
set the official seal of their wholly unne-
cessary presence upon entrance.
The yawning sea beneath us and the
bowling gulf behind us made us glad
enough, however, to regard all the frown-
ing forts and the glorious unseen harbor
behind them with an utter absence of
criticism. We were being pounded
squarely into port at the rate of twenty
knots an hour. We saw ne welcome sig
nal from Moro. Even with our glasses
We could see no lookout. Along the
whole savage coast there was naught but
the crags, the pink and white city with its
strange, half Moorish architecture, and
the tremendous forts in front of us, with
a rim of white spray where the great
waves beat madly upon the deadly lodges
below. just there, between Moro Castle
and the low lying La Punta fort opposite,
was a steely, black line. That marked
the narrow entrance not 500 feet wide.
The splendid bay was in there behind ell
this fury. But three other wind whipped
objects were in sight-the gray gulls that
circled and shrieked, the hateful flag of
yellow and red above old Moro's tower,
and a dismasted Spanish bark, just astern
OF us, with her decks stove in, her hold
water logged. and her hull careening to
leeward as though the very life were
beaten out of her. Like a broken life
going down where all who should give
succor stand silent, in sight of her own
flag and in desperate peril, there was no
sign of aid from behind those grim battle
ments where hundreds of craft were safe
and silent in peaceful waters underneath a
glowing sun
Our captain was agitated, but he swore
he would make that harbor. So our
steamers blistered old nose went cracking
and cutting through the boiling sea with
increasing speed. We were charged
squarely into Spanish authority like a
riotous ram. Moro Castle doomed high
and grand above us. The surf at its feet
and our side reminded one of a swirling
snow storm. Opposite, LaPunta, not a
stones throw away, was completely hid
den from sight by the waves which rose
up and shook their crests like shrieking
hays. Suddenly there popped up out Of
the cauldron in front of and beneath us,
a life boat full of Cuban barqueros, and a
pilot wild with indignation at our temeri-
ty. Like the sea, the pilot also fairly
foamed. Though yelling at us savagely,
we could not hear his voice. But his
gesticulatlons plainly ordered us to put
about and stand out to sea again. Our
captain responded in still more frantic
tones and movements. High above the
fury OF the elemental din his brave oaths
rang out excuse, invective, scorn, def
ance. We nearly ran down the boat,
which barely got under our leeward, its
occupants the maddest Spaniards that
ever escaped drowning; and thus as we
rounded Moro we swept past all danger
of the seattle pilot crew and our captain
testing their lungs and profanity to the
utmost-into one of the most beautiful
harbors known to seamen, finally coming
to anchor over against the Regla side of
the harbor, where the quaint city, rising
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the low-lying, fortified mountains behind,
tastic picture from half-Moslem old
Spain.
The noble harbor which made the gay
capital Of the West Indies possible, is
named Havana bay. "The GARDENING
cause here came land and sea chiefs and
offanlal 10 fhn NAooraanIpnp and p,onl
ing of the craft on the circling palm
shaded beeches of its shores. They also
took counsel and rum here. Lay your
left hand upon your table, back down
ward, with your fingers pointing south.
Then imagine your thumb twice its size,
and standing out squarely to the east,
and you will have a very clever notion of
the shape of Havana bay, save that its
entrance from your wrist Joint would be
proportionatelY no larger than your
wrist least vein. The bay is nearly
three miles long and quite as wide. AS
you enter, ~overhanging your very vessel
is the famous Moro castle, and to the
right, and opposite, not 200 yards dis
tant, is La Punta, a fort set low in the
shore, its southern angle extending to
where the shipping is dense and the
wharves swarming. and its western angle
turning sharp from the narrow entrance
back along the sea, terminating where
the noted sea drive: Gale Anche del
Norte, begins. La Punta is SO low it
might almost be described as a water
battery. 1t bristles threateningly with
cannon. Behind it are hospitals, morgues,
a%rsenals, and many buildings of ugly sug-
gestiveness; a little park, Parque de Ia
Punta, where the lovely Cubanas firt
with the gay trumpeteers, and many a
sad low life tragedy is begun; and still
behind this is the colossal prison, which
immense q~uadrangular structure will
guard 5000 prisoners at one time. Ha-
vans proper lies to the south and west of
this spot. You may wander in old
Nuremberg and dream in older Granada,
and you!will find no more quaint and
vagarous structural composites than you
will here stumble upon in the narrow
GALES on every hand.
But there lies Havana, a rare study in
Moorish, Saracen and Doric architecture,
startling in its pink, yellow, red, lavender
and blue colors and decorations, on the
west of the cleaning bay, while ferries
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