The Neihart herald. [volume] (Neihart, Mont.) 1890-1901, 1900-03-31

'tSS NHN POPhAbNAOA W. 'NE
our shipmate Antonio was a striking
specimen consists of about thirty
thousand olive-skinned Spaniards and
double that number of slaves and free
mulattoes, all loose, reckless, fiery and
apt to use their knives on trivial oc-
casions.
There was not a ship lying there
for England, or any other craft by
which Weston could have sent me
home. A Spanish s~team-packet was
on the eve of departing for Cadiz, but
being wearied by the monotony of my
long voyage, l was scarcely in a mood
for the sea again, and wished to spend
a little more time on shore instead OF
leaving with her.
However, | wrote to my family by
the Spanish mail, acquainting them of
my safety, with the strange incident
which had so suddenly torn me from
them, and adding that | would return
by the first ship bound for any part of
England; il possible, with the Eu-
genie, which would probably be
freighted for London.
After the packet sailed with my let
ter in her capacious bags, | expert
enced an emotion of greater happiness
and contentment than had ever done
since leaving home, for the sorrow
which l knew all there must have suf-
fered, and would be suffering,
hung heavily IN III .seart.
AS we were returning to the brig,
which had now been warped alongside
the mole, when passing through the
street which contains the great hospi-
tai, We heard the sound of trumpets,
and saw the glittering Of lances with
long streamers above the heads Of a
dense crowd of people of all shades OF
color-black. yellow and brown-and
we had to doff Il hats with due re-
spect as they passed, for in the midst,
surrounded by a staff of officers, epau-
letted and aiguletted, their breasts
sparkling with medals and crosses, and
each Of them riding with a cooked hat
under his left arm, came the present
Captain General of Cuba, a marshal Of
the Spanish army, Don Francisco Ser
rano de D~ominguez, attended by an
escort of mulatto lancers, all mounted
on Spanish horses.
He was a ~ine-looking man, and al
though aged, had all the bearing OF
what he was, or, l should say, is
a grandee of old CASTLE.
On returning to the Eugene we
found Antonio the Cuban working
among the crew as Justify and as &C
lively as any man on board. Weston
now offered him remuneration for the
time that he had been with US, with
a hint that he might find a berth else
where; but III castaway evinced the
greatest reluctance to leave the brig
and begged that he might be permit
ted to remain On board, as three OF
our best hands had been sent ashore
sick, to the hospital.
So sh~ort-sighted is man that Cap
tain Weston, despite the dislike of tbs
crew and the advice of Marc Hislop
ordered that the name OF Antonio be
entered on the ships books as fore
mast man.
Three weeks after our arrival the
brig was careened to starboard, whel
clear of all the cargo, and had he
copper scraped and cleaned. an op,
Grafton which the constant rains Of thu
season greatly retarded.
There was much in Cuba to fec
an imaginative mind, and mine wa:
full of the voyages, the daring adven
lures and the vast discoveries of Co
lumbus, with the exploits of the buc
cancers, whose haunts were amid thest
wild and, in those days, savag,
shores.
| thought Of the gaily plumed ant
barbarously armed caciques whom Co
lumbus had met in their heet pirogues
or had encountered in the dense for
ests which clothe the Cuban noun
tains-forests, old, perhaps, as tn
days of the deluge-of the yellow
skinned women with their long, flow
ing black hair and with plates of pol
ished gold hanging in their ears an
noses; of the fierce warriors streake,
with sable war paint and armed witt
cane arrows shod with teeth or poi
soned fish bones, that fell Harmless
from the Spanish coats Of mail; of tn
wild Caribs, who devoured their pris
oners-with whom a battle was but
precursor of a feast; and of the ia
nous fighting women-the terribl
Amazons of Guadalupe.
| thought of the story of Columhu
writing the narrative of his wonderfu
discoveries, his perils and adventure:
on a roll of parchment, which h
wrapped in oilcloth covered over wit
wax, inclosed in a little cask, and the
cast into the sea-, with a prayer, an
the hope that if he and his crew pei
lshed this record of their achieve
nents might be cast by the ocean o
the shore of some Christian land.
AS l sat by the sounding sea tina
rolled into the bay of Matanzas, wha
would l not have given to have see
he wave cast that old cask, covere
with weeds and barnacles, at M
!eet!
But now the Flooding steam tug an
he rusty merchant trader ploughe
he waters of the bay instead of tn
gilded Spanish %caravels, or the Ion
war pirogues of the Indian warrior
and where they fought their bloodie'
battles on the wooded shore, or in tn
green savanna, where the painted CT
Clique and the mailed Castilian m;
hand to hand in mortal strife, tn
smoke of the steam mill, grinding co
fee or boiling sugar. darkened the SIX,
and the songs of the negroes WEI