drawing of it. Here, also, are a couple of remarkable ceiba-trees, the one on account of its beauty, the other for its deformity-its tragical combat with the parasite. The sugar-cane fields are inclosed with lofty, untrimmed hedges, in which grow wild orange and various tropical

trees.

During the hottest part of the forenoon I sit quietly in my own light, excellent chamber, writing and drawing. Just before dinner I go out, look around me in the bohea, or seat myself under a mango-tree on a cross-road to catch a few breezes, if I can, in its shade. In the afternoon I generally drive out with Mrs. De C. in her volante, her daughter and Mr. W. accompanying us on horseback. To be rocked over the country in an open volante, in that heavenly, delicious air, is the most soothing, delightful enjoyment that any body can conceive.

The family assembles in the evening, and I then play American marches, "quick-steps," and other lively pieces, with Yankee Doodle for the old gentleman, who, with these, recalls his youthful achievements, and feels new life in his stiffened limbs. At a later hour I go out on the piazza to see the stars shining in the darkness of night, and to inhale the zephyrs which, though not so full of life as at Matanzas, are yet always full of delicious influence.

Among my pleasures, I must not forget the lovely humming-birds in the little garden. In the mornings, and directly after mid-day, one may be sure to see them hovering around the flowers, and around the red ones by preference. There are in the garden a couple of shrubs, which are now covered with most splendid red flowers; the shrub is called La Coquette, and over these the little humming-birds are always hovering, they too of a splendid red, like little flames of fire. They are the most gorgeous little creatures any body can imagine, as fat as little bull-finches, and like them, having plump, brilliant breasts.

They support themselves as if in the air, fluttering their wings for a considerable time about the red flowers, into which they then dip their bills, but how gracefully I can not describe. La Coquette and her winged wooers present the most lovely spectacle. I have here seen three kinds of humming-birds. The one with the crimson coloring of morning, of which I have just spoken; a little one of a smaragdus-green and more delicate form; and a third, green, with a crest of yellow rays on its head. They will sometimes all alight upon a bough, and as they fly away again, a soft, low twittering may be heard. They are quarrelsome, and pursue one another like little arrows through the air, while, as rivals, they approach the same flower.

Besides these most lovely little birds, I see here a black bird about as large as a jackdaw. It resembles the American black birds, and is called majitos or solibios (or solivios, for here there is a great confusion between "v" and "b," and "b" and "v;" thus Havana is frequently both written and pronounced Habana). I see these black birds often sitting upon the branches of the candelabra-like peta. These queer birds are said to be a species of communists, to live in communities, to lay their eggs together. to hatch them in common, and to feed the young in the same manner, without any difference of mine or thine The humming-bird is evidently of a very different temperament, and is a violent anti-communist.

The heat is now becoming excessive, and I feel it so enervating that I think I shall leave Cuba on the 8th of April instead of the 28th, as I had intended. From Cuba I shall proceed to Charleston and Savannah, visit two plantations on the coast of Georgia, and so on to Virginia— the Old Dominion-which I must see, and where I shall probably spend the month of May; thence to Philadelphia and New York-to my dear home at Rose Cottage; then to the White Mountains in New Hampshire, pay a visit to

Maine and Vermont, and thence, in the month of July, to my first beautiful home on the banks of the Hudson; then to England, and then-home!

I am now going for a few days to Cardenas, a little city on the sea-coast; but I shall return hither. The kind Mrs. De C. will lend me her volante.

LETTER XXXIV.

Cardenas, March 19th.

It was at Cardenas that the first senseless robber-expedition against Cuba, under the conduct of Lopez, landed last year, and was repulsed by the bravery of the Spanish army. You are shown holes in the walls made by cannon-balls, and they are now living in daily expectation and fear of a new attack under the same leader, the news of which is just now in circulation, and people are on the alert in consequence, and the city under watch.

Cardenas is a small city, built in the same style as Havana, and carries on a brisk trade in sugar and treacle. It is situated by the sea, but lies so low that it can scarcely be seen from the sea; its harbor is very shallow, and will not admit vessels of large size. I am living in a small hotel kept by a Mrs. W., the widow of a Portuguese, and who has five daughters, which is nearly four too many! I should not be afraid of having ten daughters in the United States; I should be certain that they all, however poor they might be, would be able to attain to their proper human development, would gain consideration and a competence through their own merits and endeavors. But in Cuba, what could any one do with five daughters? Marriage is the only means there of obtaining for them. respect and a living, and it is not so very easy to get married at Cuba, because it is not an easy thing to maintain yourself in an honorable way there. Two of these

young girls are very pretty; the eldest, a perfect blonde, has the noblest profile. She is betrothed to a young of ficer; but it frequently happens that marriage does not follow love and betrothal.

Among the people who interest me here is a young lawyer, a Spaniard, more than ordinarily agreeable and lively in social intercourse. I have obtained a good deal of information from him respecting the administration of the laws of the island with regard to slaves and their treatment, of which I shall have more to say another time. In other respects Cardenas appears to me an uninteresting little city; but kind people here have afforded me an opportunity of seeing things in the neighborhood of the city which have great interest for me, one of which is a coffee plantation in full bloom. The coffee-plant flowers once a month, and the whole of the plantation is in blossom on one single day, and the flowers, which are in full bloom in the morning, wither in the evening. The earliest blossoming in the year is in February, the latest in November. The flowers, which are placed upon the twig in compact white racemes and bunches, produce small fruit-pods, which are first green, then red, and lastly of a dark brown, when they are gathered; these contain the coffee-beans. The harvest is, therefore, continually going on during three or four months of the year.

The coffee plantation which I visited was in full bloom, and the appearance was as of a shower of snow over the green shrubs. The coffee-shrub has beautiful rich green, smooth laurel-like leaves; the flowers resemble those of the single white hyacinth, and have a delicate, agreeable scent. This coffee plantation was remarkably lovely, with beautiful avenues of alternate orange-trees and sagopalms; the pine-apple grew there, and there were avenues and groves of bananas. The trees were full of blossoms and fruit. The people who lived here had never noticed the peculiar blossoming of the banana; people live amid

the richest treasures of nature without paying attention to them.

Among the beautiful objects on this plantation, I must mention its proprietor, and her lovely young daughters especially. They presented me with flowers and fruit, and I have sketched a blossoming branch of the coffeeshrub for mamma.

The second object of interest to me was a little zoological garden, or museum, which a German collected in the neighborhood of Cardenas, of the birds and other animals of Cuba. Among the latter were a crocodile and an alligator together in the same tank. They were so alike, that to my ignorant eyes they seemed entirely so; but I was shown various distinctive markings. Their owner had made vain attempts to tame them. They seem to be the most devoid of intellect, as well as the ugliest of all animals, at least to my taste. Neither alligators nor crocodiles, however, are found in the rivers of Cuba; these have been brought hither as curiosities from America and Africa.

March 21st. There stands in the court into which my room looks a large hen-coop, containing many kinds of poultry for household use. The present cook of the family, a tall, handsome Spanish soldier, came this morning to fetch away a couple of the feathered company for dinner, for the family and guests. The first that he carried. off was a large black turkey; and I could not but admire the manner in which he set about the business, it was so gentle, so humane, and wise. He stroked the turkey, in the first place, before he took it from the pen, and even this was done with so much suavity that the turkey, when he carried him off quite comfortably across the court, merely looked a little astonished, and uttered a few sounds in his throat, as if he would say, "Now what's going to be done?"

I have seen with us, when a hen was to be killed, the