tempting fruit, green cocoanuts, ripe oranges, and
bananas, all surprisingly cheap. Here, too, is the guava-seller, with
neatly sealed tin cans of this favorite preserve. Indeed, it seems to
rain guava jelly in Cuba. At a shanty beside the road where we stop at
noon, a large mulatto woman retails coffee and island rum, while a score
of native whites lounge about with slouched hats, hands in pockets, and
puffing cigarettes,--pictures of idleness and indifference.

Stray dogs hang about the car-wheels and track to pick up the crumbs
which passengers throw away from their lunch-baskets. Just over the wild
pineapple hedge close at hand, half a dozen naked negro children hover
round the door of a low cabin; the mother, fat and shining in her one
garment, gazes with arms akimbo at the scene of which she forms a
typical part. The engineer imbibes a penny drink of thin Cataline wine
and hastens back to his post. The station bell rings, the steam whistle
is sounded, and we are quickly on our way again, to repeat the picture
six or eight leagues farther on.

As we approach Matanzas, the scene undergoes a radical change.
Comfortable habitations are multiplied, good roads appear winding
gracefully about the country, and groves and gardens come into view with
small dairy farms. Superb specimens of the royal palm begin to multiply
themselves, always suggestive of the Corinthian column. Scattered about
the scene a few handsome cattle are observed cropping the rank verdure.
There is no greensward in the tropics, grass is not cultivated, and hay
is never made. Such fodder as is fed to domestic animals is cut green
and brought into the city from day to day.

Notwithstanding the ceaseless novelty of the scene, one becomes a little
fatigued by the long, hot ride; but as we draw nearer to Matanzas, the
refreshing air from the Gulf suddenly comes to our relief, full of a
bracing tonic which renders all things tolerable. The sight of the broad
harbor, under such circumstances, lying with its flickering, shimmering
surface under the afternoon sun, is very beautiful to behold.

CHAPTER XXIV.

The island of Cuba was discovered by Columbus, in October of the year
1492; the continent of America was not discovered until six years
later,--that is, in 1498. Columbus and his followers found the land
inhabited by a peculiar race; hospitable, inoffensive, timid, fond of
the dance, yet naturally indolent. They had some definite idea of God
a