lay at anchor in the beautiful land-locked harbor of
Nuevitas was the screw steamer _Yarmouth_, a steel ship which, if not as
fast and elegant as the ocean greyhounds that cross the Atlantic, was
large and fine enough to have easily commanded the unbounded admiration
and amazement of Christopher Columbus had he beheld her when he landed
from the _Santa Maria_ on the coast of Cuba near this point more than
four centuries ago. Great changes have been wrought since the days of
Columbus in the manner of craft that sail the seas, but less progress
has been made by the city of Nuevitas in those four hundred long years.
The _Yarmouth_, substantial if not handsome, and safe if not swift, had
brought the colonists to this port without mishap, thus redeeming one of
the many promises of the Cuban Land and Steamship Company. Since early
morning the vessel had been slowly steaming along the palm-fringed coast
of the "Pearl of the Antilles," daybreak having revealed the fact that
the boat was too far to the eastward, and late in the forenoon we
entered the picturesque bay of Nuevitas, took on a swarthy Cuban pilot,
and, gliding quietly past straggling palm-thatched native shacks and
tiny green-clad isles, came to anchor in plain view of the city that
Velasquez founded in 1514. We had passed two or three small circular
forts, any one of which would have been demolished by a single
well-directed shot from a thirteen-inch gun. These defenses were
unoccupied, and there was naught else to threaten the established peace.

[Illustration: CITY OF NUEVITAS, CUBA.]

The day was beautiful, freshened by a soft and balmy breeze, with the
delightful temperature of 75 degrees. Far back in the interior, through
the wonderfully transparent Cuban atmosphere, one could see the light
blue peaks of lofty mountains, standing singly instead of in groups, as
if each were the monarch of a small principality. Their outlines, as
seen at this distance, were graceful and symmetrical, rather than rugged
and overpowering like some of their brother chieftains of the North.
Near at hand the listless city of Nuevitas extended from the water's
edge backward up the hillside of a long, green ridge, the low, red-tiled
houses clinging to what seemed precarious positions along the rough,
water-worn streets that gashed the side of the hill. To the right a
green-covered promontory projected far into the bay, dotted with
occasional native shacks and planted in part with sisa