surprise and pleasure
are very great.

'I like the English and Americans,' says he, 'and I would become one or
the other to-morrow, if it were possible.'

'You are very kind to express so much esteem for my countrymen,' I say.

'It is not so much your countrymen,' he says, 'as your free country with
its just and humane laws, which every Cuban admires and covets.'

I remind him that, under existing circumstances, I am no better off
than he is, though to be sure as a British subject, my consul, who
resides in Santiago, will doubtless see me righted.

The Indian is, however, of a different opinion. He assures me that my
nationality will avail me nothing if I have no interest with some of the
Spanish officials. He gives me instances to prove how it is often out of
the power of a consul to assist a compatriot in difficulties.

'Not long since,' says my friend, 'a marine from your country, being
intoxicated, and getting mixed up in a street brawl, was arrested and
locked up with a crowd of insubordinate coolies and Spanish deserters.
His trial was, as usual, postponed. In the meanwhile, the jail had
become overcrowded by the arrival of some wounded soldiers from San
Domingo, and your countryman was shipped off with others to another
prison at Manzanillo, where he was entered on the list of convicts, and
has never been heard of since.'

'In this very jail,' continues the Indian, 'are a couple of American
engineers, both of whom stand accused of being concerned in a negro
conspiracy, and who have been locked up here for the last six months.
They are ignorant of the Spanish language, have mislaid their passports,
and have been denied a conference with their consul, who is, of course,
unaware of their incarceration.'

I make a mental note of this last case, with a view to submit it to the
proper authority as soon as I shall be able to do so.

My attention is presently arrested by a sound which reminds me of
washing, for in Cuba this operation is usually performed by placing the
wet linen on a flat board, and belabouring it with a smooth stone or a
heavy roller. My companion smiles when I give him my impression of the
familiar sounds, and he tells me that white linen is not the object of
the beating, but black limbs! An unruly slave receives his castigation
at the jail when it is found inconvenient to perform the operation under
his master's roof. No inquiry into the offence is made by the officers
of justice; the miscre