arket. Residents having occasion
to go any distance inland take a well-armed guard with them, to
prevent being molested by the desperate refugees who lurk in the hill
country. Undoubtedly many of these lawless bands are composed of
former revolutionists, who are driven to extremes by want of food and
the necessities of life.

Our journey was continued from Cienfuegos to Havana, by way of
Matanzas, crossing the island nearly at right angles. The traveler
plunges at once by this route into the midst of luxuriant tropical
nature, where the vegetation is seen to special advantage,
characterized by a great variety of cacti and parasitic growth,
flowering trees and ever graceful palms, besides occasional ceibas of
immense size. Though the landscape, somehow, was sad and melancholy,
it gave rise to bright and interesting thoughts in the observer:
doubtless the landscape, like humanity, has its moods. Vegetation,
unlike mankind, seems here never to grow old, never to falter; crop
succeeds crop, harvest follows harvest; nature is inexhaustible,--it
is an endless cycle of abundance. Miles upon miles of the bright,
golden-green sugar-cane lie in all directions, among which, here and
there, is seen the little cluster of low buildings constituting the
negroes' quarters attached to each plantation, and near by is the tall
white chimney of the sugar-mill, emitting its thick volume of
wreathing smoke, like the funnel of a steamboat. A little on one side
stands the planter's house, low and white, surrounded by beautiful
shade trees and clustering groups of flowers. Scores of dusky Africans
give life to the scene, and the sturdy overseer, mounted on his little
Cuban pony, dashes back and forth to keep all hands advantageously at
work. One large gang is busy cutting the tall cane with sharp,
sword-like knives; some are loading the stalks upon ox-carts; some are
driving loads to the mill; some feeding the cane between the great
steel crushers, beneath which pours forth a ceaseless jelly-like
stream, to be conducted by iron pipes to the boilers; men, women, and
children are spreading the crushed refuse to dry in the sun, after
which it will be used for fuel. Coopers are heading up hogsheads full
of the manufactured article, and others are rolling up empty ones to
be filled.

Some years ago, when the author first visited Cuba, the overseer was
never seen without his long, cutting whip, as well as his sword and
pistols. The latter he wears