ight or day,
is out of the question. The floors are all tiled in white marble, and
the attendance is courteous. One does not look for a choice bill of
fare in Cuba, and therefore will not be disappointed on that score.
You will be charged Fifth Avenue prices, however, if you do not get
Fifth Avenue accommodations. If you have learned in your travels to
observe closely, to study men as well as localities, to enjoy Nature
in her ever-varying moods, and to delight in luxurious fruits,
flowers, and vegetation, you will find quite enough to occupy and
amuse the mind, and make you forget altogether the grosser senses of
appetite.

Puerto Principe is the capital of the central department of Cuba, and
is located well inland. The trade of the place, from the want of water
carriage, is inconsiderable, and bears no proportion to the number of
its inhabitants, which aggregates nearly thirty-one thousand. The
product of the neighborhood, to find means of export, must first make
its way twelve and a half leagues to Nuevitas, from whence, in return,
it receives its foreign supplies. The two places are now, however,
connected by a railroad. Puerto Principe is about one hundred and
fifty leagues from Havana. Its original location, as founded by
Velasquez in 1514, was at Nuevitas, but the inhabitants, when the
place was feeble in numbers, were forced to remove from the coast to
avoid the fierce incursions of the pirates, as did the people of
Trinidad, who removed from the harbor of Casilda.

Cardenas is situated a hundred and twenty miles from Havana on the
north coast, and is the youngest town of note in Cuba, having been
founded so late as 1827. It has a population of between four and five
thousand. Its prosperity is mostly owing to the great fertility of the
land by which it is surrounded. It is called the American city,
because of the large number of Americans doing business here, and also
because the English language is so universally spoken by the people
who reside in the place. The Plaza contains an excellent marble statue
of Columbus, and is tastefully ornamented with tropical verdure. In
the harbor of Cardenas is seen one of those curious springs of fresh
water which bubble up beneath the salt sea. The city is the centre of
a sugar-producing district, and a considerable portion of the sugar
crop of the vicinity of Havana is also shipped from this port to
America. It is connected with both the metropolis and Matanzas by
rail,