amidships, and in a moment more it crept, like a
living serpent, from shroud to shroud and from spar to spar, until the
graceful brigantine was one sheet of flame! It was dazzling to look
upon, even at the distance where we stood, the body of high-reaching
flame being sharply defined against the background of sky and blue
water.

While we watched the glowing view the cruiser cautiously changed her
course and bore away, for fire was an enemy with which she could not
contend. Presently there arose a shower of blazing matter heavenward,
while a confused shock and a dull rumbling report filled the
atmosphere, as the guilty brigantine was blown to atoms! Hemmed in as
she was there could be no hope of escape. Her mission was ended, and
her crew followed their usual orders, to destroy the ship rather than
permit her to fall a prize to any government cruisers.

CHAPTER XVI.

Antique Appearance of Everything. -- The Yeomen of Cuba. -- A
Montero's Home. -- Personal Experience. -- The Soil of the
Island. -- Oppression by the Government. -- Spanish Justice
in Havana. -- Tax upon the Necessities of Life. -- The
Proposed Treaty with Spain. -- A One-Sided Proposition. -- A
Much Taxed People. -- Some of the Items of Taxation. -- Fraud
and Bankruptcy. -- The Boasted Strength of Moro Castle. --
Destiny of Cuba. -- A Heavy Annual Cost to Spain. --
Political Condition. -- Pictures of Memory.

Everything in Cuba has an aspect of antiquity quite Egyptian. The
style of the buildings is not unlike that of the Orient, while the
trees and vegetable products increase the resemblance. The tall,
majestic palms, the graceful cocoanut trees, the dwellings of the
lower classes and many other peculiarities give to the scenery an
Eastern aspect quite impressive. It is impossible to describe the
vividness with which each object, artificial or natural, house or
tree, stands out in the clear liquid light where there is no haze to
interrupt the view. Indeed, it is impossible to express how
essentially everything differs in this sunny island from our own
country. The language, the people, the climate, the manners and
customs, the architecture, the foliage, the flowers, all offer broad
contrasts to what the American has so lately left behind him. It is
but a long cannon shot, as it were, off our southern coast, yet once
upon its soil the stranger seems to have been transported to a