rds and most Creoles, as our
Southern slaveholders used to regard the poor whites of the South. If
one may judge by appearances they are nearly as poor in purse as they
can be. Their home, rude and lowly, consists generally of a cabin with
a bamboo frame, covered by a palm-leaf roof, and with an earthen
floor. There are a few broken hedges, and numbers of ragged or naked
children. Pigs, hens, goats, all stroll ad libitum in and out of the
cabin. The Montero's tools--few and poorly adapted--are Egyptian-like
in primitiveness, while the few vegetables are scarcely cultivated at
all. The chaparral about his cabin is low, tangled, and thorny, but it
is remarkable what a redeeming effect a few graceful palms impart to
the crudeness of the picture.

The Montero raises, perhaps, some sweet potatoes, which, by the bye,
reach a very large size in Cuban soil. He has also a little patch of
corn, but _such_ corn. When ripe it is only three or four feet in
height, or less than half the average of our New England growth, the
ears mere nubbins. This corn grows, however, all the year round, and
is fed green to horses and cattle. All this is done upon a very small
scale. No one lays in a stock of anything perishable. The farmer's or
the citizen's present daily necessities alone are provided for.
Idleness and tobacco occupy most of the Montero's time, varied by the
semi-weekly attractions of the cock-pit. The amount of sustaining food
which can be realized from one of these little patches of ground, so
utterly neglected, is something beyond credence to those who have not
looked bountiful nature in the face in Cuba.

While traveling in the vicinity of Guines, the author stopped at one
of these lonely Montero homes to obtain water and refreshment for his
horse. These were promptly furnished in the form of a pail of water
and a bundle of green cornstalks. In the mean time the rude
hospitality of the cabin was proffered to us, and we gladly sat down
to partake of cocoanut milk and bananas. One of the family pets of the
cabin consisted of a tall white bird of the crane species, which,
regardless of goat, kid, hens, chickens, and children, came boldly to
our side as though accustomed to be petted, and greedily devoured the
banana which was peeled for him and cut into tempting bits. One wing
had evidently been cut so that the bird could not fly away, but his
long, vigorous legs would have defied pursuit, had he desired to
escape. Four childre