ere was a vice in Havana, not even drunkenness.

VII.

HAVANA: Belen and the Jesuits

Rose before six, and walked as usual, down the Paseo, to the sea baths.
How refreshing is this bath, after the hot night and close rooms! At
your side, the wide blue sea with its distant sails, the bath cut into
the clean rock, the gentle washing in and out of the tideless sea, at
the Gulf Stream temperature, in the cool of the morning! As I pass down,
I meet a file of coolies, in Chinese costume, marching, under overseers,
to their work or their jail. And there is the chain-gang! clank, clank,
as they go headed by officers with pistols and swords, and flanked by
drivers with whips. This is simple wretchedness!

While at breakfast, a gentleman in the dress of the regular clergy,
speaking English, called upon me, bringing me, from the bishop an open
letter of introduction and admission to all the religious, charitable,
and educational institutions of the city, and offering to conduct me to
the Belen (Bethlehem). He is Father B. of Charleston, S. C. temporarily
in Havana, with whom I find I have some acquaintances in common, both in
America and abroad. We drive together to the Belen. I say drive; for few
persons walk far in Havana, after ten o'clock in the morning. The
volantes are the public carriages of Havana; and are as abundant as cabs
in London. You never need stand long at a street door without finding
one. The postilions are always Negroes; and I am told that they pay the
owner a certain sum per day for the horse and volante, and make what
they can above that.

The Belen is a group of buildings, of the usual yellow or tawny color,
covering a good deal of ground, and of a thoroughly monastic character.
It was first a Franciscan monastery, then a barrack, and now has been
given by the government to the Jesuits. The company of Jesus here is
composed of a rector and about forty clerical and twenty lay brethren.
These perform every office, from the highest scientific investigations
and instruction, down to the lowest menial offices, in the care of the
children; some serving in costly vestments at the high altar, and others
in coarse black garb at the gates. It is only three years since they
established themselves in Havana, but in that time they have formed a
school of two hundred boarders and one hundred day scholars, built
dormitories for the boarders, and a common hall, restored the church and
made it the most fully at