; no person can remove from one house to another
without first paying for a government permit; all cattle (the same as
goods) that are sold must pay six per cent. of their value to
government; in short, every possible subterfuge is resorted to by the
government officials to swindle the people,[34] everything being taxed,
and there is no appeal from the decision of the captain-general!

[Illustration: A CUBAN VOLANTE IN THE PASEO.]

FOOTNOTES:

[28] The common salutation, on being introduced or meeting a lady, is,
"_A los pies de usted senora_" (at the feet of your grace, my lady).

[29] San Julian de los Guines contains from two to three thousand
inhabitants.

[30] The English game-cock is prized in Cuba only for crossing the
breed, for he cannot equal the Spanish bird in agility or endurance.

[31] Three years after the seed of the orange tree is deposited in the
soil, the tree is twelve or fifteen feet high, and the fourth year it
produces a hundred oranges. At ten years of age it bears from three to
four thousand, thus proving vastly profitable.

[32] "This favored land wants nothing but _men_ to turn its advantages
to account, and enjoy their results, to be acknowledged as the garden of
the world."--_Alexander H. Everett._

[33] Humboldt tells us that he has often heard the herdsmen in South
America say, "Midnight is past--the Southern Cross begins to bend."

[34] "No such extent of taxation, as is now enforced in Cuba, was ever
known or heard of before in any part of the world; and no community,
relying solely on the products of its own labor, could possibly exist
under it."--_Alexander H. Everett._

CHAPTER X.

The volante and its belongings--The ancient town of Regla--The arena
for the bull-fights at Havana--A bull-fight as witnessed by the
author at Regla--A national passion with the Spanish
people--Compared with old Roman sports--Famous
bull-fighters--Personal description of Cuban ladies--Description of
the men--Romance and the tropics--The nobility of Cuba--Sugar
noblemen--The grades of society--The yeomanry of the island--Their
social position--What they might be--Love of gambling.

The volante, that one vehicle of Cuba, has been several times referred
to in the foregoing pages. It is difficult without experience to form an
idea of its extraordinary ease of motion or its appropriateness to the
peculiarities of the country.[35] It makes nothing of the deep