the night, and
again he listens to the dash of the sea-green waves at the foot of the
Moro and the Punta, the roll of the drum and the crash of arms upon the
ramparts, and the thrilling strains of music from the military band in
the Plaza de Armas. The vexations incident to all travel, and meted out
in no stinted measure to the visitor at Cuba, are amply repaid by the
spectacles it presents.

"----It is a goodly sight to see
What Heaven hath done for this delicious land!
What fruits of fragrance blush on every tree!
What goodly prospects o'er the hills expand!"

If it were possible to contemplate only the beauties that nature has so
prodigally lavished on this Eden of the Gulf, shutting out all that man
has done and is still doing to mar the blessings of Heaven, then a visit
to or residence in Cuba would present a succession of unalloyed
pleasures equal to a poet's dream. But it is impossible, even if it
would be desirable, to exclude the dark side of the picture. The
American traveller, particularly, keenly alive to the social and
political aspects of life, appreciates in full force the evils that
challenge his observation at every step, and in every view which he may
take. If he contrast the natural scenery with the familiar pictures of
home, he cannot help also contrasting the political condition of the
people with that of his own country. The existence, almost under the
shadow of the flag of the freest institutions the earth ever knew, of a
government as purely despotic as that of the autocrat of all the
Russias, is a monstrous fact that startles the most indifferent
observer. It must be seen to be realized. To go hence to Cuba is not
merely passing over a few degrees of latitude in a few days' sail,--it
is a step from the nineteenth century back into the dark ages. In the
clime of sun and endless summer, we are in the land of starless
political darkness. Lying under the lee of a land where every man is a
sovereign, is a realm where the lives, liberties, and fortunes of all
are held at the tenure of the will of a single individual, and whence
not a single murmur of complaint can reach the ear of the nominal ruler
more than a thousand leagues away in another hemisphere. In close
proximity to a country where the taxes, self-imposed, are so light as to
be almost unfelt, is one where each free family pays nearly four hundred
dollars per annum for the support of a system of bigoted tyranny,
yiel