CUBA WITH PEN AND PENCIL.*

Jr is amusing sometimes, and especially at this period of the year, when everybody is revolving the important question,—where to go, what to see, and how to see it? to contrast a few books of modern with those of ancient travel. The writers in the latter case mostly looking down from the heights of an assured position, detail their experience with the facts and fables they have encountered on their way, with the quiet mind which knows there is small chance of any statement, however astounding, being challenged ; while the modern traveller, especially if he be an American, has perpetually in his mind the probability and the de- sirability of his readers following in his footsteps, lie offers them, indeed, every facility for doing thia. He may himself have experienced many difficulties, may even have made his entire pilgrimage with peas in his shoes, but it will be the fault of his successors if the , peas for them are not boiled. Ile points out every little stone over which he has stumbled, every little difficulty which a little more foresight might have avoided. Thus it is with the book before us ; there is no longer any excuse for a reasonable human being refusing, or indeed not at once choosing, to make Cuba the scene of his holiday rambles. We have the testimony of Columbus, endorsed by no less an authority than the one before us, assuring us, "it is the most beautiful land eyes ever beheld." And the intending traveller may learn from these pages how to choose from his first landing at Havana the best hotels, whether his object be ease or economy, the bestrestaurants, private lodgings or boarding-houses. In fact, we have quite made up our minds that we are foolish not at once to secure the refusal of those desirable rooms, in that "quiet decent house, owned by a South American, but kept by a German woman who speaks a little Eng- lish," in that "very nice airy situation, overlooking the ocean." It is "only one square from the Paseo Isabel, No. 78 Anoint del Norte, known as Hotel San Felipe." Our traveller informs us he lived there several weeks very pleasantly, "being desirous of * Cuba with Pen and Pewit. By Samuel Hazard. London : Sampeon Low, Son, and Co. 1871.

enjoying sea-baths, which are right alongside the house, and con- venient enough to slip out of one's bed in slippered feet, en dda- habille, at early morning, and take a most refreshing and invigor- ating plunge in the old ocean." We give this as a specimen of the minuteness of detail which characterizes our author.

We have here a big volume of some 550 pages, illustrated in almost every page with admirable sketches, leaving nothing to be desired by the render who may have any intention to follow in Mr. Hazard's steps, especially if, like him, they are in search of health. We have, however, constantly to remember that, after all, he is addressing in imagination an American, rather than an English audience, and that the distance from New York by a good steamer is under four days. Some, however, of our over- tasked Londoners might be glad to undertake a longer journey when they know that "business men in Now York, who would not tear themselves away until actually sent away by their doctors,

have derived such immense benefit from the sea voyage, that after ten days in Havana they have returned thoroughly recuperated men, so wonderful is the effect of the sea air in the Gulf Stream, and the immense let-up afforded by the entire change of customs, scenes, and habits at IIavana."

It is so often our misfortune to look at sketches which convey no definite impression of the scenes they are intended to represent, which can be forgotten as soon as glanced at, that it is with real pleasure we record our impression of those in this book. They vividly depict the habits, manners, customs, and scenery of the country. Here we have the vessel entering port, and we have a view of Havana which at once stamps itself, mere sketch as it is, on the mind. Then two or three sketches of hotels, and we defy

any future traveller who has looked at them to plead ignorance as an excuse for making a mistake between them. Then a view in

the Parque Isabel, and a sketch of Obispo Street, which will cer- tainly have the effect, should the reader ever visit Havana, of making him experience the strange sensation of being perfectly certain he has been there before. But before proceeding up Obispo Street you are allowed to choose your carriage, and sketches definite as a carriage-builder's catalogue are given of the various vehicles in use, with the fares of each.

"It will," says Mr. Hazard, "take a traveller two or three days to get accustomed to the directions and novelties of the different streets in a town like Havana." Very possibly, but he has certainly materially smoothed the difficulties in the way. He was determined himself to do his sight-seeing systematically, and to give additional interest to his personal researches collected from various Spanish sources all the facts lie could relative to the different localities. Several pages are devoted to this subject; we will merely subjoin the account of the city :—

" The city of 'San Cristobal de la Habana,' capital of the Island of Cuba, and one of the first oities of the New World, is situated upon the bay of the same name, but called originally ' °arenas ' (plaoe of repair). The foundation of the city dates as far back as 1574, but tradition says not in the place it is at present located, but upon the other side of the island, at the place or neighbourhood now known as Batabano, and where, it is understood, it existed in 1519, when Hernando Caries started from there on his grand expedition for the conquest of Mexico. Various authorities state, however, that on the banks of the river Mayaboque, that empties into the bay of &tame, about fifty persons, on the 25th day of July, 1515, settled the town, which, in honour of the day of its erection, or more likely in honour of the great discoverer, they called 'San Cristobal,' but more lately Havana, from the district in which it was situated. Its location was doubtless selected from the fact of its being a favourable spot from which to carry on a commerce with the South American countries."

"During its early history, Cuba was subjected to the attacks of the buccaneers or pirates, composed of English, French and Dutch, who attacked, with fire and sword, the Spanish possessions in America ; and finally, being sustained by their governments, they came into possession of Jamaica, Hayti, and other of the islands. On one of these expeditions, in the year 1528, they attacked and captured Havana, and setting fire to it, reduced it to ashes. On account of this, the Governor, Hernando de Soto, who was at the then capital of the island, Santiago do Cuba, came to Havana, and upon arriving there, immediately proceeded to put

i the town n a state of defence, beginning with the erection of the fort

known as La Fuerza. This at once gave importance to the town as a fortified place, and at which over after stopped all the vessels on their way to and from New Granada, or Spain, as Mexico was then called."

Havana is essentially a modern city. So late as 1800, Humboldt describes its streets as being " unpaved, filled with mud, and in wet weather almost impassable," while in the time of Drake it houses or huts were of straw and wood, and its streets when the obscurity of night came on were in possession of runaway negroes, mountain dogs, and crawfish I Mr. Hazard dates the prosperity of the city from 1771, when it was declared "open to the com- merce of the world in certain articles of grain, &c., used as pro, visions, the ports of Seville and Cadiz having previously been monopolists of all the trade with the island." But it has experi-

enced a good many reverses between that period and the present moment, when it stands one of the foremost cities of the New World. Mr. Hazard's historical recollections of the city are followed by a long ramble through its streets. Every old building, gate, and wall has its separate little sketch and ac- companying description. The succeeding chapter embraces the history of its churches, which seem to abound, and it is within the walls of its cathedral, beneath a simple marble slab, that the ashes of Columbus seem likely to be allowed finally to rest. But it is outside the walls of the city we come upon its finest buildings and its loveliest walks. There is the Paseo Isabel, begun in 1771,—a long boulevard, with fine buildings with pillared porticoes on either side ; the royal prison, on the parade-ground of which, on the let September, 1851, Lopez met his death. Then the Tacon theatre, constructed in 1858, under the command of Tacou, the Governor- General, "whose wise rule has made his name cherished by every Cuban." The theatre was built in great degree by convict labour. The stranger has ample opportunity to study the peculiarities of tropic architecture. Amongst these, nothing perhaps would strike the visitor as more to be desired than the patio, or court-yard, into which all the rooms enter from the in- terior. It is frequently laid out with walks, flowers, fountains,

orange, pomegranate, or mignonette trees, a tempting place in hot weather. Of course, not a few pages of description are devoted to the special manufacture of the place. And we are told that the Royal and Imperial Factory of La Houradez, the great city manufactory, occupies a whole square; and Mr. Hazard adds, the highest compliment an American can pay, "Its general arrange- ment, the intelligent manner in which its business is conducted,

and the great spirit of enterprise possessed by its proprietors, would do credit to even us Yankees." We can only add, if any one feels any curiosity concerning any part of the process, from the special machinery used foe engraving designs for the paper cigar envelopes, of which there are some two or three thousand, to the final finishing of the cigarette, he can satisfy himself by a perusal of these pages. The more general reader may be interested to know that the average daily production of these cigarettes is 2,532,000; and that attached to the building is a curious fire machine, by which fires can be instantly extinguished by the use of soda-water :— " Thia is a simple machine, with a receptacle hermetically sealed, of variable capacity, full of water saturated with carbonic acid gas, charged to its greatest capacity, a pipe, to which is attached an elastic tube, and at the bottom a key perfectly adjusted. The high pressure of the water makes it discharge itself, the moment the key is turned, with such force that it extinguishes by its projection as well as by its essential qualities of water and gas."

Leaving the subject of cigars, always a specially interesting one to the American mind, we have some chapters devoted to Cuban manners in general, and those of the citizens of Havana in par- ticular, chapters distinguished only for the cleverness of their pictures and the vulgarity of their tone. Is vulgarity too strong a word ? Well, then, we will only say, distinguished by all we are most accustomed to condemn in Yankee style ; perhaps that style is not vulgar.in New York.

About half the book is occupied with the subject of Havana ; the remaining chapters include descriptious of the principal cities and places of importance in the island, with clear details of the government and general administration, visits, of course, to the large coffee-growing plantations, and the whole history of sugar, making, while the natural woudera of the place, such as the beautiful cave at Matanzas, are not forgotten. In fact, our author has fairly exhausted his subject, and we may add, apart from any- thing he has written, his sketches will to anyone interested in his subject well repay a few hours' study.