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If there be one place on earth where the spirit of life has a separate individual existence, as pure, as pleasant, as full of vitality as when it first was breathed forth by the Lord of life and love, it is--here. The atmosphere here has a kind of vitalizing life, which is a perpetual marvel to me and a perpetual delight. It is especially in the afternoons, after two or three o'clock, that this peculiar, wonderful life arises. It is one constant pleasant wafting, not from any particular distance, but every where, and from all points, which makes every light and movable thing around you waft, and, as it were, breathe and live. That indescribable, but, at the same time, pleasant and life-giving wafting caresses your brow, your cheek--lightly lifts your dress, your ribbons--surrounds you, goes through you, as it were, bathes you in an atmosphere of salutary, regenerating life. I feel its influence in both soul and body; I drink that wind, that air, as one might drink a renovating elixir of life, and I am ready to look round to see whether any angel is near, whether any heavenly presence sits on the crowns of the palms, which produces this wonderful life. I call it the breath of God, as I softly walk to and fro on the piazza, or lean over the iron railing and give myself up to its caresses, and until late at night inhale its salutary life. Oh my Agatha! it whispers to me wonderful emotions and anticipations of the Creator's wealth--of those hidden glories which "no eye hath seen, no ear heard, nor hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive, but which God hath prepared for those who love Him." This wonderful spirit of life is to me the greatest marvel of Cuba; and I can not describe how beneficial its influence seems to me.

Since I last wrote I have spent more deliciously tranquil days at Matanzas, the beautiful, healthy situation of which is not subject to oppressive heats, and where I feel so wonderfully well. Early in the mornings I set forth on my solitary expeditions of discovery, and in the afternoon drive out in a volante with my kind hostess, and breathe the soft sea-breeze as we drive along la pleja.

I have spent one whole day in Yumori Valley, partly to sketch some trees and cottages, and partly to see how the country people live here. For this purpose I determined to take up my quarters at the little peasant farm with the oleander-trees; and the good B.'s allowed me to drive there in their volante, and take with me one of their female negroes as a servant and interpreter. Cecilia, the negro woman, has the most beautiful dark eyes I ever saw in a dark countenance --although such have generally beautiful eyes--teeth like Oriental pearls, and a quiet, gentle, and unusually serious demeanor. My poor Cecilia is ill, and probably incurably so, of consumption, and Mrs. B. wishes her now to enjoy a little country air and life. Cecilia is only lately married to a young man of her own color; she is happy in her marriage, and happy as the slate of good owners, and would gladly live.

When we reached the peasant farm, Cecilia preferred my request to la fermière, who, with animated gestures, immediately declared that the whole house was at my disposizion. I installed myself in the most airy of the small houses, which was furnished likewise with a rustic piazza, shaded by the palm-leaf-thatched roof. The floors were of bare earth, but the rooms were in other respects comfortable, and had well-furnished beds, and were tolerably clean. A little colored picture on paper was pasted on the wall of the bed-room proper, representing the Virgin Mary and the child Jesus, with an inscription in Spanish. I inquired from the good housewife what was the purport of it, and she replied, with an aspect of devotion,   [p. 302]   that "it was written there that whoever bought such a picture obtained forgiveness of sin for forty days." It was also printed upon the picture that such an indulgence was granted à todos los fideles, as owned una salve à nuestra Sennora del Rosario. C'est imprimé.

Below the picture stood the following verse:

Fragranti rosa es Maria
En el jardin celestiel,
Y el amparo maternel
Del peccador cada die.

This indulgence for the sins of forty days might be bought for a quarter of a pesos (about a fourth of a dollar). It is remarkable that in a country where such permissions for sin are openly prepared, and bought and sold, that the people should still continue pious and inoffensive; but so it is. The poor country people of Cuba are said to be remarkable for their good and quiet disposition. It is certainly owing to the delicious air! The people of my rural abode were from the Canary Islands, where it is more difficult for the indigent to provide for themselves than in Cuba. For this reason, a great number of poor people, whose occupation is agriculture, come hither.

At about ten o'clock my hostess went up to some high ground, and blew upon a shell, which produced a shrill but not inharmonious sound, calculated to reach to a great distance. This was the signal for the men, who were out at work in the valley, to assemble for breakfast. The breakfast was prepared for seven or eight persons in the piazza under the straw roof of the little house which contained the kitchen. A parrot (una cotorra) sat below it also, in its cage of iron-wire. Violet-blue doves flew around us hither and thither, and cocks and hens promenaded round us with the queerest twisted necks, which gave them a deformed look. The men, both old and young, with gloomy, cheerless countenances, assembled for breakfast, which consisted of stock-fish and yams,   [p. 303]   maize-bread, roasted plantains (a coarse kind of bananas), and flesh-meat, besides which was a sort of light yellow meal, served in a large bowl, but the name of which I could not learn, because Cecilia spoke but imperfect English. The breakfast was abundant, but badly set out and badly cooked.

The dinner consisted of boiled meat, brown beans, and boiled rice; but all so insufficiently boiled, so hard and insipid, that I could not eat any thing which the kindhearted fermière heaped up on a plate for me, and if Cecilia had not brought for herself some rice and potatoes (I would not bring more with us), which she cooked and she and I ate with fresh butter, also from my Matanzas home, I must have suffered that day from hunger. Now, however, I lived like a shepherdess in a story, and crowned my meal with bananas and delicate sugar-cake.

I talked about many things with my good Cecilia. She had been stolen as a child from Africa; she was only eight years old when she was taken from her mother, and this mother remained lovingly impressed on her memory. She remembered how her mother had loved her, how tender she had been toward her, and Cecilia wished to return to Africa that she might see her once more. She made no complaints of her master and mistress; they had always been kind to her, she said, and now especially was she happy in her situation; but she longed to see her mother once more.

And Cecilia will see her mother before long, but not on this earth.

Two little dark-eyed children, Joannito and Annita, were my play-fellows in the cottage, especially the little boy, who was full of merriment, and yet in a quiet and agreeable way.

I drew a little, sitting in the piazza, under the straw roof, and when the heat of the day was over I set out with Cecilia to explore the valley to its full extent. We did   [p. 304]   so, although the ramble was a long one, and Cecilia was so fatigued that I became very anxious about her. But, by resting at various places by the way, we at length reached the cottage in safety, though not until after the sun had set, when the stars shone brightly down into the valley. We did not meet with any one, excepting some Monteros in the twilight, who saluted us in their melodious voices with a "Buona tardi" or "Adios!"

The valley retained to its close very much the same features; a succession of beautiful palm-groves, here and there a little group of palm-leaf-thatched houses; and toward the end of the valley, which was there also inclosed by hills, although not equal in height to Pan de Matanzas and Combre, lay a sugar plantation, with a sugar-mill, negro slaves, a slave village, &c., belonging to it. The beautiful valley even has its share in the old curse. The crimson glow of sunset, seen above the verdant heights, and the calm splendor of heaven through the palm-trees, were indescribably beautiful, and when the stars shone forth they appeared to me larger and brighter than I had ever seen them before.

This beautiful valley has, however, no memories worthy of the pure glances of heaven. It derives its name, it is said, from the death-cry of its Indian aborigines, "Io more," when they, in order to escape being massacred by the Spaniards, flung themselves from the heights down into the river which divides one portion of the valley. And of the little farm in the palm-grove imbosomed in the hills, the loveliness of which enchanted me the first morning I was here, nothing is related excepting a bloody family-quarrel. A father dwelt there with several sons. They were to divide the farm, but a quarrel arose about the boundaries of the property, and every night one landmark or another was removed. One morning--one of those beautiful tropical mornings!--the brothers, who had quarreled about the landmarks, came to blows; other members   [p. 305]   of the family rushed in to take one side or the other, and the result of the combat was eleven dead bodies. Such is the story which was told me. It occurred not so long since, and the farm is now possessed by one of the sons who remained.

Such are the traditions of Yumori Valley; and Matanzas--Matanzas, where the wafting breath of life plays round you with such enchanting vitality--Matanzas is the name for "the field of blood," or "the battle-field," and is so called from a bloody battle which was fought here many hundred years ago by the Indian aborigines. It is sorrowful to think of it. It is not, however, without pleasure that I feel the breath of God in the wind pass over the formerly bloody field. It seems to say, when all scenes of murder and violence cease on the earth, He is still the same, and His life the same, eternally efficacious, eternally salutary, regenerating; and these beautiful palms, Cupid's tears, and humming-birds, and all the beautiful existences and shapes of life, shall appear with it, and--remain.

Mrs. B.'s volante came to fetch me and Cecilia in the deep twilight. We took with us sugar-cane from the plantation, which Cecilia desired for the little girls at home; and, as a token of her hearty good-will, my good fermière gave me as a parting gift her indulgence for forty days' sins, and which I shall take with me to Sweden and present to Bishop Fahlcrantz.

I returned home, half roasted in my rural abode, and for three days afterward had to work hard in freeing myself from swarms of fleas, which I brought back with me from my Arcadian excursion.

The number of small insects of various kinds is really one of the torments of this country, and I found this plague also in South Carolina and Georgia. If one left a little piece of cake or bread lying in the rooms, it was immediately surrounded by a swarm of little worms and   [p. 306]   creeping things. Here in Cuba it is the ants which are especially troublesome, one small kind of which will, it is said, undermine a large house.

During the days that I amused myself by drawing my little memorials of the valley of Yumori, and among other lovely things, the Cupid's tears kissed by the little humming-birds, I had laid some of those flowers upon the table beside me--that is to say, some of the small red blossoms which had fallen--that I might examine at my leisure their form and veining. To my surprise, however, I observed that one after another of these blossoms disappeared from the table. I laid some fresh ones there, but it was not long before they too had vanished. I could not understand how it was. By chance, however, casting my eyes toward one of the walls of the room, I there, to my astonishment, beheld my flowers advancing in a long row up it to the very ceiling. Very, very small light-colored ants were dragging them up, and had made a regular line from my table up to the ceiling, where they disappeared. They were so small and light that I at first had not noticed them. One single ant dragged in this way up the wall a blossom which was twelve times larger than itself.

I was one evening one of the spectators of a great ball given by the free negroes of Matanzas for La Casa de Beneficienza in the city, to which the white public were invited by the black. The ball took place in the theatre, and the gazing public occupied the boxes. Mr. B.,and my young and agreeable countryman, Mr. F., accompanied me; and one of my unknown benefactors, who, I believe, was a Spaniard, hastened forward at the entrance to the theatre and paid the admission fee for the foreign signora. And speaking of this, I may as well mention what I have here heard of the politeness of Spaniards to ladies, which exceeds any thing that I have experienced among other nations; even the chivalry of the Americans is not to be compared to it. It is true, at times it seems   [p. 307]   to be more than necessary, and it may be mere sham and hollowness; but there is, nevertheless, something beautiful and noble at the bottom, in its usages and forms. As, for instance, ladies, and even gentlemen who are strangers, will not be allowed to pay for their own purchases at fancy-shops, in eating-houses, confectioners' shops, and such like, or for their tickets at the theatres; and yet neither the lady nor the stranger-gentleman will have any idea to whom it is that he is obliged for this politeness. Suppose, now, that you go to a perfumer's to purchase a bottle of eau de rose, or to a confectioner's for un libro de dulces (Cuba dulces, or sweetmeats, are very celebrated), and you are about to pay for them. You take out your pesos, but they are returned to you with a polite bow, and "It costs you nothing, signora!" And it will do no good though you should remonstrate, neither is it worth while. Some gentle man has been, or is then among the purchasers, perhaps unknown to you, but well known to the people of the shop, and he has given a secret sign or nod, which has expressed, "I shall pay for her!" and then has left the shop, or goes on reading his newspaper, and you never know to whom you are obliged for this polite attention. Two of my lady acquaintances at Havana told me that they were annoyed and distressed by continual politeness of this kind, and which laid them under silent obligations which they had no means of discharging; and I can very well understand that the thing may have its annoyances, but it is very polite nevertheless; and toward a foreigner and a stranger, it is a politeness which is both beautiful and noble, when it declines the possibility of thanks.

But to return to the negro banquet and ball.

A banquet, arranged with flowers, lamps, and ornaments, occupied the lower part of the dancing hall. The dancers amounted to between two and three hundred persons. The black ladies were, for the most part, well   [p. 308]   dressed, after the French mode, and many of them very fine. Some couples danced, with great dignity and precision, some exceedingly tiresome minuets. What a foolish dance it is when it is not danced with beauty by beautiful or charming people! The principal lady in this case was so ugly, spite of her really magnificent apparel and fine carriage, as to remind me of a dressed-up ape, and the movements of the cavaliers were deficient in natural elasticity, which the negroes in general seemed to want.

But the great dance of the ball, a kind of wreath-dance, in which the whole company took part, amid innumerable artistic entanglements and disentanglements--the grouping and inwreathing themselves, in an infinite variety of ways, with chains of artificial roses--all this was really lovely and picturesque, and was executed with exquisite precision; and if there had been a little less formality, and more natural animation, I could have believed that I beheld in it a type of civilized negro life. Those beautiful dark eyes, those splendid white teeth, in some pretty young girls especially, shone out joyously while they bent their heads and then rose from beneath the arches of rose-garlands.

Many of the negroes were wealthy, and one young negro was pointed out to me in the company as being possessed of property to the amount of 20,000 dollars.

The Spanish law for the West Indian colonies, los lejes de los Indios, has some excellent and just enactments, as regards the rights and the emancipation of negro slaves, which those of the American states are still deficient in, to their shame be it spoken! Their laws are purely opposed to the slave's acquisition of freedom and independence. The laws of the Spaniards favor the slaves in these respects. Here the slave is able to purchase his own freedom for the stipulated legal sum of five hundred dollars, and the judges (syndics) are commanded to watch over the rights of the slave. Here a mother may purchase the   [p. 309]   freedom of her child, before its birth, for fifteen dollars, and after its birth for double that sum. She may emancipate her child.

Slaves here, at all events in the cities, have a much better chance of acquiring money than in the American slave states; and, as free negroes, they are able to carry on trade, to rent land, to pursue agriculture and other occupations; and many free negroes have acquired property by trade. On the other hand, the condition of the slaves on the plantations here is, in general, much worse; they are worked much harder, and they lack all religious instruction. They are regarded altogether as cattle, and the slave-trade with Africa is still carried on actively, although privately. A few days ago a cargo of seven hundred negroes was secretly conveyed from Africa to Havana.^[1*] The government of the island received fifty dollars for each slave as "hush-money," and was silent. Pleasant and honorable!

The negroes in the cities look cheerful and healthy. One sees many handsome, well-grown, and not unfrequently splendidly dressed mulatto women on the promenades and in the churches. The fair mulattoes so nearly resemble the Spaniards in complexion and feature that it is difficult to distinguish them. The Spaniards are said to be, in general, very kind to their domestic slaves, and not unfrequently indulgent to their weaknesses.

March 2. Good-morning, my little heart! I have just returned from mass in Matanzas church, for Matanzas has only one church, although it has a population of above thirty thousand souls. I heard there thundering music from the Spanish soldiery of the city, which greatly resembled the music of the dance; saw great parade of those   [p. 310]   occupying the centre aisle of the church; groups of ladies on their knees on splendid mats, many of them handsome, and all in grand array of silk and velvet, jewels or flowers, with bare necks and arms; all with transparent veils, black or white, thrown over the gayly-attired form, and evidently more occupied with their appearance than with their prayer-books; around them stood rows of well-dressed gentlemen, evidently more occupied with gazing at the ladies than with --any thing else; divine service and devotion existed not, excepting in the hearts of two persons--at least judging from appearance--the one an elderly man, and a Spaniard, the other a mulatto woman. The rest was a grand show of priests and ceremonial. The choir of the church was in a gallery near the roof, covered with palm-branches, banners, and holy pictures. Palm-leaves were blessed and distributed. The Spanish soldiers took part in the solemnity, standing in line in the church; most of them appeared to be young men of slender figure, and refined and handsome features. Slaves, both male and female, after they had rolled out the mats for their mistresses and their daughters, withdrew themselves into the background of the church, where they knelt upon the bare floor. A stranger and a Protestant knelt there among them and prayed--for them as well as for herself and her beloved ones. But her prayer here for herself is thanksgiving. She also received some of the blessed palm-leaves, and will convey them to her home in the remote North, in memory of this morning hour. It was a beautiful, warm, sunny morning. Life looked delicious and easy for all. Oh! if the inner life here only corresponded to the outer, how easy it would be to live and to crown one's self with garlands!

The costume of those beautiful ladies gave me pleasure, although I can not approve of it for a church, and that Spanish mantilla, which, however, is said to be going more and more out of use, produces an infinitely picturesque   [p. 311]   effect. The negro and mulatto women use it mostly as a long shawl and of thicker material, to screen them from the sun when they are out in the middle of the day. Sometimes, and even to-day, I have seen ladies, evidently not of the lower class, dressed in garments of coarse gray sackcloth, and with this scarf of the same cloth over the head. I have been told that this is in fulfillment of some vow or prayer, made in time of need, or of sickness for themselves or their friends.

I shall to-day leave Matanzas to accompany my kind friends to a sugar-plantation belonging to Mrs. B.'s parents, at a place called Limonar, about fifteen miles off. I shall there study trees and flowers, and the Lord knows what else. After a stay of a few days at Limonar, I shall go to Madame De C.'s, who resides on a large sugar-plantation situated between Matanzas and the city of Cardinas. Kind and hospitable people provide me here also with opportunities of seeing the country and the people, and I can not say how thankful I am for this kindness.