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It was at Cardenas that the first senseless robber-expedition against Cuba, under the conduct of Lopez, landed last year, and was repulsed by the bravery of the Spanish army. You are shown holes in the walls made by cannon-balls, and they are now living in daily expectation and fear of a new attack under the same leader, the news of which is just now in circulation, and people are on the alert in consequence, and the city under watch.

Cardenas is a small city, built in the same style as Havana, and carries on a brisk trade in sugar and treacle. It is situated by the sea, but lies so low that it can scarcely be seen from the sea; its harbor is very shallow, and will not admit vessels of large size. I am living in a small hotel kept by a Mrs. W., the widow of a Portuguese, and who has five daughters, which is nearly four too many! I should not be afraid of having ten daughters in the United States; I should be certain that they all, however poor they might be, would be able to attain to their proper human development, would gain consideration and a competence through their own merits and endeavors. But in Cuba, what could any one do with five daughters? Marriage is the only means there of obtaining for them respect and a living, and it is not so very easy to get married at Cuba, because it is not an easy thing to maintain yourself in an honorable way there. Two of these   [p. 344]   young girls are very pretty; the eldest, a perfect blonde, has the noblest profile. She is betrothed to a young of-fleer; but it frequently happens that marriage does not follow love and betrothal.

Among the people who interest me here is a young lawyer, a Spaniard, more than ordinarily agreeable and lively in social intercourse. I have obtained a good deal of information from him respecting the administration of the laws of the island with regard to slaves and their treatment, of which I shall have more to say another time. In other respects Cardenas appears to me an uninteresting little city; but kind people here have afforded me an opportunity of seeing things in the neighborhood of the city which have great interest for me, one of which is a coffee plantation in full bloom. The coffee-plant flowers once a month, and the whole of the plantation is in blossom on one single day, and the flowers, which are in full bloom in the morning, wither in the evening. The earliest blossoming in the year is in February, the latest in November. The flowers, which are placed upon the twig in compact white racemes and bunches, produce small fruit-pods, which are first green, then red, and lastly of a dark brown, when they are gathered; these contain the coffee-beans. The harvest is, therefore, continually going on during three or four months of the year.

The coffee plantation which I visited was in full bloom, and the appearance was as of a shower of snow over the green shrubs. The coffee-shrub has beautiful rich green, smooth laurel-like leaves; the flowers resemble those of the single white hyacinth, and have a delicate, agreeable scent. This coffee plantation was remarkably lovely, with beautiful avenues of alternate orange-trees and sagopalms; the pine-apple grew there, and there were avenues and groves of bananas. The trees were full of blossoms and fruit. The people who lived here had never noticed the peculiar blossoming of the banana; people live amid   [p. 345]   the richest treasures of nature without paying attention to them.

Among the beautiful objects on this plantation, I must mention its proprietor, and her lovely young daughters especially. They presented me with flowers and fruit, and I have sketched a blossoming branch of the coffee-shrub for mamma.

The second object of interest to me was a little zoological garden, or museum, which a German collected in the neighborhood of Cardenas, of the birds and other animals of Cuba. Among the latter were a crocodile and an alligator together in the same tank. They were so alike, that to my ignorant eyes they seemed entirely so; but I was shown various distinctive markings. Their owner had made vain attempts to tame them. They seem to be the most devoid of intellect, as well as the ugliest of all animals, at least to my taste. Neither alligators nor crocodiles, however, are found in the rivers of Cuba; these have been brought hither as curiosities from America and Africa.

March 21st. There stands in the court into which my room looks a large hen-coop, containing many kinds of poultry for household use. The present cook of the family, a tall, handsome Spanish soldier, came this morning to fetch away a couple of the feathered company for dinner, for the family and guests. The first that he carried off was a large black turkey; and I could not but admire the manner in which he set about the business, it was so gentle, so humane, and wise. He stroked the turkey, in the first place, before he took it from the pen, and even this was done with so much suavity that the turkey, when he carried him off quite comfortably across the court, merely looked a little astonished, and uttered a few sounds in his throat, as if he would say, "Now what's going to be done?"

I have seen with us, when a hen was to be killed, the   [p. 346]   whole poultry-yard in a state of uproar, and she herself breathless from terror before she gave up the ghost. Spaniards are not in a general way remarkable for humanity to animals; and the country people frequently come to market with turkeys and fowls hanging by the feet tied together across the horse's saddle, so that their heads hang down. This barbarity was forbidden by a Governor Tacon of Cuba, who is described as having been a severe man, but who abolished many abuses; this, however, is still continued, and I have frequently met monteros riding between clusters of poultry thus suspended, and sometimes half dead.

There is a district not far from Cardenas which is called Havanavana, which is almost entirely peopled by free negroes, the number of whom, I understand, amounts to twelve or thirteen hundred. They are mostly cultivators of land, on the half system, with Spanish Creoles. I should be extremely glad to see how these small farms are managed by them--to see with my own eyes how negroes manage when they are left to themselves; but I am advised not to go there, as I am not acquainted with the language of the country, and the government is very suspicious of strangers. The slave disturbances of 1846 are still fresh in the minds of people, and they originated in this part of the island. These disturbances, which gave rise to such cruel proceedings on the part of the Spanish government, have also caused severe restrictions to be laid upon the occupations and amusements of the free negroes. Formerly, it is said, might be heard every evening and night, both afar and near, the joyous sound of the African drum, as it was beaten at the negro dances. When, however, it was discovered that these dancing assemblies had been made use of for the organization of the disturbances which afterward took place, their liberty became very much circumscribed.

The free negroes of Havana have, each nation to itself,   [p. 347]   their own halls of assembly and guilds, or, as they are called, cabildos, for which they elect queens, who again choose kings to assist them. I must see these Cabildos de Negroes.