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F. GLEASON. l2’ir’r‘)"Elt‘o‘?4"rx’n‘i‘r‘a“a"r’i.'
SCENES IN HAVANA.
We present below, and on pages 392 and 39‘), a series of West
Indian views of a very truthful and interesting character. The
one below is an ordinary morning scene in the market part of
Havana, the capital of Cuba. The mules thus daily bring to town
upon their backs the hay that is used by the citizens, who seem ti?
purchase everything by the dollar's worth at a time, keeping
neither provisions nor provender on lmnd for a longer time than
twenty four hours. The slaves carry about on their heads the
various fmits and vegetables, and thus all the marketable produce
is transported in psnniers, or on the head, no vehicles being‘ used
for the purpose. The city, which is the key to the island of Cuba“
the seat of its government, is made a perfect garrison. The en-
trance to its harbor, and the harbor itsclf,are fortified by ca:tellat-
ed battlements, and ships of war, .11 strongly manned. Within
l the city itself are regiments of troops whom one meets at all hours
' of the tiny and night, parading the streets, on foot or mounted,
each one the spy to day,the executioner to-marrow. The raveille
: is heard at every morning's sunrise, the tattoo at every evening’:
close; and let but the faintest suspicion, no matter how absurdly
conceived or directed, be raised against a citizen, and he is hidden
t .
BOSTON, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 17. 1853.
to stand on the highway, or is dragged from his he th or his bed,
to submit to the most degraded and injurious inquisition. He
enters and leaves a. place of public amusement between files of
armed soldiers, and is liable to arrest if he be found in the streets
after a. certain hour of night Should he please to leave the city
for asnmmer’s travel, he must obtain a permit and pay for it;
and when he returns home, he cannot enter his own house, with
his wife and children, without dropping another fee into the tress;
.-nry of the government, to enhance the means whereby their own
euthralrnent is sustained. The policy that renders necessary the
presence of an army of sixteen thousand foreign troops, to .hold
in subjection and espionage a population of two hundred thousand
citizens, may be kept up awhile longer in the old wotldstyle; but
it cannot endure forever, even there. But the atmosphere which
pervades this western continent of ours, must sooner or later
prove fatal to such tyranny; and wherever the breezes of popular V
freedom are wafted, the bands of despotic rule must dissolve, as
naturally as does‘ the solid ice beneath the breathing: of spring.
As Paris is said to be France, sois xntm‘ Cuba; and its history
embraces in no small degree that of all the island, being the cen-
tre of its talent, wealth, and population. Every visible circum-
‘:32N‘;5“.;,S‘5'E;,“l VOL. V. No. 25 -Wnots No. 129
stance proclaims the greatimportance of the city: Moro Castle,
frowning over the narrow entrance of the harbor; the strong
battery answering to it on the opposite point; the long range of
cannon and ban-urlts on the city side; the powerful and massive
fortress of the Cabanas, crowning the hill behind the Moro; Ill
speak uuitedly of the immense importance of the place. Havana
is the heart of Cuba, and will never be yielded, unless the whole
island is given up The bay, shaped like your outsprtad hand,
the wrist for the cntrancc, is populous with the ships of all no-
tions; and the city, with 200,000 inhabitants, is a depot of wealth
and opulence. With an’ enormous extent of public buildings,
cathedrals, antique and venerable churches and convents, with
the palaces of nobles and private gentlemen of wealth, all making
this capital of Cuba the richest place for its number of square
rods in the world. The first sensation that exercises the stranger
from the United States on landing here, is the complete strange-
ness of everything; the people, the animals, the language, the
style of architecture of the buildings, all seem to one as though
he had at once been transported to the far East, in place of
having: only crossed the Gulf Stream, from the Florida shore,
less than a hundred miles distant.
