Bahamas YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY Yale University Library IH v-cs* ¥*" H ^f f<">) 1 P E N S K ETC H ES ((.; NASSAU AND CUBA, Bv WILLIAM DKYSDAIJv Harper Pros. , /," f:/A (-(,€1 j/t///riJ?e-i?-/j :/ wabi>s. . ALTIORA PETO. ANovel. Bv Laurence Oi.iphant THICKEP. THAN WATER. ANovel. Bv James Payn . ""' BY THE GATE OF THE SEA. A Novel. ' By David Christie Murray THE NEW TIMOTHY. ANovel. Bv Rev. William M. Bakeb o5 PEARLA. ANovel. ByMiss M. Bktiiam-Edm'abds 20 DONAL GRANT. ANovel. By Gkobge Maodonai.i. '" 20 PHANTOM FORTUNE. ANovel. By M. E. Bi-.addon. . . . "" 20 A STRUGGLE FOR FAME. ANovel. By Mrs. J. II. Riddei.l. '. '.'"." 20 DAVID, KING OF ISRAEL. By the Rev. William M. Taylor, D D 25 HEARTS. ANovel. By David Ciiiiistik Mubbay 20 A HOOK OF SIBYLS. By Miss Tiiaokkkay 15 AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY. By Anthony Tbollope <>0 ALL IN A GARDEN FAIR. ANovel. By Walter Besant. ' 20 A NOBLE WIPE. ANovel. By John Saunders "" 20 UNDER THE RED FLAG. ANovel By Miss Bbaddon'. '. '. '. '.'.".'. 10 MAID OP ATHENS. 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WITH ILLUSTRATIONS OP PLACES AND PEOPLE. CHAPTER I. THE VOYAGE TO THE INDIES. There is not much danger of anybody losing Lis way in going to Nassau, for there is only one way to go. You take one of the "Ward Line steamers from the foot of Wall Street on a Thursday afternoon, and on the following Sunday afternoon you eat your dinner in Nassau. When the engine begins to puff in the East River it keeps it up till it has the vessel safe in Nassau harbor, making no stops by the way. The ship runs within sight of the New Jersey coast, giving her passengers a good view of the High lands, Long Branch, and Cape May, and in about twenty-four hours is off Hatteras. I take the liberty of classing Cape Hatteras with the Gulf Stream, and calling them both unmitigated humbugs. Everybody, at least every landsman who knows it by reputation, is afraid of Hatteras, because it has a bad name. I have passed it a great many times in steamers, and never had the slightest trouble with it. And as to the Gulf Stream, it exists very largely in school geographies. It is my candid belief that not one captain in a thou sand can tell when he is in it without consulting his charts. All these wonderful things that we learned about in school simmer down a little when we actually see them. That there is such a thing as the Gulf Stream, and that it has great influence upon the climate of the land adjacent to it, no one can doubt, but it is not a great river of warm water, as they used to teach us. I have been on it for three days in a blinding snow-storm, with the weather so cold it would freeze your nose if you poked it out of the cabin door. It is a trifle warmer than the rest of the ocean, and it is full of floating sea-weed and the weed is no good, and that's about the amount of the Gulf Stream. In winter there is not heat enough in it to melt a cake of ice, and in summer it's about as warm as boarding-house coffee The Nassau steamers do not go anywhere near Hatteras. After leaving Cape May, sometimes after "losing" the Highlands, Ihe first land sighted is in the Bahamas. It is hard to realize, with out having a map right before you, how our Atlantic coast ''sets back " to the westward. Hatteras, for instance, is nearly one hun dred and fifty miles farther west than New York. Savannah is nearly five hundred miles farther west. Key West is nearly six hundred miles. New York, being in longitude 74° west from Green wich, is exactly on a parallel with Cape Maisi, the eastern end of Cuba. Nassau is in longitude 77°, or about two hundred miles west of New York. A steamer leaving New York and going direct to Nassau leaves Hatteras fifty miles to the westward. Off Savannah she is nearly four hundred miles from our coast. There is not an island or any dangerous thing in the whole distance, and nine times out of ten the voyage is smooth and pleasant. The steamers run ning to Nassau are the Cienfuegos and the Santiago. Going direct to Nassau, they pick their way, after leaving there, among the isl ands of the Bahama group, go around the eastern end of Cuba, touch at Santiago de Cuba, and go on to Cienfuegos, one of the principal Cuban cities. The Cienfuegos I consider one of the finest vessels afloat. Besides the comforts now found in all the best passenger ships — the electric bolls, the good fare, the piauo, all the luxuries — there is something about her that makes her doubly comfortable. It is the politeness and attentivencss of all her officers and men. There is none of the "hands off" business that makes some steam ers uncomfortable. Passengers are treated as if they were personal friends of the owners, aboard by special invitation. Captain Fair- cloth is an officer in whom the company has every confidence, and ho is credited with being one of the ablest navigators and command ers running out of New York. Of course my own opinion about his abilities as a seaman would be of no value, but I can speak from experience of his pleasant manner and dignified bearing, and his readiness at all times to give any information desired. There was no rough weather on the trip when I first went down in her. The way we used to work in six meals a day was a caution. As soon as a passenger gave any sign of stirring in the morning, the man who took charge of his room was on hand with a tray loaded with coffee, chocolate, and biscuits, just for a little "stayer," to be eaten while dressing. Then there was time for a stroll on deck, and at nine o'clock breakfast — such a breakfast as you might order at Delmonico's and mourn when you paid for it. Lunch at one o'clock — not a little, cold meat and a bit of cheese, but a real young dinner, beginning with soup, and going through a number of courses. Then dinner at five, with a bewildering lot of dishes, and always a boisterous appetite. At nine in the evening tea and coffee, Copyright, 1835, by Harper & Brothers. IN SUNNY LANDS: ON DECK— MIDWINTER TWO DAYS OUT FROM NEW YORK. scrvetl iii the saloon, and chocolate, and the tables spread with bis cuits and crackers, cakes, cheese, sardines, and other sleep inducers; about 'ten o'clock (most beautiful of all), Steward Petersen coming up into the smoking -room (where some of the unregenerate arc playing cards, while most of us are reading our evening prayers), and inquiring how many of the gentlemen will be up late, so that he can have a rarebit or some such thing ready for them at mid night! Just about the lime that most steam ers are sending men around to put out the lights and send you to bed, the Cienfuegos's steward is going about inquiring what you will have to eat. But these six meals a day don't seem any too many, for the sea appe tite makes a frightful void. When the voyage is made in midwinter nothing can be more delightful than leaving snow-bouud and ice-bound New York and landing in three days in the height of sum mer at Nassau. There the trees are ever green, flowers ever bloom, and old Frost is kept forever at bay. January in Nassau is June in New York. Some poetical person has given to the Bahamas the name "Isles of June," and it is un appropriate title. Look at it us we will, try as much us wo may lo convince ourselves that wc like cold weath er and snow-storms the best, still every Northern man occasionally sighs for a land of eternal summer, where there is no bat tling with the cheerless cold. It is a dream to most people, for they do not realize how quickly and easily such a land may be reached. Nassau is the nearest tropical country within reach of New York. Flor ida does not fulfil the conditions unless one goes all the way down to Key West, for in any other part of the State cold weather oc casionally strikes, and when it does come it makes every one miserable. But in Nassau cold is unknown. It is a land where frost was never seen. Ten thousand people there have never seen the leaves and bushes whit ened on chilly mornings, nor gone about swinging their arms to keep the blood circu lating. Havana is next in point of distance. But what u difference tliere is! In Iliivnnu one does not understand a word of the lan guage, and the visitor must find things out for him- self. In Nassau the language used is English, ana lite and property are as secure — I was going to say na se cure as in New York, but that would be a joke. 1 en times more secure. Wherever the British flag waves in the West Indies you may put a thousand dollars in your pocket and go out to the loneliest places in the darkest nights, feeling as safe as you would in your own house with the doors locked. The government is almost an ideal one. Nominally under the control of the British crown, the people of the Bahamas are as free as we are, making their own laws, electing their own representa tives, and enjoying all those political rights that we have come to consider peculiarly our own. If the Queen ap points the Governor, she also pays him; taxation is mere ly nominal, but the knowledge of a strong and watchful government in the background secures a wholesome re spect for the laws. When an American is far away from home it is pleasant to see his own bright flag at some mast-head. But where he sees the British flag floating he is sure of order and protection. And he will not travel much in foreign lands under other flags without learning to say, as heartily as any of her good subjects, " God save the Queen!" "The Glass Windows," at Abaco, are among the sights of the Bahamas. The ship goes near enough lo catch a glimpse of them. Nearly the first sight of Nas sau is Fort Charlotte, standing on high ground, a forti fication dating back considerably more than a century, and remarkable for its size and the extent of its subter ranean works. Landed in Nassau, the visitor is in a small public park, and only a few steps from the Roval Victo ria Hotel. This is the largest and finest building in the Bahama Islands, having been erected by the government in flush times, at a cost of $125,000, in a land where labor can be had for fifty cents a day and stone for the quar rying. It occupies an elevated position, near the crest of the hill, and is the most conspicuous building in the city, seen from the harbor. It is approached by a street more nearly perfect in its paving than Fifth Avenue, arid almost white. The hotel is four stories high, with a broad veranda surrounding every story but the highest, giving thousands of feet of promenading room. On top of all is a large cupola, from which not only the wholo city and suburbs, but many of the neighboring islands, can bo seen. Its interior arrangement is admirable. The dining-room is large and high, and all Ihe appointments of the hotel arc in keeping. It has for several years been kept, and well kept, by Mr. S. S. Morton, a hotel man well known in New York, who has taken pains to make his guests as comfortable and happy as pos sible. TUROUQII "THE GLASS WINDOWS." OUT-DOOU LIFE IN NASSAU AND CUBA. CHAPTER II. A FIRST LOOK AT NAS SAU. Nassau is a city of ten to twelve thousand inhabitants, on the tiny island of Now Provi dence, which lies on the twenty-fifth paral lel _ of north latitude. It is therefore just as far south as the lowest point of the Florida peninsula, and is about two hundred and fifty miles east of the Flor ida coast. It is the capital of the Baha mas, and the only city in that group. The West India Islands are all comprised in three groups — the Greater Antilles, the Lesser Antilles, and the Ba hamas. In the Great er Antilles are included Cu ba, Jamaica, San Do mingo, and Porto Rico, all under separate gov ernments. In the Less er Antilles, which are sometimes called the Caribbee Islands, are Martinique, Barbados, and a dozen other evergreen spots, from which we get such articles as rum and tobacco. The Bahamas, the most northerly of the three groups and the nearest to the American continent, are all sub ject to the British Government and all under the jurisdiction of the same governor, who is appointed by the British crown. Taking the principal Bahama Islands up alphabetically, they are, besides New Providence, Abaco, Acklin's, Audros, Eleuthcra, Exuma, Grand Bahama, Inagua, San Salvador, and Walling*. Counting all the little islands, many of which are inhabited, the number runs up into the hundreds. New Providence is one of the smallest of them all, being only twenty-one miles long and about seven miles broad. Having thus completed the first chapter of my new geography of the West Indies, I proceed to put myself on the schooner Equator, from whose after-deck I had my first view of the city of Nassau. For I came across, on my first visit to Nassau, by schooner from Key West, making the passage in four days. We were ten or fif teen miles to the north of the city, and it was perhaps an hour after daylight. A very light wind, blowing, of course, in the wrong direction, was bearing us to our destination witli great deliberation. We had just finished our last banquet of dried fish and bread, when Tommy, the ever - ready and obliging cabin boy, pointed over the starboard bow, and said, " There's Nassau !" One of my fellow-passengers picked up the captain's big spy glass, which lay on the cabin roof, and took a long and earnest look. He saw what the rest of us saw without any glass — a tiny speck, looking like a needle sticking out of the water. "Well, I declare!" said the fellow-passenger, "1 knew Nassau was a small place, but I never imagined it was as little as that. Now, who'd think that tiny spot there was twenty riiilcs long and six or seven miles broad?" "It hisn't," said Tommy, who sometimes had a little trouble with his h's. "That's not the hisland, that's only the light- 'ouse. You can't see the hisland yet." Tacking and beating and many shrewd nautical manoeuvres giad. ually brought us up to where we could sec a low bit of laud. It was so' early in the morning the lamp in the light-house was still burning. By the time the sun came up we saw the island before us, rising up from the sea level to a very good elevation, dotted with snow-white houses, and shaded everywhere with palm-trees. We lay down ou the cabin roof, two or three of us, and watched Nassau grow larger. Though by this time we could distinguish the buildings, we knew it would take us several hours yet to reach the harbor. But that did not worry us. Hardly anything worries a man in 25° north latitude. If we did not get in in the morning, we would in the afternoon; if not in the afternoon, then to-morrow. It made no difference. We were comfortable and contented, and felt already the influence of the soothing atmosphere. This is one of the few things that the traveller, hearing about beforehand, can always feel sure of finding when he gets there. lie may read about the wonderful springs somewhere, or the bracing mountain air, or the velvety sea beach, and find them all gas; but if he goes into the tropics he will come under the influence of the climate and feel good-natured and comfortable and careless. There is a vision of peace in a cocoa-nut grove, to my mind, beyond all other earthly tilings. This tranquillity took such possession of me that I have PORT CHARLOTTE, FROM THE SEA. not fairly got over it yet, so that at this minute I should rather go out in the hammock and light a cigar than keep on writing. We rounded the point of the island which forms the harbor, whereon stands the light -house, and soon anchored off the public pier. Somebody had discovered that we were floating in water as transpar ent as air, and we all leaned over the schooner's rail and watched the bottom, thirty feet below us. It was generally white rock, here and there darkened by black seaweed. So clear was it if a nickel had lain on the bottom under thirty feet of water we could have seen it. The captain, who was not acquainted with the customs of the port, took a small boat and went ashore first, before he would let any of us land, to see whether we were to be quarantined, and whether the duty on us was to be per capita or ad valorem. Even this did not ruflie our serenity. Landing at a strange city, one is usually anxious to get ashore, but here we were content to wait. Presently the captain came back with the news that there was nothing to prevent our landing, but that we could not take our baggage till it had been examined. So we left our trunk keys on board and were rowed ashore. The wharf is built of coral lime stone, with steps for passengers to walk up; and we walked -up the steps and stood in the Nassau public park, about an acre in extent, in which were trees and benches and some grass, and a great variety of gentlemen of color, varying in age from five to fifty, and in shade from Baker's chocolate to indelible ink. No cabinen besieged us, no hotel runners made us miserable. We knew where the hotel was, because it stands on a hill, and we saw it, and we set out to walk to it, with no further interference than the requests of two or three very polite colored boys who want ed flic job of taking our baggage up. I gave one of them an order for miue, and in an hour he had it in the hotel, examined and passed, and hung around the office another hour wailing to. give me the key, and charged me a quarter. We crossed the main street, as smooth as a floor and as white as chalk, and took one of the side streets, up a pretty steep grade, towards the hotel. The main thoroughfare is called Bay Street, as we learned from the lamp posts, and we found it lively with victorias, and drags, and with col ored women carrying trays of veg etables on their heads, and colored men and boys. Every colored per son we met spoke politely to us. We went past the police office and were saluted by half a dozen coal- black officers in blue uniforms, who stood about the door. Through the open doors and windows we saw the rooms inside, with iron cots for the men. a Nassau policeman. 6 IN SUNNY LANDS. " Good-morning, gentlemen," said one of the officers as we passed. " Did you come over from Key West?" We told him that we did. "What was the news there when you left, gentlemen?" There was no news to tell him, and we continued the walk to the hotel. Everything about us was either dazzling white or rich c ream-color — streets, houses, stone walls, even the soil in such gar dens as we passed. Through a stone archway we entered the hotel grounds, and were soon in the cool office. After four days at sea in a small vessel every thing looked doubly inviting. People lounged about in arm-chairs. The fragrance of flowers filled the air. One end of the hotel is rounded off like the stern of a steam boat (so that when you sit there you unconsciously keep waiting for the bell to ring and the boat to start), and with a stone-arched court in front, where a breeze always blows, and where, from break fast till bedtime, a fair is always in progress. It looks like an Oriental bazuar. Colored men and women, boys and girls, some ot them so nearly white you could hardly tell the difference, and many of them exceedingly pretty, filled the open archways when v.e reached the hotel, offering for sale all the sorts of curiosities tnat people usually buy in strange lands and throw away as soon as they get home — canes, baskets, straw hats, shell-work, cocoa- nuts, sponges, flowers, queer fish — nearly everything imaginable. Twenty people had these things for sale, and a hundred more stood in the background waiting to see something sold. They like to wait, these Nassau darkies. There seems to be no end to their patience. I have seen a colored boy ask at the hotel office for a NASSAU HARBOR. gentleman before breakfast and wait for him till nearly dinner- lime, standing all the while where he could see his man come down- Mairs. At last our baggage came up from the schooner, and at lust we had the satisfaction of silling down once more to a civilized meal in the dining-room of the Koyal Victoria Hotel— a great room, perfumed with flowers (it was February 19th), shady and cool— and of eating from tables loaded with good things. It is necessary to go from the freezing north in midwinter direct to the sunny south, to appreciate such a scene. It is about as near on approach to fairy-land as can be found. It seemed almost like ¦walking into a Saratoga hotel in summer. Every door and win dow, of course, was open, and the thermometer was somewhere about 75°. The Nassau band was playing on the lawn. Hotel ! uests were sitting out under the arches and under the trees talk ing with the negroes, reading, sewing, smoking. There were' some late New York papers in the reading-room, and maps of the Ba hamas on the walls, and comfortable sofas. Altogether it was a very proper picture of a morning in the West Indies, where, of course, nobody has anything to do, and' where anybody who has anything to do don't do it. And that's just the sort of country I like. Here are ten thousand darkies who will do anything you want for a shilling, and I don't see the least reason for any white person doing any work at all— as long as he has the shilling. Per haps I caught this idea from one of the Nassau gentlemen, who said to me one day later on: "I do enough work lookingaftcr things. I don't propose to work with my hands as long as I have a shilling in my pocket; I'll send the shilling out and let that work for me." I know how such a sentiment as this will horrify some of my industrious Northern readers, who would answer the old catechism question, "What is the chief end of man?" by saying, "To work like the deuce and get rich!" But, unfortunately, we can't all be as industrious and as good as the New Englanders, and here in these warm climates work is at a discount. In the heat of the afternoon, when visitors and natives alike were seeking shady spots for rest and sleep, I walked out to have a look at the city. It lies, I soon found, on the slope of a hill, facing the sea, and looking northward. Near the hill's summit is the Royal Victoria Hotel — so high that you can stand on the front porch and look over most of the city and far out to sea. Quite on the top of the hill is the Governor's house, a large but unpretentious mansion, with handsome grounds. This hill I speak of might more properly be called a ridge, for it extends a long distance. All the principal part of Nassau lies between the summit and the water. Back of the hill lie some of the most curious places in the world; suburbs of the city, inhabited almost entirely by negroes. Gntnlstown is the, principal one of these, stretching back for a mile or two. There are about four streets running parallel with the water, each one a little higher up the hill, and perhaps a dozen streets at right angles with them, all ending at the wharf. This takes in the business part of the place. Then for a mile in cither direction, east or west, are more streets, full of dwellings and little shops. You can go for miles along a smooth, hard street, white and clean, along the edge of the water. It will take you past cocoa-nut groves, and beau tiful white bathing beaches, and several forts, and many other things of interest. Outside of busy Bay Street, I soon found, every negro speaks to every white person he meets, touching his hat and expecting a nod in return. A nod or a smile really seems to make a Nassau darky happy, and they are so cheap I don'l see how anybody could refuse them. Out in the country the colored peo ple generally ask you for a penny. But I have no ticed since that if you give them a smile and no penny they are better pleased than if you give them the penny and treat them unkindly. They are as good-natured and good-hearted as any peo ple in the world. When they have only a penny, and hoard it up till afte'r- noon and buy a meal of sugar-cane with it, they will give you the sugar cane if you ask them for it. All the people in Nassau, white or black, are polite and friendly to strangers, and always ready to give them what ever information they ... ., , . , want. I fell to talking with a colored man in the street, and asked him whether there are any other towns but Nassau on the island. "No sir," he replied, "Nassau is the only one. All the people live in Nassau." ¦ ' ' I have since learned thai this is true as to there being no other TW 'wl yV10'"'1^ correct "» »° «» the People living fn Nassau. They have no fancy for living out of town, and will live under d sadvantages in the city, rather than go out in the country Fine Thfwi?ni';"'aiInlJe-01' tW0 out ?f town- are hard t0 find tenants for. But to sw ,Wd-t1S-a maSS ,°f V°,ck of the c°™l limestone order tsut to say that it is a rocky islet would give a verv erroneous impression of it to a Northern person. With us a rockv X T htnTlZst^woii B?t thV°ckJs soft' a»d trees and p5Lrgrow m it almost as well as in earth. There is hardly a bare soot on the Ire la^f traetesXofPnin'(!lere H ^ befU clealed In s°™ ^ are large ti acts of pine woods; in others the ground is hidden bv dense masses of a sort of chapparal, growing8 ten or twelve feel ofid\lln0T^reTiiTPeCtt th%fou°datgon of it all to be 1 „„" „ i?C.K: _ A ne,re ,1S a foot or two of soil in some maces that haa in some places that has crSar ^TOT ^ "• ~^. «3£ W? SffSS ™„l- t ' masu1lt UP tine, and mix in enough earth to m-evpnt iKo l^Jr,TJ^^^hL. * this .compound anytCTuUer f, , O «&***»i. j.u lino UU1 the sun will grow, and grow luxuriantly. "A man who" ~tfi'n"tMl much trouble to make a garden can have green po^todlrefht? tA.ce and all the other vegetables on his table cveFy day n ,he Vca, I here ,s no season when vegetation does not flourish, and when OUT-DOOR LIFE IN NASSAU AND CUBA. the garden is once made it is always there. Men go out with crow- burs and set out. cocoa-nut trees, and in a few years they are tall and beautiful and bear a cocoa-nut (so Ihe saying goes) for every day in the year. There is nourishment for plants in the material of the rock. Where this coral limestone rock came from is a question that scientific people can settle to suit themselves. It makes no difference where it came from ; it Is here, and is very useful. Nearly all the houses are built of it. You have only to saw down into the quarries to get the most beautiful big blocks of it that make handsome and substantial houses. The blocks harden by exposure to the air, and in this climate soon become as durable as granite. Out of the rock, too, water -tanks are built to catch rain-water. Every house has its tank. There are springs and wells, but I believe the rain-water is considered healthier to drink. It is sweet and pure, and quite as good as our Croton. In the negro settlements in the suburbs there are a number of na tive Africans who were captured from slave-ships and landed here. Some of these Africans have two or three slits cut in each cheek for beauty. A good many of them still use their native languages among themselves. One thing they brought with them from Africa that Nassau ought to profit by— the knowledge of milking the real African thatch, such as their huts at home were covered with. Rome of the houses in Grunlstown arc roofed with this thatch, and one church there has such a roof — the handsomest roof on the inside that I ever saw, not even excepting our own church buildiugs. Strolling along Bay Street. I came to a fine market building, where, every week-day morning, all the fruits and vegetables of the tropics are offered for sale. There are no large producers; all the things come on trays carried on the negroes' heads, and hardly any person brings more than a shilling's worth. In the fish-market there are varieties and quantities that Fulton Market might envy. The streets are all made of the natural rock. It has only to be broken up and smoothed over, and the first rain makes a cement of it, and it becomes as "hard as rock," as it is. They don't know what mud is in Nassau. The Hon. Daniel Manning, Secretary of the Treasury (then only plain Daniel Manning of Albany), spent several weeks in Nassau with a party of three or four other gentlemen. On my first afternoon at the Royal Victoria Hotel I was introduced to the American Consul, the Hon. T. J. McLain, and the two other gentlemen proposed that we should all go and take a ride. We got into one of the carriages in front of the hotel, Mr. McLain and I in the back scat and the other two gentlemen in front. As soon as we were fairly started they told us that Mr. Manning ought to have a little attention shown him, and they proposed to give him a dog -show. We drove out into the suburbs, and drew up in front of a colored gentleman's residence, where a colored lady was sitting on the steps. "Good-evening, madam; will you step this way a moment?" said the chief conspirator. The colored lady came out, and was asked whether she had a dog she cared to sell. Of course she had. Everybody in Nassau has a dog, and they all bark all night. ' ' There is a gentleman up at the hotel, " said the conspirator, ' ' who is anxious to buy a Nassau dog to lake home for a curiosity. He wouldn't mind paying as much as a pound for a real good dog. If you will have your dog at the hotel at just nine o'clock to-morrow morning, and ask for Mr. Manning, very likely he will buy him. Don't forget the name — Mr. Manning." The colored lady courtesied, and the carriage went on to the next house. Twenty or thirty houses were visited, and the same story was told at each one. One woman was doubtful about her dog, be cause he was a little deaf. But she was told that made no difference at all ; in fact, Mr. Manning had been heard to say he'd rather have a deaf dog. Another woman, met in the road, .wanted to know: "Does Tic want a lady dog or a gcmnicn dog, boss? he! he! hot" Every darky met was told to bring his dog " at nine o'clock sure, and don't forget the name — Mr. Manning." Men who had no dogs themselves, but knew somebody who had, were sent two or three miles away to tell their friends to bring in their pups. One man lamented that his dog was a native of Harbor Island, whereas Mr. Manning wanted a native of Nassau. Before darkness settled, fully fifty people had engaged to have dogs at the hotel at nine o'clock next morning for Mr. Manning's inspection. Of course there was a time in the rnorning. Some of the candi dates were at the hotel before six o'clock, eagerly inquiring for Mr. Manning. By nine o'clock the arched court was crowded with dogs antl darkies. They made a yelping like the New York dog-show. When Mr. Manning came out from breakfast he was besieged by a score of eager dog-owners, who insisted upon showing off the good points of their animals. He took it all good-naturedly, made a show of examining the dogs, and announced that he had concluded to wait a few days before making any selection. Kach darky with a dog went home happy, with a silver quarter for his trouble, ready to have the same joke played every day in the year at the same price. CHAPTER III. A MORNING IN PARAblSE. All the fruits of the tropics flourish in Nassau— oranges, lemons, limes, bananas, pineapples, cocoa-nuts, and fifty others. But cocoa- nuts, pineapples, and oranges are the great staples. They grow so easily in this rich rock they require very little attention after they are once started. But starting the groves takes money and patience; and so it happens that all the large fruit plantations are in the hands of men of push and energy. There was a blight for several years in succession that interfered with the profits of the orange crop, and a great deal of capital is invested just now in cocoa-nuts and pine apples. Cocoa-nut trees arc looked upon as an investment in Nassau very much as we regard real estate in New York. The crop never fails, the market is never overstocked; each tree is sure to produce so many nuts every year, that will be worth so much money ; so the owner of a plantation has nothing to do but send 3'oung darkies up the trees to cut off the green coupons, very much as Mr. Vanderbilt is popularly supposed to sit in his vaults clipping yellow ones from Government bonds. Pineapples require more labor, for a plant pro duces only one apple, and that is the end of it; and they need a much richer soil, which requires a long rest after being used four or five years. I am indebted to Capt. II. C. Lightbourn, Port Officer of Nassau, for my knowledge of the cocoa-nut industry, and also for a morning as nearly approaching the state of affairs supposed to exist in Para dise as anything to be found beneath the stars. He took me out through his cocoa-nut plantations, his orange groves, and his pinc- npple fields, and filled me up with cocoa-nut juice and fresh, ripe oranges, all before breakfast. Fortunately it wn.s a month or so be fore the pineapples were ripe enough to eat or I doubt whether any of our party would have reached home in good order. We had made the appointment the night before, so as to get an early start — for the most pleasant time of day for any hard exercise in Nassau is from six to eight in the morning, before the sun has begun to warm things up. Our party consisted of Capt. Lightbourn, Mr. R. W. Parsons, and myself. Capt. Lightbourn, as I have said, is the Nassau Port Officer, and I had been looking upon him with envy every time I had seen him flying about the harbor in a big barge rowed by a dozen muscular darkies, with an awning over his head and nothing to do but sit in the stern and pull the "tiller ropes. He owns the largest cocoa-nut plantations in Nassau, and takes as much pride in every tree as a fancy stock breeder takes in a pet Jersey cow. Contrary to the usual tropical way of doing things, he gives each tree as much attention as if he owned only one, and supplies their delicate roots with plenty of fertilizers; and, seeing this, my heart warmed to him at once, for I am something of a farmer myself, having attended sev eral meetings of the American Institute Farmers' Club. The other gentleman, Mr. Parsons, is the great Nassau oracle. Although a New Yorker, he can give more information about the Bahamas, I think, than any other live man. He went down to Nassau some years ago for pleasure, when the only way of reaching it was by an old wooden steamer of about 1000 tons, making the voyage in four and a half to five da3'S, and was so delighted with the place that he went again. Eventually he contracted with the Nassau government for carrying the mails to and from New York, and from that time Nassau has been growing every year in popularity as a winter resort, largely on account of its increased accessibility. One step led to an other. Every winter there were more passengers to be carried, till at last Mr. Parsons was able to contract with the Ward Line for the running of two of their best iron steamers to Nassau, the Santiago and the Cienfuegos, leaving New York every fourteen days, and mak ing the trip in from three to three and one-half days. Therefore Mr. Parsons is in high -favor in Nassau, and if he Should express a wish for a cocoa-nut grove I have no doubt one would be delivered in the hotel yard for him before breakfast. Promptly at six o'clock Captain Lightbourn drove up in front of the hotel door, we bundled ourselves in, the whip snapped, away pranced the fiery horses, and the elegant coach rumbled down the hill. This, at least, would be the proper way to describe the begin ning of a morning drive through a West Indian cocoa-nut grove. But, alas! for the poetry of it, the fiery steeds were condensed into one lively nag imported from New York, and the elegant coach was too venerable to crack jokes on, with seats for only two, which made it necessary for one of us (I was the one) to roll himself into a ball and take a humble position behind the dash-board. We went south ward over the hill, on top of which stands the Nassau prison, and in a minute or two were dashing through Grantstown, a big suburb of Nassau inhabited entirely by negroes. The Grantstowners were just on their way to market, and the streets were full of them, men and women, all with baskets or wooden trays on their heads, each taking in for sale a few oranges or bananas or a handful of vegeta bles. The street we drove through and all the side streets were alive with darkies. They all knew Captain Lightbourn, and every one had a nod or a courtesy, and a "Mornin', massa," for us. Men and women in the houses, hearing a carriage coming, hurried to the doors and windows for the pleasure of nodding to a passer-by and being nodded to in return. It seems to fill a Nassau darky with delight to catch a white man where he can make him nod and smile and say a few kind words. And where everybody you meet is as smil ing and good-natured as possible, it is impossible not to smile and be good-natured too. Our road lay through several miles of Grantstown and its envi rons, often between stone walls so high that they concealed the land beyond, though nothing grew there, perhaps, but the thick chap arral. For in the old slave times in Nassau, when they had noth ing better for their men to do, the masters set them to building high stone walls, and many miles of these walls are still standing, though IN SUNNY LANDS: some of them have been useless for 3'ears, the plantations on which they stand having been abandoned with emancipation. The straight- ness of the road was equalled only by its smoothness. It was a solid rock, as level as a table, and dry in the hardest rain. Almond-trees and others of tropical growth intertwined their branches over our heads and gave us a dark green arch lo ride through. We went perhaps three or four miles from the hotel, and drove between two great stone gate-posts into a cocoa-nut grove. There were in this grove some thousands of trees, all bearing, and all with clusters of the big green nuts at the base of their branches. AVe drove into the shade of one of the trees, where a colored man, one of Captain Lightbourn's men, had already gathered a heap of cocoa-nuts, and stood with a silver cup in his hand, ready to supply us with the most delicious drink ever put to mortal lips. As we got out of the carriage the man took a long-bladed knife he carried in his bell and dexterously cut the end off a cocoa-nut with two or three quick blows, so as to leave a hole in the shell about the size of a silver half-dollar, through -which the juice poured like a spring. " Try that," said Captain Lightbourn, handing me the cup. " I think you'll like it." I was in a little doubt about it, for I had never seen such stuff come out of a cocoa-nut. We are all familiar with the " milk " that is imprisoned in the cocoa-nuts we buy in the markets — liquid white as chalk and sometimes a little thick. But what came from this nut when the man turned it over was a liquid clear as water, with a ^•^^s^^^-^^ri^^^s^^m^sem^ A STREET IN GRANTSTOWN. slight sparkle. There was no suggestion of milk about it ; it was just such a fluid in appearance as you get from any pure spring. I put it to my lips and tasted carefully, and then was in a hurry to tiwallow the rcsl. Mr. Parsons tasted the next one, and than drank his off and wanted more. As soon as we had a taste, Inking turns with the silver cup was loo slow work lor us, and Captain Light bourn showed us how to elevate the cocoa-nuts over our mouths and let the juice trickle gently down our throats. It was as cold as ice, Ihe nuts having swung in the cool breezes till night and been picked that same morning before the sun began to shine upon them. The flavor of the cocoa-nut in the juice was delicious, and it was just sweet enough to be pleasant. ' ' That is very fattening, " said the captain. ' ' If you were to come out here every morning and drink all you want of it, you would soon increase your weight." But Mr. Parsons and 1 were too busy drinking to stop to talk We kept the man busy slashing the tops off more nuts, and did not consider ourselves comfortably filled till we had emptied six apiece and even then we were glad when the captain told his man to put a lot in the carriage, so that we could take an occasional drink on the way home. " What is the reason," I asked him, " that the juice in these nuts is colorless, while the nuts we buy in the North contain milk?" "Because these arc green cocoa-nuts," the captain replied, "just turning into ripe ones; and those you get in the North arc ripe, and the 'milk' in them bus always been well shaken up, and is fre' <|iieutly sour. The cocou-nul is in its perfect slate when it is jusl like .these we have been using this morning. The juice is fresh itiid sweet and exceedingly wholesome. We do not use the nut in any other condition in the South. Those you buy iu the North have a thick, white substance just inside the hard shell. These we have been drinking out of have no such substance. The shell is still in a soft stale, and there is just a creamy white film inside, hardly thick er than a silver sixpence. That is what we use here, scraping it off with a spoon." It must not be imagined that the pile of cocoa-nuts we had been drinking from looked anything like the cocoa-nuts we have in the North. They looked more like great green apples, slightly elongated. Each was still enclosed in its green husk, which is always removed before they arc sent to market. This, being still alive and green, waa soft, and the darky's knife easily cut through it, and the shell was not yet hard chough to offer much resistance. Each nut contained near ly a pint of the cold, sweet, well-flavored juice. The man had been up several trees only a few minutes before, and had cut off perhaps a dozen bunches. As they averaged about five to a bunch (or grow ing on the same stem), we had on the ground before us sixty cocoa- nuts — more than even we three felt able to empty. They are never allowed to fall from the trees, but are always picked, when in just about the condition of those we had been empt3'ing. No cocoa-nut falls from a tree until it is too old and too much wilted to be of any use, unless something eats through its stem. But Nassau boys think nothing of shinning up these tall, slim trees, picking the nuts, and throwing them down. They are then taken out of the husks, and are ready to be sent away. "How is it," I asked our host, " that your trees look brighter and more flourish ing than any of the other cocoa - nut groves we have passed?" " I don't know that they do," he replied; ''but I try to make them look as well as I can, for that shows they are growing well. I take a great deal of pains with them, and give them some thing to live on. There is a great deal of nourish ment in this rock for them, but we always put some thing at the roots to help Ihem along — dead branch es or guano or some fer tilizer. Sometimes a hur ricane comes along and knocks a lot of our trees over, but we can save the most of them by setting them up again. The roots are very pliable. Did you ever notice the root of a cocoa-nut tree?" Neither of us ever had, and the captain took us to one that had been blown partly over, so that the roots were exposed. There wore hundreds of little roots, none as big as a , , „ . man's wrist, many of them not larger than a pipe-stem. These delicate little supply-pipes make their way down among the pores of the limestone rock, and pump water up till it reaches the top of the tree and eventually finds its way into the cocoa-nuts. If a tree hears three hundred and fifty mils a year, as they frequently do, and each nut contains a pint of juice, the roots musl pump up over forty gallons of water a year, besides all that is needed lor the growth of the tree. So it will easi ly be seen that the cocoa-nut tree cannot flourish in a dry soil It is said that these slender roots sometimes make their way down ten or twelve feet, or even farther, till they reach water. On this island ol Nassau, where each tide u felt lo the very centre of the island IS ZZTT, aP1fU',S ?¦' -US best' But what the P1™^ is that turns evllf.^ Ult° dcll(no»s cocoa-nut juice I will not undertake to ihJt H.p'tMVMiil'n " fohinBon Crusoe " or some of the imitations of it TW , i « 8 i:ocoli!lut •luice int0 a stro»g w*ne is described rhcie is a process by which the juice or sap ol the tree is treated «m,P ^i an mt0-xicali»S drink, very palatable and very whole- enough ^J^S\iSr Bi-n,p!° 11,at ™y colored man could make ZSti, /y °Ut 0f a- slnPlc tree t0 k0°P "imscli d™nk all the n «SS i? ? . .perSOns ln ^assau wh0 understand the thine are careful to keep the secret to themselves, because the darkies wou Id be perpetually tipsy, and because the making of it requires mi n c.sion ,„ the tree which, if improperly done^ou d sooTnim to groves. There >s a fibre produced by the cocoa-nut tree v k £ been woven experimentally, into durable cloths. The i nds m rt only palatable, but very nourishing, when properly usct a ml .?„.' nut wine costs only the trouble of bottling i, & here" "a b igc OUT-DOOU LIFE IN NASSAU AND CUBA. 10 IN SUNNY LANDS: APPROACH TO GRANTSTOWN, OVER GOVERNMENT HILL. tree from which a man may get his dress-suit, his dinner, and his bottle of champagne. What a pity they won't grow in New York. Being as full of unfermented cocoa-nut juice as we could conven iently hold, and having learned as much as possible about the tree and all its family, we were not slow about accepting Captain Light- bourn's invitation to go over into the next field and pick and eat some oranges. Variety is a great appetizer; for where you couldn't possibly find space for another thimbleful of cocoa-nut juice you can c -tsily store away half a dozen large oranges. We went through a {vateway in the high stone wall and were in the orange grove. Many of the trees had been injured by the blight, and none of them gave us the shade afforded by the stately cocoa-nuts; so we just filled our pockets with the best oranges we could find, and went back and sat under one of the cocoa-nut trees to eat them. The sun was not more than half an hour high, but he had already begun to make himself felt. Estimating the contents of the cocoa-nuts at a very low point —half a pint each— we had each drank three pints of cocoa-nut juice; on top of this we put at least a pint of fresh orange-juice, which gave us half a gallon of fluid apiece. While the air was cool this was all very well, but as soon as the sun began to heat things up every pore became a living spring, and while we sat under the trees cocoa-nut juice and orange juice trickled from our dripping foreheads and bathed the grass at our feet. I noticed, too, that Captain Lightbourn mid Mr. Parsons seemed livelier than the mild character of the tipple seemed lo warrant. But I have never been able to determine whether this was a happy result of the cocoa-nut juice, or whether they had made good use of a minute or two that I left them alcme together before we left the hotel. Sitting under the cocoa-nut trees, eating oranges just picked, trying to raise energy enough to start for the pineapple fields, was a tropical delight that did us Northerners good lo contemplate. And we had the happy satisfaction of knowing that the biggest millionaire in New York could not put himself in an equally pleasant situation in anything less than three days' time. At length we started off for the pineapple fields. Our road lay still southward towards the Blue Hills— a sort of backbone to Nassau a ridge running east and west a little south of ihe centre of the isl and. Between the high laud upon which Nassau stands and lite Blue Hills there is some low ground which is pretty nearly deserted Under other circumstances I should think this low land unhealthy- but as every little pond in it is in direct communication with the sea so that they all rise and fall with the tide, I do not see how it can be' It was something of a drive to the foot of the Blue Hills where we found the first pineapple field. " Pineapple orchard" is the name most frequently given to one of these fields. Cocoa-nuts will grow almost anywhere on the island, but pineapoles require a peculiar neb red soil. We climbed over a low wall; and it did not take us long to realize that we were among the "apples." Each plant has a dozen long, slim leaves, shaped something like daggers, and stand ing out almost horizontally, with points as sharp as needles You do not much mind the first 2,000 or 3,000 sticks from these things as you cross the field, but after a while your shins grow sore and your remarks about the pineapple crop are likely to be prejudiced 1 bad some dun notion that we would send a colored hoy un the pineapple trees lo shako off a few pines, and then sil down in the shade and eat them. I knew them to be the most delicious fruit in the world when fresh picked, for I had eaten them in Mexico; but these had always been raised (ap parently) in the baskets of Indian fruit-girls, and 1 had never seen them grow. So it was a little disappoint ing to learn that those low, prickly things we were walking among were the pineapple "trees," never growing higher than a man's waist, and generally much smaller than that. Herein the cocoa-nut and the pineapple differ. The cocoa-nut is a homely-look ing thing, growing on the stateliest and most beautiful of trees ; the pineapple is a beautiful fruit, but it grows on a dwarfed little bush, that tries to keep you at a distance with its thorns. The pineapple land is in little spots, ainid vast stretches of jagged rock. We skipped about over these little cliffs with the rapidity, if not the grace, of a lot of Manhattanville goats, and soon, cut our shoes to pieces. Nobody minds the ruination of his ' shoes, however, in travel ling over a piueapple field ; he is too busy thinking about his feet and ankles, which are also cut and bruised. You step on a treacherous stone, which turns with you and throws you over, and your hand, which you put out to catch yourself on, strikes a sharp stone and is cut, which makes it fit company for your face, which has struck in a pineapple plant and is scratched and bleeding. It takes all the com placency and fortitude to be found in the juice of half a dozen cocoa- nuts to prepare a man for a walk through a pineapple field. If ever I go through another one it will be when the apples are dead ripe, and with a Boyton costume on. Each plant produces one apple and then dies, leaving behind a number of shoots that are transplanted and keep up the family name. Cocoa-nut trees are said to be "indigenous " to Nassau, and I sup pose they are; but there is just about as much sense in that word, used in this way, as there would be in saying that cats are "indige nous " to back yards. The way that Nassau now supplies other isl ands with cocoa-nut trees shows plainly enough how Nassau herself was supplied. Here are, perhaps, half a million cocoa-nut trees all full of nuts. Along comes a hurricane, and away the nuts go flying through the air, sometimes trees and all. Gravity at length brings them down, and they float about on the ocean for days and days till at last the currents land some of them high and dry, perhaps oil a barren island. A few of them happen to fall into good soil, the wind covers them sufficiently with earth, and in a few seasons there are cocoa-nut trees there, each producing its three hundred or more every year. This is the only way they are planted: to set a ripe cocoa-nut in the ground and let it sprout. We drove back through Grantstown to the hotel, and were nod ded and courtesicd half to death by the inhabitants of the dusky sub urb who were all in the streets. When the carriage slopped under the hotel archway we unloaded a dozen cocoa-nuts, oranges without number, and the material for a lot of canes. It was not yet nine o clock, and all the exploring had been done in less than Ihrc'e hours. CHAPTER IV. GRANTSTOWN AT SUNRISE. Grantstown is one of those places that, having once been seen >" '"¦>•'¦'¦ !»¦ "gotten. It is inch- 5 ' ' -for Nassau is a can never be forgotten. It is included within thecity UmUsTf there are such things— for Nfissiin i= n "r.\t„ » „„. „.. . .A. " 7 u "" " , . . 'city," not on account of anv ar- hctd3(M,,r1t^l'Pf0ra,ti-0i1' butbeca»se Jt has a cathedral andTute cad-quarters of a bishop. It contains something like two or three AndSeverv1e.;nltantS' f^ t™^ 1Mn? in Us °w» "ttlc cabin And eveiy cabin stands in its own yard, which sometimes covers two or three acres of land, sometimes not more than a quarter of an acre. But there is not a single cabin in the whole place without its rees and flowers, Us vegetables and fruits. If a man should buy as large a tract of land somewhere in the North as is covered bv Grantstown, and spend all the rest of his life and a million i a ve ir trying to fill it up with rich foliage and vegetation, he could not produce so green and shady and beautiful a spot, but he niioZ du plicate all the houses m it, 1 think, for two thousand dollars Wishing to have a look at Grantstown, I went up early one mm,, ing past the Government House, under Ihe arch on ton of h.' i, ii and stood by the wall that keeps people out of the large and hi ll y OUT-DOOR LIFE IN NASSAU AND CUBA. 11 cultivated Government House gardens. There T had a view of all the roofs in Grunlslown, or as many of them as were not totally hid den by cocoa-nut and almond trees, and trees of many other sorts. The houses were quite invisible in this leafy haze, and the roofs were just little brown dots, like so many tiny islands floating in a sea of green leaves. The garden of the Government House shows what can be done with this rocky soil by spending a little labor on it. It is large and rich, and will produce anything, no doubt, that the Gar den of Eden would. The hill at the back of Nassau, on the summit of which the Governor's house, stands, is a long ridge, and Grantstown lies on the farther or south side of it. I went down the hill, expect ing to have the streets all to myself at this early hour. _ But I was very much mistaken. There were a dozen or more darkies in sight, of all ages and both sexes, on their way to market. Most of the shanty houses were open, and their occupants were astir. I was hardly down the side of the hill before I came upon a little fruit- stand by the roadside in front of a house. It was kept by a pleas ant-looking colored girl, who invited me to buy. "Don' ych want an orange, boss? Dey's jes' fresh picked, an' very nice! I leave it to any young New-Yorker whether he could resist such an appeal from a neat girl the color of a mahogany sideboard, stand ing in the shade of an almond-tree at six o'clock in the morning. There were on the stand live or six weakly bananas, some big green tilings like apples, only very round, and about half a peck of small moving slowly along towards market. The Nassau market is always well supplied with fruits and vegetables, turtles and fish. But in stead of the garden stuff being carried in in great wagons, as it is with us, it is brought piecemeal by these darkies, who live in com fort on the small sums realized by its sale. By 6.30 the Grantstown streets were fairly alive with them. All I met were polite, and those of whom I asked directions about the way, took trouble to show me. There were a good many tiny little stores, all open already, most of them with some customers; but I could not see what they had to sell. Considering the early hour, the absence of goods, and the number of customers, I was led to suspect that their wares were principally kept in bottles and measured out in glasses. I may have done the Grantstowners an injustice in thinking so, but if it is true it only goes to show that the brawny children of nature like their cocktails in the morning as well as paler and perhaps thirstier deni zens of cities. The children bound for the market with bundles were all adequately clothed, and there is little "undress uniform " to be seen in or about the city. Adequately clothed, in this warm climate, frequently means just a dress, for little colored girls, no shoes, no bonnet; they're not afraid of spoiling their complexions. But out in the rural districts small boys are so plenty it would runt their parents to have to clothe them, and they are allowed to run about very lightly clad. It looks rather comieal at first to see a lot of boys in the roatis wearing nothing but shirts, with the ends very much abbreviated. Even in Grantstown, however, fashion comes government nousE, Nassau. oranges So I bought two or three oranges. A few minutes after wards as I was leaning against a high wall eating them, a vision of Tangier came round the corner. It had a big tray on its head, and it stopped suddenly in front of me, with a startled exclamation : " My good lawd, boss, how you skeercd me!" said this new-comer "Ineve?wassoskeeredinmylife, boss. I tells yo de truf." And she broke out laughing, leaned over and rested her hands on her knees (the tray still on her head), and haw-haw-hawed for a minute or two, till she was sufficiently recovered to wind up with Please trim me a penny, boss?" . It was a woman who was so " skeered," and the cause of her fright was coming round the corner suddenly upon me She like all the others, was carrying stuff to the early market. Like all the other women she wore shoes down at the heels, so that the heels dragged with every step, and she came shuffling along like a man on skates I heard her when she was a block away, but had no idea she would be frightened to see me. Every one carried a tray on his or her head, and the trays were large, but generally near y empty. Occa sionally there came along a nabob with her tray piled high w th ba nanas oranges, vegetables, and other things all neatly laid m layers ; but, such wealth as this was uncommon. More frequently they had iust a few bananas, or a few oranges or a couple oE cabbages. There were a good many children, both boys and girls, carrying in pa metto thatch or fine palmetto leaves. This, too is sold in the market, and is bought by the industrious ^be^tosepartet into fine pieces, braid it into straws, and make straw hats of it. Some of these hats are elaborate and very neatly made. The farther I went into Grantstown the more people I met, all along and makes the darkies uncomfortable. Nothing could bo nicer for the feet than walking barefoot over these smooth roads. But white people wear shoes, so darkies must too, when they can get them. No costume is as suitable to the climate as a white linen one, which can be bought here for a dollar— I mean a suit for a darky, of coarse stuff. But this is not good enough when they can get any better It is killing to see the stylish ones punish themselves on Sundays with high silk hats and black cloth suits. No pen could convey an idea of a Grantstown dude. These Grantstown people can if they like, raise their own tea, coffee, sugar, and spices. Going on through Grantstown on this early morning I was struck by the many lots of land enclosed with high stone walls, some of them with good iron gates, and the land put to no use. Many of the walls are crumbling away, but some of them are good. The land generally is a mass of rock, but it is rich rock, that could profit ably be broken up and cultivated. The walls are relics of the slave times, when labor cost even less than it does now. Wherever such land i's let alone for a few years it becomes covered with small trees and large bushes, till it is almost impossible to get through them. There are thousands of acres of such land in Nassau. There are no big farms or plantations, except of cocoa-nuts and pineapples, and it is a wonder where all the fruits and vegetables come from. I went this way and that, turning to the right and to the left, and every where found the same streets and the same houses, the same big shade trees, the same people going to market, carrying the same trays loaded with the same fruits. • Occasionally I passed a narrow, shady lane, a short cut from one street to another, that was a com plete circle or tube of green— green above, where the branches meet IN SUNNY LANDS: A ORANTSTOWN RESIDENCE. and form an arch ; green below and on the sides, where the leaves almost touch. Presently I turned and walked with my neighbors towards the market. They talked with me, told me all they could about the town, described their places to me, and were sociable al ways. Reaching the city again, it was still too early for the hotel breakfast, and I strolled down to the little park, at the end of which is the public wharf. There already were a dozen colored boys sitting on the benches, or with their feet dangling over the edge of the wharf. As soon as they saw an American coming they began to straighten themselves up for business. Two or three of them ran up to me and asked, smilingly, "Give us a dive, boss?" One might easily take this for an invitation to toss them overboard, but it does not take long to learn that what lhey want is a few pen nies thrown over, so they can dive for them. The water is fifteen or twenty feet deep and clear as air, and they can watch the coin all the way as it flutters to the bottom. AVhen I put a finger or two in my vest - pocket to feel for change they . slz^s; knew what it meant, and immediate ly retired behind a neighboring wall to undress. In a minute they came out again, naked but for a pair of white swimming drawers, which each youngster rolled up as high as he pos sibly could. They ranged themselves in expectant line along the edge of the wharf, and when I threw a penny in they all went off like a lot of frogs. The sinking penny was the centre of the circle they made, and ns they gathered about it their wriggling arms and legs looked like tbe arms of some big devil-fish. One young ster caught the penny, put it in his mouth, and came up shaking him self, ready for another. There is no quicker way of disposing of small sums of money than throwing pen nies off a wharf for boys to dive af ter. When you run out of pennies the boys coolly propose to change a quarter for you. My next visit to Grantstown was on a Sunday evening. The darkies have there a church known as "The Shouters," where unregenerate guests to the hotel sometimes go to see the fuss. Such a party was made up while I was there, and of course I went. The minister of this little flock is a colored gentleman, and he had been "seen" by a committee sent in advance from the hotel to ¦uukc arrangements. For Ihe shoot ers do not always shout. but only when the spirit moves, or when Amer icans want to invest a few dollars in seeing the fun. The committee came back and reported that the minister had agreed to give a good display for $5, "or to raise the very Old Nick for $10." This story may have been genuine, or il may have been man ufactured by the commit tee; I can't vouch for it. At any rate, lhey con tracted for 11 show ou the following Sunday evening, and paid for it; and on Sunday evening we got into some car riages and drove over, ready for any amount of religious or sacrilegious zeal. Our party consist ed of Mr. Parsons, Mr. McLain, the American Consul; Mr. Raymond, of the Mutual Life In surance Company; the Hon. Daniel Manning, Judge Peckham, and myself. When we drove up to the church door the building was packed, and we despaired of getting in. But the darkies had kept their contract with us. A colored gentleman made his way to tho door and took us in charge, saying, " Step this way, gentlemen; there are scats reserved for you!" When inside the door, we found that an aisle had been kept open for our express benefit. That $10 worked beautifully. Led by oui colored guide, we walked up between two rows of darkies, standing (the church was so crowded), up to and past the chancel rail, through the chancel, up the pulpit steps, and up into the pulpit itself, right behind the minister, where six chairs were wailing for us. A few other Americans in the congregation who were not in our parly were duly surprised lo see us march into the pulpit and sit down. And, indeed, lhey were hardly more surprised than we were ourselves. But we sat down with as straight countenances as we could, facing the congregation, and listened to the singing of a hymn. The sing ing gave me a good chance to have a look at the building. It was DIVINO KOIt COl'l'URS. OUT-DOOR LIFE IN NASSAU AND CUBA. I a built of stone, large enough probably to seal two or three hundred persons, with benches for pews. But its crowning poiut was the roof. This was made of thatch, real African thatch, put ou by some of the African inhabitants of Grantstown, just as they once thatched the tops of their native huts. This African thatch looks much like any other on the outside, but inside it is fine as a piece of modern carpentry. It makes as handsome a roof as anybody could wish for, seen from the inside. Every scat in the church was filled. and about one hundred persons were standing; and tliere were all told perhaps a dozen white people in ihe house. The congregation sang several curious hymns, the minister prayed, and afterwards preached a sermon, quiet and sensible enough, but warming tip towards the last, till he had some of his women hearers excitedly rocking their bodies to and fro. crying amen, and giving the other signs of religious excitement often seen in "revival " meetings. But he failed to make the grand sensation he had contracted for. There was no more commotion than can be seen iu any lively Methodist meeting, and tbe shouting part was a miserable failure. We were all satisfied that we had had the worth of our money without the shouting. It is not in every church that one can see a child put in side the chancel rail for safekeeping, and then, when it begins lo Fort Montagu. Fort Fincastle is on the summit of the hill, a few hundred yards cast of the hotel. Near by it a great passageway has been cut into the rock, sixty or seventy feet deep and perhaps twen ty or thirty feet wide, making a sort of tunnel without any top. At the end of it is the stone si airway that gives it its name. It is a very old piece of work, and I was not able to find anybody who could tell anything about it. But from its situation I think there is no room to doubt that it was cut to make a safe and quick means of communication between the fort and the shore, so that troops could be taken either way without exposing them to an enemy's fire. I have seen much more extensive works for this purpose in other countries, but none where the cut was nearly so deep, and the abandonment of this place lo time and weather gives it an interest that one cannot always feel in a piece of military engineering. In deed the military element in Ihe Queen's Staircase has departed entirely. The first thing that struck me about it was what a beau tifully cool and roomy cellar it would make if well roofed over. It is as long as from the lower end of the Post-office to the Western Union Building. Fort Charlotte, at the western end of the hill, is the only extensive fortification in Nassau. It is a large stone fori, standing neglected /.'/ y i ft ''=^l'-'-z,!\ui'^<->z^i v f^N^v<^> MAKINO KASKET8 IN A GRANTSTOWN CA1JIN. nod, see its mother make her way up to the front and give it a good cuffing. I should have had more real benefit from the services if the other gentlemen had not been continually whispering funny things in my ears to make me laugh, for fate had put me in the very front seat in the pulpit just beside the minister. CHAPTER V. NASSAU'S CURIOSITIES. For such a little island Nassau has more than its share of curious and interesting things in the way of caves and lakes and fortifica tions. "Have you seen the Queen's Staircase?" is sure to be one of the early questions asked a visitor.. It will be asked by another visitor, not by one of the residents, for Nassau people make no fuss about their wonders. This adds greatly to the pleasure of visiting them. There are no catchpenny affairs anywhere. Every place of interest is free to anybody who" wants to go to it, and nearly all of them are within walking distance from the hotel. This " Queen's Staircase " is at the end of a passageway cut through the rock, near Fort Fincastle. The hill on which Nassau stands is about three miles long and in the neighborhood of a hundred feet high. At the western end is Fort Charlotte; near the east end, Fort Fincastle. Guarding the shore at the foot of the eastern end of the hill is old and solitary about five hundred yards back from the water on thu hill. On the shore is a small stone battery in bad repair. The fort has great subterranean chambers, bjr which common report says it is connected with the Government House, in which the Governor lives. I think, however, that this is only a darky notion, for the buildings are a couple of miles apart, and the fort was erected long before the Government House was thought of. Indeed the fort is so old that it is hard to learn anything about its origin. Tt is less than a century, so they say, since it was completed, but nobody kuows when it was begun; and the sovereign who had the founda tions laid is known to us only in the dim pages of history, and very likely is at this moment fanning himself, for it was a Spanish sover eign, if reports are true. There is a dry moat around the fort, and a drawbridge. You enter by a flight of stone steps, and find your self on a rocky table within, with a fine view of the island. Not till you go up into Fort Charlotte do you appreciate how many hundreds of little islets surround New Providence. They string out in every direction like rows of beads. Looking shoreward you see nothing but jungle; but it is a jungle green as the sea before a storm, bright, rich, and beautiful. I did not go into the subterranean works of the fort. They are entered by descending a spiral staircase set into a stone wall, and you can go through room after room, all paved and walled and ceiled with stone. Charlotte has something impos- 14 IN SUNNY LANDS: ing about her, perhaps from her size. Fincastle is a small fort, now used only as a signal station to give notice of the approach of ves sels. Fort Montagu, the smallest of the three, is also the oldest. There is a romantic story connected with it, and it has the advan tage of being a true one. The island of New Providence was capt ured by the Spaniards in 1781, and they kept it until the close of the American war; principally, I imagine, because the British were TUli tiUKEN'S STAIUCAHK. too busy with us Americans to take time to go and drive the Span iards out. The Spaniards had seven hundred troops on the island in the three forts. Just before the close of the war, a young South Carolinian loyalist, Lieut. -col. Deveaux, belonging to the South Car olina militia, set out, with fifty followers, to recapture it. He sailed from St. Augustine in two small brigantines and landed his men in the night east of Fort Montagu, when the garrison were in bod and the sentry asleep. He soon had possession of little Montagu, and planted some guns in front of the Governor's residence. Next day he continued to land troops from his vessels all day, taking ashore boats crowded with soldiers, and carrying them back in the bottom of the boats only to bring them ashore again as fresh troopsc Straw men were stationed about the guns on the fort. A shot was fired into the Government House and the -Governor surrendered. Thus the English regained New Providence, and they have held it ever since. There are two lakes of considerable size in Nassau, Killarney and Cunningham, the former nearly two miles square. The water in both these lakes is brackish, and rises and falls with the tide. This is a peculiarity of most of the interior ponds, and is even noticeable in the swamps, showing that the porous rock absorbs the sea water and that the rise of the tide is felt throughout the entire island Nothing could be better for the preservation of health. Instead of stagnant, disease-laden water standing in the lowlands, it is clean salt water from the ocean, changing with every tide. Beginnino- a mile or two west of Nassau there is a vast extent of low land en tirely uninhabited and unused— if one can speak of a vast extent of space on an island twenty miles long. It stretches almost along the north shore of the island for miles, and reaches far inland render ing useless and unproductive a large slice of the little island Be tween one end of this flat land and the shore, a short distance west of i> ort Charlotte, stands a large uninhabited stone building known as the " Tea House," now almost unused, but in former years a (treat resort for the Nassau ladies, who went there in the cool of the dav and had tea-parties— for it stands directly on the beach, and is a fine place for such a purpose. Mr. Parsons and I drove out one after noon to see the caves, seven or eight miles west of Nassau The route took us out West Buy Sired, a part of the city that looks more than any other, like a section of some Spanish town. From one point of view, in particular, I was strongly reminded of Vera Cruz or some parts of Havana. It is common enough to say that a smooth road is " as smooth as a floor " and that any white thing is "as white as chalk," though these are frequently exaggerations. But when I say that this street running through the west end of Nassau, along the water front, is as smooth as a floor and as white as chalk I mean it literally. On one side of the street is a stretch of green running down to the sea; on the other side a broad white sidewalk, bordered with high white stone walls, and back of these, equally white houses, roofed with tiles. In the distance a white monument, shaped much like our obelisk, but smaller. In all the yards great cocoa-nut trees, their graceful feathery branches drooping over the house-tops. Away in the distance more cocoa-nut trees; and I never see a cocoa-nut tree hi the distance without being reminded of the Bible pictures of some saint or oilier crossing u desert, and a little bunch of cocoa-nut treqs" -afl with exactly four branches each, away off out of reach. Here' .arid there banana- trees, as pretty and graceful, on a smaller scale/its the palms. We throve on .'post Fort Charlotte, past the Tea House, the road lying always along the shore, and cool breezes from the ocean making the afternoon pleasant. For seven or eight miles we went on, over the same smooth road, passing, I think, an average of less than one house to the mile after we were out of the city. This west end of the island is not held in popular favor, and the growth of the city is all in the opposite direction. Several of the houses we saw were uninhabited. One had been shattered by the hurricane, and was tumbling to pieces. In another plaee a large clearing had been made and thousands of cocoa-nut trees planted. In the middle of this tract was a cabin in which lived the colored family who took care of the place — a residence certainly not more than ten feet square. The caves we found in a wild, romantic spot, not more than a stone's - throw from the water. Our horse being unwilling to stand alone, Mr. Parsons remained in the carriage, while I followed a narrow path between walls of heavy foliage that led up to the entrance. The caves looked dark and damp and uninviting, and I was content to admire the beauties of nature from the out side. There may be people who, as a matter of pleasure, would go into an unknown cave alone anil without lights, but I am not one of thorn. Indeed my experience with caverns has led me to believe FORT FINCASTLE. that the outside is always their best part. These caves are of con siderable extent, running far back into the hill, and thev contain some ponds that rise and fall with the tide; but there is no » particular about them lo repay a visitor for the trouble of climb , * into them, unless the visitor has the cave fever very seriously 11 t said that in some places in Nussuu there are dangerous " pilfulls " OUT-DOOR LIFE IN NASSAU AND CUBA. 15AY STREET, NASSAU. deep holes in the rock, concealed by the thick foliage, and that peo ple sometimes fall into them, in the woods, and are never heard of more. There might easily be such holes in this sort of rock, but few people, I think, have ever fallen into them. Somewhere in the island is a natural well called the "Mermaid's Pool," one hundred and fifty feet m diameter and sixty-five feet deep, containing fresh water, which comes up to the very edge, so that a line dropped per pendicularly along the wall reaches a depth of forty feet. This pool is not more than a mile from the shore, and it would bo necessary to go five or six miles out to sea to find a corresponding depth. We boy in the road how far on it was, and he fold us twelve miles, we gave it up. Our horse had something to do with changing 'our minds, for there was a spot in the road that he did not like the looks of, and he refused absolutely lo pass it, but turned around on his own account, and con tentedly jogged along to wards home. Some distance to the eastward is a place call ed "Thompson's Folly." A gentleman named Thompson here erected a tall wooden house, some years ago, on a bluff near the shore, where it was exposed to the full force of every hurricane. The natives predicted that the first storm would send it bowling across the island ; but they were mistaken. Thompson's Folly has withstood the rage of frequent hurricanes with out receiving a scratch. though sonic of the solid stone houses were un roofed and went to pieces. Near by is an immense tree, commonly said to be a specimen of the banyan of India, though I believe authorities differ as to whether it is or not. Al any rate it is a fine large tree, capable of shading hundreds of people un der its spreading boughs. The most wonderful tree on the island, to my mind, is the ceiba or silk-cotton tree, just back of the police station near the public wharf. This is the largest tree I ever saw, and by all odds the most curious. As if to support it against the terrible force of the winds it has to encounter it is provided with a scries of natural props like roots, but forming part of the immense trunk. They grow out at pretty regular intervals, and their peculiar bark gives them the appearance of elephants' ears thickened and enlarged They reach eight or nine feet from the ground, and extend later ally five or six feet, leaving spaces between them like rooms, any one of which is large enough for eight or ten men to stand in. ' Be yond Fort Montagu, to the eastward, along the shore road, are a number of fine old estates, relics of the slave days, when agri culture was more prosperous and plenty of room was required Among these is "The Hermitage," lately the residence of John s! Darling, Esq., one of Ihe principal business men of Nassau, and agent of the Ward Line of steamers. The Hermitage stands on WBrnKm mmmm iw IN SUNNY LANDS: a bluff overlooking the sea, and is in every way a delightful resi dence, with long rows of small stone buildings that in old times were occupied by the servants. Mr. Darling's father, an American was in business in Nassau when the war of the rebellion began and he was appointed, without his consent, to the agency of the Con- _ . ,r . tt. . !.:..„ ......... -,„;il. ll»n ,^1H Ann* how- how- (IV- ned federate government. His sympathies were with the old flag, he ever and he declined the appointment. But the Oontedcrate g eminent seemed determined to make him act for them, and ooiisigi sh-V) after ship to him, all of which he refused to have anything to do with. Nassau was a great blockade runners' rendezvous, and the position was one that promised large profit. By standing firm to his principles, and continuing his loyalty to the National government, Mr. Darling sacrificed a fortune that would have come to him easily in the four years of the war. stone, are low, and often sheltered by low hills. Then people don t go out to fight the hurricane with clubs, but he low till 1 e is gonc.^ Besides the hurricane, you will ask, what other tropica pests a c. there? Well, there are fevers in the summer-time. * c»ow icvci . Yes, sometimes; just about as much of it as we have in New i oriv, brought in ships' and skilfully handled; and some milder t^cn, produced by careless living in hot weather, but not nearly as much. of them as we have in Harlem or New Jersey. Consider, ngoui many complaints in summer and our small- pox m winter i "luxvl Nassau to be a safer place to stay all the year round m than New York But whether you're here or there you must remembei trie wise conclusion reached by a Florida gentleman that its pretty dauoerous livin' anywhar!" My opinion on this subject may not be valuable because I always consider myself safer aboard a schooner THE GREAT SILK-COTTON TltliE, CHAPTER VI. NASSAU IN MIDWINTER. When in driving about the island of New Providence you come upon the bare walls of a ruined house on one side of the road, and see the roof resting peacefully on the other side, you know that the hurricane has been making a visit. When you see trees upset and outbuildings lying turned over in distant fields, and the ribs of sohooueVs on the beach, they are more evidences of the hurricane. It is always spoken of in tbe singular number, this hurricane fiend, as it he came occasionally, the same old hurricane, to wreak his vcnircancc. When he comes it is always in September or October, aiuHie rarely slays more than a few hours, lie never comes, cither, without giving sufficient warning. For hours before his arrival the barometer, so they say, gives unmistakable notice of his approach. So everybody has a chance to make ready for him, and even the sailors at sea know what to do. It is noticeable that all tbe evi dences of the hurricane are in the country districts, and that none of them are to be seen in the city of Nassau. Still Nassau lies ou the highest land of the island, and would, one would think, be tbe first lo feel its fury. Worms that mount up into the dignity of hur ricanes, real old tearing hurricanes, come only once in fifteen or twenty years. Every fall there are heavy gales, but no worse, from all accounts, than we often have in the North. So, in the usual course of events, the island ought to be free from its greatest foe for the next ten years, at least. I do not hear of any lives being lost ou shore in any of these hurricanes. Ships are wrecked, spongers and fishermen are drowned, but the shore is safe. And there seems uo reason why it bhould not be. The houses are solidly built of in a storm at sea than I do when trying to cross Broadway. In Nassau, however, tbe doctors pack up their pills and go fishing front November to June. In those seven months there is no health ier place, and there is no sickness except such as we unfortunate mortals are always getting. I do not see how it could be other wise. The island is a solid rock, perpetually swept by sea breezes, and being on it is like being on the deck of a great steamer in mid- ocean without any sea-sickness. I have mentioned before the fact that tropical islands wilh rich soil are generally unhealthy, while the rocky isles built up by the industrious coral insect are always the reverse. No stretch of the imagination could make tbe soil of Nassau appear rich, and I here is nothing tin- sickness lo build itself upon. Should there be malaria or any other disease germ fooling about in the air, along conies a whiff of ocean breeze, and. presto! that germ is scudding over the waves, flying fast towards Florida or Cuba or South America, or some other place where it can make use of itself. If there is any place where people wilh weak lungs can go and be benefited by the climate, I believe that place to be Nassau. There were no invalids about the hotel. Out of the two hundred guests, with perhaps two or three exceptions, you would not have suspected there was a person there who knew be had lungs. Ev ery man, woman, and child of them was out in the sun and wind all day, and was consequently brown and hungry, and came in at din ner-lime ready for a good square meal. Barring the two or three exceptions I have noted, I don't think I heard a cough in all Nas sau. Everybody looked healthy and happy. I started northward Ihe first time in the steamer leaving March 3d, and a number of other Americans came at the same time. It was not till we wero OUT-DOOR LTFE IN NASSAU AND CUBA. 17 about two days out, when the steamer was somewhere off Charles ton, that anybody would have suspected there was an invalid aboard. But then that colder and more bracing air began to tell on the weak lungs, and people began to cough; men and women who, down in Nassau, had looked the picture of health, who had been driving or riding or sailing every day, who had been playing polo and attending balls, who had been sometimes (alas!) drinking rum and smoking strong cigars, who were brown and rosy and active— then these people were reminded that they had lungs (or parts of them still left), and began to wish themselves safe back in Nassau. 1 have in miud particularly a young New Yorker, who was con spicuous in all the polo matchos'and lawn-tennis games while I was there, who was every day out boating or swimming or fishing, and who knew too well the color of Nassau brandy and the flavor of Nassau cigars. He came up in the same ship, and I was surprised to hear him coughing when we got into cold weather; so I asked one of the other passengers whether he was an invalid. "Why," said the passenger, "didn't you know that he reached Nassau almost dead? He went to the steamship office in New York, and asked whether they thought he could get lo Nassau alive, and whether it would do him any good. From his far-gone appearance they were in some doubt about it, but lhey advised him to try it, for he was sure to die if he stayed in New York. So he went, and "was carried ashore on a stretcher. He had only been there two weeks when you got there, and you know what lie was then — ap parently as well as anybody. He was there a month or six weeks, .all told, and considers himself cured. But of course he is coming bome entirely too soon." But any invalid who thinks of going to Nassau must remember that there is a three days' sea voyage before him. It is not a hard voyage, but it is still a sea voyage, and any body who cannot stand this voyage is best •off at home. The climate being very nearly the same the year round, and always com fortably warm, there is good sea bathing alike in August and January. And there is a pleasure in bathing in the beautifully clear water that is founa hardly anywhere else. "Isn't there danger of sharks?" a dozen people have asked me. That depends upon where you go. I have seen the boatmen diving in deep water where they were afraid to stay in longer than just to make a dive and climb into the boat again, because there were sharks about. That, it seems to me, would rather mar the pleasure of a sea bath. But along the bathing-beaches, where the water is shallow, there is no more danger from sharks than there is at Coney Island. They do not come into shallow water, and are hardly ever even seen in the harbor. Tbe darkies are very fond of their sea bath, t>r seem to be, for at nearly any hour of the day a lot of them can be seen splashing in the water; but the whites must prefer their water in a tub, for there are few bathing- Jiouses, either public or private. There -were a lot of bathing-vans of the English pattern, mounted on wheels, so that the bather could step right out into the water; but the hurricane picked them up and set them down in Jamaica or Martinique— nobody knows where. I will draw upon the Nas sau Almanac for two 'or three lines of figures, to show something about the thermometer. These figures come originally from one of the Government reports, and there is no reason to doubt their accuracy. They arc for 1878, but for the purpose in hand one year does as well as another. The average temperature of each month, at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, in that year, was as follows: Jan uary, 73.3°; February, 73.9°; March, 76.7°; April, 80.4°; May, 81.8°; June 84°- July, 85.8°; August, 85.8°; September, 84.2°; October, 81 1°- November, 76.1°; December, 73.8°. In all the thermomet- rical 'tables before me I do not find three cases where the mer cury went above 90° in the hottest part of the hottest days. These figures are all taken in the shade, of course. If you want to know the nice comfortable heat of the sun, here are the documents: Greatest heat in the sun in January, 140°; February, 146 ; March, 149 5°- April, 150.2°; May, 156. 5°; June, 154°; July, 159°; August, 157 9°- September, 153°; October, 153°; November, 157.5 ; Decem ber' 155° To go out and play a game of ball or lawn-tennis say in the middle of Christmas afternoon, with the temperature at lo5 , would give a visitor a forcible hint that he was in latitude 2o . I he tri-eat discrepancy between the sun and the shade figures is account ed for by the fact that there is always a sea breeze blowing, no matter what direction the wind conies from. With these sun tem peratures in midwinter, it is easy to sec why vegetation flo«™li« the year round, and it is a funny fact that some of the inhabitants of Nrtssau arc timid about visiting Now York in the middle of sum mer for fear of being sunstruck. Sunstroke is entirely unknown in the Bahamas, as well as in most other tropical places. The climate being thus disposed of, there remains |"11nmP°vr'an .question that everybody will ask, particularly all the ladies- What do the people do to amuse themselves? Arc there theatres, operas, churches, and the thousand and one things we have at home? There are no theatres, no operas, no great masked balls, no children's car nivals. Still amusements arc not lacking. They are of a different kind from ours, a more quiet kind, but they serve to pass away the time. There was a circus company here last winter, and of course it set the darkies wild. There are occasionally amateur theatricals, and I have read of a series of performances given in the Vendue House, by a company from London or New York, many years ago. The Vendue House is an open stone building in Bay Street, where public auctions are held. Operas, 1 think, arc never attempted. There are no great bazaars of dry goods stores for the ladies to go to, no bargain counters, no big candy shops to run away with your small change. But there are plenty of stores, and some very good ones. Bay Street, the principal business street, is lined on one side with stores for considerably more than a mile, and on the other side is the Atlantic Ocean. So the lack of metropolitan stocks of goods is perhaps compensated for by the fresh sea breeze. There are no cud of churches — Episcopal, Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist, Catholic, and I don't know how many others. My Lord the Bishop is the head of the Episcopal Church, which is connected with the government, as in England. There is a colored church in Grantstown, where the chorister boys are black as coals, and their appearance is very striking as lhey march up the aisles. I was out boating in the harbor one day, and my boat almost fouled a schooner lying at anchor. Looking up to see what was the matter, I was startled to see, just in front of me, the handsomest and trimmest vessel I had seen since leaving New York. It was a schooner yacht in perfect order, and shining like a new eoin. It looked just like some of the pleasure ships belong ing to New York yacht clubs, and I asked the boatman what it was. THE VENDUE HOUSE. "That," said he, "is the bishop's yacht." I was immediately reminded of the story of the Irish butler who was asked by his master what he would rather be, and immediately replied, " A bishop!" But Ihe yacht, I learned, is not for cither racing or pleasure purposes (how odd it would seem to be belting live to four ou the bishop's yacht!), but strictly for church work. The bishop's see extends over all these islands. Indeed he is the only bishop I know of who really has a see. (A sea, do you see?) It would be impossible for him to reach them in a carriage or a railway train, so he goes in a yacht. But the yacht is not merely a conveyance — it is also a church. The cabin is fitted up with pews and a pulpit, and when the bishop or his assistant reaches one of the small islands where there is no church, he rings the yacht's bell (a big one provided for the purpose), and the elect come aboard for prayers. Whether the saints are seated on the port side, and the sin ners to starboard, or vice versa, I do not know. But the nautical terms, it will be noticed, are peculiarly adapted to explaining tbe Scriptures to fishermen's families. The good, for instance, are sent aloft; the wicked are confined eternally in the hot and slimy hold, and fed on bilge-water. The chaplain is tbe pilot instead of the shepherd. The people are "my bully boys" instead of the flock. The minister can "belay there" and "shiver their timbers," and perhaps on great occasions even " — — their ejres," and make them understand every word. We were speaking about amusements. Where you can be out-of-doors every day in the year there ought to bo no trouble about amusements. And there is none. The roads are like our drives in the park, and every morning and evening they are thronged with carriages. You can drive here ten or fifteen miles right along the beach over a road like a floor. If you tire of driving there is boating. There are a number of excellent yachts, some m private hands, others to let. These little vessels will take 18 IN SUNNY LANDS: you anywhere — sailing, fishing, or picnicking. There are plenty of little islands about where parties can make themselves at home. "Marooning" parties, as they call them in Nassau, are in great fa vor. A number of ladies and gentlemen take a yacht and a lot of eatables, and go off to one of the other islands and spend Ihe day. The gentlemen have "hauling matches." They rendezvous at some house near the shore, where tliere is a good fishing-place, taking a seine and a good lot of "grub " along. They choose a time when the tide is right for fishing in the middle of the night, put on bath ing-clothes, and go into the water and make fishermen of themselves for two or three hours. This gives them fine appetites for break fast, and makes it necessary, I am informed, to take frequent small nips of brandy to keep off rheumatism. It looks strange at first to an American to see so much regard for form and etiquette in so small a place. But the wisdom of it soon shows for itself. If you go to call on the Governor you must be in full dress (I mean at one of his receptions), though it is in the mid dle of the day, and present two cards, one presumably to be tacked on the Governor's trunk next time he goes travelling, the other for some of the children who are making collections. We would hard ly have time for this sort of thing in New York, but in Nassau time is not so valuable, and strict etiquette helps make variety. It is safe to believe that the ladies find plenty of in-door amusements; and the gentlemen of Nassau are rarely at a loss of an evening. There are many little coteries for visiting one another's houses, and the time is passed pleasantly with just about the same amusements that we find under the same circumstances — cards, conversation, and cigars. One of the first of these stug-parties that I attended was in a large residence facing on Fleeming Square, wherein the collector of the port of Nassau, the Hon. J. A. Culbert, keeps bachelor's hall. It is a very large house for a bachelor to keep, but Mr. Culbert seems to have no difficulty in finding friends enough to keep it always filled. Overlooking the square and the military barracks on the front, and the sea and part of the city in the rear, it is a model nest for a bach elor of means and leisure. I had previously been told by my guide and friend that he desired particularly to introduce me to Mr. Cul bert, as the latter was noted for his courtliness and hospitality, to such an extent that he was known as "the Chesterfield of Nassau." Mr. Culbert has filled a number of high offices under the govern ment, is a magistrate as well as collector of the port, and has on more than one occasion been specially selected by the Queen to settle vexed questions in the neighboring islands. Under other circum stances I should hesitate to write what I learned about Mr. Culbert while a guest in his own house, but he is almost the first colored man in Nassau who has arrived at distinction, and that is a subject of particular interest in our own country. I found him one of the most pleasant and graceful gentlemen I have ever met, and spent a thoroughly enjoyable evening in his house. I never saw the folly of prejudice against a dark skin more thoroughly illustrated than in this evening in Collector Culbert's residence, when one would as soon have thought of objecting to the color of his cravat as to the color of his face. Mr. Culbert occupies an enviable position in Nas sau, both socially and officially, and I was particularly glad to be able to meet and have a talk with a real colored gentleman. CHAPTER VII. WATERLOO AND THE LAKE OF FIRE. We drove into the Waterloo grounds— a party of us, one evening, to attend a ball given by an American lady. It is perhaps a mile and a half from the Governor's residence, and we were hardly out of the carriage before I saw that Waterloo was a place worth visit ing. We stepped out upon a tiled veranda, and entered ari old-fash ioned parlor, in which a number of guests were assembled. Some where about the grounds an orchestra was playing. In the dining- room Mr. Morton's men had spread a tempting supper, and the ta bles looked all the better for the novelty of the room in which they stood, which I will describe presently. Every door and window in the house was open, though it was the last of February. At the front was a mass of flowers. Just visible outside were dim black faces and rows of shining eyes, for the darkies of the neighborhood had gathered to see the fine dresses and to hear the music. Mr. Darling, who was sitting on a sofa in the parlor when I arrived^ kindly offered to take me out to the lake— for all the other guests had been out to see it and had just returned. We went down the front steps, picking up a lighted lantern on the way, went through the flower-garden over a walk paved with blue and white tiles, and carefully made our way over to the boat-house, about fifty yards away. It was one of the darkest nights I ever saw, and without the lantern we must certainly have broken our necks. We went into tbe boat-house, a large stone building, and pushed out a heavy row- boat. Leaving the lantern behind we stepped into the boat; I took the oars and we pulled off. The first stroke gave me a fine start. There had not been any unusual appearance of phosphorescence oii the surface of the water more than is often seen on tropical seas. But as soon as the oars stirred it up they seemed to be dipped iii melted gold. There was actually fire there, I was compelled to think. While I was wondering at it a fish, startled by our splatter, darled across the pond near the surface, and in his trail was left a, streak of yellow fire, Then we saw at different places on the sur face little vapory clouds of fire flashing and darting about like the northern lights. "If you have a newspaper in your pocket, " said Mr. Darling, ' ' lay- it out on your lap and splash the water with botli oars, to see whether you can get light enough lo read by." I did so, anil was able to read the heading and all the large lines without difficulty. I took an oar then and splashed the water, and wherever a drop fell back into the lake was a round spot of fire. I began to feel a little solemn. There was something startling in see ing so much fire floating about. And I had not the faintest notion where we were. I had gone out upon an unknown lake in total darkness, and had no idea how large nor how deep it was, nor where the current, if there was any, might carry us. The lights of the house were visible, but that was the only landmark. "If you pull hard and watch the bow and stern of the boat," said Mr. Darling, "you will see something curious." I did so, and was well paid for the exertion. When a boat moves fast there is always a cutting of the water at the bow, and a little eddy left just behind the stern. That cutwater and that eddy were of flaming fire. More fish darted about, leaving fiery trails. In deed, wherever the water was agitated it turned apparently into fire. ¦j&w&asmmmmim;tt&m$ TROPICAL TWILIGHT. (After Bierstndt.) When the agitation ceased the fire disappeared, except that there was always a little sparkling upon the surface. We splashed and rowed and watched One of the most curious effects was to throw something from the boat to a distant part of the lake and watc lthl fire splash A fountain put in the centre of the lake wZd be a fountain of fire. We measured the depth with an oar and found it llal-Z ?r ?, 6 f°f ?hG laiCe is neady ^m *«* long and from 200 to 300 feet broad. As we floated around on its surface of ebon v 5?d£l?I-Mr- DarhnS toW me its history. It is an artificWl d "/ Mr. Williams, the former proprietor of Waterloo h vh^ bu t 1 to store green turtles in - from which I conclude that jfr W liams thought as much of a good dinner as he did of a fine 1 ouse T c plan was to buy the turtles alive and put them in m Z and le them increase in size and numbers, when they would ahvavs lJ» ready to be caught and eaten. Millions of fish could be kern. T t £ lake at the same time, and thus the occupant of Waterloo w, 1 't ways have a good dinner waiting in the yard Tin 1-, ¦,?•? i i ¦ V out of the solid rock, ami is only a few hundred f id from Hon'8 C1!1 It is connected with the sea by a small ca al a so V, r ,, "i00:'.1'" rock; and when the gate in this canal s lrft opm the ti de vlt U'i falls in the lake. It ts mentioned as a curious circumstn L f S,a,, d water in the lake can be changed as often as desbed withon? S " ing its phosphorescence. Various analyses of the »J W ''°y" made, but without any great results Vater have bccu We spent half an hour or more on the water and „m..,wi -i every conceivable way. When we went b-inir VAi , , lt "P '" landed, I was in no humor for goin| to a bdl ° "ft^f bouM ami thmg weird and almost appalling about the .Hquid lire tluMeftTn OUT-DOOR LIFE IN NASSAU AND CUBA. 19 impression. You feel such an impression upon seeing Niagara or the Mammoth Cave, though not so strongly. So I did a thing that "was as comfortable as it was impolite. 1 went out to a shadowy 'corner of the broad, tiled piazza, sat down in an easy-chair, and lit a cigar. There, with the refreshing sea breeze blowing hard against me, I had a chance to think over what I had seen. I had a chance to, I say, but still I could not. Somehow I did not quite seem to be in the same ¦world I had been in a few hours before. With this strange lake of Arc haunting me, music coining from among the flowers, the dancing with in, and all about this curious old res idence, I was not quite sure of my bearings. A cigar and a sea breeze, however, calm down such feelings, and in a short time my wonder was all curiosity, and I determined to have a look at the house and grounds. I was at liberty to go anywhere about, tbe house being empty ex cept for the occupancy of the host ess and guests at the ball, whose principal attention was given to the •drawing and dining rooms. The dining-room at Waterloo is a large room for a private bouse, the floor paved with tiles, and the walls, instead of boards or stone, being made of jalousie work, the large slats so arranged that they can be cither opened or closed. Thus Mr. West Indian sits and eats his green turtle and fresh pineapples with a cool sea breeze fanning him on the hottest day ; for of course in Nassau "whatever breeze blows is always fresh off the ocean. At one side of the dining-room is a curious rustic structure with a sort of bungalow appearance, also paved with the blue and white tiles. This little interior building is the butler's pantry; and when 1 first saw it tliere sat in it in state the aged colored woman who lived with her family on the place. The dining-room opens on the piaz za, into the family room, and into the yard. The piazza that runs across the fifty feet of front and down one. side of the house would be a good enough residence for a family in this warm climate. It is broad and comfortable, floored with red tiles, and makes a promenade about seventy-five feet loug. Doors open from it into the parlor and the family room, and also into a large room at the west end of the house, where, when I saw it, a private table was spread, and General Perkins and several other gentlemen were "sam pling" the salads and champagne. I soon found that room one of tho most comfortable in the house. Back of this is a second large pantry, with shelving and china closets enough to make a house -keeper happy. Be hind the dining-room is the water- tank (so big that it reminded me of the Forty -second Street reservoir), for catching and storing rain-water; and adjoining the tank a large bath room. Up- stairs the usual assort ment of sleeping-rooms. Like most houses in tropical countries, the kitchen at Waterloo is some dis tance from the main buildings. It is an immense affair, 1 should think nearly thirty feet square; and from this and the turtle-pond and the fine dining-room I conclude that the for mer occupants of Waterloo had prop er respect for the needs of the stom- ach When I prowled about the kitchen one of the occupants ot it showed me a large room adjoining, for the use of the female servants, and took me out to see the fowl -house, and pointed out the stable and carriage-house. Together with tho »»S "I""" >"•>*- house, all these buildings make quite a little village of Wateiloo. They are all, of course, built of the native stone, and have a solid, "everlasting" appearance. A space the width of the house and about one hundred feet deep is walled in, forming a flower-garden filled with the fragrant flowers of the tropics. Through the centre of this runs a broad walk of blue and white tiles, opening at the end of the garden upon a lawn, which extends to a terrace at the shore of the phosphorescent lake. At the sides of the terrace, beginning near the lake and running up to it, are heavy stone abutments, ending in thick square columns. 20 IN, SUNNY LANDS : and from one to the other of these runs a strong iron railing to keep people from falling into the lake. The grounds embrace about forty acres, upon which are growing cocoa-nuts and all sorts of palms, bananas, almonds, wild figs, limes, and oranges, and nearly all the tropical fruits. Tho vegetable-garden blooms and produces from January lo December, and fresh vegetables go through the big kitch en into Ihe cool dining-room every day in the year when tbe house is occupied. Perhaps a thousand feet from the mansion is the ocean. About the same distance on the east or right-hand side is the ocean again, for Waterloo, as I said before, is on a turn of the shore, and the ocean bathes two sides of it. It adjoins Fort Montagu, and here is Ihe great Nassau bathing-place, with'a beach us white and smooth as this paper, and waler safe and comfortable for bathing in on any morning of the year, whether it is December or February, Juue or August. The fort itself is an attractive neighbor, with its antiqua ted bastions and rusty guns. When I used to pull down there in the afternoons, I never could resist the temptation to go ashore and take a run on this smooth hard beach. The water here is partially protected from the full force of the wind tiy outlying islands, with in easy rowing distance, and these islands make the best of pic nicking grounds. In tramping about one of them one day I came upon the remains of an old round fort with some rusty iron cannon, and on another are little heaps of coal ashes, piled there by Confed erate cruisers during our war. Of course the water here is clear as crystal, as it is all about Nassau; and in going out to the neighbor ing little islands you see every inch of the bottom, with thousands of fish swimming about, ami turtles resting themselves on the rocks. The wuter is sufficiently sheltered to make sailing safe and pleasant, and sail-boats are always to be had. Not far from Waterloo are the wonderful sea-gardens, thousands of acres of marine plants growing out of the coral reef, forming one of the grandest and most beauti ful of natural sights. They should be visited in smooth weather and at low tide. The reefs come up, frequently out of deep water, to within a few feet of the surface, and are covered with sea plants that in this clear water present the appearance of the most brilliant and delicately tinted flowers. There are sea fans, sea rods, sponges, brain stones, and a thousand other varieties of plants and rocks. When the water is rough they can be seen through a "water glass," a square box without any top, and with a pane of glass set in the bottom. The bottom is immersed a few inches, and through the glass the bed of the ocean can be seen very distinctly, though the water may be fifty or sixty feet deep. But it is always better to choose a smooth day, when the glass is not needed. The fishing here is all that the most eager angler could wish for. Parties often come in, bringing boat-loads of handsome fish, and not infrequently a small shark or two, for trophies of a day's sport. There is no market in the world where fish are so plentiful or so well handled as the fish market of Nassau. The market is ou the shore of the har bor, on the north side of Bay Street. When I first saw Waterloo I was delighted with the place. And now that it has been my own residence for more than a year, I am better pleased with it than ever. The large picture of Fort Monta gu and the beach shows a piece of land belonging to the British Government, which has since been annexed to Waterloo by lease. CHAPTER VIIL MARKETING IN NASSAU. It is about a mile and a half from my place down to the town, and one morning I heard the butler telling one of the boys: "Here, White, go down town and get me half a pound of sugar; hurry up] now !" Half a pound of sugar costs two checks. As you may pos sibly be unacquainted with the coiu known as "a check," and may even be ignorant of the value of "a bit," I will explain the Nassau currency system, and at the same time say something about our own system of getting provisions up from the capital city of the Bahamas. The butler, to begin with, is variously known as Bethel, Bleeby, and Jacob. His name is Jacob Bethel, and I don't know where he picked up the nickname of Bleeby. Well, Bethel lives in Grants- town, where he has a house and a wife, and every evening about seven o'clock he starts for home, and walks back in the morning. Bethel has been the "curator" of the leading boat club here, and knows all about tbe varying tastes of the gentlemen of Nassau.' At six in the morning one of the boys brings Jack, the donkey, out of the orchard and makes him ready to go down town. Jack is a dis tinguished donkey, of handsome appearance, having been presented by a former governor of Nassau to one of the ladies of the city. But he developed an unfortunate habit of singing, until it became impossible to keep him in the city, and he had to be sent out of town. His voice is not soft, but it is very powerful. I do not con sider it melodious, but I am no judge of music. Night is his favor ite lime for having a concert, and he breaks out at the most unex pected lime with a bray that is startling till you become used to it The paniers are brought out of the pantry, a piece of bago-ing is tied on for u saddle, and away they go. Not, however down the drive, but over Jack's unvarying route. He is an obstinate scoun drel, and will go out of the yard by his own course, or not at all Nothing will do him but lo go over to the orchard wall follow it along to the kitchen, anil slop and look in u few seconds Ihromdi the always open door; then be trots off contentedly enmMi never stopping till he is down in the city, where all the people stare at him, and say, "There goes the Waterloo express!" I hardly won der that they stare, for it is certainly a curious turnout. It does not do for tho rider of a donkey to sit astride the middle of his back, as one does a horse; the donkey would not stir a step. 1 ho rider must be seated well back on the animal's shoulders, which makes him look awkward enough. Then the paniers would be a curiosity anywhere else. They are two large baskets, holding about a bushel each, soft enough to flatten down upon the donkey's sides, when empty, and connected at tbe top with a strap made of palmet to straw. AVhen fastened together they are thrown over Jack's back, and balance each other nicely. They were made by James, the gardener, out of palmetto straw grown on the place, and are good specimens of basket - making skill. The boy meets Bethel down in the market, the day's provisions are. loaded in, away they come back, the boy still riding the donkey, and Bethel on foot. I have taken all this time to describe the donkey and his outfit that you may picture to yourself his arrival in front of the dining-room door every morning, and the unloading of the paniers full of ice, vegetables, fish, and all sorts of eatables. There is always nearly the same dialogue when Bethel arrives. "Well, Bethel," I ask him, "how did you make out this morn ing?" "Oh, wery well this morning, sir; wery well. There's two good fish and a nice lot of wegetables. Couldn't get much dog's meat to-day, sir." (Please allow me to explain that "dog's meat" is not meat taken from a butchered dog, but uieat to be fed to a dog.) " Did you get some green turtle?" "No, sir; wasn't no turtle, sir; none in market." " Well, we'll make a list and see what it all comes to." And I take a pencil and piece of paper, and wait for Bethel to begin. "Ther's twenty -five pounds of ice, sir, fifty - two cents; and three lots of potatoes, at a check a lot, ninepence. " Here I strike one of the curiosities of Nassau marketing. These are not some rare variety of potatoes, but the ordinary white ones, such as we buy at home by the peck or bushel. Here in the market they lay them out in little piles, from four to six potatoes in a pile, each pile called "a lot," and sell them at "a'check a lot." "A check," as you ought to know, is " a big copper and a little one!" or in plain American, three cents, or one English penny and one Amer ican cent. They are American potatoes, too, and very good ones. Onions are sold in the same way — a check a lot; so are all kinds of vegetables, and most other things. The colored people have no idea of selling anything edible by the quantity. Anywhere from ten to fifteen women come up in the yard every morning, with trays on their heads, to sell all sorts of possible and impossible things — chickens, pigeons, eggs, potatoes, guavas, pineapples, bananas, okras, oranges, and what not. The other day a girl came along wilh a trayful of okras. She had about half a bushel of them, and as she set her tray on the door-sill and squatted down beside it, I asked her what she would take for the lot. She looked up surprised, and evi dently did not know what I meant. I explained it to her, and she began to lay them out in "lots," a handful to the lot, saying, " I can't tell, boss, till I measure them out!" But to go on with Bethel's list. "Two lots of onions," he contin ues, "sixpence; one pound white sugar, twelve cents; one pound brown sugar, eight cents; three quarts grits, fifteen cents; one quart of rice, eight cents; two fish (fine big ones, too), a shilling; plan tains, sixpence ; half a pound of butter, two bits and a check (a bit means nine cents; consequently, two bits and a check must be twenty - one cents) ; mixed herbs (a handful of thyme and dried parsley, and two or three small tomatoes and onions), two cents; a check's worth of lard; dog's meat, eighteen cents (enough for one day; unhappy man who tries to keep a big dog fat in Nassau') ¦ a quart and a half pint of kerosene oil, a bit and a small copper." "How's de boss, dis mawnin'?" A minute ago I heard a shuf fling on Ihe stones outside the dining-room door, and hero is tbe cause of it — a coal-black young lady from Fox Hill, with a tray ful of vegetables, fruits, and eggs on her head, which she lays down on Ihe edge of the tiled floor, getting down ou her knees be fore it. She has sold me things before, and 1 know her by the name of Mawmee. " Well, I'm pretty well this morning, Mawmee," I tell her "how are you?" ' " Oh Use very well dis mawnin', praise God," she replies, and be gins to lay her wares out on the floor in lots, expecting me to buv at least a check s worth of each. "Don't the boss want no nice pears dis mawnin'?" she asks \ es, the boss has to have some pears— nice ripe ones, soft and iuicv But do not imagine Bartletts or Seckcls or big California pears' 1 ears in Nassau are quite a different thing. They are of the kind known in the tropics as alligator pears, and no other kind grow here lhey look more like small green pumpkins than anything else I can compare them with. They are about as large as a smaTl musk- melon and look very much like that fruit. To prepare them for tlie table they are cut into slices, like a melon. There are no seeds inside, but a large stone, as big nearly as your fist. When the near is ripe this rattles inside before you cut it. When the pear is cut the stone drops out, and is thrown away. Outside the nlli"-Uor ncar is either green or purple; inside it is a pale yellow. And do vou bite into a juicy specimen, as we do into our own delicious pc'irs" aPS look for one ill some old w omen s home '—one who has not a relative on the face of the earth who will acknowledge her. Grits are, in my opinion, fit companions for that flat fraud oat meal I should be glad if I had never tasted anything to spoil my appetite for such wholesome dishes, for I think they would be whole some and know they would be cheap. But having eaten better lungs I am content to let grits and oatmeal wend (he'll- we-irv w , v homeward without the pleasure of my company. 1 concur'bearli v in the opinion of Mr. Matthew Booker, a mason who built two verv large stone pillars for me at the front gate. I can see Mr Booker at OUT-DOOR LIFE IN NASSAU AND CUBA. 23 this minute, and hear his always jolly voice as he stood one morning leaning against the stone wall, tin' pall in hand, eating a frugal break fast of boiled grits. He had just been telling me that working peo ple in Nassau could not make more than enough to live on. "Now just look a-here, boss, what sort of stuff a man has to cat here." (Mouth full of grits, which he was rapidly grinding finer.) Why, '"taint fit for hawgs. You know that yourself, boss; this stuff ain't no more'n tit to feed to hawgs. Why, I've been over in New Orleans, and 1 didn't see nobody eulin' grits there at all— not a soul. Over there, that's some sort of a country to live in, and they feed grits and corn to the hawgs, but they don't cat it theirselves." _ It is necessary for all sorts of provisions to bo sold in small quan tities, for a large majority of the colored people have no money but what they earn from day to day, and a still larger majority, if 1 may so express it, don't earn anything from day to day. For work is ter ribly scarce. If it were a country like ours, where people have to scratch fur a living, there would be, a famine here. There is very little agriculture except on the smallest scale. There are plenty of cocoa-nut fields, but they do not require much labor. The canning factory employs some people, and of course there are always more or less outside jobs to be done, but work is still hard to find. Laborers get fifty cents a day and mechanics one dollar. And they do not, as a rule, earn any more than they get. If I wanted a thousand laborers at Waterloo, to-morrow, at fifty cents a day, 1 would have no trouble in getting them; or women will weed the grounds for thirty cents a day. Even at those rates, I am told on good authority, "it is the most expensive labor in the world." In cleaning and weeding land they use the Spanish macheta, a cutlass about two feet long, and do everything with this, whether chopping or digging, instead of mak ing the fur fly with an axe and a hoe, as our laborers would. I mention this because it is a fact — not by any means to accuse the colored people here of more laziness than is natural to them; for I fully believe what a very intelligent colored carpenter said to me the other day: "A man can't do as much work here in this climate as he can in yours, sir." I don't think he can; at any rate, I know that about an hour of it under tbe midday sun would put me beyond the benefit of clergy. It does not seem so very hot, but it is wilting. There are great quantities of provisions raised in Fox Hill in the tiniest of gardens. They are all carried down to market on trays on women's heads. The distance is two and one-half miles, or five miles for the round trip ; and women and girls often start out with a stock of goods that cannot possibly bring them more than "a bit and a check." I frequently have little boys trudge down here from Fox Hill, about a mile, to sell me two eggs. Eggs sell invariably at three cents each at this season, and are said to be going up. The next price, I suppose, will be "a check and a small copper," four cents; and then I know somebody who will stop buying them. I can't af ford to waste my money buying eggs at four cents apiece, when I can get one hundred very passable cigars for one dollar. I don't think it would be right. One day we were putting some molasses in the whitewash to "set" it and prevent it from rubbing off. (A pint of molasses to two gallons of whitewash, if you want to know exactly how it's done.) I rubbed my hand over a dry place that had been whitened, and the lime rubbed off a little. "That doesn't seem to set it very well," I said to Bethel. "Did you see the boy put the molasses in?" he asked. " I put it in myself," I answered. " Why?" ' ' Because, " said Bethel, ' ' if you didn't watch him put the molasses in, he'd drink it." CHAPTER IX. IN THE LONG GALE. I nAVE met Ham Peggotty; not in the pages of "David Copper- field " where Ham and I became fast friends many years ago, but in real flesh and blood, fresh out of his own boat, and walking across my beach. I knew him the minute I saw him, and spoke to him. There is, I am satisfied, only one real Ham Peggotty in the world, and he has been in my house and has eaten dinner with me. It was during "the long gale," in the fall of 1884, which stood by us for five days, and in alfthat time tliere were only a few hours when one could walk out in the streets with comfort. But it passed off quiet ly without doing more than carrying away a few shingles. Seven vessels were anchored in the bay, just off my beach cottage, with their anchors set in the sand— three schooners and four sloops. I hey were all from that part of the Bahamas known as "the Current. The folks aboard them were black and while and yellow and olive, and all imaginable colors. They were men, women, and children. On board the fishing-smacks they must have led— the women espe cially—a miserable life. The space between the deck and the plank ing was not more than three and one-half feet in the largest boats anil there they had to live, young and old, white and black, male and female, without much regard for comfort or decency. Seeing this fleet anchored off my beach, and smelling the cedar-wood smoke from their galley Arcs in the evening, early in the gale I had a few necessaries and comforts carried down to the beach cottage and took up my temporary residence there. It w-as through this that I fell in with Ham Peggotty. There was one hshing-smack brighter and shapelier than all the rest, so neat and clean that I a most thought of buying her for a pleasure boat. I watched her under tbe setting sun when the wind was trying to drive her nose into the sand (my sand). I sat and looked at her an hour afterwards, when it was dead dark — I ou the piazza smoking a cigar, she half on the beach and half in tho water, a bright little fire burning in some pan or other on her deck, and her black crew singing a sailor's song. I watched her afterwards, somewhere about midnight, under the bright moonlight, when the wind, blowing harder than ever, made the ribs of tbe cottage groan and woke me up. Blow! My dear sir, you never saw the wind blow, not if you have lived always in New York. The outer walls of that beach cottage arc made of good solid inch-thick pine boards; and for five nights enough wind blew through those boards to put out a lamp. Every night we had to surround the lamp with screens, or else, wilh all the doors and win dows tight closed, it was blown out. We sat down to the table one evening to play a game of euchre, and with everything shut we could not keep the cards from blowing off the table. It came right through the side of the house. I watched the smack again in tbe morning, when she was bobbing about like a sprig of sea-weed, and the rising sun was turning all her pine spars into silver and gold. It is seldom we miss a sunrise here, for it is the finest time of day. Having spent the morning at the beach, watching the sloops and schooners and their odd crews, dinner-time arrived — say about four in the afternoon. I started to go up to the other house for a square meal, for the brisk wind right off the ocean had made me hungry. As I walked over the sand in front of the piazza Ham Peggotty loomed up before me. Five feet one or two inches high, with a bronzed and reddened face, as round as the full moon, with a thick fringe of iron-gray hair far under his chin, with no coat, with a straw hat, with a pair of linen trousers, with no shoes — I submit that the geological specimen I found on the beach was the exact counterpart of the gentleman whom Mr. Dickens immortalized. He was walking towards me, and, according to the custom of the coun try, he said, "Good-evening, sir." "Good -evening, "said I. "Do you belong on that neat little sloop?" " Rather," said he; "I'm the captain of her." I knew him in an instant. The same Ham Peggotty whose ac quaintance I made twenty years ago, before I had ever seen a ship or a sailor or a beach. But there he was, as large as life. I resolved immediately to cultivate his acquaintance, for Ham Peggottys are not met every day, as anybody knows. " You're having a pretty rough time of it out here," I said to him. "If you smoke, and will come up to the house with me, I have some cigars." "I don't mind, sir," said he, "if it's not too far." I assured him it was the nearest house, the one he could plainly see. standing on the bluff, and we started for it. On the way up he told me all about his boat, himself, his crew, his neighbors, and the fishing business. The sloop was new, he said, not more than a year and a half old. She was as good a little smack as ever sailed, only she had one fault. Her owner, unfortunately, could not afford to copper-fasten her, and she was put together with iron bolts, which in time would rust. Yes, she was as fine a little boat as anybody could want, and worth about three hundred and fifty dollars. If she were copper-fastened she would be worth four hundred dollars. Oh yes, it was a hard life, this fishing for a living, and not much money in it. Here was his family at home, not knowing whether ho was safe on shore or lying on the bottom of the ocean. And here was sixty miles of raging sea between them that no small boat could live in. But he hoped to be home with his wife by the first of next week, though nobody could tell, bless God. No, he did not own any share in the boat. He used to own his own boat, but he lost her, and now had to work for wages. " Yes, sir, it's a hard life, and a wearin' life, and a thankless life, this fishin' for a livin'. But it makes us a livin', and that's as much as we have hany right to ex pect, I s'pose." So we talked on till we reached the house, and sat down in the tiled dining-room and lit our cigars. Barefooted, coat- less, browned and seamed with the sun and wind, with absolutely no idea of the great world that lies beyond the Bahama bank, there was a good deal of the man about my captain. I had no idea of quizzing him, but listened with interest to what he told me about "the outer islands," the hurricanes, the fishing business, and him self. They all came from "the Current," he said, and as he added that the population of that metropolis is about seventy-five, I conclude that half the inhabitants al least must have been on those seven vessels. If I went down that way this winter, as I told him I hoped to do, he assured me I would find "a fine country that ought to be built up." Presently, after we had smoked and talked, and talked and smoked again, Bethel announced that dinner was ready. Suddenly it struck me that if it was desirable to have a visit from Ham Peggotty, it must be so much the better to have him to dinner. So ltold the captain we were just about to dine, and asked him whether he would not stay and cat with us. " I don't mind," said he, "if I do. But I'm afraid I have hardly clothes enough on to stay anywhere to dinner." I told him that made no matter at all, and at the same time sent one of the boys to bring me a coat — for here, with no ladies about, we wear no more clothes than are really necessary, except when we sit down to table. " Now, there you have me," said the captain. " YTou see I have 24 IN SUNNY LANDS: no coat with me, and I don't like to sit down to a gentleman's tabic in my shirt-sleeves." "Don't let that worry you," I told him, and instantly sent a boy for another coat for the captain. "Bui," I could not resist telling him, " some gentlemen never dine except in full dress. Now, 1 have a dress suit very handy, and you can just as well wear it al dinner as not. If you'll feel any more comfortable in it don't hesitate to say so." But the captain assured me he would be much more comfortable in the coat he then had on, and I could not help but believe him. It would have been worth a year's growth if I could only have got Ham Peggotty in to dinner in a dress suit. After dinner we parted, and not long afterwards, tbe gale having subsided, and the water be ing smooth again, like one of the original Ham's friends, "he went out with the tide." Nassau dogs are the most fearful and wonderful productions of nature. They have a wistful, hungry look about the eyes, and an all-gone thin appearance about the flanks that gives them an air of feeding on wind, and the air in a dead calm. But we have a dog here on the place that goes a little ahead of anything in the dog line I ever saw. He belongs to the cook, and the boys say they are nev er sure whether he is a snake or a dog, he is so thin. He is a cur of the currest kind, black and gray, but an affectionate little rascal, and a good watchdog, for he barks at night on the smallest provo cation. His name is Jack. You know down here sponges are as plentiful us apples ul home. They wash dishes with them, and use them for every imaginable purpose, so there are always bits of old sponge lying about. You might go out in my back yard and pick up half a bushel of thein in ten minutes. Well, Jack eats sponges. Of course you will laugh at this; but I pledge my solemn word that I went out into the yard one day and saw Jack eating a sponge, and he seemed to enjoy it. No doubt his idea was to cram himself full of sponge, then go off somewhere and take a big drink of water, and thus swell himself out to a respectable well - fed size. I have re spected Jack more ever since. He lies around, poor fellow, waiting for some kind wind to blow him a bone. The only really honest meal I have known him to have since he came was one day during the gale. The kitchen is about a block from the house; and Bethel was bringing a big plate of toast in for breakfast when he was struck by a sudden squall and a shower of buttered toast went fly ing over the garden wall. Jack scented it from afar, and gobbled the toast in a minute. Speaking of the cook, I can't let last Sunday's dinner go by with out mention — it brought about such a frightful calamity. I thought I had employed Betsey to be my cook pro tern., but find I chartered the whole family; and lhey divided the cooking up among them at their own sweet will. Betsey's husband, Brown, is cook on a schoon er, and one day he was home, and on Sunday I suppose it was his turn to do my cooking. At uny rule he did it. 1 had jusUhree or four fine heads of lettuce in the garden, which I was raising with great care. The seed we sowed was not good, and only a few plants came up, but they were beautiful ones, white and crisp. On Sun day morning, prowling about the garden, my eye rested on the let tuce, and I determined to have a treat for Sunday's dinner, and pulled up all the lettuce and handed it to Brown through tbe kitch en window. Brown, as I afterwards learned, handed it to Bethel, who happened to bo at work in the kitchen, saying, "Here's something the boss brought in, to be put in the soup." "Oh, nonsense," said Bethel. "That's not for the soup. Put that to one side." But at dinner, when I was just getting my mouth set for a salad, and was inquiring for the oil, Bethel froze the blood in my veins by announcing, " Brown's boiled the lettuce, sir!" I had been seven weeks raising it, and Brown boiled it to death in five minutes. There are so many thousands of people in New York who would like to get out of the ice and slush of a northern winter— many of them people whose health urgently demands a trip to a warmer cli mate, but who know only too well that they cannot afford the ex pense of spending a mouth or two at a fashionable hotel. Amon«- young men, especially, there are vast numbers who would flit south" ward for a while in winter if they could afford it. Why, I know a hundred newspaper "boys," at least, who would shake tlie snow of New York from their feet if they could, and do themselves good in every way by sandwiching a few weeks of summer into the middle of winter. " How can a man take $100 or $150," 1 asked myself "and stretch it out over from one to three mouths in a warm cli mate—say from the beginning of January to the beginning of April''" And I honestly believe that a few thousand people in New York will be glad lo learn that I think I have solved this neut little problem When I put m two weeks at thinking about anything you've no idea what a tremendous amount of thinking 1 can do. I sometimes be lieve it really makes the wind blow harder when I begin to think in dead earnest. But here's what I have thought: Oyer in Florida I spent some very happy hours in a house built of saplings and thatched all over with palmetto leaves Here in Nas suu are a lot of native Africans, who can make the handsomest thatch m the world-just such a thatch as their little homes in Africa are covered wilh. It is really the most sensible house-coverin.r for this climate. No rain, nor wind, nor heat, nor cold, nor moisture nor anything else can go through it. It keeps off the sun, and makes as healthy and comfortable a house as anybody could want. Here I have a few thousand young saplings fit for the purpose, and any quantity of palmetto leaves. Why not put up some palmetto houses, and make a place where any number of companionable young men (or old men, for that matter) from New York can come out and spend a pleasant month or two camping in the Bahamas? And to show you that I was thinking in earnest 1 put a man at work building such a house, just to see what he could do with it, and how much it would cost. I am in love with that house already, and have determined to make it my head-quarters for writing and sleeping whenever I am here this winter! For it is a regular Robinson Crusoe house that any young fellow fond of adventure might fall in love with. It is exactly twelve feet square to begin with— I surveyed the laud myself wilh a foot rule. It has four very solid posts, one at each corner, of the wood called here "horse-flesh " — a wood as solid and heavy as mahogany. It is six and a half feet high at the caves, and the roof runs up to a peak, for all the world like the pictures of one of Robin son Crusoe's houses, till it is ten feet high inside. To the framework are lashed smaller pieces to which the thatch is to be fastened, till the whole edifice looks like an overgrown crockery crate. There are four doors, one at each cardinal point of the compass, to give a good circulation of air whatever way the wind blows. The corner posts are set into the rock, and the whole thing is so firm tmd strong that two men walk over the roof at once. When it is thatched it will be as dry and as habitable as any house in Nassau. Il would not, per haps, be desirable for a permanent residence, but who can imagine anything nicer than a little settlement of such houses for a party of young New Yorkers out on a camping expedition in the Bahamas? To a man who likes camp life and can cook (and I never feel more at home than when I have a camp-fire and a frying-pan in front of me), there is nowhere on earth, I firmly believe, to equal this place. But I must not say too much about the pleasures of winter-life in Nassau, or you'll be thinking that I'm urging you to come down here; and I'm not. I'm only making the vaguest kind of a sugges tion. CHAPTER X. NASSAU, PAST AND PRESENT. There was a time when Nassau belonged to the United States, and the Stars and Stripes floated over Fort Charlotte and Fort Mon tagu. It has been in the hands of the Spaniards, the British, the Americans, and of a gang of pirates. There are accounts of the landing of Columbus on the island of New Providence in 1492, but their accuracy is disputed. Whether Columbus ever saw the place or not, the early history of Nassau is lively and romantic. Nobody can quite tell whether tbe Spanish navigator's first landing was on Watliug's Island or San Salvador. But it does not make much dif ference which. Neither island is more than two hundred and fifty miles from Nassau; and if Columbus had known how near he was to that lively' town, no doubt he would have gone ou and wintered there. The Spaniards found the Bahama Islands peopled by a mild and handsome race of savages, differing widely from the neighbor ing Caribs. They were peaceable, friendly, and easily imposed upon ; and King Ferdinand, according to history, took the entire lot of them forcibly over to Spain and made them work in the mines. It is easy to predict the result of this. They had never been used to work of any kind, and in a few years they were all dead. For some thing like half a century succeeding, the Bahamas were without in habitants; and it is sad to think how many cocoa-nuts, pineapples and fat green turtles went to waste in those fifty years. In 1007' more than a century after the discovery by Columbus, an English captain sailed into the harbor of Nassau and gave the island its name New Providence, to commemorate his escape from shipwreck I suppose there had been a hurricane, and this English captain had "sworn off" all his vices if Providence allowed him to see laud again. Ou Ihe strength of his landing there England claimed the entire Bahamas, and a grant was made of them to three or four dukes, earls, and other gentlemen wilh lilies. These gentlemen to whom the islands wero granted, were also tbe " proprietors" of Car olina, and thus the Bahamas became first cousins, by marriace to the United btates. ° It was while Carolina and the Bahamas belonged to the same owners that Nassau and the other islands fell inlo the hands of pi- rales. Here lhey made llieir headquarters, and waged upon the com merce o the world a warfare second only to that made by the blood thirsty Algennes. Their vessels were small, and well adapted to run ning into the bays and coves lo be found everywhere, and for many years even the English could not drive them out. Tbe boss pirate ot diem ul was^Edward Trench, an Englishman, who was known as blackboard. He started out as a privateer, and soon developed into a real pirate, with a small licet under his command He made every effort to convince his followers that he was a voting devil and succeeded admirably. It was one of his favorite amusements to'shut himself in the cabin with bis chief men, make the place suffocutin"- with the fumes of sulphur, turn out the lights, and tire his pistols n't random among his friends. This jolly companion was at last capt ured and killed in one of the inlets off the coast of North Carolina and the Bahama pirates were scattered. The motto on the Bahama coat-of-arins, " Expulsis Piratis, Restitutiu Oommerciu," is an ollicial memorial of these old piratical days. After they were subdued and OUT-DOOR LIFE IN NASSAU AND CUBA. 25 were put in the way of making comparatively honest livings by fish ing and wrecking, the pirates formed an important part of the in habitants of Nassau. There was a governor named Cbillingworth, in 1670, whom they did not like, so lhey put him in a vessel atid shipped him off to Jamaica. Seven years later the virtuous and moral Span iards were so incensed at the piratical deeds of the Bahamians that they made a raid upon Nassau, captured the Governor, whose name was Clark, carried him over to Cuba, and roasted him alive. Unfort unately, the particulars of this barbecue have been lost. Roast gov ernor ought to be a rare dish, and I wish I could tell precisely how it should be prepared. The Spaniards at the same time burned all the houses they could find ou New Providence ; and it was not till 1694 that the inhabitants " built a small town of one hundred and sixty houses, which they called Nassau." This was the beginning of the prosperous city of Nassau of to-day. About the beginning of the eighteenth century the French and Spaniards made a raid upon Nassau, captured the fort, burned most of the houses, and car ried a number of prisoners to Havana. The British Government at last bought out the proprietary lords for sixty thousand dollars, and "peace reigned supreme for seventeen years." (This touching sen tence is borrowed.) In 1741 the foundation of Fort Montagu, the old fort adjoining Waterloo Place, was laid. It was in 1782, when the independence of the United Slates was established, that Nassau first became known as a health resort. A great many of the inhabitants of Georgia and the Carolinas retained their affection for the mother country aud their loyalty to its gov ernment. These good people suddenly found tbe American climate unhealthy, and were compelled to remove to a more genial atmo sphere, wluch they found in tho Bahamas. Many of them took their slaves with them, and established beautiful plantations on the islands, which made ideal homes but never paid. They did not un derstand either the soil or the climate, and soon ran themselves into bankruptcy. Everywhere the remains of their estates can be seen, fine stone walls surrounding the lands. Descendants of their slaves are still on the islands, about as wealthy now as when they were first freed. For the last hundred years the history of the Bahamas has been uneventful. Life there has been as placid as a summer sea; there have been no wars nor rumors of war; the cocoa-nut trees have grown larger and taller; the cemeteries have increased some what in size; tides have been rolling on, hurricanes sometimes blowing, trade-winds fanning the shores, but there has been no ex citement, except in the four years of our American war, when tbe harbor was full of ironclads, the city was not half big enough to hold the people, and business rushed like a lightning express. But those days have been over for twenty years, and Nassau is again taking a siesta. Happy, thrice happy land, where there are no pres idential elections ; where it is never discovered that either of the can didates cheated a blind apple-woman when he was a boy! This is a correct history of Nassau and the Bahama Islands. I know it is trustworthy, because I got most of the data for it out of the Nassau almanac, and out of Mr. Ives's book on Nassau, entitled "The Isles of Summer." This last-named work I have a fancy for, perhaps on account of the gilt on the binding. One paragraph in it, in the pref ace, is slartlingl'y life-like. " While treading the deck of a New York and Savannah steamer," writes Mr. Ives, "after having been a day or two at sea, and while gazing with a pleasing awe upon an ocean, mysterious, restless, and sky-bound," he heard, like the author of Revelation, a voice saying unto him, " Write!" and "without paus ing to think or inquire whether the injunction came from Heaven or elsewhere, he obeyed with alacrity." Singular coincidence! I also hear a voice, Mr. Ives. "While treading the floor of a boarding- house back-room, after having been a day or two too lazy to write (these being the dog-days), and while gazing with pleasing awe upon a quire of 'untouched letter-paper that should long since have been transformed as it were, into a letter from Nassau, I hear, like the aforesaid author, a voice saying ' Write!' " But it is nothing like the voice in Revelation, Mr. Ives. It is a deep bass voice, a six-foot voice a voice to make a livid corpse turn pale; no still, small voice, but a lively, big voice — the voice of a managing editor, in short, inquiring ' ' Is this Friday, and that Nassau copy not in yet ! That s the kind of voice to make you hump yourself and write " with alac rity," my dear Mr. Ives. Wc have then a city of about 14,000 inhabitants, lying snugly on a hill beside the sea, that bus not changed materially in a century, nor turned a hair in twenty years. What keeps it alive? It is quiet and peaceful and when it invites Northerners to come down and en- iov themselves in winter, it is not to emulate the social excitement of a metropolis, but rather lo find that, rest and quiet lor which city people continually long, and which they seldom discover. It is a ulace I will tell you confidentially, where nothing can ever worry vou ' Anything you want and expect will do just as well to-morrow as to-day, just as well next week as to-morrow. There is rest m the air, repose in every breeze, tranquillity on the wings of the trade- wind hat springs up every afternoon. I remember that after wnt- mg a letter there one day it took me four days to raise energy to mail it, though the Post-office was only a block away. _ Certainly it could not have been on account of the trouble of walking there, be cause I used to walk three or four miles every morning before break fast It was because one day was just as good as , another for it Tliere was no hurry, for no mail went out for a week. The climate £ not hot enough to be enervating, but everything is quiet and rest- fui, and the incentive is towards repose rather than exertion. Happy relief, to find such a country after living in New Yorkl It is only in comparison with one of the northern cities that I speak of Nassau as being quiet. For a West India place it is a lively city. It has a great many business houses, a fine market, good public institutions, churches without number. Go out early in the morning and take a half -hour's walk through the streets, and you will meet more people than you would at the same hour in many parts of New York. But they are deliberate people, going along as if they had not a care in the world, and worried not about when they would reach their des tination, if, indeed, they would trouble themselves to have any des tination. Being the capital city of the Bahamas, the only city and only considerable town for a population of about 35,000, Nassau has a good deal of "back country" to draw upon. The products of all the other islands come to Nassau for sale or shipment. If there are pineapples to be sent to New York, or cocoa-nuts, or vegetables, or oranges, or sponges, they first reach Nassau, unless they are taken direct to their destination in small sailing-vessels; for New Provi dence is the only one of the Bahama Islands that lias regular steam communication with the outside world. Speaking of oranges, I was surprised the other day, in looking over tho New York Custom-house reports (as I frequently do on warm days, for light reading), to sec that in 1882 there were shipped from Nassau 1,924 barrels and two entire cargoes of oranges, making a total of 1,095,050 oranges. There were also shipped from tliere, in the same year, two cargoes and 897 barrels of pineapples, comprising 229,748 pineapples. This will give some idea of how fruits grow in these rocks. But there is no single industry of so much financial importance to Nassau, I think, as the sponge fisheries. Nassau is the great point of export for sponges in the Western Hemisphere. A large number of men and vessels are engaged in the business, and all the sponges of the Bahamas are taken to Nassau and go through the " sponge market" before being exported. " Sponging" is a regular business in Nassau, of such large proportions that a Sponge Exchange has been established, governed by rules on the plan of the Stock Ex change; and to do a sponge business successfully in Nassau a firm must be represented in the Exchange. Sponge is an important thing in Nassau. It is plenty, of course, and cheap. You see sponges ly ing in the streets and kicking about the wharves that in New York wc would have to pay fifty cents or a dollar for. Wherever sponge can bo "used in place of cotton or woollen cloths it is used. Kitchen maids use sponges for " dishcloths," and frequently the seat in a boat is nothing but an immense sponge as big as half a barrel. Windows are invariably washed with them, glasses polished with them, and they are used for almost every conceivable purpose. Around the hotel in the winter are always two or three "boys " with long strings of them, trying to sell them to the Americans. Hardly any visitor leaves Nassau without taking a box of them along. Next time you go into a drug store and pay a dollar for a little bit of a bath sponge console yourself with knowing that you could buy one just like it m Nassau for five cents. I bought a string of about fifteen sponges, that stretched out far higher than my head, for " one-and-six, or thirty-seven and a half cents. They make very fine presents to give to your friends when you get home, they arc so cheap, and a sponge is more valuable when you know it has just been brought by somebody you know from the sponge fisheries. Some of the servants about the hotel understand the knack of pressing sponges, and for a trifling con sideration will take a bushel of sponge and pack it in a cigar box. This does the sponge more good than harm, so they say, and makes it firm and solid. The sponging fleet is composed of small schooners ranging from ten to forty tons, or even smaller. Each schooner carries from four to six men, and makes periodical trips out to the sponge beds. Arouud Abaco, Andros Island, and Exuma arc some of the principal fisheries; there arc hardly any of value in the immediate vicinity of Nassau. The men do not dive for them, as sponge fishers in the Mediterranean do, but use long-handled things like oyster-tongs to fish them out of the water. They do not " go it blind " and probe in the mud, like oystermen; in this clear water they can see every inch of the bottom, make up their minds what sponges to take, and seize hold of each one carefully, detach it from the rock to which it clings, and lift it into the boat. They are not the nice, delicate, light-colored things we see in shop windows. When first taken from the water they look and feel more like a piece of raw liver than anything else I can compare them with. They arc slippery, slimy, ugly, and smell bad. Their color is generally a sort of In-own, very much like the color of gulf-weed, only a little darker. Most people are taught, in the days of their freshness and innocence, that the sponge is an ani mal, and when they visit Nassau they expect perhaps lo see sponges swimming about the harbor, if indeed they do not surprise some of the more athletic ones climbing trees or making little excursions over the hills. But they are disappointed when they learn that the animal part disappears entirely long before the sponge reaches a market; and that the part we use for mopping up fluids is only his house, the many-roomed residence in which he sheltered himself while at sea — a regular marine tenement-house, built with great skill and architect ural precision, in which many of the little beasts lived and died. After the sponges reach the deck of the vessel they are cleaned and dried and go through a curing process. They then become the sponges of commerce, and are divided into eight varieties in the Ba hamas. Some, called "lamb's-wool," or "sheep's-wool," are as fine 26 IN SUNNY LANDS: and soft as silk and very strong. Others, although large and perhaps tough, are coarse and comparatively worthless. Tliere are, too, bou quet sponges, silk sponges, wire sponges, and finger and glove sponges. The process for curing them, I believe, is to keep them on deck for two or three days, which "kills" them. Then they are put in a crawl and kept there from eight to ten days, and are afterwards cleaned and bleached in the sun on the beach. When they reach Nassau the roots are cut off, and the sponges are trimmed and dressed for exportation. Nearly every darky in Nassau understands how to do this trimming part. The symmetry of the sponge must be pre served as much as possible, and if there are any places where coral sand has adhered to the sponge, those places must be cut out, for no amount of skill or care will get rid of sand in a sponge, and the sand HOME Ol'' THE Hl'ONUE. is sure to scratch anything it touches. The trimming is generally done very expertly, so that a novice would hardly see that a sponge had been cut. The Nassau sponge market is a large, open building, long and narrow, without any side walls. When the sponge vessel reaches the city her cargo is all sorted out into the various qualities, and the sponges are put in piles along the sides of the market, the piles sometimes three or four feet high. Each pile, cither from its posi tion in the market or from a label attached to it, is known to belong to some definite owner. Two or three or perhaps a dozen vessels come in during the day, and their cargoes are deposited in the mar ket. When the place is opened, at nine o'clock every morning, all the sponge dealers in Nassau, or their representatives, are assem bled. Each member of the Exchange is provided with little slips of paper bearing the numbers of the different lots of sponges. A mem ber goes up to one of the little heaps, looks it over, makes a mental estimate of the quantity and quality of the sponges in it, decitles just how much he will be willing to give for it, and puts the figures down on the paper corresponding with that lot, with his initials at the bottom. Then he goes on to the next lot and does the same thing there. If there are any sponges he does not want he does not bid on them. When he has visited all the piles of sponges and made estimates of their value, and all the other dealers have done the same, the papers containing the estimates or bids of the various members are handed to tho clerk of the market, and he looks them over. It takes him only a few minutes lo ascertain who is tbe high est bidder on each lot, and he reads off the purchasers and prices and the day's business is done. The highest bidder on each lot, of course, is the purchaser, and it is remarkable to see how close the bids often are. I went down one morning at. the kind invitation of a member of the Exchange and saw the whole process. I was shown a number of the bids after the sales were made, and in sever al instances there was a difference of only a farthing in the offers for piles of sponge worth from £5 to £10. By long practice the Nassau sponge dealers have come to know at a glance what a lot of sponge is worth. A novice going into the market, of course, would not have the remotest idea of the val ue of a lot; and even years of practice would hardly enable a man to compete with the dealers who have been brought up to the business, and who know sponges as a Wall Street man knows stocks — frequently better. Everything in Ihe sponge market is quiet _ and orderly. It stands on one of the wharves, BBlgjjljB|lgg with the end of the building reaching up to the water, and on the morning of my visit, when it was raining (that was the only rainy day 1 saw in Nassau), there was a brisk wind blowing that made it delightfully cool, and was enough lo cause a Northern visitor to envy the sponge dealers of Nassau. The chief city of the Bahamas is, in one respect at least, in a peculiar position. Be ing under the British Government, with a governor appointed by the Queen, wilh a Parliament and English institutions through out, and with its money alwa3rs legally reck oned in pounds, shillings, and pence, its only regular and frequent steam communication is wilh New York. All her business, or nearly all, is done with New York. When her people want to make a journey they come to New York. Even if they are go ing to Europe, they come to New Yfork first, Thus the people, while always thor oughly loyal to Ihe Queen and her govern ment, are becoming every year lnore'Amei- icau iu their ideas and habits. American currency has made its way to Nassau and has mixed itself up with the pounds and shillings, till you never know when a price is reckoned by the shilling whether an Eng lish shilling or a "York" shilling is meant. A greenback is just as good as a Bank of England note, and there is no discount on either. The condition of things is almost as anomalous here as in some of the Chan nel Islands, which, while under the author ity of the British Government, do all their business with Paris and use the French lan guage. In the heart of the city, where some of the streets are narrow, the appearance of things is decidedly foreign. Some of the buildings there look like Quebec houses, oth ers like Spanish houses, and others have an English air. Over it all the white stone and the while streets and the tropical trees and plants throw an air decidedly West Indian. CHAPTER XI. "BOSS, DOES YOU WANT A BOY?" The Nassau Government not long ago offered a nrize to the budder of the best cottage of four or five looms Judging from e number of youngsters of both sexes about the streets^ I fhou d think a premium had been offered within fifteen or twenty Tears for the largest family. There are black boys without end.7 black girls without stint. Any morning you can go out and slial e a banana -tree, and find three or four darky boys unde the leaves rhey are along the wharf in crowds, around the streets about the hotel, out in boats, lying in the shade, sunning themselves on e hills, everywhere. If they were anything like Sur New Yorl bovs so many of them would 'be an intolerable nuisance^ut heyTe not. Politeness seems to be natural to them. Boys who don't Wv whether London is in China or Alaska are as polite as if they a end ed an American college; indeed, some of them are better man 'red tfian our college boys, though that will hardly be thought possible They never think of speaking to a while pe/sou without hudm off OUT-DOOR LIFE IN NASSAU AND CUBA. 27 A NASSAU BOY. their hats, and "sir" and "ma'am" arc as natural lo them as eating sugar-cane Of course they arc of all shades, like their fathers; even the coal-black ones like to consider themselves rather light- coin plexioncd, though the whites consider the very black ones more faithful and trustworthy. I suppose they retire to the woods occa sionally and fight and swear a little to relieve their minds, but I must say that of the hundreds of black boys I saw in Nassau, all oyer the island, but particularly about the hotel, wrangling for pen nies thrown them by the guests, running races, diving for coins, I never saw a light among them, nor ever heard a profane or dirty word spoken by one of them. This is a remarkable record for a lot of untutored little colored boys, and it is very largely this good trait in them that has induced me to write about the Nassau colored boys, taking one in particular for a sample. It is one of my pecul iar notions that you can learn more about a strange country by get ting acquainted with its poor people and its children than you can by taking a trunkful of letters of introduction to tbe Governor. "Does you live in New York, boss?" is about the first question that any Nassau darky boy will ask you if you give him the chance. Their idea of America is New York. They know it to be a great, lively place, full of mysteries and wonders, and they all want to come here. "What fools these mortals be!" is just as applicable now as ever. Here arc these darkies, born where they can live long and happy lives in tho sun, fatten on bananas and sugar-cane, and not do much work. I envy them their happy, ignorant condi tion. But they arc not satisfied till they get to New York and have a chance to be ground up on the elevated roads or mashed under a Broadway stage Alost of the Americans who go to Nassau arc New-Yorkers, and they frequently take boys home with them. If your answer to the first question is in the affirmative you will soon be asked, "Is you goin' to take a boy home with you?" They seem to think that every visitor should take a boy home with him for a sample, just as he takes a box of sponges or a sea-fan. Then they want to know whether you're acquainted with so-and- so, mentioning a lot of people who were tliere last year, for of course they cannot understand a place so big that everybody does not know everybody else in it. If you go to Nassau, happy and confiding New-Yorker, intend ing to bring a sample boy home with you, well and good ; he will very likely make you a good servant. But if you do not want one never give the slightest hint to any boy that you want him, or you arc lost. I did that thing innocently, and can speak from experi ence One day 1 happened to say to a boy who had done something or other for me, " I think I will'havc to take you up to New York with me," and from that minute I lived in a nightmare and whirl pool of darky boys. That one boy told it to another, and in a few minutes four boys knew it, then eight, then sixteen. By the next day it was all over the island. Every boy knew it long before I gave it a second thought myself, and boys came in droves to urge their own claims to "the position," and to tell me confidentially that "that other boy" wouldn't do at all. By the third day boys followed me in the streets, waited for me in the park, and, I think, established a system of signals to let each other know when I was coming They lay in wait for me in the hotel yard, watched for me under the arches, till I did not dare go outside after breakfast without looking first out of an upper window to see whether they were there. Sometimes, when the coast was all clear, and I would venture out in the morning for a walk, I would suddenly be sprung upon by a boy from behind one of the big gate-posts with the familiar inquiry, " Boss, does you want a boy to go to New York? I have been out driving, miles down the island, far away, as 1 thought from all danger of boys, when suddenly the young driver turned around with, "Boss, does you want a boy to go to New One day when I was out sailing I was particular to choose an old rrrav-haircd boatman, who could not by any possibility imagine him self "a boy to go to New York." We were out on the coral reefs, enjoying the beautiful sight of the sea-gardens, when I heard the well-known question, T . "Boss, does you want a boy to go to New York? I has a boy would iust suit you, boss." , A voting waiter came across the hotel dining-room to my place one day at dinner. I thought, perhaps, he had some fresh cocoa-nuts or coh( sliced oranges for me.1 But no. lie merely asked, "Boss, does vou want a boy to go to New York? After living a couple of weeks in an atmosphere of darky boys I came to believe that I did want a boy to go to New York At any rate i ' I definitely engaged one it would shut off the others and give me a little pelce. ¥0 I engaged the dusky subjec of this brie biographical sketch. I cannot tell you his name all at once tor fear of a shock. (His first name is Theophilus.) I "rigged him out" in a complete suit of clothes, to let all Nassau boys know that it was settled. (His middle name is Alexander.) I even got him a pair of shoes, the first he had ever had on, with the undefined hope that he might fall over in them and break his neck. But of course he didn't. (His last name is Sweeting.) Now that you've had it gradually, I cau put it all together — Theophilus Alexander Sweeting. This is a mild name compared with those of some Nassau boys. I can only account for some of the remarkable, names by supposing that the parents ask their masters to select names for new children, and the masters can't resist the temptation to make a joke and sug gest ridiculous ones. For instance, one of my candidates for New York honors was a youngster nicknamed "Sankey,"on account of his singing, who had made one or two previous excursions to Amer ica, and was consequently a hero among his companions. His fam ily name was Toots, and his mother gave him the cheerful little title of " Thaddeus of Warsaw ," so now a shaver about the size of a big frog goes around with tho ringing name, " Thaddeus of War saw Toots. Let me mention some of my candidates. There was Willie Knowlcs. I was sitting in front of the hotel one day when he came up and introduced himself. He did it very well, indeed. "My name," said he, "is Willie Knowlcs. I am filteen years old. I live with my father and mother down Bay Street. Do you want a boy to go to New York, boss?" lie was a good-looking little fellow, very light and very bright. One evening he coaxed me down to his home, to see his father and mother. This gave me a chance to see how such a family lived, and I went willingly. I found them in a neat little house of two or three rooms, the father blind and sick in bed, the mother and a little sister at work braiding palmetto hats, which Willie sold to the guests at the hotel. The father carried on a conversation with me from his room in the dark. The littlo girl, perhaps twelve years old, was a good type of Nassau native beauty. I think she was one of the prettiest little girls I saw in Nassau, with hardly enough " off color " blood to show that she was not pure Caucasian; but then I am always so busy taking notes of the scenery, I hardly ever have time to look at the girls. Of course, taking the little fellow away from his blind father was out of the question, and he was duly dis appointed. Then there was " Jamaica." This was a light-colored little boy, whose first name was Hubert, and whose last name I do not know. He went always by the name of Jamaica, because he came from that island. lie came up, I believe, last fall, in a schooner, with a gentleman who was bringing up some horses. But the schooner was caught in the hurricane and was wrecked. ' ' Jamaica " got ashore and spent the winter in Nassau. Nothing ever interferes with tbe continued existence of these boys. They survive hurricanes, plagues, and sharks. Jamaica was a very smart little fellow, very light, with almost enough pink in his cheeks to remove the sugges tion of African descent, though he had the darky's hair. He had a wonderful antipathy to the letter h, and it was as good as a show to hear him discuss the merits of "that there 'orse. He had been at me to take him to New York, and one day as I was walking up the hill, I met him going down towards the water, with a bundle in his hand. "Well, Jamaica," said I, "where are you going?" "I'm going 'ome, sir; to Jamaica, sir,"said he. As he had his wardrobe packed and was actually on his way to the vessel, I thought I was safe, so I said, jokingly, " Why, Jamaica, I thought you were going to New York with me!" "Very well, sir,"said Jamaica, instantly swinging around. "I'll go, sir. I'd rather go with you than go 'ome, sir. I don't care hany- thing about going to Jamaica, sir!" Here was a youngster who was a man at fourteen, ready to have it settled for him in a minute whether his home should be in Jamai ca or in New York. I told him he was rather too young, and that I thought the best thing he could do was to go back to Jamaica to his mother till he was a little older. But I noticed that after taking his bundle to the vessel he hung around the hotel yard till the very time of sailing, no doubt in the hope that I would change my mind. Even then he would not leave me without giving me his address and making me promise that if I visit Kingston, Jamaica, some win ter, I will look him up. ' ' You'll be at the otel, sir, and I'll be there, sir, sure I" As to Theophilus Alexander, I went out rowing one day in the Nassau Harbor, and Theophilus happened to be my boy to steer. We went down to Fort Montagu, circumnavigated two or three coral islands, and nearly ran down the bishop's yacht. He was good- natured, willing, and polite. Two or three more such trips made us acquainted. Of course he asked me, "Boss, does you want a boy to go to New York?" My friend Dr. Hutchinson, of Providence, a regular winter visitor to Nassau, had been telling me of the faithful ness of the Bahama boys, and advising me by all means to get a real black one. Theophilus just filled the bill in that particular. He was black as midnight. He was tall, slender, and had teeth like rows of ivory. He was eighteen or nineteen years old. Theophilus shortened itself down into Theo, and Theo would "go anywhere with you, boss." Indeed, like most Nassau boys, he would give his head for a chance to see America. Theo was one of the divers, too. 2a IN SUNNY LANDS: Throw a penny into clear water fifty feet deep, and I will warrant him to catch it before it reaches bottom. One day, standing near the wharf, I saw a young shaver selling sugar-cane Never having eaten any of this Nassau luxury, nor seen anybody else eat it, I was curious to see the process, so 1 called Theo. "Theo," said I, "do you like sugur-caneV" "Oh yes, sir!" Theo replied, with an emphasis that can hardly be expressed in type, and showing about five inches of teeth. So I bought a few pennies' worth and set him at it, and picked up the useful knowledge of how to eat sugar-cane. Tliere was about as much of it as would have made two big cornstalks, and Theo ate it all, as quick as a wink. He had not much trouble about getting away from home. Tliere was an indistinct impression on his mind that he had at one time had a father— one or two; but whether he (or either of them) was alive, or what had become of him or them, he did not know ; and I need hardly add that he did not care. As to the item of mother, he was pretty sure that he had one. But he had not seen her for a long time. He rather thought she was some where "down in Inagua;" leastways she had started down that way. He had a grandmother, locally known as a " griuma," with whom he lived. Her residence was in Grantstown, in one of the shady houses I described before. "Griuma" appeared upon the scene, tearful but satisfied; however, I made her a rich woman (with a sil ver dollar), and promised that Theo should upon no account be al lowed to over-exert himself. That is always the trouble with these Nassau boys. They drive ahead so at a piece of work (away ahead of it — out of sight) thai you have to watch them, and keep Ihein from working themselves to death. Then it became necessary to prepui'e Theo for sudden entry upon a Northern March. His cos tume, when I found him, was a white shirt, a pair of short, white trousers, and a straw hat. A winter's travel had left me tiny quan tity of worn clothes, and a day or two before steamer-day I took him up to my room and dressed him out from top to toe in clothes thick enough for a New York snow-storm. Collars and cuffs and lies were a little burdensome, but he got them on very well. Shoes were worse. Be never had had shoes on his feet, and his first essay in them looked like a crow walking a rail fence. An East India smoking-cap lopped him off nicely and made him the perfection of elegance There was a big mirror on the hotel stairway, and on the way down he stopped five or ten minutes to admire himself, unconscious of the presence of a dozen tickled guests who were watching the performance. " Maws Willum," said Theo before the steamer went off, "won't you get me one of those broad-brimmed hats?" I asked him what he meant — a straw hat? Yes, that was what he wanted; a straw hat on the 27th of February; and I explained to him that if he should be caught in New York wearing a straw hat at that time of year he would be locked up and sent to an insane asy lum. But in spite of anything I could say he had to wear that suit of heavy winter clothes in Nassau all through the day before the steamer sailed. It was enough to roast a salamander, for the weath er was very hot. But he was willing to be baked alive, for the sake of showing his Nassau friends how fine he looked in his new suit. At last the day came when tho steamer was to leave. The trunks and satchels and bundles were brought down from the upper stories of the hotel and piled under the stone arches in front. One of the boys in waiting for the purpose laid hold of my satchel to carry it down to the wharf, but Theo snatched it out of his hands, with — "You git out. Dat belongs t'my boss, dat does." When wc were out of the hotel grounds and were on the way down the hill to the wharf I noticed two big girls, coal black, fol lowing behind us. I suspected they might be sweethearts of Theo's, and asked him whether they were his girls. "Yes, sir," said he, without any hesitation. Hearing us talking about them, one of the girls raised courage to come up close and say to me, " You'd better take us along, too, boss!" Imagining for a minute my appearance walking up Broadway with Theo along-side and the two girls in tow, I laughed and they fell behind again, but followed us to the wharf. There were gath ered, it seemed to me, half the colored population of Nassau, to see Theo off, for he had long been doing odd jobs about the market, and knew and was known by everybody. And everybody, it almost seemed, had to give him some little present. The boy never was so nearly a millionaire before. His friends loaded him down with or anges and bananas, and brought him enough sugar-cane to last till he reached New York, where they had no doubt he could get plen ty more. When the tender that carried us out to the ship moved off from the wharf they waved their red and yellow handkerchiefs to him. The old "grinma" sat there on a pile of boxes shedding tears. It was quite an ovation. But Mr. Theophilus Alexander Sweeting was not destined long to enjoy the dignity of leaving home with a "send off." The water was rough, and, although he was a boatman and a diver, he was soon in the throes of seasickness. He stuck well to tho complaint all the way up to New York, till it became a joke among the passen gers about ' ' the boy who was taking care of me. " When we got into New York Bay, and we saw snow for the first time, lying while on the hills of Slalen Island, he asked me whether that was salt But what astonished him most was the ground-up ice and slush that the steamer crunched through as she made her way up to the wharf Of course he could not understand that at all, but it was unytliin"- but a pleasant change from the beautifully clear water and pure white bottom of the shores we had just left. On our arrival at the Astor House his appearance made a sensation among the colored servants, and a great many of them dropped into my room lo inquire whether he could speak English. The Bahama boy has his good points, but his forte is not " book-larnin'. " I bad some experience in Unit line, having undertaken (and abandoned) the task of leach ing Air. Theophilus Alexander Sweeting the multiplication table. A lesser degree of stupidity at arithmetic would have been exasperat ing; but when it reached the sublime height to which Theo carried it it became entertaining. I wish I could put on paper some of my ex periences as a teacher before I gave it up for a bad job. Theo had gone with more or less success through the two, three, four, and five tables, but he stuck ingloriously on the six. I remember one of my last efforts. He had been over the "six" table three or four limes, so as to have some little idea of it: /. "Now, Theo, begin it again. Six times one are six — " Theo. " Six times one is six, six times two is twelve, six times three is thirty-seven — " I. "No it's not. Six times three are eighteen." Theo. " Six times three is eighteen, six times nine is forty — " /. " Now, don't be stupid. What comes next after three?" Theo. '"Leven." /. " Four; you ought to know that. Six times four are twenty- four, six times live are thirty, six times six are thirty-six. " Theo. " Six times four is twenty-four, six times live is thirty, six times six is seventy-five — " / " Hold on I You made that same mistake before. Six limes six are thirty-six. Now say that over a dozen times, so that you'll be sure to remember it. Six times six arc thirty-six. Keep saying it till I tell you to stop.'; Theo goes slowly over it while I get a fresh light for my cigar. Then I take a new start, full of the importance of educating the un tutored Moor. I. "Now, then, that'll do. Begin at Ave, and go on. Six times live are thirty — " Theo. "Six times five is thirty, six times six is — six limes six is " (one linger in Ihe mouth), "oh, six times"— (rolls both eyes two- thirds of the way around)—" six times six is ninety!" [He jumps back about four feet] The jump, of course, is to dodge tho boot I throw at him. And we never got through that six table. After some of our seances with it I did not quite know it myself, he had given me so many new ideas about it. CHAPTER XII. SUMMER IN THE TROPICS. These little sketches of the life in Nassau which I shall try to de scribe must necessarily be disjointed and disconnected, for they are only selected at random. We are not always dancing and enjoyiu"' ourselves even in the tropics. A STAG-PARTY. The September steamer from New York brought out the Ameri can consul, Mr. McLain, who had been home for some time on busi ness not entirely disconnected, perhaps, with the elections A few days after his return, feeling somewhat quiet, I took advantage of the departure of my donkey express for the city to send Mr McLain a note suggesting the propriety of his coming out to visit a loyal American at Waterloo. The addition of a line saying that " I dine at four ' brought him just a few minutes before that hour We were hardly comfortably seated on the breezy piazza however (we live out-of-doors here), before another carriage arrived, bringing three of the biggest sponges in the Bahamas. Not sponges in the sense you would take it in New York, where it would be an obiec- tionable term, but in the sense of being dealers in the article, buyers of it and sel ers of it No three men in the Western Hemisphere perhaps no dozen men, buy and sell as many sponges every year as the three gentlemen who arrived in that carriage. Of course they came to dine, for Nassau hospitality is of that sort that when you arrive at a lriend s house anywhere near eating time you might as I 7lSl°PT? locomotive.as try to get away without sitting^ to the table. The two married gentlemen of the party I shall leave "TT?',. GCaUSe l *?¥ Waut t0 be held ^sponsible for any family jais; but the unmarried one was Mr. Louis Isaacs, whose face is as H,ecckn7rn f °V°r thG £ah'Tas as is his name'on Te end of a tZ „i Is"aCS ",? New" Yorker, and it was his father I am told, who years ago discovered the value of tho Bahama spon-es and bought the first ones that ever were sent to a market I have not been able to learn definitely whether it was afte Mi Isaacs and his father that two of the Bahama islands, Great Isaacs and Little Isaacs were named; but I noticed that his handkerchiefs wee marked with an embroidered " I, 1.," which I look to mf'an tTh suues. Whether he is great or little/or neitiier, howeve I think he is fuller of fun and frolic than any other man south of latitude 40° An accomplished musician, he is not content anywhere with™ u song or without starting the darkies at dancing/ To a man osnn cm ly who has spent two months almost alone his aimcWne,. fi godsend. There was a little phase of West Indian1 fe auhe l „" ginning of the dinner. In this warm climate provisions „, „ f a very short time, and it was something of a hamper! poSS OUT-DOOR LIFE IN NASSAU AND CUBA. 29 lo the host, to have the butler come in and announce, " Wery sorry, sir, but the fish is spoiled, sir!" However, no fish Unit swims the seas could have hurl the pleasure of that, dinner by spoiling prema turely. AVhen it was all over and the coffee cups were empty the colored boys were called in lo give us a song and a dance. The latticed doors were all open, so that it was almost like being in the open air, and tho tiled floor of the dining-room made a grand place for the jigs and clogs that followed. Some of the boys are fine dancers. Aly little boy, George, not, over fourteen, and black as a coal, is as graceful and us light on his feet, as a ballet-dancer, and I would confidently put hint against any boy of his size in New York to dance a jig. Air. Isaacs whistled, one of the other boys "patted," and George aud one of the drivers gave us all sorts of native dances. I am compelled to say that even the sedate and dignified butler, Bethel, yielded to the excitement and joined in the mazy jig. In the midst of it all a young lady from Fox Hill appeared with a tray on her head and with eggs to sell. This put Mr. Isaacs in mind of the celebrated egg trick, and he proposed to wager balf-a-crown with me that he could hide an egg in the dining-room where I could not find it. I was well acquainted with the joke, as most Americans arc, and immediately accepted the wager] So I had to step out into the yard in the darkness while the egg was hidden. Among the colored boys was Henry, one of my workmen, a "boy" of per haps forty, of a very religious turn of mind, and wilh an extremely sedate countenance, who rarely lets any sentence escape him with out piously adding, "Please God," or "Bless God." It is one of Henry's peculiarities that he invariably agrees with anything I say, no matter what, and replies, " YTes, boss; that's right, boss— please God !" So the other day, when Henry was cutting a big soft rock out of a lawn with a small crowbar, and I told him it would be easier to put a charge of powder in it and blow it up, or that I would lay a dynamite cartridge on if and let him drop a rock on it, he innocently replied, "Y'es, boss; that's right, boss— please God!" Ilenr}' and all the other boys were ranged in line while Air. Isaacs proceeded to find a good place to hide tho egg. I need hardly ex plain the trick. The egg was to be put in somebody's hat, and I was to give that somebody a good tap on top of the head and break it — I mean break the egg, not the head. As if he were suddenly in spired with an idea, Air. Isaacs turned to Henry with — " Here, Henry, I'll tell you what we'll do. I'll put the egg in your hat. He'll never think of looking there for it." " ITes, boss, that's right, boss," said Henry, proud of the confidence reposed in him. And in went the egg and on went Henry's hat, while Henry himself straightened his back, held up his chin, and admonished the other boys with — "Now, stand firm, boys ; stand firm; he'll never find it, please God!" AVhen it was announced that all was ready I called Air. Isaacs out, under pretence of having the wager perfectly understood, and learned who was the lucky holder of the egg. Then there was some pre liminary looking in dark corners, and in a minute of course Heniy got a playful rap on top of the head, and a stream of raw egg came pouring down over his ears, nose, and eyes. I must confess that as soon as he recovered from his astonishment I expected to hear him say, "Bless God!" Some people think that this egg trick is funny, and others think it isn't. But I submit that nobody could have seen these darkies in a row. all nearly in convulsions with laughter, pounding their facest slapping their heads, kicking the floor, and shaking all over, without being convinced that in this case, at least, it was very funny indeed. And nobody was more thoroughly convinced of the propriety of it than Henry himself, when, a couple of minutes later, he saw a shower of silver quarters coming out of various pockds, and heard them jingle pleasantly in his own purse. Any of the colored boys arc pleased to have such tricks played on them, for they are sure of a rich harvest afterwards. But tliere was a sequel to the egg trick that was not down in the programme. Henry, happy as a lark, went off with a pocketful of quarters, and started for home; for he lives several miles away on the other side of town. But the sudden acquisition of wealth was too much for him, and the glitter of a rum shop in a board shanty lured him in. Nassau rum from the cheap shops is said to vie with Fourth Ward whiskey, and he took just that one extra glass that is sup posed to be the dividing line between soberness and inebriety. In an hour more Henry was resting his weary limbs under the grateful shelter of a stone wall, to all the vanities and vexations of life totally unconscious. Somewhere before midnight he awoke to find a fel low-citizen pounding him soundly, blacking his eyes, and trying to spoil his other beautiful features. This brought him to a sense of his condition; aud when he put his hand in his pocket to feel once more the wealth that had laid him low, it was gone; he had not only been beaten, but robbed. The beater and the robber still stood be fore him, but Henry was powerless to redress his wrongs; as he ex plained to me, next day, " When a man's full of rum, boss, he feels strong, but he's mighty weak, boss, please God!" And when a po liceman came along (you see policemen are the same the world over) he arrested Henry and let the robber go scot free To crown it all when they examined Henry in the police station, and found his hat lull of egg juice, the officer exclaimed, " The scoundrel's been stealing eggs; look at his hat! When Henry appeared at AVaterloo next morning, with one eye swelled all over his face, and one wrist well bandaged, and not a cent in the world, he told me that his only fault was " a love of too much liquor, please God!" One of his friends, in commenting on his con dition, said to me, "It was well enough to rob him, or it was well enough to beat him. But to rob him and beat him was redikelus. There's no sense in that sort of thing." I cannot help but imagine Henry, when he comes to me after some body has read this article to him — as somebody undoubtedly will — how he'll say, " You hit me pretty hard, boss, please God." COOKING A TAMBOURINE. The other evening three musicians came up to pay me a visit. They were three of a kind as regards color, and their instruments were a concertina, a tambourine, and a triangle. I invited them into a corner of the dining-room, and for an hour they amused themselves and me with all the latest airs, including the " Suwanee River" and " Yankee Doodle" It happened that I had been invited to spend that evening down at Collector Culbcrt's, where a number of gentle men were to be gathered, and the carriage came while they were playing. 1 had to excuse myself to go and dress, and when I came out again I saw a little bonfire just outside the dining-room door. " What's that fire?" I asked. " That's all right, boss, " one of the musicians replied. "That's only George warming his tambourine." It seems that at frequent inter vals the tambourine refused to make a sound, and then the only way to coax it back to business was to build a fire and warm it. (I will not express my opinion of a tambouriue that requires warming in a climate where the mercury has not been below 82° in five months.) As the musicians all lived in Grantstown, several miles away, I of fered to give them a ride down in the carriage on condition that they should play all the way down without a single stop, and play a tune in front of Air. Culbcrt's house. They accepted the offer and we went off. All down Shirley Street, then through Bay Street, the main business thoroughfare, they interpreted the great masters in a way peculiarly their own. They worked and pounded and rattled, and after a while we reached Fleeming Square, on the farther side of which Air. Culbert's house stands. Then I gave them some in structions. "I want you," I told them, "to play the liveliest tune you know, till we're just at the corner. Then hold up, and as soon as we're in front of the house strike up God save the Queen.' As soon as that is done I want you to skip — vamouse — vanish. " They said all right, boss, they would. It was a very dark night, and nobody could possibly see who was in the carriage or I should have had to drop my passengers by the way, for they complied with the terms of the contract only too well. They played all the tunes they knew, and several that no mortal ever heard before. Then, when they had utterly exhausted their reper toire, they took a fresh start, only the second time they accompanied themselves by singing. They sang, among other things, a song that seemed to me to be composed chiefly of one word. It was some thing about Alabama, and all that I could make out of it was — Ala ham a Ala bam a Ala bummn Alnliainma Alabamma, On the Isle of Juue I rest my weary bones, For Polly's gone to England with the measles. It made a better song than you would think to read it, and sound ed very well. The driver, although not one of the musicians, en tered so fully into the spirit of the occasion that several times we came within a hair's-breadth of running over a party of darkies in the street. Except in the heart of the city there arc no sidewalks, and everybody walks in the centre of the street. This is because the streets are as hard as rock and as smooth and clean as a floor. Indeed, if the sidewalks in New York are ever made as smooth and level and clean as the commonest road in Nassau, I think that some time I may go back there on a visit. We bowled along down past two or three churches in session, through the main street of the city and down past the barracks. The barracks are on the north side of Fleeming Square, and Air. Culbert's house is on the west side of it. The boys were doing finely, shaking so much noise out of their in struments that half the black soldiers in the barracks ran out into the street to see what was the matter. When we were within ten feet of the corner next to Mr. Culbert's house I said to them, "Now then, boys, shut that thing off. Strike up ' God save the Queen,' and play it as if you meant it." Just at this critical moment, when we were arriving at our desti nation, and when we could see the gentlemen inside running to Air. Culbert's windows to see what the music was, the imp of Satan who played the tambourine turned round to me with, " Say, boss, couldn't you wait just a minute tilllwarmmy tambourineV The scoundrel wanted to stop almost in front of the house wc were going to serenade, and build a little bonfire to warm his instru ment! I told him to do the best he could with it, and we rolled up in grand style, and Air. Culbert and his guests came out on the piaz za, and evcrytiiing went off nicely till one of the gentlemen told the leader of the orchestra that if they couldn't play "Molly Darling" better than that they'd better go home. They were trying to play "God save the Queen," but were so far off the track that nobody recognized it. So they went home, and I saw no more of them till 30 IN SUNNY LANDS: next day, when the leader came out to Waterloo with the mild re quest made famous by the "Tourists," "Fifty cents apiece all 'round!" ON THE BEACH. Down on the sea beach, where the same ocean that sweeps into New York washes the edges of Waterloo, stands a frame cottage of five or six rooms, with a detached kitchen. In the kitchen and in one of the rooms the colored man who takes care of the place lives wilh his family, in which are included six or eight children. The breakers come up to within twenty feet of the front piazza, and the strong sea breeze sweeps by at such a rate that people of light weight have to be made fast to the seats. When the sun comes up out of the water at five o'clock in the morning it looks right in the front door of the cottage. And when a real heavy wind comes up it makes the building creak and groan like a ship. One hundred yards away is old Fort Montagu, nearly black with age, and with its four or five antiquated cannon guarding a channel through which no ship larger than a sponging schooner ever passes in these modern days. I took a notion to spend a night on the beach, and gave notice to the dusky gentleman in charge of the premises to have one of the large front rooms prepared. Just before dark I sent down a steamer chair, a big rocker, a lamp, a pair of blankets, and some other arti cles, and followed myself, accompanied by the young man who is the only other white person on the place, and by Frank, the ever- faithful mastiff. We found it impossible to keep a light burning COLORED SOLDIERS. without closing the door, the wind blew so. It was soon dark as pitch, but the moon came up about 8.30 and made everything bright as day. It seems to me the moon does not shine anywhere*so bright ly as in Nassau ; on a clear moonlight night, if you wake up, you are sure it is morning. While we were sitting out on the piazza, enjoying the glittering water, four carriages drove up and stopped on the beach. Their occupants had come to stroll on the sand ; and while they walked over to the fort and went out on the bay 'for a boat ride, the colored drivers of their carriages got out aud fell to whistling and dancing on the grass. We invited the boys to come up and dance on the piazza; and for more than an hour they kept it up, with jigs, "double shuffles," waltzes, and bobtuiled quadrilles It is surprising how well some of these boys can whistle and dance Just as they were leaving, the man who takes care of the house came along, wilh a big bundle of crabs he had caught on the beach These crabs are found here by the thousands; and though not quite as sweet as our Northern crabs, they make very good eating "Boss, don't you want to try some crabs off the beach?" he asked " I'm jest agwine to bile some." The brisk sea air had given us tremendous appetites and I was glad of a chance for a late supper. So Ijsent up to the other house for the necessary tableware, and in half an hour or so we had a fine sea-side meal, eaten within twenty-five feet of the surf and with the pleasant smell of sea- weed and salt air all about us I was waked from a sound sleep, shortly after' midnight by the tremendous banging of a door. The wind was blowing such a gale hat I thought this year s hurricane was coming, and rani poured3 on the roof in torrents I made the door fast, am? saw that outside ev c-rytbing was like ink, the moon all gone, and tho wind strong enough to take a man off his feet It was a fine time to light a cWi and cogitate, and I did. It reminded me of home. Whenever the wind howls, and all without is black and stormy, and all within is bright and cheery, it sets me to thinking of the evenings of long ago, and puts me in such a frame of mind that a hurricane would be a luxu ry. So 1 sat and smoked and waited patiently, and the house rocked and shook. Good old Frank came and rested his chin on my knee, and together we contemplated the wonders of nature. In half am hour the storm was over, the rain had ceased, and the moon was shining as brightly as ever. It is always so here; a storm rarely lasts more than an hour or two. If I were a painter (say an accomplished house and sign painter), and hud u stock of the most brilliant paints, I might possibly be able to convey some faint idea of the glories of the sunrise I was up to watch at five o'clock the next morning. But there's no use attempt ing it with a pen, and a scratchy pen at that And the plunge into the surf while the sun was just showing himself, and the run along the pure white beach, and the walk afterwards through the cocoa-nut grove, drinking the juice cold and clear out of the fresh-picked nuts; and the going out into the orchard then and getting an early morn ing lunch of oranges and sugar apples and tarmarinds — these things I can only mention. You must bring your imagination to bear — ou them. These little incidents of summer life in the Bahamas I have se lected because they struck me as peculiar and characteristic. But upon reading them over I find that, in the telling, they have lost half their interest. Such things need all the native surroundings lo make them palat able — the big open fires, the smoke of the darky pipes, the rustling of cocoa-nut boughs, and the echo of the last merry song. CHAPTER XIII. TnE GOVEKNOll OF THE BAHAMAS. Tiikee soldiers, in the gayest and most romantic uniforms, came through the north-east gate at sunset one evening and walked across the lawn to Waterloo House. I was sitting out on the front piazza enjoying a whiff of the north-east trades and smoking a native Nassau ci gar, which is equal to the Havana article in every respect but appearance, and costs about one-tenth as much. To be candid about it, when we want to be ecouomical we smoke cigars that cost seventy -five cents a hundred; when we feel wealthy and extravagant we sometimes pay as much as two dollars a hundred for them. The three soldiers were clad in the uni form of her Alajesty's First West India. Regiment, which is, I am confident, the handsomest military uniform in the world. It seems odd for an American voter, espe cially an old New-Yorker, to write about "her Majesty." But, after all, can you pick out anybody in America, great or small, whom all Americans respect more than they do England's good queen? I don't believe you can. This uniform, as ™„o- * t i ¦. i , nearly as ! ean describe it from memory, consists of a white turban-cap, the white stuff wound thickly but tightly around the crown in regular Indian style ; a briirht scarlet jacket with several rows of small brass buttons; black knee-breech- The^'^^^f ?PT a?T W^ite canvas Saiters over the sh°es. The members of this West India regiment (I mean the privates i, c™TarC ^hlte) "lc Pickud "P fl'01" everywhere -some iheE-ts t Liei Ta' W1 v'a"y f-'°,n Af''ica.»»d a few from the East Indies. Ihe Last Indians, with their long, straight forms and straight, coal-black hair, consider themselves" vastly superior to he common run of blacks wilh whom they associate ' Alto- der^ t0usIctnOvTs' I*"™1'""1* °" «>« 1««* * a coul-lnuck sol- tuti, as it usually is, is one that would attract attention even in a SW0,i a° Clty*here ""S1" uniforms are plenty So when I o Twaflot ^^W "? C°milig ST88 the Place l knew that Water loo was lost A lot of men had been working all day over at the ftTS more0'?, ^ ""V d° UOt U^ieve ^ve TeLn flJJi iw? a ¦ g ' 0re thau a century ago, when an En°lishman h^nf^t J1Ca Camei °Ver he*? with two °* tmee ^all vessd and a andful of men and captured the fort from the Spaniards These three were privates, and one of them, whom I have learned since to know as the Governor's orderly, a straight, soldie.Iy East InflKn handed me a letter bearing the Impressed stamp of the " Govern ment House Bahamas." Since then I have become so used through some little business transactions, to receiving great blue cnvSs with the words "On Her Majesty's Service '^boldly orintedneTf the top that no style of envelope bas any terror for me but then 1 was not so accustomed to them. This particular envclone ™„tni™ i a note from Mr. Woodward, Governor Blake's private secre^vv ing that his Excellency and his family would, If agreeable v^ ft W^" terloo and tho phosphorescent luke thut evening a "seven o'clock It OUT-DOOR LIFE IN NASSAU AND CUBA. 81 was pretty nearly that hour already, and you may be sure there was some flying around lo get the boat launched and in good trim, and to put everything in proper order for tbe reception of her Majesty's representative in the Bahamas. I could have received half a dozen American governors without turning a feather; indeed, I have even shaken hands with one or two Presidents without any perceptible increase of pulsations; but you must remember that in an English colony the Governor is trealed'iti a style with which we are hardly familiar. Newspaper men who have been stationed in Albany for years, and are thoroughly familiar with the private chambers of the Capi tol, will hardly believe me when I say that in an English colony it would be considered highly improper for a man to Walk into the Governor's office with his hat on, put his feet on the desk, and light a cigar. And it would hardly be thought the correct thing to clap a governor on the back, as has been done in my own fair land, with the friendly remark, "Gov., old boy, let's go out and wet our throats!" On the contrary, it is necessary for an English colonial governor to maintain the dignity of bis position as the Queen's representative. He is invariably to be addressed as " Your Excellency," and his wife, when he is a married man, is "Her Excellency." Nobody could find fault with this if the phrase could just have about two inches cut off of cither end, but when I thought of sitting down, and in the course of conversation having every few min utes to twist my tongue into strange knots with such a long title as "Your Excellency," my heart sank. However, I practised ou it a while, and it came easier. And I solaced my self with the recollection of visits to President Diaz, in the Alexican capital, to Lord Lome in Montreal, to the Governor-general of Cuba, to the Governor of Bermuda, to Gen. Grant, to the Duke of Argyle, and to a few others, and with remembering that after the first five min utes or so I had forgotten all about their being presidents and dukes and things, and had felt very much at home. I never had an attack of that fever, so common to Americans, that soft ens some section of the brain and impels them fo intrude themselves upon every governor and emperor they run across in their travels. Y'ears ago I came to a tacit understanding with all the rulers of the earth that I would let them alone and they should do the same kindness by me. But there are rulers and rulers, and all governors, as I have found, are not alike. So much worse are anticipations than reali ties. About seven o'clock Governor Blake drove up, accompanied by her Excellency, Airs. Blake, and by his governess. We had no more than shaken hands before I knew that I had a man for a visitor as well as a gov ernor. There arc some governors one might respect because they arc governors, others com mand our respect and admiration because they are men, entirely outside of their official posi tion, and Governor Blake is one of the latter. He is one of those personages celebrated in song, "a real old Irish gentleman," except that he is not old. He was a judge in Ireland, and sentenced several of the Fenian dynamite mur derers to the fates they richly deserved. So the companions of these scoundrels swore to kill him, and her Alajesty, having had expe rience with his administration of the laws, sent him out here to be governor of the Bahamas. Here it was thought at one time that some of the dynamite crew had followed him, and a euard was put about Government House. But it is only necessary to- tee the Governor once to have pity for any would-be assassin he might lav his hands upon. He reminds me of Captain Williams physical ly only he is rather heavier than Williams, and about his height. fie is fond of athletic sports, is about the most temperate man on the island and is one of the most powerfully built men you would meet in a day's travel. But he would hardly have a chance to exercise his muscle upon anybody who interfered with him. In the ycai that he has been here he has endeared himself to the people of Nas sau and the Bahamas, and 1 think that ; any dynamiter who el to harm him would be spared the formality of a trial. It would look odd to see so staid and quiet a community as this stirred up to the hmchmg and hanging point; but I think that any dynamiter who 1 w raSortS -on the subject need only come here and show his teeth. But u7s noLense to think of it Even an Irish fanatic would no out himself in such a sure death-trap. Wc went down to look at he lace a id went out in the boat. Like everybody else m Nassau he w* Astonished at it Of course he had never seen so phosphor escent a oiece of water before, for there is none such in the woria, ! wa a fine dark night, and we seemed to be rowing over a fc molten cold It shone and sparkled and glistened I take deligiit tTshowfng the lake to visitors, a fatherly delight, because I am a sort of discoverer of it. Few people in Nassau ever knew of it. Though it has been here for many years, just Ihe same as it is now, perhaps has always been so, still old residents of tho island come up and look at it, and say, " Well, I had no idea there was such a curi osity in Nassau." The Governor examined it as closely as a dark night would admit, but could arrive at no conclusion about the ori gin of the phosphorescence. He discovered that by putting a hand in the water and raising a handful of it he had a million of little globules of fire in his hand. Then we had a pailful of it brought up to the house, and stood on the front piazza and sent away all the lights. When we kicked the pail the surface of the water sparkled like so many diamonds. When we spilled some of the water over the tiled floor thousands of bright spots of fire chased other thou sands over the tiles till the whole floor seemed to be burning. Upon taking his leave his Excellency did me the honor to say that he had read my description of the lake, and that I not only had not exag gerated it but that it would be impossible for any writer to over draw a description of it; that it was one of tbe most wonderful things he ever saw. And he went away leaving me with the feel ing that if any scoundrels should come down here to interfere with him they wTould have not only 10,000 loyal British subjects to hunt VIEW FKOM FltONT 1'IAZZA OF GOVERNMENT nOUSE. them down, but at least one American to help also. Subsequently her Excellency showed me a collection of water-colors she is making of the fruits and plants of the Bahamas. She has a large number of them already, and intends in the future to take up the birds and fishes, which will give her an almost endless field. Fortunately for Airs. Blake, she is an accomplished lady of great resources, literary and artistic, and quite able to entertain herself in a place where so ciety is extremely limited. Wc sometimes enjoy the pleasures of the chase down here, even though there are no wild animals. For instance: I was out in the garden the other morning when two of the boys came running out to tell me that there were two men over in the mangroves, on the opposite side of the lake, "sticking" (which means spearing) tur tles. This was serious business, for I have put a number of green turtles in the lake, one of them a Jumbo weighing three hundred and twenty-five pounds and worth about twenty-five dollars. So, iike Robinson Crusoe going after his rifle, I went into the house after my revolver, which fires a 38-calibre ball, and will carry it close on to half a mile. Then 1 went out to the kitchen, where a number of my dusky friends were gathered, watching the poachers. Sure enough, there they were, just visible in the thick bushes, and moving as if they were either spearing or fishing. So I sent the two boys round by the road, where they could not be seen, to come up behind the intruders and see who they were. Watching with 32 IN SUNNY LANDS: the rest through the kitchen window, where we were all well hid den from sight, I waited till the boys appeared on the other side, and then fired two shots into the mangroves about a hundred yards below the poachers to frighten them out. The shots had the de sired effect and they started off up the hill like two deer, and ran right into the arms of my boys. Unfortunately, the intruders turned out to be only two colored boys, who had been fishing. But my boys were not to be done out of their game so easily, so they took hold of the largest of the young poachers, and for a few moments we saw from a distance a right lively scuffle. Soon our two boys turned up on top, and we saw them dragging the poacher down to the lake, the prisoner squealing exactly like a pig having a ring put in its nose. The scene was enlivened by the appearance of the fa ther and mother of the young poacher, who made a charge upon my boys, recaptured their hopeful sou, and drove my boys into the luke aud pelted them with a shower of stones. Seeing us standing on our side of the lake, and being in danger of injury from the stones, the boys set up a cry of "Bring the boat! Bring the boat!" The boat was, unluckily, hauled up in the boat-house for repairs, but Brown, the cook (who is also a sailor), and Bethel, the butler, and 1, made a dash for it, and we had that heavy boat in the water as quick as ever a life-boat was put in the surf with a wreck in sight. While we were launching her David and " Billy," my two hearty young New York boys, came running up, attracted by the shot, sprang into the boat, and we made quick time across the lake. Frank, the mastiff, was anxious to go too, but I was afraid he might muke u meal of some of the enemy, and made him slay behind; so he added eclat to the scene by sitting on the bunk and howling. "We were over the lake in a minute or two, and soon rescued our boys and drove off the attacking forces. Another of my men came running up as we landed, so we were eight in all, and our imposing appearance immediately put an end to the disturbance. It was a tempest in a teapot, but we had to do something to convince our friends and neighbors that the lake is private property, and that it is not to be fished in without danger. And it at least gave the boys something to talk about for the next twenty-four hours, which is a great thing in a quiet place like Ibis, where we did not know till two weeks after election who was President. There are actually some few things that most New-Yorkers don't know, though I am confident hardly any New-Yorker will believe it. I have learned one or two things since I have come here, which some time may prove very useful, if I should ever be shipwrecked on a desert island. Most New-Yorkers, for instance, don't know how to thatch a house with palmetto leaves. I will venture to say that even so learned a man as President Barnard, of Columbia Col lege, doesn't understand the art. And Henry Ward Beecher, handy as he is at everything, will admit, I know, that he is ignorant of it. It is a very useful thing, and easily learned. A nice palmetto- thatched house up Aladison Avenue, say between Thirty-third and Thirty-fourth streets, would attract more attention than the finest brown stone front; and I am sure it would be far more comfortable than the average French flat. Why, half the educated people of New York don't even know what "silver-tops" are. What an ig norant lot you stay-at-homes are, to be sure! Silver-tops, my dear sir, are a fine kind of palmetto leaf, growing low and small, out of which are made the ropes and cords that fasten the frame of the house together — for a real palmetto house has not a single nail in it, but is strong as a stone wall, with all its joints tied together with palmetto ropes, which uo horse coultl break. My palmetto house is twelve feet square; and there is not a nail in it, nor will not be. Four posts, at the corners, are set three feet deep in holes drilled in the rock, aud everything else rests upon them. No hurricane could blow it down, and three men have worked at the same time upon its roof, so strong it is. The silver-tops, like the ordinary palmet- toes, are broad leaves, in sections, like a palm-leaf fun partly folded up. You tear off three of these sections together, and keep on pull ing them so till you have a bunch as thick as your arm, and then twist tho ends till they arc soft and pliable. Then you put two of tho ends together, and take a "sailor's hitch " in them, and keep oii so, tying on strip after strip, till your rope is as long as you want it. It is very quickly done, and makes a rope that it would lake a good strong horse to break. AVilh these ropes you lash the timbers of your house together — tho limbers being sticks of green hard wood cut ou the place, very strong and heavy. Then you lash on lighter sticks, for "laths," horizontally and perpendicularly, till your house looks like a mammoth bird - cage, intended for the confinement of an ostrich. AVhen this is done you put on the thatch, and your house is finished. When I began to help make the palmetto ropes, James, the gardener, who was my instructor in the art, told me i was tying "granny knots." But he showed me how to take the "sailor's hitch," and, when I soon got the knack of it, he fluttered me by saying, "You white folks learns things very quick, please God I" One thing that worries a man out in a place full of odd things like this, is the impossibility of being in two places at the same time. It is pleasant to be here and see and enjoy these things but how much nicer it would be if one could turn up in the office say about nine o'clock in the evening, and tell "the boys" all the queer things he has seen each day I There are three New-Yorkers on the place, and one night we were all desperately hungry just before bedtime, and made a raid on the pantry. We were horrified to find everything swept clean. It was a clear case of old Mother Hub bard, with not even a bone for poor old Tray. Then the boys sat down aud began to tantalize each other. "I'll tell you what I'd like to do," said one; "I'd like to go into the Astor House this evening and get a nice porterhouse steak, with mushrooms and a bunch of crisp celery, and a cup of chocolate." "That wouldn't be bad," said the other, "but it's too expensive. I'd be satisfied to go to Nash & Crook's and have a good veal cutlet, breaded, with tomato sauce and a plate of Bermuda onions." " Oh, if you want a cheap feed," said the first, "why not go down to Hitchcock's and get outside of a plate of his pork-and-beans, a cup of coffee, a plate of cakes, and a slice of his incomparable coeou-nul pie." Tbe mention of Hitchcock's made me hungrier still. How many memories it brought up of midnight feeds and other banquets put away for indigestion, far on towards morning, when the day was just breaking 1 Oh, Hitchcock! my old friend Oliver, you of the good coffee and beans, always cooked just right ! if you only had my cocoa-nut grove to draw upon, what noble pies you would make for the boys I Some time I will take you up a barrel of them, and then eat pies with you till I can't get up from the table. Thinking of these things makes one want to catch a glimpse of home; but when I look out at .the beautiful summer weather we have here every day, and see all the doors and windows open, and the trees full of oranges and lemons and cocoa-nuts, and hear the birds sing, and remember that in sweet home you are building fires and beginning to shiver, then I am contented and happy anil would not go back. If 1 thought 1 could convey even a faint idea of what odd people my colored neighbors are, I could close up this letter with a clear conscience. But I know I can't do it. The other evening, a Satur day evening, a colored fellow down town got into a fight with one of his companions and stabbed him. A few days afterwards the stabbed man died. It was the first homicide in New Providence in a long time, and most of the colored population expected that the stabber would immediately be taken up on the jail hill and be hang ed. Yesterday, for some reason or other, there was a big black ball hoisted on the flag-stuff over the prison, and it was immcdiulely con cluded that the murderer was to be bunged. "There's going to be a life taken in the jail-yard this day, please God," one of the servants said to me, looking at the black ball. The man had not yet even been arraigned in the police court, much less tried. " Guy Fawkes " night is celebrated all over the island. I suppose not less than a hundred effigies of the unfortunate Mr. Fawkes are made and burned in Nassau. Each society burn its own special Guy ; Fox Hill turned out in three or four squadrons and burned a collection of Guys ; Grantstown came out in force and hung up three or four effigies, shot bullets into them, and burned them. "Please, boss," said one of my boys, "can I go home this even ing ? We're going to burn Guy Fox " [they always call him Guy Fox] "in our barn." CHAPTER XIV. A MORNING ON PORGEE BOCK. Porgee Rock is one of the smallest islets in the Bahama group, and it lies about ten miles from anywhere. Seen from the eastern end of New Providence, the nearest land, it looks like a dot on the water, except when tbe wind is high and the sea rough— then it can not be seen at all. It is not much larger Iban a big house, nor high er above the water than a man's head. In a heavy sea the water runs completely over it. Fishermen come out here to fish, and at long intervals picnic-parties stop to spread their dinner-tables, but at other times it is as desolate and barren a spot as the most ri»id recluse could desire. Here I am sitting this morning with not an other living thing on the rock— not even tbe ever-present lizard, as ar as 1 can see. There are so many of these tiny islets in the Ba hamas, I thought it would be a good plan to visit one some time and be for once actually and positively alone So I came here this morning, and here 1 am, with no office-boy, cook, waiter or other botheration. It is not altogether productive of poetic fancy to sit on a. rock in the broiling sun, in a heat of about 125°, with no tree or shrub to shelter one; but still, in all the heat and glare two bits of poetry keep bobbing into my head, so I will write them, in the hope of thus getting rid of them. Very likely I may misquote them, but the last fisherman who visited Porgee Rock neglected to leave a copy of Bartlett's "Familiar Quotations" lying about so I have to trust to memory. The first is, j o > " Oh, fur a lodge in some vast wilderness, Some boundless continuity of shade. " This rock is hardly a vnst wilderness, and it certainly caunot be called a boundless continuity of shade ; but it nevertheless fulfils the condition of solitude that was evidently in the poet's mind. It is out of the world. A man who wanted to shut himself off from contact with everybody and everything could not do better than come here. It is a little barren, to be sure; but a hermit should not mind barrenness. Just before I left New York two of my news paper friends said to me, " If you see a nice little uninhabited island down there in the Bahamas that we could buy cheap, and where wo could put up a small house, and go and live for a while out of all OUT-DOOR LIFE IN NASSAU AND CUBA. this New York turmoil aud bustle, we want you to buy it for us " And I have no doubt plenty more people have the same idea of a quiet place on a quiet island, with uo mails, no telegraph no cares or troubles of any sort. But even on one of these green little islands ot the Bahamas, my dear sirs, tliere would be troubles and bothera tions. The water would give out, for instance, and your boat would begin to leak, and the hot weather would spoil your condensed milk, and the ants would get into your sugar. I am not going to recommend Porgee Rock to my friends as a good place to set tip a hermit shop on; it has no vegetation, no shade, no water, no spare room. But for a place for a newspaper man to retreat to for a morning of quiet writing it is the place of all places. No boat can approach it without my seeing it at least five miles in any direction and tliere is no interruption to be feared. The other bit of poetry I mentioned is, "My bark Is on the bay. And my boat is ou the shore." That partially describes my condition, for my boat is on the bay two or three miles off, scudding along before a lively breeze, going farther and farther away from me every minute, and cutting me off more completely from every human being. The man and the boy in her are cruising up and down, waiting for his majesty (myself) to finish writing, and go home If anything should happen to the boat, if she should strike one of the many sunken rocks that orna ment these waters, a certain newspaper correspondent I know of would be very likely to spend a few days alone on a barren island, with just such food as he could scrape from the rocks. But every man and boy about here is a sailor, and there is not much danger of anything happening. The boat that is to carry me home to dinner, the same that is frisking so prettily up and down in the distance, is the cause of my writing this letter. She is my own little yacht, and no ordinary boat, I do assure you. She has something of a history for a boat only a year old, and so much of it as I know I propose to tell you. I had been looking out for a good while for a boat to carry me about the harbor and round among the islands. There is no use living in such an archipelago without a boat Here is the big bay right in front of my own house, with beautiful sailing every ofay in the year. And here is the harbor, two or three miles long, and here is the whole "outside," meaning the open ocean, generally smooth enough to be safe for a small boat, making a transparent highway to all the other islands. A boat is a necessity. One day I happened to mention to one of my colored friends that I wanted to buy a boat of such a size that she could be cither rowed or sailed, and for the next two weeks I was overrun with visitors who had boats for sale, big boats and little, good boats and bad, and every blessed boat of them offered to me at prices varying from fifty to one hundred and fifty per cent, more than they were worth. For here was a "Yankee" stranger wanting to buy a boat, don't you see, and of ¦course he must be made to pay for it. There came along fishing- boats with wells for preserving the fish, which their owners described as beautiful little yachts; yawls that might have been used as tend ers to the ark; one man brought up an unfinished boat on a cart, and then wanted me to pay him to cart it away. I was waked up from sleep, called away from meals, interrupted in all sorts of important things, to go and look at boats that were for sale. But none of them filled the bill. Some were too big, others too little, and all too dear. At last the right boat turned up by accident One of my boys dis covered two boats in the yard of a warehouse down-town and came up and described them to me. They seemed from the description to be just about the right thing, and I went down and looked at them. As soon as I saw them I knew that the larger one was ex actly the one I wanted. She was of the style known as "clinker- built" — that is, with her sheathing overlapped like tho sides of a clapboarded house. Every line in her seemed to be just right for comfort and safety. I found, upon making inquiries about her, that she was just about to be put into the water, and that sail-makers and riggers were then at work making her ready for sea. Her owner had bought both the boats to send to the "outer islands" for sponges, and they were both to leave the next day. So I saw her just in time. She had been, I learned upon inquiry, the long boat of a bark named the John. A. Eells, coming from St. John, New Brunswick. It was a new bark, aud the boat was less than a year old. The bark ran aground about six months ago on the Great Bahama Bank, and was very near being wrecked. Her two boats -were sent ashore for some purpose, and while they were away, the tide having risen, the bark was unexpectedly floated, and the cap tain hoisted sail aud went off without his boats— leaving them, per haps, in payment of what slight expenses he had incurred. So the boats in a short time found their way over to Nassau, as all " wrecked " goods in the Bahamas do. Half the things we buy here come out of wrecks. The great Spanish steamer that was wrecked at Harbor Island a year ago, loaded with rich stuffs for Havana, flooded the Nassau shops with goods of all sorts, which we buy at prices sometimes very low, sometimes a trifle high. There is no sale for such things in the "outer islands, "where the settlements are small, tho needs few, and the purses extremely light. Conse quently all wrecked goods of value hereabout come to this metropolis of the Bahamas to be sold to wealthy natives and American visitors. So these two boats came and fell into the hands of a gentleman in terested in the sponge business. They had been drawn up on shore, 3 33 and for several weeks had lain in the cool shade of a great tamarind- tree. There they lay when I first saw them, a hundred yards from the sea, and 1 had a chance to examine every plank and rivet in them. They were both copper -fastened, both stoutly built, both able, seaworthy boats, safe enough anywhere and at any time. I instantly selected the larger boat of the two— the one that had been the bark's long-boat She was so shapely, so graceful, so full of life and buoyancy in all her lines, no lover of boats could help but be taken with her at first sight. Besides, she promised to give pro tection against the sudden and severe storms that often come up in these waters without warning. A ship's long-boat is built for serv ice, and if she is not seaworthy she is worthless. In case of disaster in mid-ocean, the long-boat may be needed to carry the greater part of the crew over hundreds of miles of ocean in all sorts of weather. She is small enough to be propelled with four or six great oars; large enough to carry a good spread of sail when opportunity offers. She must ride the waves like cork, must be able to carry sometimes twenty or twenty-five persons, and provisions enough to last them a week or two, and must be in every respect as safe and comfortable as a boat of her size can be made. All these virtues and more I found in the long-boat under the tamarind-tree She was, I found, twenty -two feet long and exactly six feet in the beam. She had places for eight men to row and a big iron circle forward in which to "step" a mast when it was desired to sail her. With her seats running crosswise, her seats running lengthwise, and the semicircu lar seat at the stern, she had room for carrying fully twenty people without crowding. Workmen were just making preparations to put this boat in the water, and when I learned that half a dozen "riggers" were at that moment making sails for her, and that her owner proposed starting her out the next morning with a crew in her for a cruise to one of the outer islands to buy sponges, I thought my chances of getting her were a trifle slim. But the same gentleman had previously sold me a small row-boat and a donkey, and he might, I thought, like to add a little yacht to my list of purchases. So I went at once to see him about her, and in half an hour it was all settled and the boat was mine. She was to be provided with mast and spars, with jib and mainsail, with anchor and cable — with everything, in short, that any boat of her size could reasonably ask for. And at ten o'clock the next morning she was to be in the water, ready for delivery, and all prepared to hoist anchor and sail up to Waterloo, and be anch ored off tho beach. Like many an amateur " yachtsman " before me, I soon found that having even so small a vessel as a ship's long boat involved a good deal of labor. She was too large for one man to handle, and it became necessary to have "a crew." Fortunately the gentleman who was officiating as my cook, Captain Brown, was of a nautical turn of mind, having spent some years of his life among the Nassau spongers. The gentleman (a colored gentleman, of course) in charge of the cottage on the beach being also some thing of a sailor, I mustered these forces and took them down-town promptly the next morning. There lay the boat in the water along side the dock, with the sail-makers putting the finishing touches on her. And what a network of ropes they had about her. There were enough, it secJixid to me, to rig a sloop-of-war. There were the main - braces, and the jib halyards, and the peak -halyards, and the throat-halyards, and the main-sheet, and a dozen others that I hardly even yet know the names of, to say nothing of the big anchor with four prongs and fifteen or twenty fathoms of cable attached to it. They had put about half a ton of big stones in her for ballast, and the boss rigger was just putting the finishiug touches on her sails. We sailed her up to Waterloo, and anchored her off the beach, with tbe British ensign flying at the mast-head, for in Nassau I found it impossible to buy even an abridged edition of the Stars and Stripes, and as she was already provided with the British colors I saw no reason why wc should not fly them; for if there is any flag that an American can comfortably sail under outside of our own starry one, it surely is the English flag. We shortly gave the boat a new coat of white paint, wiping out for good and all her old name, and had painted on her stern, in letters exactly resembling tbe line familiar to most New-Yorkers, the name under which she is now stirring up the waters of the Bahamas: " The New York Times." She has got us into some scrapes, of course, but on the whole we have been very lucky with her. I have learned that although all the colored men in Nassau are sailors, it does not necessarily follow that they are all good sailors. One of my former captains (now on the retired list) took me down-town in her one day, and as there was a good sea on the bar, and I wanted to learn how good or how bad a sea-boat she was, I had him take her out into rough water, off the lighthouse. It was rough enough to suit, anybody, and I can testify that the waves look and feel rather larger when you're in a ship's long-boat than they do when you're on the deck of a steamer. We rounded the buoy, but I was satisfied that the captain was scared more than a trusty captain ought to be. And when, in going home, with only one schooner in the harbor, and she at anchor, and a mile or two of sea room in any direction, the captain managed to run into that schooner and to get our rigging caught in her bowsprit, I thought it about time to have a new crew. One morning I took her out alone, with no crew but one of the young white men at Waterloo, a New York boy. I am afraid we were both a little green about managing a boat of her size ; but the water in the bay was as smooth as a pond, and tliere was very little wind blowing, so we thought we 34 could handle her. We went out two or three miles from shore jib and mainsail both up, with enough breeze to send us bowling along very pleasantly. We were singing a song, and both as happy as two queen conchs, when, before wc had time to snap our fingers, we were struck by a squall aud the boat was over on her beam ends. Fortunately she had plenty of ballast in her (half a ton of sand, con tained in thirteen hags), and she held herself well. It was cheerful to know that, in case she filled, the sand would carry her to the bot tom like a shot But she righted herself in a minute, and gave us a chance to air our knowledge of navigation. The bay was like a mill-pond when we started, with hardly a ripple, but in an instant it became a young ocean of blue water, topped with a million white- caps. The wind came from the north-west, and it blew with a feroc ity hardly known outside of the West Indies. We were all over on one side, flying before the gale, with little mountains of water before and behind us, and the seas breaking over us. In this emergency we did just what a regular old salt might and ought to have done. We lowered all sail and put out an oar to keep her head on the sea. It is easy enough to talk about or read about, but when you're struck by a squall in a little boat it is no joke to get the sails in in a hurry and to get out a sixteen-foot oar and stead)' her. While we were doing this we were anxiously watched from the beach (of course without our knowing it) by the man in charge of the cottage there, himself a sailor, who had not every confidence in our ability to man age the boat, and who saw us struck and nearly knocked over by the squall. "If they only knew what to do," he was saying to him self, "and would lower the main-sail and run in under the jib, they'd be all right." And that was precisely what wo did. In the first crash of the gale we lowered away everything, feeling sure of the boat's ability to stand any sea that was likely to strike her. But when we found we were riding all right, and had a little time to gather ourselves together, we hoisted the jib and let her run for the nearest shore. That was unseamanlike, I must admit. An old sailor, no doubt, would have headed her the other way, and kept as far from shore as possible. But we were not old sailors, and there was something wonderfully attractive just then in the nearest shore. You have no idea, I suppose, how these West Indian squalls shake things up. A man could hardly stand against even a little one, and a boat has no chance at all with her sails up, unless the canvas rips into shreds or the mast carries away, as sometimes hap pens. Anyhow, we headed her for shore, because, you see, we thought it would be far more convenient to swim a few fathoms if necessary than it would be to swim two or three miles. It was a rocky shore we approached on the north side of the island of New Providence, but we were rather glad to find ourselves near it, as wc soon did. When we were within about a block of it, finding the water shallow and the bottom sandy, we dropped anchor, and had the satisfaction of seeing that she did not drag but held her ground bravely, notwithstanding the heavy seas that were breaking over her. We were almost opposite a house that stood some distance from tbe water on the top of a bluff, when, seeing us come in in distress and drop anchor, a colored man came running down the hill towards us. He shouted something to us, but the wind was so strong we could not hear a word, although he was not more than two or three hun dred feet away. AVe were very glad to see him, because if anything gave way it would be convenient to have somebody about to drag us out of tho water. Though we could not hear what he said he could hear us, for the wind was blowing from us towards him. So we called to him, " Can you sail a boat?" He nodded his head yes. "Do you want to sail this one home for us?" Again he nodded for yes, and we shouted to him to "Come on, then." He immediately began to undress himself, and in a minute had nothing on but a pair of trousers. He came down to the shore, sprang into the water, and swam out to us. It is one of the beau ties of the Nassau costume that you can plunge into the water with it at any time without doing it much damage. He advised a wait of a few minutes, us the squall was not likely to last long. And he was right, for in ten minutes it was all over and the bay was again almost as smooth as before. Our courage and our sea-legs returned with the calm, and we insisted upon taking the boat homo ourselves, keeping, however, the colored man on board in case of emergency! That was one of our first lessons in her. We are all better sailors now. Over on the eastern end of Hog Island, facing the channel in which are the sea gardens (of which the illustration gives a view only of the surface, though the water is so clear that the bottom is always distinctly visible), Air. John Darling owns a piece of land, a young plantation, with a beach, an orange grove, a cocoa-nut grove, and a romantic little house of one room for tho use of the farmer' This little house is unoccupied, and, when I discovered it one day I was so much pleased with the place that I immediately asked for and received permission from Air. Darling to go over and camp in tbe house, or use it for picnicking purposes. There is no nicer spot in tbe world for a picnic. It is not more than a mile from the main land, on the end of a long island, with cocoa-nut trees shadino- the little cottage, with orange-trees in the rear, with a smooth white beach in front, aud a house that gives ample shelter from sun and rain. You can pick cocoa-nuts and oranges, fish right in front of the IN SUNNY LANDS: house (and catch something, too), and have the best of salt-water bathing at any time of the year. I described this place to the folks at Waterloo, and gave it such a high character that they determined to have a picnic there. (Speaking of its character reminds me of the chamber-maid who does the honors here ut Waterloo. The day she first came she forgot to bring her references along, and said to me, "Air. D., I did not bring any character along!") They picked out a day, and were at me almost all the preceding week to be sure and not have the boat sent away on the picnic day. It was to be one of the greatest picnics ever picnicked, and what preparations they made! They got a bushel-basket out of the store-room, and filled it to overflowing with eatables and dishes. They took along my pet water-monkey that I had just imported from Cuba; they took frying-pans and stew-pans, aud a charcoal furnace aud matches, and even a fish-boiler. They took enough provisions for a regiment, though tliere were only five of them — three ladies and two gentlemen. And for servants, I had nobody left on the place, hardly, they required so much waiting on. They took the chief cook, and the head-waiter, and two boys. I only won der they didn't take the chamber-maid. And was I one of the par ty ? Thank you, no. I draw the line at picnics. In my younger days I used to attend all the Sunday-school picnics, to get the lemon ade and cake, and to take pride in winning a blue reward ticket — 50 blue ones exchangeable for 1 pink one; 50 pink ones good for 1 yellow; and 9000 yellow tickets good for 1 Bible in small print. But those halcyon days of youth are past and I have no more use for pic nics. So I stayed at home to watch the house. About three o'clock they sent the boat over after me, with the message that I was miss ing the greatest time of my life and must join the party at once. But the little yacht has taught me to watch the clouds, and I saw a storm coming. An hour later five drowned rats came walking up to Waterloo from the beach. They had been eating dinner near the house, the picnickers, aud had seen a storm coming. Without any thought of rain, they were afraid of a storm of wind that might make the crossing from Hog Island dangerous. So they hastily put themselves outside of the last food, packed up the dishes, hurried into the boat, and started for home. They were just nicely out on the bay when the storm struck them — a storm of wind and rain, a regular old West Indian squall. They had to lower their sails, and there they sat through it all, the rain coming down by the pailful, half filling the boat, and of course drenching them properly. And all this time there sat Mr. W. D. on the piazza, watching them and sympathizing with them. It's a great thing to have a big head! Here is the boat again, waiting to take me home. A morning on Porgee Rook is not bad when you want to do some writing and don't mind the hot sun. Somebody who reads this, somebody bit ten by frost and hustled by crowds in New York, and sick of it all, will wish he was herewith me on lonesome but warm Porgee Rock, with nobody to tread on his toes. And there arc worse places in the world, I do assure you, worse places evcu than this solitury rock in this luud of eternal summer. CHAPTER XV. TAKING THE GREEN TURTLE. Most of the green turtles to be found in the markets of New York come from the Bahamas. Some are from Key West, and other south ern American ports, and a few from Cuba, but nowhere do they find such good feeding-ground as among the many rocky islets aud keys of the Bahama group. The process of catching turtles is pictur esque and entertaining. If you will join me in a little expedition we will go and catch a few. We must make ourselves for a short time residents of some of the outer islands of the Bahamas, of the species known as "conchs." We live, let us say, on Abaco, and I select the island of Abaco for our residence because it is a favorite place for taking turtles, and because it is a good island, with a light house on one end, and has that famous place known as the "Hole- in-the-wall," and because all the steamers and ships bound to or from Nassau have lo go wilhiu sight of it. And when yon are on a lone ly island, next lo being on board a steamer is seeing one go by. I speak from experience. We live in a house whose walls are built of stones roughly piled up, and whose roof is made of palmetto thatch. Inside of this wo have us little furniture as will allow us to exist— perhaps two or three rickety chairs aud a rough bench and a low wooden frame for a bedstead, with a straw mattress on it. But what matter for the furniture? Do we not live out-doors? And have we not a big tamarind-tree in the back yard, under the shade of whose spreading branches we live, where the wife does the cook ing and washing, where we eat our simple meals unless it rains, and where our half-clad children find both nursery and playground? Of course we have plenty of children, and they are so browned by the sun that it takes an expert to tell whether they are pure whites or mulattocs. And we all live in the same little house, with only one room in it We have oranges and bananas in plenty, and sweet po tatoes when we can develop sufficient energy to plant them, and flsh for the catching. But even here in Abaco it is necessary occasion ally to have a little money. Of our dozen children (we cannot well have less than a dozen; they arc very plenty in the out-islands) three or four are girls, and they and the good wife sometimes want a new calico dress. Or we may need two shillings sterling to buv ourselves the linen for a new pair of trousers. So, after thinking OUT-DOOR LIFE IN NASSAU AND CUBA. 35 HWW te) Q S3 aCD 36 IN SUNNY LANDS: about it a long time, and putting it off from one day to another, we at last set out on a search for turtles. We must have a beach for this, and the beach is perhaps six or eight miles away. We take along about three of our biggest boys, and start off in the boat, and in an hour or two are at the beach, where we prepare for work. None of us wear anything but a cotton shirt, a pair of yellow linen trousers slightly the worse for wear, and a straw hat; but the young est boy we have brought along, who is not more than twelve or thirteen, has nothing on but the hat and shirt, and when a gust of wind fills out his shirt tails like a flying jib he is almost ready to stand as model for an artist. If we are strangers in the tropics, we may at first be a little surprised at this, but the wonder soon wears off, and we almost envy the little fellow his airy costume and his sun-browned little legs. When we beach the boat on the sand, you and I pull off our shirts and roll up our trousers as high as they will go, so that we can wade without harm through any little bays wc happen to reach. But the boys have no scruples in the matter of dress, and they are soon scam pering along the beach in all the dignity of utter nakedness. We put the smallest boy In the boat and let him row along the beach while we walk up the shore, the rest of us, our eyes wide open for turtles. It is a large boat for a small boy to row, but it will not tire him. If rowing grows monotonous, he puts one oar out behind and goes to sculling, He has spent half his life in a boat, and is used to it. Take the boat away from him and I half believe he could swim home ; and as to diving, just drop a silver shilling in six fathoms of water and see how quick he will bring it up. Tliere may be ten miles of beach, but we will go over it all before we go home. If we have good-luck, we do not go far before we see a monster turtle sit ting on tho warm sand, laying her eggs. We approach her with great caution. Two of us steal between her and the water, to pre vent her escape, and the other two tiptoe up to her and turn her . quickly on her back. If she happens to be a 400 or 500 pounder, this is work for two men ; but we do not mind the exertion. If we dare estimate her weight at 400, she is worth more to us than a month's labor; so we can afford to work bard for ten minutes. When we have her once on her back she is helpless. We send one of the boys up into " the hush " to get some strips of palmetto leaf, and in a few minutes we have slits cut in the ends of her tins and the fins tied tightly together, so that she cannot make any fuss. We are careful, of course, to avoid her head, for she would bite us if she could; but we do not give her any chance. We hail the boat and carry her down and lay her in it, still keeping her on her back. Then we rob her nest without any compunctions, for the eggs are worth something, too, and are very good eating. In less than a quar ter of an hour our captive is secure and we start in search of another victim. We may walk five miles before we see a sign of another ; and even then the second one may be small, hardly worth tying up. Isn't it hot work? Well, not so very. The thermometer rarely goes above 100" or 105" in the sun here on the white beach, but the sand is inclined to burn our bare feet. Whenever we feel too warm we take a plunge in the surf without fear of hurting our clothes. Is it any wonder these young rascals, our boys, are as brown as nuts, ex posed every day to this sun? But it does not blister our skins. If we were tender-feet just out of the North we would be burned to death, but we are so used to it the sun has no effeot upon us beyond making the shade of our brown skins a very trifle deeper. So we keep on to the end of the beach. Even if we do not find any more, our 400-pound beauty amply pays us for our labor. Perhaps, how ever, we get one more, a comparatively little fellow, weighing only a hundred. This gives us five hundred-weight for our day's work, and we are in clover for a month. But do not imagine that we will do so well in every turtling expedition. We will come out many times and not see a sign of a turtle. Of course it would be of no use for me to describe an expedition when no turtles were caught, and I have to pick out a successful hunt for example. It is dark by the time we get home, and wo are quite ready for the supper of fish, or conchs, or whatever the ones left at home have been able to provide. Be sure they have not sent to the grocery or the meat-shop for a lit tle treat for us, for there is not a shop within twenty miles, perhaps thirty. We must dig and scratch and fish for what we eat, or go hun gry. After supper we lift our turtles out of the boat, and bring them up near the house, laying them in a cool, shady place, with a little stone under each of their heads for a pillow. In the course of a week or so maybe one of our neighbors with a sloop is going down to Nassau to sell some pigs, and he will carry them down for us. Then in a week more we will have our money and whatever goods we have sent for. . By dark we are all in bed, for we have no light but the little glimmer that comes from the five over which the supper is cooked. And we do not need to be rocked to sleep, even if there are a dozen or more of us huddled together. We shut up every door and window tight, for we believe the night air to be injurious but still plenty of it comes in through the " chinks." We are out with the first streaks of daylight in the morning— not because we have anything to do, but because that is the plcasantest part of the day If we are a trifle richer, so that we have a sloop of our own and go "a- sponging," we may catch turtles in a different way Our sponging sloop is a wonder, if we have one. She is anywhere from twenty to thirty feet long, and built up pretty high out of the water so as to make room below the deck. We have three or four men with us, and every man aboard has one or two boys along and per haps a girl or two. So, in a sloop twenty-five feet long and per haps eight feet wide tliere are anywhere from a dozen to fifteen people. Our clothes are of little account, for we are not likely to meet anybody; still, if we are like the rest of the spongers, we adults put on all the clothes we can find — old flannel shirts and worn overcoats, if we have them, perhaps to keep out the heat. All the small boys belong to the single garment brigade, and if the shirt hap pens to be torn from tail to collar, both benind and before, no mat ter ; it would be too much exertion to sew it up, and there are no pins on board. Where do we sleep and eat, so many of us in this little boat, do you ask? Well, we're not at all particular. In any thing like fair weather we live on deck — eat there and sleep there. If there comes a hard rain we huddle in the hold, where, of course, we cannot stand up, but stretch out aud enjoy life as much as we can. Up forward, on deck, we have a big box filled with sand, and on the sand we build a little fire when we want to cook anything. But we have not very much to cook. We bring along a sack of flour, some salt, a bag of "grits" (hominy), some coffee, a coffee- mill, and a couple of iron pots, which keep melancholy company with our few cracked dishes. ' ' We'se no ways pertikelar, boss, wat we eats. Us poor folks has to take wat we kin get." All the time in turtle waters we are on the watch for them. When we see one we get the boat as nearly over him as we can, and "peg " him with a small single-pronged fish-spear. This makes a small hole through his upper shell, and injures him somewhat for exportation; but he is still good to sell for butchering in the Nassau market, where tur tles are cut up, and the meat and fat sold by tbe pound. When we have our cargo of sponges and turtles we start for Nassau to sell them, and perhaps can make it handy to stop at home on the way. In this case, instead of unloading any of our passengers, we take on board our wives and the rest of our children ; for there is always room for one more, as well in a Nassau sponger as in a Broadway stage. The "women-folks " like to go to the great Bahama metrop olis occasionally, just as our farmers' wives like to go "down to York " when they get a chance. So off we all go, braving winds and seas, to sell our wares and lay in our light provisions for the next month or two. These are the two ways that green turtles are caught— either by turning them over on the beach or by " pegging" them in shallow waters. Alost of those sent to market are females, because only the females, of course, go ashore to lay eggs. They deposit a dozen or more in a hole in the sand, then cover them over with warm white sand, using one of their fins for a shovel, and leaving the hot sun to do the rest. In the course of about three weeks a dozen little tur tles, no bigger than so many young mice, crawl out of the hole, and instinct teaches them to go into the water, where they grow rapidly. The females are easily distinguished from the males by the length of their tails, a female turtle having only a stubby little apology for a tail, not more than an inch or two long in one of ordinary size, aud the males having tails six or eight inches long— nearly long enough to brush flies off with. There are a few places in the Ba hamas where turtles are stored and fattened, the increase in weight paying well for the outlay and the slight trouble of throwing them a few green leaves and other cheap food every day or two. These storage ponds are always natural lakes, generally where there is a slight rise and fall of the tide, sea - water making its way easily through the porous limestone rocks of which the islands are com posed. There are several such lakes on the island of Eleuthera managed on the co-operative plan, where large numbers of youne turtles are stored and left to themselves to grow. These lakes are in the hands of many residents of that and other islands and it is necessary to have the consent of a majority of the owners before a, new buyer is allowed to purchase any of the turtles. I had the hon or last winter of being voted a proper person to be allowed to pur chase turtles from the lakes at Governor's Harbor, on that island When it is decided that some turtles can be sold, they are scooped out with a big turtle-net, and all under a certain size are put back in the lake. Each owner has his own registered mark on every one of Ins turtles and when the turtles are weighed he is credited with tho weight ot all bearing his mark. In the management of this en terprise Mr George Preston, of Governor's Harbor, has been very active , ; and this gentleman and his son are fast provinffto their neitrhhors in TClPiitlmm ?!..,? *i.„ „-..-i -„_ t._ __ , piuviug to meir ?,h£c f° u m Ele,uthora tua* *"e soil can be made to produce vege tables fully equal to those of Bermuda, with the additional advan tage that they can be had ready for market at any season of the year desired. If there were only a few more such enterprising men as Mr. Preston in the Bahamas, the soft rocks and rich pocklts of red earth would soon bloom like flower-gardens P We must come to Nassau in one of these sloops and see what be comes of the turtles after they reach here. There is a greaS of this snul shipping always in Nassau Harbor. More than half of pur provisions here in the Bahama metropolis come from the out islands They send us pigs, sheep, cattle, neat little nonies veee tables, fruits turtles, and sponges. We make fast to one of the wharves and soon sell our turtles to a dealer, who eventually shins them to New York. He looks them over with a practised eve and genera ly finds them all right, unless they have been injured by pegging." If their chests arc full and plump [hey- are ™>ttv ire to be fat and in good condition, provided their eyes look iHt id snappy After they have lain too long out of watc thei evea become bloodshot; but this can bo prevented by frequently spongnig OUT-DOOR LIFE IN NASSAU AND CUBA. 37 the face with salt-water. If we have a lot of turtles he offers us perhaps five cents a pound for the lot, which we generally take, and after weighing them he counts us out the cash, all in English silver coin. But if we have only a few choice ones, all of the proper weight, he gives us more for them. He would rather have each turtle weigh from thirty-five to seventy-five pounds, for at that size they are in the best condition, have the tenderest meat, and are most salable in New York. Turtles of this size are known as "merchant turtles," and perhaps the dealer will offer us six cents a pound, or seven, or even eight cents when competition is very strong and turtles are scarce. He has them loaded on a dray and sent to his "crawl," where their fins are untied and they are allowed to enjoy Hie flavor of salt-water for a 'few days, or until a day or two before the arrival of the steamer for New York. This freshens them up nicely, and they are soon as good as new. Many turtles reaching New York in the cold season are touched by frost and die. They cannot staud much cold. For this reason shippers are shy of sending large turtles to New York in winter, for while the death of a few small ones does not much matter, if one large one dies it takes off the profit on the whole lot. They are usually sent North in lots of from twenty to fifty, weighing in the aggregate from half a ton to three tons. There arc many ways of cooking turtles in Nassau — more ways than we in the North know anything about The way best liked is to reserve some parts of a big fellow for the soup and make the rest up into something resembling a rich hash, full of turtle's eggs and balls of light dough, and serve it in the upper shell. This makes a dish fit for a king. CHAPTER XVI. GARDENING IN THE BAHAMAS. If you want to eat all sorts of fresh vegetables all winter long come to Nassau, if you would like the novelty of sowing radish- seed on Christmas-day and seeing the little plants an inch high on New-year's Day, Nassau is your place. If you like crisp, fresh lettuce in December, in January, in February, Nassau is the place to get it And plump, ripe tomatoes any time you want them, and new potatoes, both white and sweet, and green beans, and horseradish, and parsley, and thyme, and peppers . always ready to be gathered; and onions new and juicy from ^g the beds; and green corn through fully six months in the year. '*||| All these things 3rou can have in Nassau if you will take the y-t trouble to get them. Yet, if I send down to market for a few vegetables, I get (if they happen to have any at all) some of last year's white potatoes, imported from New York; some of last year's onions, imported from New York; a slice out of a head of cabbage, imported from New York. In this land of eternal surshine, where, though soil is scarce, there is enough to raise food for ten times the population, we have to buy vegetables from the thrifty Yankees who have only five months or so to raise them in. I was ashamed of myself every time I bought an American potato; and buying American onions in Nassau was enough to make anybody weep. So, before I had been at AVaterloo a fortnight, I began to look about for a good spot for a garden. There was plenty of land, but a large part of it was rocky, some covered with trees, some too hilly, some too low, some too much exposed to the winds. I soon found three small gardens, all enclosed with stone wall, and all ready to be dug and planted. These had been made by a former proprie tor of the place, and were filled up with excellent soil. For here you do not choose a place for a garden, and spade it up and plant it, as we do at home. If you want a good garden you . first select the place, put a wall around it, and then fill it in with all the rich earth you can find. Very likely you will have to put a man at work with a crow-bar to cut away some of the rocks that crop out too high; but no matter, the rocks are soft and easily cut When the earth is in and well packed down you will find your vegetables grow in a way that would astonish even the thrifty New York market-gardeners. These three " patches " that I found were all so situated as to be protected from the heavy winds ; and this I soon found to be an all-important matter, for strong winds here are just what frosts are in the North, killing young, tender plants, and stripping leaves from the trees, not by chilling them, for there arc never cold winds, but just by the force they exert. So, having dis covered these three gardens in what was to me then the almost un explored wild of Waterloo, I set about making them produce me something to eat. . -vr„.n.„,.„ " Always keep a garden in a country-place," one of my Northern visitors said to me early last winter. ."The plants are at ; work growing while you are asleep. Even if it is a small one, always are always growing. And this temperature is not so hard to work in as you may imagine. Of course the natives do not mind it, and with only a few months' practice I have already become used to it, and frequently do a little hoeing for pleasure and exercise while the mercury stands at 90° in the shade and 140° in the sun. But in a coun try where there are often several little warm showers throughout the day, and with such a temperature as this, you will easily imagine, if you care anything about gardening, how things grow. The climate for gardening is far better than that of Bermuda. There they have to push their crops along to have potatoes and tomatoes and onions ready in April or May ; but here we can have them just as well in January without making any extra effort And they grow in spite of you when once planted. They do say that all you have to do is to lay a paper of garden seeds on top of the wall and come out in a month and gather the crop; but I have found it better to stir up the ground a little and cover up the seeds. If the population of Nassau wero multiplied by ton, so that we would have one hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants instead of fifteen thousand, which would make it necessary for the people to scratch around for a living, Nassau inside of five years would be one big garden. But there are so few people lo the square mile, and a poor man can scrape together enough to live on so very easily, that they hardly take the trouble to cultivate what good land there is. There was only one period in the history of Nassau when much was made of agriculture. That was shortly after our American Revolution, when a large number of royalists (perhaps in New York we would know them better by the name of Tories), not wishing to live in America under the new Republican Government, came here from the Southern States, bring ing their slaves along. They laid out plantations, built houses, made roads, and built miles upon miles of stone walls in places where the modern visitor cannot see the slightest use for them. It is no un common thing to see a mile of stone wall enclosing a lot that is not worth fifty dollars. These immigrants went to raising cotton and other staples and soon went to the dogs. Of course no such rocky Save a garden." And nobody with any love for plants and green things, or any liking for seeing them grow, can well come to Nassau and not feel a desfre to be stirring up the ground Here there s every inducement for gardening for anybody who likes t In the North a man has to see his ground lie idle and cold through six uarv as^n July- and there fs no day In all the year when the cook cannoTgooutlnd gatheragood dinner. With .^rd^ a day, even m winter, that the temperature does not go above 125° in the sun, things THE END OF WEST BAY STREET. soil as this could compete with the rich lands of our Southern States in the production of any of the staples. But in those days there was no great metropolis in America demanding the products of all countries and all climes — no camping ground of millionaires anxious for the chance to pay a dollar for a tomato in January or a quarter for a new potato in February. The difference was not known between the value of crops in season and out of season. Even farmers laugh at the idea of raising potatoes and "garden truck " for sale But new potatoes in midwinter are better than some fold mines, and "garden truck" in January is worth more than Vest Shore stock. A few men in Nassau are interested in showing their neighbors what this island can produce, and none more so than Governor Blake, who has the finest garden in the Bahamas and takes an interest in it. I wish I could induce some of my neighbors to lake an interest in this subject; but nothing that anybody could write would be so convincing as to go and look at Governor Blake's garden, or at Captain Lightbourn's, or at Joseph Roker's, and see what this rocky island can be made to produce. I had to find out everything for myself in making my first little gardens. Aly colored friends had an idea that this, that, and the oth er would not grow in this soil and climate. American corn, they told me, woulcf produce fine large stalks, but no cars; and American tomatoes would not grow at all. Horseradish they knew nothing about. Lettuce was "that green stuff they eats down to the hotel." White potatoes would not grow, and were " not much good, no way." Eggplants were 'unknown, and a dozen others of our American gar den staples — not unknown to the several gentlemen I have mentioned, nor to the others interested in gardening here ; but unknown, I mean, 38 IN SUNNY LANDS-. to the colored gardeners, upon whom I had to depend for the labor. They would have confined me to sweet potatoes, okras, small toma toes, and the small native corn. They were then selling in the Nas sau market very small red tomatoes, hardly larger than plums, at a price that reached very nearly one cent each. When Bethel came up from market in tho morning with his six cents' worth of "mixed yerbs," the liltle bundle included always a small handful of thyme, (an unpleasant reminder to me of country graveyards, but very pop ular here), two small onions, and two or three of these small native tomatoes. My gardener assured me that no other sort of tomatoes grow here, lie must have known better: but perhaps not. I am prepared to believe in almost anything he didn't know, lie would have given me some fine large beds of cassava and yams if I had let him, uud a perfect forest of okras, and left me without lettuce or onions; but I " didn't want no sich garden, boss I" AVe took the largest and best of the three gardens in hand first. It is about fifty feet square, and surrounded on all sides by a stone wall so high that a tall man cannot look over it. An orange-tree stands about the middle of the western end— a tall one, with the lower branches trimmed away — and often I have stood working under it, and oranges have fallen at my feet or struck me on' the head. And just over the southern wall is a fig-tree; and just a little " to the west'ard " is an almond-tree, aud adjoining it on the north is the pig pen. You see we have all the tropical fruits handy. Al most in the centre of the garden grew a single and solitary yam. HOO ISLAND FHOM THE HILL. Not far from it was a little cluster of cassava stalks. And in one corner a jungle of tall okras that no doubt had sprung up from the waste seed of some former planting. We cleared away everything but the yam, the cassava, and about half a dozen of the okras, and by the time the weeds were all pulled up and the ground ready for turning over the thermometer was up to about one hundred and fifty degrees, and I remembered some pressing business that called me to the house. So I left the gardener alone, first asking him whether he knew how to get the soil ready for planting. "What, me, boss! You let old Henry alone for that, boss. I'll have it all ready in no time, please God, boss." So I went into the shade and left Henry to have it all ready in no time. Half an hour later I went out to sec how he was getting on, and found hiin kneeling on the ground digging up the soil with a machete or cutlass. lie had "spaded" up a space about as big as a billiard-table, which, indeed, was very good work considering the miserable tool he was using. " AVhy, Henry," said I, "what's the matter? What are you stab bing the ground with a cutlass for?" " Don't you want the sile stirred up, boss? That's the way we always does it in this country." I sent him after a digging-fork, a hoe, and a rake, and showed him how to use them. The spade, I think, nearly broke his back and his heart at the same time. He had never used such an implement be fore, and I know it frightened him to see the ground turning over in such big lumps instead of the thimblefuls raised on the cutlass But he got along very well with it, and I went into the shade a»-ain I thought perhaps it would be better to let him do this first job us he plcuscd, to see how it turned out. So towurds the middle of the afternoon I went out to see him again, and found him still hard at work. He had spaded up the whole garden, raked it down fine, aud then had laid the entire place out in "beds," after the old-fash ioned plan, raising the beds high in air and leaving depressed walks between them, sunk anywhere from a foot to eighteen inches. It looked like a new graveyard, wilh the beds for graves, lie said that was the way they always laid out gardens, "in these parts," and seemed quite proud of what he had done. He had worked so hard at it, and took such an interest in it, I really didn't have the heart to make him tear it down and level it all off again, though that would have been the proper thing to do. Fully half the space in that little garden was taken up with walks. One might have thought there was going to be a walking match between the beds. And then the beds were so elevated above the general surface they were sure to shed every drop of rain that fell ou them aud leave their contents to parch and wither. For with this hot sun every day and all day it takes a good deal of water to keep a plant in good condition. But fortunately the night air is very moist, sometimes almost equal to a light rain, and this saves many a plant from destruction. We sent down town after some garden seeds, and Henry planted them. I managed, too, to get some plants of what were confidently said to be "Yankee tomatoes," having come from New York in the seed, and Henry set them out. It was droll to see him trying to make a row. Somehow the colored people in general seem to have no bump of order. Henry could not have made a straight line to save his life. The boys or girls in the house never get a chair or a table quite in its place. In a north and south room, the corners of a table are sure to point off to north-east and south west. Sometimes a chair gets around with its seat to the wall and its back facing the middle of the room. No table-cover is ever put on straight; no rug ever gets laid exactly right. So Hen ry struggled with the rows till the tomato plants looked as if they were in a St. Pat rick's Day procession and were marching home tipsy. This garden went along nicely for more than a month, notwithstanding the poor quality of most of the seeds. Radishes, for in stance, were up in three days, and some of them large enough to eat inside of two weeks. Cucumbers came up like weeds, and grew as easily, being entire ly free from the bugs and flies that frequently attack them in the North. Onions, from the seed, did nicely, and gave us fine young tops to eat in a few weeks. The lettuce was the only thing that utterly failed. This is about tbe easiest of all garden prod ucts to raise, but the first crop was a miserable failure on account of bad seeds. The lettuce-bed lay empty for a month or more, till weeds began to grow in it, before there was a sign of anything green. Then a few plants came up. And for a month afterwards new plants kept coming up every day or two— sometimes in the bed, sometimes in the adjacent walks, aud sometimes along -side the wall, where no seed had been sown— till I began to think the lettuce-seed had been travelling about the island on a little "racket," and had all at once made up its mind to swear off and stay at home However, such as did come up I nourished carefully, and watched the rapid growth of the half-dozen heads with great pride, thinking all the time of the good salad I was going to have when it was ready to use, for I could not buy lettuce in the Nassau market. I do not know why there was none there, unless the native gardeners did not think it worth raising. I think I have mentioned once before the opinion a colored gentleman gave me of vegetables in general and lettuce in particular— the man who said, " Wc folks don't care much tor vegetables— not like your folks. We can't eat green leaves with lie on them, like you Americans down at the hotel." It was curly in November when wc made Ibis little garden ; and all through December and January and February we enjoyed what it produced, wilh more tomatoes and radishes and cucumbers and green corn and okras than we could possibly use. There was no more sending to market after that for vegetables. It was onlv an experiment, this little garden, but it showed that all sorts of Amer ican vegetables would grow in this climate, and that fresh vegetables could be hud here every month in the year. The other two ''unions were planted soon afterwards aud gave good results. They were OUT-DOOR LIFE IN NASSAU AND CUBA. 39 charging me about two cents apiece for turnips in the market, so I set out to raise some, and devoted one of the small gardens entirely tc them. The other places having done well without any fertilizers at all, I tried the experiment of manuring this "turnip-patch" very liberally with stable manure, and was more thau repaid for the trouble and expense. It would have done any gardener's heart good to see those turnips grow. They were up in seven or eight days, and in less than four weeks from the time of sowing the seed some of them were ready to use, and there was no more sending to mar ket for turnips. Take them out as fast as we would, there were al ways some next morning large enough to use. They seemed to grow from little rootlets into full-fledged turnips in a single night. The success of these little experiments encouraged me to go into gardening on a larger scale. I went about tbe place looking for a spot suitable for a larger garden, and found it in the "cocoa-nut grove," down near the beach. This piece of land soon developed into one of the greatest places for a garden I ever saw. There are about ten acres of it, mostly covered with low bushes. It was orig inally pure white sand, with a little clay mixed in — what gardeners call "a sandy loam " — and no doubt was some lime or other washed up from the sea, perhaps in a hurricane, ages before anybody knew anything about the Bahama Islands. But for years the leaves and trees have fallen and rotted there, cattle have grazed upon the grass, and the surface now is covered with a rich black mould several inches deep. I set about having an acre or so of this land cleared, and in the process we made a valuable discovery. One of the boys one morning was digging out a " land-crab " that had burrowed into the earth, and when he dug down about three feet he struck water. We took a spade and enlarged the hole till we had quite a little well, and this well soon was half full of water. It was a little brackish, this water, but not very. Wc could drink it on a pinch, and I ex perimented with it to sec whether it was salty enough lo injure the plants. It proved just as good for them as perfectly fresh water, and we sunk a barrel in the hole and soon had a young well. At a dozen other places I had similar holes dug, and we struck water in every one of them — water that rises and falls with the tide ; so that at high tide the water is a foot or two deep, and at low tide it is al most gone. These wells are invaluable in a garden, for there are times in the year when rain is scarce, and growing plants require to be watered, and they are always convenient, and save us the trouble and expense of carrying water. This land is not more than five hun dred feet from the sea, and the water no doubt trickles through the soft rock down below, losing the greater part of its salt as it travels. The sandy soil is from five to eight feet deep, and at the bottom of it is rock. It is one of the few places in Nassau where a plough could actually be used over ten acres without striking a rock. But that is no great advantage, for there are no ploughs in Nassau. They do not know what they are. I have heard that some gentlemen once brought a plough here, and that it is still on the island, lying idle in a shed, nobody knowing how to use it. "We stirs up de sile wid a hoe, boss !" and this good old custom is good enough for these small patches of land if they only "stirs it upv' thoroughly. This acre of land I mentioned, cleared in December and planted early in Janu ary, is now a blooming garden, full of potatoes and beans and green corn and sweet potatoes and watermelons, and everything you could wish. The sweet potatoes here grow to ten times the size of ours, single ones sometimes being as large as a small watermelon, but their size does not make them coarse, and they are quite as good as ours. Sweet potatoes here are never taken out of the ground till they are wanted, as there is no frost to injure them, and if left alone the plants spread and spread till one acre of them in a few years turns into a dozen. CHAPTER XVII. A WINTER AT WATERLOO. A winter in such a place as Nassau goes by like a song. The less you have to do somehow the more you enjoy it, and the quicker time flies. But the laziest person will find plenty to occupy his time though it may not always be at something useful. AVhen a steamer comes in, and you know that (before the season opens) it will be a month before another arrives, it seems like an age. And vou hardly have time to answer your letters and read your papers be fore the month is up. It is because everything is new and strange. You feel at first, perhaps, enervated by the climate, and declare you could not walk a mile to save your life. At the same time you are -walking half a dozen miles a clay without knowing it, going down to the shore, out to sec the cocoa-nuts, strolling about town. You ride sail, fish, walk, and swim, all the time declaring how lazy tho warn weather makes you. You go out and gather a boat-loatl; or a carriage-load of " curiosities "-shells, ferns, curious flowers bits of coral sponges-using a great amount of energy to get them together and stm toink you areS doing nothing. People there : arc .not o wonderfully lazy as they try to believe themselves ; hey do m than they think/ This winter just past has gone by a 11 he qv ucl cr in Nassau no doubt because it has gone so smoothly and p cas.tnlly. The "tonincm came and went will, the greatest regularity, never mi.sin a trip, hardly ever late, and always wilh full. loads of pas sers'. It was wonderful how regularly they arrived in good weather or bad. And it was curious to see how everybody watched for the ship when she was due. Steamer-day is the liveliest day ot the month in Nassau, and still I think there is less business done on that day than any other, for everybody is out watching the new ar rivals. The folks in the steamship office I know will not agree with me in saying there is no business done on steamer days, for then they are rushed to death; have to answer questions by the thousand, and to attend to the petty matters of everybody to accommodate them. Mr. A. E. Mosoley, Mr. Darling's chief clerk, I have come to look upon as a marvel of patience and endurance. He answers enough questions every day to drive a man wild, signs invoices with his left hand while he is making out passage tickets with his right, and never loses his temper. It is the fashion among Nassau visitors to go down to the office and inquire about the steamers, whenever they have nothing else to do. " Will she be on time?" "Do you think she will bring many passengers?" "Are there any state-rooms left?" and "What time will she sail?" Some people who intend to go home, go down to see about their state-rooms every day for tbe previous two weeks; and others, who do not intend to g'o, have their names put on the list and secure rooms for each sailing, "in case anything should happen to take them home suddenly." And still Mr. Darling does not bang up the sign "This is my busy day;" he goes on answering questions just as if half the people in Nassau were not gathered in his office waiting for friends, packages, or news. A steamer is just about due there now, homeward bound, on her way back from Cuba, and I know exactly what is happening as well as if I were there. It is Alonday morning (let us imagine), and the steamer has been "sighted." That is, as soon as it was daylight, the signal man in Fort Fincastle saw her through his glass and hoisted the steamer signal. That let all Nassau know she had come, though she was then only a dot on the ocean. An hour later she was in plain sight without a glass. By seven o'clock she was just outside the bar, only the tops of her masts visible over Hog Island, looking like three moving trees. By this time the rear part of Air. Darling's office is full of people, the big double doors are open, and everybody is watching the steamer. " Has she anchored?" Yes, there comes the boom of a cannon, which is fired as her anchor goes down. And her whistle blows, to summon the tender. The tender has had steam up for an hour, and now goes out to meet her. " She has seventy passengers," says Air. Darling, who is watching her through a glass from the upper balcony. How does he know? This is a dead mystery, for there is no cable from New York and there has been no communication with the ship. But it is easy enough when you understand it. Do you see those small signal flags on the foremast? There are seven of them, and that means seventy, for one small flag is hoisted for every ten Nas sau passengers aboard. This is done for the information of the agents and tho hotel that suitable accommodations may be prepared for them. Here is a row-boat just setting out, keeping well up with the steam tender, a large whale-boat manned by four oarsmen, with an awning to keep off the sun. It contains Captain Lightbourn, Captain of the Port, and Dr. AlacClure, the health officer. Other boats go off, large and small, and soon the harbor is alive with them; but the ar rival of the steam tender has almost broken up their business, for they are looking for passengers. Presently a small boat comes ashore. She brings the purser, in charge of the mails. He comes up into the office bringing a passenger list and a copy of the ship's manifest, and lays them down on a table where everybody can see them. And how we all rush for them! Have our friends arrived? - Has our barrel of flour come? And what's the news? Is General Grant any worse? What's the latest about Mr. Gladstone? You will please to remember that we have been out of the world for a fortnight or a month and news is precious. The tender rounds the end of Hog Island, and is coming over the bar. In a few minutes the passengers will be ashore, and there is a rush of carriages to the wharf, and of people of all shades and de grees. Everybody goes. Even the cats and dogs in Nassau go down to the wharf to see the passengers land. The tender comes up and puts out her gangway, and they step ashore. There arc al ways familiar faces among them, so many visitors come back to Nassau winter after winter. Here comes a lady in a sealskin cloak, and the probabilities are that she will take it off before she reaches the hotel. And here is a man with a dog, grumbling because he has to pay duty on him. Ladies with maids; gentlemen with valets; invalids, hardly able to walk down the gangway, pale and thin, who in a week or two will be brown and strong, and go out fishing; and a few residents of Nassau who have been away on bus iness and have come home again. In ten minutes after the landing the crowd is gone. Half the residents go down to Mr. Darling's office to get an early glance at the papers or to the Post-office to wait for the mail, and the visitors mostly go to the hotel or down to "Corson's," a large and comfortable boarding-house, in the heart of the city, big enough to be called a hotel, but which the proprietor, a gentleman from "the States," prefers to keep more quiet At the Post-office there is a long line of people in front of the window, and they are not usually kept waiting long. The Post-oflice is a model one, with which nobody ever has a chance to find fault. Up at tho hotel the old visitors arc all gathered about the entrance to sec the new ones como in. A heap of trunks like an cxprcss-ofllcc stands near the door — some just coming in, some just going away. The new-comers have to run the gantlet of a hundred pairs of eyes as they go up to ornament the register with their name3. Some of them come only for a few hours, being bound for Cuba, and having 40 IN SUNNY LANDS: come ashore to look at Nassau and enjoy a short visit to dry land. It sometimes happens, when the hotel is full, that new-comers have to wait till the steamer sails, taking away passengers whose rooms are thus vacated before they can find accommodations. There is only one way to reach Nassau, but fortunately that is a comfortable and pleusuut way. The Ward line of steamers runs from New York to Nussuu direct, making the pussuge in three days. And what Nassau is as a winter resort it owes very largely to these American steamers, and to Mr. R. AV. Parsons, through whose efforts they run there, and furnish such excellent travelling facilities. The Cienfuegos and the Santiago, both stanch new iron steamers of about three thousand tons, leave New York (alternately) on Thursday after noon, and by dusk on Sunday evening they are lying off Nassau. At daylight on Alonday morning the steam tender Nassau goes out over the bar, and carries the passengers ashore It is more than likely that in this winter of 1885 there will also be direct communi cation with St. Augustine and Havana, as it is proposed to run an independent Ward line from St. Augustine to Havana by way of Nassau, thus putting the latter place within thirty-six hours of an American port. This will give Nassau five steamers monthly each way, instead of two, as at present. Both the north and the south sides of Cuba are easily reached from Nassau. There are no more thoroughly safe or comfortable ships anywhere in the world, I con fidently believe, than the Cienfuegos and the Santiago, running from New York to Nassau. door amusements. One day he went out sailing with a party the boat was struck by a squall and capsized, and he was drowL id. Then a pretty little boy at the hotel fell off a high wall and injured himself seriously. He was accompanied by his mother and a nurse, and was so badly hurt that it was thought best to send for his father. Of course, there was no way to telegraph, but a schooner was just about to start for Key West, and a despatch was sent by her, to be wired to New York. The message reached the father, a New Street broker, just an hour before the sailing of the steamer for Nassau. He hurried aboard, and arrived in Nassau to find his boy improving greatly, but hardly yet out of danger ; and when tbe hotel was about to be closed it was a question whether he would be strong enough to be moved. Mr. Morton had refused several tempting offers to allow persons to remain in the hotel a few weeks longer; but when the father of the sick boy went to him and said that he was afraid it would kill his boy to be moved, Mr. Morton, with a kindness of ¦ heart that I am afraid is none too common, replied, "Your boy shall not be disturbed till he is able to go." But he im proved faster than was expected, and was well enough to start when the hotel closed. Captain Colton let him have his own large state room, and he reached New York in grand style. These were the only serious accidents of the season, though there were all the time from three hundred to five hundred American visitors on the island. And there was no sickness. The phosphorescent lake at Waterloo was a loadstone that drew A PEACEFUL FORT, NASSAU. At Waterloo we always watch on steamer-days for the signal flag on Fort Fincastle. It is only a speck from there, but we have learned to know it; and any colored boy about the place can toll at a glance the difference between the signal of " a schooner in tbe north-west," "u bark in tho north," and the " niuil-slcumer from New York!" Several limes throughout the winter 1 have been awakened at day light ou Alonday mornings by the firing of the steamer's gun, aud listened to the welcome sound of her whistle. She was sure to bring either friends or letters from them; and how she was always freight ed with news and with good things to eat ! Even in that warm weath er we could not entirely give up the idea of oysters, and the steamer always brought a supply. But they had to be eaten at once, for they would not keep long, even on ice. And the beefsteaks and roasts from New York! And the barrels of " Nord apples," or American apples ! And the fresh butter, and all the other good things from home ; and then the advertisements in the papers, ' ' Just received , per steamship Cienfuegos, from New York, so and so." Oh, a great day in Nassau is steamer-day, when the ship comes in from New York! Once or twice a month a steamer comes regularly from London, but her coming makes no stir. She comes and goes without anybody getting excited. It is the New York steamer we are all looking There were only one or two mishaps last winter to break in upon the general enjoyment of the season. One American visitor was drowned. He was an invalid in search of health, and he had so fur recovered as to be able to spend the greater part of his lime in out- a few hundreds of American visitors "out easfard" on dark even mgs. I wish I hud set up a register and kept a record of all their names. Many a dark night I have been sil ing there readm* anf smoking a Iwo-th rds-of-a-eont cigar aud thiidd.Tg of bed wl eS one of the boys would appear with, ' uo " Dor's a carriage comin' in, boss!" minute more the parlors, so quiet before, would be f u 1 oM?£ ?J laughter, and somebody would be saying "Oh here's Frank u^n^ there would be more laugh ng and talkto^ nn!f?„ «°g ^^J -and another carriage would dr ivf in am I unf^ V* ? m!dst of il a11 have to bring In more chairs- and tL fil, ' and th&, b°ys would introduced toSthercondp^ ty and1 fuJ^TlL^0^ haVC to be or did remember any new name fomre tl.nn t ' wh.° never could have to do it; and he would gefall Sames wroZ^T'?' ruld ing young unmarried ladies wo M sudde^fv ™3 g" S° that charm- come the wives of elderly rinrio JonSn n, »f "nexP«*««y No body, as if it was an entirely Mwffibffi U wh,J° some- suggesl that it would be pleasant to L out n, ,l] i°CCUn'cd' wouW mvo hud eight <:urriage-lKf visits 1 re at S time 'f 'i'^ * the lake, but never more than were thoroughly' welcome" 'fiK thousand feet. In an hour or two more we were around the corner, sailing west ward along the south shore of Cuba, fair ly in the Caribbean Sea, almost down to . latitude 19. This latitude is a trifle more than comfortably warm on shore, even in winter; but the ocean breeze makes it delightful, and makes one regret the passin"- of every minute. AVe had had a smooth and in every way a delight ful trip. There is very rarely any rough weather or rough water in this voyage between Nassau and Cuba, the route is so protected by islands. Even to people somewhat acquainted with Cuba there is a feeling of surprise at seeing such a mountainous country so unproductive, as seen from the ocean, and so solitary. Our north ern idea of the island is of a place covered with sugar plantations and tobacco plantations, bristling with all sorts of tropical fruit- trees, with slaves, and Chinamen, and cigar-makers. It is hard to realize that a very large part of the island, particularly the eastern end, is all mountain, scarcely inhabited, and entirely unproductive there are two mountain ranges, ono running along the north side' the other on the south. Between the two a fertile valley. I'm not quite sure but they say there are three mountain ranges, one run ning along the middle like a backbone. However, where there are so many mountains, a range or two, more or less, don't make much difference. Some of the peaks along this part of the south side are very high— as much as four thousand feet they tell me— thou "h when I compare their appearance with that of other mountains that I am tamihur with I can hardly bring myself to believe it Between C-ido Muisi mid Santiago the only port of consequence is Guantanamo -i town of sonic size, situated a short distance back from the se-i Beyond this, only a few miles from Santiago, we passed a spot that has more than a passing interest for nil New-Yorkers This is the place at which AVilliam Al. Tweed landed when he fled OUT-DOOR LIFE IN NASSAU AND CUBA. 51 from New York, and the hut in which, t am told, he spent several weeks while trying to elude his supposed pursuers. I had no idea of seeing the place, and was startled when told of it, for what a wild, desolate place for a man to hide himself in, and how strange it must have seemed to a man used to so busy a life as Air. Tweed's! If I can describe the place so as to convey any idea of its surroundings you will agree with me, I know, in wondering how Air. Tweed managed to live there, even for a few weeks, with no companion but the ohl black man who owns the hut, who cannot, I am told, speak a word of English. The mountains tower up here several thousand feet, and look bare aud desolate, most of the vegetation on them having been killed by droughts. Between the foot of the mountain and the sea is a narrow plain, loss than a quarter of a mile wide, in some places green with vegetation aud dark wilh fo liage, in others nothing but white sand. There are huge rocks ev erywhere, and outlying ranges of hills, leading gradually up to the mountain. Here a small mountain stream makes its way down to the ocean, both its banks lined with trees. As this runs across the narrow plain it, goes through a shallow defile, in which stands the hut where Air. Tweed stayed. It is perhaps a thousand feet back from the beach, and now stands almost un derneath a railway bridge that has since been built across the defile, but that was not there in Air. Tweed's time. The hut in which he lived is one of the little one -roomed thatch -roof affairs com mon to the negroes of the island. AVe were not close enough to the shore to see very much of the build ing, but the desolate sur roundings of the place impressed everybody who looked at it. '1 here is not another house for miles. Tweed landed here from a sailing vessel, but wheth er he knew anything about the place, or whether he picked it out at random on account of its lonely appearance, I could not learn. Leaving home in the way be did, with no doubt something to think of occasionally not altogether of a pleasant nature, spending several weeks in this solitude with no companion but a black man whose language he could not understand, was enough to daunt almost anybody. The black man to this day exhibits some of the trifles Tweed left behind, and blesses his luck that so great a man came to his house and en riched his store. . Near by this place of Tweed's, that is to say within fifteen or twen ty miles but half-way up the mountain, we saw the remains of a coffee plantation— house, buildings, grounds, walls, and everything —but all going or gone to decay. An empty house, ruinous build ings overgrown grounds. But in its day it must have been one of the princely West Indian estates we read about. Even at the dis tance we saw it from we could see what a fine place the residence had been, with its stone terraces and its large gardens Coffee plant ing is a dead industry-at any rate in this part of Cuba. The plan tations have gone to ruin, like their owners, and nothing is left of them but a few piles of stones. It was past the middle of the after noon when wc got a first glimpse of the Morro Castle that guards the entrance to the harbor of Santiago de Cuba. And I cannot be gin at what must soon be the conclusion of this chapter to give a <1e cription of such a wonderful old place as the AIo.ro of Sanlmgo It will be hard enough to do any sort of justice to wi h undo snace I think it is safe to say that there is no building to equal I on this side of the world. For many years I treasured up a rccol- e tion onheleautiful harbor of Ha/atL and ^.^^"gT, ro Castle that guards its entrance. But seeing this bat boi and tins castle has almost wiped it out I will not ^eUiorf^njy . next stewards, Peterson, and by every other officer and every soul on board, with the unlimited use of the ship's charts, with the almost positive possession of Purser Aliles's fine field glasses, with the more than good fare set up "three times a day" m the saloon, with a smooth sea, a cloudless sky, a fine room, and the plcasatitest compa ny (officers and passengers) ever gathered together on a steamship, I cannot hope in any subsequent voyage to find everything so enjoy able, but will have to look back to this, I am sure, as my voyage of all voyages. CHAPTER XXII. THE SIGHTS OF SANTIAGO. There is nothing on this side of tho Atlantic, as far as I have seen, to compare with the harbor of Santiago or the rare old Alorro Castle at its entrance As the Cienfuegos approached the mouth of the harbor, the castle was the first thing we saw. And that, of course, c aiitcr by saying any more than that the castle and the harbor arc wah travelling Iround the world to see. . Theyjire not like pretty pictures that please you forgotten. The natural.. ., weird and romantic, they make an impression upon one pictures that please you for a momeat and then fade, away^pd are o goU m" Vhe natural scenery is so grand, the old ^«*£-» weird ind romantic thev make an impression upon one that would Take' yeTrs toeTce' iSed, as long as I can ™^ Mgn-g lam surel shall remember distinct y the appearance of this ca stle and bay. This trip spoiled me for all future sea trips. With such a com- f ortable ship as the Cienfuegos to travel in, ji^tJ'S'ffl me by Captain Faircloth, by good Purser Allies, by that kin0 01 snip MORRO CASTLE, HAVANA. was what we were all looking for. Even the officers and crew, who have seen it hundreds of times, were out on deck watching for an other look at the curious old place. The harbor is one of the largest and best in this part of the world ; not as large as our harbor in New York, nor nearly as deep, but larger than that at Havana, and far more beautiful; and anybody who has seen Havana harbor will ad mit that it takes a good one to be better worth seeing. While still ten miles away we were all looking at the castle through glasses, impatient to have it loom up in front of us. At that distance! made out very distinctly the parapets and towers, and even saw the flag floating from the staff; only I found out afterwards that I had been looking at a big rock on the mountain on tho other side of the har bor aud not at the castle at all. Soon we were in front of it, how ever, and wishing the steamer would anchor for the rest of the day and let us feast our eyes upon it. We went close enough to it " to toss a biscuit ashore," as they say, though I don't know why any body should want to waste biscuits by tossing them ashore, unless it might be to feed the many Spanish soldiers loitering around. The castle is a pile of masonry built upon the sides and summit of a high rock looming up in the air a hundred or a hundred and fifty feet. One of the oldest fortifications in the New World, it shows its a"-e in its discolored and time-eaten walls and the obsolete style of its construction ; but. it is still far from being a ruin, though one cannot help but think in passing what a shock two or three shots from a modem cannon would give it. It is built in terraces, and goes up the hill by easy stages, though the fellows who live in the top story have to do a good deal of climbing up the worn rock stairs. It takes a good while to see it all ; new stories and wings and terraces and stairways crop out in unexpected places, and win dow holes in the rock show how extensively the hill has been cut into. There seemed to be a large garrison iu it, for romantic look-© >.«.> ing Spanish soldiers were all about, none of them doing anything, but trying to find shady spots to lean against the walls in. Some of these soldiers were up on the very top, sitting on tho parapets and dangling their legs in air, and they were so high above us, almost over our heads, they looked hardly bigger than spiders. There were little niches in the walls at various places, some with bells in them. others with crosses; there were ranges aud ranges of walks with 52 IN SUNNY LANDS: soldiers ou them, one range above the other, and connected some times by stairways cut in the rock, sometimes by inclined planes; tliere were places where the unbroken bare wall of rock ran up into the air one hundred feet; there was a tiny sentry-box made of boards built against the wall near the top of one of those highest places, like a fly sticking to tbe wall up near the ceiling, looking ready to let go and drop off at any minute; there were underneath caves worn into the rock, running farther in than one could see, and looking dark aud uncanny ; there were, a story or two above the caves, small win dows with heavy iron bars, evidently the dungeons cut out of the rock; and there were, as we went along, new parts constantly com ing into view, for the castle occupies three sides of the hill. Then an inlet was passed, and ou the oilier side of it a .smaller fort, a sort of lender lo the big one, curious in shupe, weak in appearance, but strong in its position, wliich was admirably selected. 1 had better stop trying to describe this old Alorro, for I see that the farther I go into it the less any reader is likely to know about it. It is so piled up in odd shapes, so different from anything we see in America, so old, so picturesque, I doubt whether anything short of a paintbrush could convey much of an idea of it. Even a pencil would not do, for it would lose the time-worn colors — pink and blue and yellow- that help to give a charm to it. It is a rare old castle, and I should like to spend a week, poking about its dark passages, and up and down its rocky ways. SANTIAGO DE CUBA. Santiago lies in a sort of basin, enclosed on three sides by mount ains of great height and beauty, with the harbor in front. On the strip of high land running along the eastern side of the harbor, be tween the Alorro and the city, are a number of handsome country residences, and an American mining company, with iron mines a few miles inland, has built a big iron pier for loading ore upon its ships. As in most southern ports, the water is too shallow for large vessels to approach the docks, and the steamer anchored out iu tho harbor, perhaps half a mile from shore. We were immediately be sieged by a Heel of boats looking for passengers, and by the usual number of Custom-house and Health officers; and I was delighted to run against two gentlemen who wero fellow-passengers of mine on a recent voyage — one a resident of Santiago, tho other an Ameri can, here on business. Air. Purser Aliles kindly offered to introduce me to the American consul, so I soon had some friends in Santiago, and was ready to see tho sights. We went ashore together, and on the wharf hunted up a carriage to take us to the consul's. It was a rickety concern, drawn by two tired horses and driven by an equally tired driver, whose services we secured after going throu"-h a routine that soon became familiar to me. It is necessary anywhere to make a bargain in advance with your hackman, but doubly so iu Cuba, and I brought to the rescue a formula I used long ago in Havana, with great success. It is very simple, and I recommend it to any American in need of a carriage in Cuba. You go up to cab by, seeing him unengaged, and start off with — "Hi, sefior, un ora, un peso," or, in English, that I trust will be better than my Spanish, " one hour, one dollar." This generally throws cabby into a fit, and he begins to swing his arms recklessly and roll his eyes, and lets fly a volley of Spanish at you out of which you manage to catch — " No-o-o, sefior; dos pesos, dos pesos," which means "two dol lars, two dollars." By this time your Spanish is pretty well used up, and mixed up, and you reply forcibly, " Oh, get out!" But cabby will not got out. Nine times out of ten he will follow you up, smilingly, open the carriage door for you, and with beaming countenance invite you to enter. A minute before he seemed in a terrible passion, but it soon goes off. Even after your bargain is made he does not always want to stick to it if he thinks he can get any more by a course of teasing. One fellow, after driving me to a hotel in Santiago, demanded a dollar more than I had agreed to pay him, and I walked off and left him talking away like an angry pur- rot He followed me up, aud one of Ihe hotel boys told me he was asking mc "to give hiin ten cents more anyhow!" It would have broken his heart to let a stranger get away without paying something more than the price. I must say for the Santiago hackmen, how ever, that they are in general as honest and obliging as one could ask. Cabby took us up to within a block of the consul's house, over ft streets that were the perfection of everything bad. They certainly cannot have been repaired in the last fifty years, and rains and the traffic of the city have made them more like ditches in a hillside than streets in a civilized town. The thoroughfare in which the American consul's house stands, oiie of the principal streets of the city, is not passable for vehicles. A man can walk through the greater part of it at the risk of his neck, but no hackman would be so im prudent as to try to drive through it. It is very hilly,- and the rains have washed gullies in it in some places three or four feet deep. So wc drove up to within a block of the house, and then carefully picked our way up to the entrance. An unexpected barrier blocked our passage to the front door. There was a stone- paved piazza iu front, aud the greater part of this was occupied by a saddle-horse that stood there awaiting his master, who was inside. This is one of the customs of Cuba, so common that nobody thinks anything of it. If you go on horseback to visit a friend you ride up on the piazza and leave your horse standing at the front door till you come out. A boy came along and led the horse away for us, and we went in and found , , .... , the consul a very pleasant and hospitable gentleman, greatly interested, like everybody else in I Cuba, in the Spanish treaty. I was more interested in examining the house, I am afraid, than in discussing the prospects of the treaty. The house looked as if it had been built to stand a thousand years with walls two or three feet thick, with solid rafters not more than a foot apart and with the posts of all the door and window frames near y a foot square, and running down for ten feet into the ground Earthquakes and hurricanes, the consul explained, made it necessary to build he Santiago houses m Ibis solid I'ushion. As wo returned to the ship 1 noticed that there was no bathing iu the harbor Usual v in these southern ports half the youngsters of the town may be fo nd along the water front-almost living iu tho water. But here there was no bulbing at all. I inquired about it, and found the reason was comprised in one word-sharks. The harbor is full of sharks-ntee L°hv'n"V'UT' Standing on the after-deck that evening water 7 P aU'd0U'' * SaW Lim watclli»S something in the " The sharks must be all out this evening," he said « w, you sco anv?" l asked him- is a K°" 0ryOU SCC °11U °f Ul°S(! l,rishl Sp0ls'" llc ai,swcred, "that th JJtlnTn r 'n SilnliaS°, IIarb01' is wry phosphorescent, and when the wind blows on a dark night the waves make little spots of me A fish swimming through it leaves a trail of fire behind him Tliere we e dozens of big phosphorescent spots all about the ship and each of then was made by the motions of a shark lying by the vessel bo'I !lg «7 Ta?,'i A C11-leerful P,ace Ulat would VtofallS board But notwithstanding the sharks, Santiago Harbor is a fine f ?' b0,Uin& TihCTC i8 °UC; CmiosUv in U "'at foduce 1 mc o depart from my usual custom of carrying away no relics from for OUTDOOR LIFE IN NASSAU AND CUBA. OS eign countries. I can generally pass all soils of wonderful things in tbe way of foreign curiosities without any desire to possess myself of scraps or splinters of them to carry home, but when I learned that the old bt. 1 aid was lying wrecked iu tho harbor of Santiago, 1 deter mined to have a small piece of her, if possible, to be made into but tons, or something of the sort. The St. Paul was one of the ships of the great Spanish Armada that went over to England in 1588 and was one of the few that escaped the gale that tore the Armada to pieces Her name was afterwards changed, and she was sent over many years ago to perform some government service among the Spanish colo nies in America. She was caught in a hurricane somewhere off the coast of South Carolina, was driven southward far out of her course and put in at Santiago in distress. Here she was run ashore and was used for some years as a guardship, until somebody set fire to her and she was burned to the water's edge. Several gentlemen in Santiago told me that she had been in good repair within the last twenty-five years, and that they had often been aboard of her. So she stood all the wars and storms of two hundred and seventy-five years, until fire at last, put an end to her. I had no idea before that any relic of Ihe Armada was in existence, and I got a boatman one morning mid went out in search of her remains. The hoiilmuu pre tended to know nil about her, and to be able to take me lo her without difficulty; but I found that he had no idea where she lay. So wc had to give it up for that morn ing, and I borrowed the oars from him and did a couple of hours' hard row ing about the harbor, re turning to the ship looking very much as if I had fallen overboard. Rowing in a Cuban har bor, under the burning sun, Is warm work. That same evening I was on shore again, visiting one of the gentlemen I knew there, and happened to mention my adventure of the morn ing, when the gentleman kindly offered to send to sec me next day a boatman who was well acquainted with the harbor, and could talte me out to the wreck of the St. Paul without dif ficulty. Accordingly, early on the following morning, this boatman came out to the Cienfuegos accompa nied by another man, and wc went over to the wreck, which lay close to the shore, almost within stone throw of the ship. We found her nearly gone, with nothing left but a few ribs sticking up, and they below the water-line at high tide. Some of these brave old timbers that have seen duty for nearly three centuries are still in very good condition, though covered with barnacles. Tbe boatmen rowed ashore aud picked up some old spikes and bolts that lay on the beach, the remains of other wrecks, aud with them wrenched and broke and pounded off such pieces of the old Spaniard as they could get, giving me plenty for making up into small ornaments. These relics I preserved carefully and still have in safe quarters, though some of the sailors thought me crazy for bringing aboard a handker chief full of wet, worm-eaten, water-soaked old chips. No brief visit to Santiago will give a visitor any idea of what tho !i old place is. From a first look at it — its rough, untended streets, its many old buildings, some of them looking just about ready fo fall J over and crush yoii— the impression it makes is not favorable, except that no lover of old and quaint things could help but admire it for iils venerable appearance. Old? Why, Saint Augustine is a young village compared with ill But when you become heller acquainted wilh it, and see the interiors of some of the fine old buildings, your notion of it is entirely different. I was living aboard the steamer, feeling sure that no hotel on the south side of Cuba could give me such accommodations, particularly in the matter of fare, as Steward Petersen's travelling hostelry. But one evening spent ashore gave mc a better insight into life iu Santiago than I could have obtained otherwise in a month. It was one of the nights when they have music here on the plaza, when everybody turns out lo listen to it aud promenade. At the hotel I found a friend quartered in such apartments as one would hardly hope to find in a city no larger than Santiago, and enjoying a fare that even a New-Yorker could find no fault with. We went around after dinner to the residence of another gentleman, and by the stupidity of the driver were taken to his backyard gate, and were not a little surprised to hear an invisi ble lady on a sheltered tipper balcony on the other side of the street say, in very good English, "That driver ought to know better than to take those gentlemen to the back gate!" However, the mistake was easily rectified, and we soon fouud ourselves in one of the finest mansions in Santiago, paved throughout with marble tiles, with a fountain in the large court-yard, and with everything about it to make life in the tropics agreeable. Together we went out to the plaza, where a military band gave some very good music, and where were gathered all tlie belles and beaux of the town; for in Santiago, as in many of the old Cuban towns, the curious practice is still kept up of all the fashionable la dies of the place promenading arm-in-arm through the plaza on one evening of the week, while the gallants stand or sit about and look on, with the less fashionable part of the population gathered around on the outside. Tliere were, perhaps, eighty or a hundred ladies promenading that evening, and they made a fine display of Cuban beauty. After admiring this strange scene for an hour or more we tore ourselves reluctantly away from the ladies, and made a round of the club-houses, visiting at least half a dozen, most of which are filled up in a style that nobody would anticipate from their outside uppearunoo, with marble floors, billiard and smoking rooms, cafes, and lounging rooms. A rare old placo Santiago must havo been HARBOR OF CIENFUEGOS. when all these places were in their prime I And a rare old place it | is now, with its houses that were young a century and a half ago, ' its old churches and its hospitable people. CHAPTER XXIII. CIENFUEGOS. Cienfuegos is a young Philadelphia. With its straight streets laid out at right angles, and its generally neat and trim appearance, it reminds one of nothing so much as the city of the Centennial. Only there are not quite so many naked children running about the streets of Philadelphia nor so many iron bars in front of all the win dows. An American staying down here has suggested to mc that these bars arc not so much to keep thieves out as to separate the ladies of the family from possible beaux and lovers. But this was im unkind suggestion. Tho stylo of courting here, as elsewhere in Cuba, is for the young man to stand outside the bars on the side walk, tho young lady sitting in the bowed window — a style that must be anything but satisfactory to the lover. In Mexico, where they do the same thing, they call it "doing the bear" to a young lady, though, as a bear is noted for his hugging propensities, and as the iron bars are effectual preventives of any such indecorous pro ceedings, I think the name entirely inappropriate. Cienfuegos is a much newer town than Santiago de Cuba, and consequently is less interesting. Nevertheless, it is well worth seeing. It is the only tropical port I know of where the steamer goes up to the wharf, as it does in New York, permitting passengers to go ashore without the aid of a small boat This, to a visitor from the North, gives it at once an air of civilization that is not found in any other Cuban city. Natives of the lower class swarm around the gangway as soon as it is put out, to such an extent that a man has to be stationed upon 54 IN SUNNY LANDS. it to keep them off the ship, for some of them have an unfortunate habit of appropriating any small articles not under the owner's eye. The Cienfuegos youngsters are more like New York small boys than any youngsters I have seen in these latitudes. They are as full of life and mischief, and run about with as much spirit or energy, which is something very unusual in this warm part of the world. A Custom house officer wus immediately stationed at the head of the gangway, and kept a jealous eye upon all parcels carried aboard or ashore ; but as my baggage fortunately remained on the ship, I escaped the rig ors of the Cuban customs. This gentleman in a curious uniform did not, however, interfere with a score of vendors of cigarettes and 11 THE PLAZA AT NIGHT. cheap cigars who carried on their business very much on tbe plan •of a Chatham Street clothing-dealer, and would refuse no reasonable offer. But there was one place where they, in common with all the other Cienfuegos merchants, drew the line, and that was in the ac ceptance of any American coin larger than a dime. Somebody has flooded Cuba with American silver five and ten cent pieces full of holes, and these pass without question at their face value. Indeed, the more holes a dime has in it, and the larger these holes are, the better the Cubans seem to like it. But offer them a shining new •quarter just out of the mint and they refuse it with disdain. They •do not know what it is. American greenbacks are worth about ten per cent, premium, but a great many people do not know what they are. I gave one to a Cienfuegos hackman, and he had to consult three or four of his friends before he was satisfied to take it. They have a small Spanish gold coin worth $2.16 (I forget the name of it, and you couldn't pronounce it if I should write it), but all the other money in circulation seemed to me to he American dimes and half-dimes, punched full of holes. One of my first adventures in Cienfuegos was a visit to tho Chi nese club-house. There are two of them, but this was the larger. Purser Aliles and I went ashore together through the large open shed that covers the landing-place and took a carriage for a short drive into the town. As we were going up one of the streets we passed a fine large building that Air. Aliles said was a Chinese club house, and I immediately suggested that we should go in and see it. It is a long time since I have talked any Chinese, but the man on guard at the door received us courteously, ushered us into an inner room, and sent a Chinese boy after somebody on the other sido of the court-yard. The entrance was through a long, broad hallway paved with marble, and leading to a fine large room, also marble paved, which opened upon a spacious quadrangular court -yard in which were flowers and plants, and a fountain playing in the centre. Everything was in quite as good order as in any of the best club houses in New York, and the marble floors, the flowers, and the fountain gave the place an appearance of elegance certainly not exceeded by the Union League or the Knickerbocker. The gentle man who hud been sent for proved to be the president of the club, and ho soon came and showed us every attention. He spoke Eng lish fluently, and told us all about the club, and about his handsome quarters, in a building which had once been the residence of a wealthy Cuban family. lie showed us about the building, even pointing out an idol or two standing on a shelf, and conducted us lo a room in which Ihe muster-roll is kept, whore in a large frame are secured the names of the five hundred Chinamen who comprise the membership. We had previously selected some cigars from a glass case in the first room we entered, and felt rather taken down when, upon leaving, they would not let us pay for them. The president laughed at the idea of strangers visiting the house being allowed to pay for anything, and sent his boy to bring a bottle of claret, which, mixed with plenty of ice-water, can be appreciated no where half so much as on a hot day in Cuba. The whole place is upon a scale of grandeur that I had no idea of finding in any Chinese establishment outside the Orient, and after being treated by everybody we met in the most courteous manner possible, it almost made me blush to think what a reception any ordinary Chinaman would meet if he should happen into one of the fash ionable club-houses in New York. I was provided with a letter of introduction to Alcssrs. Cas- tafio & Yntriago, the agents of the Ward Steamship Line in Cienfuegos, and soon went ashore to present it Their place of business is immediately across the street from the steamship landing, and is one of the largest I have seen iu Cuba, in Havana, or elsewhere. Wholesale provision merchants I should take them to be from the character of Ihe goods I saw in their warehouses. Even in New York their establishment would rank among the largest. It occupies more than half of a large block, and such piles and hay-stacks of provisions I think I never saw gathered together before. Something that inter ested me very much was the quantity of jerked beef. There were piles of it, as high as a house and almost as large. And there were columns and pyramids of other dried meats, and salted fish, and heaps of hams, and many Spanish edibles un familiar to the American eye or palate. 1 had to walk through something like a quarter of a mile of warehouse between these piles of things before I reached the office, and the result of my visit was I was invited to eat breakfast with the firm next morning at eleven o'clock. " Do not fail to go," Mr. Miles, the purser, said to me. (He was also included in the invitation.) "You will not only find the gentlemen there the best of company, but you will see a style of living that no doubt you are unfamiliar with. All the employes of the house take their meals in the building, and all eat at the same table, from tlie partners down to the porter." It did not need this to induce me to accept the courteous in vitation; for in a strange country one is always glad to see us much of the people as possible, and to learn what he can of their ways of living. So next morning we went ashore at the appointed hour, having carefully saved up our appetites; for Mr. Miles told me the fare was something wonderful, both as to quantity and quality. Mr. Castano, one of the partners, was in Paris, but the other gentleman, Mr. Yntriago, received us with great hospitality, and conducted us to the breakfast-room— a long broad veranda, at the rear of one of the buildings; a cool shady place, paved with stone, with a row of palm-trees growing just outside, and flowers all about. If I had not so long been a res ident of the tropics I should no doubt have spent some time in admiration of a climate where you can sit out in the open air in midwinter and eat your breakfast amid flowers and green trees • but, then, we do the same thing at home in Nassau, and it has lost its novelty for me. I think before long, if I should ever go North on a visit in winter (which Heaven forbid!), I should be as much sur prised as any Cuban to see ice and snow. There was a large table fifteen or eighteen feet long, and fully six feet broad. They are great tor broad tables in all Spanish countries. This one was so wide that it took a good reach to hand anything across it to my neighbor over the way. Air. Yntriago sat at the head of it, and Air. Allies and I being his guests were seated at his right hand. The chief clerks' the cashier, the book-keepers, wore nearest the head in the order of their s and.ng in the house-the better the position occupied the nearer tho head of the table. Then came the junior clerks, the boys the warehousemen, the laborers, and last of all, at the lower end of the table, the porter, with his sleeves rolled up. It was a baronial style of living, with the whole family at table. Each dish as it was brought on was placed in front of the head of the house who helped hl n't'?; I I'll0' l0°kmg after Lis S»esls)' a«d then it was passed do1™ f , n nc i • CVe,ly mim Was 8crvcd" Thc P0^ llt« exactly the same i to him elf "S °yCr' aUv at °' no doubt' as much «» !'« «Hild stuff osl c-Zitv A XlT. dlSU WaS a hUgC 1,laUCV' Pi,ed «P t" its it- most capacity And there were so many of them! Fully ,, dozen courses of fish, meats, stews, and hot breads. T hree or fou de S,^ SPanJ8h <*»«* dood on the table, and every man Teloed himself, the porter equally with the proprietor. Tliere was no but OUT-DOOR LIFE IN NASSAU AND CUBA. 55 adjacent room, where an excellent cook is kept, with several wait ers to serve the food, and two such meals as this arc served every day. And if the employes of that house do not do good work, it certainly is not for lack of proper food and plenty of it. I think I never breakfasted before with a gentleman without having any thing to say to him. But as Air. Yntriago does not speak a word of English, and as my Spanish is limited to fifteen or twenty words (and they not usually pronounced in a manner to be aired before a native), conversation lagged. It does not, however, re quire a knowledge of the language to appreciate a good Spanish breakfast, and the recollection I shall long have of this al fresco meal will be of the most pleasant kind. The ship lay here over Sunday, and it would have been the most natural thing in the world to go up to the cathedral (for me, I mean, not for the ship) aud sec something of a building that is celebrated for varjous things. But I didn't I should certainly have gone, only I had made a previous engagement to go lo a cock-fight, and the hour of service at each place happened to be precisely the same. Don't be shocked, please, at my going to a cock-fight on Sunday morning, it was only a little fight, and Sunday is tho only day lhey have them in Cuba. I had never seen one, and us I had attended church some thousands of times, till tliere was no earthly novelty iu it, I determined to go to the cock-fight, accompanied by one of the other passengers. Forgive me for it this time and I'll promise never to do it again ; for a cock-fight is about as beastly and disgusting a spectacle as any one could wish to see. I must confess to a little weakness for bull-fights, where somebody is likely to be hurt, and where the animal is at least the equal of the man in strength and agility, and perhaps in brains ; but to see a houseful of big, unwashed brutes urging on two miserable little roosters to claw and tear each other is about as wretched a spectacle as any decent man would care to look at. AVe took a carriage at the wharf and drove up to the cockpit, which was, as far as I could tell, in a respectable part of the town, but in a tumble-down old wooden building. The ticket office was some distance from the entrance and seemed to be in a different building, which reminded me of the post-office in Havana, where, when you wish to buy a postage- stamp, the clerks direct you to a cigar store a block or two up the street AVe bought two reserved seats, and the policeman at the door passed us in without difficulty. There were several po licemen about, and no attempt was made at concealment. Some military officers occupied a private box, and the people present (there were, perhaps, three hundred of them) did not correspond at all with the kind that we call "sporting men" in New York. They seemed rather to be small merchants, clerks, boys, and young men of means. There happened to be a lull in the pro ceedings as we went in, one ' ' bird " having just put an end to the existence of another amid great applause. Two or three minutes afterwards two more warriors with feathers were brought out, aud a new battle was begun. I cannot begin to describe the excite ment of the crowd. Nearly everybody had bets on the result, and nearly everybody, consequently, was deeply interested in the result. The owners of the "birds" carried them into the pit in their arms, taking water into their mouths and squirting it over their charges, and at last taking between their lips the bills each of his favorite, perhaps to show the adversary and the crowd that no poison was concealed there, just as the manager of a dog in a dog-fi^ht licks him over to show that poison has not been put in his hair. The two men who had charge of the roosters made many bets with people in the room, and kept continually calling out what would have been in English "Two to one on my bird,' or "Five dollars on the little one." These offers were frequently accepted. One of the roosters was a great big one, the other much smaller. The latter looked more "gamcy" to me than the big fellow, and I picked him out for the winner from the start. They pommelled away at each other for about fifteen minutes, their owners mean while prancing about the pit like mad, swinging their arms, shout ing in Spanish, and showing every sign of the most intense ex citement. Several times the chickens were picked up and more water was squirted over them, but at the end of the quarter of an hour the big fellow was not able to stand up, and all the coaxing and petting of his owner could not bring him about for another round The miniature John L. Sullivan strutted about, as if he knew how he was being praised, but he also was in very bad shape aud weak on his legs. Immediately upon the close of the light the spectators sprang into the pit and a great hubbub and buzz begun, in the midst of which my companion and I quit the place 11ns combat we had seen was only a small part of the day s entertain ment the performance lasting all the afternoon, but one little fight like this, I should think, would be enough to satisfy almost any travelling Amencan.^^^ ^^ ^ ^ ^^ ^ ^ & ^ fe . sugar plantation, which was iu full blast. Like the working of an irou mill, it is impossible to let the engines cool down over bund, y and the machinery stop without entailing great loss upon he own ers so the mills "arc run seven days in the week throughout e grinding season. Anyhow, Sunday is not the day of reslmf* that it is with us. It is more a day of recreation. The inhabitants being largely Roman Catholics, they consider it imperative, most ot them to go to church once anyhow ou Sunday, so they choose the CATHEDRAL, CIENFUEGOS. early mass for this, and, being out before eight o'clock, they devote the rest of the day to enjoyment. The sugar estate we visited was only a small one under the charge of an Administrator, who treated us civilly, but could not show us the attentions the owner, no doubt,. would have done if he had been on the spot. On the way out to it we passed a small fort at a turn of the road, built to protect that en trance to the city from bands of marauding insurrectionists. A na tive gentleman riding with us told us that during one of the rebel lions a soldier was put on guard here with instructions to fire a gun three times in case of an attack. This was to be a signal for the massing of a number of troops at this point. The soldier went off to a neighboring liquor shop and got drunk, and in the morning, seeing an imaginary enemy approaching, he fired the signals. His shots made great excitement in the city and called out the troops, and when they found it was' a false alarm, and learned the cause of it, they took the drunken sentry out and shot him. A place of great interest to mariners in Cienfuegos is "Blue An chor Joe's." This is a shop in a street near the water, with a res taurant, a little bar, a billiard-table, and other comforts for seafaring men. It is, at the same time, a place for the providing of ships' stores, aud through our steward's going tliere occasionally to make purchases I became quite well acquainted with it. It reminded me very much of some similar places described by Dickens, with its coils of rope and chains lying about, its big blue anchor hanging in front, and a lot of sea-captains sitting around, talking and drinking their ale. At a crockery- ware store in one of the principal streets I found a fine assortment of French and Spanish china-ware, which I learned, by inquiring a few prices, were sold quite as cheaply as in New York, and in some cases cheaper. I was attracted by the large stock of "water monkeys" and porous caraffes, some of them of beautiful designs, and all made in Alalaga, in Spain. The water mon key is a southern institution for keeping drinking-water cool. It is shaped somewhat like a "stone jug," but has a ring handle at the top to carry it by, with an opening on each side — one about an inch in diameter, to fill it through, the oilier half as large as your little finger, to drink out of. And the drinker does not put his lips to this aperture, as we would, but holds the monkey above his head, 06 IN SUNNY LANDS: tips it over, and lets the small stream run into his mouth. The monkey is made of a very porous clay, through which water rapidly filters, and if hung up in a shady place in the wind it keeps the wa ter delightfully cool. I bought several of thorn to take home to Nassau, where the cool winds from tho sea will give me a constant supply of tropical ice-water. CHAPTER XXIV. A DAY ON A SUGAR PLANTATION. A visit to a sugar plantation is one of the best parts of coming to Cuba, and no Northern visitor should come here without seeing one. The difficulties in the way of it, once you are here, are not so great as they seem, for tho Cuban sugar planters are the most hospitable people in the world, and an introduction to some one of them is not hard to obtain. There came down to the steamer one evening a party of ladies and gentlemen from a plantation about twenty miles. out of Cienfuegos. They were Americans, friends of the cap tain and all the officers, and came to make a visit and to invite the captain and other officers to go out aud spend a day with them. The captain and purser were unable to leave the ship, but before the evening was over it was arranged that Steward Petersen and I should take the «arly train out next morning, spend the day on the plantation, and return to the ship in the evening. As the party were in on horseback, they were to make an early start in the morning and THE VOLANTE, CUHA. reach the plantation in time to send a volante over to the station for ns. There seemed to be no flaws in a neat little excursion like that: an early morning ride, by rail twenty miles into the interior of the island, then a volante ride, a day on the plantation, and home a"ain by dark. The only drawback was that we hud to be up at four in the morning to get a bite of breakfast and be in time to catch the -five-o'clock train. But early morning is always a pleasant part of the day in Cuba, and this was hardly an objection. The plantation to which we were kindly invited was the one known as the " Ilorini- guero," owned by Alessrs. E. & L. Ponvert, at Palmira, about twenty miles from Cienfuegos— an estate comprising three or four thou sand acres, and supplied with all the latest improvements in siciir- mukiug machinery. So We looked forward to a first-rate time and we hud it. Cienfuegos is not the most brilliantly lighted city in the world and at 4.30 in the morning we found the streets us dark asE«-ypt and none too smooth. AVe hud one of the ship's boys uloii"- with us, carrying a basket of apples to the station to be taken out to the ladies, and as we reached the pier we looked hopelessly about for u carriage lo take us to tbe railway, but of course no curriu"-e wus in sight at thut hour of the morning. So we went stumbling along in the dark, and after half a mile of it, made in about half an hour, we reached the station. Tliere we bought two tickets for La Flora, the small station at which we were to be met by the volante and in a few minutes the train moved off. The cur we sat in hid u familiar look, and I saw by a sign on tho door that it came from the cur shops at Wilmington. The seats were upholstered with ratlin work, like our summer cars, and of course all tho windows were open. There is no such thing as u smoking-car on a Cuban ruilw-iv- you smoke uuywhere uud nobody offers uny objection There were five or six Spanish soldiers in the car, in brilliant uniforms of red and gray, and this guard I found on every train I travelled in. At first it was too dark to see anything of the country; but as the day broke we found ourselves running along at a fair rate of speed between well-cultivated fields, with small but comfortable farm-houses, and past several little villages. Our Northern notion of Cuba is of a place rather given to insurrections and lawlessness, where some dark Spaniard is always ready to poke a knife between your ribs. But everything looked as peaceful and secure as if we were travelling over the New York Central. The houses were all roofed with heavy earthen tiles, and had a very picturesque and pastoral appearance. The people generally looked prosperous and comfortable, and some of them, particularly the young ones, were very handsome. There were plenty of naked children everywhere, and their costume seemed to be a suitable one for the climate, for, as the sun came up, the air grew far warmer than anything we had found on the immediate coast. Wc went past and through immense groves of beautiful palm-trees, all growing as straight as arrows, with their little clusters of dark green foliage on top. No tree can be prettier than the royal palm. It grows in Cuba just as our oaks and chestnuts and maples grow in the North, but without being of as much use, as the wood, I believe, is soft and fibrous, and is not of much account If the red tiles had been taken off the houses, and the palm-trees had been taken away, the country we passed through would have looked just like many parts of our Southern States. The Cuban soil is rich, and it takes only a slight rain to turn it "into a sticky mud. They tell me that in the spring most of the country roads are near ly impassable, and that no carriage but the big- wheeled volante can go through them. They are not very par ticular about calling out Ihe slulions on Cuban rail roads, and even if they had been it would not have done us much good. Air. Petersen can muster up a little Spanish when occasion requires, and I have picked up a few words of it, but neither of us was equal to a con versation with any of our fellow-passengers. After, we. hud gone what we thought must certainly be twenty miles we began to make inquiries about our station of La Flora. Iu one or two stations more, we thought, we must be there, and we were anx ious to get a sight of the volante, and be carried over to tbe estate. Tho train was just moving ¦m n . ,. ¦ . „ . „ away from a station when Air. Petersen, bringing all his Spanish to bear in one great effort went up to the conductor and asked whether we would soon be at ,Jora", IIe receivcd die cheering reply, as nearly as either of us could make out, that we had passed La Flora some time before and were then a number of miles beyond it. There was not much to be done but sit down and laugh, and this we did, I hough the situation wus not particularly funny Having started out at four in tho morning, with only a bite of breakfast, chilly and sleepy, we wero bowling along over a country totally unknown to us, imuble to speak the language, travelling we had no idea where, except that we knew to,, slm" V" '' '° ,''rai" lo"« tl,1(,II«h k W,,,|1'I «wry «s to Ha vana hull vyu laughed over if jusl us much us if it, had been the best joke in the world. I think we bad reached thut point o utter misery thut is said to make you laugh in spite of yourself Pes- TXT Tr " '"""w-PtJMeuger who could speak a little bit of English, and from loin we learned that by staying in the cars till a station with some, to us, unpronounceable na.ne°waS rcac ed a id by watting there ten or fifteen minutes, we could catch a return .am that would fake us buck lo Lu Flora within the hour T is was u grca streak of luck, for there are Iwo daily trains over c load m each direction, und it was almost a miracle that one of hem came along at exactly the right minute for us. AVe wen 0.1 to his station and wuiled on tho platform, in the midst of a crowd of very \, , i itu a"d- dc"lraliyo ^d>ans, till the other train came ulon v and in ton minutes more we were at La Flora ""°«o. Here a now difficulty presented itself. The volante hud been sent to mee us at the up train, und when we failed to arrive it 1.0 oubt was taken back, for its driver could huve bud no idea th-, 0 would conic from the opposile direction, uiu miles uway, und we neither knowing the Ihe plantation (wo way to it nor knowing OUT-DOOR LIFE IN NASSAU AND CUBA. 57 how to ask anybody to direct us. Wc were the only passengers to get out at La Flora, which is nothing but a platform, and there was not a soul about. The train moved off and left us standing there alone with our basket of apples, looking, no doubt, disconsolate enough. Ihere was no house within a mile, except a small board one three or four blocks away, evidently tbe home of some poor farmer, with some pigs and two or three little children playing around the front door. This was our only hope, and wo went up to it and inquired for the "sefior." Ho was at work out in the fields, but a boy was sent after him, and while the boy was gone wo made ourselves at home in the little house, admired the parlor tbe dining-room, the library, and the sleeping -rooms, patted the chil dren on the head, made ourselves solid with tho family by givin°- them some small silver coins, and gave each of the little ones a rosy American apple, something I doubt if they had ever seen before. The different apartments of the house I have mentioned were not entirely like the parlors and chambers in an American dwelling and we were much interested in looking at them. The parlor, for instance, was floored and carpeted with "just the material nature' had put there— some good rich Cuban earth. The furniture consisted of a chair and a box, and two or three horseshoes hung on a big nail. To Ihe room immediately behind this 1 gave the name "the library," because one or two folded newspapers lay on a shell", stained wilh age and dust. This room contained no furniture but an old table, and its floor was also the bare earth. It was about as primi tive a home as I ever saw, not even excepting the squatter shanties in Arkansas or the negro cabins in Nassau. In this climate a man's real needs are very few, and most of the poor people would rather get along with a rusty frying-pan and a cracked saucer than make a little effort to get something better. There was one article of fur niture, however, that gave an air of comfort to the whole place— a beautiful dusky girl of about fifteen, with eyes like jet, and long, wavy hair to match. But, nufortuuately, we could not talk to her. All the children were pretty, and they were so astonished by the sight of strangers, and foreigners at that, that they followed us wherever we went and never took their eyes off us, perhaps to make sure that we would not cat the baby. Presently the head of the family came in from the fields, and we made him understand that wc wanted to send a messenger over the estate to ask to have the volante sent for us. "I will go if you will pay me," said the honest yeoman— at least that was what we understood him lo say from what little we could make out, and besides we knew that would be the most natural thing for him to say. " Of course we will pay you, "said Air. Petersen, in the very best Castilian Spanish, "whatever is right — anywhere from two dollars to nine." The man said no more, conversation being rather difficult, but went out and put a bridle on his horse, and started off across the fields, and we had a further wait of something over half an hour, pending the arrival of the volante. It is always interesting to see how peo ple live in foreign countries, particularly the poor people, for tbe rich have very much the same luxuries everywhere, and I was rather glad of the accident that had made us spend an hour in this little shanty home. How a couple, of the appearance of this small farmer and his wife, could rear a family of such bright and handsome chil dren is one of the mysteries; but it made one sorry to think that such pretty little girls and boys would grow up without knowing anything at all, and that in a few years they would turn into just such faded, commonplace-looking people as their father and mother. While we were watching the graceful pigs gambol playfully about the parlor door, our messenger returned wdth a demand for two dol lars for his services, and accompanied by the long-sought volante, drawn by two handsome, large horses. It was my first volante ride. I bud tried many times iu Havana to secure one for a day's riding, but never succeeded. They are out of dale in the Cubau cities, being found now only iu the stables of some old families and on the plantations. Us two peculiarities are that the horses, driven tandem, arc about a block ahead of the vehi cle, the leader being ridden by a driver, and that the two wheels arc so great iu diameter that they reach as high as the top. We were soon speeding away towards the plantation, over farm roads that would have been awkward for any vehicle but a volante. And this is why these big-wheeled coaches arc still in use on tho Cuban plan tations. They are so broad, and so heavy and solid, it would be al most impossible to upset one of them; and wc found the one we rode in mounted on its great leather straps, as comfortable as the finest coach that rolls up Fifth Avenue AVe reached the plantation at 8 30, quite satisfied with our little early morning adventure in Cuba, and were received iu the most hospitable manner possible by the ladies and gentlemen of the household. This "Ingenio Hormiguero" (Ingenio being the Spanish term lor sugar estale) is a little principality in itself. With its three thou sand acres, nearly, of sugar-cane, its rich lands, its great mill filled with the most expensive new sugar machinery, its more than com fortable dwelling-house, and its large number of smaller dwellings for the workmen, it is one of the finest sugar estates m Cuba 1 he Messrs. Pouvert are, I believe, both natives of America, of French descent, and they have given their attention to this plantation for many years. Here they live throughout the "grinding season, from December to April, every year, sometimes spending the re mainder of the year in New Y'ork or Paris, and sometimes staying tliere through the entire year. Botli the gentlemen having families, Ihere is plenty of company in the large house, and they do not suf fer from the lonesomeness of the situation — for a sugar plantation is necessarily isolated, and ils owners are compelled to rely upon their own resources for amusement. The house, like all Cuban country-houses, is one story high, with a broad, steep, tiled roof, and with the cool front veranda so shaded with green vines that the house can scarcely be seen. Such a dark, cool, and airy sitting- room as the veranda thus becomes is invaluable in a hot place like tho south side of Cuba; even before nine o'clock we began to feel that we were down in latitude 18. With its cool brick floor and its rows of comfortable rocking aud easy chairs, it is just such a place as one would want to find in the middle of a hot day to doze away the afternoon in. And that is about all that any one cares to do in Cuba, for tbe heat in the middle of the day makes it not only un comfortable but unsafe to be long exposed to the sun. The veran da, in all these southern countries, is the best part of the house. It is the parlor, the library, the general living - room. Without one, aud a good one, a house in a tropical climate would scarcely be habitable. We were taken at once into an airy bedroom to get rid of the portions of railroad earth we had brought with us, find then, sealed in the shade of the vines on the veranda, had a chance to take a first look al a big sugar-mill. The mill stands immediately opposite the house, two or three hundred feet away, and as it is open throughout, without walls to obstruct the view, the owners can sit- on the veranda and watch every motion of the machinery. If anything goes wrong they can be on the spot instantly and help set it right. As the machinery is nearly noiseless, and there are none of the objectionable sounds or smells inseparable from most mills, this is an admirable arrangement. Indeed, they carry it even further than this, and the ladies make a sort of a sitting and sewing room of one end of a raised platform which supports the evapora tors, and keep there a table and a collection of rocking-chairs to be used when wanted. From this elevated position they can watch every piece of cane that goes between the rollers, see the entire inte rior of the mill, and at the same time keep an eye upon every per son who goes in or out of the house. It is a rare place for a lady who takes an interest iu the sugar business, and all the ladies at Hormiguero do, and can tell to a nicety just what proportion of juice the cane is yielding, whether the engine is running steadily, and whether the last new team of mules is likely to turn out well. Urcakfast-time in Cuba is about eleven o'clock, and Air. Petersen and I were quite ready to sit down in the cool dining-room and send some reinforcements after the few bites we had taken before starting. After breakfast Air. Pouvert took us over to the mill, and explained the whole process of sugar making. The entire plantation is laid out in lots of three or four acres each, with many miles of streets or roads between them, and eight or ten miles of railroad track run ning from one end of the place to the other, on which the cane is brought to the mill in cars. There are so many of these lots that a map is kept, on which the condition of each lot is indicated by a different color. If the cane on one lot has just been cut the fact is indicated by one color; if it is ready to be cut, by another color. The cane is brought to the mill and stored in great heaps in li con venient place near the rolters that crush the juice out of it. There are three large, heavy, iron rollers, and after the cane goes between them it is squeezed dry. It is carried up to the rollers automatical ly on a moving platform like that on which the horses walk in a threshing-machine, and comes out crushed and sapless. The juice is carried off in pipes to the boilers, and is boiled down and run through evaporators aud other contrivances till all the liquid part of it becomes molasses and all the solid part sugar. The cane now yields a much larger percentage of juice than it did a few years ago, under tbe improved machinery for extracting it; but this machinery costs money. It comes from New York, most of it, and the engines, boilers, evaporators, and all the other machines necessary for setting up a complete modern sugar-mill, cannot be purchased for less than $200,000. About that amount has been put in this mill at Hormi guero within the last year, and still there are additions to be made. There is a locomotive to be purchased, for instance, to take the place of oxen in drawing cane to the mill, and electric lights are to be put in next season for working by at night, for in the grinding season the mill runs night and day, Sundays and holidays, without any cessation. But through the other eight months of the year all this machinery stands idle and earns nothing for its owners. The cane, after the juice has been extracted from it, is spread out in a drying yard to dry, which it does under this hot sun in a very short time, and eventually it finds its way into the furnaces, where it makes steam for the grinding of fresh piles. The outlook in the sugar business is not so bright as planters would like to see it. Prices arc so low, and transportation charges in Cuba and export duties so high, it barely pays the cost of production. And hundreds of thousands of gallons of molasses are being thrown away or poured over the laud for fertilizing, for it costs more to send a hogshead of molasses to New York this year than it is worth when it gctB there The production of these large sugar -mills is enormous. No plantation is considered a large one unless it turns out from 5000 to 15,000 hogsheads of sugar in a season. I forget the exact number of hogsheads made annually at Hormiguero, but think it is from 8000 to 10,000. 58 IN SUNNY LANDS: Some of the large sugar estates are still worked by slaves, but at Hormiguero there is none but free labor. Mr. Ponvert is beginning a new system— of letting out small tracts of land to farmers, furnish ing them with a dwelling-house and barn, oxen, and everything nec essary, and stipulating that the laud shall be worked according to the directions of his overseer and the cane brought to his mill. The furmer eventually pays for his stock and implements out of the pro ceeds of his sales of cano, a little each year, and the productiveness of the laud is thus much increased. This system, so far, has been found to work well, and nobody, I think, would be willing to go back to the slavery days, free labor having been found to be much more profitable in the end. Like many another business, sugar making is rapidly going into the hands of a few wealthy firms. Al though the modern sugar machinery is terribly expensive, it does its work so much more completely and economically that the small plant er, with his old-fashioned boiling kettles and crude machinery, has .no chance and cannot compete successfully. Still, there are quite a number of these large concerns. Here, in this district around Cien fuegos, one can stand almost anywhere and see the steam that has been grinding rise from a dozen chimneys. There are plenty of amusements on a sugar estate to kill time when business does not press. Everybody on the place is fond of horses — men, women, and children — and all are capital riders. Each ¦one has his own pet horse aud takes delight in scampering over the country. The boys have their amateur photographic apparatus, with which they take pictures of everything in the heavens above and the earth beneath. There is a daily mail from Cienfuegos, bringing letters und papers from New York by way both of Havana and of Nassau. The gcnllcinen, at least, find no difficulty in amus- dng themselves, for about such a place tliere is always plenty lo be ¦done that nobody can attend to but one of " the bosses." After a thoroughly enjoyable day, made doubly pleasant by the liearty hospitality aud great kindness of our hosts, we started off in time to catch the four-o'olock train for Cienfuegos, and were taken •down to the station in grand style once more in the volante; but this •time with a guard of honor composed of half a dozen horsemen, all .the young gentlemen on the place, who amused themselves at the .station wliile we waited for the train with jumping their horses over :all the high fences and hedges they could And. Air. Petersen, being something of a horseman himself, could not decline an invitation to mount one of tho horses and join in the sport, and as he went flying •over fences and walls I confidently expected to have nothing but his mangled remains to .take back to the ship. But he rode like an old soldier, .and we were in Cienfuegos safe and sound before five .o'clock. CHAPTER XXV. STRAY NOTES IN CUBA. Coming from New York to Nassau in the steamship Cienfuegos in August, there were among the passengers a number of new em ployes of the iron mining company operating near Santiago. There were, among others, a surgeon, a superintendent for the company's irailway, and a number of laborers. The railway superintendent, who was known to me and to the other passengers us a New Jersey- ,man, and a man who preferred the nickname of "Pop " to any other title, was so sociable wilh everybody, and made himself so agreeable, that he was soon known to everybody on the ship. It was a pleas ure to sit on the upper deck and have a quiet talk with Pop. lie was^not a young man, nor an old one ; not a large man, nor a small COUNTRY-HOUSE AT OHOIlREltA. one; neither light nor dark; just one of those quietly sociable fel lows one meets occasionally ; and perhaps I cannot describe him more accurately or concisely than just to suy thut ho wus a Jersey- man. Ho had never been in the South before, hud no idea of the sort of life he would have to lead in the wilds of Cuba, and seemed to feel that he was going a good ways from home on a venture. But there was this difference between Pop and the rest of his party AVhile they were continually saying thut they'd try it a wliile in Cuba and go back home if they did not like it, Pop declared from first to last that he had started out to stay six mouths at the shortest, aud that he intended to stick it out that long at all hazards, be it good or bad; and that if he returned home any sooner than that it would be ",in a box." One day when Pop and I were sitting in a breezy part of the deck, a puff of wind came along and carried away his straw hat and tossed it overboard. I thought, from the way he*sprang up and followed it to the rail and stood watching it, that he had serious intentions of springing over after it, or at least of having the ship stopped. But if he hud he changed his mind und soon came back to bis seat. Ho told me that was the only hat he had wilh him, and as il would be impossible for him to got another aboard the ship, and us he slill hud a long and hoi voyage before him, he seemed con siderably worried about it. I happened to have a smoking-cap in my room, which I at once offered him, and he accepted ; and I must say that for a man of his years Pop cut a very jaunty figure in that cap. It was one of East India make, having been brought a short time before from Calcutta, and was entirely destitute of brim. When we reached Nassau I went ashore to stay, and Pop and his party went on to Cuba, and I had no expectation of ever meeting him again on this side the Styx. Just after dinner on the evening of our arrival at Santiago de Cuba, in thut cheerful hour when the lumps arc first lighted and when the cabin-pussciigcrs are usually trying to compose themselves after stuffing with the good things of the table, Captain Pairclolh and I were silting talking in the little "social hall" at the head of the stairway leading to the main cabin. Most of the officers and nearly all the passengers had gone ashore and we had that part of the ship to ourselves. The captain had not been well throughout the trip, as how could one expect to be while making constant changes between the torrid heat of the Caribbean Sea and the arctic weather of New York? He was half lying on one of the cushioned seals, and 1 was sitting on the stool in front of the piano, perhaps to make any chance coiner believe 1 knew how to play. AVe were talking, 1 think, of sharks and the wreck of the old Saint Paul, when our con versation was interrupted by a loud voice in the cabin below — plain ly a Yankee voice, I thought, and evidently addressed by one mem ber of some party of visitors lo his companions. "Come on," the voice said; "come here. Let's see what sort of a place they've got here, anyhow. " Then there was the sound of a number of boots coming over the brass-bound door-sills, aud we heard more voices in the cabin. " Let's go upstairs and sco who we can find there," said the same voice we had first heard ; and a party of three men came up the stair way, which led them into the hall in which we sat "How de do, captain? Glad to sco you again. Have a pleasant voyage down this time, captain?" It was still the same voice ; and while the captain was replying that he had had a very smooth voyage indeed, I was making up my mind that the man was skipper of some Yankee schooner beyond a doubt. The other two visitors seated themselves on the sofas, the Yrankee skipper sat down beside the captain, and conversation ran into such things as the latest news from New York, the state of the weather up North, and the prospects of the Cuban treaty. Mean while I continued to swing back and forth on my revolving seat, hav ing no part in the conversation, but being interested in tho strong Yankee air of the leader of the party of liew-comcrs. So I just sat and listened until, as tho visitor had addressed several remarks to me, I asked him, " Have you a vessel down here, captain?" " AIc!"suid the stranger, bursting into a merry laugh, in which his companions joined right heartily; " mc a vessel! Well, that's a good one. I just wish I had a vessel, and I wouldn't care whether she was here or somewhere else No, sir, I have no vessel, and I'm no captain. I'm aii old landsman, and don't know anything about the sea. liut that s a good one, anyhow!" So we all had another good laugh over the mistake, and presently 1 quit the room, having a strong desire to get to my state-room and pry a way into a box of fine Cuban cigars that lay therein, having been brought aboard that same afternoon. I just had tho large blad? ot my kmfe nicely inserted under the lid, and was about to pry it up when one of the stewards came along and told me there was an old Iricnd of mine in tho social hall, and that he and the captain wanted to see me there immediately. So, wondcringly, I put buck lie cigars on the upper berth and returned to the party 1 had lust left As soon as 1 entered the door the "Yankee skipper" seized "io by the bund und gave il a wrench, saying as ho did so, VVhy, I)., how do you do? I didn't know you from Adam And 1 see you don t know me. Don't you remember Pop, who came down m the same steamer wilh you last summer? Don't you remember the man you gave your smoking-cap to''" in^!'i,iU"0"uh', U ri,s ,II0,IMi °,,lcr Uum P°P. Ami right, glad I was to sec him. Hut what bud the tropics been doing wilh us both? Hero • ,,!?!¦ / ?}* "\°UU'S S1"PU wo lmd l,alt°d. *»* we sat in the same ..fiw l,Ti n 'r i'?"1'' ""d -a!kcd ,ll,d lal,Sllcu t"S«tlicr. and neither of us hud the s hghlost suspicion of the other's identity. AVell, Pop slilf. !a iu\hTd f imnmiX hbi face' aml "'»t ™8 e"°u«h to disguise him. And, us for me, I hud chai i?™ \ll\ i . avlmf on two or three coats of a warranted fast-color tropical sunburn. Then they told me how it all canm about the cinHif'p ".',lly .°ut 0fTth0, loom'" said p0P. "before I said mc captain, Captain, says I, do you ever see anything of D w came down to Nassau wilh us last summer?' b " vJ.3'' Haid thc cal)tuiu; ' whv> lLut was D. just went out of the to ho OUT-DOOR LIFE IN NASSAU AND CUBA. 59 hlmrQ ArnKT'' ?ld»1' 'y°.U i,on'' toU mo 80' antl J »ot know S souml L Hvltl lTa 8tCWttld af,tcr yo"' ai,d h(iro wc a11 a™, safe uui sound as trivets. I never was belter u my life and vou don't ook as if you made much work for the doctors.7 You see Fve stuck it out my six months, and have no notion of going home for six C^SSJX * DOt aS g°°d a C0UUtry as Jersey! bTt Pop looked at his big silver watch and saw that he must gt he broke K^^YSSM?1 one of the most beautiful a"d touS n m^'C8h«dfllr' " Xi -ln a*emP,°ronce man in Cuba. It don't do for mZ h„t T?hng h"nSelf With Stron? "'I"01'8 here I" ">i" hot cli mate, hut, D you gave me a smoking-cap once, and I haven't "S ,f°-r S'X m0nt!!s.' Lct's SO down and sec wlicther the stew ard can t mix us something good. Come, boys ; come along i" "1,p iZ?M f H0^? y0Ur biS,dog along," somebody tells me, rit, tw i ?* ° found. company here, for there is a mastiff in the city that looks enough like him to be his brother. " And sure enough here is, as I afterwards found. I kept a lookout for him in going through the streets, for any man, I think, who owns a mastiff and is thoroughly acquainted with him, is interested in all other mastiffs At last 1 saw him; and a noble fellow he is, with front legs like a man a arm, and a head big enough and wise enough for a senator It is not a common thing to sec one of these big dogs in tho tropics- ™ , 1S ?ext t0 lmPossible to keep them in good condition They will lose flesh, feed them as you may. Somebody, by-the-way spoke ot my dog the other day as "a fine brute," and thereby made me mad. He is not a brute. I contend that no mastiff is a brute and as to my particular mastiff, why, compared with some men I know he might better be called " a fine large angel. " There are more large dogs in Cuba than on most of the West India Islands, because the people can better afford to keep them. Over in Nassau, where there are only three or four presentable dogs on the island, and where all the native dogs have to be taken in-doors during a high wind to keep them from blowing to pieces, they made me pay ten English shil lings for the privilege of landing mine. But he has since taken tho worth of the money out of three or four stray pigs that came tres passing on his grounds. There is the same temptation here that travellers in Europe com plain of— to extend the journey a little farther. Il is just a short distance to some place or other one has long desired to visit, and then from there to some other place is not much farther. Now, from here to Cienfuegos it would be so easy to lake the little steam er over to the Isle of Pines, that mysterious islet that so few Ameri cans know anything about An island covered with the beautiful Cuban pines, where, of late years, some Northern consumptives have been going in hopes of repairing shattered lungs. An island of fine plantations, fine dwellings, aud hospitable people, so they say, but almost shut off from the world. It is only a few hours' sail from here, but the boats do not run frequently, and before the steamer gels back the Cienfuegos will be gone. Then there is .liimuiea. ' There is a steamer running from the south side of Cuba over to Kingston, giving one a chance to sec the coffee estates on the Blue Hills, and all the oilier wonders of one of the richest and most fertile of the Indies. But hero is the same objection. There is no getting back iu time to catch the steamer. Tempus f ugits even more rapid ly here, where there is nothing to do, than she does at home. One day runs imperceptibly into another, till you're not quite sure wheth er it is Wednesday or Thursday. I have only one certain guide for keepiug track of the days. I set out, say, on a Tuesday to write an article, intending to finish it before dinner. Then when the article really is finished I know it is Saturday. One of the sights of Santiago is the spot where souk; of the Vir ginias prisoners were shot. It is a six-feet high wall in front of the slaughter-house. The men were stood up in line, with their faces to the wall and their backs to the soldiers,.and murdered. The story they tell there of the rescue of the remainder of the prisoners is an interesting one. Americans and Englishmen in Santiago tell the story ; the natives don't tell it for obvious reasons. The government, so the story goes, had interdicted the sending of any message over the cable concerning the killing of these prisoners. But there was an English boy iu the telegraph-office, learning the business, aud he watched his chance when the operator was out, and, standing uncon cernedly wilh his back to tbe key, while the office was guarded by Spanish soldiers, he put bis hands behind him and managed to send over to Jamaica this startling message, "There's the devil to pay in Santiago. They're butchering men of all nations." You must imagine how such a message was received in Jamaica; how the operator read it and re-read it, and wondered whether it was a hoax ; and read it again and then sent it up to the Governor. The Governor, perhaps, had had experience with the Spaniards before, for he sent the message without delay to the commander of a British gunboat that lay iu Kingston harbor, and the commander had faith enough in it to put on all steam and point his bow for Santiago; for if men of all nations were being butchered, there must be Eng lishmen ambng them. Next morning the British gunboat lay in Santiago harbor, and how glad those poor prisoners must have been to see her there — Americans as well as EngUsh. The commander T sent a messenger ashore to learn what was going on, but he came back without any information. Rifle-shots were frequently heard, and he sent one of his principal officers to see the commandant of the Spanish troops, to inquire whether any British subjects were in trouble, and the commandant sent him back an impudent reply, say ing that he had just shot one batch of prisoners and intended to shoot another lot within an hour, and that it was none of his busi ness. _ Then the British commander sent a message ashore that the Spanish general might possibly have thought uncivil. It was to the effect that if he heard another shot fired until he had assurances that no British subjects were being murdered he would open fire on tho city. This did the business, and the shooting stopped. The gun boat stayed long enough to see that the remaining prisoners had at least fair play, and thus saved a good many lives. This is not my story, remember; I merely give it as I heard it. I was not there at the time. But it's a neat little story, and I couldn't help telling it. It is a pity, though, that the plucky boy who tele graphed backward mentioned the Satanic gentleman in his despatch, or he might have been immortalized in a Sunday-school book; but none of my Sunday-school book heroes, as far as I can remember, ever made use of such an expression as "a devil of a time." There was one mitigating circumstance about the butchering of those pris oners. Anybody who is taken lo the desolate, woe-begone part of Santiago in which they were shot would naturally want to die ClIOItRUKA FKltllY, NEAR HAVANA. The boatmen down in this part of the world have a knack of making their little boats comfortable for passengers. The boats are broad and safe, to begin with. As soon as he has a passenger aboard, the boatman brings out from under the scats two uprights, which he puts in sockets made to receive them, one near the bow, the other at the stern. Then he produces an awning, with a short pole running crosswise at each end and a rope fastened to the middle of each cross-piece. The ropes he ties in notches cut in the uprights, and thus stretches a canvas awning over the boat; and under this hot Cuban sun an awning is more a necessity than a luxury. The scats are generally cushioned, and the passenger rides easily about in all sorts of style. The fare from the ship to the shore, when she is not lying at a wharf, is twenty-five cents, if you know the ropes; otherwise it is fifty cents. The Cuban boatmen have a novel way of securing their oars. Instead of using two rowlocks for each oar as we do, they use only one, and attach the oar to it with a short rope, which goes around both oar and rowlock. I tried this arrange ment for a couple of hours in Santiago harbor one morning and found it work very neatly. The question of money is always a burdensome, one to travellers in strange- countries. Not the question whether he must have plenty of it, for there is no question about that at all, but what shape to carry it in, and what kind of coin or currency he must take. Unless he wants to carry a million or two about him for incidental expenses, he can take nothing better than American greenbacks. They are good, and more than good, all through the West Indies, as far as I have seen. Though in some places they may not pass current in small transactions, any merchant is glad to take them in exchange for coin of the country, and is often willing to pay a small premium. Because much of the business of all these places is done with New York, rates of exchange are high, and greenbacks are very handy to send on in a letter. If I were coming from New York to Cuba I should buy up a barrel or two of American dimes and half- dimes punched full of holes and sell them here. The more holes 60 IN SUNNY LANDS: the better. No Cuban merchant thinks of refusing a coin because it has two or three holes in it; they look upon bright new coins with sus picion. But if you do not care to make such a speculation as this, Mr. American, stick to the greenbacks. I don't think you will go hungry any where in the world as long as your pocket is well lined with them — cer tainly not in the AVest Indies. And this water sparkling out here beneath the ship is really part of the Caribbean Sea! I remember trying to tell a teacher iu school once where it was, and failing miserably. I could tell her now, and tell more about it, I flatter myself, than the geographies do. It has always been a place of in terest to me since I have known any thing about it, washing the shores of all the larger islands of the West In dies. A man might sail on no other water for years and still find new places to interest him — Cuba, the young continent ; Jamaica, rich and hot; Hayti, with its negro republic; Porto Rico, Martinique, Barbadocs, the north coast of South America, all the eastern coast of Central America, and part of Alexico ; and all these places, with their own peculiar peo ples and customs, some governed by the British, some by the French, some by the Spaniards, some by the Danes, some by tho Dutch, some governing themselves. There al'c one hundred (fisunet places that I could take steuiner for from here, directly or in directly, that 1 should like to visit. But. it can't be done at present. No matter, every new and faster steamer built makes the world smaller, and there is time enough. It don't do to visit a lot of strange places too rapidly; you get them all mixed up. I remember visiting about twenty small towns in New Jersey one day after some piece of news, until towards the last I went into the telegraph-office in one of them to send a despatch, and couldn't think for the life of me what place I was in. The operator thought I was crazy when I asked him what was the name of that town. Tliere are a set of men in these Cuban towns who make one hold THE CAVES OF HKI.LAMAlt. THU VAI.LEV Ol'' THE YUMU1U. a better opinion of Spanish character than he otherwise would. They are the Catalans — "the Yankees of Spain," they call them. They are a good-looking and hard-working lot, and attend strictly to business. You can always tell them by the bright red caps they invariably wear on their heads. YTou rarely see them lounging about the cafes, like the Cubans. When lhey are in the street they go along as if lhey had some object in view. They are generally rather below the medium height, but nearly always well-formed. They come from thai province up in the north-cast corner of Spain that is noted for its energy in business and its gallantry in 1 f " war. And what an old country it must be to have llliLl l)0eu unclel' tlle sway of the Romans, the Goths, the ¦"¦¦ ¦ ' !l Saracens (you see I've been looking in the Cyclopedia), and the French. Barcelona, one of the finest of Span ish cities, is in this province. But with all the age of their country, I don't know any higher compliment that could be paid the Catalans than to call them the Yankees of Spain. Perhaps I made a mistake in my former estimate of the height of these Cuban mountains. They look to me very little, if any, higher than the Catskills, but I see a good authority on the subject puts the height of Ihe Turquino, the tallest of the lot, at 10,500 feet. I saw one hundred and thirty miles of the mountains in coming from Cape Alaisi hero, and perhaps familiarity bred contempt. There is a curious thing at La Gran 1'iedra, a peak suid lo bo 50U0 feet high. A huge rock rests upon the summit of the peak of a different com position from that forming Ihe mountain. So the guide -books suy. 1 didn't go up. After living iu rocky Nussuu no man would climb 5000 feet to see a single rock. CHAPTER XXVI. AC UOS S TO HAVANA. ,,.'r"'!:liE is direct railroad communication between Cienfuegos. Alatanzas, aud Havana; aud a beautiful ride it is, the roads equipped with American cars and engines, all the windows open, and the scenery as thoroughly tropical as anybody could desire 'The rail ride across the island is one of the host parts of the whole journey. The forests of palm-trees are a wonder, aud the great fields of cactus and brilliant flowers are sure to strike a Northerner with surprise There are thousands of silk-cotton trees in Cuba along the line of the railway. Many of them grow' to an immense size, and throw their grateful shade alike over the princely homes of sugar-planters and the humble cots of Cuban negroes. Instead of newsboys venders of lottery-tickets board the train at every station -md OUT-DOOR LIFE IN NASSAU AND CUBA. 01 you arc offered a choice among cheeses and guavas, cigarettes and bi<* liglilinng-bugs. The rankness and luxuriance of the vegetation aw- prise you. In a few hours, after a ride that seems only too short you are in Alatanzas ; and here you arc iu the midst of Oriental scenes, everything in the open air, with stone balconies, and blue skies and marble tiles, and stained glass. The second city of Cuba in it business way, Alatanzas is an old busy town. It has good the atres, club-houses, and parks, and hosts of pretty women. The Valley ol the Yumuri and the Caves of Bcllmnar arc among the sights to be seen, lu visiting the caves, which are only a short drive The startling panorama of the City of Havana breaks upon tho view like it theatrical transformation scene ; but happy would be the manager who could put such a scene upon his stage. The city bus been hidden by the castle. Rounding the castle, the queer old Spanish town is before you. Tho harbor is full of ships, the streets are full of life, and the sun is giving them his first reminder of what he intends to do at noon. This is fine soil for forts hereabouts. They flourish without watering. Take a stone in your hand, blind fold yourself, turn around three times, throw the stone, and, five lo one, you hit a fort. And if the same stone doesn't knock down two MATANZA8. — IIOAD TO" THE CAVES OP HELLAMAR. from the city, it is well always to take a volante, and go through the street by the baysidc, wdicre the handsome summer residences are. The caves somewhat resemble those at Luray, in Virginia. The Valley of the Yumuri is a place that should hardly be missed. It is not far from Alatanzas and is easily reached. Then, having "done" Matauzas, you are ready to see the metropolis of the West Indies. It was from tho deck of a steamer, long ago, that I had my first view of Havana and its beautiful harbor. The castle and the harbor it guards form a picture to whose beau ty no pen and few pencils can do justice. Coining upon them, as we did, just as the pule moon and the first red streaks iu the eastern sky were vying with each other in lighting up the dark green hills of Cuba, tbe scene was the materialization of a poet's dream. For some hours we had seen the rolling country on the north shore of Cuba, cov ered here and there with little forests of palm-trees, and the bright star that is called the Alorro light It was this little light that guided us safely into the har bor. The Alorro Castle stands upon a rock that juts out of the sea forty or fifty feet, and reaches up the coast till it al most disappears on the horizon. The rock is nearly covered with a black sea- moss, and the fort is so old that many parts of it are iu the same condition. No man but an algebraist, with a trunkful of x, y , and as, could describe the fort's shape*. It is a succession and a collec tion of little square turrets, one by the side of the other, on top of the other, be hind and beyond the other. They are all of a thick, yellowish stone, some of them darkened by age. The high slone tur ret in the foreground is the light-house. The hundred poles over the top of the castle, that we mistake for flag -staffs, turn out to be the tops of ships' masts in the harbor. No flag is fly ing- only a few guns are to be seen. Two or three sentinels walk slowly up and down the parapets, armed wilh guns almost as large as themselves. As we approach the castle the Spanish flag is hoisted to the foremast peak, to show the barbarians inside that we are bound for a Spanish port, namely Havana. A salute of one gun is flred, a necessary tribute of respect to the monster, and our jolly little stars and stripes are hoisted astern. But as we are only a merchantman, the castle pays no attention to us, and slumbers away. On the other side of the channel, opposite tbe fort, is nothing but a rock. or three officers and a priest, Allah has been good to you. Just back of the Alorro is another fort that looks very much like the high stone wall around a country jail, dotted at intervals with stone crosses, aud here and there a rusty bell. The use of this second fort is evident. Should the soldiers ever have to desert the Alorro they would have something to run into, and, wearing very few clothes, they ought to be good runners. The castle and this second fort occupy nearly the whole of the hill opposite the city, across the harbor. There is one little cottage southward that looked to me. coming out from among tbe icebergs, like a vision of Iieavcn. 11 HAVANA HAHUOU. was small and low, and roofed with tiles; two immense spreading trees, greener than the darkest ocean tint, fanned its roof and al most' hid it from sight. Their foliage so darkened the place that the man who sat in front of the door and smoked his cigilrctte looked more dusky even than he was. A row of palm-trees, lull and green, stood guard a fewyards in front of the cottage. We watched the man, and as the 'sun came up higher and higher, he moved farther and farther back into the shade ; and wliile we watched him a flock of sheep and. goats, and a shepherd with a crook, came down the hill from behind the cottage in single file, 62 IN SUNNY LANDS: the shepherd last. They frisked down to the water's edge, and went in and bathed. Look at this picture, Mr. New-Yorker, as you pull on your ulster : shade, and green leaves, and bathing flocks; date, Jan. 2d. To the left of this cottage, still on the hill opposite the city, are more small buildings, the homes of fishermen and boat men, built of stone, roofed with clay tiles, as indestructible almost as the rocks they stand on. Among these little buildings, painted blue in the front and red on the side facing us, is a larger one. It was once the Havana Hospital, but is now used for cheap dwell ings. Before the sun is high, the front windows, which are large and frequent, are all open, the shutters have disappeared, and the air has free course through the building. The harbor is full of ships — Spanish men-of-war, English, Spanish, French, and German merchantmen. On a little schooner tied up to the wharf float the stars and stripes. Did it ever occur to you, Mr. Traveller in For eign Waters, when you saw the stars and stripes flying, to go over to that skipper and shake hands with him, and say, " How are you, old boy?" And when you saw some foreign flag at the mast-head, to want to say to that skipper, "What are you doing here, you old hulk?" The ship swings around the buoy to which she is fastened, and we look into the city. It would be high-treason for any man to see any building but the Custom-house first. If forts are the vegetables down here Custom-houses are the weeds. But the Havana Custom house is a palace of liberality compared with the barge office in white or yellow, are kept scrupulously clean, are very strong and heavy, and entirely safe. They all carry sails, and, if the wind is fair, the sails are raised; if there is no wind, or a foul wind, the two boatmen row. Fifteen or twenty of these boats swarm around the ship as soon as she is fastened to the buoy. They beckon and shout to the passengers, but do not underbid each other. The legal fare is fifty cents. Cuban paper currency is valued at fifty cents on the dollar, so the boatman is to be paid one dollar for his fare. After ten o'clock at night the fare is doubled. This Cuban currency is a great nuisance. Although the notes were all printed in New York, they are the worst-looking notes under the sun. Every note is worn out and so ragged that it falls to pieces if a breath of wind strikes it. ' The five-dollar notes are about the size of one of our govern ment bonds, and an American capitalist would inadvertently begin to cut off the coupons. They make a mistake in reckoning this stuff by the dollar, 'they ought to sell it by the pound. Aside from the church-steeples, the most prominent building, from the harbor, is the jail for political and military prisoners, a large yel low building, with a very comfortable look. There is a big derrick on one of the wharves, by the side of the Custom - house, and it is here that the boatman lands you. You then go through a building that is all roof and no sides, half full of boxes and bales, and you are in the Water Street of Havana. In front of you is a row of small buildings, containing little shops and a great many barber shops, with the signs "Barberiu" and the traditional red and white poles. TnE CITY OF HAVANA. New York. Passengers' luggage is rarely even looked at, and is al ways passed without difficulty. The Havana Custom-house opens its hospitable doors to every stranger who enters the gates. Before the ship is fairly made fast the Custom-house officers come aboard. Tliere are about eight of them, some iu uniform and some in white duck. These men go about the ship, and never leave her till she goes out of the harbor. As soon as they come aboard they begin to look into the corners, and when they are satisfied that the vessel is not filled with goods that are to be smuggled, the hotel runners are allowed to come aboard. Their name is legion, and they chatter as rare a lot of "pigeon English" as men can. Then come the boat men — for the ships do not go up to the wharves in Havana, but anchor out in the stream, and both passengers and freight have to be landed in small boats. The boatmen are gorgeous fellows. They are dressed, most of them, in a buff linen or duck, that may be wet through at one minute and dry again ten minutes afterwards. They have a scarf twisted closely around Ihe waist, a low-cut shirt, gener ally fine, shapely shoes, swarthy skins, and checks toughened with years of service. Their boats, too, are on the magnificent scale. Their names are overpowering. The Santa Maria, the Santa this, that, and the other, with one or two San Fi-anciscos, and Barcelonas, are the average. If there is an old rug around his neighborhood, one of these boatmen gets it, cuts it ih two longitudinally, and cov ers the two seats in the stern of his boat with the pieces. If he can not get tho rug, he covers the seats with some cheap, highly-colored stuff. Anything for style. The boats are painted red or blue or To the left is the San Carlos Hotel, one of the largest in the city, painted pure white, and very cool looking. Then, being in front of the San Carlos, the cheap cab business comes up. They cost only twenty cents a course, or fifty cents un hour. The horses and carriages arc curiosities. They would bring good prices in New York as antiques. AVhen Columbus first came over, some of these carriages must have been in the shops for repairs. They are very small victorias, ugly, but comfortable. The horses are fearful and wonderful. They are fearful of having to work, and it is wonderful that they don't fall over in the streets. They would, probably, if the streets were wider. If it can he called ex aggeration to picture a thing too small, it is no exaggeration to say that these Cuban horses are not more than half the size of our American horses. You can cross the streets without the slightest fear of being run over, for it does not seem possible for one of these little things to run over anything. The drivers whip theni up smartly, and make pretty good time. 1 hud a ride in cab No. 1100 and we passed No. 1. This may argue that there are 1100 cabs' and it may not; but the streets are full of them. There is hardly enough width in the streets to be described. From twelve to eigh teen feet, including both sidewalks, is about an average width; not including in the count the three or four broad, handsome streets with parks in their centre. There is just room for two carriages to pass in the principal business streets; in some of them this is tight squeezing, and in others there is only room for one carriage. In these narrowest of the streets a carriage cannot go in till the street OUT-DOOR LIFE IN NASSAU AND CUBA. C3 is clear. And the side walks are as narrow iu proportion as the streets. In some streets, where there is evidently as much business done, I hough on a smaller scale, us in Nassau Street or AVilliam Street, the sidewalk is not more than twenty inches wide — uncomfortable walk ing for one person — im possible, for two people to pass without one step ping into tho gutter, and these streets are always crowded. The houses, which are nearly all ci ther one or two stories high, stand so squarely up lo the edge of the sidewalk that they seem to be trying to rub them selves against you ; aud they are continually in viting you to look into their open windows, ¦which have strong iron bars, and always cur tains, with an inside shutter, sometimes glass sash and sometimes wood, but always open. This peculiar arrange ment gives an insight into the family arrangements in Havana that could be had by a stranger in no Northern city. The people live in public, and nobody in the street pays any attention to them. The interior arrangement of the front part of a house in Havana is utterly different from that of any establishment in New York. The floor iu hall and parlor is often of stone. Sometimes this is very rough, sometimes highly polished. The parlor walls arc deco rated with several handsome mirrors, and a glass chandelier invari ably hangs from the middle of the ceiling. In some of the finest rooms the floor is covered with carpet, and over this is a rug, in the centre of the room. But whether there is a carpet or not, there is always a large rug, about four feet wide and eight or ten feet long, generally of bright colors. This is laid with tho end towards the front Exactly in the middle of the floor, on each side of it, are from three to five chairs, set in lino, facing each other, as if the chil- HAVANA, FROM KEGLA HEIGHTS. dren were about to play church. The chairs must be in an exact line, and must not be disturbed, or the house-keeper considers things "all upside down." When the people sit down to talk, they face each other iu these chairs. If the "people" are a pair of lovers, I imagine the arrangement is changed. The sleeping-rooms arc by all means the finest part of a Cuban establishment. The bedsteads are all of metal, the handsome ones of polished brass, the cheaper ones of iron, and very light, airy, and graceful. Four arched pieces form a sort of dome over the whole, which is covered with laces, or some gauzy material, to keep out the insects. A snowy quilt covers the bed, and everything is as white and cool as possible. There are no mattresses on the beds, and al though hard they are very cool and comfortable. A soft bed in this climate would be much too warm. Leather or woollen straps support the bed, which consists principally of a sort of cotton SAN CARLOS HOTEL, HAVANA. 64 blanket. Board at any of the good hotels can be had cheaper than in the good hotels in tfew York. Rents are very much the same as in New York. A house that rates about the same here as one in any of the upper cross-streets of New York, between Fourth and Sixth avenues, can be had for from one to two hundred dollars a IN SUNNY LANDS: general's house, are immense-far larger than any private bouses in New York And the city generally, with due respect for Mew York has much more of a cosmopolitan appearance than our me tropolis. The soldiery in a great variety of uniforms; the priests, to be run against at all hours, in their sombre costumes; the hall- OOVEKNOK'S I'ALACli AND l'AUK, HAVANA. month, gold, containing five to eight largo rooms. It will, very likely, have a shop on "each sido of it, but that is a common thing here. ' In riding pretty thoroughly over the city I saw a large num ber of new buildings. The space formerly occupied by the old city walls, which have been torn down, is now filled with very handsome residences. The principal one of these, in the principal street, cov ers a space fully as large as one of our city blocks, is three stories lii"h and is used for stores and dwellings. Separate sections of OLD FORT AT VEDADO, NEAR HAVANA. I his, of suitable size for dwellings, are for sale at $40,000 each, gold. The building is of stone, smoothly plastered on the outside, like nearly all the buildings here. Some of the handsome residences oc cupied by the grandees, on the broad street leading to the Governor- naked negroes, the gayly-dressed ladies, give the city an appearance of guyety that is not to be found in New Yfork. The Governor general's house is only ordinary, but has magnificent grounds, wilh acres of palm-trees and some fine statuary. At night the broader streets are crowded with carriages and foot-passengers. Speaking of the soldiers! They would make fine light artillery. Four feet is about the average height, and a boy's collar would make thorn a belt. Four-feet-six would put a man in the front rank. They have very small feet, very neatly clad, small waists, und are small all over. A. great many of them seem to bo from fourteen to sixteen years old, but lhey are very polite and well bred. I nearly fell over two of them in the street one night, without seeing them. With a population of some two hundred Ihou.saml, Havana is the largest city in the West Indies; and although travellers find there buildings and customs thut make them think the world has gone back a hundred years, yet the city of to-day has a cer tain degree, of newness that might excite the surprise of a New- Yorker. The space occupied until recently by the walls thut encircled the old town, with its corresponding dilches and ad jacent grounds, as already described, has been built up with palatial residences and great establishments, fronting on Ihe. newly-laid park, or Ihe Boulevard as it is now called, with its magnificent laurels, gardens, und fountains — running from the gas-works iu the lower end of the bay straight to the entrance of Ihe harbor opposite the Alorro Castle, a drive, amid tropical charms, of fully three miles. Then loom up the Pasagc and Ynglaterra hotels, the Telegrafo Hotel, the Tacon Theatre, one of the largest in the world, the famous restaurant "Louvre;" aud particularly in the evenings, when military bunds entertain the Habaneros with choice music, tbe scene is one full of life — life so strange, so entirely different from anything the visitor expects, as to make him imagine he is in fairy-land. At the Tacon during the winter there is usually fine opera, the season beiiut evenly divided between Italian and French singers. The Central Railroad, with its OUT-DOOR LIFE IN NASSAU AND CUBA. 65 station near by, sends its trains promptly on time (always before daylight in Cuba) to Alatanzas, Cardenas, and all important interior points; and a trip outside of Havana is something that no visitor should neglect The well-lo-do people (and Havana contains a great many of no ble birth) live in the fashionable quarter known as El Cerro, where some of the handsomest gardens and villas in the world arc to be found. The horse-cars run through the main thoroughfare while it is also accessible by steam in a few minutes. El Vedado oti the coast just below Morro Castle, also enjoys a steam line, and' of late years is becoming the summer resort of the best citizclis of Havana. With telephonic communication all over the city, telegraph mes sages to the. United States, costing fifty cents a word, magnificent steamers twice every week to New York, and steamers periodically for New Orleans, Mexico, and Europe, many good hotels and rail roads, Havana affords fastidious Northerners all the 'comforts of their own cities amid the oddity of ancient customs in perpetual summer. On the other side of the bay stands the town of Regla, a town which might well be called Sugartown, on account of its immense warehouses for the receiving and storage of this sweet merchandise, which from there is distributed to the vessels at anchor in the buy. The bullfight ring is there, and especially on Sunday afternoon a visitor maybe sure to find what is culled in Cuba a good perform ance; that is, if he docs not tuiud seeing a few men hurt, several horses butchered, and poor beasts tortured to death. Farther back, and accessible by rail, stands the old village of Gua- nabacoa, which has mineral springs whose waters are said to be bene ficial in liver ailments. However, there are springs in the cafes of all the Havana hotels much more powerful and perhaps quite as good. The religion of Cuba is the Roman Catholic, and the churches are fine stone buildings of great size, the decorations being, in one or two, fully up to those in the celebrated churches of Montreal. Noted among these arc the Cathedral, the Alercedes, and Belen, the latter a Jesuit institution, which is said to have done much good there with its school and its wonderful training. The Cuban people as a rule are jolly, good-natured, and hospitable, always welcoming foreigners and always happy to be of the slight est service. Politics have divided the native from the mother ele ment to a great extent, but, leaving politics aside, one finds the people always ready and glad to receive strangers, mixing up in their en deavors to show and explain their wonderful land and their strange habits. AU TU5VOIK. INTERESTING BOOKS OF TRAVEL. Stanley's Congo, and the Founding of its Free State, A Story of AVork und Exploration. By Henry M. Stanley. With over 100 Illustrations, two large Haps, and several smaller ones. 2 vols., 8vo, Cloth, $10 00. Stanley's Through the Dark Continent; Or, The Sources of the Nile, Around the Great Lukes ot Equatorial Africa, and Down the Livingstone River to the Atlantic Ocean. With 149 Illustrations and 10 Maps. By Henry M. Stanley. 2 vols., 8vo, Cloth, $10 00; Sheep, $12 00; Half Moroceo, $15 00. A Naturalist's Wanderings in the Eastern Archipelago. By Henry O. 1'Viuuks, F.R.G.S., ice. Illustrated. 8vo, Cloth, $fi 00. The Malay Archipelago. By A. 11. Wallace. Illustrated. Crown 8vo, Cloth, $2 B0. Old Mexico and her Lost Provinces. A Journey in Mexico, Southern California, and Arizona, by way of Cuba. By William Henry Bishop. Ill'd. 12mo, Cloth, $2 00. The Atlantic Islands As Resorts for Health and Pleasure. By S. G. W. Benjamin. Illus trated. 8vo, Cloth, $:; 00. At Last. 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Part VI. South America. Hunting Adventures on Land and Sea. By T. W. Knox. 2 Parts. Illustrated. 8vo, Cloth, $2 50 each. Fart I. — The Young NimrodB in North America. Part II. — The Young Nimrods Around the "World. Voyage of the " Vivian " to the North Pole And Beyond. Being the Adventures of Two Youths in the Open Polar Sea. By T. W. Knox. Illustrated. 8vo, Cloth, $2 50. Harper Published by HARPER & BROTHERS, New York. & Brothers wilt send am, of the above works b,j mail, postage prepaid. I„ av,, pari of the United State, or Canada, on receipt of the price. FREDERICK W. ROBINSON'S NOVELS. Mr. Robinson interests us in the actors of his stories for themselves, as well as for the striking nature of the situa tions in which they are placed. — Examiner, London. The author is one of our best novel-writers ; his delineations of characters are done with a master pen ; his plots are carefully concealed, and he never fails to keep the interest to the eud. — Portland Advertiser. Mr. Robinson is one of the most entertaining and successful of living English novelists. — Troy Budget. Mr. Robinson occupies a place in the first rank of novelists. His plots are good ; his characters are developed very cleverly, and he has a knack of keeping them, after all, just such men and women as we would expect to meet in our daily intercourse. — Rochester Express. Mr. Robinson now occupies a place in the first rank of living English novelists. Having considerable constructive power, his plots are usually good; he develops character very cleverly; he makes his men and women talk like sensi ble creatures ; he arranges his tableaux with dramatic skill, and now and then makes nice little off-hand sketches of local scenery. — Philadelphia Press. A Bridge of Glass. 8vo, Paper, 80 cents. A Fair Maid. 4to, Paper, 20 cents. A Girl's Romance, Ami Other Stories. 8vo, Paper, 30 cents. As Long as She Lived. 8vo, Paper, 50 cents. Carry's Confession. 8vo, Paper, CO cents. 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Women are Strange, And Other Stories. 4to, Paper, 20 cents. Published by HARPER & BROTHERS, New York Harper & Brothers will send any of the above works by mail, postage prepaid, to any part of the United States or Canada, on receipt of the •[trice. MISS BRADDON'S NOVELS. Miss Braddon has always been justly praised for the originality and the dramatic intensity of her plots. Her style is brilliant and spirited ; her books show a close observation of human nature, and a happy faculty in describing its deeper phases ; and her invention leads her far from the track of conventionality. Her books are held in high esteem on the Continent, and have been translated into almost every civilized tongue; while her talents have not been thought unworthy of analysis by some ofthe best French and German critics. She has written no book in which there are not evidences of unusual intellectual power. Though plot is evidently of leading importance in her eyes, she carefully elaborates her style, and closely studies her dramatis persona. — Saturday Evening Gazette, Boston. Miss_ Braddon is popular with novel-readers. She has the happy faculty of suiting all tastes— those who like to be conducted into fashionable society and " high life," as well as those who care nothing about the persons, but everything about the plot, of a story. She is sensational without being vulgar, and interesting without being coarse. — Albany Evening Journal. Whether in " Aurora Floyd," " Fenton's Quest," " To the Bitter End," " Birds of Prey," or what not, her keen observation, picturesque or graphic description, and powerful analysis of character and motive are recognized aud universally admired. — Commonwealth, Boston. Miss Braddon's literary freshness is equalled only by her literary fertility, and deserves to be considered, as indeed it is, one of the wonders of the nineteenth century fiction. Perhaps it is this attribute of her genius — the novelty of the charm with which her successive works nrc invariably invested— -which is the surest and most eloquent proof of the grasp and vigor of her intellectual powers. — The Ifour, London. Miss Braddon always wields a vigorous and incisive pen, and could not possibly write a dull chapter or page. — Commercial Bulletin, Boston. Miss Braddon has contrived to preserve the constructive skill, the narrative vigor, and the power of description which gave additional attraction to the " sensation" of "Lady Audley's Secret," while at the same time she has attained to the higher mys teries of her craft. She has learned how to depict character with intense truth, and yet with an art which is triumphant because its processes are imperceptible, and only the result is presented to the reader. She has learned to be independent of mere incident in giving interest to her books; and they are, in consequence, as superior to her first efforts as a sonata of Beethoven's to the music of Offenbach's last extravaganza. — Edinburgh Daily Review. There is a marvellous freshness about Miss Braddon. She writes so much and so often that one can only wonder to find her writing so well. By all recognized rules she ought long ago to have written herself out. As a matter of fact, however, her work seems to improve. — Athenmum, London. Unquestionably Miss Braddon must be placed among the foremost novelists of the day. — Edinburgh Scotsman. A STRANGE WORLD. 8vo, Paper, 40 cents. AN OPEN VERDICT. 8vo. Paper, 35 cents. ASPHODEL. 4to. Paper, 15 cents. AURORA FLOYD. 8vo, Paper, 40 cents. BARBARA ; ok, SPLENDID MISERY. 4to, Pa per, 15 cents. BIRDS OF PREY. Illustrated. 8vo, Paper, 50 cents. BOUND TO JOHN COMPANY. Illustrated. 8vo, Paper, 50 cents. CHARLOTTE'S INHERITANCE. 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WEAVERS AND WEFT. 8vo, Paper, 25 cents. WYLLARD'S WEIRD. 4to, Paper, 20 cents. Published by HARPER & BROTHERS, New York. „/ the above v,orks sent by mail, postage prepaid, to any part of the United States or Canada^ on receipt of Ihe pnee. GEORGE ELIOT'S WORKS. LIBRARY EDITION. MIDDLEMARCH. A Study of Provincial Life. 2 vols., 12mo, ADAM BEDE. Illustrated. 12 mo, Cloth, $1 25. DANIEL DERONDA. 2 vols., 12mo, Cloth, $2 50. ESSAYS AND LEAVES FROM A NOTE-BOOK. 12mo, Cloth, $1 25. FELIX HOLT, THE RADICAL. Illustrated. 12mo, Cloth, $1 25. THE MILL ON THE FLOSS. Illustrated. 12mo, Cloth, $1 25. The above Eleven Volumes in Cloth, $12 00; Half Calf, $27 50. Popular Edition, Eleven Volumes, \2mo, Brown Cloth, 75 cents per Volume. Cloth, $2 50. ROMOLA. ¦ Illustrated. 12mo, Cloth, $1 25. SCENES OF CLERICAL LIFE, ANI) SILAS MARNER. Illustrated. 12mo, Cloth, $1 25. IMPRESSIONS OF THEOPHRASTUS SUCH. 12mo, Cloth, $1 25. POPULAR EDITION. AMOS BARTON. 32mo, Paper, 20 cents. BROTHER JACOB.— THE LIFTED VEIL. 32mo, Paper, 20 cents. DANIEL DERONDA. 8vo, Paper, 50 cents. FELIX HOLT, THE RADICAL. 8vo, Paper, 50 cents. IMPRESSIONS OF THEOPHRASTUS SUCH. 4to, Paper, 10 cents. JANET'S REPENTANCE. 32 mo, Paper, 20 cents. ADAM BEDE. Illustrated. MIDDLEMARCH. 8vo, Paper, 75 cents. MR. GILFIL'S LOVE STORY. 32mo, Paper, 20 cents. ROMOLA. Illustrated. 8vo, Paper, 50 cents. SCENES OF CLERICAL LIFE. 8vo, Paper, 50 cents. SILAS MARNER. 12mo, Paper, 20 cents. THE MILL ON THE FLOSS. 8vo, Paper, 50 cents. 4to, Paper, 25 cents. FIRESIDE EDITION Vol. I.— SCENES OK CLERICAL LIFE. SILAS MARNER. ADAM IJEDE. Illustrated. Vol. II.— THE MILL ON THE FLOSS. ROMOLA. Illustrated. Vol. III. — FELIX HOLT. THEOPHRASTUS SUCH. Illustrated. In Six Volumes, V2mo, Cloth, $7 50. Sold only in Sets. Vol. IV.— MIDDLEMARCH : A STUDY OF PRO VINCIAL LIFE. Vol. V.— DANIEL DERONDA. Vol. VI. — ESSAYS. LEAVES FROM A NOTE BOOK. BROTHER JACOB. THE LIFTED VEIL. POEMS. SKETCH OF GEORGE ELIOT. By C. Kegan Paul. STUDY OF HER ME MOIRS. By E. S. P. Illustrated. GEORGE ELIOT'S LIFE, Related in Her Letters and Journals. Arranged and Edited by her Husband J W Cross. Illustrated. 3 vols., 12.no, Cloth, $1 25 per vol.-Also, 3 Parts. 4to, Paper, 15 cents per Part. Published bv HARPER & BROTHERS, New York. BT IIiiu-kh It U.WT.IK..S will send any of the above works by mail, postage prepaid, to any part of the United States or Canada M reeavt •>J the price. ™ WILLIAM BLACK'S NOVELS. A DAUGHTER OF IIETII. A PRINCESS OF TIIULE. GREEN PASTURES AND PICCADILLY IN SILK ATTIRE. JUDITH SHAKESPEARE. Illustrated. KILMENY. MACLEOD OF DARE. Illustrated. MADCAP VIOLET. HARPER'S LIBRARY EDITION. 12mo, Cloth, $1 25 per volume. SHANDON BELLS. Illustrated. SUNRISE. THAT BEAUTIFUL WRETCH. Illustrated. THREE FEATHERS. THE STRANGE ADVENTURES OF A PHAE TON. WHITE WINGS. YOLANDE. Illustrated. HARPER'S POPULAR EDITION. A DAUGHTER OF HETH. 8vo, Paper, 35 cents. A PRINCESS OF TIIULE. 8vo, Paper, 50 cents. AN ADVENTURE IN THULE. 4to, Paper, 10 cts. GREEN PASTURES AND PICCADILLY. Svo, Paper, 50 cents. IN SILK ATTIRE. 8vo, Paper, 35 cents. JUDITH SHAKESPEARE. 4to, Paper, 20 cents. KILMENY. 8vo, Paper, 35 cents. MACLEOD OF DARK 8vo, Paper, Illustrate'], GO cents; 4to, Paper, 15 cents. MADCAP VIOLET. 8vo, Paper, 50 cents. SUNRISE. 4to, Paper, 20 cents. SHANDON BELLS. Illustrated. 4to, Paper, 20 centa. THAT BEAUTIFUL WRETCH. Illustrated. 4to, Paper, 20 cents. THE MAID OF KILLEENA, THE MARRIAGE OF MOIRA FERGUS, and Other Stories. 4to, Paper, 40 cents. THE MONARCH OF MINCING-LANE. Illustra- ted. 8vo, Paper, 50 cents. THE STRANGE ADVENTURES OF A PHAE TON. 8vo, Paper, 50 cents. THREE FEATHERS. Illustrated. 8vo3 Paper, ou cents. WHITE WINGS. 4to, Paper, 20 cents. YOLANDE. Illustrated. 4to, Paper, 20 cents. Mr. Black never relics for effect upon violent means. He contrives by delicate, subtle, hut sure touches, to win the interest of his renders, and to retain it till the last volume is laid down with reluctance. — Globe, London. His success, which is undoubtedly great, is due to a careful study and competent knowledge of character, to a style which is free from blemish and to a power of graphic description which is but very seldom met with. — Saturday Review, London. Mr. Black knows so well just what to describe, and to what length, that the scenery of his novels seems to have been freshened by soft spring rains. His painting of character, his conversations and situations, are never strongly dramatic and exciting, but they are thoroughly good. He never gives us a tame or tiresome chapter. — N. Y. Tribune. Mr. Black's novels present vivid pictures of the life and thought of the age, which they will preserve for future times, as earlier great masters of fiction have preserved for our time the thoughts and sentiments of periods long since passed away. Mr. Black is doing for these times what Thackeray and Dickens, Lytton and Beaconsfield did for an earlier contemporary period ; and what Fielding and Smollett did for the opening yenrs of the Georgian era. — Boston Traveller. Mr. Black is, in many respects, the best novelist of the present lime. His work is as representative as tho poetry of Mr. Tennyson or the criticism of Mr. Stedmnn — it is in delicate and sympathetic harmony with the spirit of his day. * * * He noles with quickness, humor, and force; he describes with warmth and delicacy of expression ; and fine as is his analysis, it is never overdrawn or inconsistent with manly strength ; tliere is in it always a reserve of conscious power. He is, moreover, a prose poet ; ir. a sentence he comprises a sonnet ; and his descriptions prove him to possess the eye of a painter, and his imagination of which his literary style is the beautiful and adequate translation. — Portland Press. Published by HARPER & BROTHERS, New York. ggT Harper 1£R & Buotiikks will send the above work, carriage paid, to any part of the United Stales or Canada, on receipt of (he price. NEW YORK & CUBA MAILS. 8. CO. "WEEKLY LIITE TO XX ATWA. IW A. 9 ALSO EVERY TWO WEEKS TO NASSAU, N. P., SANTIAGO, and CIENFUEGOS, CUBA. THE FIRST-CLHSS IRON STEAMERS OF THIS COMPANY P, 3000 Tens, SABATOBA, 2600 Tons, HIAQABA, 23QQ Capt THOS. S. CUKTIS. Capt. J. MoINTOSH. Oapt. S. V. BEHNIS, FOR HAVANA Every SATURDAY, at 3 P. M., froirs. Pier 16, E. Pv. tzeecie steamships SANTIAGO, 1000 Tods, CH1TFU1Q0S, 1100 Tw Oapt. L. OOLTON. Oapt. P. M. FAIROLOTE Will sail EVERY OTHER THURSDAY at 3 P.M., from Pier 17, E. R. NASSAU. SANTIAGO and CIENFUEGOS J&3HES E. WA1D & ©©»» R. W. PARSONS, Nassau Mail Contractor. 113 Wall Street, New York. This preservation photocopy was made at BookLab. Inc. in compliance with copyright law. The paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper) <°9 Austin 1997 YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 3 9002 03068 9013