vence roses, but without any sign of fragrance. The
great heat, it is said, destroys the scent of this and many
other flowers. This handsome young couple have invited
me to spend some time with them, but I must decline the
invitation.

The planters of Cuba are extremely hospitable, and as
the life of the ladies is very monotonous, and increasingly
so of late, for the hand of the Spanish government has
rested heavily on the Spanish Creole since the late dis-
turbances, compelling him to pay a tax, they are by no
rrieans unwilling to have the monotony of their every-day
life diversified by the presence of a European stranger.

The character of the sugar plantation and the life upon
it seems to me very much the same every where. The
most beautiful features of these plantations are the great
avenues, especially of palms ; I can not walk through



HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD. 351

these guadarajahs without a sentiment of devotion, so
beautiful and magnificent are they ! The gardens are
frequently quite small, and commonly but ill kept. The
fields of sugar-cane encroach upon every thing else. The
life of the ladies is not cheerful, and scarcely active at
all. They seem to me to suffer from the condition of the
plantation, which is never free from danger, and which
does not allow them to develop at all their more beauti-
ful activity — nay, which even checks their movements.
They dare not go out alone — they are afraid of runaway
slaves; besides, with all the beauty of trees and vegeta-
tion peculiar to the Cuban plantation, it still lacks that
which constitutes one of the greatest delights of country
life — when one looks at it merely from the pleasurable
point of view — it lacks grass-sward — that soft, submis-
sive, verdant sward, in which millions of small blades of
grass and masses of little flowers are brought together, to
prepare for human beings a fresh and soft couch on which
to repose in the open air. It lacks those groves of shad-
owy trees and underwood, beneath and amid which we
repose so pleasantly; and I soon observed that this para-
disaical atmosphere and these guadarajahs could not com-
pensate to the inhabitants of the island for the absence
of those unpretending rural pleasures.

Besides, we behold no injustice around us in the coun-
try, no want which we can not in some degree lessen.
They behold much daily which they can not do any thing
to alleviate. Nay, the more noble a woman is in Cuba,
the more unhappy must she become. And even if she be
united to the best of husbands, who does all that lies in
his power for her and for his slaves, she still can not close
her eyes to that which occurs around her. The planta-
tion is never many acres in extent, and it adjoins other
plantations which are managed according to the disposi-
tion of their masters, and of what kind this sometimes is
we know already. Add to this the state of the govern-



352 ' HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.

ment of the island, the violence of government officials,
slave-trade, slave tumults, the examinations of the Span-
ish government, and the punishments which it inflicts,
one perpetual state of fear — no delicious waftings of the
heavenly atmosphere of Cuba can give cheerfulness to life
under such circumstances.

Last week a cargo of slaves from Africa arrived at Ha-
vana ; they were no less than seven hundred in number,
and all children, the eldest not eighteen, and the youngest
under ten years of age. It was spoken of this evening in
our circle.

" They who do this," said a mother of the party, bitterly,
''ought to have some day the reward they deserve !"

And yet, if human beings are to be conveyed from their
native country into foreign slavery, it is better that it
should take place when they are children than when
grown up ; it is less bitter then. As children, they be-
come accustomed to the bohea and to the whip, and have
not the memory of a life of freedom, which drives them
to despair and suicide.

Amid these gloomy thoughts and impressions, again and
again the unspeakable beauty of the air and the vegeta-
tion presents itself, and affects my soul to thanksgiving,
and shows me a future paradise.

It is again full moon, and the nights are indescribably
beautiful. I returned home late last night from a visit
with my hostess. We drove, with uncovered heads, in
the open volante, through palm-groves, beneath the vault
of heaven, which was flooded with light. The air was
delicious and bland, as the purest human kindness.

There are two splendid palm avenues at the plantation
of St. Amelia, a hundred trees in a row, I have no doubt.
Many of them are just now in bloom. The luxuriant
sprays of flowers shoot out like a garland of wings around
the stem, a little below the palm-crown, in the most beau-
tiful relationship both to it and the stem. There is an-



HOxMES OF THE NEW WORLD. 353

other avenue of the tamarind (from the green heads of
which the beans are now falling, and which the little ne-
gro children eagerly gather, to suck the agreeable acid
fruit), and of mango-trees, and a species of acacia, with
red berries, from which the negroes make necklaces. There
are, in front of the house, many of those trees, with lime-
tree-like heads, and dark, fiery-red flowers, such as I saw
on La Plaza des Armas at Havana, the botanic name of
which is Hibiscus tiliacea.

Cuba is an outer court of Paradise, worthy to be stud-
ied by the natural historian, the painter, and the poet.
The forms and colors of the vegetation seem to typify a
transition from earthly life to a freer and a loftier sphere
of beauty.

Caffetal L'Industrie, April 1st.

Thank God that it is now the commencement of spring
in Sweden, and that you can now begin to think about
salt baths, summer, and convalescence, and that all around
you can begin to live ; way-side weeds, butterflies, the
little yellow flowers, and larks — the cheerful larks, which
warble and sing, " Now it is spring-time ! now it is spring-
time !" Ah ! the diff'usive joy which spring imparts among
us, that — that is not known in this beautiful Cuba.

But — Cuba has beauty enough to make human life
happy, if its beauty and its glorious atmosphere might
only operate unimpededly.

I have now been for some i^ys on a new plantation,
both of sugar and coflee, with an American family of the
name of P., consisting of an elderly gentleman, his wife,
much younger than himself, two young sons, and two
daughters. T have to thank the Swedish consul, Mr.
Ninninger, for this invitation. Mr. P. is a warm repub-
lican, and courageous enough openly to express his re-
publican sympathies in the very face of the Spanish au-
thorities of the island. He would do it, he says, " at the
month of a four-and-twenty pounder," and I believe him.



354 HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.

the brave old gentleman, and I Uke him for it!. Mrs. P.
was born in England, and now, at near fifty, her counte-
nance has still all the charm and sweetness of youth,
combined with an expression of the greatest kindness.
She reminds me of those springs of fresh water which
God permits here and there to well up in the sandy des-
erts of the tropics for the invigoration of the desert pil-
grim. Palm-trees grow around them, and the sward be-
comes verdant ; the wanderer rests there, and drinks of
the springs, and wishes only that he could linger there.
When I meet with one of these characters of perfectly
original goodness, I involuntarily ask myself why, when
such might be created and given to the earth, we yet see
so few of them. As it is, they seem like the spirit of the
wind on this island, merely to reveal themselves on the
earth, to remind us of a paradise which — is not to be
found there.

There is a glorious view from the front of the house,
across the country, and to the distant blue sea. I enjoy it,
and the breezes from the sea, as I walk upon the broad
piazza in the incomparably beautiful mornings and even-
ings. My charming little room adjoins the piazza, and
from it also I have an extensive view ; there, however, I
am often disturbed by the little negro children, who climb
up by the iron railing before my window, and peep in,
exclaiming '^ Buon dios, Signora,^^ good-morning, missis!
which, spite of their goo^-tempered, joyous countenances,
splendid eyes and teeth, does not always amuse me, that
is, when I wish to be quiet. But it is, after all, really a
joy to see how fearless the negro children are on this plan-
tation. The good, motherly lady and her daughters have
produced this effect, and the children are evidently well
cared for, and the elder ones well clad. They run about
freely, and accompany us on our walks, sometimes in lit-
tle troops. I frequently see the elder children carrying
the younger ones, riding astride upon the left hip, while



HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD. 355

they hold them up with the left arm thrown round the
bead-enchcled bodies of the little creatures. I see them
in this way move about, and even run, with great ease ;
the girls are particularly dexterous in this respect, and as
I thus see them, I frequently can not help admiring their
beautiful and perfectly developed frames.

The slaves on this plantation seem to me well fed and
full of enjoyment. Neither is their bohea locked up and
prison-like ; it is left freely open, and I have seen dwell-
ing-rooms there full of possessions like the dwellings of
the slaves in America. The good lady of the plantation
is fond of her people, and takes good care of the feeble
and the sick.

From her gentle lips I have written down the following
words :

" It is a great sin to call the slaves wicked ; there are
among them both bad and good, as among all people. It
is rare to meet with such as are wicked, and many are
very good !

" They who considei* the whip necessary to drive the
negroes to work, which they would do willingly with rea-
sonable treatment, do not understand them, and frequent-
ly make them wicked. I can not tell you what I have
sufF(3red ; nay, indeed, I have been ill for weeks from the
grief occasioned by the sight of so much flogging, and of
the many cruelties, which, in many cases, a kind and se-
rious word might have prevented, the necessity of! The
negro nation is \VQnderfully susceptible to kindness and
indulgence when they are judiciously used. They are
capable of becoming the best and the most devoted of
servants and friends."

The Grerman overseer of a plantation. La Sonona, be-
longing also to Mr. P., made the following remarks re-
garding negro slaves:

" They are not at all difficult to manage, if they are
treated, at the same time, with firmn-ess and kindness



356 HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.

They love regularity and decision in their masters, and
obey without difficulty when they are treated with equa-
nimity and reason. It will not do to be^remiss; neither
is there any necessity for severity and cruelty."

This I believe to be the truth ; and well would it be if
many gentlemen would believe so too, and then treat
them according to this belief; but a despotic temper and
passion are often the masters' master, and the slaves suf-
fer in consequence.

The most remarkable occurrence that has happened to
me since I last wrote is my having seen the Southern
Cross^ and the Cuculio^ or "the Cuban fire-fly," which
now begins to make its appearance, but which is not a fly,
but a beetle, which in form and appearance resembles our
Thor-beetle, only somewhat longer and narrower. It flies
in the same manner, but more slowly and much higher,
and produces during its flight a dtill louder and more
buzzing sound. It emits light in two ways, when it
creeps along, or is still, from two round, small shining
points immediately behind the eyes, and I read by the
light thus produced with great ease last evening, by con-
ducting the cuculio along the lines like a little lamp ; and,
secondly, when it flies, it emits from an opening in the
stomach a strong clear light, now quickly shining out,
and then extinguished, as is the case with i\iQ American
fire-fly, but shining steadily as long as it remains on the
wing: you can scarcely conceive how beautiful it is. Im-
agine now the planets Yenus, Jupiter, Mars, and others
as bright, coming down from above, and fiying around
through the air, over the roof, and among the trees and
bushes, and you behold the cuculio : it has the loveliest,
clear blue fire which you can imagine.

Fire-flies make their appearance at the commencement
of the rainy season, and as we have now had a couple of
small showers, to th^ great joy of the coffee-planters, the
ruculios show themselves as soon as it begins to grow



HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD. 357

dark. They are not, however, numerous as yet ; but I
am told that when the rainy season sets in, in May, June,
and July, they become so numerous that the heads of
large trees are sometimes entirely covered with them, and
gleam out as from millions of little tapers. It is not known
here how and whence they come; it is maintained that
during the dry season they conceal themselves in decayed
trees ; they now feed on sugar-cane, and I have a whole
party in a glass in my room, where they suck pieces of
sugar-cane. They seem to be very well off there, and
think more about eating, apparently, than freedom ; they
sit quite still and suck the cane, and their light seems
dimmed the while; but if I oblige them with a bath of
fresh water, it becomes bright again, and the whole creat-
ure more lively. Sometimes, when I w^ake in the night,
I hear a buzzing noise in my room, and see one or tv»'^o
cuculios flying about, and lighting up every part of the
room which they approach.

I have to-day drawn a couple of them in my album
I have here a perfect phrensy, sketching and drawing
people, birds, trees, flowers, dwellings, every thing which
strikes me ; and so much strikes me here, from its beauty
or its novelty, that I am in a continual drawing fever.
Many of my efforts are not wholly successful, both from
want of time and artistic skill; but I shall carry home
with me some small memories which it will be pleasant to
possess.

I see in the evenings the Southern Cross slowly rising
in a slanting direction with regard to the horizon ; at mid-
night it stands perpendicularly above it. I went out last
night to see it. This lovely constellation shone bright and
beautiful amid the tranquil, beautiful night. The stars
are of the second magnitude; one of them, however, is of
the third; bat the proportion between them is so perfect,
that the whole figure is striking in the highest degree ;
besides which, the splendid Cross stands solitary in the



358 HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.

southern heavens, with its foot almost touching the earth,
and its arms extending over it. The whole figure pro-
duces a solemn but melancholy effect upon me. A glory
is formed above the Cross by the stars of Centaur, and the
two stars Chcinus and Robur stand like sentinels, one on
either side.

After midnight the Cross declines toward the right, and
thus sinks, by degrees, once more beneath the orb of the
earth. The nights are very dark, but the darkness is as
if transparent ; the air is not felt. There could not be
more beautiful nights in Paradise. The beauty of our
midsummer in the north of Sweden might emulate it, but
in another way.

When I turn from the Southern Cross, and the palm-
trees between which it shines, I see in the northern firm-
ament, above a beautiful ceiba-tree in the court, the North
Star and the Great Bear.

April Zd. I have spent this beautiful morning in the
banana groves, which are always to be met with on coffee
plantations, sketching the tree, with my favorite fruit and
all its little upspringing family around its stem. I found
here aiso flowering cotton-plants in a considerably wild
state. The shrub has twisting, irregular stems, coarse
lobed leaves of a dark dull green color. The flower re-
sembles a double mallow, and is of a clear, light yellow
color, and of the most delicate and graceful form. The
manner in which tHe capsule opens, and throws out the
bunches of cotton in which the seeds are imbedded, is
wonderfully pretty. I must now paint this, as well as the
Southern Cross above the palm-trees.

The palm-trees ! I never grow weary of contemplating
the waving of their heads in the wind, and the soft and
majestic inclination of the branches. They are full of
poetry and of symbolic beauty; they speak forcibly of the
union of the noble in thought and deed, and the beautiful
in expression ; wherever 1 turn, they meet my eye with



HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD. 359

new aspects of beauty. The palm-tree's crown has gen-;
erally from fourteen to sixteen branches. Every month,
or every alternate month, one of the lower branches falls
off. I have often seen such, six or seven ells long, lying
across the path as I have been driving out, and every
month a new one shoots forth. This always shoots up in
the centre of the crown, like an upright sceptre ruling the
tree ; it unfolds itself first at the point, and the delicate
leaves sport in the wind like a green flame, or flag, above
the tree.

It is customary in this neighborhood to cut off the
branches of the palm in the woods and fields for the pur-
poses of thatching roofs, &c., and the tree is sometimes left
with merely two or three branches, by which one might
imagine that it was bereft of all its beauty ; but no ! the
despoiled palm elevates its two remaining branches with
a graceful bend toward the branches of another tree in the
same condition, and you behold G-othic porticoes, and arch-
es of the most beautiful proportions, arising in the fields,
or in the depths of the forest: to deprive the palm of its
nobility and its beauty requires the destruction of its life.
The king-palm has always an upright column or stem;
the cocoa -palm, on the contrary, has a curved, leaning
stem, much thinner than that of the king-palm. I see
the latter almost always heavily laden with fruit, which
grows in clusters close to, or beneath the branches. Peo-
ple here are fond of the milk of the fruit, and consider it
as a purifier of the blood ; it has the appearance of whey,
and one must be accustomed to its flavor before one can
like it. The fruit of the king-palm is a berry, and is only
used for fodder for cattle. The cabbage of the palm, as it
is called — that is, the middle of the stem nearest to the
crown — the very core, as it were, of the tree, is said to be
a great delicacy, but it can not be removed without taking
the life of the tree.

In the afternoons I have driven out with my kind host-



360 HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.

ess, in her volante, to visit some of the neighbors. Yes-
terday we called on an elderly French lady, who interested
me by her strongly-marked individuality ; it was a pleas-
ure to hear her relate any thing, and to follow her ex-
pressions and gestures. In a general way, it seems to me
that Europeans have far more accent and emphasis in
their whole being than the Americans, or than those fam-
ilies of European origin which have been resident in Amer-
ica for any length of time. The former speak louder ;
emphasize the words more strongly ; use more action ; ap-
pear more forcible ; make more demonstration : the latter
move and speak with very little outward action ; there is
a something silent and without sound in their being; en-
ergy has a more inward, a more concentrated power. The
great expression of the American seems to be properly, in
his public institutions, in the development of the political
life of the states, in the advancement of commerce, in the
magnitude of his public undertakings. Individuality does
not indeed vanish, but it seems to me to occupy itself in
a higher species of manifestation.

The Spaniards present, in manners and appearance, the
strongest contrast which can be conceived to the Anglo-
American, and the melody and majesty of the Spanish
language always enchants me — excepting, indeed, when I
hear it spoken or screamed out by uneducated women. I
visited a farm one afternoon, where we found an assembly
of ten or twelve women belonging to the working-class,
but not to the poorest. They were, the greater number
of them, thin and very brown, and they screamed and
made such a din, although it was all in kindness and
cheerfulness, that it was almost deafening ; one might
have imagined one's self amid a flock of turkeys ; and to
all this noise was added a great deal of action, very en-
ergetic, but angular and quite devoid of grace. On the
contrary, from the lips of educated and refined women,
the Spanish language is the most beautiful music.



HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD. 361

The beautiful cuculios are now my torment as well as
my delight, because, oh ! they are stupid ; and when they
fold together their wings, they are the most awkward and
helpless of all creatures. During their flight they strike
themselves against any thing that comes in their way, and
then fall down, when they creep, or lie upon their backs
as foolishly as our cock-chafers. They allow themselves
to be caught with the greatest ease, and, once caught,
they seem to forget that they have wings. The little ne-
gro children run after them, crying ^^ Cuccu ! cuccuV
catch them easily, and then torment them in many ways.
And since the time when I purchased some of these poor,
stupid creatures for a few galietas, to release them from
the hands of their tormentors, dozens of these young ne-
groes come crowding in the evening on the piazza, which
lies on the same level with the great parlor, poke in their
curly heads, and stretch out their hands, with the brilliant
insects in them, shouting ^^Cuccu I cuccu /" One is obliged
to purchase some of them out of captivity, but all — a whole
pocket full of galietas^ would not suffice for that ! If one
makes any demonstration of driving the children away,
off they fly like a flock of sparrows, with a loud cry of
exultation, for they are full of fun ; but they are soon back
again, shouting "•Cticcu! cuccu l^"* If one takes no notice
of them, they will steal into the room — that is to say, if
no gentlemen are there — and come up to the piano when
Miss P. is playing Cuban dances, or I Swedish polkas, and
temptingly stretch out their hands full of "cuccus," mer-
rily laughing. If I take up my handkerchief with a threat-
ening gesture, away they scamper like the wind, but
merely for a moment.

These beautiful cuculios are really the most torment-
ing of all creatures. The negroes place them in phials
and bottles, and use them as lanterns and candles in their
rooms. In this way they will live for a week, until final-
ly they die of suflbcation. If they were but as devoid of

Vol. IL— Q,



362 HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.

feeling as they are of sense! The children of the family
and I°amuse ourselves in the evenings by endeavoring to
make the cuculios fly, which we have either picked up or
purchased out of bondage. It is sometimes difficult to
persuade them to it, but when one sets them on the point
of one's finger, and holds it up in the air, one may often
see them spread out their wings, and, making their dron-
ing sound, ascend aloft, giving forth their beautiful, m-
comparable light.

In the morning I return to Matanzas, and thence 1
shall proceed to Havana, and afterward to San Antonio
de los Bagnos—Q. bathing-place, where the country is said
to be magnificent, and thence to a plantation at some dis-
tance. A young planter here, a French Creole of the name
of S., wishes me to become acquainted with his mother,
a widow, after a second marriage with a Spanish marquis
C, who resides there; and he has often spoken of her in
such a manner as makes me wish to know her. Besides
this, she is said to enjoy literature and art, and the com-
pany of people who are devoted to them. 'I shall thus re-
main longer in Cuba than I intended, but— I shall be at
Cuba only once in my life ; and Cuba is a home of beauty,
and I am annoyed that it is so little known. Natural
historians, architects, painters, and poets ought to come
hither for new knowledge and new inspiration. Air and
light, the vegetation above ground, and the caverns below
it%re full of life and beauty! There is also a remark-
able grotto not far from this plantation, which we, if pos-
sible, shall visit early in the morning.

We have now as visitor in the house a lively young
girl, a French Creole, Eudoxia B., whose cheerful conver-
sation, and natural, healthy, and graceful manners it is
a pleasure both to hear and see. I hear from her that
young girls have sometim.es in Cuba, as well as m Swe-