g iri^ ia Cuba anij tl]t S,o«tIitnt States, g:'o. 



ECIDEDLY it is a pleasant thing to leave the wintry 

 North, and speed away to the land of the orange and 

 the myrtle. Man has just made himself wings, and, like 

 the birds, he can change his climate at pleasure. In a 

 week he may run through enough parallels of latitude 

 to leave behind him the wintry snow, and enter upon a 

 perpetual summer; he walks from his conservatory, 

 where a few plants are barely kept in health by fires 

 and steam, and before he has taken half a dozen good 

 naps, he wakes up in a region where the skies are the 

 only glass, and where a greenhouse has never been 

 thought of; from frozen grounds, untillable till May, he 

 flies to a land where the pine-apple ripens as it grows 

 neglected by the roadside, and where fruits hang upon 

 the trees till long after they have put forth their flowers 

 for another crop. ' The orange is in full bearing, with 

 height and limbs almost comparable to our apple-tree ; 

 its delicious golden product tempts the eye till it is 

 attracted to the glorious plume of the neighboring 

 cocoa-nut, or the still more stately Royal Palm, whose 

 height and ostrich-like feathers are a prominent ingre- 

 dient of every scene. Does arboriculture engage his 

 mind, the visitor finds innumerable trees, bushes, and vines, loaded with leaves 

 and flowers such as have never been noticed in his vocabulary. This is literally 

 the condition of things 



" In that fam'd land, by daring Colon given 

 To the admiring gaze of pleased mankind. 



* * * * * 



But insulted freedom yet may rear her throne, 

 And raise congenial altars there." — W. Elliott. 



A short visit to Cuba enabled us to embody a few notes that may be acceptable 

 to our readers, and possibly we may be the means of inducing otliers to make it 

 a winter residence whose state of health requires an equable climate, for such 

 this eminently is. 



Climate, it is true, is not everything, but to many it is of great importance, 

 both to the healthy and the invalid, and it is beginning to be discovered that our 

 Northern winters are as much, if not more to be dreaded than our summers. 

 Hundreds now go to Cuba where thousands will hereafter make the trip when the 

 advantages are more generally known, the facilities more multiplied, and the local 

 government more disposed to receive us than is even now the case. The restraints 

 on the movements of Americans are considerably relaxed of late, and though some 

 ridiculous regulations are still ia force, there were none, the past season, which 

 were not easily borne or laughed at. More travellers from the States have resided 

 on or visited the island the past winter than was ever before known, and it may 

 be supposed they have now and then left an impression, and made a mark, which 

 gradually may prove an entering wedge for the Anglo-Sa.xon race. Indeed, many 

 of our countrymen are settled tliere, and manage some of the most important inte- 

 rests. They are engineers on the railroads and sugar plantations ; they keep the 

 decent hotels, purchase land here and there, and, if fiicilities were given. 

 Id soon overrun the country with improvements ; but the Spanish policy is 



Vol. YII.— June, 185T. 



17 





