

gi f rip t0 Cubit u)i i\t ^0«thrn ^hU$, '^a. 4. 



"Another Flora here, of bolder hues 

 And richer sweets." 



ONTINUING oar notes as they present themselves for 

 extract, the reader will find them to partake of the ram- 

 bling character of our visit, during which, every oppor- 

 tunity which health permitted, was employed in examin- 

 ing the novelties presented in every direction. We could 

 but think that Europe has become somewhat stale to 

 travellers who have frequently seen it. Like a dutiful 

 son, the American's first visits have been paid to the 

 y, ancestral roofs; that accomplished, and all which could 

 l^^"^%i^v^i§:l be taught him there having been scanned, he may now 

 (:^^m^'^<J^^^^^ turn his wings to another point of the compass, and con- 

 ^^""^Wkh" ^--- ^ verse with the land of the sun, so long in the exclusive 

 "^ possession of the unappreciative Spaniard. 



3frs. Almfs Hotel (where Dr. Kane expired) forms one of the illustrations of 

 this number. The windows are grated with iron, and having no glass whatever, 

 and only a curtain, they are protected from the entrance of robbers in this manner. 

 Nearly all the houses are thus secured, and the rooms may be left without fasten- 

 ing. Being mostly of one story, air is thus freely admitted during the night to 

 the sleepers. 



In the picture, the street scene represents the volante, erroneous in two particu- 

 lars : the shafts are quite too short, and the central young lady usually sits the 

 most forward of the party when three ride together, which is usual. The horse is 

 rarely so fat as represented, but the figure of the calisero is excellent ; his hat, per- 

 fect ; even the best dressed liveried coachman ! has his legs, as high up as above 

 the knee, encased in jack-boots, and the heel is ornamented with a silver spur : he 

 exhibits at the junction of the shoe and the boot leg, very much what would look 

 at a distance like a silk stocking, but is really black skin. The most fashionable 

 drive two horses to the volante, when the calisero rides the second outside the 

 shaft, and this horse is fastened near the step ; he is only for ornament, and for 

 the postilion to display himself on, with his awkward jog-trot. Mrs. Almy's was 

 on the bay, and Wolcott's (a two-storied house) on the opposite corner. Both 

 could be known in the dark by the number of orange-skins thrown out by eager 

 American boarders. The door at the corner was the entrance to a cigar shop ; 

 the wall at the opposite end was the inclosure of the miserable, small, old opera- 

 house, unroofed by a hurricane, and superseded by the more superb Tacou Theatre 

 outside the walls. 



The names of streets are sometimes significant and strikiug to strangers ; this 

 house is at the corner of the Street of Light, Caille de Lutz, and the official street, 

 Caille des Officios, in which the Post-Office and Custom House are, and appear 

 to have been immemorialiy. Other streets are Caille del Sol (Street of the Sun), 

 de la Habana, Havana Street, itc. 



Sugar, 8^c. — The high price of sugar has had much to do with the present state 

 of prosperity, as it is called, which induces extravagance and absurd luxury, evi- 

 denced by such things as the sale of fans ornamented with original paintings and 

 jewels, at six and seven hundred dollars each. We were assured that half a mil- 

 lion of dollars had been made, the past season, by some extensive sugar growers, 

 d that those who made sixty and seventy thousand could be counted by hun- 

 The whole [)roflts of the island, this year, from sugar, were estimated by 



