A Sojourn in Cuba 



sorts of trees and flowers. Enjoy these to-day, 

 and some other day we will all go over the 

 Morro Hill with you and gather shells. All 

 kinds of shells are over there; but these yellow 

 slopes that you see are covered only with 

 weeds." 



We jumped into the boat and a couple of 

 sailors pulled us to the thronged, noisy wharf. 

 It was Sunday afternoon/ the noisiest day of 

 a Havana week. Cathedral bells and prayers 

 in the forenoon, theaters and bull-fight bells 

 and bellowings in the afternoon! Lowly whis- 

 pered prayers to the saints and the Virgin, fol- 

 lowed by shouts of praise or reproach to bulls 

 and matadors! I made free with fine oranges 

 and bananas and many other fruits. Pineapple 

 I had never seen before. Wandered about the 

 narrow streets, stunned with the babel of 

 strange sounds and sights; went gazing, also, 

 among the gorgeously flowered garden squares, 

 and then waited among some boxed mer- 

 chandise until our captain, detained by busi- 



1 Doubtless January 12, 1868. 

 [ 149 1 



