1 84 SUNSHINE AND SPORT IN 



By four, famished for lunch, but unable, in the 

 absence of clean clothes, to venture forth any 

 sooner in quest of it, I was clothed again, and 

 walked down the O'Reilly and other gay and busy 

 thoroughfares. These are flanked by alluring 

 shops with well-dressed windows and bearing such 

 remarkable names as La Esperanza (esperanza no 

 doubt of fat sheep coming to the shears), Las Ninfas 

 (singular name for a dry-goods store), and such like. 

 Later, after a ramble round the shores of the 

 harbour, which wore fresh beauties in the afternoon 

 light, I drove out to the great cigar factory of 

 Messrs Upmann, to whom I had introductions, and 

 then I strolled down the shady Prado back to the 

 Miramar, where an excellent, if expensive, dinner 

 at a window table, whence I could watch the youth 

 and beauty driving by in carriage and motor and 

 listen to the admirable military band playing on the 

 Malecon, still further restored my self-respect and 

 love of my neighbours. This return to eatable 

 food was perhaps the relief for which I gave most 

 thanks. Here indeed was a reprieve after the 

 crimes of the Useppa nigger, who was given the 

 most meagre of material for his magic, and who 

 would, I vow, have made but an indifferent 

 conjurer even with the resources of the Ritz. 



That day and the next the city was en fete for 

 the celebration of Independence Day. On this 

 festive occasion I was with the emancipated 

 Islanders in the body, but not in the spirit, for they 

 twice turned night into day, and earth into hell, by 

 exploding unremitting salvos of squibs, crackers 

 and maroons for a period of thirty-six hours. Two 

 nights I lay writhing on a sleepless bed, praying 



