FLORIDA AND THE WEST INDIES 197 



difficulties compel Cuban engine-drivers to proceed 

 with caution, but if the pace is gentle, there are at 

 any rate few wrecks. 



Santiago reached just before midnight, I pro- 

 ceeded to the Hotel Venus, a rambling barrack 

 with a beautiful courtyard and indifferent cuisine. 

 It stands next the cathedral on one of Santiago's 

 many hills, which make the eastern port so much 

 more picturesque in its way than Havana. The 

 harbour is also larger, and the Morro commands it 

 from a greater elevation. Shades of Medina 

 Sidonia ! What a defence an efficient fleet might 

 have put up in such an arena ! 



There is nothing of interest in the cathedral, 

 which seems to have been looted of all the 

 treasures claimed for it by older writers. I was 

 told, with what truth I know not, that Madame 

 Adelina Patti made her ddbut here, and my 

 thoughts flew back to the " Shadow Song " in 

 Dinorah five-and-twenty years ago, my first 

 night of Grand Opera and what a first ! This 

 musical memory must be the city's chief pride, for 

 there is nothing edifying in the continual warring 

 of pirates and patriots. 



The Oteri, a nice little boat, with a Spanish 

 skipper and American purser, made the calmest of 

 crossings, the narrow seas being that night like a 

 lake. By ten next morning, followed close by the 

 R.M.S. Orinoco, homeward bound from New York 

 for Southampton, we passed the Quarantine at 

 Port Royal and drew alongside the Kingston 

 wharf. Port Royal had a wicked reputation in the 

 bygone days, but this morning it looked virtuous 

 and deserted, and indeed the recent withdrawal of 



