246 



humboldt's cuba. 



those of the most important cities of Europe ; the 

 small towers and forts of Cojima, Jaruco, Matanzas, 

 Mariel, Bahia Honda, Batabano, Jagua, and Trini- 

 dad, may offer a longer or shorter resistance, but 

 nearly two-thirds of the island has no defence what- 

 ever; for however active the service of gun-boats 

 may be, it could never be of much importance. 



Intellectual cultivation, limited entirely to the 

 whites, is distributed with the same inequality as the 

 population. The intercourse of the best society of 

 Havana resembles, in its polite forms and urbanity, 

 that of Cadiz and the richest commercial cities of 

 Europe ; but as we leave the capital, and its neigh- 

 boring plantations inhabited by wealthy planters, we 

 notice the contrast presented by a state of partial 

 and local civilization, with the simple habits and 

 customs that obtain in the small towns and isolated 

 haciendas. 



The Habaneros have been the first among the 

 rich Spanish colonists to travel in Spain, France, 

 and Italy. Nowhere are the politics of Europe, 

 and the springs which sustain or overturn a minis- 

 try, better understood than in Havana. This know- 

 ledge of passing events, and a foresight of the future, 

 have been of great advantage to the inhabitants of 

 Cuba, in freeing them from the difficulties which 

 delay the advance of colonial prosperity, In the 



