248 



humboldt's cuba. 



perhaps, unjust to draw the distinctions of national 

 refinement in the six capitals I have just named, as 

 I had intended doing in another place. 



The island of Cuba has no great and sumptuous 

 establishments, whose foundation dates from a time 

 long anterior to those of Mexico ; but Havana pos- 

 sesses institutions which the patriotism of the inhab- 

 itants, stimulated by a praiseworthy rivalry with the 

 other centres of American civilization, may enlarge 

 and perfect, when political affairs and public confi- 

 dence in the preservation of domestic repose shall 

 permit it. 1 



The Patriotic Society of Havana (founded in 1793), 

 those of Santi Espiritu, Trinidad, and Puerto Principe, 

 which are branches of that at Havana ; 2 the University, 

 w r ith its professorships of Theology, Jurisprudence, 

 Medicine, 3 and Mathematics, founded in 1728, in the 



1 This was written at a time when the Congress of American nations 

 at Panama, and the conspiracy of the " Soles de Bolivar " in Cuba, 

 inspired serious doubts of the stability of the Spanish power there. 



2 These societies were suppressed a few years since, and their func- 

 tions merged in the Junta de Fomento. 



3 In 1825, there were, in Havana alone, more than 500 licensed 

 physicians, 333 surgeons, latinos y romancistas (surgeons and bar- 

 bers), and 100 apothecaries. At the same time, there were, in the 

 wholo island, 312 lawyers (of which, 198 were in Havana), and 94 

 notaries. The number of lawyers has greatly increased since 1814, 

 when there were only 98 iif Havana, and 130 in all the island. — H. 



