i8 
HABANA 
CHAP. 
tions for £6 a year in wages. Everything else is 
provided for them, food, houses, and clothes for them- 
selves, their wives and children, and at the end of their 
time they are returned, free of expense, to their homes, 
but most of them prefer remaining, and many return 
again after a time. Their food consists of a pound 
and a half of meat and bread, and three pounds of 
sweet potatoes, a day. Besides these, they are supplied 
with soap, tobacco, and fruits. Each man generally 
grows his own bananas, mangoes, water-melons, and 
pineapples. Their wives are sometimes employed as 
servants on the plantations, but as a rule only for a 
short time. They are clean and often make very good 
servants. 
A few Malays are also employed, but these have 
the disadvantage of occasionally running amok. I had, 
as you remember, the misfortune twice to be in places 
where was developed this peculiar madness, and three 
men were killed, and I have always felt nervous about 
it since, but then Mrs. R. says I am nervous at 
everything, most of all at her driving ! She is very 
short-sighted, and took me across country once as hard 
as the horses would go, through thick undergrowth with 
hidden stumps in every direction. It was almost a 
satisfaction to me when we crashed into one, a horse 
on either side ; but she always managed to get out of 
her difficulties, and I hadn’t even the satisfaction of 
saying, “ I told you so,” for we were always on the 
outside edge of a smash which never quite came off, 
excepting on this one occasion, which she insists was 
a bitter disappointment to me. 
We made excursions from Habana to the different 
places of interest. One day picnicking on a mountain 
— Black-gin’s Leap, so called from this native having 
thrown herself over — Mr. L., our host, climbed down 
