Читать книгу The Sea: Its Stirring Story of Adventure, Peril, & Heroism (Vol. 1-4). The History of Sea Voyages, Discovery, Piracy and Maritime Warfare онлайн

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HAVANA.

Havana is a very gay city, and has some special attractions for the sailor—among others being its good cigars and cheap Spanish wine and fruits. Its greatest glory is the Paseo—its Hyde Park, Bois de Boulogne, Corso, Cascine, Alamèda—where the Cuban belles and beaux delight to promenade and ride. There will you see them, in bright-coloured, picturesque attire—sadly Europeanised and Americanised of late, though—seated in the volante, a kind of hanging cabriolet, between two large wheels, drawn by one or two horses, on one of which the negro servant, with enormous leggings, white breeches, red jacket, and gold lace, and broad-brimmed straw hat, rides. The volante is itself bright with polished metal, and the whole turn-out has an air of barbaric splendour. These carriages are never kept in a coach-house, but are usually placed in the halls, and often even in the dining-room, as a child’s perambulator might with us. Havana has an ugly cathedral and a magnificent opera-house.

Slave labour is common, and many of the sugar and tobacco planters are very wealthy. Properties of many hundred acres under cultivation are common. Mr. Trollope found the negroes well-fed, sleek, and fat as brewers’ horses, while no sign of ill-usage came before him. In crop times they sometimes work sixteen hours a day, and Sunday is not then a day of rest for them. There are many Chinese coolies, also, on the island.