The laborers that our traveler passed in the fields, were principally women, dressed in a short, tight jacket, and a coarse, red woolen skirt, narrow and short. The sabot, a heavy wooden shoe, shaped like a shoe last, covered their feet, which made their gait, of course, clumsy and unelastic. These peasant-women are short, slender, homely, and work in the vineyards and fields, along with the men, and occasionally guide the plow.

Dr. Durbin first saw our Indian corn growing in the valley of Dijon, one of the sweetest of vales. Their route, for about twenty miles, lay on its western border, through a succession of towns and villages, while it stretched far away to the eastward, "covered with vineyards and fields of grain, like an ocean of many colors; from the whitened rye, ready for the sickle, and the golden wheat, ripening apace, to the dark-green of the vine and the rich foliage of the many clumps of trees that adorned the landscape, until the delightful view was bounded by a range of high grounds, whose blue, dim outline was just distinguishable in the distance, the whole forming a scene of exquisite loveliness and rural beauty." "An American, traveling through the interior of France, is impressed with the entire absence of the appearance of comfort in the cabins of the peasants and lower classes generally. They live almost entirely in villages. For miles one may travel over the most beautifully cultivated fields, and his eye not rest on a single dwelling; at length he will come to an insignificant town or village, and there find, hoarded together in one dirty place, the laborers for several square leagues of land. Generally their houses are of stone, and often situated in low moist places: the floors are of stone, tiles, or of the earth itself, and on a level with the street. roof covers the dwelling, the barn and the stable. With such appendages, and a naturally clayey, muddy soil, and with the most slovenly habits, one can readily perceive that a French peasant's family must carry into the house on their sabots an immense amount of mud and manure. Often may they be seen scraping out the mud and manure from their houses, as a hostler would his stable; beside this, their cottages are both miserably furnished and lighted.

One

The general style of building in France, and especially in the country, is heavy and uninteresting. This is, in part, owing to the material used, a soft limestone, and in part, the style of the country edifices. Stone is plentybrick and wood are scarce; hence everything is built of stone, the humble cottage, the stately mansion, the stable and the palace: the character of the stone is dull and soft, and the external surface is generally covered with a coarse dull stucco. If you pass a gentleman's chateau, you will find it of the same character, inclosed, and to a considerable degree, hidden by a high stone wall of heavy masonry and coarse stucco: such an edifice, in American eyes, is anything but a convenient, pleasant place of residence for domestic enjoyment. Many of the public hotels are miserable hovels, and at the same time are so constructed as to give the traveler a view of the worst parts of the concern at his first entrance: not unfrequently are they entered through the kitchen."

Soon after leaving Paris, our traveler, for the first time, saw a shepherd, with his flock. Between the center of the main roads, in France, and the fields usually is a grass-plot, some two rods wide, upon which the sheep feed.

The intelligence of the shepherds' dogs, which tend them, is surprising. A dog will allow the sheep to nibble within a yard of the grain, but the instant anything like trespass appears, he will, of his own accord, drive off the meekeyed intruder by a good-natured snap. Cattle are also similarly watched by these dogs, which are of a peculiar breed.

Near Lyons, Dr. Durbin saw three yoke of oxen plowing on a level field and light soil, with one man to drive, and a second to plow: an active Pennsylvania farmer, he observes, with two good horses, would have accomplished double as much as these two men and six oxen.

The French vineyards did not meet his expectations, as he found them to resemble immense pea-patches. The vines are cultivated in hills, in rows, each clump growing round a stick about a yard high. From what he personally saw, he was confident that the inhabitants of vine-growing countries are far more temperate than those of others, as the ordinary wines, drank where produced, so far from intoxicating, actually benefit the peasant, being, in fact, an important part of his daily sustenance. On going out in the morning to his labors, the peasant takes along a loaf of coarse black bread and a canteen of wine, but seldom partakes of meat, cheese, or butter. He drinks the pure juice of the grape, a far different article from the wine of commerce, which derives its body or taste from a skillful combination of drugs and spirits. It is from this cause that intemperance is so rare in France.

Our traveler spent three very interesting days in Lyons, and early on the morning of the fourth, departed, with his companions, in the diligence. Soon they were out in the country, and found the road thronged with marketwomen on donkeys of every variety. Mounted on pack-saddles, these females were busy knitting, while on each side of them hung huge baskets, or panniers, brimfull of eggs, butter, cheese, etc.

They breakfasted at an ugly little village by the road-side. Being on top of the diligence our traveler saw that the garret of the inn was a cocoonery. Before the door women were sorting cocoons, "whose web," says he, "is by this time, probably shining in the vest of a fine lady in Paris, or adorning perhaps, the person of a chambermaid in my own humble dwelling in Pennsylvania, while these poor work-women are still clad in their rude woolen petticoats."

It being harvest, the fields were filled with busy groups of men, women and children. In rude cradles, under the trees, infants were sleeping, while, hard-by, under the full blaze of a summer's sun, their mothers were toiling.

Their route, on this, their last day in France, lay through the richest valley they had yet seen, the crops being very heavy, the cattle strong and fat, and the vines unusually large, and trained around mulberry trees. The people seemed to live in comfort, and to have some rational ideas of home, as each little farm had its own separate and neat, though humble dwelling. "What

a paradise,” says our traveler, "it would be, if its population of one hundred thousand was made up of Yankee farmers."

DISCOVERY of Cuba-Characteristics of the Aborigines-Early Spanish Settlements-Ravages of the Buccaniers-Conquest of Cuba by the English in 1762-Its restoration to Spain-Ancient Loyalty of Cuba-The Slave Trade-Some Statistics-Value of the acquisition of Cuba, to the United States-First Expedition of Lopez-Taking of CardenasRetreat from Cuba-Second Expedition of Lopez-Defeat, Surrender, and Massacre of Crittenden's command-Capture and Garoting of Lopez-Ultimate Destiny of Cuba. CIRCLING around that extreme point of the Atlantic States of the American Union which separates the waters of the Gulf of Mexico from the Ocean, lies an island discovered by Columbus himself, the finest and largest of the West India group. The island of Cuba, at the time of its discovery in

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1492, was inhabited by a docile and generous race of Indians, who received their Christian visitors with marked attention and courtesy. They were, however, given up to the enjoyment of personal indulgences, and to that general listlessness of manner, which a tropical climate is supposed peculiarly to foster. Their dwellings were of the rudest character; iron was unknown to them, and little progress had been made in any of the arts of life, except in hunting and fishing, in which they were eminently expert.

Cuba is about 780 miles long, and has a mean breadth of seventy miles: its area is almost equal to that of the State of Virginia. A chain of mountains traverses the Island, the highest of whose peaks are nearly 9,000 feet. The plains below are well watered, and very fertile. The climate is delightfulthe thermometer ranging from a mean temperature of 70°, to that of 84°, or 85°.

The nine principalities into which the island was divided, under as many independent caciques, were rarely, if ever, disturbed by civil commotions. The existence of a supreme deity, and the immortality of the soul, were the chief articles of religious faith among them, though they were much under the influence of a crafty priesthood, who pretended to propitiate the wrath of Heaven against their misdeeds, by the customary artifices and antics of heathen priests and prophets. Their code of morals allowed of the practice of polygamy, yet in general, their conduct was more decorous than is common among barbarians, and they adopted the Christian religion with greater alacrity, than any of the other races over which Spain had extended her

sway.

The town of Baragoa was the first that was founded by the Castilian conquerors. Santiago and Trinidad were next settled, in 1514, to facilitate intercourse with the Spanish inhabitants of Jamaica. Other settlements soon succeeded in the center and northern part of the island. In 1519; San Cristobal de la Habana, or Havana, was named in honor of the great discoverer, but nearly sixty years elapsed, before this renowned stronghold attracted the attention its eminent natural advantages for commerce, and its fitness for a military station deserved.

The chief sources of wealth to the early Spanish colonists, were found in the abundance of their horses and cattle. The former of these were in great demand on the main land, for mounting the government troops, and the latter for food. More than eighty years elapsed, before the cultivation of tobacco and the sugar-cane were introduced, the two articles on which the subsequent prosperity of the island has mainly depended. The natural indolence of the native population, and the determined aversion to the hard labor necessary to the production of these crops, first induced the colonists to procure a royal license, for the importation from Africa, of negro slaves.

Early in the history of this colony, its prosperity was impeded by the audacity of the roving buccaniers, who plundered their dwellings, sometimes fired their towns, and made their commerce both hazardous and unprofitable. But an enemy, even more dreaded, made its appearance about the middle of the sixteenth century, in the shape of a small ant, whose ravages became so serious as to induce the chapter of the diocese of Cuba, to choose a new

patron saint, in the person of San Marical who was to have his anniversary celebrated with every customary pomp, on condition of his successful intercession with the Virgin Mary for their protection. His prayers were answered, and the ravages of their diminutive enemies soon ceased. Not so, however, with the pirates; such had become their audacity that Santiago, then the largest town of Cuba, was almost depopulated, many villages burned, many inhabitants carried off, and even the metropolitan Bishop of the island was seized, hurried on board the pirates' ship, and was only ransomed by a large amount of money, and a corresponding supply of provisions. These alarms and injuries from English and French buccaniers, continued for more than a century.

Lawless enough these original filibusters were, but they ought not to be confounded with modern pirates. The Policy of Spain had prohibited all intercourse of other nations, with her American possession. She wished to monopolize all the rich abundance of gold and silver, which these new countries had developed, and especially dreaded, lest the adventurous English, and the skillful French, should somehow gain a foothold through the commerce they were anxious to carry on with South America, and the West Indies. The lust of gold, however, induced hardy adventurers to risk the penalty of death, which Spain had threatened against all who should be found engaging in the forbidden traffic. Many were shot, many hung, and many condemned to perpetual imprisonment in the mines of the Andes. Retaliation naturally followed; all who were engaged in the forbidden traffic made common cause, and avenged the blood of their slaughtered countrymen, by inflicting death upon every Spaniard who fell into their hands. Although the mother countries were at peace, it was found impossible to stop the hostilities which were continually being waged in the distant colonies. Cuba however, suffered less from the buccaniers than the inhabitants of the Spanish main.

But in 1762, a more formidable enemy still appeared, in the shape of an English squadron. Two hundred vessels of all sizes, and a land force of 14,000 men, laid siege to Havana, in July of that year. After a succession of attacks upon the almost impregnable castle of the Moro, which defended the entrance to the harbor, the Captain-general surrendered first the fortress, and a few days later, the town itself, to the English commanders, Lord Albemarle and Commodore Keppel., The spoils taken by the capture amounted to more than three millions and a half of dollars, which was all divided among the soldiers and sailors of the expedition; though so very unequally, that while the commanding officers received more than half a million of dol lars, and others, large sums, in proportion to their rank, the private soldiers, and ordinary seamen were awarded less than twenty dollars a-piece. The island remained in the hands of the English but about one year, as it was restored to the Spaniards on the conclusion of the war in 1763.

The growth and prosperity of Cuba is regarded, by native writers, as dating from this era. A general spirit of enterprise pervaded the island; new towns were laid out, new buildings, churches, hospitals and public offices were erected; the administration of justice was purified, and encour