Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. III.djvu/108

Rh all the gentlemen who were in the carriage—from forty to fifty in number—smoked cigars or cigaritos, there was no smell of smoke, and scarcely any to be perceived. The air of Cuba seems to have the power of annihilating smoke. I was the only lady in the carriage, and sate solitary on my sofa, and nearly solitary in my portion of the carriage; but all the more uninterruptedly could I see around me, and—ah! that morning, when I flew over the new earth, beautiful as a paradise, through a paradisiacal atmosphere, and saw around me new and enchanting scenes and objects—it was only by inward and deep thanksgiving that so much enjoyment could be sanctified.

There had been rain in the night, and splendid clouds piled themselves in masses along the horizon, and grouped themselves in fantastic shapes above the blue mountains. Now they lifted themselves in heavy draperies above them, to flee from the ascending sun; then formed a magnificent portal, with a frame of gold; and beyond it shone a sea of soft rose-coloured light; it lightened above the tops of the mountains and—the sun rose. The fantastic little blue and yellow villas, with their spendid gardens full of splendid flowers and strange plants; the palm-thatched cottages in the fields, the lofty, green palm-trees above their yellow-grey roofs; groves of mango, plantain, orange and cocoa-trees, the verdant hedges and fields, all shone fresh and beautiful amid the gushing sunshine in the moist, mild morning.

Along the whole course of the way new and lovely objects met my eye; flowers, plants, gardens, dwellings, all bade me good morning as we sped past them. But a potato-field and a large cabbage-ground greeted me as fellow-countrymen and old friends. The whole country looked like an immense garden; beautiful palms presented themselves at all distances, waving their crowns in the morning wind, and along the edge of the horizon before