Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. III.djvu/181

Rh wall of my room with a cuculio in its mouth. I had already seen the ugly creature there several times. These spiders have a hideous appearance, but are said to be inoffensive to man. The multitudes of creeping things here are nevertheless a nuisance; in order to preserve eatables from them, they must be surrounded by water.

There is a general talk now of a fresh attack being made on Cuba, a new attempt at conquest which is said to originate with the Americans. It is said also that the expedition is arming at Yucatan, and consists of a number of people who were in the Mexican war; it is expected about Easter. Many families on the plantations hold themselves in readiness for flight from the island on the first outbreak of disturbances. The Creoles are bitterly displeased with the Spanish government, and they have reason for being so. They wish universally to be liberated from the Spanish yoke, but are themselves too weak to undertake their own liberation; and they fear the negroes, who, on the first occasion, would rise against them. The Spanish army is in active preparation to defend the island against the Americans. The American government has publicly declared itself opposed to these robber expeditions, and admonishes all good citizens of the United States to oppose them. The Spaniards, however, suspect the American Slave States of being concerned in them, and of desiring their success, in order that by the annexation of Cuba as a slave state, they might have a balance in the South, against the increase of the Free States in the North. I shall hear the result of all this, however, in the United States.

On the 22nd of April I shall bid farewell to this beautiful, but serpent-stung, Cuba!

&emsp; I am once more at the good and excellent house of Mr. and Mrs. B., happy to be with these young and handsome