Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. III.djvu/204

Rh parents and the child had secret meetings, and their love was as heartfelt, as romantically warm and steadfast, as that which any novel-writer describes between his heroes and heroines.

Mrs. F. confirmed all that I had already heard of the kindness of the Spanish masters to their domestic slaves, and the care which they take of them in their old age.

But if the domestic slaves are commonly well treated, the slaves on the plantations are, in a general way, quite the reverse; they are looked upon not as human beings but as beasts of burden, and are treated with greater severity than these.

The house of the F.'s is now altogether full of love, music, and mirth. Young Louisa F. is married, and will, although still hardly more than a child, now become mistress of her own household.

I have been sorely tempted just now by a journey to Jamaica and thence to Mexico, which would have been by no means difficult of accomplishment. But time and—besides, I should not in Jamaica, in Central America, nor yet in South America, see anything essentially different in vegetation, population, manners, mode of building, or in any other way different to what I see in Cuba, under the tropical heavens and the dominion of the Spaniards. And this was essential to me for my picture of the New World. I have now received a clear impression of its southern hemisphere. Books and engravings will help me to see the difference.

And that they already do. I have seen at Mr. F.'s, engravings of Mexico and other cities of Spanish America, which seem to me merely repetitions of Havannah. And in Prescott's excellent history of the conquest of Mexico and Peru, I have become acquainted with the highlands of these countries, as well as with the noble Aztecs who once dwelt there.

Christian Aztecs must one day rule over these glorious