Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. III.djvu/256

Rh negroes; more frequently, however, they die without venturing to utter a cry or to lift a hand in remonstrance or complaint; frequently, during the earlier period of their captivity, they themselves put an end to their days of misery, in the belief (which is current among them) that they will immediately after death rise again in their native land.

The government and condition of Cuba, from the governor's palace down to the bohea of the slave, is a government of violence and despotism. Justice and nobility of mind are, it is true, met with in individuals, but are not of general prevalence; and in the laws also, there is some evidence of a magnanimous spirit, but it is nullified as much as possible.

Opposed to this dark side of life in Cuba stands the bright side in the most striking contrast. There is the tropical sky, as mild as an angel's glance, its sun as pure and clear as the purest tones of music; there is the wind, a spirit as gentle, as pure, as full of vitalising life, as if it came forth fresh from the fountain of life and love; there is the peculiar natural world of the tropics, full of marvellous plants and scenes; those palm-groves, where immortals might wander; those gardens, beautiful as that of Eden, where coffee-shrubs and bananas grow in beautiful plantations, one perpetual blossoming, one perpetual succession of fruit; those magnificent guadarajahs of king-palms, which seem planted as if for a triumphal procession of kings and queens; a beauty in atmosphere and life, in form and colour, which involuntarily charms the senses, but which cannot be described by words, or by colour, only by music. And Cuba, the Queen of the Antilles, is a Calypso, beautiful in her sins, who can so seduce the traveller that he, like Telemachus of old, would need, in order to resist her, a wise Mentor who should pitch him head-foremost into the sea. Thus did I feel, as week after week I delayed my parting from