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Story of the Island of Cuba Numerous as are the strangers who resort to the island of Cuba from the continent of Europe and the States of North America, few, if any, visit it from mere curiosity. The greater part are drawn thither by commerce, a few are in pursuit of health and fugitives from the severity of our northern winters; but all have almost invariably made their abode in the city of Havana, a place full of strangers and adventurers like themselves, and copying, so far as the climate will permit, the manners of the large European towns. Multitudes of these occasional residents never learn the language with sufficient perfection to speak it, or understand it when spoken, and thus are cut off from the best opportunity of becoming acquainted with the character of the native inhabitants. Thus it is that, not withstanding [that] the principal city of Cuba is the great mart for the trade of Spanish America and enjoys so large a portion of the commerce of the world, so little is yet known of the largest, finest, and most fertile of the West India Islands. All the knowledge of it exists in the minds of men too busy to write books or incompetent to literary pursuits. Geographers are at fault in searching for materials from which to compile a tolerable account of the island; and the celebrated Malte Brun, of whose work his countrymen are so proud, could do nothing better for Cuba than to give a naked translation of what was penned long ago by the old Spanish geographer Alcedo. I also have visited Cuba, and, like others, visited it in the capacity of a man of business. I went there some fifteen years since to recover a debt due to the estate of a relation of mine, a West Indian merchant whose executor I had been appointed. Law has its delays in Cuba as well as in other countries, and being obliged to resort to legal proceedings against the debtor, I was detained longer in the island than is usual with my countrymen. I arrived there in January and passed the remainder of the winter – if so severe a name can be given to so delightful a season – pleasantly enough among its inhabitants. The acquaintances I formed in the transaction of my business introduced me into society. story of the island of cuba 116 I found it indeed “a web of mingled yarn,” full of strong contrasts: the gentle and timid; the bold, enterprising, and unprincipled; the kind and the churlish; the acutely sensitive and shamelessly callous; disinterested honor and unblushing fraud, side by side. It was just such a state of society as our own might be were public opinion deprived of more than half its force and the opportunities of evading the laws and corrupting those who administer them a hundred-fold what they are now. Let me, however, do the Habaneros justice. Of all the citizens of Spanish America, I believe them to possess the best character. They come of a good stock – the virtuous, industrious, and poor inhabitants of Teneriffe and other Canaries [ironically] named The Fortunate were driven from Fuerteventura to the Grand Canary, from the Grand Canary to Teneriffe, and from Teneriffe to Palma by the occasional famines which afflict these islands, until they [finally] were obliged to leave their native isles altogether. Were it not for the severe laws which restrain departure, the famines would cause still greater numbers to emigrate. In the city of Havana the rude and primitive virtues of this race are somewhat tempered by the softer and more voluptuous genius of Andalusia, but it is owing, I believe, to their extraction that so much unaffected goodness and simplicity of heart is to be found among the women. I saw them at their balls and tertulias in their splendid Parisian dresses; I saw them in their domestic circles in the plain but rich costume of Spain. And everywhere I found them kind, affectionate, and simple-hearted; charming in spite of the duskiness of their complexions, with the brightest and blackest eyes in the world, and forms that seemed the more graceful and bewitching from their Asiatic fulness. I talked to them in bad Spanish, and to their tuition I believe is owing the fondness I bear to their language. The people of Havana have taken some liberties with the Castilian tongue and dialect of the stately Dons. Transplanted to the delicious climate of Cuba...

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