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English Failure in the West Indies: Castle

Life in the Capital of Cuba during the War Time.--Hotel Apartments and Furniture--Breakfasts--Barber Shops--Bar Rooms--Narrow Streets--The Double Standard--The Water Jug--A Hot Weather Town--A Tender-Necked People--The Casino and the Castle and the Royal Palms in the Garden. Havana has many marks of antiquity and of a place where the expenditure of money has been lavish. It is largely a city of palaces on streets that would be regarded as alleys in New York. There are elegant marble structures on narrow and dirty thoroughfares, and many very respectable houses wretchedly situated. The people are not allowed to build as they please. There is an official engineer whose taste must be regarded. The habit of the builders is thick walls, high ceilings, tile floors and roofs; solid and lofty porticos; all expert preparations for hot weather, and yet the heat is not so formidable for its excess as its continuity. It is very rare the temperature reaches 90 degrees-89 degrees Fahrenheit is called the maximum and 50 degrees the minimum. Cities in our Northern States show figures of 30 degrees below zero and 105 degrees above; a range of 135 degrees, while in Havana the degrees between the extremes are but 40. The even temperature of Cuba is accounted for by the relations of the sun and the ocean and the generous temper of the winds.

The view given of the city in this volume is one not familiar. It is Havana as seen from the opposite side of the harbor, the mouth of which is in the distance and the tower of Moro Castle on the right. The white lime stone, of which Havana is chiefly built, appears to advantage. The city is of remarkably massive structures. There has been much marble used, and the strong towers and colonnades are of imposing presence; and such is the strength of the walls and the scarcity of inflammable material, the roofs and floors being of tile, a great deal of bombardment would be required to do serious damage. The key of the city in a military sense is the fortress on elevated ground between the cemetery and the captain-general's garden, and that is always garrisoned by a most reliable regiment and equipped with modern artillery. The view of Moro Castle that we give is not the one most popular, which displays the city also, but it is that seen on the left by the passengers on the New York steamers arriving and also on the right in departing. As we see the castle in this drawing, Havana is on the right, the harbor directly ahead, and the front of the fortification looks upon the Atlantic, the course to Florida being directly from the sail-boat, over the rocks on the extreme left; and there is said to be many caverns, through which the rush of the waves makes music; but the tides are not sufficient to cause a commotion, and the winds, therefore, are solely responsible for the agitation. In the caves, the sharks that haunt the Havana harbor are said to be at home. Moro is not now regarded a very strong fortress. The real reliance for the protection of the harbor is in fortifications on the hills beyond, from which the British and Yankees, under General Putnam, pounded the castle when they took the town and looted it, Lord Albemarle's share of cold cash being about pounds 100,000.