d if I had not brought one that I was
likely to be fined at the discretion of Spanish officials. Secondly,
that if I trusted to my own powers of self-defence, I should be the
victim of indefinite other extortions. Passport I had none--such things
are not required any longer in Spain, and it had not occurred to me that
they might still be in demand in a Spanish colony. As to being cheated,
no one could or would tell me what I was to pay for anything, for there
were American dollars, Spanish dollars, Mexican dollars, and Cuban
dollars, all different. And there were multiples of dollars in gold, and
single dollars in silver, and last and most important of all there was
the Cuban paper dollar, which was 230 per cent. below the Cuban gold
dollar. And in this last the smaller transactions of common life were
carried on, the practical part of it to a stranger being that when you
had to receive you received in paper, and when you had to pay you paid
in specie.

I escaped for the time the penalty which would have been inflicted on me
about the passport. I had a letter of introduction to the
Captain-General of the island, and the Captain-General--so the viceroy
is called--was so formidable a person that the officials did not venture
to meddle with me. For the rest I was told that as soon as I had chosen
my hotel, the agent, who was on board, would see me through all
obstructions, and would not allow me to be plundered by anyone but
himself. To this I had to submit. I named an hotel at random; a polite
gentleman in a few moments had a boat alongside for me; I had stept into
it when the fair damsels bound for Darien, who had been concealed all
this time in their cabin, slipped down the ladder and took their places
at my side, to the no small entertainment of the friends whom I had left
on board and who were watching us from the deck.

At the wharf I was able to shake off my companions, and I soon forgot
the misadventure, for I found myself in Old Castile once more, amidst
Spanish faces, Spanish voices, Spanish smells, and Spanish scenes. On
the very wharf itself was a church grim and stern, and so massive that
it would stand, barring earthquakes, for a thousand years. Church,
indeed, it was no longer; it had been turned into a custom-house. But
this was because it had been desecrated when we were in Havana by having
an English service performed in it. They had churches enough without it,
and they preferred to leave this one with a