something like $400,000 a year.

Education in Cuba is, or has been, at a very low ebb. That is due, as
many other things are, to the wretched, short-sighted policy of Spain,
the country which has never completely emerged from the darkness of
barbarism. She was afraid to give education to the Cubans, thinking that
she could better dominate them in their ignorance. There is a royal
university in Havana, and a collegiate institute in each of the six
provinces, the number of students in all amounting to nearly three
thousand, but these come almost without exception from the ranks of the
well-to-do.

Less than one out of every forty-five of the children in Cuba attend the
public schools. There was a farcical law passed in 1880, making
education compulsory. How could such a law be of any effect when there
was neither the ability nor the desire to provide school-houses and
instructors? Now let us take a brief glance at some of the chief cities
of Cuba.

Havana, the principal and capital city of the island, is situated on the
west side of the bay of Havana, on a peninsula of level land of
limestone formation.

It is the seat of the general government and captain-generalcy, superior
court of Havana (audencia,) general direction of finance, naval station,
arsenal, observatory, diocese of the bishopric and the residence of all
the administrative officers of the island (civil, military, maritime,
judicial and economic).

Its strategic position at the mouth of the Gulf of Mexico has aptly
given to the city the name of the Key of the Gulf; and a symbolic key is
emblazoned in its coat-of-arms. The harbor, the entrance to which is
narrow, is wide and deep, and a thousand ships could easily ride there
at anchor.

It has always been supposed to be strongly fortified, its chief defences
being Morro Castle, the Cabana, the Castillo del Principe, Fort Atares,
the Punta and the Reina Battery.

The population of Havana, from the last official estimate, is about
220,000.

Before the present war, Havana was one of the most charming places in
the world for the tourist to visit, more especially during the winter
months.

There is scarcely a city in Europe which, to the American seemed so
foreign as Havana. The whole appearance of the place, its manners and
customs, were all totally different to what the American had been
accustomed.

The streets are so narrow that vehicles by law are obliged to pass down
one street and up another,