he amount shipped in 1841, and so late as 1867 six
thousand tons were exported in ten months. Not content with realizing
a very large income from the mines by way of taxes upon the product,
the Spanish government increased these excise charges to such an
extent as to absorb the entire profits of the works and kill the
enterprise, so that the rich ores of Cobre now rest undisturbed in the
earth. It seems there is an Indian village near the copper mines,
whose people are represented to be the only living descendants of the
aborigines,--the Caribs whom Columbus found here on first landing.
Careful inquiry, however, led us seriously to doubt the authenticity
of the story. Probably this people are peculiar in their language, and
isolation may have caused them to differ in some respects from the
inhabitants of the valley and plains, but four centuries must have
destroyed every trace of the early inhabitants of Cuba. Having been
from the very outset enslaved and brutally treated by the Spaniards,
it is believed that as early as the year of our Lord 1700 they had
utterly disappeared, and some historians say no trace even was to be
found of the native race one century after the settlement of the
island by Europeans.

The head of the Church of Rome in Cuba is located here, it being an
archbishop's see; and the elaborate ceremonials which occasionally
take place attract people from the most distant cities of the island.
We chanced to be present when the bishop was passing into the
cathedral, clothed in full canonicals and accompanied by church
dignitaries bearing a canopy above his head. Observing our little
party as strangers, though in the midst of a stately ceremony, the
bishop graciously made us a sign of recognition. The cathedral of
Santiago is the largest in Cuba, but extremely simple in its interior
arrangements; and so, indeed, are all the churches on the island. As
to the exterior, the facade resembles the cathedral of Havana, being
of the same porous stone, which always presents a crumbled and mottled
surface. The inside decorations are childish and fanciful, consisting
mostly of artificial flowers of colored paper, crudely formed by
inexperienced hands into stars, wreaths, and crosses. One innovation
was noticed in this church: a saint on the right of the altar was
mounted upon a wooden horse, with spear in rest a la militaire,
forming a most incongruous figure. In the church of Matanzas, visited
a week or two later,