ne warehouses, so large that a great part of the sugar crop of the
island, as I am told, could be stored in them. Here the vessels go to
load, and the merchants store their sugar here, as wine is stored in the
London docks.

The Cubans are careful of the diet of foreigners, even in winter. I
bought a couple of oranges, and young Mr.---- bought a sapote, a kind
of sweet-sour apple, when the broker said "Take care! Did you not have
milk with your coffee?" I inquired, and they told me it was not well to
eat fresh fruit soon after taking milk, or to take bananas with wine, or
to drink spirits. "But is this in winter, also?" "Yes; and it is already
very hot, and there is danger of fever among strangers."

Went to La Dominica, the great restaurant and depot of preserves and
sweetmeats for Havana, and made out my order for preserves to take home
with me. After consultation, I am advised to make up my list as follows:
guava of Peru, limes, mamey apples, soursop, coconut, oranges, guava
jelly, guava marmalade, and almonds.

The ladies tell me there is a kind of fine linen sold here, called
bolan, which it is difficult to obtain in the United States, and which
would be very proper to take home for a present. On this advice, I
bought a quantity of it, of blue and white, at La Diana, a shop on the
corner of Calle de Obispo and San Ignacio.

Breakfasted with a wealthy and intelligent gentleman, a large planter,
who is a native of Cuba, but of European descent. A very nice breakfast,
of Spanish mixed dishes, rice cooked to perfection, fruits, claret, and
the only cup of good black tea I have tasted in Cuba. At Le Grand's, we
have no tea but the green.

At breakfast, we talked freely on the subject of the condition and
prospects of Cuba; and I obtained from my host his views of the
economic and industrial situation of the island. He was confident that
the number of slaves does not exceed 500,000, to 200,000 free blacks,
and 600,000 or 700,000 whites. His argument led him to put the number of
slaves as low as he could, yet he estimated it far above that of the
census of 1857, which makes it 375,000. But no one regards the census of
slaves as correct. There is a tax on slaves, and the government has
little chance of getting them stated at the full number. One planter
said to a friend of mine, a year or two ago, that his two hundred slaves
were returned as one hundred. I find the best opinions put the slaves at
650,000, the free bla