he was an object of terror to the people generally, rather
than of gratitude. He vastly improved the appearance of the capital and
its vicinity, built the new prison, rebuilt the governor's palace,
constructed a military road to the neighboring forts, erected a spacious
theatre and market-house (as related in connection with Marti), arranged
a new public walk, and opened a vast parade ground without the city
walls, thus laying the foundation of the new city which has now sprung
up in this formerly desolate suburb. He suppressed the gaming-houses,
and rendered the streets, formerly infested with robbers, as secure as
those of Boston or New York. But all this was done with a bold military
arm. Life was counted of little value, and many of the first people fell
before his orders.

Throughout all his career, there seemed ever to be within him a romantic
love of justice, and a desire to administer it impartially; and some of
the stories, well authenticated, illustrating this fact, are still
current in Havana. One of these, as characteristic of Tacon and his
rule, is given in this connection, as nearly in the words of the
narrator as the writer can remember them, listened to in "La
Dominica's."

During the first year of Tacon's governorship, there was a young Creole
girl, named Miralda Estalez, who kept a little cigar-store in the _Calle
de Mercaderes_, and whose shop was the resort of all the young men of
the town who loved a choicely-made and superior cigar. Miralda was only
seventeen, without mother or father living, and earned an humble though
sufficient support by her industry in the manufactory we have named, and
by the sales of her little store. She was a picture of ripened tropical
beauty, with a finely rounded form, a lovely face, of soft, olive tint,
and teeth that a Tuscarora might envy her. At times, there was a dash of
languor in her dreamy eye that would have warmed an anchorite; and then
her cheerful jests were so delicate, yet free, that she had unwittingly
turned the heads, not to say hearts, of half the young merchants in the
_Calle de Mercaderes_. But she dispensed her favors without partiality;
none of the rich and gay exquisites of Havana could say they had ever
received any particular acknowledgment from the fair young girl to
their warm and constant attention. For this one she had a pleasant
smile, for another a few words of pleasing gossip, and for a third a
snatch of a Spanish song; but to none did