[13] Humboldt's calculation makes it contain forty-three thousand, three hundred and eighty square miles; but other estimates approximate more nearly our own statement.
[14] According to Dr. Finlay, a resident physician on the island, its hottest months are July and August, when the mean temperature is from 80° to 83° Fahrenheit.
[15] "The nights are very dark, but the darkness is as if transparent; the air is not felt. There could not be more beautiful nights in Paradise."--_Miss Bremer's Letters._
[16] When consumption _originates_ in Cuba, it runs its course so rapidly that there is, perhaps, no wonder the Creoles should deem it, as they universally do, to be contagious.
[17] The first lines of this city were traced on Saturday, the 10th of October, 1693, by Señor Manzaneda, under whose government it was founded. It was named San Cárlos Alcázar de Matanzas; the last word, that by which it is known, signifying the slaughter of a battle-field.
[18] Moro Castle was first built in 1633; the present structure was erected on the ruins of the first, destroyed by the English in 1762.
[19] Built by Charles III., and said to have cost the sum of $7,000,000. According to Rev. L.L. Allen's lecture on Cuba, it was more than forty years in building.
[20] The port of Havana is one of the best harbors in the world. It has a very narrow entrance, but spreads immediately into a vast basin, embracing the whole city, and large enough to hold a thousand ships of war.--_Alexander H. Everett._
[21] "Her hands and feet are as small and delicate as those of a child. She wears the finest satin slippers, with scarcely any soles, which, luckily, are never destined to touch the street."--_Countess Merlin's Letters._
Contrast between Protestant and Catholic communities--Catholic churches--Sabbath scenes in Havana--Devotion of the common people--The Plaza de Armas--City squares--The poor man's opera--Influence of music--La Dominica--The Tacon Paseo--The Tacon Theatre--The Cathedral--Tomb of Columbus over the altar--Story of the great Genoese pilot--His death--Removal of remains--The former great wealth of the church in Cuba--Influence of the priests.
On no occasion is the difference between the manners of a Protestant and Catholic community so strongly marked as on the Sabbath. In the former, a sober seriousness stamps the deportment of the people, even when they are not engaged in devotional exercises; in the latter, worldly pleasures and religious exercises are pursued as it were at the same time, or follow each other in incongruous succession. The Parisian flies from the church to the railway station, to take a pleasure excursion into the country, or passes with careless levity from St. Genevieve to the Jardin Mabille; in New Orleans, the Creole, who has just bent his knee before the altar, repairs to the French opera, and the Cuban from the blessing of the priest to the parade in the Plaza. Even the Sunday ceremonial of the church is a pageant; the splendid robe of the officiating priest, changed in the course of the offices, like the costumes of actors in a drama; the music, to Protestant ears operatic and exciting; the clouds of incense that scatter their intoxicating perfumes; the chants in a strange tongue, unknown to the mass of worshippers;--all these give the services a holiday and carnival character.[22]