Fiction > Book editions > London, 1885 - Dynamiter

THE FAIR CUBAN. 14:5
tinguished me ; the plantation smiled with fresh crops ;
the negroes on the estate had already forgotten my
mother and transferred their simple obedience to myself ;
but still the cloud only darkened on the brows of Senor
Yaldevia. His absences from home had been frequent
even in the old days, for he did business in precious gems
in the city of Havana ; they now became almost con-
tinuous ; and when he returned, it was but for the night
and with the manner of a man crushed down by adverse
fortune.
The place where I was born and passed my days, was an
isle set in the Caribliean Sea, some half-hour's rowing
from the coasts of Cuba. It was steep, rugged and,
except for my father's family and plantation, uninhabited
and left to nature. The house, a low building sur-
rounded by spacious verandahs, stood upon a rise of
ground and looked across the sea to Cuba. The breezes
blew about it gratefully, fanned us as we lay swinging in
our silken hammocks, and tossed the boughs and Howers
of the magnolia. Behind and to the left, the quarter of
the negroes and the waving fields of the plantation
covered an eighth part of the surface of the isle. On
the right and closely bordering on the garden, lay a vast
and deadly swamp, densely covered with wood, breathing
fever, dotted with profound sloughs, and inhabited by
poisonous oysters, man-eating crabs, snakes, alligators
and sickly fishes. Into the recesses of that jungle, none
could penetrate but those of African descent ; an invi-
sible, unconquerable foe lay there in wait for the Euro-
pean ; and the air was death.
One morning (from which I must date the beginning
of my ruinous misfortune) I left my room a little after
day, for in that warm climate all are early risers,
and found not a servant to attend upon my wants. I
made the circuit of the house, still calling: and my sur-
prise had almost changed into alarm, when coming at
last into a large verandahed court, I found it thronged
with negroes. Even then, even when I was amongst
them, not one turned or paid the least regard to my
arrival. They had eyes and ears for but one person : a