Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 3 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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The Plan Of These Houses Is
Traced Out By The Owners, And They Are Ordered From The United States,
Like Pieces Of Furniture.
When the yellow fever rages at the Havannah
the proprietors withdraw to those country houses and to the hills
between Regla and Guanavacoa to breathe a purer air.
In the coolness
of night, when the boats cross the bay, and owing to the
phosphorescence of the water, leave behind them long tracks of light,
these romantic scenes afford charming and peaceful retreats for those
who wish to withdraw from the tumult of a populous city. To judge of
the progress of cultivation travellers should visit the small plots of
maize and other alimentary plants, the rows of pine-apples (ananas) in
the fields of Cruz de Piedra and the bishop's garden (Quinta del
Obispo) which of late is become a delicious spot.
The town of the Havannah, properly so called, surrounded by walls, is
only 900 toises long and 500 broad; yet more than 44,000 inhabitants,
of whom 26,000 are negroes and mulattoes, are crowded together in this
narrow space. A population nearly as considerable occupies the two
great suburbs of Jesu-Maria and La Salud.* (* Salud signifies Health.)
The latter place does not verify the name it bears; the temperature of
the air is indeed lower than in the city but the streets might have
been larger and better planned. Spanish engineers, who have been
waging war for thirty years past with the inhabitants of the suburbs
(arrabales), have convinced the government that the houses are too
near the fortifications, and that the enemy might establish himself
there with impunity. But the government has not courage to demolish
the suburbs and disperse a population of 28,000 inhabitants collected
in La Salud only. Since the great fire of 1802 that quarter has been
considerably enlarged; barracks were at first constructed, but by
degrees they have been converted into private houses. The defence of
the Havannah on the west is of the highest importance: so long as the
besieged are masters of the town, properly so called, and of the
southern part of the bay, the Morro and La Cabana, they are
impregnable because they can be provisioned by the Havannah, and the
losses of the garrison repaired. I have heard well-informed French
engineers observe that an enemy should begin his operations by taking
the town, in order to bombard the Cabana, a strong fortress, but where
the garrison, shut up in the casemates, could not long resist the
insalubrity of the climate. The English took the Morro without being
masters of the Havannah; but the Cabana and the Fort Number 4 which
commands the Morro did not then exist. The most important works on the
south and west are the Castillos de Atares y del Principe, and the
battery of Santa Clara.
We employed the months of December, January and February in making
observations in the vicinity of the Havannah and the fine plains of
Guines.
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