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
Castles Of Santo Domingo De Atares And San Carlos Del Principe Defend
The Town On The Westward; They Are Distant From The Interior Wall, On
The Land Side, The One 660 Toises, The Other 1240.
The intermediate
space is filled by the suburbs (arrabales or barrios extra muros) of
the Horcon, Jesu-Maria, Guadaloupe and Senor de la Salud, which from
year to year encroach on the Field of Mars (Campo de Marte).
The great
edifices of the Havannah, the cathedral, the Casa del Govierno, the
house of the commandant of the marine, the Correo or General Post
Office and the factory of Tobacco are less remarkable for beauty than
for solidity of structure. The streets are for the most part narrow
and unpaved. Stones being brought from Vera Cruz, and very difficult
of transport, the idea was conceived a short time before my voyage of
joining great trunks of trees together, as is done in Germany and
Russia, when dykes are constructed across marshy places. This project
was soon abandoned and travellers newly arrived beheld with surprise
fine trunks of mahogany sunk in the mud of the Havannah. At the time
of my sojourn there few towns of Spanish America presented, owing to
the want of a good police, a more unpleasant aspect. People walked in
mud up to the knee; and the multitude of caleches or volantes (the
characteristic equipage of the Havannah) of carts loaded with casks of
sugar, and porters elbowing passengers, rendered walking most
disagreeable.
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