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man, and then relapse into their former composure.

The drawing lasted nearly an hour, during the whole of which the multitude was agitated by alternations of suspense and disappointment. The ceremony being concluded, the governor and his suite left the platform. The people collected into small parties, and talked sullenly together, and then slowly dispersed with discontented and repining looks; for, though I stood at the gateway of the square, and remarked almost every one that passed out, I could not discover the slightest trace of satisfaction or good humour in any countenance. The few hundreds who had divided the prizes were probably lamenting that larger ones had not fallen to their share; while the disappointed thousands were, on the other hand, regretting that they had risked their money at all.

The people who compose the lower classes in Havana are of three different descriptions: viz. free blacks, slaves, and Spaniards. All of them are very dissolute and unprincipled; and, I believe, the city is the scene of more outrages and daring crimes than any other of its size in the civilized world. Assassinations are so frequent that they excite little attention; and assault and robbery are matters of course when a man passes alone and at night through a solitary quarter of the town. People, who have occasion to go out in the evening, usually carry swords or pistols, or walk together in parties for mutual security; and two individuals meeting in the dark will look suspiciously at each other, and choose different sides of the street.

This depraved and lawless state of things may be ascribed to three causes the inefficiency of the

Havana police-the love of gaming and dissipation that prevails among the lower orders-and the facility with which absolution of the greatest crimes can be obtained from those to whom the people are taught to intrust their consciences and spiritual concerns. In fact, the Catholic religion, as it now exists in Cuba, tends to encourage rather than to check vice. We shall suppose, for example, that a man makes himself master of one hundred dollars by robbing or by murdering another, and that the church grants him absolution for half of the sum thus lawlessly obtained, it is evident that he will gain fifty dollars by the whole transaction, and think himself as innocent as he was before he committed the crime.

Several assassinations take place in the streets of Havana every week; but one will not learn this from its newspapers, or from the Spaniards themselves, both the government and private individuals being anxious to conceal from foreigners the reproachful state of their town. When the dead body of a stranger, or person of low rank is found, it is laid on the pavement in front of the prison, and is allowed to remain there till claimed or recognized by relations or acquaintances; and, therefore, those alone who have occasion to pass the place of exposure early in the morning, know how often a murder is committed.

Notwithstanding all this, public executions seldom occur in Havana. The negligence of the police enables four-fifths of the offenders to escape detection; while many of those who are apprehended and condemned to death contrive to evade the penalty of the law. The priesthood are equally powerful

and corrupt, and no man needs mount the Havana scaffold, whatever be his crime, if he has the means of ministering to the rapacity of the church, and of bribing the civil authorities. A poor friendless criminal is executed a few days after sentence has been pronounced upon him; but a person of wealth and influence generally manages to put off capital punishment for a series of years, and at last to get it commuted to fine or imprison

ment.

Three instances of this kind came to my knowledge while in Cuba. In one case, two girls, who were found guilty of having murdered their mother, under circumstances of the deepest atrocity, were condemned to death. Their crime excited the public indignation in a high degree, and no one thought them entitled to the least mercy or indulgence. The populace looked forward anxiously to the day appointed for the execution, but when it arrived the criminals were not brought forth. Another day was scon announced, which, however, also passed over without bringing punishment along with it. After this, the two matricides, and the inexplicable lenity shown them, gradually ceased to interest the public mind, and it was at last stated, that they had unfortunately escaped from prison, and left the island. However, in the course of time, it came out, that a rich uncle had, by paying sums of money to the church, succeeded in twice deferring the execution of his nieces, and, finally, in making the civil authorities privately afford them the means of escaping to Florida.

Some years ago, a Spaniard, who lived in the suburbs of Havana, discovered that his wife carried on

a criminal correspondence with her confessor. In his jealous rage he hired a negro to murder the priest. When the assassin had accomplished his purpose, he went to the house of his employer at a late hour one night, and told what he had done, and demanded the promised compensation; but the Spaniard either would not or could not give this, and some high words which ensued between the parties having been overheard by the neighbours, the whole affair was soon brought to light. The Spaniard was apprehended, tried, found guilty, and condemned to death. However, by means of bribery, he succeeded in delaying his execution for more than two years. His funds being at last exhausted, the black cross and lanterns, the appearance of which announces, in Havana, that the criminal has only two days to live, were exhibited before the prison windows. Nevertheless, on the succeeding morning, to the astonishment of all, they were suddenly withdrawn; for the wretched murderer had, by a desperate effort, raised a small sum of money, and purchased with it a few weeks' respite. On the expiry of these he was hurried to the scaffold and executed.

While in Havana, I saw a mulatto suffer death for a murder which he had been found guilty of seven years before. He had obtained a series of respites by occasionally paying money to the church; but his resources having at last failed, he could not delay the evil day any longer. When brought to the scaffold he was more like a spectre than a man. Long confinement, fear, and anxiety, had produced frightful emaciation, and a faint expression of dismay, which at intervals glimmered over his

ghastly countenance, alone shewed that the flame of life was not yet entirely extinct. He walked from the gaol to the scaffold, a distance of a mile and a half. Three priests, one of whom carried the black cross and lanterns, accompanied and supported him, and frequently whispered something in his ear; but he seemed too fatigued and miserable to pay much attention to what they said.

The scaffold was situated in an open plain, and an immense crowd had assembled to witness the execution. A morose, ferocious-looking negro sat in the chair destined for the criminal, resting his elbows upon his knees, and carelessly twisting in his fingers the cord with which he was soon to bind the limbs of his victim. A detachment of dragoons surrounded the scaffold, and kept back the people, who were very noisy and impatient. At last the solemn ruffle of a drum was heard, the number of voices instantly ceased, and the unhappy object of public curiosity, habited in a long white gown, and attended as I have described, soon became visible. On reaching the scaffold, he was immediately conducted up the steps, and placed in the fatal seat. The executioner, having then adjusted round his neck an apparatus intended to produce sudden dislocation of the vertebræ, retired to one side, while the priests addressed the criminal for a few moments. The negro now advanced to the back of the chair, and seized one end of a lever, and

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wrenched it violently round-the mulatto gave a convulsive start, and was dead in a moment. Α recoiling sensation, like an electric shock, agitated the spectators; but it soon subsided, and most of them rushed tumultuously forwards, and got close to the scaffold, notwithstanding the efforts of the dragoons to prevent them.

The executioner, priests, and military, departed without removing the dead body, it being an established custom in Havana to execute the criminal before sunrise, and to leave the corpse exposed to public view till sunset. Aware of this, I returned to the ground in the middle of the day. On getting beyond the walls of Havana, I at once exchanged the tumult of a city for the loneliness of a large uncultivated plain, bounded on one side by the sea, which beat fiercely on the rocks that stretched along the shore. In a distant corner there was a cluster of people talking together, and pointing to the scaffold where the mulatto sat in all the stillness and solemnity of death, without a living or a moving object near him. This spectacle was more terribly impressive, and better calculated to affect the feelings and imaginations of the multitude, than the execution itself, which had a tendency to excite exclusively those sensations horror and disgust which the deliberate sacrifice of human life, however lawful and necessary it may be, generates in every uncorrupted mind.

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SKETCHES of CORSICA, in 1823. [From Benson's Sketches of Corsicu.]

THE men of Corsica are in general stout and well-formed, rather under the middle size, their complexion is swarthy, their hair black, eyes sparkling; their countenances are more often expressive of ferocity than of those qualities that excite our immediate confidence. The women partake much of the character of their husbands. The traveller occasionally meets with handsome females, of very regular features, but they cannot be generally called so. They have, however, eyes of singular brightness; and long, black, glossy hair hanging over a form little encumbered by artificial decorations. Their physiognomy is bold, dignified, and even warlike; much more expressive of command than of submission. As if the human face adapted itself to the state of society, Corsican Beauty harmonises well with the moral and physical condition of the island.

The dress of the Corsicans is very simple, and in the interior, so uniform, that it affords scarcely any criterion by which to distinguish the rich from the poor. The men wear a short jacket, breeches, and long gaiters, made of a coarse chocolate-coloured cloth; their heads are covered, in general, by a very neat-pointed black velvet cap, or by a common coarse woven one of the same colour as the rest of the dress. Some of the peasantry have a sort of cowl, called a pelone, which they throw over their heads, or suffer to hang at the back of their necks. The men, with few exceptions, go armed; and you scarcely meet one in the interior,

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who has not a loaded musket across his shoulders; the shot and ammunition are contained in a leathern pouch, called "carchera," which goes round his waist. stiletto also is generally concealed about the person of a Corsican; although the French have interdicted the wearing of that weapon. There are few peculiarities to be remarked in the dress of the Corsican women. In the neighbourhood of Ajaccio, I frequently noticed them with large, round, straw hats, whilst their clothes consisted of little more than a shift, reaching hardly below the knees. women of the Bastia side of the island, as I found afterwards, scarcely wear any covering for the head, but content themselves with throwing over it a sort of veil, like the Italian peasantry.

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The houses of the interior will not bear a comparison with the humblest cottages in England. They consist of four walls, covered by a rude roof, many having only one opening, which serves for door, chimney, and window; they have not usually a second story, and when they have, you ascend to it by a ladder, as into an English hayloft. The first thing that strikes the traveller, on entering one of the huts, is an immense heap of chesnuts lying in one cor

ner.

These form the chief support of the hardy Corsicans. They are not eaten raw, but reduced into flour; the bread of which is termed " pisticcine." It is also formed into various dishes called pulenta, brilloli, fritelle, frandoline, &c.

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The houses contain stools, benches, and tables of the rudest kind; the wood fire, when any fire is wanted, crackles in the centre of the room, the smoke issuing where it can; the huswife, surrounded by her hardy offspring, attends to the humble domestic arrangements, while her lord and master traverses the mountains with his gun in search of game for his family. At night, a small stick of the pinus lariccio often serves as a lamp. "This," said a Corsican to me, as he pointed to a twig that was lying on the ground in the forest of Vizzavóna, "is one of our candles." Such is the simple mode of living that generally pervades the whole interior of the island.

The traveller in Corsica never meets with a beggar. If he is accosted in his road, it is generally with the question of "What news do you bring with you?" and others relating to his journey, his business, &c. Often these inquiries extend beyond the trifles that generally engross conversation, even in more civilized countries.. The secretary in chief of the prefect related to us the following anecdote:-I was travelling in the interior quite incognito; a peasant came up to me and asked as usual for news; I told him immediately of the marriages, deaths, &c. that had then lately occurred at Ajaccio. The peasant replied, "I don't want to know those matters. I wish to be informed what the allied sovereigns are now doing at Laybach?" The peasantry never feel the least abashed; and whatever may be the appearance of the traveller, they come towards him, rest on their muskets, and begin a conversation as familiarly as if the parties were intimate ac

quaintances. Each man seems to consider it a duty to bring home as much news as he can learn in his rambles, and to communicate it to his countrymen.

Mothers of families, whose husbands have been assassinated, preserve the dress of the deceased, until their children grow up to manhood, and then show them the clothes tinged with the blood of their fathers, and exhort them to vengeance; and in dispute with others, the latter taunt them if they have not revenged themselves. Thus," adds M. Agostini, "these unhappy children have no other alternative, than to live dishonoured, or to destroy the murderers of their parents, and they rush headlong into crime."

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The moresca, a sort of mock fight, is a very favourite spectacle of the Corsicans, and attracts the inhabitants from all parts of the island. In this exhibition, there are challenges, single combats, and a general battle, which ends with the defeat of the party representing the enemy of the nation.

The long courtships, that generally precede the marriages of a more civilised people, are here unknown; neither is the bridegroom the first proposer of the union.

The day of marriage of young persons is one of great festivity. In the evening the bride is conducted to the house of her husband, amidst the music of violins and cetre, whilst the attendants sing a sort of gratulatory epithalamium. The husband comes out of his house at the sound of the music, and amidst the discharge of muskets, receives the company with cordiality; offering honey, fruits, wine, and other things, for their refreshment. When the married couple are advanced in years, so

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