In short, I consider _El Casero_ the representative of so useful and peculiar a class of the community, that I have honoured him with a wood-cut wherein he is seen bargaining with a negress for fowls, or _vice versa_,--whichever the reader prefers,--for not being the artist, I cannot undertake to decide which idea he meant to convey.
There is nothing in the town of Matanzas worth seeing except the views of it and around it.

The population amounts to about twenty-five thousand, and the shipping always helps to give it a gay appearance.

My chief object in visiting these parts was to see something of the sugar plantations in the island; but as they resemble each other in essential features, I shall merely describe one of the best, which I visited when retracing my steps to Havana, and which belongs to one of the most wealthy men in the island.

On driving up to it, you see a large airy house,--windows and doors all open, a tall chimney rearing its proud head in another building, and a kind of barrack-looking building round about.

The hospitable owner appears to delight in having an opportunity of showing kindness to strangers.