On the 9th April we left Kingston, and after a three days' detention at St. Thomas's, waiting for the English mail, arrived in the Havana, in the island of Cuba, at sunrise, on Friday the 20th. As my colleague found a steamer fixed to sail for New York on the following Monday, he immediately secured his passage. Mrs. Underhill and myself were detained till the 9th May.

The interval was pleasantly spent in making ourselves acquainted with the most salient features of Cuban life. The public buildings of the Havana have very little to attract a stranger. The churches are generally void of architectural beauty, while the streets are narrow, dirty, ill paved, and full of disagreeable scents and sights. It is the busiest and most prosperous of all the cities of the Antilles. Its harbour is one of the finest in the world, and is crowded with shipping. Its wharves and warehouses are piled with merchandize, and the general aspect is one of great commercial activity. The Havana is said to contain two hundred thousand inhabitants. Its exports nearly reach the annual value of nine millions sterling, and the customs furnish an annual tribute to the mother country, over and above the cost of government and military occupation. Of the 8500 ships which annually resort to the harbours of Cuba, 4700 are American.