TO CUBA AND BACK
by Richard Henry Dana, Jr.
Not strictly a nautical title, though it begins as such, but we felt we should complete the Dana collection in view of his importance to nautical history. Here then are his views on Cuba in the middle of the nineteenth century, and a taste of the mature Dana's writing from the opening of Chapter 1: "The steamer is to sail at one P.M.; and, by half-past twelve, her decks are full, and the mud and snow of the pier are well trodden by men and horses. Coaches drive down furiously, and nervous passengers put there heads out to see if the steamer is off before her time; and on the decks, and in the gangways, inexperienced passengers run against everybody, and mistake the engineer for the steward, and coming up the same stairs they go down, without knowing it. . . The great beam of the engine moves slowly up and down, and the black hull sways at its fasts. A motley group are the passengers. Shivering Cubans, exotics that have taken slight root in the hothouses of the Fifth Avenue, are to brave a few days of sleet and cold at sea, for the palm trees and mangoes, the cocoas and orange trees, they will be sitting under in six days, at farthest. . . and confirmed invalids advised to go to Cuba to die under mosquito nets and be buried in a Potter's Field; and other invalids wisely enough avoiding our March winds; and here and there a mere vacationmaker, like myself."
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