Just after passing this gang we found, lying by the road, two large snakes, just killed, which I would gladly have preserved had it been possible.  They were, the Negroes told us, ‘Dormillons,’ or ‘Mangrove Cascabel,’ a species as yet, I believe, undescribed; and, of course, here considered as very poisonous, owing to their likeness to the true Cascabel, {268} whose deadly fangs are justly dreaded by the Lapo hunter.  For the Cascabel has a fancy for living in the Lapo’s burrow, as does the rattlesnake in that of the prairie dog in the Western United States, and in the same friendly and harmless fashion; and is apt, when dug out, to avenge himself and his host by a bite which is fatal in a few hours.  But these did not seem to me to have the heads of poisonous snakes; and, in spite of the entreaties of the terrified Negroes, I opened their mouths to judge for myself, and found them, as I expected, utterly fangless and harmless.  I was not aware then that Dr. De Verteuil had stated the same fact in print; but I am glad to corroborate it, for the benefit of at least the rational people in Trinidad:  for snakes, even poisonous ones, should be killed as seldom as possible.  They feed on rats and vermin, and are the farmer’s good friend, whether in the Tropics or in England; and to kill a snake, or even an adder--who never bites any one if he is allowed to run away—­is, in nineteen cases out of twenty, mere wanton mischief.

The way was beguiled, if I recollect rightly, for some miles on, by stories about Cuba and Cuban slavery from one of our party.  He described the political morality of Cuba as utterly dissolute; told stories of great sums of money voted for roads which are not made to this day, while the money had found its way into the pockets of Government officials; and, on the whole, said enough to explain the determination of the Cubans to shake off Spanish misrule, and try what they could do for themselves on this earth.  He described Cuban slavery as, on the whole, mild; corporal punishment being restricted by law to a few blows, and very seldom employed:  but the mildness seemed dictated rather by self-interest than by humanity.  ’Ill-use our slaves?’ said a Cuban to him.  ’We cannot afford it.  You take good care of your four-legged mules:  we of our two-legged ones.’  The children, it seems, are taken away from the mothers, not merely because the mothers are needed for work, but because they neglect their offspring so much that the children have more chance of living—­and therefore of paying—­if brought up by hand.  So each estate has, or had, its creche, as the French would call it—­a great nursery, in which the little black things are reared, kindly enough, by the elder ladies of the estate.  To one old lady, who wearied herself all day long in washing, doctoring, and cramming the babies, my friend expressed pity for all the trouble she took about her human brood.  ‘Oh dear no,’ answered she; ’they are a great deal easier to rear than chickens.’  The system, however, is nearly at an end.  Already the Cuban Revolution has produced measures of half-emancipation; and in seven years’ time probably there will not be a slave in Cuba.