The price paid for making cigars varies from 8s. to 80s. a thousand, the average being about 15s.  A certain quality of tobacco is made up into cigars, and from time to time they are handed over to the examiner, who divides them into three separate classes, the difference being merely in the make thereof.  A second division then takes place, regulated by the colour of the outside wrapper, making the distinction of “light” or “brown.”  Now, the three classes first noticed, you will observe, are precisely the same tobacco; but knowing how the public are gulled by the appearance, the prices are very different.  Thus, taking the brand of Cabanos y Carvajal Prensados, his first, or prettiest, are 6l. 8s. per 1000; his second are 5l. 12s.; and his third are 5l.; and yet no real difference of quality exists.  The cigars of which I speak are of the very best quality, and the dearest brand in Havana.  Now, let us see what they cost put into the tobacconist’s shop in London:—­32 dollars is 180s.; duty, 90s.; export at Havana, 3s.; freight and extra expenses, say 7s.—­making 230s. a thousand, or 23s. a hundred, for the dearest and best Havana cigars, London size.  But three-fourths of the cigars which leave the Havana for England do not cost more than 3l. 4s. per thousand, which would bring their cost price to the tobacconist down to 16s. 5d.  The public know what they pay, and can make their own reflections.

There is another class of cigar known in England as “Plantations,” here called “Vegueros.”  They are of the richest tobacco, and are all made in the country by the sable ladies of the island, who use no tables to work at, if report speaks truth; and as both hands are indispensable in the process of rolling, what they roll upon must be left to the imagination.  It will not do to be too fastidious in this world.  Cooks finger the dainty cutlets, and keep dipping their fingers into the rich sauces, and sucking them, to ascertain their progress, and yet the feasters relish the savoury dish not one whit the less; so smokers relish the Veguero, though on what rolled modesty forbids me to mention,—­nor do they hesitate to press between their lips the rich “Regalia,” though its beautifully-finished point has been perfected by an indefinite number of passages of the negro’s forefinger from the fragrant weed to his own rosy tongue.  Men must not be too nice; but I think in the above description a fair objection is to be found to ladies smoking.

With regard to the population of Cuba, the authorities, of course, wish to give currency to the idea that the whites are the most numerous.  Having asked one of these officials who had the best means of knowing, he told me there were 550,000 whites and 450,000 negroes; but prosecuting my inquiries in a far more reliable quarter, I found there were 600,000 slaves, 200,000 free, and only 500,000 whites,—­thus making the coloured population as eight to five.  The military force in the island consists of 20,000, of