They wear as few clothes as possible.  You see children as old as four years without a stitch of clothes on.  I mean the poor, and none of the older wear shoes; their endurance is wonderful, and they don’t perspire like us.  They all smoke either cigars or cigarettes.  We see children four years old smoking cigars.  You can buy as good a cigar here for 1 cent in their money as we can buy at home for 5 cents.  One dollar in our money is equal to two dollars in theirs.  So we get our smoking pretty cheap.  Fruits are sold accordingly.  We are to turn our Springfield guns in this morning and get the Krag-Jorgenson; they are much lighter and their bullets are not near so heavy.  Hope this will be of interest to you.  Don’t forget to send the Times as we have not seen a paper since leaving Charleston.  Regards to all.

In the course of an interesting letter written by James Burns of the Twenty-seventh battery, Indiana volunteers, to his mother, and dated August 15, at Gruayama, Puerto Rico, he said that the news of the cessation of hostilities was received by courier only a short time before the battery expected to get actively into battle.  Most of the boys, he said, were anxious to return home.  For himself, he expressed a desire to remain for the reason that the country there is very rich, the climate healthful and the possibilities to make money in the future, through American push and energy, the best in the world.  Speaking of the daily routine of the battery boys he said: 

Every man cooks his own meals and we get plenty of good food, such as bacon, potatoes, beans, onions, hard-tack, canned corn beef, canned roast beef, canned tomatoes and the like.  The climate is the finest I ever experienced.  While the temperature is very high, still the strong trade winds render it always agreeable, the hottest day being far more pleasant than at home.  Water is pure and plentiful.  The country is cut up every quarter mile or so by limpid mountain streams and the beach on this, the south side of the island, is as fine as any in the world.  Palms abound in profusion and the most beautiful flowers and ferns cluster and grow delightfully everywhere.  The cocoanut, mango, bread-fruit, banana, lemon, lime, sago, prickly pear, mangrove and bay trees grow luxuriantly about our camp.

The natives here are of small stature.  They are black-haired and have bright, sparkling eyes.  They are all of a mixture of either the French or Spanish with the negro.  There is a large population of French and Portuguese, the pure Spanish being but little more than one-sixth of the entire population.  The natives are a bright, intelligent class.  There are few public schools, education being given to children at their homes by traveling teachers and governesses.  There are but few Protestants or Protestant churches, the Catholic being the prevailing religion, and their churches being much more magnificent than any you have at home.  The priests constitute