Upwards of three of these months elapse and I hear nothing more of the fair recluse, and during that long interval many strange and unexpected events transpire as to the 'Ever-faithful Isle.'
CHAPTER XXIII.
A CRUISE IN THE WEST INDIES.
Cuban Telegraphy—The New York Trigger—News from Porto Rico—A day in Porto Rico—Don Felipe—A Mail Agent—Coasting—Aguadilla—Mayagüez—Santo Domingo—Sight-seeing—Telegraphic News.
There has been a sad dearth of news in the tropics for many long months. The war of Santo Domingo is at an end. The great hurricane at St. Thomas has passed into oblivion. The rising of negroes in Jamaica is forgotten. The civil war in Hayti is suspended for the nineteenth time. Not so much as a shipwreck is afloat; even the yellow fever is on the wane, and not a single case of cholera has been quoted. The people of the tropics are enjoying a delightful and uninterrupted repose, and the elements and climate are perfectly inoffensive. It seems as if our part of the world had sunk into a delicious paradise, and that my services on behalf of the New York Trigger would be for the future dispensed with.
I am, shortly, recalled to my journalistic duties by the arrival of some 'startling' news from Porto Rico. An insurrection has broken out in the interior of that island, where the inhabitants have planted what they call their 'flag of freedom,' intimating their intention to rebel against their Spanish rulers.
This is food for the Trigger, and I hasten to prepare it daintily, for transmission by telegraph.
At the office of the telegraph, I meet the American consul's secretary. Now, as I know that that gentleman is connected with the Central Press of Havana, I conclude that he is upon the same errand as myself. In the interests of the New York Trigger, it is therefore my duty now to forestall the secretary, by forwarding my news before he has had time to dispatch his.
The secretary is at the telegraph table scribbling at a rapid rate, and you may be sure he does not slacken his speed when he becomes conscious of the presence of the formidable agent of the New York Trigger! Only one instrument is used for telegraphic purposes, so he whose telegram is first handed to the clerk is first to be served by that functionary.
The system of telegraphy—like every other system in Cuba—is supervised by the Spanish administration. Every telegram must be submitted to the authorities before it is dispatched, in case anything treasonable or offensive to the government should enter into its composition. The dispatch being approved of, it is returned to the telegraph office and transmitted in the usual manner. The sender is, however, obliged to pay for his message in paper stamps, and these must be affixed to the document; but under no circumstances is he permitted to make his payments in Spanish coin.