palm, the rough and heavy boards, or planks, being fastened to cross logs by wooden pins. Not proving entirely satisfactory, this floor, after a short time, was replaced by a more even one laid by a Yankee carpenter. This was the only change made by General Van der Voort in his Cuban house, with which he was greatly delighted. When new the prevailing color, inside and out, was a beautiful green, which soon turned to a yellowish brown. The change did not add to its beauty, but it still remained comfortable and picturesque. The cost of such a house in La Gloria was about fifty dollars. The general's house was wonderfully cool, as I can testify from personal experience, having occupied it daily for three months. Within a dozen yards of the general's house stood a historic landmark known as the "Lookout Tree," a gigantic tree used by the Cubans during the Ten Years' War and the late insurrection to watch for Spanish gun-boats that patroled the coast and for filibusters bringing arms and ammunition. It was at or very near Port La Gloria--known to the Cubans as Viaro--that the celebrated _Gussie_ landed her arms and ammunition for the Cubans, just after the intervention of the United States. Up through the "Lookout Tree" grow what appear to be two small and very straight trees, about three feet apart; actually, they are the downward shooting branches of a parasitic growth, taking root in the ground. The Cubans have utilized these for a ladder, cutting notches into them and fastening cross-pieces, or rungs, very securely with barbed wire. One may climb high into the big tree by this curious ladder, and from the top a good view of the coast is obtained. After our arrival the tree was sometimes brought into requisition in watching for the boat from Nuevitas, and the good climbers among the colonists often made the ascent merely for the satisfaction of performing the feat, which was not such an easy one as might appear, since the ladder did not reach to the top by fifteen or twenty feet.