The fertility of Cuba is celebrated; spices, among which are pepper and ginger; cassia, manioc, cacao, maize, aloes, mastic, sugar, tobacco, the flavour of which is superior to that of any other part of the world, known in commerce by the name of Havannah, and sold to an enormous amount in cigars, with many other articles the produce of tropical climates, constitute the riches of this fine island. Coffee, though cultivated, is so little attended to in the plantations, that not so much is grown for exportation as might easily be raised. Honey is one of the great articles of the export trade, and is annually produced to a great amount, as wax is also. Cattle, originally from Europe, have multiplied so much in Cuba, that they have become wild, and frequent, in immense droves, the forests and savannahs, or marshy plains; they are hunted for the sake of their hides and tallow, which are exported to a great amount. The forests also abound with swine, which have multiplied in a similar manner; and the inhabitants possess large stocks of mules, horses, fine black cattle, and sheep, all of which thrive very much. The woods chiefly consist of timber of valuable qualities, the red cedar, oaks, firs, palms, mahogany, ebony, lignum vitæ; woods producing gums, aromatic and medicinal, &c. The rivers and coasts abound with fish, and fine turtles frequent the shallows. The birds of Cuba are principally the parrot, and paroquet, American partridge, turtle-dove, and great varieties of aquatic birds. In this island there are supposed to exist veins of gold and silver, because the inhabitants procure a small quantity of those metals in the sands of the rivers which descend from the mountains. The great metallic production of Cuba is copper, of which some valuable mines exist in the eastern part of the island, with which a trade is carried on amongst the West India islands, and the ports of the southern continent. About an hundredth part of the island of Cuba only is supposed to be under a state of cultivation; the inhabitants, consisting of Europeans and their descendants, and negroes; the amount of the former being 338,000, and of the latter 212,000, making a total of 550,000 inhabitants. A chain of mountains runs the whole length of Cuba, from east to west, following the curvature of the country. This chain divides the island naturally into two parts; though these mountains do not acquire any very considerable elevation, but give rise to numerous rivers which flow into the ocean on each side, and sometimes, during the rainy season, inundate the low lands. Cuba, as all the other islands of these seas are, is exposed occasionally to the devastating effects of hurricanes, but on the whole it is more free from these, as well as from disease, than any of the others, and may be looked upon as the healthiest, the most fertile, and the most secure of the West India islands.