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La Cabana, a stone-bastioned work with both land and water front, in rear of El Morro, and directly opposite the city of Havana. San Diego, a stone-bastioned work with only land fronts, east of Cabana. Atares, a stone-bastioned work on hill at southwestern extremity of Havana Bay, near the old shipyard called the arsenal.
Pettigrew bade me good-night. She had also left strict orders with the servants that we were on no account to be disturbed. As soon as we were comfortably seated in our smoking-chairs, which takes longer than some people think, Pettigrew offered me a Cabana. I would have preferred to begin at once with the tobacco; but of course he was my host, and I put myself entirely in his hands.
Going aboard the yacht I stood for a moment listening to the lonely sweep of his oar sculling shoreward through the murky night. Over the castellated walls of La Cabaña raced low, angry clouds. Was it a storm brewing, or had some supernal madness touched the night?
There are, besides, in the vicinity of Havana, three old and now useless stone works one at Chorrera, the mouth of the Almendarez River, about 4 miles from Havana harbor; another at Cojimar, on the coast, about 3 miles eastward of Cabana, and the third at the inlet called La Playa de Mariano, about 7 miles west of Havana.
This front is protected by ditches 40 or more feet deep, well constructed glacis, stone scarp, and counterscarp. Cabana is a magnificent example of the permanent fortifications constructed a century ago. Probably 10,000 men could be quartered in it. The entrance to Cabana is by the sally port that opens upon the bridge across the moat lying between Cabana and El Morro.
I never felt anything so scorching as it was to-day. Let me tell you what happened. General Lliano came in the morning to ask what Havana could show me. I answered that above all things I wanted to see Morro Castle. He replied that Morro Castle was mine, and that I had only to fix the time and he would take us there. I did fix it, and fixed it at two o'clock, as a fit hour to visit the Cabana.
Across the bay, on the heights at the entrance, are the frowning walls of Morro Castle surmounted by the towering light-house, and the no less grim walls of La Cabaña. The bay itself is a sprawling, shapeless body of water with a narrow neck connecting it with the Florida Straits.
The English took the Morro without being masters of the Havannah; but the Cabana and the Fort Number 4 which commands the Morro did not then exist. The most important works on the south and west are the Castillos de Atares y del Principe, and the battery of Santa Clara.
They are now little else than picturesque features in the landscape, points of interest for visitors. Taking the chain in its order, El Morro stands on the point on the eastern side of the entrance to the harbor. Just beyond it is La Cabaña. About a half a mile to the east of this was the stone fort on the hill of San Diego.
Then I merely remark that it is a new brand; and they smoke, probably observing that it reminds them of a Cabana, which is natural, seeing that it is a Cabana in disguise. If my wife is present, however, she comes forward smiling, and remarks, with a fond look in my direction, that they are her birthday present to her Jack. Then they start back and say they always smoke a pipe.
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