"The battle-cry is sounding
From every hill and vale,
From rock to rock resounding,
Now shall the tyrants quail.
No more with chain and fetter,
No more with prison cell,
Shall despots punish heroes
In the land they love so well.
"And thou, O Isle of Beauty,
Thy plaintive cry is heard;
Throughout our wide dominions,
The souls of men are stirred;
And rising in their manhood,
They shout from sea to sea,
'Destruction to the tyrants!
Fair Cuba shall be free!'"
In person Mr. Smith is short, and inclined to be stout, with complexion of a light brown.
His head is large and well developed; the expression of his features are mild and good, his eyes are lively, and the urn of his face is graceful and full of sensibility, and delicately susceptible of every impression.
Still on the sunny side of fifty, and being of studious habits and an impassioned lover of Nature, we may yet look for valuable contributions from his versatile pen.
We hope, ere long, to see his poems given to the reading public in a collected form, for we are sure that they would be a prized accession to the current literature of the day, besides the valuable work they would do for the elevation of his own race.
Mr. Smith has written more than sixty poems, one of which will be found in the fore-part of this volume.
