Leading from the Capital are several very beautiful automobile drives; one reaching out towards the north and rounding the eastern terminus of the Yumuri Valley, gives a beautiful view of that charming basin as it stretches away toward the west.

Another delightful drive sweeps along the south shore towards Cardenas. A few miles from Matanzas, however, a sharp turn to the right leads up on to the summit of the ridge south of Matanzas. The drive passes through the long stretches of henequen fields whose plants furnish the fibre to the factory near the railway station.

On the crest of the plateau, under the shade of a small grove of trees, is found an odd little building that serves as the entrance to the Bellamar Caves. This famous underground resort is quite well known to tourists who visit Cuba in the winter season. Visitors are lowered by means of an elevator to a depth considerably below the level of the sea, after which guides take the party in charge and lead the way through several miles of interesting underground passages, ornamented with stalactites, stalagmites and other beautiful formations peculiar to those old time waterways that forced their tortuous channels through the bowels of the earth thousands of years ago.

Many of these formations are of a peculiar pearl white with a delicate texture that resembles Parian marble and gives a metal-like ring when struck. The entire cave is lighted with electricity and entrance to the more inaccessible spots has been rendered possible through artificial steps and balustrades. The city of Matanzas furnished an interesting and pleasant spot in which the tourist can spend a few days agreeably.

The harbor of Matanzas is a wide mouthed roadstead, cutting back from the Atlantic some five or six miles with a width varying from three to four. Dredging within recent years has greatly improved the port, although with deep draft vessels, lightering is still necessary to convey freight from the warehouses out to the various places of anchorage.

CITY HALL AND PLAZA, CARDENAS

The view of the City, covering the slopes of the hills on the west as you enter the bay, is very attractive. Since the Province of Matanzas has no harbors on the south coast, nearly all the sugar produced in her forty big mills is shipped from either Matanzas or Cardenas, both of which are connected with railroads that tap the various agricultural sections lying south of them.

The second city of the Province, Cardenas, is located on Cardenas Bay, a large and well protected harbor thirty miles east of Matanzas. In comparison with most of the harbors, however, it is comparatively shallow, needing a good deal of dredging to make it available for deep draft vessels. Cardenas, like Matanzas, is comparatively modern, with wide streets, regularly laid out. The old square, with its statue of Columbus, has been recently remodeled at considerable cost.

The first serious indication of revolt on the part of the Cuban people against the rule of Spain, was started here by General Narciso Lopez, who landed at Cardenas with 600 men, mostly Americans from New Orleans, on May 19, 1850. Within a few hours they had captured the Spanish garrison and made prisoners of Governor Serrute and several of his officials. The city was theirs, but to the unspeakable chagrin of General Lopez, only one man came to his aid on Cuban soil, and before nightfall, after defeating a Spanish column sent to oppose him, the disappointed revolutionist abandoned the city, and with his followers embarked for Key West.

It was on May 11, 1898, that Cardenas Bay became the scene of an engagement between blockading vessels of the United States fleet and the Spanish batteries, in which Ensign Worth Badgley was killed, he being the first officer to lose his life in the war.

The exportation of sugar from the rich lands tributary to this bay has always given Cardenas importance as a shipping point and rendered it, for a city of only 30,000, quite a wealthy and prosperous community. Many beautiful residences have been built along its stately avenues, and the great henequen industry recently started in the great fields to the west will add, undoubtedly, to the wealth of the locality. Splendid stone warehouses line the shore for a mile or more, with a capacity sufficient to hold in storage while necessary the enormous crop of sugar that is produced in the province.

The presence of naphtha and many surface indications of oil deposits south and east of the City of Cardenas have rendered that section attractive as a field of exploration. Up to the present time, however, no paying wells have been found, although many expert oil men are still confident that the entire district from Cardenas to Itabo, and even further east, will some day prove a valuable field for petroleum products.

Midway between Cardenas and the City of Matanzas, just north of the beautiful highway connecting these two cities, rises a range of low serpentine hills, whose altitude is approximately five hundred feet. These peculiarly symmetrical, round, loaf-like elevations above the level surface of the surrounding country, are covered with a short scrubby growth of thorny brush, and several varieties of maguey, of the century plant family. Nothing else will grow on these serpentine hills; hence in most respects they are decidedly unattractive. Since the beginning of the international war, however, and the great demand for chrome, some local mineralogists noted that little streams and rivulets running down these hills left deposits of a peculiar black, glistening sand. This sand, when analyzed, proved to come from the erosion of chromite, the mineral so much in demand by the smelting industry of the United States for hardening steel. In the spring of 1918 two well-known mining engineers and geologists, with instructions from Washington, visited several of these serpentine hills and found valuable deposits of chromite that will probably furnish a very profitable source of this much sought-for mineral and add greatly to the mining industry of this province.

During the War of Independence, Generals Antonio Maceo and Maximo Gomez led the invading columns of the Revolutionary Army into this Province for the first time, in the fall of 1896. The great beds of dead leaves lying between rows of cane, dried by the November winds, formed useful material for the insurgent armies. The torch once applied to this vast tinder box, with the prevailing easterly winds, all Matanzas was aflame. Under cover of the great canopy of smoke which rose over the land, the invading armies of the Occident swept rapidly on through the Province, fighting only when compelled to, since the object of the invasion was to carry the war into Havana and Pinar del Rio, where Revolution had never before been known.

The vast cane fields that today line the railroad tracks on both sides, bear no evidence of the ravages of Revolution, while handsome modern mills, many of which have been erected since the beginning of the great European War of 1914, have helped to feed the world with sugar that could be obtained in sufficient quantities in no other place.

CHAPTER VII

PROVINCE OF SANTA CLARA

PROBABLY in no part of Cuba is the topography more varied or the scenery more beautiful than in the Province of Santa Clara, with its area of 8,250 square miles. Mountain, valley, table land and plain seem to be thrown together in this, the central section of the Island, in reckless yet picturesque confusion. The main system of mountains, extending throughout the entire length of Cuba, disappears and reappears along the northern coast of Santa Clara, thus permitting easy communication between her rich central plains, covered with sugar estates, and her harbors on the coast.

In the southwestern center of this province, we have another group of mountains, foot hills and fertile valleys, in which are located some of the old coffee estates of slavery days, established at the close of the 18th century, shortly after the negro uprising in Santo Domingo. These cafetales, in the early half of the following century, made Cuban coffee famous throughout the world. Nestling within this mountain cradle lies the city of Trinidad, founded by Diego Velasquez in January, 1514. The presence of gold, which the Indians panned from the waters of the Arimo River, rendered Trinidad an important center for the early Spanish conquerors during the first years of Cuban history. Sancti Spiritus, lying on the edge of a fertile plateau, some forty-five miles to the northeast, was founded a few months later.

Gold was the god of the Spanish conquerors, and to secure it was their chief aim and ambition. Its discovery in this section of Santa Clara brought hope to them and despair to the Indians, on whom the former depended for labor with which to dig this precious metal from the earth. Velasquez found the natives of Trinidad, like those of Oriente, a gentle, confiding people, who asked only permission to live as they had always done; tilling the soil, fishing, visiting and dancing, at which they were most clever, an ideal and harmless life, suited to their tastes. They grew corn, sweet potatoes, tobacco and yucca, from which they made their cazaba bread, still used by the country people of the present day. The Spaniards, however, soon changed this earthly dream of ease and joy into one of arduous and repugnant toil, rather than to submit to which, many of them committed suicide by poison and by drowning.

Velasquez, enthusiastic over the locality of his newly founded city, Trinidad, despatched at once one of his caravels to La Espanola in Santo Domingo, with orders to bring back cattle, mares and other material necessary to further the interests of the new settlement. And so it came to pass that this section of southern Santa Clara, with its fertile lands, beautiful scenery and promise of gold, played an important part in the early colonization of the Island.

The desire to accumulate wealth through the toil of the unhappy Indians, of whom the Spaniards made slaves, tempted even Las Casas, the great defender of the Cuban aborigines, to accept assignment of them as a gift from the crown, so that he might share something of the prosperity of the early conquerors. It is reported that Las Casas repented this departure from the path of rectitude and afterwards was led to indorse the importation of African slaves in order to save the Cuban Indians from extermination.

It was on the banks of the beautiful Arimo, some twenty-five miles east of Trinidad, that this celebrated old historian and defender of the faith maintained his ranch and other worldly possessions. Throughout the sixteenth century this section of Santa Clara was an important station on the line of travel between Santiago de Cuba and Havana.

Caravels leaving “Tierra Firme,” or the great continent of South America, that had been discovered, frequently made this shore, on the other side of the Caribbean, or were driven against it by storms, the crews afterwards reaching Santiago de Cuba by travel overland, along the south coast. Owing probably to the fact that all of this coast, from the mouth of the Zaza River east to the Cauto, is low, covered with dense jungle, reports reached Spain to the effect that the most of Cuba was a swamp, which is far from the truth, since by far the greatest portion of the Island is rolling and mountainous.

More than half of Santa Clara is hilly and broken, although owing to the fertility of the soil this interferes but little with the agricultural development of the Province.

The mountains of Santa Clara form the central zone of the great volcanic upheaval that raised Cuba from the depths of the Caribbean. A broad belt or double chain lies between the city of Santa Clara and Sancti Spiritus. Another ridge, just south of the latter city, extends from the Tunas de Zaza railroad to a point east of the Manatee River, near the harbor of Cienfuegos. A second group lies between the valleys of the rivers Arimao and Agabama, names taken from the original appellations given them by the Indians.

The highest peak of this central region, called Potrerillo, is located some seven miles north of Trinidad and reaches an altitude of about 3,000 feet. The mountains of this group extend northwest as far as the Manicaragua Valley. A third group, lying southeast of the city of Santa Clara, includes the Sierra del Escambray and the Sierra de Agabama. The average altitude of these latter hills is only about a thousand feet.

Another range of hills begins at a point on the north coast of the Province, twenty-five miles east of Sagua la Orande, and runs parallel with the north shore of the Island into the Province of Camaguey, in the western edge of which it disappears in the great level prairies of that region. The highest peaks of this group are the Sierra Morena, west of Sagua la Grande, and the Lomas de Santa Fe, near Camajuani. A little further east they are known as the Lomas de Las Sabanas.

With the exception of the northern coast range, the other ranges of Santa Clara have resulted from seismic forces, working apparently at right angles to the main line of upheaval, leaving the tangled mass of hills and valleys characteristic of this great central zone of the Province. What is known as the schistose or pre-cretaceous limestones of Trinidad, are supposed to be the oldest geological formations in the Island of Cuba.

From the foot of the Sierra de Morena, near the north coast, a wide, comparatively level plain sweeps across the province to the Caribbean Sea, broken only at a few points by one or two abrupt hills, northeast of Cienfuegos. Lying between the northern chain of mountains and the coast, we find quite a broad area of rich level land washed by the salt water lagoons of the north shore.

Again, in the extreme southeast corner of Santa Clara, is found another large tract comprising perhaps a thousand square miles, located between the Zaza and the two Jatabonico rivers that form the boundary between the province and Camaguey.

Between the various chains of mountains and hills that cut the province of Santa Clara into hundreds of parks and valleys, are exceptionally rich lands, sufficiently level for cultivation. The Manicaragua Valley, sloping towards the eastern edge of the Bay of Cienfuegos, is noted for an excellent quality of tobacco grown in that region.

Of navigable rivers, owing to the short plains between the various divides and the coast line, there are practically none in Santa Clara, although many of the streams have considerable length, and are utilized for floating logs to the coast during the rainy season. The Arimao, with its falls, known as the Habanillo, is a picturesque and beautiful stream, rising in the mountains of the southern central zone and flowing in a westerly direction, until it empties into the Bay of Cienfuegos.

The Canao, another small stream with its source near the city of Santa Clara, takes a southwesterly course and empties into the same bay. The Damiji flows south to and into Cienfuegos Harbor. The Hanabana rises in the northwestern extremity of the province, and, flowing south and west, forms much of its western boundary until it empties into a little lake a few miles north of the Bay of Cochinos, known as El Tesoro or Treasure Lake. From this a continuation of the river known as the Gonzalo runs due west throughout the entire length of the Cienaga de Zapata until it empties into Broa Bay, an eastern extension of the Gulf of Batabano.

The Manatee River is a small stream with its origin in the center of the nest of mountains that lie north of Trinidad; it flows south until it empties into the Caribbean, midway between the ports of Casilda and Tunas de Zaza. The Zaza River has its origin in a number of tributary streams in the northeast corner of the Province, whence it wanders through many twists and turns between hills and ridges until it finally passes into the level lands of the southwest corner of the Province, whence it eventually finds its way to the Caribbean. This stream, although troubled with bars just beyond its mouth, has a considerable depth for some twenty or more miles.

The most important river commercially in this Province, known as the Sagua, rises a little west of the capital, Santa Clara, and flows in a northerly direction until it empties into the Bay across from the Sagua Light on the north coast. The city of Sagua la Grande, a small but aristocratic place, is located about twenty miles from the mouth of the river, and is the distributing point for that section of the province. The river is navigable for small boats from the port of Isabella to the city above. Another small stream, known as the Sagua la Chica, empties into the Bay, about midway between La Isabella and the port of Caibarien.

The southern coast of the province of Santa Clara, not including the indentations of gulfs and bays, is approximately two hundred and fifty miles long. This, of course, includes the great western extension of the Zapata peninsula, whose shore line alone is one hundred miles in length. The northern shore, bordering on the great lagoon that separates it from the Atlantic, measures one hundred and fifty miles, forming thus for the province an irregular parallelogram whose average width north to south is about seventy-five miles.

In the center of the south coast we find the harbor of Cienfuegos, a beautiful, perfectly land-locked, deep water bay, dotted with islands, from whose eastern shores tall mountains loom up on the near horizon in majestic beauty. One of the picturesque old forts of the early eighteenth century on the west bank of the channel guards the approach to the entrance of the harbor. Some ten miles back, located on a gently sloping rise of ground, is the city of Cienfuegos, which next to Santiago de Cuba is the most important shipping port on the southern coast.

As far as definitely known, this port was first entered by the old Spanish conqueror Ocampo, in 1508. No definite settlement was made however, until 1819, when refugees from the insurrection of Santo Domingo established a colony, from which rose the present city of Cienfuegos. These involuntary immigrants from Santo Domingo were coffee growers in their own country, and from their efforts splendid coffee plantations were soon located in the rich valleys and on the mountain sides that lay off towards the northeast. Large groves of coffee, struggling under the dense forest shade, still survive in these mountains, from which the natives of the district bring out on mule back large crops of excellent coffee that have been grown under difficulties.

The city of Cienfuegos, or a Hundred Fires, is substantially built of stone and brick, with wide streets, radiating from a large central plaza, as in all Spanish cities the favorite meeting place where people discuss the topics of the day, and listen to the evening concerts of the municipal band. There are several social clubs in Cienfuegos and a very good theatre, together with the city hall and hospital, which are creditable to the community. The population is estimated at 36,000.

Sancti Spiritus is one of the seven cities founded by Diego Velasquez in 1514, and still bears every evidence of its antiquity. Its streets are crooked and but little has been done to bring the city into line with modern progress. This is owing largely to the fact of its being located twenty-five miles back from the southern coast, and some ten miles off the main railroad line, connecting the eastern and western sections of the Island. It lies on the edge of the plateau, east of the mountain group of southern Santa Clara. An old, tall-towered church still bears the date of its founding by Velasquez. The city has a population of approximately 15,000.

Santa Clara, the capital, is located almost in the center of the province, well above the sea level. Its wide, well kept streets are suggestive of health and prosperity. It was founded in 1689, and until 1900 was the eastern terminus of the main railroad line running east from Havana. Rich fertile lands surround Santa Clara, while the mining interests a little to the south, although not at present developed, give every promise of future importance. Copper ore of excellent quality has been found in a number of places between Santa Clara and Trinidad, while silver, zinc and gold are found in the same zone, but up to the present not in quantities that would justify the investment of capital in their development. Ten thousand tons of asphalt are mined annually not far from the city, and considerable tobacco is grown in the surrounding country. The population is estimated at 15,000.

Sagua la Grande is located on the Sagua River, twenty miles up from the port of La Isabella. It is a comparatively modern city, with wide streets, and is the distributing point for the large sugar estates of that section. Its population is 12,000.

The Port of Caibarien has grown into considerable importance owing to the large amount of sugar brought in by the different railroads, for storage in the big stone warehouses that line the wharf. Shoal water necessitates lightering out some fifteen miles to a splendid anchorage under the lee of Cayo Frances, on the outer edge of the great salt water lagoon which envelops the entire north coast of Santa Clara. The population is 7,000.

Five miles west, on the line between Caibarien and Santa Clara, is the little old city of Remedios, that once occupied a place on the coast, but was compelled by the unfriendly visits of pirates, as were many other cities in Cuba in the olden days, to move back from the sea shore, so that the inhabitants could be warned of an approaching enemy. Around Remedios, large fields of tobacco furnish the chief source of income to this city of six or seven thousand people.

The great “Cienaga de Zapata,” or Swamp of the Shoe, so called on account of its strange resemblance to a heeled moccasin, although geographically a part of the Province of Matanzas, has nevertheless always been included in the boundaries of Santa Clara. Its length from east to west is about sixty-five miles, with an average width from north to south of twenty. Many plans, at different times since the first Government of Intervention, have been formed for the drainage and reclaiming of this great swamp of the Caribbean, whose area is approximately twelve hundred square miles.

Nearly all of the surface is covered with hard wood timber, growing in a vast expanse of water, varying in depth from one to three feet. Owing to its lack of incline in any direction, reclamation of this isolated territory is not easy, although the land, after the timber was removed and the water once disposed of, would probably be very valuable.

Enormous deposits of peat and black vegetable muck, cover the western shores of this peninsula and will, when utilized for either fuel, fertilizer or gas production, be an important source of revenue, as will its forests of hard wood, when transportation to the coast is rendered possible.

Just east of the heel of the “Zapata” and some forty miles west of the harbor of Cienfuegos, a deep, open, wide-mouthed roadstead projects from the Caribbean some eighteen miles into the land, almost connecting with the little lake known as “El Tesero” or Treasure, located at the most southerly point of the Province of Matanzas. This roadstead, known as the Bay of Cochinos, furnishes shelter from all winds excepting those from the south, against which there is no protection, although abutments thrown out from the shore might give artificial shelter, and thus render it a fairly safe harbor.

Quite a large forest of valuable woods lies a few miles back from the coast, between Cochinos Bay and the harbor of Cienfuegos. The broken surface of the dog teeth rocks, however, upon which this forest stands, renders the removal of logs difficult and dangerous, since iron shoes will not protect the feet of draft animals used in the transport of wood to the coast. A narrow strip of very good vegetable land, running only a mile or so back from the beach, extends along this section of the coast for about twenty-five miles, awaiting the intelligent efforts of some future gardener to produce potatoes and other vegetables on a large scale for spring shipments to Cienfuegos.

The great source of wealth of the Province of Santa Clara, of course, is sugar, and to that industry nearly all of her industrial energies are at present devoted. Seventy great sugar estates, with modern mills, are located within the Province, yielding an annual production of approximately eight million sacks of sugar, each weighing 225 pounds. The fertility of Santa Clara soil has never been exhausted, and the great network of railroads covering the Province furnishes easy transportation to the harbors of Cienfuegos, Sagua and Caibarien. Considerable amounts of sugar are also shipped from Casilda, the port of Trinidad on the south coast, and some from Tunas de Zaza, at the mouth of the Zaza River, thirty miles further east. The sugar produced in the Province in 1918 was valued at eighty million dollars.

The tobacco of Santa Clara Province, although not of the standard quality obtained in the western provinces of Pinar del Rio and Havana, still forms a very important industry. That coming from the Manicaragua Valley, northeast of Cienfuegos, has obtained a good reputation for its excellent flavor.

Coffee culture in the mountains and valleys lying between Trinidad and Sancti Spiritus, introduced by French refugees from the Island of Santo Domingo the first years of the last century, was at one time a very important industry. With the introduction of machinery for hulling and polishing the beans, and with better facilities for the removal of the crop to the coast, there is every reason to believe that this industry, in the near future, will resume some of the importance which it enjoyed half a century ago, or before the abolition of slavery rendered picking the berries expensive, since this work can be done only by hand. The growing of coffee offers a delightful and profitable occupation to large families, since the work of gathering and caring for the berries is a very pleasant occupation for women and children.

Owing to the fertility of the soil of Santa Clara, the abundance of shade, rich grass, and plentiful streams of clear running water flowing from the mountains, there is perhaps no section of Cuba that offers greater inducement to the stock raiser.

The breeding of fine horses, of high-grade hogs, of angora goats, sheep and milch cows, will undoubtedly, when the attention of capital is called to the natural advantages of this section of the country, rival even the sugar industry of the Province. In no part of the world could moderate sized herds of fine animals be better cared for than on the high table lands and rich valleys of Santa Clara.

Santa Clara bore its part in the trials and sufferings endured by the patriots of Cuba in the War of Independence. The range of mountains between Sancti Spiritus and Trinidad, during those four fearful years, furnished a safe retreat for the Cuban forces, when the soldiers of Spain, abundantly supplied with ammunition, which their opponents never enjoyed, pressed them too hard. It was in these dense forests and rocky recesses which Nature had provided that the great old chieftain, General Maximo Gomez, in the last years of the war, defied the forces of Spain.

CHAPTER VIII

PROVINCE OF CAMAGUEY

ACCORDING to the log of the Santa Maria, the first glimpse of the Island of Cuba enjoyed by Christopher Columbus, sailing as he did in a southwesterly course across the Bahama Banks, is supposed by many to have been at some point along the northern coast of what is now known as the Province of Camaguey. The area of this Province, including Cayos Romano, Guajaba, Sabinal and Coco, is approximately 11,000 square miles. The general trend of the coast lines is similar to those of the Province of Santa Clara, and the length of each is approximately one hundred and seventy-five miles. The average width of the province is eighty miles, although between the southern extension of Santa Cruz del Sur and the mouth of the harbor of Nuevitas, we have a hundred miles.

The same gentle graceful inoffensive natives were found in this section of Cuba as those who first received the Spanish conquerors at Baracoa and other places in the Island. Those of the great plains belonging to this province were known as Camagueyanos, and although for many years Spain called this section of the island Puerto Principe, the musical Indian term stuck, and with the inauguration of the Republic in 1901, the name of Camaguey was officially given to this part of Cuba.

In the year 1515, Diego Velasquez, with his fever for founding cities, established a colony on the shore of the Bay of Nuevitas, and christened it Puerto Principe. In those early days, however, there was no rest for the unprotected, hence the first settlement was moved in a short time to another locality not definitely known, but a year later the city was permanently established in the center of the province, about fifty miles from either shore, where it remains today, with many features of its antiquity still in evidence.

The first of the old Spanish adventurers who succeeded in making himself both famous and rich without flagrant trespass of law, was Vasco Porcallo de Figueroa, one of the original settlers whom Velasquez left in the City of Puerto Principe founded in 1515. This sturdy old pioneer did not bother with gold mining, but succeeded in securing large grants of land in the fertile plains of Camaguey, where he raised great herds of cattle and horses, exercising at the same time a decidedly despotic influence over the natives and everyone else in that region.

Vasco, although spending more than half of the year in the cities of Puerto Principe and Sancti Spiritus, had a retreat of his own, probably some place in the Sierra de Cubitas, where he held princely sway and guarded his wealth from intrusive buccaneers and other ambitious adventurers of those times. It was he who, meeting Hernando de Soto on his arrival at Santiago de Cuba, escorted that famous explorer across the beautiful rolling country of Camaguey, which he seemed to consider as his own special domain, and finally accepted the position of second in command in that unfortunate expedition of De Soto into the Peninsula of Florida in 1539. Fighting the savage Seminoles was not however to his taste, and the old man returned to Havana inside of a year, mounted his horse and rode home, firmly convinced, he said, that Camaguey was the only country for a white man to live and die in.

Even with the removal of the capital far into the interior, the peacefully inclined citizens were not free from molestation and unwelcome visits. During the middle of the seventeenth century, the famous English corsair, Henry Morgan, afterwards Governor of Jamaica, paid his respects to several Cuban cities, including Puerto Principe. In 1668 he crossed the Caribbean with twelve boats and seven hundred English followers, intending to attack Havana. He afterward changed his mind, however, and landing in the Bay of Santa Maria began his march on the capital of Camaguey.

The inhabitants made a desperate resistance, the Mayor and many of his followers being killed, but the town was finally compelled to surrender and submit to being sacked, during which process many women and children were burned to death in a church behind whose barred doors they had taken refuge. Morgan finally retired from Puerto Principe with his booty of $50,000 and five hundred head of cattle.

During the Ten Years’ War the province of Camaguey became the center of active military operations. The inhabitants of this section had descended from the best families of Spain, who had emigrated from the Mother Country centuries before. They were men of refinement and education, men whose prosperity and contact with the outside world had made life impossible under the oppressive laws of the Spanish monarchy.

Ignacio Agramonte, a scion of one of the best known families of Camaguey, was a born leader of men, and soon found himself in command of the Cuban forces. The struggle was an ill advised one, because the odds in numbers were too great, and the resources of the Cubans were so limited that success was impossible. The effort of General Agramonte and his followers, all men of note and social standing, was a brave one, and the sacrifice of the women, the mothers, sisters and daughters, of that period, were not surpassed by any country in its fight for liberty.

But the unfortunate death of General Agramonte, and the long uphill struggle, brought about the inevitable. The treaty of Zanjon in 1878 was ultimately forced upon the revolutionists, many of whom afterwards emigrated with their families to the United States, where some have remained as permanent citizens of that Republic; among others, Doctor Enrique Agramonte, a brother of Ignacio, who after fighting through the ten tiresome years, left his country, never to return.

In the more recent struggles for Cuban liberty, known as the War of Independence, Camaguey again took a prominent part and General Maximo Gomez, who had succeeded Agramonte at his death, and General Antonio Maceo, had the satisfaction of carrying the campaign of the Occident, from Oriente, across Camaguey, where they defeated the Spanish forces in several battles, and in the winter of 1896 led their victorious troops in three parallel invading columns, to the extreme western end of the Island. Thus the revolution was carried for the first time in history beyond the Jucaro and Moron Trocha, or fortified ditch, near the western border of Camaguey.

Narrow crooked streets still prevail in some parts of Camaguey and the erection of modern buildings, that has become so common in Havana, has not reached this quiet old municipality of the plains which still lives and breathes an atmosphere smacking of centuries past.

Topographically, although the surface of Camaguey, in altitude and contour, varies much, it is, as a whole, far more level than any other province in the Island. Great fertile savannas and grass covered plains predominate in almost every part. The potreros, or grazing lands, of Camaguey, have made it famous as the breeding place par excellence for horses and cattle, and its equal is not found anywhere in the West Indies.

In spite of the comparatively level nature of the country, with the exception of the low, heavily covered forest belt that sweeps along the entire southern coast, extending back from ten to twenty-five miles, the rest of the province partakes more of the character of an elevated plateau, interspersed with low ranges of mountains and foothills, which give pleasing diversity to the general aspect of the country.

The longest range in Camaguey is a continuation of the great central chain, that follows the trend of the Island. It begins with a prominent peak known as the Loma Cunagua, which rises abruptly from the low level savannas ten miles east of the town of Moron in the northwestern corner of the Province. A little further southeast, the range again appears and finally develops into the Sierra de Cubitas, which follows the direction of the north coast, terminating finally in the picturesque peak of Tubaque, on the Maximo River.

A small stream, known as the Rio Yaguey, sweeps west along the southern edge of this ridge and finally breaks through its western end, emptying into the lagoon or Bay of Cayo Romano. A parallel range of lower hills, with various spurs, lies a little south of the main Sierra de Cubitas. The bountifully watered prairies, valleys and parks south and west of these hills form the ideal grazing ground of the Pearl of the Antilles. Several large herds of fine hogs and cattle, recently established in this section, will soon play an important part in the meat supply of Cuba.

As in Santa Clara, an independent group, or nest, of low peaks and beautiful forest covered hills, occupies the southeastern center of the Province of Camaguey. The lands in this section are very fertile and the delightful variety of hill, valley and plain renders it a very attractive country in which to make one’s permanent home. Several elevations of moderate altitude, known as lomas, rise from the more level country, a little to the north of the above mentioned district, and form something of a connecting link between the Najasa, or mountains of the southwest, and the Sierra de Cubitas of the north shore.

As before mentioned, several chains of the north coast, originating in Santa Clara, sweep over and terminate in Camaguey, some ten or fifteen miles east of the boundary line. The mountains of this district, owing to the fact that they were distant from the coast, have never been denuded of their virgin forests, and with the opening of the Cuba Railroad, connecting Santa Clara with Santiago de Cuba on the south coast, and the Bay of Nipe on the north, a considerable quantity of valuable timber has been taken out within recent years.

Camaguey has no rivers of importance, although numerous streams flowing from the central plateaus, toward both the northern and southern coast, are utilized during the rainy season to float logs to shipping points. These short streams, varying from ten to thirty miles in length, each form basins or valleys of rich grass lands that are always in demand for stock raising. Between the Jatobonico del Sur, which forms a part of the western boundary of the Province, and the Rio Jobobo, which forms the southeastern boundary, are more than a dozen streams emptying into the Caribbean. Among these are Los Guiros, the Altamiro, the Najasa and the Sevilla.

The Najasa has its origin a little south of the City of Camaguey, and passes through a heavily timbered country, carrying many logs to the landing of Santa Cruz del Sur. A railroad was surveyed from the latter city to the capital some years ago, but has never been completed.

On the north coast, between the Jatibonico del Norte, which forms the northwestern boundary, and the Puentes Grandes, forming the northeastern, we have some ten or a dozen short streams, among the most important of which are the Rio de los Perros, emptying into the Lagoon of Turaguanao; the Rio Caonao emptying into the lagoon of Romano; the Jiguey, cutting through the western extremity of the Sierra de Cubitas and emptying into the eastern end of the above mentioned lake; the Rio Maximo, rising on the south side of the chain, sweeping around its eastern end and emptying into the Bay of Sabinal; and the Saramaguacan, one of the longest in the province, rising in the mountains of the Najasa, whence it flows in a northeasterly direction and empties into the harbor of Nuevitas. Both the Chambas and the Rio Caonao, when not obstructed by mud bars at their mouths, are navigable for light draft schooners and sloops, for some twelve or fifteen miles into the interior.

At no point on the south Coast of Camaguey can be found any harbor worthy of the name, although at Jucaro, Santa Cruz del Sur and Romero, considerable timber and sugar are shipped from piers that extend out into the shallow waters of the Jucaro and Guacanabo gulfs.

The long system of salt water bays or lagoons, beginning at Punta Hicaco in Matanzas, continues along the entire north coast of Camaguey and terminates in the beautiful harbor of Nuevitas. The lagoons of Camaguey are formed by a series of keys or islands, of which Cayo Romano, seventy-five miles in length, with an average width of ten miles, is the most important.

Although most of the area of this island is covered with a dense jungle of low trees, the eastern end rises to quite a high promontory, with more or less arable land, planted at the present time in henequen, and yielding a very good revenue to the owner. An unknown number of wild ponies, variously estimated at from six hundred to two thousand, inhabit the jungles of Cayo Romano, living largely on the leaves of the forest, and consequently degenerating in size and form to such an extent that they have a very little commercial value.

Cayo Coco, really an extension of Romano, reaches out to the westward some fifteen miles further, while the Island of Guajaba, separated by a narrow pass with only three feet of water, incloses the beautiful harbor of Guanaja. Sabinal, some 25 miles in length by ten or twelve in width, forms the northern shore of the harbor of Nuevitas. On the latter key there is fairly good grazing ground and much territory that eventually will probably be planted in henequen, as is the promontory of Nuevitas, just north of the city of that name.

These salt water lakes or bays are often twenty-five miles or more in length by ten wide and with an average depth of fifteen feet. Unfortunately, not only are they separated by narrow passes seldom carrying over three feet, but exit to the ocean for any craft drawing over five or six feet is very difficult to find.

The harbor of Nuevitas, in the northwestern corner of the Province, is one of the finest in the Island. Its width varies from three to ten miles, while its length is approximately twenty, carrying excellent deep water anchorage throughout almost its entire extent. A peculiar river-like opening, six miles in length, deep and narrow, connects it with the Atlantic Ocean.

In proportion to its size, the province of Camaguey has less railroad mileage than any other in the Island. Until 1902, when Sir William Van Horn, late President of the Cuba Company, connected the City of Santa Clara by rail with Santiago de Cuba, there were but two railroads in that section of the country. One, the Camaguey & Nuevitas Road, connected the capital with practically the only shipping point on the north coast. Another, built many years before, for military purposes, connected the town of San Ferrando, on the north coast, with Jucaro on the south coast, and ran parallel with what was known as the Trocha, a military ditch about eighty kilometers in length, with two story concrete forts at each kilometer, and low dug-outs, or shooting boxes, located midway between the principal forts. The ground was cleared on either side of the railroad for a kilometer, while on both sides a perfect network of barbed wire, fastened by staples to the top of wood stakes, rendered it difficult for either infantry or cavalry to cross from one side to the other. This modern military device was established by the Spanish forces in 1895, so as to prevent the Cubans from carrying the revolution into Santa Clara and the western provinces.

As in the other provinces of Cuba, cane growing and the making of sugar forms the chief industry, although, owing to the wonderfully rich potreros, or grazing lands of Camaguey, the raising of live stock in the near future will doubtless rival all other sources of wealth in that section.

There are twenty sugar mills in the province with a production of approximately 3,000,000 bags. The two mills at Las Minas and Redencion, between Camaguey and Nuevitas, have been in operation for many years, but with the opening up of the Van Horn railroad a new impetus was given to sugar production, and during the past ten years, some eighteen new mills have been established at various points along the railroad where lands were fertile and comparatively cheap.

A line known as the North Shore Railroad of Cuba, connecting the city of Nuevitas with Caibarien, in Santa Clara Province, some 200 miles west, was surveyed and capital for it was promised, in 1914. The breaking out of the European war delayed work on the road, but its completion can be assured in the near future.

Several large sugar estates have been located along the line that will open up a territory rich in soil and natural resources. Important iron mines, too, in the foothills of the Sierra de Cubitas, are waiting only this transportation to add an important revenue to the Province. A great deal of valuable timber will be available when the line is in operation.

Owing to the large beds of valuable ore belonging to the mineral zone of the Cubitas, it is quite probable that the mining industry will some day rank next to that of general farming in Camaguey, although as far as natural advantages are concerned, there is no industry which in the end can rival that of stock raising.

During 1895, the first year of the War of Independence, over a million head of sleek, fat cattle were registered in the Province of Camaguey, where the grasses are so rich that an average of seventy head can be kept in condition throughout the year on a hundred acres of land. The two grasses commonly found in Camaguey were both brought from abroad. Of these, the Guinea, imported from western Africa, grows luxuriantly on all the plateaus and higher lands of the province, while the Parana, a long running grass from the Argentine, does best in the lower lands and savannas. One stock man of Camaguey at least, has succeeded in producing splendid fields of alfalfa, from which seven or eight cuttings are taken each year.

Fruits of all kinds, especially oranges and pineapples, grow luxuriantly in this Province, but owing to the lack of transportation, the railroad haul to Havana being practically prohibitory, shipments of fruit and vegetables to the northern markets are confined almost entirely to a steamer which leaves the harbor of Nuevitas once every two weeks.

Owing perhaps to the rich and comparatively cheap lands offered by the Province of Camaguey, more Americans are said to have settled in this section than in any other part of Cuba. The first colony, called La Gloria, was located in 1900 on the beautiful bay of Guanaja or Turkey Bay, some five or six miles back from the shore. The location, although healthful and in a productive country, was most unfortunate as far as transportation facilities were concerned. Two hundred or more families made clearings in the forests of the Cubitas, and there made for themselves homes under adverse circumstances. The worst of these was the isolation of the spot, and lack of communication with any city or town nearer than Camaguey, some forty-five miles southwest, or Nuevitas, forty miles east; without railroads, wagon roads, or even water communication by vessels drawing over seven feet.

The Zanja, or ditch, some three miles in length, connecting the harbor of Nuevitas with Guanaja Bay, was recently dredged to a depth of three or four feet, so that launches can now pass from La Gloria to Nuevitas, but aside from the fertility of the soil, there was but little to commend La Gloria as a place of permanent residence. Only grit and perseverance on the part of sturdy Americans has sustained them during the past sixteen years. But they concluded to make the best of the situation in which they found themselves, and are producing nearly everything needed for their subsistence. A considerable amount also of farm produce and fruit will soon be shipped to northern markets from the harbor of Nuevitas. A very creditable agricultural fair is held in La Gloria each winter, and the contents of the weekly paper seems to bear every evidence of progress and content. In spite of adverse conditions, the people of La Gloria have prospered and enjoy there many comforts not found in colder climates, and with the opening up of the North Shore Road, this really attractive section of country, which includes several smaller colonies scattered along the water front, will be brought in close touch once more with the civilization of the outside world.

Another colony, also unfortunate in its location, was established at Ceballos on the Jucaro and Moron railroad, about eight miles north of its junction with the Cuba Company road at Ciego de Avila. The soil was well adapted to the growth of citrus fruit, and large groves were laid out by Americans, some ten or twelve years ago, along the line of the old clearing that bordered the Trocha. The groves, as far as nature could provide, were successful, but the excessive freight rates between Ceballos and either the city of Havana or the Bay of Nipe, have proved discouraging to the original settlers.

Several smaller colonies have been located along the Cuba Company’s railway and the line connecting the city of Camaguey with Nuevitas, but again the long distance between these points and large markets, either local or foreign, have worked to the disadvantage of the growers. If stock raising instead of fruit growing had occupied the time and attention of these American pioneers, more satisfactory results would have been obtained.

Nuevitas, located on the southern shore of the harbor of that name, is a modern city with wide streets and a population of approximately 7,000 people. Its location, at the terminus of the Camaguey Railroad, and on the only harbor of the north coast, renders it a place of considerable commercial importance, since large quantities of sugar, lumber and livestock leave the port during the year, while coasting steamers of local lines touch every few days.

Camaguey, the capital of the Province, so long known as Puerto Principe, has a population of about 45,000 people. The natives of this city have long enjoyed and merited an enviable reputation for integrity, intelligence and social standing, traits that were inherited from a number of excellent families who came to Cuba from Southern Spain in the early colonial days. The rich grazing lands of Camaguey and the salubrious climate, not only of the north coast, but of the great plateaus of the interior, were very attractive to the better class of pioneers who came over in the sixteenth century in search of peace, permanent homes and wealth based on legitimate industry.

There is no section of the Island more highly esteemed for the integrity of its people than that of the isolated, aristocratic city of Camaguey, such as the families of Agramonte, Betancourt, Cisneros, Luaces, Sanchez, Quesada and Varona. Nearly all these families through the long painful Ten Years’ War suffered privations, followed by exile and loss of everything but pride, dignity and good names.

Most of them made permanent homes in the United States, but many of their children, educated in the land that gave their parents shelter, have returned to their native country and occupied positions of trust and responsibility in the new Republic.

CHAPTER IX

PROVINCE OF ORIENTE

THE Province of Oriente, called by Spain Santiago de Cuba, forms the eastern extremity of the Island, and is not only the largest in area, but, owing to the exceptional fertility of its soil, the great number of magnificent harbors, the size and extent of its plains and valleys, together with the untold wealth of its mines of iron, copper, manganese, chrome and other minerals, it must be considered industrially as one of the most important provinces of Cuba.

Its area consists of 14,213 square miles, its form is triangular, Cape Maysi, the eastern terminus of the island, forming the apex of the triangle, while the base, with a length of about one hundred miles, extends from Cabo Cruz along the Manzanillo coast to the north shore. One side of the triangle, formed by the south coast, has a length of nearly 250 miles, while another, without counting the convolutions of the sea coast, borders for two hundred miles on the Atlantic.

Mountain chains follow both the north and south shores of Oriente, while about one-third of its area, which composes the eastern section, is a great tangle or nest of irregular mountains, flat top domes, plateaus, and foothills, with their intervening basins, parks and valleys.

While the main chain, or mountainous vertebrae, seems to disappear in the Sierra de Cubitas of Camaguey, it reappears again, just west of the Bay of Manati, in the extreme northern part of the province, and extends along the north shore at broken intervals, until it finally melts into that great eastern nest of volcanic upheavals that forms the eastern end of the Island. From this north shore chain, innumerable spurs are thrown off to the southward between Manati and Nipe Bay, reaching sometimes twenty-five or thirty miles back into the interior.

A MOUNTAIN ROAD, ORIENTE

Along the southern shore of Oriente from Cabo Cruz to Cabo Maysi, ascending at times abruptly from the beach, and at others dropping back a little, we have the longest and tallest mountain range of Cuba. One peak, known as Turquino, located midway between the city of Santiago de Cuba and Cape Cruz, reaches an altitude of 8,642 feet.

From the crest of this range, known as the Sierra Maestra, the great network of spurs are thrown off to the north toward the valley of the Cauto, while between these mountain offshoots several of the Cauto’s most important tributaries, including the Cautill, Contraemaestre and Brazos del Cauto, have their sources.

Most of the mountainous districts are still covered with dense tropical forests that contain over three hundred varieties of hard woods, the cost of transportation alone preventing their being cut and marketed.

The interior of the Province, from the Mayari River west, is the largest valley in Cuba, with a virgin soil marvellously rich through which runs the Cauto River, emptying into the Caribbean Sea, a little north of the City of Manzanillo. This stream, with its tributaries, forms the most extensive waterway in the Island.

A tributary on the north known as the Rio Salado, rising south of the city of Holguin, flows in a westerly direction and empties into the Cauto just above the landing of Guamo, some fifteen miles from the Caribbean. Small streams empty into all of the numerous deep water gulfs and bays that indent the north coast of Oriente. Each serves its purpose in draining adjacent lands, but none, with the exception of the Mayari, is navigable. This stream, the most important perhaps of the north coast, rises in the eastern center of the Province, cutting its way west along the base of the Crystal Mountains, until it reaches their western end, whence it makes a sharp turn to the north, and after tumbling over the falls, gradually descends and empties into Nipe Bay.

The Sagua de Tanamo and its tributaries drain quite a large basin east of the Mayari, and empty into the Gulf of Tanamo. The Moa, a short stream, rises not far from the Tanamo but flows north to the ocean. The Toa, flowing east, cuts through valleys for fifty miles, and finally empties into the Atlantic thirty miles west of Cape Maysi.

But little is known of this river; and like many of the streams which for countless centuries have been cutting their tortuous ways through the table lands and gorges of the eastern part of Oriente, its shores have seldom been visited by human beings since the Siboney Indians, who once made that section their home, gave up trying to be Christians and took their chances of happiness on the other side of the “Great Divide.”

The Harbor of Puentes Grandes, that separates Oriente from Camaguey on the north coast, is sufficiently deep for ordinary draft vessels, but owing to sand spits and coral reefs that extend for some distance out into the Atlantic, and to the fact that good harbors lie within a few miles on either side, commerce up to the present has never sought this place as a port of entry.

About twelve miles east, however, we have the Bay of Manati with a fairly easy entrance and an elbow-like channel that will give anchorage to vessels drawing fathoms. On the shore of Manati Bay has been established a very fine sugar mill surrounded by thousands of acres of cane grown in the Yarigua Valley. Sugar is exported from this port directly to the United States.

Within the next twenty-five miles, east, are found two well protected harbors, Malagueta and Puerto Padre. The latter is the deeper and more important, owing to the large basin of fertile lands immediately surrounding it. Puerto Padre has excellent anchorage and belongs to the type of narrow mouthed bays so common to the north coast of Cuba.

On the eastern shore of Puerto Padre are located two of the Cuban American Sugar Company’s largest mills, “El Chaparra” and “Las Delicias,” each with a capacity of 600,000 bags of sugar per year. These two mills are considered, both in location and equipment, among the finest in the world. The sugar, of course, is shipped directly from Puerto Padre to New York, rendering them independent of railroad transportation, and consequently large revenue producing properties.

General Mario Menocal, General Manager of the Cuban American Company’s mills, began his great industrial career at Chaparra, which he left to assume the Presidency of the Republic in 1913. It is a very neat little city, with wide avenues, comfortable homes, good schools and many of the conveniences of much larger places. President Menocal visits Chaparra several times during the grinding season each year.

Some thirty-five miles east we have the large open roadstead of Jibara, with sufficient depth of water to provide for shipping, but with very little protection from northerly gales. On the western side of this harbor is located the city of Jibara, which forms the shipping place for the rich Holguin district, some thirty miles south.

Some forty miles further east, around the bold Punta de Lucrecia, we have another fine, deep-water, perfectly protected harbor, known as the Bay of Banes, whose rich valleys lying to the south and west contribute cane to the Ingenio Boston, belonging to the United Fruit Company, whose output is approximately half a million bags of sugar per year.

Southeast of Banes, about fifteen miles, we reach the entrance of the Bay of Nipe, considered one of the finest and best protected harbors in the world. Its entrance is sufficiently wide for ships to pass in or out at ease, while the bay itself furnishes forty-seven miles of deep water anchorage.

Nipe Bay is a little round inland sea, measuring ten miles from north to south by fifteen from east to west. The Mayari River flows into the bay from the southern shore and furnishes, for light draft boats, transportation to the city, some six miles up the river. On the north shore of the bay is located the town of Antilla, terminus of the northern extension of the Cuba Company’s lines, and one of the most important shipping places on the north coast. On the Bay of Nipe is located the Ingenio Preston, one of the finest sugar mills in Cuba, contributing 371,000 bags in the year 1918 to the sugar stock of the world.

Some seven or eight miles east of the entrance of Nipe lies another large, beautiful, land-locked bay, or rather two bays, separated by a tongue of land extending into the entrance of the harbor and known as Lavisa and Cabonico, both of which are deep, although the first mentioned, with a length of eight miles and a width of six, is the larger of the two. The shores of both these harbors are covered with magnificent hardwood forests, most of which have remained intact. The lands surrounding them are rich, and will, within a very short time, probably be converted into large sugar estates. These beautiful virgin forests, with their marvellously fertile soil, surrounding the harbors of Lavisa and Cabonico, might have been purchased ten years ago at prices varying from eight to twelve dollars an acre. In 1918 they were sold at fifty dollars per acre, and were easily worth twice that sum.

Fifteen miles further east we have another fine deep-water harbor known as Tanamo. Its entrance is comparatively easy, and although the bay is very irregular in shape, the channel furnishes good anchorage for fairly deep draft vessels. The Sagua de Tanamo River, whose tributaries drain the rich valleys south of the bay, has its source in the great nest of mountains in the eastern end of Oriente.

Baracoa, some twenty miles east, is a small, picturesque anchorage, but with almost no protection against northerly winds, and for this reason cannot rank as a first class port, although a good deal of shipping leaves it during the year, the cargoes consisting mostly of cocoanuts and bananas, for which this district has always been quite a center of production in Oriente.

It was on this harbor that Diego Velasquez made the first settlement in Cuba, in the year 1512. He called it the city of Nuestra Senora de la Asuncion, but the original Indian name of Baracoa has remained attached to the spot where Spanish civilization began in the Pearl of the Antilles.

It was here that General Antonio Maceo with a little band of thirty men landed from Costa Rica in March, 1895, and began the War of Independence, which ultimately led to the formation of the Republic of Cuba.

Rounding Cape Maysi at the extreme eastern end of Cuba, and following the south coast, no harbor is found until we reach Guantanamo Bay, nearly a hundred miles west. This magnificent harbor was first visited by Columbus on his second voyage when he sailed along the south coast in 1494. The celebrated navigator referred to it as “Puerto Grande,” but the original Indian name of Guantanamo again replaced that of the white invaders.

The Bay of Guantanamo is considered one of the finest harbors in the world. It was selected from all the ports of Cuba by Captain Lucien Young in 1901 as the best site for a naval station in the West Indies for the United States Navy. Arrangements were later made between Cuba and authorities in Washington, by which it was formally ceded for that purpose. Not only is Guantanamo a large bay, extending some fifteen miles up into the interior, but its mouth is sufficiently wide and deep to permit three first-class men of war to enter or leave the harbor abreast at full speed, without danger of collision or contact with the channel’s edge on either side.

The Guantanamo River, after draining the great wide valleys that lie to the north and west, enters the Bay on the western shore. The City of Guantanamo, some fifteen miles back, is connected by rail with the coast, and also with the city of Santiago de Cuba, fifty miles further west. It was founded toward the end of the eighteenth century by French refugees from Santo Domingo, and has at present a population of 28,000.

Eleven large sugar estates are located in the Guantanamo valley, which is one of the largest cane producers in Oriente.

Fifty miles further west we find the harbor of Santiago de Cuba, absolutely land-locked, and probably the most beautiful of all in the West Indies. Its entrance, between two headlands, is narrow and might easily escape observation unless the passing vessel were less than a mile from shore. Rounding the high promontory of the east, with its old-fashioned fort of the middle eighteenth century, one enters a magnificent bay, dotted with palm covered islands, gradually opening and spreading out towards the north. Its winding channels present changing views at every turn, until the main or upper bay is reached, on the northern shore of which is located the city of Santiago de Cuba, that for half a century after its founding in 1515 was the capital of Cuba.

Santiago played a very important part in the early history, or colonial days, of the Pearl of the Antilles, passing through the trials and tribulations that befell the first white settlers in this part of the Western Hemisphere. Not many years after its founding, it was sacked and burned by French corsairs.

Santiago was one of the few cities in all Cuba that retained the names given them by their Spanish founders. It was here in June, 1538, that Hernando de Soto, appointed Governor by the King of Spain, recruited men for that unfortunate expedition into the great unknown territory across the Gulf, which cost him his life, although his name became immortal as the discoverer of the Mississippi River.

Santiago became famous in American history through the destruction of Cervera’s fleet by Admirals Sampson and Schley, and the capitulation of the city to United States forces in July, 1898. It has a population of about 45,000. The city lies on the southern slope of the plateau, rising from the bay towards the interior. Its streets are well laid out and fairly wide, with several charming little parks, or plazas, such as are found in all Latin American cities.

The commercial standing of the city is based on the heavy shipments of sugar and ores, iron, copper and manganese mined in the surrounding mountains. The building of the Cuba Company’s railroad connecting it with the other end of the Island and with the Bay of Nipe on the north coast, did much towards increasing the importance of Santiago. The outlying districts of the city are reached by a splendid system of automobile drives, surveyed and begun at the instigation of General Leonard Wood, then governor of the Province, in 1900. These well-built, macadamized carreteras wind around hills and beautiful valleys, many of which have a historic interest, especially the crest of the Loma San Juan, or San Juan Hill, captured by the American forces in the summer of 1898. A unique kiosk has been built on the summit of this hill from which a view of El Caney, over toward the east, and many other points which figured in that sharp, brief engagement, are indicated on brass tablets, whose pointed arrows, together with accompanying descriptions, give quite a comprehensive idea of the battle which loosened the grip of the Spanish monarchy on the Pearl of the Antilles, and made Cuban liberty possible for all time to come. In the valley just below is a beautiful Ceiba tree, under which the peace agreement between American and Spanish commanders was concluded in July, 1898. The grounds are inclosed by an iron fence with various inscriptions instructive and interesting.

Santiago is named in honor of the Patron Saint of Spain, and the Archbishop of Cuba, in keeping with custom and early traditions, still makes his headquarters in this picturesque and historically interesting capital of the Province of Oriente.

Between Santiago and Cabo Cruz, one hundred and fifty miles west, is but one harbor worthy of mention, the Bay of Portillo, a rather shallow although well protected indentation of the south coast. On the rich level lands at the base of the mountains back of and around the harbor of Portillo, grow enormous fields of cane, feeding the mill on the western side of the bay. Several other indentations of the south coast furnish landing places from which either timber or agricultural products may be shipped, when southerly winds do not endanger the anchorage. A small harbor known as Media Luna, between Cabo Cruz and Manzanillo, forms the shipping place of the Ingenio Isabel, which produced 175,000 sacks of sugar in 1918.

The somewhat shallow harbor of Manzanillo is located at the mouth of a small stream in the Sierra Maestra. Vessels of more than fifteen feet draft, find the Manzanillo channel somewhat difficult. The city itself is comparatively modern, with wide streets regularly planned and laid out. Its population is about 18,000, although the municipal district contains some 35,000 inhabitants. Manzanillo is one of the chief shipping ports and distributing points for the rich valley of the Cauto, the largest valley by far in Cuba. This river during the rainy season is navigable for river boats for some hundred miles to the interior. Bars that have formed near its mouth on the west shore of Guacanabo Gulf prevent the navigation of deeper craft.

The City of Bayamo, located on the Bayamo River, a tributary of the Cauto, is connected by the southern branch of the Cuba Company’s Railroad with Manzanillo, twenty-five miles west, and also with Santiago de Cuba. It was one of the original seven cities founded by Diego Velasquez in 1514. In the early days of colonial occupation, Bayamo passed through the same period of trials and tribulations that afflicted nearly all of the early settlements in Cuba.

Historically it has never been prominent as the birth-place of struggles in which the natives of Cuba endeavored to throw off the yoke of Spain. It was the home of Cespedes, the first revolutionary President of the Island, who freed his slaves in 1868, and with a small force of men raised the cry known as the “Crita de Baire,” that started the Ten Years’ War.

Again, in February, 1895, General Bartolome Maso with his son and a few loyal companions left his home in the city of Bayamo, and at his farm called “Yara” declared war against the armies of the Spanish Monarchy, never surrendering until Independence was eventually secured through the defeat of Spain by American forces in 1898. The city, although boasting only of some 5,000 inhabitants, is located in the fertile plains of the Cauto Valley, known throughout the world as the largest sugar cane basin ever placed under cultivation. The Cuban National Hymn had its origin in this little city and is known as the “Himno de Bayamo.”