————————— TT TTT A PANORAMIC VIEW OF THE HARBOR OF HAVANA. ~ THE PEARL OF THE ANTILLES. The Story Cuba, Her People, Her Resources, the Begining of Her Struggle for Freedom and Her Successes Up to Date. A Wrong Public Impression as | | | | to the Climate of Cuba—Mining Easy and All Kinds of Minerals to be Found. Havana is a Picturesque City and | Though Only 90 Miles from Our Coast is ’ Thoroughly Foreign. [Copyright, 1898, by the Author.] Cuba! It is a name that now is fa- | miliar to every household in all the civilized earth. The suffering of its people, the dying groans of its tortared patriots, have formed the minor key of sorrow in the world’s grand song of progress. And yet, in spite of the fact that it bas long held the interest and sympathy of fair minded people, no land is so little known and so greatly underestimated. The traveier who glimpses for the first time her marvel- ous shores is overcome with astonish- ment at the panorama of immense pos- sibility that lies shimmering before him, for even now, her richest vest- ments shredded, her body bleeding un- der the violent hands of an unnatural parent, Cuba remains the indestructible Pearl of the Antilles, with such wealth in her soil and under it as no earthly power can take away. ; As everybody knows, the develop- ment of Cuba had been from its earliest occupancy retarded and at times prac- tically stopped by the rule of Spain. Soon after the foot of Columbus touched Jer virgin soil the dark cloud of oppres- sion began to hover over her, and it was sonly by the sheer force of her innate “worth, coupled with the necessities of her inhabitants, that her glorious prod- ucts became, even to a limited extent, available. ' When in 1511 Columbus gent his son Diego, with a number of colonists, to ‘Cuba, the big island was speedily set- fled, and measurements of its propor- tions were made by a party of official agramcnsores (surveyors), and these measurements were of such accuracy that they remain as standards today. The length of the island was found to be in round ‘numbers 600 miles, its width at its narrowest point 21 miles and at its widest point 111 miles. This gives to the long, shark shaped island an area of approximately 43,000 square miles, or nearly tho size of the state of Pennsylvania. In view of the necessity of the exten- sive exploration which was incident to this comprehensive survey it seems passing strange that no more of Cuba’s richness was discovered and utilized for the development of the strength and value of the new colony. This derelic- tion, however, was probably not the fault of the really vigorous and progress- ive adherents of the son of the great discoverer. Indeed from a careful stndy of history, though exact dates are not to be obtained, it would seem that it was soon after its colonization that the greed of the mother country began to cripple the enterprises and mar the des- tiny of the new government that was forming on this new soil. Cuba’s Great Grievance. The grievance of Cuba, which has lasted all these years, dates from this early period. It was in its nature and operation the parallel of the one which brought about the bloody but glorious birth of our own independence—that is to say, taxation without representation. But there was a vast difference in the situation of the Cubans. While our Rev- olutionist fathers were vastly inferior to the enemy in point of numbers, their proportion $o the whole number of fight- ing Englishmen who could be landed on our shores was not of such smailness as to preclude all hope, whereas the mere handful of Cubans were so overwhelm- ingly overmatched by the armed force that Spain could muster as to be practi- cally in her pov er after the first demon- stration. And sc there have been insurrection after insurrection and defeat after de- feat, and the consequent horrible butch- eries of retribution, until Cuba, the beautiful, the rich, the wonderful, has been little more than a bloody abattoir wherein the lives and hopes of a weak but marvelously courageous people have been periodically sacrificed. Bat the immortal longing for liberty could not be crushed out of the breast of the sons of these patriots, and they, in turn, have made the same struggle. But the results of these heroic efforts became in time of more and more im- portance to the people of Cuba and less and less satisfactory to the administra- | | tion at Madrid, and thus, from years of | weakness, strength grew, so that insur rection came to mean revolution, and there dawned upon the sight of the striving patriot the splendid vision of a blood bought but free republic. But people know more of the strug- gles of Cuba than they do of Cuba itself. Every civilized inhabitant of the globe has followed with feelings of indigna- tion and pity the story of Cuba’s suffer- ing. All the ‘“insurrections,’’ the ‘‘Sep- aratist wars’’ and the other vain but valiant efforts of the Cubans to throw off the Spanish yoke have appealed to his chivalry and wrung his heart with grief and rage; but, as a rule, he is as ignorant of the scene of these struggles as if they had occurred in the viewless air. And yet, in the comparatively small compass of its watery bounda- ries, there is concentrated a greater va- riety of natural resources than are to be found in any other island, state, prov- ince or country beneath the sun. This may sound extravagant, but the statement is verified by all reliable sta- tistics and unprejudiced witnesses. And when those who cavil come to reckon up its advantages—its millions of acres of soil, richer than any in the United States, that will grow anything from a potato to a pineapple; its abundant yields of sugar and tobacco; its tre- mendous forests of mahogany and other precious woods; its uplands, upon which is grown every product of the temper- ate zone, and its fertile valleys, from which luxuriantly spring the most lus- cious fruits of the tropics; its mines of iron and copper and manganese; its hundreds of beautiful and excellent harbors, and the soft, healthful atmos- phere of perpetual summer that forms the setting for this peerless ‘‘Pearl’’— their doubts will be swallowed up in conviction. A Complex Study. A study of this wonderful island is complex from any standpoint. The geog- rapher, with the best map in his pos- session, will find new inlets, the natu- ralist will add to his collection, and the mineralogist will revel in novelties, and even the blase cosmopolitan will recover in Cuba the zest which had gone out of his life. And all this is merely to say . that a great deal of the accepted data with reference to Cuba is either inexact or wholly faulty. This, of course, like everything else that works injury to the island as to its relation to the rest of the world, is due to the autocratic and | ignorant methods of the Spanish author- ities, the tendency of whose ‘‘disci- | pline’’ is toward handicapping every | public spirited enterprise and retarding : everything that is not done directly in, the interest of the nonor and glory and ' revenue of the power across the sea, for i whom this poor, downcast people have | been working out what has heretofore appeared to be a life subsidy. Notwithstanding all these difficulties, the enterprise of Americans and others foreign to the soil has led native indus- try in the right direction, and its com- merce has grown in the teeth of riot and insurrection. The normal population, 1,700,000, composed of something near 1,000,000 persons of Spanish descent, 10,000 foreign whites, 43,000 Chinese | and 500,000 negroes and colored people, is not a busy throng. The loitering Cu- | ban of today can hardly be recognized as the descendant of those sturdy pioneers of the sixteenth century who fashioned the gigantic bastions of El Castillo de la Fuerza—the Castle of Strength—but still he cau be brought to bestir himself if a sufficient financial inducement is offered. To be entirely just, it should be said that enterprise is not wholly want- ing, even among the laboring classes. And so capital, which was at first large- ly American, was put to work, and as a result cities have sprung up, large plantations have been put under cultiva- tion, mines have been opened up, and sugar, tobacco and the hundreds of oth- er valuable products of the island have been made to enrich it. As is well | known, a large and usurious part of the annual revenues of planters, miners and | manufacturers has been taken for taxes, | and at length it has found its way into | the ever depleted coffers of the home government at Madrid. And still traffic increased until the beginning of the reve | rising has been, on the average, 85,000,- had laid waste the canefields and de- | stroyed factories and mills the busy olution in 1895, when there commenced the devastation which has cost Cuba so ' dearly. The chief products of the island are sugar and tobacco, and the amount an- nually realized from these products dur- ing the years just preceding the last up- 000 pesos (dollars), and the revenue from mineral sources has been grossly esti- mated at 3,500,000 pesos. The amounts derived from other sources (including cotton, of which a good deal is pro- duced) were considerable, but these were the most important. And just here, as an instance of the slumbrous apathy that has resulted from years of hopeless subjugation and practical serf- dom, the opening up of the iron mines ! in the province of Santiago de Cuba, at the eastern end of the island, may profit- ably be cited. These valuable mines, though discovered nearly a century ago, never felt the blow of a pick until 1883, when a party of New York capitalists determined to make an effort to pur- chase and develop them. Negotiations with the Spanish government were at once commenced, and in 1885, after two years of persuasion, concessions were obtained and work was commenced. Stock companies were organized in New York and Philadelphia, and bonds were ! floated. These companies were the Ju- ragua, the Spanish-American, the Signe and others. From these mines the an- nual exportation grew to be more than 500,000 tons of iron ore and 40,000 tons of manganese, amounting to $3,000,000 in value at the lowest estimate. Mining Is Easy. Mining was nominal, as the ore could be readily broken up by surface blast- ing. In order to carry ore to the United States a large fleet of steamers was nec- essary. On the return trip from the Unit- ed States these steamers at first went empty or with ballast only, but it final- ly dawned upon the owners of the ves- sels that loads might as well be carried, and the steamers began to take coal to the West Indies. And thus it came about that the shipment of iron ore to the United States facilitated the expor- tation of Pennsylvania coal to the West Indies. The development of this industry was one of many enterprises that have been successfully pursued in this wonderful land despite the singularly unfavorable conditions that have existed. Cuba’s greatest wealth must always come from the vegetable products of the earth. Her soil is wonderful. It is not only tertile, but inexhaustible. Three crops of cane grow from one planting. No fertilizers are used. The soil in places has the great depth of 27 feet. Tobacco : needs no guano to make a crop and not | nearly so much labor as is required in cultivation elsewhere. Anything that grows under the tropical sun can be grown in Cuba, although during recent years the soil has been given up to the production of sugar and tobacco. Before the devastating torch of war hum of fruitful labor stirred all the air. The cost of making sugar was gradually reduced by the introduction of labor saving machinery, and the business set- tled down to a paying basis, and by the increased power of production the de- mand for cane grew, planters were en- couraged, and the fruitful island began to wear a prosperous air. The tobacco planters and manufacturers also im- proved their methods, and this rival product kept even pace with its saccha- rine competitor. The annual sugar crop was worth $45,000,000, the tobacco crop $6,000,000. Then came the revolu- tion. Somehow, when one writes of Cuba, everything comes back to that point and strikes it as against a dead wall after clearing the cruel hurdles of Spanish tyranny. But let us revert to the first branch of the subject—the island proper in its en- tirety. The coast contour of Cuba is broken with hundreds of inlets, all of them harbors in greater or less degree, each having its small fortifications, its villages and its special industries. The profile of the island, to quote the lan- guage of the railroad engineer, is varied snd picturesque, here a high peak, there a valley, there a plain. Beginning at Santiago de Cuba, the most easterly of the six provincss, and proceeding west- ward through "Puerto Principe, Santa Clara, Matanzi.s Habana and to the land’s end of Pinar del Rio, the tourist traverses maguificent stretches of pla- teau and cresses innumerable valleys, skirts high mountains and follows deep and picturesque gorges, but the moun- tains become hills, and these are grad- nally shaded own until in the extreme west a surface, generally level, is reach- »d, although in the vicinity of the bueen City, Havana, small but rugged mar peaks, with precipitous sides, may be seen in many directions along the shore. Picturesque Havana. To say that Havana is picturesque , and beautiful is but to give vent to the first superficial expression that comes to your lips. Spain itself cannot show a more curious or interesting city. Study it as you approach it from the sea, with mighty Morro set high upon the head- land, time dyed in mottled splotches of yellow, gray and black, and the red and yellow flags above, with La Junta across the narrow channel, prim and white, save where the ugly dahlgren guns flash at you like venomous black eyes, and the city is as interesting and impressive a sight as human eye ever beheld. As the capital, metropolis and chief seaport of Cuba it is one of the best known cities in the American hemi- sphere. Its splendid harbor, its commer- cial importance, its climate and the tinge of romance that ever attaches to its people have made its fame world- wide. Havana has about 260,000 inhab- itants. It was founded but 23 years after the discovery by Columbus and has always been the commercial em- porium of the Antilles. Few cities have such beautiful parks and driveways as has Havana. The great Plaza de Armas is the chief. It com- prises four parks, in the center of which is a statue of Ferdinand VII. Then there are the Alameda de Paula, bor- dering on the bay, and the Campo de Marte, used as a drill ground for the military. This is an enormous park. If has four handsome gates, named respec- tively Colon, Cortez, Pizarro and Tacon. The Paseo de Tacon is a magnificent drive with double rows of trees. It has numerous columns and statues, among the latter one of Charles III, ranking among the finest works of art in Amer- ica. The commerce of Havana is only sur- passed in the new world by that of New York. Two-thirds of the products of Cuba find outlet through Havana. The exports of sugar alone are annually about 120,000,000 pounds. Havana was first called San Cristobal de la Habana, in honor of Columbus, but gradually the prefix was dropped. Havana has been frequently attacked from the sea. Drake tried to take it in 1585, but failed. In 1762 a British fleet under Admiral Pocock bombarded the city and compelled it to capitulate, bui it was restored to the Spaniards the next year by the treaty of Paris. Not a Hot Country. We are accustomed to think of Cuba as a hot country, situated as it is under the tropics, and the common impression is correct to the extent that the mean average temperature of the year is high- er than in countries farther north, but the climate is more equable. There are not those sudden variations that in many parts of the United States are so severe on the human constitution. In Havana, for example, the average tem- perature of the hottest month is 84 degrees; of the coldest, 72. In Santiago de Cuba, a city often mentioned in the war dispatches, the average of the year is 80; of the hottest month, 84; of the coolest, 78. These are high figures, but ! not very high for an island lying in equatorial regions and surrounded by water that is warm to the hand all the year round. To a stranger from a dry country a feature more objectionable thun the steady heat is the tremendous rainfall. The geographical and topo- graphical situation of Cuba provides two seasons only, the wet and the dry. | During the iatter rains ars not frequent, being atoned for, however, by the abun- dance of the dew, but in the rainy sea- son Jupiter Pluvius seems to turn him- self loose to excel all previous efforts, and from 125 to 140 inches of rain is not uncommon, there being about 102 days when the rain comes down not in drops, but in sheets, in masses, in tub- fuls at a time, as though the windows of the heavens were opened and the floods of the great aerial deep had bro- ken loose. Soabundant is the rainfall, in fact, that, as a recent traveler remarks, the wonder is that any island remains; that the whole is not dissolved and car- ried off into the sea. But in Cuba no one minds the rain. Notwithstanding the peculiarities of its coast line, Cuba has more than 200 excellent ports. The principal of these are Havana, Bahia Hondo, Puerto de Cabanas, Matanzas, Cardenas, Sagua la Grande, La Guanaja, Nuevitas, Male- gueta, Mauati, Puerto del Padre. Santa. ago de Cuba, Manzanillo, Canto, San. Cruz, Cienfrogos, Cochinos and La Bron. The rivers of Cuba are not large, but numerous, there being no fewer than 269) of them, all told, and that is exclusive of small creeks and dry beds of torrents, nlled arroyos. The Canto, the only sally navigable stream, rises in the Sierra del Cobre and has its outlet on the south coast near Manzanillo. There are a few other streams which are nav- igable for small boats for a distance of from 8 to 20 miles. Next in importance are the streams Guines and Ay. At one time it was the intention to cut a canal through the land intervening and bisect the island, but the idea was finally abandoned as impracticable. Cuba contains many mineral springs which are famed for their valuable heal- ing properties, principal among them being those known as the baths of San Diego. The temperature of the water is 82 degrees F., and it is very strongly im- pregnated with oxygen, carbonic acid gases, chloride of sodium, sulphate of lime, nitrate of lime, iron, magnesia, silex and chloride of calcium. Four glasses of it a day and two baths are the regulation cure for almost every disease known to materia medica, but it is probable that the warm, pure air, sim- ple diet and faith have much to do with it. At any rate, a great many surpris- ing cures have been effected, particular- ly of bronchial and scrofulous com- plaints. People have been taken from the steamer on litters, apparently just ready to die, who in a week’s time have been riding over the hills on horse- back and in a month have gone home as ‘‘good as new’’ and well as anybody. If these springs were in the United States, with the same air to accompany them, or if managed where they are by some sensible, wide awake Anglo-Sax- on, they would become the sanitarium of the world, beside which Saratoga, Carlsbad, Las Vegas and White Sulphur would hide their diminished heads. All Kinds of Minerals. Nearly all metals and minerals that are useful in any sort of industry are found in Cuba—gold, silver, iron, cop- per, quicksilver, lead, asphaltum in all its forms, antimony, arsenic, manganese, copperas, red lead, etc. In the Sarama- guacan and several other rivers gold has been found, though not in paying quan- tities. Silver of a certain grade abounds in Pinar del Rio, San Fernando and Yumuri. Almost all the metamorphic rocks contain copper, and these are scat- tered all over the island. It is usually found in the form of pyrites and sul- phurets. . In the eastern part of Cuba, about 13 miles from Santiago, the rich copper . mines of El Cobre were worked for a good many years by an English com- pany. They were abandoned during the last revolution. There are other mines not yet open and some not yet exhausted. ; The city of Santiago, by the way, is worth more than mere passing mention, it being the chief city of the eastern de- partment. It lies 600 miles southeast of the present capital and ranks third in commercial importance—Havana first and Matanzas second. It is the archbish- op’s residence, and to it people flock from all parts of the island during cer- tain yearly religious festivals, which are celebrated with remarkable pomp and ceremony. It is also the terminus of two railway lines, one of which is the outlet of Lomas de Cobre, the famous copper mines, and ‘the other, passing through the richest sugar district, af- |. fords transportation for that great staple. The exports of the port reach the handsome annual aggregate of $8,- 000,000, three-fourths of which is in sugar, the rest cocoa, rum, tobacco, i honey and mahogany. Of the fertility of Cuba’s soil too much 'cannot be said. In the western part the celebrated Vuelta Abajo tobac- co is raised. It has no equal in the world. In the eastern part, near Santi- ago, there are some tracts of !and which yield excellent tobacco, almost as fine as that of Vuelta Abajo. Even Coffee Thrives. The sugar cane grows all through the island and yields the largest percentage known of saccharine matter. In some parts of the island the coffee tree thrives very well, and the quality of the bean is equal to the best Maracaibo or Cen- tral American. The banana and the plantain also flourish. Large quantities | of the latter are raised and consumed nourishing food. Of the former, in the sastern part, there are great planta- tions, and several million dollars’ worth are exported every year to the United States. The orange and the pineapple abound in the island and about 12 other spe- cies of most delicious fruits, as the guava, the mango, the mamey, the anona, ete. As has been said, the forests of the island contain a great number of valua- ble hard and cabinet wogds, among them the mahogany and the cedar, of which there are very large quantities. There are plantations of the cocoanut tree, and millions of the nuts are ex- ported yearly. The cocoa treealso grows very well, and the bean is of a very su- perior quality. The cedar furnishes the material of the cigar boxes. The fruits of the island comprise nearly all those found in the tropics. The pineapple is indigenous to the soil. There were at the time of the discovery of the island six varieties of the sweet potato cultivated by the na- tive Indians, as well as the yucca or cavassa and Indian corn. Although the forests are dense, very nearly impene- trable, they are inhabited by no wild animals larger than the wild dogs, which are, in fact, small wolves. These are pests to planters, as they destroy quantities of poultry and young cattle. The jutia, a small animal resembling a muskrat, living in trees and having the habits of the raccoon, is the only other animal of importance that is found. Birds in great number and variety here make their homes, and many migratory fowls use the island for a breeding place. Characteristics of the People. The spirit of the people is light and gay. The Latin mind is volatile and not given to mourning. Grief here, like hatred, is violent while it lasts, but smiles and laughter follow swiftly. The race characteristics are distinctly Latin. The Cuban lady is charming. She moves with simple elegance, in- variably having that great.desideratum of most American women—an unaffect- ed and graceful carriage. Bonnets and hats are things which, for the most part, she happily knows not at all, but she wears across her glancing shoulders or lightly thrown over her head a shawl of white or black lace. The highest ex- amples of her are almost matchless as types of glorious, dark, feminine beauty, with their slight, well rounded figures, their wealth of billowy, blue black hair and the finely chiseled features of their sweet oval faces, which seem, after all, but the fit setting of glorious eyes, dark as night, soft as velvet, yet bright as winter stars. That the Cuban lady is not lacking in mentality, in native wit, cleverness and understanding she has often proved when transplanted to more stimulating climates. She has been a leader in the brilliant intellectual salons of Paris, and if at home she is seldom distinguished by high intellectual ac- complishments it may charitably be sup- posed to be chargeable to a climate which renders protracted mental effort a real pain even to trained minds. Under the favorable conditions of peace, when homes have not been mar- red and polluted by the rough and de- grading touch of the trooper, the Cuban girl of quality is reared in the strictest refinement, and even the poor are more regardful of the proprieties than they are under the demoralizing influence of war. Bug the education of Cuban chil- dren bas been sadly neglected. As late as 1855 not a primary school could be found in towns boasting 2,500 or 3,000 inhabitants. In 1851, when Cuba was compelled to contribute $9,000,000 in support of the army of Spain, the amount appropriated for public instruc- tion in the island was less than $30,000. A few years ago Baracoa, with 1,365 children, had no more than two public schools, with accommodation for 136 children, and costing for teachers’ sala- ries, rent of building and other expenses the yearly sum of $780. Manzanillo, with 3,079 children, had four public schools, with an attendance of. 185, their full capacity, at a yearly expense of $3,686 for salaries, rent of buildings, school material, etc. Las Tunas, with 1,297 children, had two schools, with 156 children, at an annual total cost of $1,160. The children of the well to do families were either educated at home or at private schools at a cost entirely beyond the means of the lower classes. The gentleman of Cuba is well known. His hot blooded impetuosity and his open handed generosity are characteristics with which all the world is acquainted. And now, shen his visit is at an end, and his explorations are completed, and . he dwells in pleasant retrospect upon in the country. It is an exceedingly the illimitable richness of this singular- ly interesting isle, the stranger is forced to admit that, with all her wealth of resource, Cubg must be acc2pted, as it has been cla@ed by Cubans, as the country of manana (tomorrow), for, though partially developed, her re- sources are to a large extent lost to all good purposes, and it is to the morrow of liberty, the advancement of educa- tion and the concurrent emancipation of thought and action that Cubans must look for the rehabilitation of their loved isle and her acquirement of that place in the grand march of nations to which her innate wealth and worth en- title her. WALTER J. DAVIS.
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