When we had succeeded, at Kobe, in convincing the authorities that none of the passengers on the China had picked up the plague at Hongkong, we put out into the big sea, and shaped our course for the fairer land so far away, not exactly a straight line, for the convexity of the earth that includes the water, for the ocean—particularly the Pacific—is rounded so that the straightest line over its surface is a curved line, if astronomically mentioned. We struck out on the great Northern circle, purposing to run as high as the forty-eighth parallel, almost to our Alutian Islands, and pursued our course in full view, the bald cliffs of Japan changing their color with the going down of the sun. When morning came the purple bulk of the bestirring little empire still reminded us of the lights and shadows of Asia and the missionary labors of Sir Edwin Arnold, which have a flavor of the classics and a remembrance of the Scriptures. "Yonder," said the Captain, "is the famous mountain of Japan, Fugeyana. It is not very clearly seen, for it is distant. Oh, you are looking too low down and see only the foot-hills—that is it, away up in the sky!" It was there, a peak so lofty that it is solitary. We were to have seen it better later, but as the hours passed there was a dimness that the light of declining day did not disperse, and the mountain stayed with us in a ghostly way, and held its own in high communion.
As we were leaving Asian waters there came a demand for typhoons that the Captain satisfied completely, saying he was not hunting for them, but the worst one he ever caught was five hundred miles east of Yokohama. The tourists were rather troubled. The young man who had been in the wild waltz of the Zealandia did not care for a typhoon. We had been blessed with weather so balmy and healing, winds so soft and waves so low, that the ship had settled down steady as a river steamboat. We pushed on, but the best the China could do was fourteen knots and a half an hour, near 350 knots a day, with a consumption of 135 tons of coal in twenty-four hours. So much for not having been cleaned up so as to give the go of the fine lines. The China had been in the habit of making sixty miles a day more than of this trip, burning less than 100 tons of coal. As we climbed in the ladder of the parallels of latitude, we began to notice a crispness in the air, and it was lovely to the lungs. It was a pleasure, and a stimulant surpassing wine, to breathe the north temperate ozone again, and after a while to catch a frosty savor on the breeze. We had forgotten, for a few days, that we were not in a reeking state of perspiration. Ah! we were more than a thousand miles north of Manila, and that is as far as the coast of Maine to Cuba. The wind followed us, and at last gained a speed greater than our own; then it shifted and came down from the northwest. It was the wind that swept from Siberia, and Kamschatka's grim peninsula pointed us out. The smoke from our funnels blew black and dense away southeast, and did not change more than a point or two for a week. The Pacific began to look like the North Atlantic. There came a "chill out of a cloud" as in the poetic case of Annabel Lee. There had been, during our tropical experience, some outcries for the favor of a few chills, but now they were like the typhoons. When it was found that they might be had we did not want them. After all, warm weather was not so bad, and the chills that were in the wind that whistled from Siberia were rather objectionable. It was singular to call for one, two, three blankets, and then hunt up overcoats. White trousers disappeared two or three days after the white coats. Straw hats were called for by the wind. One white cap on an officer's head responded alone to the swarm of white caps on the water. The roll of the waves impeded our great northern circle. We could have made it, but we should have had to roll with the waves. We got no higher than 45 degrees. We had our two Thursdays, and thought of the fact that on the mystical meridian 180, where three days get mixed up in one! The Pacific Ocean, from pole to pole, so free on the line where the dispute as to the day it is, goes on forever, that only one small island is subject to the witchery of mathematics, and the proof in commonplace transactions unmixed with the skies that whatever may be the matter with the sun—the earth do move, is round, do roll over, and does not spill off the sea in doing so. At last came shrill head winds, and as we added fifteen miles an hour to this speed, the harp strings in the rigging were touched with weird music, and we filled our lungs consciously and conscientiously with American air, experiencing one of the old sensations, better than anything new.
It was figured out that we were within a thousand miles of the continent, and were getting home. When one has been to the Philippines, what's a thousand miles or two! "Hello, Captain Seabury! It is only about a thousand miles right ahead to the land. You know what land it is, don't you? Well, now, you may break the shaft or burst the boilers, fling the ship to the sperm whales, like the one that was the only living thing we saw since Japan entered into the American clouds of the West. We are only a thousand miles away from the solid, sugary sweet, redolent, ripe American soil, and if there is anything the matter we do not mind, why we will just take a boat and pull ashore." But we would have had a hard time if the Captain had taken us up in the flush of the hilarity that laughed at a thousand miles, when the breeze brought us the faint first hints that we were almost home, after a voyage of five thousand leagues. The wind shifted to the south and increased until it roared, and the waves were as iron tipped with blue and silver, hurling their salty crests over our towering ship; and we were in the grasp—
On the Pacific of the terrificStorm King of the Equinox.
Mr. Longfellow mentioned the storm wind gigantic, that shook the Atlantic at the time of the equinox—the one that urges the boiling surges bearing seaweed from the rocks; and all those disappointed because they had not bounded on the billows of the briny enough for healthy exercises, were satisfied in the reception by the tremendous Pacific when nigh the shore, which was once the western boundary, but is so no more, of that blessed America, of which her sons grow fonder the farther they roam. God's country, as the boys and girls call it reverently, when they are sailing the seas, was veiled from us in a fog that blanketed the deep. For five thousand miles our ship had been in a remorseless solitude. No voice had come to us; no spark of intelligence from the universe touched us, save from the stars and the sun, but at the hour of the night, and the point of the compass, our navigator had foretold, we should hear the deep-throated horn on Reyes point—it came to us out of the gloomy abyss—and science had not failed. Across the trackless waste we had been guided aright, and there was music the angels might have envied in the hoarse notes of the fog-horn that welcomed the wanderers home.
Our Picture Gallery.
Annotations and Illustrations—Portraits of Heroes of the War in the Army and Navy, and of the Highest Public Responsibilities—Admirals and Generals, the President and Cabinet—Photographs of Scenes and Incidents—The Characteristics of the Filipinos—Their Homes, Dresses and Peculiarities in Sun Pictures—The Picturesque People of Our New Possessions.
The portrait of President McKinley is from the photograph that seems to his friends upon the whole the most striking of his likenesses. That of the Secretary of State, the Honorable John Hay, is certainly from the latest and best of his photos. The Postmaster General, the Honorable Charles Emory Smith, and Secretary Bliss, are presented in excellent form and the whole Cabinet with unusual faithfulness. Our naval and military heroes in the war that has introduced the American nation to the nations of the earth as a belligerent of the first class, cannot become too familiar to the people, for they are of the stuff that brightens with friction, and the more it is worn gives higher proof that it is of both the precious metals in war, gold and steel.
Admiral Dewey, as we have set forth in this volume, is not thus far fairly dealt with in the pictures that have been taken. He is a surprise to those who meet him face to face—so far has photography failed to adequately present him, but the portrait we give is the best that has been made of him.
Major-General Merritt retains the keen, clear cut face, and the figure and bearing of an ideal soldier that has characterized him since, as a youth just from West Point, he entered the army and won his way by his courage and courtesy, his brilliant conduct and excellent intelligence, his dashing charges and superb leadership, to a distinguished position and the affectionate regard of the army and the people. In the Indian wars, after the bloody struggle of the States was over, he outrode the Indians on the prairies and was at once their conqueror and pacificator. He ranks in chivalry with the knights, and his work at Manila was the perfection of campaigning that produced conclusive results with a comparatively small shedding of blood.
The likeness of the Archbishop of Manila was presented me by His Grace at the close of a personal interview, and represents him as he is. The chapter devoted to him is meant to do him simple justice as a man and priest. The fact that he bestowed upon me in the inscription with which he greatly increased the value of his portrait a military dignity to which I have no title is an expression only of his friendliness. He frankly stated his pleasure in meeting an American who would convey to the President of the United States the message he gave me about the American army, to which he was indebted for security and peace of mind.
General Aguinaldo gave me his photograph, and the flag of the Filipinos with him in the effort to establish an independent government, republican in form. One is not always sure of that which happens in the Philippines, even when one reads about it. I am prepared to believe that there is much truth in the dispatch saying a majority of the Congress of the insurgents at Molores favor annexation to the United States. The whole truth probably is that they would gladly have this country their Protector at large, supreme in the affairs international, they to legislate in respect to local affairs. They need to know, however, that their Congress must become a territorial legislature, and that the higher law for them is to be the laws of Congress. The Philippine flag is oriental in cut and color, having red and blue bars—a white obtuse angle—the base to the staff, and a yellow moon with fantastic decorations occupying the field. This flag is one that Admiral Dewey salutes with respect. General Aguinaldo is giving much of his strength to the production of proclamations, and his literary labors should be encouraged.
On a September morning two years ago, Dr. Jose Rizal was shot by a file of soldiers on the Manila Luneta, the favorite outing park, bordering on the bay. The scene was photographed at the moment the Doctor stood erect before the firing squad, and the signal from the officer in command awaited for the discharge of the volley killing the most intellectual man of his race. Dr. Rizal is known as the Tagalo Martytr. The Tagalos are of the dominant tribe of Malays. General Aguinaldo is of this blood, as are the great majority of the insurgents. The Doctor is more than the martyr of a tribe. He is the most talented and accomplished man his people and country has produced. A history of Luzon from his pen is a hulky volume full of facts. I was not able to procure all of his books. Anyone in Manila found in possession of one of them during Spanish rule, would have been taken to the ground selected for human butchery in the appointed place of festivity, and shot as he was, making a holiday for the rulers of the islands. He wrote two novels, "Touch Us Not" and "The Filibusters," the latter a sequel of the former. These are books using the weapons put into the hand of genius to smite oppressors in command of the force of arms. The novels are said to be interesting as novels,—rather sensational in their disregard of the personal reputation of his foes, the friars, but all along between the lines there was argument, appeals for the freedom of the Filipinos, for freedom of speech, conscience and country. There are pamphlets printed the size of an average playing card, from thirty to forty pages each, one "Don Rodriguez," and another "The Telephone." These I obtained in Hongkong from the hands of the niece—daughter of the sister of the Doctor,—and she presented me also his poem written when in the shadow of death, of which this volume gives a prose translation. The poem is the farewell of the author to his friends, his country and the world. It is given in prose because in that style the spirit of the poet, indeed the poetry itself, can be rendered with better results, than by striving to sustain the poetic form. The poem would be regarded as happy and affecting in the thought that is in it, the images in which the ideas gleam, the pathos of resignation, the ascendency of hope, if there were nothing in the attendant circumstances that marked it with the blood of historic tragedy. This poetry that it would have been high treason to own in Manila, for it would not have been safe in any drawer however secret, was treasured by the relatives of the martyr at Hongkong. The niece spoke excellent English, and there was at once surprise and gratification in the family that an American should be interested in the Doctor who sacrificed himself to the freedom of his pen, so much as to ascend the steep places of the city to seek his writings for the sake of the people for whose redemption he died. On the page showing the face of the Doctor and the scene of his execution, there are two men in black, the victim standing firm as a rock to be shot down, and the priest retiring after holding the crucifix to the lips of the dying; and the portrait of the beautiful woman to whom the poet was married a few hours before he was killed. It is said that Rizal wanted to go to Cuba, but Captain-General Weyler answered a request from him that he might live there, that he would be shot on sight if he set foot on Cuban soil. Rizal, hunted hard, attempted to escape in disguise on a Spanish troop ship carrying discharged soldiers to Spain, but was detected while on the Red Sea, returned to Manila and shot to death. I stood on the curbstone that borders the Luneta along the principal pleasure drive, between the whispering trees and the murmuring surf of the bay, just where the martyred poet and patriot waited and looked over the waters his eyes beheld, the last moment before the crash of the rifles that destroyed him, and in the distance there was streaming in the sunshine the flag of our country—the star spangled banner, and long, long may it wave, over a land of the free and home of the brave!
The picture of the cathedral shows a tower that was shattered from the foundation to the cross by the earthquake of 1863. Ambitious architecture must conform to the conditions imposed by such disasters, and the great edifice is greatly changed.
In our gallery we treat Admirals Sampson and Schley as the President set the example. As there was glory for all at Santiago, there was advancement for both. We present them together. The wholesome, manly face of General Lee is in the gallery. His country knows him and thinks of him well.
The bombarded church of Cavite shows that shells spare nothing sacred in their flights and concussions. The Bridge of Spain is the one most crossed in passing between the old walled city and the newer town that was not walled, but was formidably intrenched where rice swamps were close to the bay. The public buildings are commodious and would be higher, but the earth is uncertain, and sky-scrapers are forbidden by common prudence. Our picture of the principal gate of the walled city is taken truly, but does not give the appearance of extreme antiquity, of the reality. The wall looks old as one that has stood in Europe a thousand years.
Naturally the gallery has many works of art representative of Manila. The shipping in the harbor is an advertisement of a commerce once extensive. Each picture that shows a woman, a man, or tree; a wood-cutter, a fisherman, or a house, opens for the spectator a vista that may be interpreted by the intelligent. A veritable picture is a window that reveals a landscape. That which is most valuable in a gallery like this is the perfect truth not everywhere found, for the eyes that see a picture that is really representative, setting forth the colors, the light, and the substance of things find that which does not fade when the story is told.
There is one most hideous thing in our gallery—that of the head of a Spaniard, bleeding, just severed from the body—the weapon used, a naked dagger in a clenched hand—around the ghastly symbol a deep black border. This is one of the ways of the Katapuna society—the League of Blood—have of saying what they would have us understand are their awful purposes. There are terrible stories about this Blood League—that they bleed themselves in the course of their proceedings, and each member signs his name with his own blood—that they establish brotherhood by mingling their blood and tasting it. They are the sworn enemies of the Spaniards, and particularly of the priests. I inquired of Senor Agoncillo, the Philippine commissioner to Paris, whether those bloody stories were true. He scoffed at the notion that they might be so, and laughed and shouted "No, no!" as if he was having much fun. But Agoncillo is a lawyer and a diplomat, and I had heard so much, of this horrid society I did not feel positive it was certain that its alleged blood rites were fictitious. Of one thing I am sure—that the dreadful picture is no joke, and was not meant for a burlesque, though it might possibly be expected to perform the office of a scarecrow. It cannot be doubted that there are oath-bound secret societies that are regarded by the Spaniards as fanatical, superstitious, murderous and deserving death.
There is a good deal of feeble-minded credulity among the Filipinos, that is exhibited in the stories told by Aguinaldo. He has many followers who believe that he has a mighty magic, a charm, that deflects bullets and is an antidote for poison. Intelligent people believe this imbecility is one of the great elements of his power—that his leadership would be lost if the supernaturalism attached to him should go the way of all phantoms. Aguinaldo is said not to have faith in the charm, for he takes very good care of himself.
We give several views of executions at Manila. As a rule, these pictures are not fine productions of art. They are taken under such conditions of light and background that they are somewhat shadowy. This sinister addition to our gallery seems to be the first time the photographs of executions have been reproduced. The photos were not furtively taken. There is no secrecy about the process, no attempts to hide it from the Spaniards. Executions in the Philippines were in the nature of dramatic entertainments. There were often many persons present, and ladies as conspicuous as at bull fights. There is no more objections offered to photographing an execution than a cock fight, which is the sport about which the Filipinos are crazily absorbed. It is the festal character to the Spaniard of the rebel shooting that permits the actualities to be reproduced, and hence these strange contributions to our gallery.
Many of our pictures are self-explanatory. They were selected to show things characteristic, and hence instructive, peasants' customs—women riding buffaloes through palm groves—native houses, quaint costumes. "The insurgent outlook" reveals a native house—a structure of grasses. This is a perfect picture. The southern islanders, and the group of Moors, the dressing of the girls, work in the fields, the wealth of vegetation, the dining room of the Governor-General prepared for company, General Merritt's palatial headquarters before he had taken the public property into his care and suited it to his convenience; the Spanish dude officer, showing a young man contented in his uniform, and a pony pretty in his harness.
We reproduce the war department map of the Philippine islands. It will be closely studied for each island has become a subject of American interest. The imprint of the war department is an assurance of the closest attainable accuracy. The map of the Hawaiian islands clearly gives them in their relative positions and proportions as they are scattered broadcast in the Pacific. The Philippine and Hawaiian groups as they thus appear will be found more extensive than the general fancy has painted them. The Philippine Archipelago has been held to resemble a fan, with Luzon for the handle. The shape is something fantastic. It is worth while to note that the distance between the north coast of Luzon and the Sulu Archipelago is equal to that from England to Southern Italy.
There are pictures in our gallery that could only be found at the end of a journey of ten thousand miles, and they go far to show the life of the people of a country that is in such relations with ourselves the whole world is interested. There is truthtelling that should be prized in photography, and our picture gallery is one of the most remarkable that has been assembled.
Cuba and Porto Rico.
Conditions In and Around Havana—Fortifications and Water Supply of theCapital City—Other Sections of the Pearl of the Antilles—Porto Rico,Our New Possession, Described—Size and Population—Natural Resourcesand Products—Climatic Conditions—Towns and Cities—Railroads andOther Improvements—Future Possibilities.
There was the fortune of good judgment in attacking the Spaniards in Cuba at Santiago and Porto Rico, the points of Spanish possession in the West Indies farthest south and east, instead of striking at the west, landing at Pinar del Rio, the western province, and moving upon the fortifications of Havana, where the difficulties and dangers that proved so formidable at Santiago would have been quadrupled, and our losses in the field and hospital excessive. The unpreparedness of this country for war has not even up to this time been appreciated except by military experts and the most intelligent and intent students of current history. The military notes prepared in the War Department of the United States at the beginning of the war with Spain, contain the following of Santiago de Cuba:
This city was founded in 1514, and the famous Hernando was its first mayor. It is the most southern place of any note on the island, being on the twentieth degree of latitude, while Havana, the most northern point of note, is 23 degrees 9 minutes 26 seconds north latitude. The surrounding country is very mountainous, and the city is built upon a steep slope; the public square, or Campo de Marte, is 140 to 160 feet above the sea, and some of the houses are located 200 feet high. The character of the soil is reported to be more volcanic than calcareous; it has suffered repeatedly from earthquakes. It is the second city in the island with regard to population, slightly exceeding that of Matanzas and Puerto Principe. So far as American commerce is concerned, it ranks only ninth among the fifteen Cuban ports of entry. It is located on the extreme northern bank of the harbor of Santiago de Cuba, a harbor of the first class and one of the smallest; hence, as is believed, the great liability of its shipping to infection. According to the chart of the Madrid hydrographic bureau, 1863, this harbor is, from its sea entrance to its extreme northern limit, 5 miles long, the city being located 4 miles from its entrance, on the northeastern side of the harbor. The entrance is for some little distance very narrow—not more than 220 yards wide—and may be considered about 2 miles long, with a width varying from one-eighth to five-eighths of a mile. For the remaining 3 miles the harbor gradually widens, until at its northern extremity it is about 2 miles wide. The city is so situated in a cove of the harbor that the opposite shore is only about one-half mile distant. At the wharves from 10 to 15 feet of water is found, and within 300 to 500 yards of the shore from 20 to 30 feet. This, therefore, is probably the anchorage ground. Three or more so-called rivers, besides other streams, empty into this harbor, and one of these, the Caney River, empties into the harbor at the northern limit of the city, so that its water flows from one island extremity through the whole harbor into the sea. The difference here, as elsewhere in Cuba, between low and high tide is about 2 feet. Population in 1877 was 40,835, and 5,100 houses. This city is one of the most noted yellow-fever districts in the island. The population in 1896 was 42,000.
The following has been reported:
Preparations for mounting new and heavy ordnance is now going on at the entrance of the bay (March 5, 1898).
New and heavier guns are also ordered for Punta Blanca, on the right of the bay near Santiago City.
Plans have been made for constructing two batteries in the city of Santiago, one about 25 yards in front of the American consulate and the other about two blocks in rear.
Cayo Rolones, or Rat Island, located near the middle of the bay, is the Government depository for powder, dynamite, and other explosives.
The elevation on the right of the entrance, where stands Castle Morro, is 40 yards above the sea level, while the hill on the left is 20 yards.
"La Bateria Nueva de la Estrella" is mounted with four revolving cannons.
The fortifications of Havana were carefully covered in the military notes, and thus enumerated:
There are fifteen fortifications in and about the city of Havana, more or less armed and garrisoned, besides a work partly constructed and not armed, called Las Animas, and the old bastions along the sea wall of the harbor. These works are as follows:
Nos. 1 and 2 are earthen redans on the sea coast, east of Havana.
Velazo Battery, just east of, and a part of, El Morro.
El Morro, a sea coast fort, with flanking barbette batteries, east of harbor entrance.
The Twelve Apostles, a water battery lying at the foot of Morro, with a field of fire across the harbor's mouth. It is a part of Morro.
La Cabana, a stone-bastioned work with both land and water front, in rear of El Morro, and directly opposite the city of Havana.
San Diego, a stone-bastioned work with only land fronts, east ofCabana.
Atares, a stone-bastioned work on hill at southwestern extremity ofHavana Bay, near the old shipyard called the arsenal.
San Salvador de la Punta, a stone-bastioned work west of harbor entrance, with small advanced and detached work, built on a rock near harbor mouth.
La Reina, a stone work, in shape the segment of a circle, placed on the seacoast, at western limits of city, on an inlet called San Lazardo.
Santa Clara, a small but powerful seacoast battery of stone and earth, placed about 1 1/2 miles west of harbor.
El Principe, a stone-bastioned redoubt west of Havana.
Nos. 3 A, 3 B, and 4 are earthen redans on the seacoast west of Havana.
There are, in addition, several works built for defense, but now used for other purposes or abandoned. These are:
The Torreon de Vigia, a martello tower placed on the inlet of SanLazaro opposite La Reina.
The old fort called La Fuerza, built three hundred and fifty years ago, near the present Plaza de Armas, and now used for barracks and public offices.
The work called San Nazario, situated north of El Principe, but now used in connection with the present cartridge factory, abandoned for defensive purposes.
The partially constructed fort called Las Animas, southeast ofPrincipe, lying on a low hill, partly built but useless and unarmed.
The old sea wall extending from near La Punta to the Plaza de Armas, unarmed, and useless except as a parapet for musketry.
The old arsenal, on the west of the inner bay, now used as repair works for ships, useless for defense.
The old artillery and engineer storehouses near La Punta, probably once used as strongholds, now mere storehouses for munitions of war.
There are, besides, in the vicinity of Havana, three old and now useless stone works—one at Chorrera, the mouth of the Almendarez River, about 4 miles from Havana harbor; another at Cojimar, on the coast, about 3 miles eastward of Cabana, and the third at the inlet called La Playa de Mariano, about 7 miles west of Havana.
Batteries Nos. 1 and 2 were equipped with, No. 1, four Hontoria 6-inch guns; two Nordenfeldt 6-pounders; No. 2, two Krupp 12-inch guns; four Hontoria 3-inch mortars. The 12-inch Krupps were to stand off battleships attempting to force the harbor, or to bombard the Morro. The Valago battery, a part of the Morro, an out-work on the edge of the cliff, mounting four 11-inch Krupp guns separated by earth traverses.
The Morro, commenced in 1589 and finished in 1597, is important for historical associations. It is a most picturesque structure, and is useful as a lighthouse and prison, and is mounted with twelve old 10-inch, eight old 8-inch, and fourteen old 4-inch guns.
Cabana, finished in 1774 at a cost of $14,000,000, lies some 500 yards southeast of El Morro, on the east side of Havana Bay. Toward the city it exposes a vertical stone wall of irregular trace, with salients at intervals. Toward the Morro is a bastioned face protected by a deep ditch, sally port, and drawbridge. Eastward and southward a beautifully constructed land front incloses the work. This front is protected by ditches 40 or more feet deep, well constructed glacis, stone scarp, and counterscarp. Cabana is a magnificent example of the permanent fortifications constructed a century ago. Probably 10,000 men could be quartered in it.
The entrance to Cabana is by the sally port that opens upon the bridge across the moat lying between Cabana and El Morro. Upon entering, the enormous extent of the work begins to be perceived, parapet within parapet, galleries, casemates, and terrepleins almost innumerable, all of stone and useless. There are no earth covers or traverses, and no protection against modern artillery.
Cabana is the prison for offenders against the State, and the scene of innumerable executions. From an exterior or salient corner of the secretary's office of the headquarters there leads a subterranean passage 326 meters long, 2.5 meters wide, and 1.86 high, excavated in the rock. It conducts to the sea, debouching at the mouth of a sewer, 87 meters from the Morro wharf. At exactly 132 meters along the road rising from the Morro pier or wharf to the Cabana, there will be found by excavating the rock on the left of the road, at a depth of 3 meters, a grating, on opening which passage will be made into a road 107 meters long, 1.6 high, and 1.42 wide, leading to the same exit as the Cabana secret way. These passages are most secret, as all believe that the grating of the sewer, seen from the sea, is a drain.
The battery of Santa Clara is the most interesting of the fortifications of Havana, and one of the most important. It lies about 100 yards from the shore of the gulf, at a point where the line of hills to the westward runs back (either naturally or artificially) into quarries, thus occupying a low salient backed by a hill. Here are three new Krupp 11-inch guns, designed to protect El Principe, the land side of Havana. It is 187 feet above sea level and completely dominates Havana, the bay, Morro, Cabana, the coast northward, Atares, and from east around to south, the approaches of the Marianao Road, Cristina, and the Western Railroad for about 3 kilometers, i.e., between Cristina and a cut at that distance from the station. Principe gives fire upon Tulipan, the Cerro, the Hill of the Jesuits, and the valley through which passes the Havana Railroad, sweeping completely with its guns the railroad as far as the cut at Cienaga, 2-1/2 to 3 miles away. It dominates also the hills southward and westward toward Puentes Grandes and the Almendarez River, and country extending toward Marianao, also the Calzada leading to the cemetery and toward Chorrera; thence the entire sea line (the railroad to Chorrera is partly sheltered by the slope leading to Principe. This is by all means the strongest position about Havana which is occupied. Lying between it and the hill of the Cerro is the hill of the Catalan Club, right under the guns of the work and about one-half mile away. The Marianao Road is more sheltered than the Havana, as it runs near the trees and hill near the Cerro. The only points which dominate the hill of the Principe lie to the south and southeast in the direction of Jesus del Monte and beyond Regla. On its southern, southeastern, and southwestern faces the hill of Principe is a steep descent to the calzada and streets below. The slope is gradual westward and around by the north. From this hill is one of the best views of Havana and the valley south. El Principe lies about one-half mile from the north coast, from which hills rise in gradual slopes toward the work. It is Havana gossip that El Principe is always held by the Spanish regiment in which the Captain-General has most confidence. The military notes pronounce El Principe undoubtedly the strongest natural position about Havana now occupied by defensive works. Its guns sweep the heights of the Almendares, extending from the north coast southward by the hills of Puentes Grandes to the valley of Cienaga, thence eastward across the Hill of the Jesuits and the long line of trees and houses leading to the Cerro. The country beyond the Cerro is partly sheltered by trees and hills, but eastward El Principe commands in places the country and the bay shore, and gives fire across Havana seaward.
The most vulnerable spot in the defenses of Havana is the aqueduct of Isabella II, or the Vento. The water is from the Vento Springs, pure and inexhaustable, nine miles out of Havana.
All three of the water supplies to Havana, the Zanja and the two aqueducts of Ferdinand VII and of the Vento, proceed from the Almendares and run their course near to each other, the farthest to the west being the Zanja and to the east the Vento.
At Vento Springs is constructed a large stone basin, open at the bottom, through which springs bubble. From this reservoir the new aqueduct leads. It is an elliptical tunnel of brick, placed under ground, and marked by turrets of brick and stone placed along its course.
From the Vento Reservoir the new aqueduct crosses the low valley south of Havana, following generally the Calzada de Vento, which becomes, near the Cerro, the Calzada de Palatino, to a point on the Western Railway marked 5 kilometers (about); hence the calzada and the aqueduct closely follow the railway for about a mile, terminating at a new reservoir.
The Vento water is the best thing Havana has, and indispensable. The old sources of supply are intolerable. The main water supply is the Zanja. Throughout the most of its course this river flows through unprotected mud banks; the fluids of many houses, especially in the Cerro ward which it skirts, drain into them; men, horses, and dogs bathe in it; dead bodies have been seen floating in it, and in the rainy season the water becomes very muddy. In fine, the Zanja in its course receives all which a little brook traversing a village and having houses and back yards on its banks would receive. The water can not be pure, and to those who know the facts the idea of drinking it is repulsive. This supply had long been insufficient to the growing city, and in 1835 the well-protected and excellent aqueduct of Ferdinand VII was completed. It taps the Almendares River a few hundred yards above filters mentioned, hence carried by arches to the east El Cerro, and for some distance nearly parallel to the Calzada del Cerro, but finally intersecting this. These works are succeeded by the Famous Vento. When Havana is fought for hereafter the fight will be at the Vento Springs. This remark is not made in the military notes, but the military men know it well. When General Miles expected to attack Havana he procured all the accessible surveys and detail of information, official and through special observation and personal knowledge obtainable of the water works. Life could not be sustained many days in the city of Havana without the water of the adorable Vento.
A special interest attaches to Havana, as it is to be a city under the control of the United States. The surface soil consists for the most part of a thin layer of red, yellow, or black earths. At varying depths beneath this, often not exceeding 1 or 2 feet, lie the solid rocks. These foundation rocks are, especially in the northern and more modern parts of the city toward the coast of the sea and not of the harbor, Quarternary, and especially Tertiary, formations, so permeable that liquids emptied into excavations are absorbed and disappear.
In other parts of the city the rocks are not permeable, and pools are formed. In proportion as the towns of Cuba are old, the streets are narrow. In Havana this peculiarity is so positive that pedestrians cannot pass on the sidewalks, nor vehicles on the streets. Less than one-third of the population live on paved streets, and these are as well paved and kept as clean, it is believed cleaner, than is usual in the United States. The remainder live on unpaved streets, which, for the most part, are very filthy. Many of these, even in old and densely populated parts of the city, are no better than rough country roads, full of rocks, crevices, mud holes, and other irregularities, so that vehicles traverse them with difficulty at all times, and in the rainy season they are sometimes impassible for two months. Rough, muddy, or both, these streets serve admirably as permanent receptacles for much decomposing animal and vegetable matter. Finally, not less, probably more, than one-half the population of Havana live on streets which are constantly in an extremely insanitary condition, but these streets, though so numerous, are not in the beaten track of the pleasure tourist.
In the old intramural city, in which live about 40,000 people, the streets vary in width, but generally they are 6.8 meters (about 22 feet) wide, of which the sidewalks occupy about 7.5 feet. In many streets the sidewalk at each side is not even 18 inches wide. In the new, extramural town, the streets are generally 10 meters (32.8 feet) wide, with 3 meters (nearly 10 feet) for the sidewalks, and 7 meters (23 feet) for the wagonway. There are few sidewalks in any except in the first four of the nine city districts.
More than two-thirds of the population live in densely inhabited portions of the city, where the houses are crowded in contact with each other. The average house lot does not exceed 27 by 112 feet in size. There are 17,259 houses, of which 15,494 are one-story, 1,552 are two stories, 186 are three stories, and only 27 are four stories, with none higher. At least 12 in every 13 inhabitants live in one-story houses; and as the total civil, military, and transient population exceeds 200,000 there are more than 12 inhabitants to every house. Tenement houses may have many small rooms, but each room is occupied by a family. Generally the one-story houses have four or five rooms; but house rent, as also food and clothing, is rendered so expensive by taxation, by export as well as import duties, that it is rare for workmen, even when paid $50 to $100 a month, to enjoy the exclusive use of one of these mean little houses; reserving one or two rooms for his family, he rents the balance. This condition of affairs is readily understood when it is known that so great a necessity as flour cost in Havana $15.50 when its price in the United States was $6.50 per barrel.
In the densely populated portions of the city the houses generally have no back yard, properly so called, but a flagged court, or narrow vacant space into which sleeping rooms open at the side, and in close proximity with these, at the rear of this contracted court are located the kitchen, the privy, and often a stall for animals. In the houses of the poor, that is, of the vast majority of the population, there are no storerooms, pantries, closets, or other conveniences for household supplies. These are furnished from day to day, even from meal to meal, by the corner groceries; and it is rare, in large sections of Havana, to find any one of the four corners of a square without a grocery.
The walls of most of the houses in Havana are built of "mamposteria" or rubble masonry, a porous material which freely absorbs atmospheric as well as ground moisture. The mark of this can often be seen high on the walls, which varies from 2 to 7 feet in the houses generally. The roofs are excellent, usually flat, and constructed of brick tiles. The windows are, like the doors, unusually high, nearly reaching the ceiling, which, in the best houses only, is also unusually high. The windows are never glazed, but protected by strong iron bars on the outside and on the inside by solid wooden shutters, which are secured, like the doors, with heavy bars or bolts, and in inclement weather greatly interfere with proper ventilation. Fireplaces with chimneys are extremely rare, so that ventilation depends entirely on the doors and windows, which, it should be stated, are by no means unusually large in most of the sleeping rooms of the poor. Generally in Havana, less generally in other cities, the entrances and courtyards are flagged with stone, while the rooms are usually floored with tile or marble. With rare exceptions the lowest floor is in contact with the earth. Ventilation between the earth and floor is rarely seen in Cuba. In Havana the average height of the ground floor is from 7 to 11 inches above the pavement, but in Havana, and more frequently in other Cuban towns, one often encounters houses which are entered by stepping down from the sidewalk, and some floors are even below the level of the street. In Havana some of the floors, in Matanzas more, in Cardenas and Cienfuegos many are of the bare earth itself, or of planks raised only a few inches above the damp ground.
The narrow entrance about 400 yards in width and 1,200 in length, opens into the irregular harbor, which has three chief coves or indentations, termed "ensenadas." The extreme length of the harbor from its sea entrance to the limit of the most distant ensenada is 3 miles, and its extreme breadth 1-1/2 miles; but within the entrance the average length is only about 1, and the average breadth about two-thirds of a mile. However, because of the irregularly projecting points of land which form the ensenadas, there is no locality in the harbor where a vessel can possibly anchor farther than 500 yards from the shore. Its greatest depth is about 40 feet, but the anchorage ground for vessels drawing 18 feet of water is very contracted, not exceeding one-half the size of the harbor. The rise and fall of the tide does not exceed 2 feet.
The Cuban city next in celebrity to Havana is Matanzas, and it is one likely to become a favorite of Americans, as the country in the vicinity is distinguished by beauty as well as remarkable for fertility. Matanzas was first regularly settled in 1693. It is in the province of Matanzas, 54 miles west of Havana, by the most direct of the two railroads which unite these two cities, and is situated on the western inland extremity of the bay of Matanzas, a harbor of the first class. Matanzas is divided into three districts, viz, the central district of Matanzas, which, about half a mile in width across the center of population, lies between the two little rivers, San Juan to the south, and the Yumuri to the north; the Pueblo Nuevo district, south of the San Juan, and around the inland extremity of the harbor; and the district of Versalles, north of the Yumuri, nearest to the open sea, as also to the anchorage ground, and, sanitarily, the best situated district in the city. About two-thirds of the population are in the district of Matanzas, and the Pueblo Nuevo district has about double the population of Versalles. Pueblo Nuevo stands on ground originally a swamp, and is low, flat, and only 3 or 4 feet above the sea. The Matanzas district has many houses on equally low ground, on the harbor front, and on the banks of the two rivers which inclose this district; but from the front and between these rivers the ground ascends, so that its houses are from 2 to even 100 feet above the sea; however, the center of population, the public square, is only about 20 feet above sea level. Versalles is on a bluff of the harbor, and its houses are situated, for the most part, from 15 to 40 feet above the sea. The district of Matanzas has ill constructed and useless sewers in only two streets, and no houses connected therewith. So much of this district and of Versalles as is built on the hill slope is naturally well drained, but the Pueblo Nuevo district, and those parts of Matanzas built in immediate proximity to the banks of the river, are very ill drained.
Since 1872 Matanzas has had an aqueduct from the Bello spring, 7 miles distant. The supply is alleged to be both abundant and excellent. But of the 4,710 houses in the city 840 stand on the hills outside the zone supplied by the waterworks, while of the remaining 3,870 houses within this zone only about 2,000 get their water from the waterworks company. Hence more than half of the houses of Matanzas (2,710) do for the most part get their supply in kegs by purchase in the streets. There are a few public fountains, as also some dangerous wells. The streets are 30 feet wide, with 24 feet wagon way. Few of them are paved, some are very poor roads, but, for the most part, these roads are in good condition. In the Matanzas district some of the streets are of solid stone, and natural foundation rock of the place, for the superficial soil is so thin that the foundation rocks often crop out. Of this very porous rock most of the houses are built. The houses have wider fronts, larger air spaces in rear, are not so crowded, and are better ventilated than the houses of Havana. As is usual in Cuba, the ground floors are generally on a level with the sidewalk, and some are even below the level of the streets. A heavy rain floods many of the streets of Matanzas, the water running back into and beneath the houses. The porous limestone of which the houses are built greatly favors absorption.
The population of Matanzas and suburbs was about 50,000 at the beginning of the war.
Porto Rico is not quite as large as Connecticut, but larger than the States of Delaware and Rhode Island. The climate of the island is delightful, and its soil exceedingly rich. In natural resources it is of surpassing opulence. The length of the island is about one hundred miles, and its breadth thirty-five, the general figure of it being like the head of a sperm whale. The range of mountains is from east to west, and nearly central. The prevalent winds are from the northwest, and the rainfall is much heavier on the northern shores and mountain slopes than on the southern. The height of the ridge is on the average close to 1,500 feet, one bold peak, the Anvil being 3,600 feet high. The rainy north and the droughty south, with the lift of the land from the low shores to the central slopes and rugged elevations, under the tropical sun, with the influence of the great oceans east, south and north, and the multitude of western and southern islands, give unusual and charming variety in temperature. Porto Rico is, by the American people, even more than the Spaniards, associated with Cuba. But it is less than a tenth of Cuban proportions. Porto Rico has 3,600 square miles to Cuba's 42,000, but a much greater proportion of Porto Rico than of Cuba is cultivated. Less than one-sixteenth of the area of Cuba has been improved, and while her population is but 1,600,000, according to the latest census, and is not so much now, Porto Rico, with less than a tenth of the land of Cuba, has half the number of inhabitants. Largely Porto Rico is peopled by a better class than the mass of the Cubans. Cuba is wretchedly provided with roads, one of the reasons why the Spaniards were incapable of putting down insurrections. If they had expended a fair proportion of the revenues derived from the flourishing plantations and the monopolies of Spanish favoritisms that built up Barcelona and enriched Captain-Generals, and in less degree other public servants, the rebellions would have been put down. The Spanish armies in Cuba, however, were rather managed for official speculation and peculation, were more promenaders than in military enterprise and the stern business of war. With Weyler for an opponent, Gomez, as a guerilla, could have dragged on a series of skirmishes indefinitely. The story of the alleged war in Cuba between the Spaniards and the Cubans was on both sides falsified, and the American people deceived. Porto Rico does not seem to have appealed so strongly to the cupidity of the Spaniards as Cuba did, and to have been governed with less brutality. The consequence is there has not been a serious insurrection in the smaller island for seventy years, and it falls into our possession without the impoverishment and demoralization of the devastation of war—one of the fairest gems of the ocean.
It was October 18th that the American flag was raised over SanJuan. The following dispatch is the official record:
"San Juan, Porto Rico, Oct. 18.—Secretary of War, Washington, D.C.: Flags have been raised on public buildings and forts in this city and saluted with national salutes. The occupation of the island is now complete.
"Brooke, Chairman."
On the morning of the 18th, the 11th regular infantry with two batteries of the 5th artillery landed. The latter proceeded to the forts, while the infantry lined up on the docks. It was a holiday for San Juan and there were many people in the streets. Rear-Admiral Schley and General Gordon, accompanied by their staffs, proceeded to the palace in carriages. The 11th infantry regiment and band with Troop H, of the 6th United States cavalry then marched through the streets and formed in the square opposite the palace.
At 11:40 a. m., General Brooke, Admiral Schley and General Gordon, the United States evacuation commissioners, came out of the palace with many naval officers and formed on the right side of the square. The streets behind the soldiers were thronged with townspeople, who stood waiting in dead silence.
At last the city clock struck 12, and the crowds, almost breathless and with eyes fixed upon the flagpole, watched for developments. At the sound of the first gun from Fort Morro, Major Dean and Lieutenant Castle, of General Brooke's staff, hoisted the stars and stripes, while the band played "The Star Spangled Banner." All heads were bared and the crowds cheered. Fort Morro, Fort San Cristobal and the United States revenue cutter Manning, lying in the harbor, fired twenty-one guns each.
Senor Munoz Rivera, who was president of the recent autonomist council of secretaries, and other officials of the late insular government were present at the proceedings. Many American flags were displayed.
Acknowledgment has been made of the better condition of Porto Rico than of Cuba, but the trail of the serpent of colonial Spanish government appears. Mr. Alfred Somamon writes in the Independent:
"The internal administration of the island disposes of a budget of about $3,300,000, and is a woeful example of corrupt officialism. Of this sum only about $650,000 is expended in the island, the remainder being applied to payment of interest on public debt, salaries of Spanish officials, army, navy, and other extra-insular expenditures. But the whole of the revenue is collected in the island."
An article of great value by Eugene Deland, appeared in the Chatauquan of September, on the characteristics of Porto Rico, and we present an extract, showing its admirable distinction of accurate information well set forth:
"The mountain slopes are covered with valuable timbers, cabinet and dye-woods, including mahogany, walnut, lignum vitae, ebony, and logwood, and various medicinal plants. Here, too, is the favorite zone of the coffee tree, which thrives best one thousand feet above sea level. The valleys and plains produce rich harvests of sugar-cane and tobacco. The amount of sugar yielded by a given area is said to be greater than in any other West Indian island. Rice, of the mountain variety and grown without flooding, nourishes almost any place and is a staple food of the laboring classes. In addition to these products cotton and maize are commonly cultivated, and yams, plantains, oranges, bananas, cocoanuts, pineapples, and almost every other tropical fruit are grown in abundance. Among indigenous plants are several noted for their beautiful blossoms. Among these are the coccoloba, which grows mainly along the coasts and is distinguished by its large, yard-long purple spikes, and a talauma, with magnificent, ororous, white flowers.
"Of wild animal life Porto Rico has little. No poisonous serpents are found, but pestiferous insects, such as tarantulas, centipedes, scorpions, ticks, fleas, and mosquitos, supply this deficiency in a measure. All sorts of domestic animals are raised, and the excellent pasture-lands support large herds of cattle for export and home consumption, and ponies, whose superiority is recognized throughout the West Indies.
"The mineral wealth of the island is undeveloped, but traces of gold, copper, iron, lead, and coal are found. Salt is procured in considerable quantities from the lakes.
"Porto Rico carries on an extensive commerce, chiefly with Spain, the United States, Cuba, Germany, Great Britain, and France. In 1895 the volume of its trade was one-half greater than that of the larger British colony—Jamaica. The United States ranks second in amount of trade with the island. During the four years from 1893-96 Spain's trade with the colony averaged $11,402,888 annually, and the United States, $5,028,544. The total value of Porto Rican exports for 1896 was $18,341,430, and of imports, $18,282,690, making a total of $36,624,120, which was an excess over any previous year. The exports consist almost entirely of agricultural products. In 1895 coffee comprised about sixty per cent, and sugar about twenty-eight per cent, of their value; leaf tobacco, molasses, and honey came next. Maize, hides, fruits, nuts, and distilled spirits are also sent out in considerable quantities. Over one-half of the coffee exported goes to Spain and Cuba, as does most of the tobacco, which is said to be used in making the finest Havana cigars; the sugar and molasses are, for the most part, sent to the United States. Among imports, manufactured articles do not greatly exceed agricultural. Rice, fish, meat and lard, flour, and manufactured tobacco are the principal ones. Customs duties furnish about two-thirds of the Porto Rican revenue, which has for several years yielded greater returns to Spain than that of Cuba.
"The climate of Porto Rico is considered the healthiest in the Antilles. The heat is considerably less than at Santiago de Cuba, a degree and a half farther north. The thermometer seldom goes above 90 degrees. Pure water is readily obtained in most of the island. Yellow fever seldom occurs, and never away from the coast. The rainy season begins the first of June and ends the last of December, but the heavy downpours do not come on until about August 1st.
"In density of population also this island ranks first among the West Indies, having half as many inhabitants as Cuba, more than eleven times as large. Of its 807,000 people, 326,000 are colored and many of the others of mixed blood. They differ little from other Spanish-Americans, being fond of ease, courteous, and hospitable, and, as in other Spanish countries, the common people are illiterate, public education having been grievously neglected. The natives are the agriculturists of the country, and are a majority in the interior, while the Spaniards, who control business and commerce, are found mainly in the towns and cities.
"The numerous good harbors have naturally dotted the seaboard with cities and towns of greater or less commercial importance. San Juan, Ponce, Mayaguez, Aguadilla, Arecibo and Fajardo all carry on extensive trade. Intercourse between coast towns is readily had by water, but is to be facilitated by a railroad around the island, of which 137 miles have been built and 170 miles more projected. The public highways of the island are in better condition than one might expect. According to a recent report of United States Consul Stewart, of San Juan, there are about one hundred and fifty miles of good road. The best of this is the military highway connecting Ponce on the southern coast with San Juan on the northern. This is a macadamized road, so excellently built and so well kept up that a recent traveler in the island says a bicycle corps could go over it without dismounting. Whether it is solid enough to stand the transportation of artillery and heavy army trains we shall soon know. Of telegraph lines Porto Rico has four hundred and seventy miles, and two cables connect it with the outside world, one running from Ponce and the other from San Juan."
Mr. Alfred Solomon, already quoted as an instructive contributor to the Independent, writes:
"The population of Porto Rico, some 800,000, is essentially agricultural. A varied climate, sultry in the lowlands, refreshing and invigorating in the mountain ranges, makes possible the cultivation of almost every variety of known crop—sugar, tobacco, coffee, annatto, maze, cotton and ginger are extensively grown; but there are still thousands of acres of virgin lands awaiting the capitalist. Tropical fruits flourish in abundance, and the sugar-pine is well known in our market, where it brings a higher price than any other pine imported. Hardwood and fancy cabinet wood trees fill the forests, and await the woodman's ax. Among these are some specimens of unexampled beauty, notably a tree, the wood of which, when polished, resembles veined marble, and another, rivaling in beauty the feathers in a peacock's tail. Precious metals abound, although systematic effort has never been directed to the locating of paying veins. Rivers and rivulets are plenty, and water-power is abundant; and the regime should see the installation of power plants and electric lighting all over the island, within a short time after occupation. On the lowlands, large tracts of pasturage under guinea grass and malojilla feed thousands of sleek cattle, but, as an article of food, mutton is almost unknown. The native pony, small, wiry and untirable, has a world-wide reputation, and for long journeys is unequaled, possessing a gait, as they say in the island, like an arm-chair.
"Perhaps a third of the population of the island is of African descent; but, strangely enough, the colored people are only to be found on the coast, and are the fishermen, boatmen and laborers of the seaports. The cultivation of the crops is entirely in the hands of the jibaro, or peasant, who is seldom of direct Spanish descent, while the financiering and exportation is conducted almost entirely by peninsulares, or Spanish-born colonists, who monopolize every branch of commerce to the exclusion of the colonian-born subject.
"Coffee planting is largely engaged in, returning from ten to fifteen per cent. on capital. Improved transportation facilities, abolition of export dues and the consolidation of small estates would, doubtless, help toward better results. This crop is marketed in Europe—London, Havre and Barcelona—where better prices are obtainable than in New York. With the exception of a few plantations in strong hands, most of this property could be purchased at a fair valuation, and would prove to be a very profitable investment.
"Cocoa grows wild on the lowlands, but has not been cultivated to any appreciable extent. Small consignments sent to Europe have been pronounced superior to the Caracas bean. The tree takes a longer period than coffee to come to maturity and bear fruit; but once in bearing the current expenses are less and the yield far greater. The same remarks apply to the cultivation of rubber, which, although a most profitable staple with an ever-increasing market, has received no attention whatever.
"Corn is raised in quantities insufficient for home consumption. Of this cereal three crops can be obtained in two years; sometimes two a year. The demand is constant, and the price always remunerative.
"In Porto Rico, as in most other West Indian islands, sugar is king. In the treatment of this product the lack of capital has been sadly felt. Planters possess only the most primitive machinery, and in the extraction of the juice from the cane the proportion of saccharine matter has been exceedingly small. Great outlay is necessary for the installation of a complete modern crushing and centrifugal plant."
A flattering picture of our new possessions is drawn in McClure'sMagazine, by Mr. George B. Waldron.
"Here, then, are Cuba and Porto Rico in the Atlantic, and the Hawaiian and Philippine groups in the Pacific, whose destiny has become intertwined with our own. Their combined area is 168,000 square miles, equaling New England, New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. Their population is about 10,000,000, or perhaps one-half of that of these nine home States. The Philippines, with three-quarters of the entire population, and Porto Rico, with 800,000 people, alone approach our own Eastern States in density. Cuba, prior to the war, was about as well populated as Virginia, and the Hawaiian group is as well peopled as Kansas. What, then, can these islands do for us?
"Americans use more sugar in proportion to population than any other nation of the world. The total consumption last year was not less than 2,500,000 tons. This is enough to make a pyramid that would overtop the tallest pyramid of Egyptian fame. Of this total, 2,200,000 tons came from foreign countries, the Spanish possessions and Hawaii sending about twenty-five per cent. Five years earlier, when our imports were less by half a million tons, these islands supplied double this quantity, or nearly two-thirds of the nation's entire sugar import. But that was before Cuba had been devastated by war and when she was exporting 1,100,000 tons of sugar to other countries. Restore Cuba to her former fertility, and the total sugar crop of these islands will reach 1,500,000 tons, or two-thirds our present foreign demand."
There is much more in Mr. Waldron's summary of the vast addition that has been made to our resources, by the occupation and possession of the islands that have recently been gathered under our wings by the force of our arms. It is enough to know that with the tropical islands we have gained, we have in our hands the potentialities, the luxuries, the boundless resources including, as we may, and must, Alaska, of all the zones of the great globe that we inhabit in such ample measure.
The following notes were compiled for the information of the army, and embody all reliable information available.
The notes were intended to supplement the military map of Porto Rico. The following books and works were consulted and matter from them freely used in the preparation of the notes: Guia Geografico Militar de Espana y Provincias Ultramarinas, 1879; Espana, sus Monumentos y Artes, su Naturaleza e Historia, 1887; Compendio de Geografia Militar de Espana y Portugal, 1882; Anuario de Comercio de Espana, 1896; Anuario Militar de Espana, 1898; Reclus, Nouvelle Geographic Universelle, 1891; Advance Sheets American Consular Reports, 1898; An Account of the Present State of the Island of Porto Rico, 1834; The Statesman's Year Book, 1898.
Situation.—Porto Rico is situated in the Torrid Zone, in the easternmost part of the Antilles, between latitude 17 deg. 54 min. and 18 deg. 30 min. 40 sec. N. and longitude 61 deg. 54 min. 26 sec. and 63 deg. 32 min. 32 sec. W. of Madrid. It is bounded on the north by the Atlantic, on the east and south by the sea of the Antilles, and on the west by the Mona Channel.
Size.—The island of Porto Rico, the fourth in size of the Antilles, has, according to a recent report of the British consul (1897), an extent of about 3,668 square miles—35 miles broad and 95 miles long. It is of an oblong form., extending from east to west.
Population.—Porto Rico is the first among the Antilles in density of population and in prosperity. The Statesman's Year Book, 1898, gives the population (1887) at 813,937, of which over 300,000 are negroes, this being one of the few countries of tropical America where the number of whites exceeds that of other races. The whites and colored, however, are all striving in the same movement of civilization, and are gradually becoming more alike in ideas and manners. Among the white population the number of males exceeds the number of females, which is the contrary of all European countries. This is partly explained by the fact that the immigrants are mostly males. On an average the births exceed the deaths by double. The eastern portion of the island is less populous than the western.
Soil.—The ground is very fertile, being suitable for the cultivation of cane, coffee, rice, and other products raised in Cuba, which island Porto Rico resembles in richness and fertility.
Climate.—The climate is hot and moist, the medium temperature reaching 104 degs. F. Constant rains and winds from the east cool the heavy atmosphere of the low regions. On the heights of the Central Cordillera the temperature is healthy and agreeable.
Iron rusts and becomes consumed, so that nothing can be constructed of this metal. Even bronze artillery has to be covered with a strong varnish to protect it from the damp winds.
Although one would suppose that all the large islands in the Tropics enjoyed the same climate, yet from the greater mortality observed in Jamaica, St. Domingo, and Cuba, as compared with Porto Rico, one is inclined to believe that this latter island is much more congenial than any of the former to the health of Europeans. The heat, the rains, and the seasons are, with very trifling variations, the same in all. But the number of mountains and running streams, which are everywhere in view in Porto Rico, and the general cultivation of the land, may powerfully contribute to purify the atmosphere and render it salubrious to man. The only difference of temperature to be observed throughout the island is due to altitude, a change which is common to every country under the influence of the Tropics.
In the mountains the inhabitants enjoy the coolness of spring, while the valleys would be uninhabitable were it not for the daily breeze which blows generally from the northeast and east. For example, in Ponce the noonday sun is felt in all its rigor, while at the village of Adjuntas, 4 leagues distant in the interior of the mountains, the traveler feels invigorated by the refreshing breezes of a temperate clime. At one place the thermometers is as high as 90 deg., while in another it is sometimes under 60 deg. Although the seasons are not so distinctly marked in this climate as they are in Europe (the trees being always green), yet there is a distinction to be made between them. The division into wet and dry seasons (winter and summer) does not give a proper idea of the seasons in this island; for on the north coast it sometimes rains almost the whole year, while sometimes for twelve or fourteen months not a drop of rain falls on the south coast. However, in the mountains at the south there are daily showers. Last year, for example, in the months of November, December, and January the north winds blew with violence, accompanied by heavy showers of rain, while this year (1832) in the same months, it has scarcely blown a whole day from that point of the compass, nor has it rained for a whole month. Therefore, the climate of the north and south coasts of this island, although under the same tropical influence, are essentially different.
As in all tropical countries, the year is divided into two seasons—the dry and the rainy. In general, the rainy season commences in August and ends the last of December, southerly and westerly winds prevailing during this period. The rainfall is excessive, often inundating fields and forming extensive lagoons. The exhalations from these lagoons give rise to a number of diseases, but, nevertheless, Porto Rico is one of the healthiest islands of the archipelago.
In the month of May the rains commence, not with the fury of a deluge, as in the months of August and September, but heavier than any rain experienced in Europe. Peals of thunder reverberating through the mountains give a warning of their approach, and the sun breaking through the clouds promotes the prolific vegetation of the fields with its vivifying heat. The heat at this season is equal to the summer of Europe, and the nights are cool and pleasant; but the dews are heavy and pernicious to health. The following meteorological observations, carefully made by Don Jose Ma. Vertez, a Captain of the Spanish navy, will exhibit the average range of temperature:
Ds of heat observed in the capital of Porto Rico, taking a medium of five years.
Degrees of Heat Observed in the Capital of Porto Rico, Taking a Medium of Five Years.
Hours of the Day. Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May. June. July. Aug. Sept. Oct. Nov. Dec.Seven in the morning 72 72 1/2 74 78 78 82 85 86 80 1/2 77 75 75Noon 82 81 82 83 85 86 90 92 88 85 84 80Five in the evening 78 74 78 80 81 84 87 90 83 82 80 79
The weather, after a fifteen or twenty days' rain, clears up and the sun, whose heat has been hitherto moderated by partial clouds and showers of rain, seems, as it were, set in a cloudless sky. The cattle in the pastures look for the shade of the trees, and a perfect calm pervades the whole face of nature from sunrise till between 10 and 11 o'clock in the morning, when the sea breeze sets in. The leaves of the trees seem as if afraid to move, and the sea, without a wave or ruffle on its vast expanse, appears like an immense mirror. Man partakes in the general languor as well as the vegetable and brute creation.
The nights, although warm, are delightfully clear and serene at this season. Objects may be clearly distinguished at the distance of several hundred yards, so that one may even shoot by moonlight. The months of June and July offer very little variation in the weather or temperature. In August a suffocating heat reigns throughout the day, and at night it is useless to seek for coolness; a faint zephyr is succeeded by a calm of several hours. The atmosphere is heavy and oppressive, and the body, weakened by perspiration, becomes languid; the appetite fails, and the mosquitos, buzzing about the ears by day and night, perplex and annoy by their stings, while the fevers of the tropics attack Europeans with sudden and irresistible violence. This is the most sickly season for the European. The thermometer frequently exceeds 90 deg. The clouds exhibit a menacing appearance, portending the approach of the heavy autumnal rains, which pour down like a deluge. About the middle of September it appears as if all the vapors of the ocean had accumulated in one point of the heavens. The rain comes down like an immense quantity of water poured through a sieve; it excludes from the view every surrounding object, and in half an hour the whole surface of the earth becomes an immense sheet of water. The rivers are swollen and overflow their banks, the low lands are completely inundated, and the smallest brooks become deep and rapid torrents.
In the month of October the weather becomes sensibly cooler than during the preceding months, and in November the north and northeast winds generally set in, diffusing an agreeable coolness through the surrounding atmosphere. The body becomes braced and active, and the convalescent feels its genial influence. The north wind is accompanied (with few exceptions) by heavy showers of rain on the north coast; and the sea rolls on that coast with tempestuous violence, while the south coast remains perfectly calm.
When the fury of the north wind abates, it is succeeded by fine weather and a clear sky. Nothing can exceed the climate of Porto Rico at this season; one can only compare it to the month of May in the delightful Province of Andalusia, where the cold of winter and the burning heat of summer are tempered by the cool freshness of spring. This is considered to be the healthiest season of the year, when a European may visit the tropics without fear.
The small islands, destitute of wood and high mountains, which have a powerful effect in attracting the clouds, suffer much from drought. It sometimes happens that in Curacao, St. Bartholomews, and other islands there are whole years without a drop of rain, and after exhausting their cisterns the inhabitants are compelled to import water from the rivers of other islands.
"The land breeze" is an advantage which the large islands derive from the inequality of their surface; for as soon as the sea breeze dies away, the hot air of the valleys being rarified, ascends toward the tops of the mountains, and is there condensed by cold, which makes it specifically heavier than it was before; it then descends back to the valleys on both sides of the ridge. Hence a night wind (blowing on all sides from the land toward the shore) is felt in all the mountainous countries under the torrid zone. On the north shore the wind comes from the south, and on the south shore from the north.