CITIES AND TOWNS OF CUBA
The political divisions of Cuba, known as provinces, are six in number,
and are named as follows, beginning at the west: Pinar del Rio, Havana,
Matanzas, Santa Clara, Puerto Principe, and Santiago de Cuba; the
capital city of each bearing the same name as its province.
Of the provinces it may be said that Pinar del Rio, with an area of 8486
square miles, has a population of 225,891 (167,160 white and 58,731
black), and is the centre of the tobacco industry, the famous Vuelta
Abajo district lying within its limits; sugar, coffee, rice, corn,
cotton, and fruits are also raised. Havana, with an area of 8610 square
miles, has a population of 451,928 (344,417 white and 107,511 black). It
is the centre of manufacture, the capital province, and the most
populous province of the Island. Matanzas, with an area of 14,967 square
miles, has a population of 259,578 (143,169 white and 115,409 black),
and is the centre of the sugar industry; corn, rice, honey, wax, and
fruits are produced and the province contains a deposit of peat and
copper. Santa Clara, with an area of 23,083 square miles, has a
population of 354,122 (244,345 white and 109,777 black), and it is rich
in sugar, fruits, and minerals, including gold deposits in the Arino
River. Puerto Principe, with an area of 32,341 square miles, has a
population of 67,789 (54,232 white and 13,557 black), and is a
mountainous region, with the largest caves and the highest mountains;
building and cabinet woods and guava jelly are its chief products.
Santiago de Cuba, with an area of 35,119 square miles, the largest of
the provinces, has a population of 272,379 (57,980 white and 114,399
black), and not only possesses all the agricultural products found in
the other provinces, but also has deposits of gold, iron, copper, zinc,
asphalt, manganese, mercury, marble and alabaster, rock crystal, and
gems, and its commerce is most extensive.
[Illustration: SQUARE IN FRONT OF GOVERNOR'S PALACE AT SANTIAGO DE
CUBA.]
There are 115 cities and towns in the Island having an estimated
population of 200 and upwards named as follows:
CITIES. Population. | CITIES. Population.
|
Havana................... 200,000 | Macurijes................. 4,100
Matanzas................. 50,000 | Bayamo.................... 3,634
Puerto Principe.......... 40,679 | San Luis.................. 3,556
Santiago de Cuba......... 40,000 | San Cristobal............. 3,522
Cienfuegos............... 25,790 | Guira de Melena........... 3,500
Guanabacoa............... 25,000 | Morón..................... 3,017
Santa Clara.............. 24,635 | La Cruces................. 3,000
Cardenas................. 20,505 | Alfonso XII............... 3,000
Trinidad................. 18,000 | Arroyo Navanijo........... 3,000
Sancti Spiritu........... 17,540 | Sabanillo del Encomendador 2,991
Sagua la Grande.......... 14,000 | Palmira................... 2,987
Regla.................... 10,486 | Guanajayabo............... 2,879
Manzanillo............... 9,036 | Nueva Paz................. 2,737
Guantanamo............... 9,000 | Alquizar.................. 2,700
San Antonio de las Baños. 7,500 | San Felipe................ 2,311
San Juan de los Remedios. 7,230 | San Juan de las Yeras..... 2,267
San Fernando de Nuevitas. 6,991 | Jaruco.................... 2,200
San Julian de los Guines. 6,828 | San Jose de las Lajas..... 2,170
Colón.................... 6,525 | La Esperanza.............. 2,147
Bejucal.................. 6,239 | San Juan y Martinez....... 2,100
Jorellanos (Bemba)....... 6,000 | Corral Nuevo.............. 2,092
Santiago de las Vegas.... 6,000 | Consolacion del Sur....... 2,000
Guanajay................. 6,000 | Guines.................... 2,000
Pinar del Rio............ 5,500 | Santa Cruz................ 2,000
Holguin.................. 5,500 | Quemados de Guines........ 2,000
Caibarien................ 5,500 | Quivican.................. 1,950
Baracoa.................. 5,213 | Bahia Honda............... 1,889
Guira.................... 5,000 | Batabano.................. 1,864
La Isabela............... 5,000 | Bolondron................. 1,758
Artemisa................. 5,000 | Santa Domingo............. 1,750
Santa Isabel de las Lajas 4,924 | Mariel.................... 1,637
Guana.................... 4,650 | Cuevitas.................. 1,629
Gibara................... 4,608 | Cervantes................. 1,560
Macagua.................. 4,100 | Ranchuelo................. 1,533
Cabañas.................. 1,509 | Managua................... 896
San Antonio de Cabezas .. 1,500 | Ceiba del Agua............ 892
Zaza..................... 1,500 | Roque..................... 800
Calaboya................. 1,500 | Salud..................... 800
Cartagena................ 1,497 | Canasi.................... 700
Calabazar................ 1,481 | Caney..................... 700
Palmillas................ 1,471 | Jibacos................... 696
Aguacate................. 1,427 | Cidra..................... 695
San Diego del Valle...... 1,403 | Vereda Nueva.............. 672
Jiguani.................. 1,393 | Santa Maria del Rosario... 660
Mantua................... 1,380 | Rancho Velez.............. 656
Cayajabos................ 1,352 | Santa Ana ............ 601
Marianao................. 1,225 | San Jose de los Remos..... 570
San Antonio de Rio Blanco | Camarones................. 546
del Norte.............. 1,200 | Lagunillas................ 520
Candelaria............... 1,200 | Guane..................... 510
Ciego de Avila........... 1,167 | San Matias de Rio Blanco.. 400
Catalina................. 1,165 | Alto Songo................ 400
San Antonio de las Vegas. 1,136 | Limonar................... 330
Tapaste.................. 1,130 | Amaro..................... 320
San Nicolas.............. 1,100 | San Miguel................ 300
Melena del Sur........... 1,082 | Madruga................... 300
Santa Cruz del Sur....... 1,000 | Cimarrones................ 300
Bainoa................... 1,000 | Mangar.................... 209
Sagua de Tanamo.......... 981 | La Boca................... 200
Vinales.................. 925 | Alonso Rojos.............. 200
In addition to these are 132 places with less than 200 population,
including railroad stations, bathing and health resorts, and farm
hamlets.
As will be observed by the student of municipal nomenclature, the
Spanish were liberal to Cuba in christening the towns in the Island,
however parsimonious the mother country was in respect of all other
things; and many Cuban towns have more name than anything else. The
oldest town is Baracoa, in the province of Santiago de Cuba. It was laid
out in 1512. Its chief products are bananas, cocoa, and cocoa oil, and
there are some remarkable caves near by, noted for beautiful stalactites
and well preserved fossil human remains.
The largest city in the Island is Havana, the capital, to which a
chapter is devoted elsewhere in this volume.
[Illustration: A MULE TRAIN, SANTIAGO DE CUBA.] FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY J.
F. COONLEY, NASSAU, N. P.
Matanzas, in size the second city of the Island, and the capital of the
province of Matanzas, is, in some particulars, the most attractive city
of Cuba, although but one-fourth the size of Havana. It lies
seventy-four miles by rail to the east of Havana, on the fine bay of
Matanzas, with beautiful hills at its back. The town is divided into
three parts by the rivers San Juan and Yumuri, two streams which water
the valley of Yumuri, situated behind the hills of Matanzas, and
presenting the most exquisite scenery in Cuba. The climate and soil of
the valley make Yumuri, to Cubans, synonymous with poesy and Paradise.
Notwithstanding the commercial importance of Matanzas, the Spanish
authorities have neglected the wharves and permitted its harbour to
become so filled with sediment from the river that ships are compelled
to load and unload by means of lighters in the roadstead. The city was
founded in 1693, and has paved streets, usually thirty feet in width,
with three-foot sidewalks; interesting stuccoed houses of two stories,
coloured drab and ochre, with balconies; pleasant parks, with fountains
and flowers; a pleasure promenade and drive--the Paseo; one of the best
hotels in Cuba; several theatres, among them the Esteban; some notable
churches, including the Hermitage, on Mount Montserrat, at whose shrine
marvellous cures are said to be effected. The people are well content.
The leading industries are rum distilleries, sugar refineries,
guava-jelly factories, machine and railroad-car shops. Shipments of
sugar and molasses to the United States in 1891-95 were about
$60,000,000. The city has gas-works and an electric-light plant, but no
street-cars, and since 1872 it has had a fine water supply, though only
about half the houses are connected with the water system, and many of
the people still buy water of street vendors, without knowledge as to
the source of supply or purity of the water. Sewers run through only two
streets, though the location of the city is well adapted to secure
excellent drainage. The suburbs, or rather divisions, of the city by the
river are known as Versailles, on the north-east, and to the
south-east, Pueblo Nuevo. Through the latter part of the city leads the
road to the famous caves of Bellamar, three and a half miles, where many
invalids resort for the health-giving qualities of the warm air of the
caverns.
The most beautiful and striking feature of Matanzas is the cañon of the
Yumuri, a great gorge of perpendicular walls green-clad with tropical
vegetation through which the rivers of the Yumuri Valley flow down to
the sea. This is a constant resort for the pleasure-loving Matanzans,
and they thoroughly realise its beauty and value to the city. There are
many interesting drives and excursions by river and rail from Matanzas.
The waggon roads extending into the interior, as everywhere in Cuba, are
in wretched condition; the railroad connections by several routes are
fairly good, the roads being equipped with American-cars and engines.
Its population of fifty thousand is nominal, having been reduced about
one-third by the war.
The third city in the Island is Puerto Principe, capital of the province
of Puerto Principe, and known to the natives as Camagüey, the original
name of the town and province. It is forty-five miles from the south
coast and thirty-five from the north, although it is forty-five miles
from its seaport, Nuevitas, with which it is connected by its only
railroad. It is located in the midst of what once was the grazing
district,--though the cattle are now destroyed,--and being on a plain
seven hundred feet above the sea it is a healthful place. Camagüey is a
back-number town, so to speak, having narrow streets with narrow
sidewalks, or none at all, old houses, old fashions, and fewer
foreigners than any of the other Cuban towns. It is distinctively Cuban,
and the new era of Cuba will no doubt work a long time on the good
people of Camagüey before they set aside the old things and step out
into the procession of progress, clothed in the uniforms of the modern
"hustlers." In this city of over forty thousand people there is not a
hotel, and the inhabitants are noted for their hospitality.
Of great commercial significance is Cienfuegos, one of the south-coast
cities, and in some respects one of the best towns on the Island. It is
situated on the landlocked bay of Jagua, with one of the safest harbours
in the world, and though built only since 1819, and restored after a
hurricane in 1825, it has developed a spirit of energy and progress rare
in Cuban cities. It has an extensive and growing commerce, with numerous
wharves and piers for its shipping; a railroad 190 miles to Havana and
one to Sagua la Grande on the north coast; electric lights and
gas-works; 25,790 people; 3000 stone and wooden houses; the famous Terry
theatre and one of the finest plazas in Cuba; a good location for
drainage, but with stagnant water in the streets, and no sewers; much
bad health, and one of the finest opportunities on earth to take
advantage of the new order of things and convert its energy and youth
into a power that will make Cienfuegos the Chicago of Cuba. There is one
good hotel. The only serious strike that ever occurred in Cuba took
place in Cienfuegos among the longshoremen, and resulted in the sending
of all the recalcitrants by the authorities to the Isle of Pines as
criminals. The bay of Jagua is noted for its beautiful clear blue water
with a bottom of the whitest sand. The climate is more variable than
that of Cuban coast cities as a rule, the mercury marking as high as
ninety-three degrees in summer and going down into the fifties during
the night in the rainy season.
The Cuban city held to be the most healthful, though sanitary
regulations are practically unknown, is Trinidad, in the province of
Santa Clara. It is also one of the oldest, having been founded by Diego
Velasquez in 1514. It is three miles in the interior from its seaport,
Casilda, though coastwise vessels of light draft can approach it by the
river Guaurabo. The town has a picturesque location, on the slope of La
Vija ("Lookout"), a hill rising nine hundred feet above the sea. The
harbour of Casilda is three miles long by one and a half miles wide, and
has only about eleven feet of water. From this bay Cortez sailed for
Mexico. There are several fine public parks and drives, and socially
Trinidad in the winter season is one of the gayest cities on the Island.
It is lighted by gas, and though it has no sewers, its location is such
that the rains keep it washed clean. The population is eighteen
thousand. In good times Trinidad has shipped to the United States
$903,700 worth of sugar, mahogany, coffee, and honey in one year, but
times have been poor in recent years, and Trinidad is one of the towns
which will feel the reviving effects of the new era of prosperity.
Santa Clara, the capital of the province of that name, has a population
of twenty-five thousand, and is popularly known as Villa Clara. It was
founded in 1689, and was once known for its great wealth and beautiful
women; its glory in this latter regard still continues. It has one
excellent hotel, kept in modern fashion, and a fine theatre. Its railway
connections are excellent in all directions; indeed, it is the terminus
of the Cuban system of railways. It is 248 miles by rail from Havana,
and thirty miles from the north and forty from the south coast. Its
location is high, and a fine grazing country surrounds it. Minerals also
abound, and ten thousand tons of a fine asphaltum have been shipped in a
year. Silver yielding as much as $200 per ton has been found, but the
mines have not been worked. Evidences of natural gas are present near
the town. Santa Clara has wide streets, and despite its healthful
location, it is, by reason of poor or no sanitary regulations, an
unhealthful place, though there is never any yellow fever.
[Illustration: YUMURI RIVER AND ENTRANCE TO THE VALLEY, MATANZAS.]
The capital of the province of Santiago de Cuba is Santiago de Cuba,
generally known as Cuba to the natives and Santiago to foreigners. Owing
to its war record it is the best-known town in the Island. It is
situated on the south coast, one hundred miles from the west end of
Cuba, and its harbour is one of the safest and finest in the world,
having an opening into the sea only one hundred and eighty yards in
width, extending back six miles into a beautiful bay, three miles wide
at its greatest width. Santiago has a population of forty thousand
(estimated sixty thousand in 1895), and is the second oldest city in
Cuba, the capital having been removed thither from Baracoa in 1514 by
Velasquez. It is historically the most interesting city in Cuba, and it
promises to be for the future second in importance to none in the
Island, except Havana. It became a bishopric as early as 1527 and is now
the metropolis of the Catholic Church in Cuba, the Archbishop of
Santiago being the Primate. The celebrations of church festivals are
conducted with ceremonies more elaborate than those anywhere else in the
Island, and the cathedral, in the Hispano-American style, is the largest
in Cuba, if not the handsomest. It is said that in a Santiago theatre
Adelina Patti made her first public appearance, at the age of fourteen
years; Velasquez is buried in this city, and so is Antomarchi, the
physician of Napoleon, who died, as his emperor did, upon a foreign
island. Cuba's greatest poet, José Maria Heredia, was born here, as were
Milanes, Dona Luisa Perez de Montes de Oca, Dona Gertrudis Gomez de
Avellanda; and Placido, next to Heredia in merit, passed several years
here.
Although well located for drainage, Santiago is one of the most
unhealthful towns in Cuba, and its beautiful bay is little better than a
cesspool. Yellow fever and smallpox have been the prevailing epidemics
for years, but under the new order a new condition will arise. Santiago,
with very poor business houses and offices, does a flourishing trade,
wholesale, retail, and in shipping. The surrounding country has many
people employed not only in agriculture, but in mining as well, for
Santiago is the centre of the mining district. Its railway facilities
are practically nil, being located two hundred miles east of the last
railway leading anywhere. The city is Moorish in its aspect. It is
sufficiently ancient to be without hotels, though there are several
clubs where civilised beings may be entertained comfortably. The
fortifications about the city are interesting: the Morro,--which is one
hundred years older than that of Havana,--La Socapa, La Estrella, and
Smith Key--all these have received much mention during the late war. The
mining interests of Santiago will be considered under a separate
chapter.
Cardenas may be said to be the newest town in Cuba, and is known as "the
American city," owing to the fact that many Americans are located here
in business, or make it their headquarters, with business interests
elsewhere in the Island. It was founded in 1828, is a thriving town,
with wide streets, numerous wharves, a plaza with a bronze statue of
Columbus, and is a purely commercial city. The harbour is shallow, and
the piers running into it are from three hundred to one thousand feet in
length. Although without sewers and located on swampy ground, Cardenas
is not unhealthful as the term is understood in Cuba. There are fine
water-works, but many of the people still prefer to buy water of street
vendors. Gas and electricity light the town. Its chief business is in
sugar, but, unlike other Cuban cities, it possesses numerous and varied
manufactures, producing liquors, beers, metal-work, soap, cigars,
fabrics, etc. It has connection by steamer and rail with the chief
points of the Island. The population is 20,505, over 15,000 of which is
white. Cardenas exported goods in 1894 to the amount of $10,008,565, of
which $9,682,335 was in sugar shipped to the United States, as against
$10,000,000 the previous year. Her imports in 1892 were $4,900,000, and
in 1895 the United States sent 32,283 tons of coal to this port.
Situated in one of the richest agricultural sections of Cuba, Cardenas
is also not poor in mineral wealth, notably asphalt. Peculiar mines of
asphalt are found in the waters of the bay. The mineral is broken loose
by bars dropped from ten to twelve feet through the water upon it, and
the pieces are scooped up with a net. The supply of the mineral is
renewed from some unknown source as fast as it is taken away. One of
these mines has furnished as much as 20,000 tons, and the supply is
inexhaustible. Asphalt of the first grade is worth from $80 to $125 per
ton.
Sagua la Grande, twenty-five miles from the mouth of the river of that
name, is almost wholly a sugar town. It has a population of 14,000, and
is the northern terminus of the Havana Railway system. Its seaport is La
Isabela, with a poor harbour; and its exports in 1895 reached nearly
$5,000,000--with a great falling off since, as it has suffered as much
as any town in the Island from the insurrection. As an indication of
this it may be said that immediately before the insurrection there were
23,500 cattle, 4500 horses, 4000 hogs, 700 sheep, and 450 mules in the
Sagua district, practically all of which have been destroyed or stolen.
Sagua has an ice plant whose product has sold at $3 per hundredweight.
The railway from Sagua to Cienfuegos marks the boundary between the
western and eastern districts of Cuba.
Caibarien is another nineteenth-century town, having been founded in
1822. Its houses are of brick, and its warehouses of recent styles of
architecture. Its population is fifty-five hundred, and it is said to be
not unhealthful, though its general level is not much more than ten feet
above the sea, and the country is swampy. Its chief industry is sugar,
although recently an active business in sponges has grown up,
principally of local consumption, the annual value approaching half a
million of dollars. The harbour is extensive, but shallow and poor. A
railway extends to San Andres, twenty-eight and one-half miles in the
interior. Some waggon roads, unusually good for Cuba, connect it with
various sugar estates. The future possibilities of Caibarien are
numerous and great.
Manzanillo is the best town on the south coast between Trinidad and
Santiago, and was founded in 1784. It has a population of nine thousand,
and is the seaport of several interior towns and a rich sugar district,
and is also the gateway to the fertile valley of the Cauto River, the
most important stream in the Island. It has a fine plaza, and numerous
inferior houses on fairly good streets, wider than the usual Cuban
street. There are no water-works, gas-works, electric lights, or
street-cars. The town is one of the most unhealthful in the Island, and
of Manzanillo mud the author has spoken in a previous chapter. The
principal shipments are lumber, tobacco, sugar, honey, and wax. In
1892-93-94 four million feet of mahogany and two million one hundred
thousand feet of cedar were exported.
Pinar del Rio, the capital of its province, should be particularly
interesting to Americans, as it was founded in 1776. It is a brick and
stone town of 5500 population and is neither clean nor attractive. It
has very few foreigners and is in no sense a modern place. It is,
however, of commercial importance, being the centre of the famous Vuelta
Abajo tobacco district, which produces the finest tobacco in the world.
Pinar del Rio is essentially a tobacco town. It is connected with Havana
by a highroad (_calzada_) and also by railway. The town is lacking in
most of the modern conveniences, and the spirit of the people is not
quick to respond to new notions.
An alphabetical list of the lesser towns may serve a useful purpose to
the reader whose geography of Cuba is as yet not complete.
Artemisa (Pinar del Rio) is a town of five thousand people, with a paved
road to Guanajay, nine miles, and a railway to Havana, thirty-five
miles. It is in a fine tobacco and sugar district, and is a low and
unhealthful place, but beautifully shaded with palms.
[Illustration: PANORAMA FROM THE ROAD TO THE CAVES, MATANZAS.]
Bahia Honda (Pinar del Rio), with about two thousand population, is one
of the chief seaports of the mountain coast; and although it possesses
none of the visible evidences of future promise, still it is one of the
places which impress the visitor with belief in its future greatness.
Its population is largely black, its wharves are miserable, its houses
are poor; though over one hundred years old, it is not a port of
entry--and still Bahia is promising. The harbour is one of the finest on
the coast, the surrounding country is rich in tobacco and sugar soil,
the climatic conditions are favourable, and the new times will be good
times for Bahia.
Cabanas (Pinar del Rio), with a population of fifteen hundred, has a
landlocked, shallow harbour, four miles by seven in extent, and its
connections with the interior are bad. It came into prominence during
the war, and was partly destroyed by General Maceo.
Consolacion del Sur (Pinar del Rio) is, after Bahia Honda, the chief
commercial town of the province. It has a population of two thousand,
and is in the centre of the Vuelta Abajo tobacco district, with eight
hundred plantations tributary to it.
Guanajay (Pinar del Rio) has a population of six thousand, is the
junction of several paved roads, and is considerably above the average
interior town in progressive spirit. It is lacking, however, in modern
conveniences and suffered by the war.
San Cristobal (Pinar del Rio), though one of the oldest towns in the
Island, is very enterprising and its people are energetic and
prosperous. It has a railway and good waggon roads, and its thirty-five
hundred people have a good climate and good health. It is in the midst
of the Vuelta Abajo tobacco district.
San Diego de los Banos (Pinar del Rio) is to be especially mentioned for
its wonderful sulphur baths. In one enclosure there are four of these
springs, having a temperature of ninety degrees, and they have effected
cures in leprosy, other cutaneous diseases, and rheumatism which are
passing belief. It has beautiful surroundings of hill and sea and its
caves of Arcos de Carguanabo are famous.
Vinales (Pinar del Rio), a small town of 925 people, is the interior
terminus of the railroad running to the north coast and the celebrated
San Vincente mineral springs.
Batabano (Havana) is the southern seaport of the city of Havana,
thirty-three miles to the north, and connected with it by rail and paved
roads. The town, in two parts, La Plaza and Surgirdero, is meanly built,
and has about nineteen hundred people. It has no harbour, but is the
western terminus of the south-coast line of steamers. The waters about
Batabano are notable for the beautiful submarine views they present to
observers on steamers. Batabano is hot and unhealthful.
Bejucal (Havana), built in 1710, has a population of six thousand two
hundred, an elevation of three hundred feet, and a situation in the
midst of pleasing scenery. The town itself is unattractive to the eye,
but its health is good, the people being noted for their long lives.
Cojimar (Havana), four miles from Havana, has a beautiful sand beach,
the finest in Cuba, and in time will become a profitable seaside resort,
though now unimproved. The British landed here in 1762.
Guanabacoa (Havana) is practically a suburb of Havana and has a
population of twenty-five thousand. With every opportunity and
possibility of being a clean, modern city, it is quite the reverse.
Güines (Havana), thirty miles from Havana over a fine waggon road, and
forty-four by rail, has a population of about seven thousand, and one of
the most desirable situations in the Island. It has bridges over the
river Catalina, a good hotel, a fine railway station; about it lies a
rich agricultural and grazing country, and the town is, in respect of
health, thrift, and progress, a model town--for Cuba.
Jaruco (Havana), with a population of two thousand two hundred, claims
recognition chiefly because it is clean. Naturally its health is better
than that of most Cuban towns.
Madruga (Havana) is famed for its warm mineral springs. It is fifty-five
miles from Havana by rail. Population three hundred.
Marianao (Havana), a suburb of Havana six miles away, has a population
of twelve hundred, and is said to be the cleanest and prettiest town in
Cuba. Its people are entirely of the better class.
Regla (Havana), a suburb of Havana, connected with the city by ferries,
has the largest and finest sugar warehouses in the world and a
bull-ring vying in popularity with those of Havana.
San Antonio de los Banos (Havana), with seven thousand five hundred
people, twenty miles from Havana, is the most popular mineral-springs
resort in the Island and its climate is famous for its health-giving
qualities.
Colon (Matanzas), on the railway between Matanzas and Cardenas, in the
heart of the sugar-producing district of this section, has six thousand
five hundred people and is of much commercial importance. Like all the
others, it needs public improvements.
Jovellanos (Matanzas), also known as Bemba, is a coloured town, the bulk
of its population being negroes, and its only hotel is kept by a
Chinaman.
Macagua (Matanzas) is noted for its extensive sugar estates. Some of the
largest in Cuba are immediately around it. Population four thousand one
hundred. It has a railway to Colon and Santa Clara.
Calaboya (Santa Clara) has a population of fifteen hundred and
possesses, in the bridge over the Calaboya River, the longest railway
bridge in Cuba. Otherwise it is not important.
La Cruces (Santa Clara) is a railway junction and was at one time
actively engaged in shipping horses, cattle, and sugar. The people are
active and energetic, and have been complimented with the name of the
"Yankees of Cuba."
La Isabela (Santa Clara), called also Concha and La Boca, is the seaport
of Sagua la Grande, and has five thousand people. It is the shore
terminus of the railway to Sagua and is of considerable commercial
importance, with a cosmopolitan people.
Remedios (Santa Clara), with a population of seven thousand, is in a
fine country and is one of the cities of the future, naturally and
logically.
Sancti Spiritus (Santa Clara), also known as Santo Espiritu, founded in
1514, is one of the old towns of the Island. Despite its size (seventeen
thousand), it is of no great commercial importance, and is a dirty town
in a good location for cleanliness.
Santa Isabel (Santa Clara), with a population of five thousand, does a
good business in sugar and cattle. Cienfuegos is its seaport and is
connected with it by a railroad twenty-five miles long.
Tunas de Zaza (Santa Clara), with fifteen hundred population, is in such
a poor country agriculturally and aquatically, that the railway has a
monopoly in carrying vegetables and water supply to the people. The town
is hot and healthful. It has shipped as much as half a million dollars'
worth of sugar, mahogany, cedar, honey, beeswax, etc., to the United
States in one year.
Nuevitas (Puerto Principe), population seven thousand, is a town of
promise and no public improvements. Water, in the dry season, commands
nearly as high a price as whiskey. It is the seaport of Puerto Principe,
Cuba's largest inland town, and is connected with it by forty-five miles
of railroad. It has a fine harbour and a good location for drainage. It
was at or near Nuevitas that Columbus first saw Cuba. Its annual exports
to the United States have, in a good year, exceeded one million dollars.
Banes (Santiago de Cuba) is noted for its fruit business, as many as
4,651,000 bunches of bananas having been exported since 1890. Thirty-two
thousand pineapples were shipped in 1894, but the insurrection ruined
the business in 1896.
Baracoa (Santiago de Cuba) is the most eastern port of importance on the
north coast. It is the oldest town in Cuba and formerly was the capital.
It was founded in 1512 by Velasquez, whose house is still shown to the
traveller. Baracoa is far behind the times, but it has all the
potentialities for future greatness. The country along the coast is not
healthful, but the interior is not only fine scenically but also
excellent as to its health standard. There are no good roads and no
railways of any kind. Baracoa imports about nineteen thousand pints of
beer per annum from the United States, and Milwaukee sells at
twenty-five cents a bottle. Copper, cocoanuts and oil, bananas, and
cocoa constitute the exports. General Maceo and his followers
inaugurated the last Cuban revolution in Baracoa, on the 20th of
February, 1895, and within a year had marched through the Island to
Mantua in the west of Pinar del Rio.
[Illustration: THE PLAZA, CIENFUEGOS.]
Bayamo (Santiago de Cuba), with a population of about 4000 and an age of
about 350 years, is a Spanish relic city, being very like the earlier
cities of the mother country. It has eleven churches. It has none of the
modern conveniences and no railways, and its waggon roads are impassable
in the wet season. Bayamo never had a boom. It was the cradle of the Ten
Years' War.
Cobre (Santiago de Cuba), founded in 1558, is famous for its copper
mines. It has a magnificent sanctuary, in which is the little statue
known as the _Virgin of Charity_, which is claimed to have effected
miraculous cures of all kinds.
Gibara (Santiago de Cuba), also spelled with a "J," is the seaport for
Holguin, with which it is connected by a railroad seventeen miles long
and by a very bad waggon road. It has a population of about five
thousand. It is greatly in need of improvement.
Guantanamo (Santiago de Cuba) has a population of nine thousand, and is
the centre of the coffee district. Other agricultural products and
minerals abound. It was founded in 1843, and still is not a modern town
in the matter of conveniences. It is unhealthful because it has no
sanitary provisions. It has a fine harbour and is of much commercial
importance. It came into prominence during the late war.
Holguin (Santiago de Cuba), with a high and healthful location and
fifty-five hundred people, ought to be a much better town than it is,
and will improve under the new order. It is fifteen miles from the north
coast, and is in the centre of the hardwood industry. It was of great
military importance during the late war.
Jiguani (Santiago de Cuba), with a picturesque mountainous location,
and an old castle in the vicinity, will be attractive to tourists and
artists.
Of the 570 islands, or keys, on the north coast of Cuba and the 730 on
the south, the Isle of Pines is the only one of sufficient size to be of
importance; its area being 1214 square miles to 1350 square miles for
all the other 1299 Islands. The Isle of Pines belongs to the judicial
district of Bejucal (Havana), and was first called "Evangelist Island"
by Columbus, who discovered it in 1494. It has a population of 2000, of
which 1800 is about equally divided between its two chief towns, Nueva
Gerona and Santa Fe. The people are rather superior to those of the
Island of Cuba, and the climate is drier and better than that of the
main Island. Besides the pines which flourish on the island, there is a
great quantity of mahogany, cedar, and other hardwoods. There are
deposits of fine marble, as well as of silver, mercury, and iron, yet to
be developed. Turtle fishing and pineapple raising flourish to some
extent. The Isle of Pines is really two islands, separated by a
tide-covered swamp, over which there is a causeway. The south portion is
rough and barren, while the northern part is fertile and pleasing to the
eye. The towns are poor. Its mineral waters are much recommended for
affections of the stomach.
A few of the other islands, or keys, are inhabited in a small way, and
the largest of them, Cayo Romano, has an area of 140 square miles, with
three hills rising from its flat plain.