Hawaii Statewide Files History - Books.....Story of the Philippines, Chapters XXII-XXVI

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Book Title and Information: 
The Story of the Philippines and Our New Possessions, 
Including The Ladrones, Hawaii, Cuba and Porto Rico. 
By Murat Halstead. Published: H.L. Barber, Chicago, 
Ill., 1898. Subjects: Natural riches, industrial 
resources, statistics of productions, commerce and 
population; the laws, habits, customs, scenery and 
conditions of the Cuba of the East Indies and the 
Thousand Islands of The Archipelagoes of India and 
Hawaii, with episodes of their early history, personal 
character sketches of and interviews with Admiral 
Dewey, General Merritt, General Aguinaldo and the 
Archbishop of Manila.
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The Story of the Philippines - Chapters XXII-XXVI

CHAPTER XXII

The Start for the Land of Corn Stalks.

Spain Clings to the Ghost of Her Colonies--The Scene of War Interest Shifts from 
Manila--The Typhoon Season--General Merritt on the Way to Paris--German Target 
Practice by Permission of Dewey--Poultney Bigelow with Canoe, Typewriter and 
Kodak--Hongkong as a Bigger and Brighter Gibraltar.

When Spain gave up the ghosts of her American colonies, and the war situation 
was unfolded to signify that the fate of the Philippines was referred to a 
conference, and Aguinaldo announced the removal of his seat of government to 
Molones, one hour and a half from Manila, the scene of greatest interest was 
certainly not in the city and immediate surroundings. Then it was plain the 
American army must remain for some time, and would have only guard duty to 
perform. The Spaniards had succumbed and were submissive, having laid down their 
arms and surrendered all places and phases of authority. The insurgents' removal 
of their headquarters declared that they had abandoned all claim to sharing in 
the occupation of the conquered city, and their opposition to the United States, 
if continued in theory, was not to be that in a practical way. Between the 
American, Spanish and Philippine forces there was no probability of disputed 
facts or forms that could be productive of contention of a serious nature. There 
was but one question left in this quarter of the world that concerned the people 
of the United States, and that whether they would hold their grip, snatched by 
Dewey with his fleet, and confirmed by his government in sending an army, making 
our country possessors of the physical force to sustain our policy, whatever it 
might be, on the land as well as on the sea. Whether we should stay or go was 
not even to be argued in Manila, except in general and fruitless conversation. 
Then came the intelligence that General Merritt had been called to Paris and 
General Greene to Washington, and there was a deepened impression that the war 
was over. It was true that the army was in an attitude and having experiences 
that were such as travelers appreciate as enjoyable, and that no other body of 
soldiers had surroundings so curious and fascinating. The most agreeable time of 
the year was coming on, and the sanitary conditions of the city, under the 
American administration, would surely improve constantly, and so would! the fare 
of the men, for the machinery in all departments was working smoothly. The boys 
were feeling pretty well, because they found their half dollars dollars--the 
Mexican fifty-cent piece, bigger and with more silver in it than the American 
standard dollar, was a bird. A dollar goes further if it is gold in Manila than 
in an American city, and if our soldiers are not paid in actual gold they get 
its equivalent, and the only money question unsettled is whether the Mexican 
silver dollar is worth in American money fifty cents or less. One of the sources 
of anxieties and disappointment and depression of the American soldiers in 
Manila has been the irregularity and infrequency with which they get letters. If 
one got a letter or newspaper from home of a date not more than six weeks old he 
had reason to be congratulated. The transports trusted with the mails were slow, 
and communications through the old lines between Hongkong and San Francisco, 
Yokohama and Vancouver, were not reliably organized. There were painful cases of 
masses of mail on matter precious beyond all valuation waiting at Hongkong for a 
boat, and an issue whether the shorter road home was not by way of Europe. This 
is all in course of rapid reformation. There will be no more mystery as to 
routes or failures to connect. The soldiers, some of whom are ten thousand miles 
from home, should have shiploads of letters and papers. They need reading matter 
almost as much as they do tobacco, and the charming enthusiasm of the ladies who 
entertained the soldier boys when they were going away with feasting and 
flattery, praise and glorification, should take up the good work of sending them 
letters, papers, magazines and books. There is no reason why soldiers should be 
more subject to homesickness than sailors, except that they are not so well or 
ill accustomed to absence. The fact that the soldiers are fond of their homes 
and long for them can have ways of expression other than going home. A few days 
after the news of peace reached Manila, the transports were inspected for 
closing up the contracts with them under which they were detained, and soon they 
began to move. When the China was ordered to San Francisco, I improved the 
opportunity to return to the great republic. There was no chance to explore the 
many islands of the group of which Manila is the Spanish Capital. General 
Merritt changed the course of this fine ship and added to the variety of the 
voyage by taking her to Hongkong to sail thence by way of the China Sea, the 
Indian Ocean, the Arabian Gulf, the Red Sea, the Suez Canal and the 
Mediterranean, to Paris. Our route to San Francisco, by way of Hongkong, 
Nagasaki, Sunanaski, Kobe and the Yokohama light, was 6,905 knots, about seven 
thousand seven hundred statute miles, and gave us glimpses of the Asia shore, 
the west coast of Formosa and the great ports of Hongkong and Nagasaki. The 
first thing on the Sea of China, in the month of September, is whether we shall 
find ourselves in the wild embrace of a typhoon. It was the season for those 
terrible tempests and when we left Manila the information that one was about due 
was not spared us. We heard later on that the transport ahead of us four days, 
the Zealandia, was twenty-eight hours in a cyclone and much damaged--wrung and 
hammered and shocked until she had to put into Nagasaki for extensive repairs. 
The rainfall was so heavy during the storm that one could not see a hundred 
yards from the ship, and she was wrung in so furious a style in a giddy waltz, 
that the Captain was for a time in grave doubt whether she would not founder. 
The rule is when one is in the grasp of the oriental whirl to run through it, 
judging from the way of the wind, the shortest way out. There is a comparatively 
quiet spot in the center, and if the beset navigator can find the correct line 
of flight, no matter which way as relates to the line of his journey, he does 
well to take it. Often in this sea, as in this case, there were uncertainties as 
to directions. The rain narrowed observation like a dense fog, and there was 
danger of running upon some of the islands and snags of rocks. The battered 
vessel pulled through a cripple, with her boats shattered, her deck cracked 
across by a roller, and her crew were happy to find a quiet place to be put in 
order. "To be or not to be" an American instead of a Spanish or Asiatic city was 
the parting thought as the China left Manila Bay, and the dark rocks of 
Corrigedor faded behind us, and the rugged rocks that confront the stormy sea 
loomed on our right, and the violet peaks of volcanic mountains bounded our 
eastern horizon. The last view we had of the historic bay, a big German warship 
was close to the sentinel rock, that the Spaniards thought they had fortified, 
until Dewey came and saw and conquered, swifter than Caesar, and the Germans, 
venturing some target practice, by permission of Dewey, who relaxes no vigilance 
of authority. Hongkong is 628 miles from Manila, and the waters so often stirred 
in monstrous wrath, welcomed us with a spread of dazzling silk. The clumsy junks 
that appeared to have come down from the days of Confucius, were languid on the 
gentle ripples. The outstanding Asian islands, small and grim, are singularly 
desolate, barren as if splintered by fire, gaunt and forbidding. Hongkong is an 
island that prospers under the paws of the British lion, and it is a city 
displayed on a mountain side, that by day is not much more imposing than the 
town of Gibraltar, which it resembles, but at night the lights glitter in a 
sweeping circle, the steep ascent of the streets revealed by many lamps, and 
here and there the illumination climbs to the tops of the mountains that are 
revealed with magical efforts of color and form. The harbor is entered by an 
ample, but crooked channel, and is land-locked, fenced with gigantic bumps that 
sketch the horizon, and with their heads and shoulders are familiar with the 
sky. Here General Merritt, with his personal staff, left us, and between those 
bound from this port east and west, we circumnavigated the earth.

Mr. Poultney Bigelow, of Harper's Weekly, who dropped in by the way just to make 
a few calls at Manila, and has a commission to explore the rivers and lagoons of 
China with his canoe, left us, in that surprising craft, plying his paddle in 
the fashion of the Esquimaux, pulling right and left, hand over hand, balancing 
to a nicety on the waves and going ashore dry and unruffled, with his fieldglass 
and portfolio, his haversack and typewriter machine that he folds in a small box 
as if it was a pocket comb, and his kodak, with which he is an expert. He has 
not only ransacked with his canoe the rivers of America, but has descended the 
Danube and the Volga. He puts out in his canoe and crosses arms of the sea, as a 
pastime, makes a tent of his boat if it rains, fighting the desperadoes of all 
climes with the superstition, for which he is indebted to their imagination for 
his safety in running phenomenal hazards, that he is a magician. Marco Polo was 
not so great a traveler or so rare an adventurer as Bigelow, and, having left 
Florida under a thunder cloud of the scowl of an angry army for untimely 
criticisms, he has invaded the celestial empire in his quaint canoe, and he can 
beat the Chinese boatmen on their own rivers, and sleep like a sea bird on the 
swells of green water, floating like a feather, and safe in his slumbers as a 
solon goose with his head under his wing. However, he has not a winged boat, a 
bird afloat sailing round the purple peaks remote, as Buchanan Reed put it in 
his "Drifting" picture of the Vesuvian bay, for Bigelow uses a paddle. There has 
been a good deal of curiosity as well as indignation about his papers on the 
handling of our Cuban expedition before it sailed, and it is possible he was 
guilty of the common fault of firing into the wrong people. He was in Washington 
in June, and he and I meeting on the Bridge of Spain over the Pesang in Manila 
in August, we had, between us, put a girdle about the earth. Some say such 
experiences are good to show how small the earth is, but I am more than ever 
persuaded that it is big enough to find mankind in occupation and subsistence 
until time shall be no more. In the dock at Hongkong was Admiral Dewey's 
flagship Olympia, and while she had the grass scratched from her bottom, the 
gallant crew were having a holiday with the zest that rewards those who for four 
months were steadily on shipboard with arduous cares and labors. H.B.M.S. 
Powerful, of 12,000 tons displacement, with four huge flues and two immense 
military masts, presided at Hongkong under orders to visit Manila. The mingling 
of the English and Chinese in Hongkong is a lively object lesson, showing the 
extent of the British capacity to utilize Asiatic labor, and get the profit of 
European capital and discipline, an accumulation that requires an established 
sense of safety--a justified confidence in permanency.

The contrast between the city of Hongkong and that of Manila is one that 
Americans should study now, to be instructed in the respective colonial systems 
of England and Spain. Hongkong is clean and solid, with business blocks of the 
best style of construction, the pavements excellent in material and keeping, 
shops full of goods, all the appliances of modern times--a city up to date. 
There are English enough to manage and Chinese enough to toil. There are two 
British regiments, one of them from India, the rank and file recruited from the 
fighting tribes of northern mountaineers. There are dark, tall men, with 
turbans, embodiment of mystery, and Parsees who have a strange spirituality of 
their own, and in material matters maintain a lofty code of honor, while their 
pastime is that of striving while they march to push their heads into the 
clouds. There are no horses in Hongkong, the coolies carrying chairs on bamboo 
poles, or trotting with two-wheelers, an untiring substitute for quadrupeds, and 
locomotion on the streets or in the boats is swift and sure. I had an address to 
find in the city, on a tip at Manila of the presence, of a literary treasure, 
and my chairmen carried me, in a few minutes, to a tall house on a tall terrace, 
and the works of a martyr to liberty in the Philippines were located. The 
penalty for the possession of these books in Manila was that of the author 
executed by shooting in the back in the presence of a crowd of spectators. The 
cost of the carriers was thirty cents in silver--fifteen cents in United States 
money--and the men were as keen-eyed as they were sure-footed, and the strength 
of their tawny limbs called for admiration. They were not burdened with clothes, 
and the play of the muscles of their legs was like a mechanism of steel, oiled, 
precise, easy and ample in force. The China took on a few hundred tons of coal, 
which was delivered aboard from heavy boats by the basketful, the men forming a 
line, and so expert were they at each delivery, the baskets were passed, each 
containing about half a bushel--perhaps there were sixty baskets to the ton--at 
the rate of thirty-five baskets in a minute. Make due allowances and one gang 
would deliver twenty tons of coal an hour. The China was anchored three-quarters 
of a mile from the landing, and a boat ride was ten cents, or fifteen if you 
were a tipster. The boats are, as a rule, managed by a man and his wife; and, as 
it is their own, they keep the children at home. The average families on the 
boats--and I made several counts--were nine, the seven children varying from one 
to twelve years of age. The vitality of the Chinese is not exhausted, or even 
impaired.


CHAPTER XXIII

Kodak Snapped at Japan.

Glimpses of China and Japan on the Way Home from the Philippines--Hongkong a 
Greater Gibraltar--Coaling the China--Gangs of Women Coaling the China--How the 
Japanese Make Gardens of the Mountains--Transition from the Tropics to the 
Northern Seas--A Breeze from Siberia--A Thousand Miles Nothing on the Pacific--
Talk of Swimming Ashore.

Formosa was so far away eastward--a crinkled line drawn faintly with a fine blue 
pencil, showing as an artistic scrawl on the canvass of the low clouds--we could 
hardly claim when the sketch of the distant land faded from view, that we had 
seen Japan. When Hongkong, of sparkling memory, was lost to sight, the guardian 
walls that secluded her harbor, closing their gates as we turned away, and the 
headlands of the celestial empire grew dim, a rosy sunset promised that the next 
day should be pleasant, our thoughts turned with the prow of the China to Japan. 
We were bound for Nagasaki, to get a full supply of coal to drive us across the 
Pacific, having but twelve hundred tons aboard, and half of that wanted for 
ballast. It was at the mouth of the harbor of Nagasaki that there was a 
settlement of Dutch Christians for some hundreds of years. An indiscreet letter 
captured on the way to Holland by a Portuguese adventurer and maliciously sent 
to Japan, caused the tragic destruction of the Christian colony. The enmity of 
Christian nations anxious to add to their properties in the islands in remote 
seas was so strong that any one preferred that rather than his neighbors might 
aggrandize the heathen should prevail. The first as well as the last rocks of 
Japan to rise from and sink into the prodigous waters, through which we pursued 
our homeward way, bathing our eyes in the delicious glowing floods of eastern 
air, were scraggy with sharp pinnacles, and sheer precipices, grim survivals of 
the chaos that it was, before there was light. I have had but glimpses of the 
extreme east of Asia, yet the conceit will abide with me that this is in geology 
as in history the older world, as we classify our continents, that a thousand 
centuries look upon us from the terrible towers, lonesome save for the flutter 
of white wings, that witness the rising of the constellations from the greater 
ocean of the globe. But there are green hills as we approach Nagasaki, and on a 
hillside to the left are the white walls of a Christian church with a square 
tower, stained with traditions of triumphs and suffering and martyrdom long ago. 
Nagasaki is like Hongkong in its land-locked harbor, in clinging to a mountain 
side, in the circle of illumination at night and the unceasing paddling of boats 
from ship to ship and between the ships and landings. One is not long in 
discovering that here are a people more alert, ingenious, self-confident and 
progressive than the Chinese. As we approached the harbor there came to head us 
off, an official steam launch, with men in uniform, who hailed and commanded us 
to stop. Two officers with an intense expression of authority came aboard, and 
we had to give a full and particular account of ourselves. Why were we there? 
Coaling. Where were we from? Manila and Hongkong. Where were we going? San 
Francisco. Had we any sickness on board? No. We must produce the ship doctor, 
the list of passengers, and manifest of cargo. We had no cargo. There were a 
dozen passengers. It was difficult to find fault with us. No one was ill. We 
wanted coal. What was the matter? We had no trouble at Hongkong. We could buy 
all the coal we wanted there, but preferred this station. We had proposed to 
have our warships cleaned up at Nagasaki, but there were objections raised. So 
the job went to the docks at Hongkong, and good gold with it. Why was this? Oh 
yes; Japan wanted, in the war between the United States and Spain, to be not 
merely formally, but actually neutral! The fact is that the Japanese Empire is 
not pleased with us. They had, in imperial circles, a passion for Honolulu, and 
intimated their grief. Now they are annoyed because that little indemnity for 
refusing the right to land Japanse labor was paid by the Hawaiian Government 
before the absorption into the United States. As the Hawaiian diplomatic 
correspondence about this was conducted with more asperity than tact, if peace 
were the purpose, it was a good sore place for the Japanese statesmen to rub, 
and they resent in the newspapers the facile and cheap pacification resulting 
from the influence of the United States. In addition the Japanese inhabitants, 
though they have a larger meal than they can speedily digest in Formosa, are not 
touched with unqualified pleasurable feeling because we have the Philippines in 
our grasp. If Japan is to be the great power of the Pacific, it is inconvenient 
to her for us to hold the Hawaiian, the Aleutian and the Philippine groups of 
islands. The Philippines have more natural resources than all the islands of 
Japan, and our Aleutian Islands that are waiting for development would probably 
be found, if thoroughly investigated, one of our great and good bargains. The 
average American finds himself bothered to have to treat the Japanese seriously, 
but we must, for they take themselves so, and are rushing the work on new ships 
of war so that they will come out equal with ourselves in sea power. They have 
ready for war one humdred thousand men. If we did not hold any part of the 
Pacific Coast, this might be a matter of indifference, but we have three Pacific 
States, and there is no purpose to cede them to the Japanese. It would not be 
statesmanship to give up the archipelagoes we possess, even if we consider them 
as lands to hold for the hereafter. It is not deniable that the Japanese have 
good reason to stand off for strict examination the ships of other nations that 
call at their ports. The British and Chinese have had an experience of the 
bubonic plague at Hongkong, and the Japanese are using all the power of arms and 
the artifice of science they possess to keep aloof from the disastrous disease, 
which is most contagious. The China had called at Hongkong, and hence the sharp 
attentions at a coaling station where there are about seventy-five thousand 
inhabitants of the Japanese quarters, which are an exhibit of Old Japan, and 
most interesting. Nagasaki has, indeed, the true Japanese flavor. If there had 
been a sick man on our ship we should have been quarantined. Further on we were 
halted in the night off the city of Kobe, to the sound of the firing of a 
cannon, for we had dropped there a passenger, Mr. Tilden, the Hongkong agent of 
the Pacific Mail line, and if our ship had been infected with plague he might 
have passed it on to Japan! I had gone to bed, and was called up to confront the 
representative of the Imperial Government of the Japanese, and make clear to his 
eyes that I had not returned on account of the plague. Authorities of Japan 
treat people who are quarantined in a way that removes the stress of 
disagreeableness. All are taken ashore and to a hospital. There is furnished a 
robe of the country, clean and tidy in all respects. The common clothing is 
removed and fumigated. It is necessary for each quarantined person to submit to 
this and also to a bath, which is a real luxury, and after it comes a cup of tea 
and a light lunch. There was an actual case of plague on an American ship at 
this city of Kobe not long ago, at least, it was so reported with pretty strong 
corroborative evidence. The symptom in the case on the ship was that of a fever, 
probably pneumonia. The man was landed and examined. The plague fever resembles 
pneumonia at an early stage. The Japanese physicians found signs of plague and 
the end came soon. The sick man, taken ashore in the afternoon, at nine o'clock 
was dead, transferred at once to the crematory, in two hours reduced to ashes, 
and the officers of the ship informed that if they wanted to carry the "remains" 
to America they would be sealed in a jar and certified. The ship's officers did 
not want ashes, and the Japs hold the jar. They are so "advanced" that cremation 
is becoming a fad with them. It would not be surprising to find that the 
impending danger of the Japanese is excessive imitative progress, which is not 
certain to be exactly the right thing for them. They have reached a point where 
it is worth while to examine the claim of new things with much care before 
adopting them. We have very high authority to examine all things for goodness 
sake, before committing ourselves to hold them fast. We had to take aboard 
eighteen hundred tons of coal at Nagasaki. A fleet of arks with thirty tons of 
Japanese coal approached and gathered around the ship, which has sixteen places 
to throw coal into the bunkers. So the coal business was carried on by from 
twelve to fifteen gangs, each of about ten men and twenty women! The latter were 
sturdy creatures, modestly attired in rough jackets and skirts. There were not 
far from thirty bamboo baskets to the gang. One man stood at the porthole, and 
each second emptied a coal basket, using both hands, and throwing it back into 
the barge with one hand, the same swing of the arm used to catch the next basket 
hurled to him with a quick, quiet fling. There were three men of a gang next the 
ship, the third one standing in the barge, served with baskets by two strings of 
women. At the end of the string furthest from the ship the coal was shoveled 
into the baskets by four men, and there were two who lifted and whirled them to 
the women. The numbers and order of the laborers varied a little at times from 
this relation, yet very little, but frequently a lump of coal was passed without 
using a basket. The work of coaling was carried on all night, and about thirty-
six hours of labor put in for a day. There was a great deal of talking among the 
laborers during the few moments of taking places, and some of it in tones of 
high excitement, but once the human machine started there was silence, and then 
the scratching of the shovels in the coal, and the crash of the coal thrown far 
into the ship were heard. It is, from the American contemplation, shocking for 
women to do such work, but they did their share with unflinching assiduity, and 
without visible distress. When the night work was going on they were evidently 
fatigued, and at each change that allowed a brief spell of waiting, they were 
stretched out on the planks of the boats, the greater number still, but some of 
the younger ones talking and laughing. There did not seem to be much flirtation, 
nothing like as much as when both sexes of Europeans are engaged in the same 
wheat or barley field harvesting. There were, it is needful to remark, neither 
lights nor shadows to invite the blanishments of courting. The coal handling 
women were from fifteen to fifty years of age, and all so busy the inevitable 
babies must have been left at home. I have never seen many American or European 
babies "good" as weary mothers use the word, as the commonest Japanese kids. 
They do not know how to cry, and a girl of ten years will relieve a mother of 
personal care by carrying a baby, tied up in a scarf, just its head sticking out 
(I wish they could be induced to use more soap and water on the coppery heads, 
from which pairs of intent eyes stare out with sharp inquiry, as wild animals on 
guard). The girl baby bearer, having tied the child so that it appears to be a 
bag, slings it over her shoulder, and it interferes but slightly with the 
movements of the nurse; does not discernibly embarrass her movements. The men 
colliers, it must be admitted, are a shade reckless in the scarcity of their 
drapery when they are handling baskets in the presence of ladies. They do 
usually wear shirts with short tails behind, and very economical breechcloths, 
but their shirts are sleeveless, and the buttons are missing on collar and 
bosom. The only clothing beneath the knees consists of straw sandals. The 
precipitation of perspiration takes care of itself. There are no pocket 
handkerchiefs.

Nagasaki has good hotels, a pleasant, airy European quarter, and shops stored 
with the goods of the country, including magnificent vases and other pottery 
that should meet the appreciation of housekeepers. There is no city in Japan 
more typically Japanese, few in which the line is so finely and firmly drawn 
between the old and the new, and that to the advantage of both.

It is hardly possible for those who do not visit Japan to realize what a bitter 
struggle the people have had with their native land, or how brilliant the 
victory they have won. The passage of the China through the inner sea and far 
along the coast gave opportunity to see, as birds might, a great deal of the 
country. The inner sea is a wonderfully attractive sheet of water, twice as long 
as Long Island Sound, and studded with islands, a panorama of the picturesque 
mountains everywhere, deep nooks, glittering shoals, fishing villages by the 
sea, boats rigged like Americans, flocks of white sails by day, and lights at 
night, that suggest strings of street lamps. The waters teem with life. 
Evidently the sea very largely affords industry and sustenance to the people, 
for there is no botlom or prairie land, as we call the level or slightly rolling 
fields in America. There was not a spot from first to last visible in Japan, as 
seen from the water, or in an excursion on the land, where there is room to turn 
around a horse and plow. The ground is necessarily turned up with spades and 
mellowed with hoes and cakes, all, of course, by human hands. This is easy 
compared with the labor in constructing terraces. The mountains have been 
conquered to a considerable extent in this way, and it is sensational to see how 
thousands of steep places have been cut and walled into gigantic stairways, 
covering slopes that could hardly answer for goat pasture, until the shelves 
with soil placed on them for cultivation have been wrought, and the terraces are 
like wonderful ladders bearing against the skies. So rugged is the ground, 
however, that many mountains are unconquerable, and there are few traces of the 
terraces, though here and there, viewed from a distance, the evidences that land 
is cultivated as stairways leaning against otherwise inaccessible declivities. I 
have never seen elsewhere anything that spoke so unequivocably of the endless 
toil of men, women and children to find footings upon which to sow the grain and 
fruit that sustain life. It is not to be questioned that the report, one-
twelfth, only of the surface of Japan is under tillage, is accurate. The country 
is more mountainous than the Alleghenies, and some of it barren as the wildest 
of the Rockies on the borders of the bad lands, and it is volcanic, remarkably 
so, even more subject to earthquakes than the Philippines. The whole of Japan 
occupies about as much space as the two Dakotas or the Philippines, and the 
population is forty-two millions. With work as careful and extensive as that of 
the agricultural mountaineers of Japan, the Dakotas would support one hundred 
million persons. But they would have to present the washing away of the soil and 
the waste through improvident ignorance or careless profligacy of any 
fertilizer, or of any trickle of water needed for irrigation. One of the 
features of the terraces is that the rains are saved by the walls that sustain 
the soil, and the gutters that guide the water conserve it, because paved with 
pebbles and carried down by easy stages, irrigating one shelf after another of 
rice or vegetables, whatever is grown, until the whole slope not irreclaimable 
is made to blossom and the mountain torrents saved in their descent, not tearing 
away the made ground, out of which the means of living grows, but percolating 
through scores of narrow beds, gardens suspended like extended ribbons of 
verdure on volcanic steeps, refreshing the crops to be at last ripened by the 
sunshine. This is a lesson for the American farmer--to be studied more closely 
than imitated--to grow grass, especially clover, to stop devastation by creeks, 
with shrubbery gifted with long roots to save the banks of considerable streams, 
and, where there is stone, use it to save the land now going by every freshwater 
rivulet and rivers to the seas, to the irreparable loss of mankind. It is the 
duty of man who inherits the earth that it does not escape from him, that his 
inheritance is not swept away by freshets. We are growing rapidly, in America, 
in the understanding of this subject, beginning to comprehend the necessity of 
giving the land that bears crops the equivalent of that which is taken from it, 
that the vital capital of future generations may not be dissipated and the 
people grow ever poor and at last perish.

A ride in a jinrikisha, a two-wheeler, with a buggy top and poles for the biped 
horse to trot between, from Nagasaki to a fishing village over the mountains, 
five miles away, passing at the start through the Japanese quarter, long streets 
of shops, populous and busy, many diligent in light manufacturing work, and all 
scant in clothing--the journey continuing in sharp climbs alongside steep places 
and beside deep ravines, the slopes elaborately terraced, and again skirting the 
swift curves of a rapid brook from the mountains, that presently gathered and 
spread over pretty beds of gravel, providing abundant fresh water bathing, in 
which a school of boys, leaving a small guard for a light supply of clothing 
ashore--the ride ending in a village of fishermen that, by the count of the 
inhabitants, should be a town--permitted close observation of the Japanese in a 
city and a village, on their sky-scraping gardens and in the road, going to and 
coming from market, as well as in places of roadside entertainment; and at last 
a seaside resort, in whose shade a party of globetrotters were lunching, some of 
them, I hear, trying to eat raw fish. There could hardly have been contrived a 
more instructive exhibit of Japan and the Japanese. The road was obstructed in 
several places by cows bearing bales of goods from the city to the country, and 
produce from the hanging gardens to the streets, an occasional horse mustered 
in, and also a few oxen. The beast of burden most frequently overtaken or 
encountered was the cow, and a majority of the laborers were women. There were 
even in teams of twos and fours, carrying heavy luggage, men and women, old, 
middle-aged and young, barefooted or shod with straw, not overloaded, as a rule, 
and some walking as if they had performed their tasks and were going home. On 
the road it was patent there was extraordinary freedom from care as to clothing, 
and no feeling of prejudice or dismay if portions of it esteemed absolutely 
essential in North America and Europe had been left behind or was awaiting 
return to the possessor. This applies to both sexes. The day was warm, even hot, 
and the sun shone fiercely on the turnpike--for that is what we would call it--
making walking, with or without loads, a heating exercise. Even the bearing of 
baskets, and the majority of the women carried them, was justification under the 
customs of the country for baring the throat and chest to give ample scope for 
breathing, and there is no restriction in the maintenance of the drooping lines 
of demarkation, according to the most liberal fashionable allowances, in 
dispensing with all the misty suggestions of laces to the utmost extent artists 
could ask, for the study of figures. Beauty had the advantage of the fine curves 
of full inhalations of the air that circulated along the dusty paths between the 
sea and the mountains. It is a puzzle that the artists of Japan have not better 
improved the unparalleled privilege of field and wall sketching, that they enjoy 
to a degree not equalled within the permission of the conventional construction 
of that which is becoming in the absence of the daylight habilaments of any 
great and polite people. The art schools of Japan, out of doors, on the highway, 
even, cannot fail to produce atmospheric influences of which the world will have 
visions hereafter, and the Latin quarter of Paris will lose its reputation that 
attracts and adjusts nature to inspiration.

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 terrific Storm 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.


CHAPTER XXIV

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.


CHAPTER XXV

Cuba and Porto Rico.

Conditions In and Around Havana--Fortifications and Water Supply of the Capital 
City--Other Sections of the Pearl of the Antilles--Porto Rico, Our New 
Possession, Described--Size and Population--Natural Resources and Products--
Climatic Conditions--Towns and Cities--Railroads and Other 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 of Cabana.

Atares, a stone-bastioned work on hill at southwestern extremity of Havana 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 San Lazaro 
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 of Principe, 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 San Juan. 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's Magazine, 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:

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. Jun. Jul. Aug. Sept. Oct. Nov. 
Dec.
Seven in the morning  72   72.5   74   78   78   82   85   86   80.5   77   75   
75
Noon                  82    81    82   83   85   86   90   92    88    85   84   
80
Five 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.

Storms.--The hurricanes which visit the island, and which obey the general laws 
of tropical cyclones, are one of the worst scourges of the country. For hours 
before the appearance of this terrible phenomenon the sea appears calm; the 
waves come from a long distance very gently until near the shore, when they 
suddenly rise as if impelled by a superior force, dashing against the land with 
extraordinary violence and fearful noise. Together with this sign, the air is 
noticed to be disturbed, the sun red, and the stars obscured by vapor which 
seems to magnify them. A strong odor is perceived in the sea, which is 
sulphureous in the waters of rivers, and there are sudden changes in the wind. 
These omens, together with the signs of uneasiness manifested by various 
animals, foretell the proximity of a hurricane.

This is a sort of whirlwind, accompanied by rain, thunder and lightning, 
sometimes by earthquake shocks, and always by the most terrible and devastating 
circumstances that can possibly combine to ruin a country in a few hours. A 
clear, serene day is followed by the darkest night; the delightful view offered 
by woods and prairies is diverted into the deary waste of a cruel winter; the 
tallest and most robust cedar trees are uprooted, broken off bodily, and hurled 
into a heap; roofs, balconies, and windows of houses are carried through the air 
like dry leaves, and in all directions are seen houses and estates laid waste 
and thrown into confusion.

The fierce roar of the water and of the trees being destroyed by the winds, the 
cries and moans of persons, the bellowing of cattle and neighing of horses, 
which are being carried from place to place by the whirlwinds, the torrents of 
water inundating the fields, and a deluge of fire being let loose in flashes and 
streaks of lightning, seem to announce the last convulsions of the universe and 
the death agonies of nature itself.

Sometimes these hurricanes are felt only on the north coast, at others on the 
south coast, although generally their influence extends throughout the island.

In 1825 a hurricane destroyed the towns of Patillas, Maunabo, Yabucoa, Humacao, 
Gurabo, and Caguas, causing much damage in other towns in the east, north, and 
center of the island. The island was also visited by a terrible hurricane in 
1772.

Earthquakes.--Earthquakes are somewhat frequent, but not violent or of great 
consequence. The natives foretell them by noticing clouds settle near the ground 
for some time in the open places among the mountains. The water of the springs 
emits a sulphurous odor or leaves a strange taste in the mouth; birds gather in 
large flocks and fly about uttering shriller cries than usual; cattle bellow and 
horses neigh, etc. A few hours beforehand the air becomes calm and dimmed by 
vapors which arise from the ground, and a few moments before there is a slight 
breeze, followed at intervals of two or three minutes by a deep rumbling noise, 
accompanied by a sudden gust of wind, which are the forerunners of the 
vibration, the latter following immediately. These shocks are sometimes violent 
and are usually repeated, but owing to the special construction of the houses, 
they cause no damage.

Tides.--For seven hours the tide runs rapidly in a northwest direction, 
returning in the opposite direction with equal rapidity for five hours.

Orography.--The general relief of Porto Rico is much inferior in altitude to 
that of the rest of the Great Antilles, and even some of the Lesser Antilles 
have mountain summits which rival it.

A great chain of mountains divides the islands into two parts, northern and 
southern, which are called by the natives Banda del Norte and Banda del Sur. 
This chain sends out long ramifications toward the coasts, the interstices of 
which form beautiful and fertile valleys, composed in the high parts of white 
and red earths, on the spurs of black and weaker earths, and near the coasts of 
sand.

To the northwest and following a direction almost parallel with the northern 
coast, the Sierra of Lares extends from Aguadilla to the town of Lares, where it 
divides into two branches, one going north nearly to the coast, near Arecibo 
harbor, and the other extending to the spurs of the Sierra Grande de Banos; this 
latter starting from Point Guaniquilla, crosses the island in its entire length, 
its last third forming the Sierra of Cayey.

The whole island may be said to form a continuous network of sierras, hills, and 
heights. Of these the Sierra del Loquillo is distinguished for its great 
altitude (the highest peak being Yunque, in the northeast corner of the island 
and visible from the sea, a distance of 120 kilometers), as is also Laivonito 
Mountain, near the south coast.

The following are the four highest mountains, with their heights above the sea 
level: Yunque, in Luquillo, 1,290 yards; Guilarte, in Adjuntas, 1,180 yards; La 
Somanta, in Aybonito, 1,077 yards; Las Teras de Cerro Gordo, in San German, 860 
yards. All are easily ascended on foot or horseback, and there are coffee 
plantations near all of them.

Approximate Height of Towns Above the Sea Level.--Aybonito, with its 
acclimatization station, 970 yards; Adjuntas, an almost exclusively Spanish 
town, 810 yards; Cayey, with a very agreeable climate, 750 yards; Lares, with a 
very agreeable climate, 510 yards; Utuado, with a very agreeable climate, 480 
yards; Muricao, an exclusively Spanish town, 480 yards. To ascend to all these 
towns there are very good wagon roads. There are no fortifications of any kind 
in them, but they are surrounded on all sides by mountains.

Hydrography.--Few countries of the extent of Porto Rico are watered by so many 
streams. Seventeen rivers, taking their rise in the mountains, cross the valleys 
of the north coast and empty into the sea. Some of these are navigable 2 or 3 
leagues from their mouths for schooners and small coasting vessels. Those of 
Manati, Loisa, Trabajo, and Arecibo are very deep and broad, and it is difficult 
to imagine how such large bodies of water can be collected in so short a course. 
Owing to the heavy surf which continually breaks on the north coast, these 
rivers have bars across their embouchures which do not allow large vessels to 
enter. The rivers of Bayamo and Rio Piedras flow into the harbor of the capital, 
and are also navigable for boats. At high water small brigs may enter the river 
of Arecibo with perfect safety and discharge their cargoes, notwithstanding the 
bar which crosses its mouth.

The rivers of the north coast have a decided advantage over those of the south 
coast, where the climate is drier and the rains less frequent. Nevertheless, the 
south, west, and east coasts are well supplied with water; and, although in some 
seasons it does not rain for ten, and sometimes twelve months on the south 
coast, the rivers are never entirely dried up.

From the Cabeza de San Juan, which is the northeast extremity of the island, to 
the cape of Mala Pascua, which lies to the southeast, 9 rivers fall into the 
sea.

From Cape Mala Pascua to Point Aguila, which forms the southwest angle of the 
island, 16 rivers discharge their waters on the south coast.

On the west coast 3 rivers, 5 rivulets, and several fresh-water lakes 
communicate with the sea. In the small extent of 330 leagues of area there are 
46 rivers, besides a countless number of rivulets and branches of navigable 
water.

The rivers of the north coast are stocked with delicious fish, some of them 
large enough to weigh two quintals.

From the river of Arecibo to that of Manati, a distance of 5 leagues, a fresh-
water lagoon, perfectly navigable for small vessels through the whole of its 
extent, runs parallel to the sea at about a mile from the shore.

In the fertile valley of Anasco, on the western coast, there is a canal formed 
by nature, deep and navigable. None of the rivers are of real military 
importance; for, though considering the shortness of their course, they attain 
quite a volume, still it is not sufficient for good-sized vessels.

The rivers emptying on the north coast are Loisa, Aguas Prietas, Arecibo, 
Bayamon, Camuy, Cedros, Grande, Guajaraca de la Tuna, Lesayas, Loquillo, Manati, 
Rio Piedras, Sabana, San Martin, Sibuco, Toa, and Vega.

Those emptying on the east coast are Candelero, Dagua, Fajardo, Guayanes, 
Majogua, and Maonabo.

On the south coast: Aquamanil, Caballon, Cana, Coamo, Descalabrado, Guanica, 
Guayama, Guayanilla, Jacagua, Manglar, Penuela, Ponce and Vigia.

On the west coast: Aguada, Boqueron, Cajas, Culebrina, Chico, Guanajibo, 
Mayaguez, and Rincon.

The limits of the Loisa river are: On the east, the sierra of Luquillo (situated 
near the northeast corner of the island); on the south, the sierra of Cayey, and 
on the west, ramifications of the latter. It rises in the northern slopes of the 
sierra of Cayey, and, running in a northwest direction for the first half of its 
course and turning to northeast in the second half, it arrives at Loisa, a port 
on the northern coast, where it discharges its waters into the Atlantic. During 
the first part of its course it is known by the name of Cayagua.

The Sabana river has, to the east and south, the western and southern limits of 
the preceding river, and on the west the Sierra Grande, or De Barros, which is 
situated in the center of the general divide, or watershed. It rises in the 
sierra of Cayey, and, with the name of Pinones river, it flows northwest, 
passing through Aibonito, Toa Alta, Toa Baja, and Dorado, where it discharges 
into the Atlantic to the west of the preceding river.

The Manati river is bounded on the cast and south by the Sierra Grande and on 
the west by the Siales ridge. It rises in the Sierra Grande, and parallel with 
the preceding river, it flows through Siales and Manati, to the north of which 
latter town it empties into the Atlantic.

The Arecibo river is bounded on the east by the Siales mountain ridge, on the 
south by the western extremity of the Sierra Grande, and on the west by the 
Lares ridge. It rises in the general divide, near Adjuntas, and flows north 
through the town of Arecibo to the Atlantic, shortly before emptying into which 
it receives the Tanama river from the left, which proceeds from the Lares 
Mountains.

The Culebrina river is bounded on the south and east by the Lares mountain 
ridge, and on the north by small hills of little interest. From the Lares 
Mountains it flows from east to west and empties on the west coast north of San 
Francisco de la Aguada, in the center of the bay formed between Point Penas 
Blancas and Point San Francisco.

The Anasco river is formed by the Lares mountain ridge. It rises in the eastern 
extremity of the mountains called Tetas de Cerro Gordo, flowing first northwest 
and then west, through the town of its name and thence to the sea.

The Guanajivo river has to its north the ramifications of the Lares ridge, to 
the east the Tetas de Cerro Gordo Mountains, and on the south Torre Hill. In the 
interior of its basin is the mountain called Cerro Montuoso, which separates its 
waters from those of its affluent from the right, the Rosaria river. It rises in 
the general divide, flowing from east to west to Nuestra Senora de Montserrat, 
where it receives the affluent mentioned, the two together then emptying south 
of Port Mayaguez.

The Coamo river is bounded on the west and north by the Sierra Grande, and on 
the west by the Coamo ridge. It rises in the former of these sierras, and 
flowing from north to south it empties east of Coamo Point, after having watered 
the town of its name.

The Salinas river is bounded on the west by the Coamo ridge, on the north by the 
general divide, and on the east by the Cayey ridge. It rises in the southern 
slopes of the Sierra Grande and flowing from north to south through Salinas de 
Coamo, empties into the sea.

Coasts, Harbors, Bays, and Coves.--The northern coast extends in an almost 
straight line from east to west, and is high and rugged. The only harbors it has 
are the following: San Juan de Porto Rico, surrounded by mangrove swamps and 
protected by the Cabras and the Cabritas islands and some very dangerous banks; 
the anchoring ground of Arecibo, somewhat unprotected; and the coves of 
Cangrejos and Condado. During the months of November, December, and January, 
when the wind blows with violence from the east and northeast, the anchorage is 
dangerous in all the bays and harbors of this coast, except in the port of San 
Juan. Vessels are often obliged to put to sea on the menacing aspect of the 
heavens at this season, to avoid being driven on shore by the heavy squalls and 
the rolling waves of a boisterous sea, which propel them to destruction. During 
the remaining months the ports on this coast are safe and commodious, unless 
when visited by a hurricane, against whose fury no port can offer a shelter, nor 
any vessel be secure. The excellent port of San Juan is perfectly sheltered from 
the effects of the north wind. The hill, upon which the town of that name and 
the fortifications which defend it are built, protects the vessels anchored in 
the harbor. The entrance of this port is narrow, and requires a pilot; for the 
canal which leads to the anchorage, although deep enough for vessels of any 
dimensions, is very narrow, which exposes them to run aground. This port is 
several miles in extent, and has the advantage of having deep canals to the 
east, among a wood of mangrove trees, where vessels are perfectly secure during 
the hurricane months. Vessels of 250 tons can at present unload and take in 
their cargoes at the wharf. Harbor improvements have been recently made here.

On the northwest and west are the coves of Aguadilla, the town of this name 
being some 4 kilometers inland. There are the small coves of Rincon, Anasco, and 
Mayaguez, the latter being protected and of sufficient depth to anchor vessels 
of moderate draft; the harbor of Real de Cabo Rojo, nearly round, and entered by 
a narrow channel; and the cove of Boqueron. The spacious bay of Aguadilla is 
formed by Cape Borrigua and Cape San Francisco. When the north-northwest and 
southwest winds prevail it is not a safe anchorage for ships. A heavy surf 
rolling on the shore obliges vessels to seek safety by putting to sea on the 
appearance of a north wind. Mayaguez is also an open roadstead formed by two 
projecting capes. It has good anchorage for vessels of a large size and is well 
sheltered from the north winds. The port of Cabo Rojo has also good anchorage. 
It is situated S. one-fourth N. of the point of Guanajico, at a distance of 5 
1/2 miles. Its shape is nearly circular, and it extends from east to west 3 to 4 
miles. At the entrance it has 3 fathoms of water, and 16 feet in the middle of 
the harbor. The entrance is a narrow canal.

The south coast abounds in bays and harbors, but is covered with mangroves and 
reefs, the only harbor where vessels of regular draft can enter being Guanica 
and Ponce. The former of these is the westernmost harbor on the southern coast, 
being at the same time the best, though the least visited, owing to the swamps 
and low tracts difficult to cross leading from it to the interior. The nearest 
towns, San German, Sabana Grande, and Yauco, carry on a small trade through this 
port.

In the port of Guanica, vessels drawing 21 feet of water may enter with perfect 
safety. Its entrance is about 100 yards wide, and it forms a spacious basin, 
completely landlocked. The vessels may anchor close to the shore. It has, in the 
whole extent, from 6 1/2 to 3 fathoms, the latter depth being formed in the 
exterior of the port. The entrance is commanded by two small hills on either 
side, which if mounted with a few pieces of artillery would defy a squadron to 
force it. This port would be of immense advantage in time of war. The national 
vessels and coasters would thus have a secure retreat from an enemy's cruiser on 
the south coast. There are no wharves, but vessels could disembark troops by 
running alongside the land and running out a plank. Coamo Cove and Aguirre and 
Guayama are also harbors. The port of Jovos, near Guayama, is a haven of 
considerable importance. It is a large and healthy place, and the most Spanish 
of any city on the island after San Juan. There are good roads to the capital. 
Vessels of the largest kind may anchor and ride in safety from the winds, and 
the whole British navy would find room in its spacious bosom. It has 4 fathoms 
of water in the shallowest part of the entrance. However, it is difficult to 
enter this port from June to November, as the sea breaks with violence at the 
entrance, on account of the southerly winds which reign at that season. It has 
every convenience of situation and locality for forming docks for the repair of 
shipping. The large bay of Anasco, on the south coast, affords anchorage to 
vessels of all sizes. It is also safe from the north winds. Although on the 
eastern coast there are many places for vessels to anchor, yet none of them are 
exempt from danger during the north winds except Fajardo, where a safe anchorage 
is to be found to leeward of two little islands close to the bay, where vessels 
are completely sheltered.

The island of Vieques has also several commodious ports and harbors, where 
vessels of the largest size may ride at anchor.

On the east coast is Cape Cabeza de San Juan, Points Lima, Candeleros, and 
Naranjo, and Cape Mala Pascua; on the south coast, Point Viento, Tigueras, 
Corchones, Arenas, Fama or Maria, Cucharas, Guayanilla, Guanica, and Morillos de 
Cabo Rojo; on the west coast, points San Francisco, Cadena, Guanijito, 
Guaniquilla, and Palo Seco.

Highways.--There are few roads or ways of communication which are worthy of 
mention, with the exception of the broad pike which starts from the capital and 
runs along the coast, passing through the following towns: Aguadilla, Bayamon, 
Cabo Rojo, Ilumacao, Juana Diaz, Mayaguez, Ponce, and San German. It has no 
bridges; is good in dry weather, but in the rainy season is impassible for 
wagons and even at times for horsemen.

For interior communication there are only a few local roads or paths. They are 
usually 2 yards in width, made by the various owners, and can not be well 
traveled in rainy weather. They are more properly horse and mule trails, and 
oblige people to go in single file. In late years much has been attempted to 
improve the highways connecting the principal cities, and more has been 
accomplished than in Spanish colonies. There is a good made road connecting 
Ponce on the southern coast with San Juan the capital. Other good roads also 
extend for a short distance along the north coast and along the south coast. The 
road from Guayama is also said to be a passably good one.

There are in the island about 150 miles of excellent road, and this is all that 
receives any attention, transportation being effected elsewhere on horse back. 
In the construction of a road level foundation is sought, and on this is put a 
heavy layer of crushed rock and brick, which, after having been well packed and 
rounded, is covered with a layer of earth. This is well packed also, and upon 
the whole is spread a layer of ground limestone, which is pressed and rolled 
until it forms almost a glossy surface. This makes an excellent road here where 
the climate is such that it does not affect it, and when there is no heavy 
traffic, hut these conditions being changed, the road, it is thought, would not 
stand so well.

From Palo Seco, situated about a mile and a half from the capital, on the 
opposite side of the bay, a carriage road, perfectly level, has been constructed 
for a distance of 22 leagues to the town of Aguadilla on the west coast, passing 
through the towns of Vegabaja, Manati, Arecibo, Hatillo, Camuy, and Isabella. 
This road has been carried for several leagues over swampy lands, which are 
intersected by deep drains to carry off the water.

The road from Aguadilla to Mayaguez is in some parts very good, in other parts 
only fair. From Aguadilla to Aguada, a distance of a league, the road is 
excellent and level. From thence to Mayaguez, through the village of Rincon and 
the town of Anasco, the road is generally good, but on the seashore it is 
sometimes interrupted by shelving rocks. Across the valley of Anasco the road is 
carried through a boggy tract, with bridges over several deep creeks of fresh 
water. From thence to the large commercial town of Mayaguez the road is uneven 
and requires some improvement. But the roads from Mayaguez and Ponce to their 
respective ports on the seashore can not be surpassed by any in Europe. They are 
made in a most substantial manner, and their convex form is well adapted to 
preserve them from the destruction caused by the heavy rains of the climate. 
These roads have been made over tracts of swampy ground to the seacoast, but 
with little and timely repair they will last forever.

A road, which may be called a carriage road, has been made from Ponce to the 
village of Adjuntas, situated 5 leagues in the interior of the mountains. The 
road along the coast, from Ponce to Guayama, is fairly good; from thence to 
Patillas there is an excellent carriage road for a distance of 3 leagues; from 
the latter place to the coast is a high road well constructed. From Patillas to 
Fajardo, on the eastern coast, passing through the towns of Maimavo, Yubacao, 
Ilumacao, and Naguabo, the roads are not calculated for wheel vehicles, in 
consequence of being obliged to ascend and descend several steep hills. That 
which crosses the mountain of Mala Pascua, dividing the north and east coasts, 
is a good and solid road, upon which a person on horseback may travel with great 
ease and safety. The road crossing the valley of Yubacao, which consists of a 
soft and humid soil, requires more attention than that crossing the mountain of 
Mala Pascua, which has a fine, sandy soil.

From Fajardo to the capital, through the towns of Luquillo, Loisa, and Rio 
Piedras, the road is tolerably good for persons on horseback as far as Rio 
Piedras, and from thence to the city of San Juan, a distance of 2 leagues, is an 
excellent carriage road, made by the order and under the inspection of the 
Captain-General, part of it through a mangrove swamp. Over the river Loisa is a 
handsome wooden bridge, and on the road near Rio Piedras is a handsome stone one 
over a deep rivulet.

One of the best roads in the island extends from the town of Papino, situated in 
the mountains, to the town of Aguadilla on the coast, distant 5 1/2 leagues, 
through the village of La Moca; in the distance of 3 leagues from the latter 
place, it is crossed by 10 deep mountain rivulets, formerly impassable, but over 
which solid bridges have now been built, with side railings. In the mountainous 
district within the circumference of a few leagues no less than 47 bridges have 
been built to facilitate the communication between one place and the other.

The following are the roads of 6 meters width, 4 1/2 in center of pounded stone. 
They have iron bridges and are in good shape for travel all the year.

(1) San Juan to the Shore near Ponce.--From San Juan to Ponce the central road 
is exactly 134 kilometers. Distances along the line are: Rio Piedras, 11 Caguas, 
25; to Cayei, 21; Aybonito, 20; Coamo, 18; Juana Diaz, 20; to Ponce, 13; and to 
the shore, 3. Exact.

(2) San Juan to Bayamon.--By ferry fifteen minutes to Catano, and from there by 
road to Bayamon 10 kilometers. This passes alongside the railway.

(3) Rio Piedras to Mameyes, 36 kilometers; from Rio Piedras to Carolina, 12; to 
Rio Grande, 19; to Mameyes, 5.

(4) Cayei to Arroyo, 35 kilometers; from Cayei to Guayama, 25; to Arroyo, 8; 
from San Juan to Arroyo, via Cayei, is 95 kilometers.

(5 Ponce to Adjuntas, 32 kilometers.

(6) San German to Anasco, 33 kilometers; from San German to Mayaguez, 21 
kilometers; Mayaguez to Anasco, 12; Mayaguez to Mormigueros, 11; Mayaguez to 
Cabo Eojo, 18; Mayaguez to Las Marias, 23; Mayaguez to Maricao, 35; Hor- 
migueras to San German, 14. Near Mayaguez the roads are best. There are good 
roads in all directions.

(7) Aguadilla to San Sebastian, 18.

(8) Arecibo to Utuado, 33.

Highways of first class in the island, 335 kilometers.

Along these roads are, at a distance of 8 to 10 kilometers, a fort, stone, and 
brick barracks, or large buildings, where the Spanish troops stop and rest when 
on the march.

Railroads.--In 1878 a report was presented to the minister of the colonies on a 
study made by the engineer and head of public works of the island in view of 
constructing a railroad which should start from the capital and, passing through 
all the chief towns and through the whole island, return to the point of 
departure.

Of this railroad the following parts have been completed: San Juan, along the 
coast through Rio Piedras, Bayamon, Dorado, Arecibo, and Hatillo, to Camuy; 
Aguadilla, through Aguado, Rincon, Anasco, and Mayaguez, to Hornigueros. A 
branch of this railroad from Anasco, through San Sebastian, to Lares. Ponce, 
through Guayanilla, to Yauco. This latter railroad follows the southern coast 
line and is followed by a wagon road throughout its course. In one place the 
railroad and road run within a few hundred yards of the coast line. According to 
the Statesman's Year Book for 1898 there are in operation 137 miles of railroad, 
besides over 170 miles under construction.

All the railroads are single track, and the gauge is 1 meter 20 centimeters, or 
3 feet 11 1/4 inches.

The following are the railways of 1-meter gauge:

(1) San Juan to Rio Piedras, 11 kilometers.
(2) Catano to Bayamon, 10 kilometers.
(3) Anasco to San Sebastian and Lares, 35 kilometers.

Total of three lines, 56 kilometers.

The lines are all in good shape; have plenty of engines and cars; speed, 20 
kilometers per hour; use coal for fuel imported from the United States; supply 
usually large, may be small now; hard coal; fine stations; plenty of water, and 
everything in shape for business.

Telegraphs.--The capital communicates with the principal towns of the coast and 
interior by means of a well-connected telegraph system. There are in all some 
470 miles of telegraph.

Telephones.--The British Consular Report says that the telephone system of San 
Juan, Ponce, and Mayaguez have recently been contracted for by local syndicates. 
In Ponce a United States company obtained the contract for the material. There 
are 100 stations already connected, and it is expected that 200 more will be in 
operation shortly.

Administration.--From an administrative standpoint, Porto Rico is not considered 
as a colony, but as a province of Spain, assimilated to the remaining provinces. 
The Governor-General, representing the monarchy, is at the same time Captain-
General of the armed forces. In each chief town resides a military commander, 
and each town has its alcalde, or mayor, appointed by the central power. The 
provincial deputation is elected by popular suffrage under the same conditions 
as in Spain. The regular peace garrison is composed of about 3,000 men, and the 
annual budget amounts to some 20,000,000 pesos.

Education.--In 1887 only one-seventh of the population could read and write, but 
of late years progress in public instruction has been rapid.

Agriculture, Industry, and Commerce.--In 1878 there arrived in the harbors of 
the island 1,591 vessels of different nationalities and 1,534 departed. The 
value of products imported was 14,787,551 pesos, and that of articles exported 
was 13,070,020 pesos. The following are the relative percentages of values:

Flags.              Relation.
                    Per Cent.
Spanish ...........   49.91
American ..........   13.47
English ...........   21.43
Various Nations ...   15.19
                     ======
Total .............  100.00

Navigation is very active, but the part the inhabitants take in the commercial 
fleet is small. The Porto Ricans are not seagoing people. The eastern part of 
the island offers less advantage to commerce than the western, being to the 
windward and affording less shelter to vessels.

Porto Rico has more than seventy towns and cities, of which Ponce is the most 
important. Ponce has 22,000 inhabitants, with a jurisdiction numbering 47,000. 
It is situated on the south coast of the island, on a plain, about 2 miles from 
the seaboard. It is the chief town of the judicial district of its name, and is 
70 miles from San Juan. It is regularly built, the central part almost 
exclusively of brick houses, and the suburbs of wood. It is the residence of the 
military commander, and the seat of an official chamber of commerce. There is an 
appellate criminal court, besides other courts; 2 churches, one Protestant, said 
to be the only one in the Spanish West, Indies; 2 hospitals besides the military 
hospital, a home of refuge for old and poor, 2 cemeteries, 3 asylums, several 
casinos, 3 theaters, a market, a municipal public library, 3 first-class hotels, 
3 barracks, a park, gas works, a perfectly equipped fire department, a bank, 
thermal and natural baths, etc. Commercially, Ponce is the second city of 
importance on the island. A fine road leads to the port (Playa), where all the 
import and export trade is transacted. Playa has about 5,000 inhabitants, and 
here are situated the custom house, the office of the captain of the port, and 
all the consular offices. The port is spacious and will hold vessels of 25 feet 
draft. The climate, on account of the sea breezes during the day and land 
breezes at night, is not oppressive, but very hot and dry; and, as water for all 
purposes, including the fire department, is amply supplied by an aqueduct 4,442 
yards long, it is said that the city of Ponce is perhaps the healthiest place in 
the whole island. There is a stage coach to San Juan, Mayaguez, Guayama, etc. 
There is a railroad to Yauco, a post office, and a telegraph station.

It is believed that Ponce was founded in 1600; it was given the title of villa 
in 1848, and in 1877 that of city. Of its 34 streets the best are Mayor, Salud, 
Villa, Vives, Marina, and Comercio. The best squares are Principal and Las 
Delicias, which are separated by the church of Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe. The 
church, as old as the town itself, began to be reconstructed in 1838 and was 
finished in 1847. It is 86 yards long by 43 broad, and has two steeples, rich 
altars, and fine ornaments.

The theater is called the Pearl, and it deserves this name, for it is the finest 
on the island. It has a sculptured porch, on the Byzantine order, with very 
graceful columns. It is mostly built of iron and marble and cost over 70,000 
pesos. It is 52 yards deep by 29 wide. The inside is beautiful, the boxes and 
seats roomy and nicely decorated. It may, by a mechanical arrangement, be 
converted into a dancing hall.

About 1 1/8 miles northeast of the town are the Quintana thermal baths, in a 
building surrounded by pretty gardens. They are visited by sufferers from 
rheumatism and various other diseases.

San Juan is a perfect specimen of a walled town, with portcullis, moat, gates, 
and battlements. The wall surrounding this town is defended by several 
batteries. Facing the harbor are those of San Fernando, Santa Catalina, and 
Santa Toribio. Looking toward the land side is Fort Abanico, and toward the 
ocean the batteries of San Antonio, San Jose, and Santa Teresa, and Fort 
Princesa. The land part has two ditches, or cuts, which are easy to inundate. 
The fort and bridge of San Antonio that of San Geronimo, and the Escambron 
battery situated on a tongue of land which enters the sea. Built over two 
hundred and fifty years ago, the city is still in good condition and repair. The 
walls are picturesque, and represent a stupendous work and cost in themselves. 
Inside the walls the city is laid off in regular squares, six parallel streets 
running in the direction of the length of the island and seven at right angles.

The peninsula on which San Juan is situated is connected with the mainland by 
three bridges. The oldest, that of San Antonio, carries the highway across the 
shallow San Antonio Channel. It is a stone-arched bridge about 350 yards long 
including the approaches. By the side of this bridge is one for the railroad and 
one for the tramway which follows the main military highway to Rio Piedras.

Among the buildings the following are notable: The palace of the Captain-
General, the palace of the intendencia, the town hall, military hospital, jail, 
Ballaja barracks, theater, custom house, cathedral, Episcopal palace, and 
seminary. There is no university or provincial institute of second grade 
instruction, and only one college, which is under the direction of Jesuit 
priests. The houses are closely and compactly built of brick, usually of two 
stories, stuccoed on the outside and painted in a variety of colors. The upper 
floors are occupied by the more respectable people, while the ground floors, 
almost without exception, are given up to the negroes and the poorer class, who 
crowd one upon another in the most appalling manner.

The population within the walls is estimated at 20,000 and most of it lives on 
the ground floor. In one small room, with a flimsy partition, a whole family 
will reside. The ground floor of the whole town reeks with filth, and conditions 
are most unsanitary. In a tropical country, where disease readily prevails, the 
consequences of such herding may be easily inferred. There is no running water 
in the town. The entire population depend upon rain water, caught upon the flat 
roofs of the buildings and conducted to the cistern, which occupies the greater 
part of the inner court-yard that is an essential part of Spanish houses the 
world over, but that here, on account of the crowded conditions, is very small. 
There is no sewerage, except for surface water and sinks, while vaults are in 
every house and occupy whatever remaining space there may be in the patios not 
taken up by the cisterns. The risk of contaminating the water is very great, and 
in dry seasons the supply is entirely exhausted. Epidemics are frequent, and the 
town is alive with vermin, fleas, cockroaches, mosquitoes, and dogs.

The streets are wider than in the older part of Havana, and will admit two 
carriages abreast. The sidewalks are narrow, and in places will accommodate but 
one person. The pavements are of a composition manufactured in England from 
slag, pleasant and even, and durable when no heavy strain is brought to bear 
upon them, but easily broken, and unfit for heavy traffic. The streets are swept 
once a day by hand, and, strange to say, are kept very clean.

From its topographical situation the town should be healthy, but it is not. The 
soil under the city is clay mixed with lime, so hard as to be almost like rock. 
It is consequently impervious to water and furnishes a good natural drainage.

The trade wind blows strong and fresh, and through the harbor runs a stream of 
sea water at a speed of not less than three miles an hour. With these conditions 
no contagious diseases, if properly taken care of, could exist; without them the 
place would be a veritable plague spot.

Besides the town within the walls there are small portions just outside, called 
the Marina and Puerta de Tierra, containing two or three thousand inhabitants 
each. There are also two suburbs, one, San Turce, approached by the only road 
leading out of the city, and the other, Catano, across the bay, reached by 
ferry. The Marina and the two suburbs are situated on sandy points or spits, and 
the latter are surrounded by mangrove swamps.

The entire population of the city and suburbs, according to the census of 1887, 
was 27,000. It is now (1896) estimated at 30,000. One-half of the population 
consists of negroes and mixed races.

There is but little manufacturing, and it is of small importance. The Standard 
Oil Company has a small refinery across the bay, in which crude petroleum 
brought from the United States is refined. Matches are made, some brooms, a 
little soap, and a cheap class of trunks. There are also ice, gas, and electric 
light works.


CHAPTER XXVI

The Ladrones.

The Island of Guam a Coaling Station of the United States--Discovery, Size and 
Products of the Islands.

When the Philippine expedition on its way to Manila incidentally ran up the 
Stars and Stripes over the Island of Guam, there was perhaps no thought of the 
island becoming a permanent part of our domain. However, the fortunes of war are 
such that the island is likely to become ours permanently as a coaling station 
in the Pacific.

Magellan named these islands the Ladrones from the Latin word "latro," meaning a 
robber, because of the thievish propensities of the natives. According to 
Magellan's reports, the native people of these islands had reduced stealing to a 
science of such exactness that the utmost vigilance could not prevail against 
their operations. The group was named the Mariana Islands by the Jesuits, who 
settled in them in 1667.

The Ladrone group consists of twenty islands, of which five are inhabited. The 
group extends forty-five miles from north to south, and is located between 13 
deg. and 21 deg. north latitude, and between 144 deg. and 146 deg. east 
longitude. The principal islands are Guam, Rota and Linian. They were discovered 
by Magellan in 1521, and have belonged to Spain ever since. Their population is 
11,000. The soil is fertile and densely wooded. The climate is temperate.

Guam, the southernly and principal island, is 100 miles in circumference, and 
has a population of 8,100, of which 1,400 are Europeans. Its central part is 
mountainous, and it has a small volcano. The products are guacas, bananas, 
cocoa, oranges and limes. The natives are noted as builders of the most rapidly 
sailing canoes in the world.

With Guam as a part of the territory of the United States, we have a direct line 
of possessions across the Pacific, in the order of Hawaii, Guam and the 
Philippines; while in a northwesterly direction from our Pacific coast we have 
the islands forming a part of Alaska. By holding all these islands we will be 
prepared to control practically the commerce of the Pacific, the future great 
commercial highway of the world.

The Story of the Philippines - End of Chapters XXII-XXVI