CUBA AND HER PEOPLE OF TO-DAY

CUBA AND HER
PEOPLE OF
TO-DAY

AN ACCOUNT OF THE
HISTORY AND PROGRESS OF THE ISLAND
PREVIOUS TO ITS INDEPENDENCE; A DESCRIPTION
OF ITS PHYSICAL FEATURES;
A STUDY OF ITS PEOPLE; AND, IN PARTICULAR,
AN EXAMINATION OF ITS PRESENT
POLITICAL CONDITIONS, ITS INDUSTRIES,
NATURAL RESOURCES, AND PROSPECTS;
TOGETHER WITH INFORMATION
AND SUGGESTIONS DESIGNED TO AID
THE PROSPECTIVE INVESTOR OR SETTLER

BY
FORBES LINDSAY
Author of “Panama and the Canal,” etc.

ILLUSTRATED FROM ORIGINAL AND SELECTED
PHOTOGRAPHS BY THE AUTHOR



BOSTON L. C. PAGE
AND COMPANY MDCCCCXI


Copyright, 1911
By L. C. Page & Company
(INCORPORATED)

All rights reserved

First Impression, November, 1911

Electrotyped and Printed by
THE COLONIAL PRESS
C. H. Simonds & Co., Boston, U.S.A.



TO

Henry M. Flagler, Esquire,

WHOSE INDOMITABLE ENERGY AND SPLENDID ENTERPRISE WILL
SHORTLY BRING CUBA INTO RAILROAD COMMUNICATION
WITH THE UNITED STATES, THIS VOLUME IS
RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED, AS A
SLIGHT TOKEN OF THE
ADMIRATION OF THE
AUTHOR.

PREFACE

During the past decade there has been a great increase in American emigration to Cuba and in the investment of American money there, with the result that the interest of our people in the country, which was formerly of an abstract character, has become practical and specific. There exists in the United States a wide-spread desire for information regarding the progress, prospects and present-day conditions of Cuba, which it has been my chief design to supply.

In the following pages the history and geography of the country have been sketched with special reference to their essential influence upon its development. Aside from this necessary introduction to an understanding of Cuban affairs, I have given my attention mainly to the established and prospective industries of the Island and to the fields offered by them to American capital and American settlers.

Forbes Lindsay.

Santiago de Cuba, August, 1911.

CONTENTS

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

CUBA AND HER PEOPLE
OF TO-DAY

CHAPTER I

THE ISLAND OF CUBA

If a line were drawn directly south from Pittsburg it would almost pass through the middle of Cuba. The Island, which is the largest of the Antillean group, lies about fifty miles distant from Santo Domingo and somewhat more than eighty miles from Jamaica. Its western end nuzzles into the opening between the peninsulas of Florida and Yucatan, Key West being ninety miles from, and the nearest point of Campeche within one hundred and thirty miles of Cape San Antonio. This situation gives to Cuba a commanding position in relation to the Gulf of Mexico, the only passages to that body of water lying on either side of the Island. The strategic advantage of the location is highly important, but of less consideration than the commercial advantage. Cuba lies directly in the line of the trade routes converging upon the Tehuantepec Railroad and the Panama Canal.

The Island is a narrow strip of land, little more than one hundred miles across in its broadest portion and only about twenty miles at its narrowest. From Cape Maisi to Cape San Antonio the length of the outer coast line is seven hundred and thirty miles. In the absence of a precise survey, figures are uncertain, and estimates vary, but it is probable that the territory of the Republic, which includes the Isle of Pines and a number of outlying cayos, is somewhat less than forty-five thousand square miles in extent; an area slightly greater than that of the State of Pennsylvania.

The upper side of the Island forms a broad converse curve, with a northerly trend. It is broken by few marked irregularities. The southern coast takes a corresponding curve and in general parallels the other shore. It differs, however, in having several pronounced indentations, the largest of which are the Golfo de Buena Esperanza and the Golfo de la Broa. Along this periphery are found four or five of those peculiar pouch-like harbors which,

together with numerous coral reefs and islands of varying dimensions that fringe the shore line, are the most notable features of the Cuban coast. These cayos, or keys, fall into four distinct groups and number about one thousand three hundred. The principal line of these low lying islands extends from the Ensenado de Cardenas to the vicinity of Nuevitas, and includes Cayo Romano, seventy-four miles in length. The second line runs from Bahia Honda to Cape San Antonio. The third, which is the most numerous, forms a scattered group between the Isle of Pines and the mainland. The fourth, known as Cayos de las Doce Leguas, lies off the coast of Camaguey.

The Isle of Pines is distant sixty miles from Batabano, which is the point of communication with the mainland. Its area is about twelve hundred square miles. The northern shores of Cuba are generally characterized by rocky bluffs, which frequently rise to a height of several hundred feet. The littoral of the western bend is low, and this feature prevails along the south to Cape Cruz, with the exception of a rugged stretch of about fifty miles to the east of Cienfuegos. Save for this strip, the shore from Cape San Antonio to the mouth of the Cauto is lined with marsh of varying depth. The protuberant piece of land between the bight of the Broa and Bahia de Cochinos is entirely occupied by the great Zapata swamp, which has an area of more than two hundred square miles. It is an almost impenetrable tropical jungle of the densest vegetation, teeming with animal life. This wilderness has often afforded a safe refuge to defeated and harassed bands of insurrectos. Along the eastern butt of the island the coast is mountainous.

Topographically, the territory of Cuba comprises five distinct divisions, three of them distinctly mountainous, and two in which the surface is low, or of moderate relief. The easternmost of these divisions coincides closely to the boundaries of the Province of Oriente and is for the greater part mountainous. The second, corresponding approximately with the Province of Camaguey, is made up of plains or open rolling country, relieved by occasional hills. The third division includes the mountainous and hilly sections of Santa Clara. The fourth consists of a long stretch of flat or undulating country, accentuated here and there by elevations of several hundred feet; it includes the western portion of Santa Clara Province and the whole of the Provinces of Matanzas and Habana, as well as about one-fourth of the Province of Pinar del Rio at its eastern end. The fifth division takes in the greater part of the last-named Province, and is characterized by a well defined mountain range, with numerous detached hills and mesas. A clearer conception of the surface conformation of Cuba may be gained by a more detailed survey of its mountains and plains, without regard to the natural topographic divisions described.

The Province of Oriente contains a greater mountainous area than is to be found in all the rest of the Island. The system consists of several groups having diverse constructures, but more or less closely connected with one another. Here many peaks exceed five thousand feet and one, Pico Turquino, rises to an altitude of over eight thousand feet. The principal range is the Sierra Maestra, extending from Cape Cruz to Guantanamo Bay. Along its western end, this chain rises abruptly out of the seas, but as it approaches Santiago, recedes somewhat from the shore, leaving a narrow coastal plain. East of Guantanamo there is a range, much less unbroken and uniform than the Sierra Madre, which continues to Cape Maisi and thence along the north coast until it meets the rugged Cuchillas at Baracoa. Extending westward from this mountain mass are strings of high plateaus and mesas, forming the northern wall of the great amphitheatre which drains into Guantanamo Bay. In this northern section the most prominent feature of the system is the range comprising the Sierras Cristal and Nipe, whose general trend is east and west. To the south is a country having the character of a deeply dissected plateau. The broad, flat topped summits of so many elevations in the eastern part of Cuba lead to the belief that all the mountains in this section have been carved from a huge lofty plateau. Considered as a whole, therefore, the mountains of Oriente form two marginal ranges which merge at the east end of the Province and diverge toward the west. Between these divergent ranges lies the broad, undulating expanse famous as the valley of the Cauto, which widens as it stretches westward and ultimately merges with the more extensive plains of Camaguey.

The central mountainous region of Cuba is situated in the Province of Santa Clara. This system consists of four groups having a general direction toward north and south and at

points reaching both coasts. In the area between Cienfuegos, Trinidad and Sancti Spiritus is an extensive cluster of rounded hills, dominated by Potrerillo, nearly three thousand feet high, and interspersed with the most beautiful and fertile valleys.

The Cordillera de los Organos, or Organ Mountains, run almost along the middle line of the Province of Pinar del Rio, paralleling the northern coast. The range commences about twenty miles to the west of the boundary of Habana Province and extends to the estuary of the Colorado, thus traversing three-fourths of Pinar del Rio.

The greater part of the Province of Camaguey is free from hills. The principal elevations are found in the north-eastern portion, where the Sierra de Cubitas is situated.

Aside from the mountains and hills described, the general surface of Cuba is a low, gently undulating plain. The elevations of some of the principal interior cities are as follows: Pinar del Rio, one hundred and three feet above sea level; Cuevitas, ninety-eight feet; Camaguey, three hundred and twenty-four feet; Santa Clara, three hundred and forty feet.

Except in the southeast corner of Oriente, the streams of Cuba all follow a normal course to the coast. Owing to the shape of the Island, therefore, none of them has any considerable length or volume, nor are any navigable with the exception of the Cauto, which permits of the passage of light draft boats to a distance of fifty miles from its mouth.

Cuba is noted for its spacious land-locked harbors. Their extraordinary lake-like formation has been the subject of many more or less fanciful explanations. The following statement of Dr. C. W. Hayes, of the U. S. Geological Survey, seems to fully account for the phenomenon:

“The depressions occupied by the water forming these harbors appear to be due to erosion by streams flowing into the sea during a recent geologic period when the land stood somewhat higher than now. In other words, drowned drainage basins. Their peculiar shape, a narrow seaward channel and a broad landward expansion, is due to the relation of hard and soft rocks which generally prevail along the coast. Wherever the conditions are favorable for the growth of corals, a fringing reef is built upon whatever rocks happen to be at sea level, and as the land rises or sinks this rock reef forms a veneer of varying thickness upon the seaward land surface. The rocks on which this veneer rests are generally limestones and marls, much softer and more easily eroded than coral rock. Hence several small streams, instead of each flowing directly to the sea by its own channel, are diverted to a single narrow channel through the hard coral rock, while they excavate a basin of greater or less extent in the softer rocks back from the coast.

“The fact that the land has recently stood at a sufficiently higher level to enable the streams to excavate such basins is proven by the sandfilled channel in the Habana harbor entrance and by borings made near the mouth of the Rio San Juan at Santiago, showing that the present rock floor lies below the level of the sea. Doubtless similar filled channels would be discovered in the other harbors of this class if they were properly sounded.

“It is interesting to note that along the Cuban coast precisely similar basins are now being excavated which would form pouch-shaped harbors if the land should be slightly depressed. Several such basins were observed eastward from Santiago. If the coast at Matanzas were to sink thirty feet or more, a portion of the Yumuri valley would be flooded, forming a broad basin connected with the sea by a narrow entrance, the present Yumuri Gorge.”

The chief harbors of the type in question are those of Habana, Cienfuegos, and Santiago de Cuba. Other important harbors, more or less of the same formation, are Bahia Honda, Nuevitas, Gibara, Nipe Bay and Baracoa. Matanzas and Cardenas are exceptions. By far the greater number of good harbors are on the north coast. On the south, aside from those which have already been mentioned, Guantanamo Bay is the only one of consequence. Other harbors on this side of the Island, such as Manzanillo and Batabano are merely open roadsteads, generally lacking in depth, and securing more or less shelter from outlying keys and reefs.

Cuba was reclaimed from the sea by a great mountain-making movement in late tertiary time. During the Pliocene and Pleistocene epochs the Island underwent a series of subsidences and elevations which affected the coastal borders, and the margin of elevated rock-reef which borders the coast in parts, as

in the vicinities of Habana and Baracoa. So far as its geologic history is known, the Island was never connected with the American mainland, although the contrary assertion has frequently been made.

No thorough geological survey of Cuba has ever been made, but there is every evidence of its containing rich deposits of minerals, including gold, silver, copper, iron, manganese, and asphalt. Traces of minerals are found extensively throughout the Island. Oriente Province is the first in mineral wealth, followed by Camaguey. In Santa Clara, indications of copper are seen on every hand. The ore is commonly turned up by the plow upon the hillsides. Asphalt is found in widely scattered localities all over the Island. The northern coast of the Province of Matanzas appears to be entirely underlaid with it, and the Bay of Cardenas is bottomed by a deposit which used to be worked by vessels anchored over it. The Cuban asphalt is of a high grade, a considerable proportion of it containing as much as seventy per cent. bitumen. Grahamite, a mineral of the same species as asphalt, but classed as pure bitumen, is found in Habana Province and other parts of the Island. The only mineral resource that is at all adequately exploited is iron. The mines of Oriente, which are famous, will be referred to more extensively in a later portion of the book.

Vegetation is superlatively abundant in Cuba. The flora includes three thousand three hundred and fifty native plants, not to mention the considerable number that have been naturalized. The trees embrace a variety of hardwoods. Over thirty species of palm are found in the Island, and the pine of the temperate zone grows in proximity to the mahogany of the tropics. The forest has been recklessly exploited or destroyed, but it is estimated that thirteen million acres of it remain.

Practically all the fruits and vegetables of the tropics flourish in the Island and many of those characteristic of the temperate regions. Various kinds of fodder grasses grow throughout the valley lands.

The only distinctive animal of Cuba is the jutia, a black animal having the appearance of a large rat. It grows to a length of eighteen inches, including the tail. The country people eat this creature, as they do all other animals and reptiles that come in their way.

Deer and rabbits are abundant wherever