GATHERING COCOANUTS 224 PINEAPPLE FIELD 226 BREADFRUIT 229 HEMP FIELD ABOVE MATANZAS 230 ORANGE TREE 234 “A SUGAR PLANTATION OF FIFTEEN HUNDRED ACRES WILL NEED ABOUT THREE HUNDRED OXEN” 237 HOTEL CAMAGUEY 240 A ROAD IN THE PROVINCE OF ORIENTE 246 MAP OF THE CITY OF HABANA 249 LA FUERZA, HABANA 250 OBISPO STREET, HABANA 255 THE CATHEDRAL, HABANA 259 FORT SAN SEVERINO, MATANZAS 268 PARLOR, HOTEL CAMAGUEY 271 MANZANILLO 273 THE DOCKS AND WAREHOUSES OF ANTILLA 275 [Illustration] 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.