Another, reaching out towards the northeast some five kilometers, terminates at the top of San Juan hill, where Theodore Roosevelt got his first experience of mauser rifle fire. On the crest of this loma a little pagoda has been erected, from the second story of which splendid views of the surrounding country may be enjoyed and of all places where engagements occurred. Brass tablets form the window sills of this picturesque outlook, each one carrying an arrow stamped in the brass, indicating the various points of interest, followed by a brief description of the places, with dates of battles, etc. On the same road may be seen the famous ceiba tree under which the armistice was signed terminating the war between Spain and the United States. Another short line ascends to the crest of a hill in the Sierra Maestra from which may be enjoyed a charming view of the Bay, city and surrounding country for many miles. The longest automobile drive in Oriente extends from the harbor of Manzanillo on the west coast almost due east to the village of Juguani, 58 kilometers away, passing through Yara, Veguitas and Bayamo. This line is being rapidly extended to Baire, and thence on to Palma Soriana, thus completing the connection between Manzanillo and Santiago de Cuba. A short line from Baracoa on the extreme northeastern coast of the Island, has been built in a southerly direction to Sabanilla, 12 kilometers. Local machines can be found at all of these points that will carry the tourist the length of the line, enabling him to form some conception of a section that otherwise could be penetrated only by mountain ponies or on mule back. CHAPTER XXXI BAYS AND HARBORS Nothing is more essential to the general prosperity of a mercantile country than good harbors. They are the economic gateways to the interior, through which all foreign trade must come and go. Cuba in this sense is essentially fortunate, especially along her north coast, where sixteen large, deep, well protected bays and harbors of the first order empty into the Gulf of Mexico, and into the north Atlantic, furnishing thus direct avenues of trade to the greatest commercial centers of the world. Four harbors and bays of the first order are distributed along the southern coast, emptying into the Caribbean, and through that great tropical sea pass the avenues of trade that connect Cuba with the republics of Central America, Colombia, Venezuela, the Guianas, Brazil, Uruguay and the Argentine, while the Panama Canal permits direct water communication, not only with the republics of Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Chile, but also with the west coast of Mexico, and the United States, as well as with Japan and the Orient. With North Africa and the Mediterranean are direct lines of trade through the old Bahama Channel, while central and southern Africa are reached by way of the Lesser Antilles and Barbadoes.