Nuevas Grandes, located midway between Nuevitas and Manati, on the coast of Camaguey, is not easy of entrance in bad weather owing to surf breaking on the outlying reefs, nor is the country back of it sufficiently productive to give promise of much commerce in the future. On the north coast of Oriente we have a number of comparatively shallow harbors, some of which furnish very good protection for vessels in bad weather. The more important of these are Puerto Vita, Puerto Sama, Tanamo and Puerto Naranjo. Along the south coast of Oriente we have Imias Sabana la Mar, Puerto Escondido, Playa de Cuyuco and Daiquiri which, with the exception of the latter, from which the Daiquiri iron mines ship their ore, have practically no commerce. West of Santiago, on the same coast, are the little landing places of Dos Rios, Cotibar, Turquino and Mota. Between the last two, however, we have a fairly good harbor known as Portillo, that furnishes ample protection for vessels drawing not more than 15 feet, and is the shipping point for the output of the sugar estates that surround Portillo Bay. Between Cabo Cruz and Manzanillo are the embarcaderos of Nequiro, Media Luna, Ceiba Hueca and Campechuela, from nearly all of which a considerable amount of sugar is shipped during the season. North of Manzanillo, and extending west along the coast of Camaguey and Santa Clara, we have the shallow harbors of Romero, Santa Cruz del Sur, Jucaro, Tunas de Zaza and Casilda. The southern coast steamers stop at each of these ports, and quite a large amount of sugar and hardwood is shipped from them. From Cienfuegos west we have the Bahia de Cochinos and Batabano already mentioned, together with La Paloma, Punta de Cartas, Bay of Cortes and the Gulf of Corrientes, all of which are located along the south shore of Pinar del Rio, and have quite an extensive local trade in charcoal, fish and hardwood. CHAPTER XXXII RAILROAD SYSTEMS IN CUBA Somewhat strange to relate, railroad building, insofar as it applied to Spanish territory, had its inception in Cuba, at a time when the Island was one of Spain’s colonial possessions. A few rich planters owning large properties at Guines, an exceptionally fertile district some forty miles from the capital, had kept in touch with experiments in railroad building and steam locomotives, as a new source of power in the commercial world, and for the purpose of trying out the practicability of this new means of transportation bought a steam railway locomotive, together with the necessary rails and equipment, for use in transporting sugar cane and other produce from one point to another on their own plantations. Besides this, the Nuevitas-Puerto Principe Railroad was the first public service steam railroad ever built on Spanish soil.