Among other gifts to the public library may be mentioned a series of large, beautiful, artistic drawings in colors, that represent all that is known of the Aztec and Toltec life existing in the Republic of Mexico at the time of the Spanish Conquest in the early part of the 16th century. These engravings have been drawn and colored with marvelous care. They are assembled in the form of an atlas which permits close study and makes one of the most interesting and valuable contributions of this kind to be found in any part of the world. They were presented to Cuba by General Porfirio Diaz, President of the Republic of Mexico. Arrangements have been made to catalogue the volumes of the library. For this purpose experts have been secured and the space amplified, and when this work is completed, while the library will not offer the luxurious quarters of institutions of its kind in other countries, it will be useful and accessible to those who wish to avail themselves of its services. CHAPTER XXXV OCEAN TRANSPORTATION Transportation is the handmaid of production. Where transportation facilities are faulty, exchange of commodities is necessarily restricted to local demands, and commerce with the outside world is practically impossible. Good harbors are among the first essentials to foreign trade, and with deep, well protected bays, Cuba has been bountifully supplied. Every sheltered indentation of her two thousand miles of coast line, from the days of Colon, has been an invitation for passing ships to enter. The wealth of the island in agriculture and mineral and forest products, has made the visits of these ocean carriers profitable; hence the phenomenal growth of Cuba’s foreign commerce. In spite of the stupid restriction of trade enforced by Spain in the early colonial days, contraband commerce assumed large proportions during the 17th century, and when England’s fleet captured Havana in 1763, the capital of Cuba enjoyed a freedom of foreign exchange never before known. Quantities of sugar, coffee, hides and hardwoods, large for those times, demanded transportation during the second quarter of the 19th century. Foreign trade, too, was greatly stimulated in Cuba by conditions resulting from the Civil War in the United States. The rapid development of the sugar industry following this war soon called for more permanent lines of ocean transportation. [Illustration: THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, HAVANA The Chamber of Commerce is one of the oldest civic organizations in Cuba, which even under the repressive and discouraging rule of Spanish Governors did much for the material progress of the Island. Under the Republic its activities and achievements have of course been immensely increased, and it is now appropriately housed in one of the finest public buildings of the capital. A certain resemblance to the famous Cooper Union building in New York has often been remarked, though the Havana edifice is the more ornate and attractive of the two.]