We shall see, too, the practical creation and universal development of a scheme of free popular education which to-day gives to what was within the memory of living men one of the most illiterate of countries such school facilities as scarcely any other can surpass. If we were writing in this volume of some long-established Commonwealth, with many generations, perhaps centuries, of progress and culture behind it, we should not be able to restrain our admiration of much that has been accomplished. When we consider that we are writing of a land that suffered nearly four centuries of repression and oppression, followed by a dozen years of devastating strife, and less than twenty years ago began to live the free life of a sovereign people, we are entranced with amazement at the memory of what Cuba has been, with appreciation of what she is, and with the assured promise of what she is to be. It was a fascinating task to trace the story of her existence in its many phases, largely of vicissitude, from the days of Diego Velasquez to those of Mario Menocal. But that after all was a record of what has been, of what has largely passed away. More welcome is it to contemplate what Cuba actually is, in present realization and achievement, and to scan with sane and discriminating vision the prospect of what she may be and what, we may well believe with confidence, she will be. It is to reveal the actual Cuba of to-day, and to suggest the surely promised Cuba of to-morrow, that these pages are written. So far as they may seem technical and statistical, their very dryness contains a potency of suggestion surpassing the dreams of romance. So far as they may seem touched with imagination, speculation, enthusiasm, they are still based upon the practical and indubitable foundation of ascertained facts. Their aim is to present to the world an accurate, comprehensive and sympathetic living picture of the Twentieth Century Republic of Cuba, and as such they are submitted to the reader with a cheerful confidence, if not always in the adequacy of its treatment, at least in the unfailing interest and merit of the theme. January, 1920. WILLIS FLETCHER JOHNSON. CONTENTS PAGE CHAPTER I. THE PEOPLE OF CUBA.....1 The People of Cuba--Hospitality Their Characteristic--Love of Children--Founders of the Cuban Nation from the Southern Provinces of Spain--An Admixture of French Blood--Immigration from Northern Spain--English, Irish, Italian and German Immigrants--Colonists from the United States. CHAPTER II. THE TOPOGRAPHY OF CUBA.....10 The Topography of Cuba--Five Distinct Zones--The Mountain Ranges--Plateaus and Plains--The Highest Peak in Cuba--The Organ Mountains--Beautiful Valleys and Fertile Plains--Action of the Water Courses--Character of the Soil. CHAPTER III. THE CLIMATE OF CUBA.....19