Camaguey, the capital of the Province, so long known as Puerto Principe, has a population of about 45,000 people. The natives of this city have long enjoyed and merited an enviable reputation for integrity, intelligence and social standing, traits that were inherited from a number of excellent families who came to Cuba from Southern Spain in the early colonial days. The rich grazing lands of Camaguey and the salubrious climate, not only of the north coast, but of the great plateaus of the interior, were very attractive to the better class of pioneers who came over in the sixteenth century in search of peace, permanent homes and wealth based on legitimate industry. There is no section of the Island more highly esteemed for the integrity of its people than that of the isolated, aristocratic city of Camaguey, such as the families of Agramonte, Betancourt, Cisneros, Luaces, Sanchez, Quesada and Varona. Nearly all these families through the long painful Ten Years’ War suffered privations, followed by exile and loss of everything but pride, dignity and good names. Most of them made permanent homes in the United States, but many of their children, educated in the land that gave their parents shelter, have returned to their native country and occupied positions of trust and responsibility in the new Republic. CHAPTER IX PROVINCE OF ORIENTE The Province of Oriente, called by Spain Santiago de Cuba, forms the eastern extremity of the Island, and is not only the largest in area, but, owing to the exceptional fertility of its soil, the great number of magnificent harbors, the size and extent of its plains and valleys, together with the untold wealth of its mines of iron, copper, manganese, chrome and other minerals, it must be considered industrially as one of the most important provinces of Cuba. Its area consists of 14,213 square miles, its form is triangular, Cape Maysi, the eastern terminus of the island, forming the apex of the triangle, while the base, with a length of about one hundred miles, extends from Cabo Cruz along the Manzanillo coast to the north shore. One side of the triangle, formed by the south coast, has a length of nearly 250 miles, while another, without counting the convolutions of the sea coast, borders for two hundred miles on the Atlantic. Mountain chains follow both the north and south shores of Oriente, while about one-third of its area, which composes the eastern section, is a great tangle or nest of irregular mountains, flat top domes, plateaus, and foothills, with their intervening basins, parks and valleys.