The Cauto River, traversing Oriente Province, is the largest stream in Cuba, and is of inestimable value for navigation, for water supply, and for drainage. It is the salient feature of many fine landscape scenes, ranging from the idyllic to the majestic.] Holguin, located in the northern center of the Island, among picturesque hills and fertile valleys, is the most important city in northern Oriente. It was founded in 1720, receiving its charter in 1751, and boasts of a population of about 10,000. The harbor of Gibaro, twenty-five miles north, with which it is connected by rail, is the shipping port of the Holguin district. The country is very healthful and long noted as a section in which Cuban fruits acquire perhaps their greatest perfection. Americans living in this city, within the last ten years, have established splendid nurseries, known throughout the Island. Victoria de las Tunas, a small city located on the Cuba Company’s Railroad, some 20 miles from the western boundary of the Province, acquired celebrity in the War of Independence owing to its capture after a siege of several days by the Cuban forces under General Calixto Garcia, in the fall of 1897. It was in this engagement that Mario Menocal, then Chief of Staff with the rank of Colonel in the insurgent forces, distinguished himself through a brilliant charge made at a critical moment, in which he led his Cuban cavalry against the well equipped forces of Spain. Colonel Menocal was wounded in this engagement, but as a reward for intelligent and courageous action he was shortly afterward made Brigadier General, and given command of the insurgent forces in the Province of Havana, which he held up to the time of the Spanish surrender in 1898. An incident indicative of the character and discipline of the Cuban forces took place at the capture of Victoria de las Tunas, when General Calixto Garcia, after caring for the Spanish wounded, furnished an escort to protect his prisoners and non-combatants who wished to leave the city, in a march overland to the town of Manati, where they were delivered into the safe keeping of the Spanish authorities, as the Cubans were unable to keep prisoners owing to shortage of food. General Calixto Garcia was a native of Holguin, owing to which fact, perhaps, much consideration was shown to both persons and property in the surrounding district, where he had both friends and relatives.