Whatever Havana is now commercially, the time was when it ranked eighth among the commercial cities of the globe, and the wealth of its people was of the fabulous kind which characterised everything in the New World. The city was founded about 1519, and it received its name, San Cristobal de la Habana, from a small town of that name established by Velasquez near Batabano, on the south coast. This was practically the first settlement, but the second town absorbed the settlers of the less important place. So large was the hope of a great future for the new town that Diego Velasquez, the first Governor of the Island, called it Lláve del Nuevo Mundo, the “Key of the New World.” Later, Las Casas obtained a grant of civic rights for it, and it became the permanent capital. It was burned by the buccaneers in 1528 and was rebuilt by De Soto, who discovered the Mississippi, and he surrounded the city by well constructed fortifications. It was captured and sacked by the pirate Jacob Sores in 1556, but was refortified, and in 1573-1589 Philip II. built the castles, Morro and Los Tres Reyes, which still exist. In 1628 an attack of the Dutch fleet was repulsed, and in 1762 it was taken by the British. It was restored to the Spanish July 18, 1763, who held it until December 31, 1898, when it passed into the hands of the United States as trustee for the people of Cuba.
The approach to Havana from the sea is most pleasing to the eye, the narrow entrance to the harbour (one thousand feet wide) being flanked on either side by castellated forts, the best known of which are Morro Castle and Cabañas, whose names are familiar to all Americans since the Spanish-American war. The harbour is three miles in length by one and one half miles in width, is naturally very fine and of ample capacity for the business of the port; but the Spanish authorities have, for four hundred years and more, permitted it to be filled with the filth of the city and the sediment from various small streams which empty into it, until now a large part of it is useless for navigable purposes, and it is a constant source of ill-health to both native and visitor. The natural depth of the harbour is forty feet, but it has filled up to such an extent that an available depth of only about eighteen to twenty feet is possible. The tide on the Cuban coast rises and falls only about two feet. The water-front of the bay, comparatively of small extent, is lined with docks and piers, some of them built of iron, and of the first class. Still, the bulk of the shipping business is done by lighters, and the harbour is alive with small boats. Two lines of ferry-boats connect Havana with Regla, across the harbour, where the principal coal docks are situated. The harbour sea-wall, which is backed by a wide street lined with parks and fine buildings, gives to the city a most attractive appearance from the water.
Havana has a fluctuating population, variously estimated at from two hundred thousand to three hundred thousand souls; at present it is probably not greater than the former number. The people represent the best there is in Cuba, in point of wealth, education, and progress, and they are largely Spaniards, either Spanish-or Cuban-born. The city is by far the largest and richest in the Island, and has always been to Cuba what Paris is to France. The city is especially noticeable in that its houses, built of the absorbent, porous stone of the Island, are painted in yellows and pinks and greens and blues and whites, with a prevailing red in the tiled roofs. Of the seventeen or eighteen thousand houses of the city, three-fourths are of one story and only about two dozen have four stories. The people live very closely together; the rich and the poor, the good and the bad, are strangely huddled, all of them more or less regardless of the simplest laws of sanitation. It is not so great a wonder that the health of the city is so bad, as that any health exists. Rents are high, with the result that as many poor persons as possible live in one house, and the moral health suffers no less than the physical. If any animals are owned—as, for example, horses—they find quarters on the ground floor. Except in the best houses (and some fine specimens of elegant homes exist in the city), modern conveniences are unknown. Iron bars take the place of glass in the windows and doors, and windows are always open in dry weather. The domestic life of the Havanese is an open book to all who wish to look upon it as they pass, for the houses open directly upon the street, and the lower story is on the street-level. Most of the floors are laid directly on the ground, and it would seem as if the people did all in their power to maintain a low degree of health. All the good houses have marble floors.
Churches are numerous all over the city, the Cathedral in which the remains of Columbus are said to have reposed being the chief in point of interest.[13] The women of Havana constitute a large portion of the congregations; the men give little attention to church attendance.
The Government buildings are numerous, but neither modern nor beautiful. The cigar factories and tobacco warehouses are commodious structures; indeed, some of the former occupy what were at one time official or private palaces. The retail stores are usually small places, with the stocks of goods mostly in the windows.
There are numerous parks. The Parque Central, the first in importance, is the fashionable centre of the city. About it are hotels, theatres, public buildings, and cafés; a band plays there during certain evenings, and at night it is a blaze of light and alive with promenaders. The streets in old Havana, that portion originally within the walls, are very narrow; often the sidewalks are not wider than two feet, and sometimes they are entirely lacking. In the newer portions of the city the streets are thirty-three feet wide, with five-foot sidewalks. Some of the streets are paved with blocks of stone in poor fashion, and some are dirt roads which are almost impassable in the wet season. Naturally, this condition of the streets does not improve the public health. Some effort was making when the war began, looking to street improvement, and contracts were let to an American firm; but the war stopped all operations in that direction. The handsomest street in Havana is the Cerro, running up the hill back of the city, and lined with handsome villas in grounds and gardens of tropical loveliness. Here many of the aristocracy reside. Another fine public promenade-street is the Prado, which follows, as nearly as may be, the line of the old walls. The Prado, and the Paseo de Tacon, are the Champs Élysées of Havana, and on many nights the former is as brilliant as that famed Parisian promenade.
Havana lies so low that a wind tide will inundate the streets near the water; and as much of that portion of the city is built on made-ground, the material being of the worst sort of refuse, it is scarcely to be expected that health will abound. Owing to the narrowness of the streets, the possibilities for street-railway building are small, although there are twenty-seven miles of track in the city, with cars run by horse power; in the suburbs by steam dummies. The field for development in this line presents especial attractions for American capital, and the future promises much. The cab system of Havana was unusually good before the war. At that time there were six thousand public vehicles, with a maximum fare of twenty cents, and many were so cheap that labouring people could afford to use them as street-cars are used in this country. The volante, once the national vehicle of Cuba, has been relegated to the rougher roads of the country districts. There is also a ‘bus line, doing about three times the business of the street-cars.
The sewerage system is in a deplorable condition, and the last effort made to improve it was stopped by the war. What should be done is a problem to be solved by American engineers, and had Colonel Waring, of New York, not fallen a victim to Havanese filth, he would no doubt have done for the city what Spain in all her years of possession failed to do. The task is now upon the shoulders of General Ludlow, whose efficiency is beyond question. The city is lighted by gas and electricity, the works being operated by a Spanish-American company, controlled from New York City.
The water supply of the city has been excellent since the new aqueduct was completed, in 1893, after thirty-two years of delay. The water is gathered from about four hundred springs in the neighbourhood of Vento, ten miles from the city; it is calculated that they will yield nearly forty millions of gallons every twenty-four hours. The aqueduct, tunnel, and receiving basin cost $3,500,000. The reservoirs, four miles from the city, with a capacity of eight millions of gallons, cost $566,486, and the laying of pipes, etc., $1,566,374, or a total of over $5,000,000. The works are owned by the city.
The telephone system, owned by the Government, is leased to the Red Telefonica de la Habana, and had, previous to the war, twenty-one miles of line and fifteen hundred subscribers.