Our War with Spain for Cuba's Freedom

by Trumbull White

PUERTO RICO.

Puerto Rico, the smaller of the two islands which Spain held in the West Indies, was discovered by Columbus in 1493 and occupied by soldiers under Ponce de Leon early in the sixteenth century. It lies well outside the Caribbean sea, in the open Atlantic, and for this reason it is not at all affected climatically, as Cuba is, by proximity to the continent. Its climate is determined mostly by the ocean, whose breezes sweep constantly over the entire island, tempering deliciously the tropical heat, of the sun.

The surface of the island is equally favorable to excellent climatic conditions. It has no mountains, but it has hills that extend from end to end of it and form a perfect watershed and afford drainage for plains and valleys. Thirteen hundred rivers, forty-seven of them navigable, drain 3,500 square miles of territory, a territory as large as the state of Delaware. All over its extent are, besides the principal range of hills that are by some called mountains, round-topped hills of finest soil, which are nearly every one cultivated. In summer the heat is not excessive in the valleys and in winter ice never forms oil the hills. It is a purely agricultural country and the great majority of the natives are farmers. In the population of 810,000 are 300,000 negroes, who are now free, and since their freedom have gone into the towns and cities and found work in the sugar mills and at similar employments.

The native Puerto Ricans adhere to the soil. Their labors are not severe where the soil is loose and rich, as it is every where except near the seashore, and for reasons already stated the climate is very favorable to a comfortable existence. The only drawback perhaps to this comfort for dwellers on the island is lack of substantial bridges over the many streams and the absence of good roads.

There are a number of extensive forests on the island, and while they resemble in their main outlines those of the other West India islands, certain varieties of trees and shrubs exist there that are not seen elsewhere. Baron Eggers, who in 1883 had a coffee farm of 2,000 acres just coming into bearing, found leisure from his other employments to explore some of the forests and—he being an authority on the subject—the facts he discovered and reported have been regarded of interest by travelers and students. He found palms and a strange variety of orchid, but the palms were not so lofty, nor the orchids so rich as they both are on the Caribbean islands. But he found trees of great beauty and great utility in manufactures that are not abundant on the other islands, if, indeed, they are ever found on any of them.

The Baron describes with rapture the sabino, so called by the natives, but by him called the talauma; it is from fifteen to twenty feet high, with spreading branches, having large silvery leaves and bearing immense white, odorous flowers. The hietella is another tree that has remarkable leaves and yields beautiful crimson flowers. He describes still another tree, without naming it, as having orangelike foliage, large purple flowers, and as having in its neighborhood other trees, different from it, but resembling it and evidently allied to it. This tree, he says, is not found elsewhere. Still another tree, the ortegon, whose flowers are purple spikes a yard long, and whose wood is used for timber, is common on the high lands near the coast. And there are dye woods, mahogany and lignum vitae. Hence it is seen that the forests of Puerto Rico are generally beautiful, and strange in some of their features.

The words Puerto Rico are, when translated, Rich Port, and they are very applicable to this snug spot in the Atlantic ocean, only a short distance off the United States coast. Every variety of soil is adapted to the growth of a particular kind of crop. The highest hills, as the lowest valleys, are cultivated with reference to what they will best produce. On the hills, rice; in the valleys, coffee, cotton and sugar cane; on the rising grounds between the valleys and hills, tobacco. Puerto Rico rice, unlike that of the Carolinas, grows on dry lands, even on the highest hills, without watering. It is the staple food of the laborers. The consular report to Washington for 1897 says the product of coffee that year was 26,655 tons; of sugar, 54,205 tons, and of tobacco, 1,039 tons. The number of bales of cotton is not given, but the consul expatiates on its fine quality. The richness of the sugar lands may be judged from this item in the report: "Three hogsheads of sugar is an average yield per acre, without using fertilizers of any kind."

Puerto Rico is one of the finest grazing countries in the world. Its herds of cattle are immense, and from them are supplied cattle of a superior quality to the other West India islands. Great quantities of hides are shipped to various countries.

Though richly agricultural as the island is, and entitled as it is to be regarded as exclusively agricultural, in past times considerable mining was done there, in gold, copper and salt. Indeed, copper is still mined to a small extent, and salt is still so plentiful that the government finds a profit in monopolizing the sale of it.

Puerto Rico is only 100 miles in length and from fifty to sixty miles in breadth, and as square as a dry-goods box. East and west and north and south its coast lines run almost as regularly as if projected by compass. It is the delight of the sailorman, as its fertile soil is the joy of the agriculturist.