The History of Cuba, vol. 5

by Willis Fletcher Johnson

At present several short lines radiate from Santiago de Cuba, its capital, located on the beautiful harbor of that name. One of these runs due north to Dos Caminos, and then west to Palma Soriana, passing through San Luis. The length of this line is approximately 40 kilometers. Still another, fifteen kilometers long, reaches Alto Songo, northeast of Santiago, passing through Boniato, Dos Bocas, and El Cristo.

During General Wood’s administration of Santiago Province surveys were made at his instigation and roads were completed to nearly all those points of historical interest where engagements took place between Americans and Spanish troops in the summer of 1898. One of these lines, six kilometers in length, carries the visitor to the village of El Caney, where the brave Spanish General Vara del Rey lost his life in its defense. The fortifications were shelled and captured by General William A. Ludlow of the U. S. Engineering Corps.

Another, reaching out towards the northeast some five kilometers, terminates at the top of San Juan hill, where Theodore Roosevelt got his first experience of mauser rifle fire. On the crest of this loma a little pagoda has been erected, from the second story of which splendid views of the surrounding country may be enjoyed and of all places where engagements occurred. Brass tablets form the window sills of this picturesque outlook, each one carrying an arrow stamped in the brass, indicating the various points of interest, followed by a brief description of the places, with dates of battles, etc. On the same road may be seen the famous ceiba tree under which the armistice was signed terminating the war between Spain and the United States.

Another short line ascends to the crest of a hill in the Sierra Maestra from which may be enjoyed a charming view of the Bay, city and surrounding country for many miles. The longest automobile drive in Oriente extends from the harbor of Manzanillo on the west coast almost due east to the village of Juguani, 58 kilometers away, passing through Yara, Veguitas and Bayamo. This line is being rapidly extended to Baire, and thence on to Palma Soriana, thus completing the connection between Manzanillo and Santiago de Cuba.

A short line from Baracoa on the extreme northeastern coast of the Island, has been built in a southerly direction to Sabanilla, 12 kilometers. Local machines can be found at all of these points that will carry the tourist the length of the line, enabling him to form some conception of a section that otherwise could be penetrated only by mountain ponies or on mule back.

CHAPTER XXXI
BAYS AND HARBORS

NOTHING is more essential to the general prosperity of a mercantile country than good harbors. They are the economic gateways to the interior, through which all foreign trade must come and go. Cuba in this sense is essentially fortunate, especially along her north coast, where sixteen large, deep, well protected bays and harbors of the first order empty into the Gulf of Mexico, and into the north Atlantic, furnishing thus direct avenues of trade to the greatest commercial centers of the world.

Four harbors and bays of the first order are distributed along the southern coast, emptying into the Caribbean, and through that great tropical sea pass the avenues of trade that connect Cuba with the republics of Central America, Colombia, Venezuela, the Guianas, Brazil, Uruguay and the Argentine, while the Panama Canal permits direct water communication, not only with the republics of Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Chile, but also with the west coast of Mexico, and the United States, as well as with Japan and the Orient. With North Africa and the Mediterranean are direct lines of trade through the old Bahama Channel, while central and southern Africa are reached by way of the Lesser Antilles and Barbadoes.

Most of the foreign trade at the present time is with the American ports along the eastern coast of the Atlantic and through the Gulf ports by which Cuba has access to the Mississippi Valley, while along the Gulf Stream Cuba has a direct avenue, as well as a favorable current, that carried her commerce to England, France and other countries of western Europe.

Beginning with the harbors and bays of the north coast we have the western group located in Pinar del Rio, on the Gulf of Mexico, not distant from Vera Cruz and Tampico in Mexico, or Galveston in Texas, while almost facing them we have New Orleans, Pascagoula, Mobile and Pensacola, with Tampa on the Florida coast.