The History of Cuba Volume V Part 6

The Manatee River is a small stream with its origin in the center of the nest of mountains that lie north of Trinidad; it flows south until it empties into the Caribbean, midway between the ports of Casilda and Tunas de Zaza. The Zaza River has its origin in a number of tributary streams in the northeast corner of the Province, whence it wanders through many twists and turns between hills and ridges until it finally pa.s.ses into the level lands of the southwest corner of the Province, whence it eventually finds its way to the Caribbean. This stream, although troubled with bars just beyond its mouth, has a considerable depth for some twenty or more miles.

The most important river commercially in this Province, known as the Sagua, rises a little west of the capital, Santa Clara, and flows in a northerly direction until it empties into the Bay across from the Sagua Light on the north coast. The city of Sagua la Grande, a small but aristocratic place, is located about twenty miles from the mouth of the river, and is the distributing point for that section of the province.

The river is navigable for small boats from the port of Isabella to the city above. Another small stream, known as the Sagua la Chica, empties into the Bay, about midway between La Isabella and the port of Caibarien.

The southern coast of the province of Santa Clara, not including the indentations of gulfs and bays, is approximately two hundred and fifty miles long. This, of course, includes the great western extension of the Zapata peninsula, whose sh.o.r.e line alone is one hundred miles in length.

The northern sh.o.r.e, bordering on the great lagoon that separates it from the Atlantic, measures one hundred and fifty miles, forming thus for the province an irregular parallelogram whose average width north to south is about seventy-five miles.

In the center of the south coast we find the harbor of Cienfuegos, a beautiful, perfectly land-locked, deep water bay, dotted with islands, from whose eastern sh.o.r.es tall mountains loom up on the near horizon in majestic beauty. One of the picturesque old forts of the early eighteenth century on the west bank of the channel guards the approach to the entrance of the harbor. Some ten miles back, located on a gently sloping rise of ground, is the city of Cienfuegos, which next to Santiago de Cuba is the most important s.h.i.+pping port on the southern coast.

As far as definitely known, this port was first entered by the old Spanish conqueror Ocampo, in 1508. No definite settlement was made however, until 1819, when refugees from the insurrection of Santo Domingo established a colony, from which rose the present city of Cienfuegos. These involuntary immigrants from Santo Domingo were coffee growers in their own country, and from their efforts splendid coffee plantations were soon located in the rich valleys and on the mountain sides that lay off towards the northeast. Large groves of coffee, struggling under the dense forest shade, still survive in these mountains, from which the natives of the district bring out on mule back large crops of excellent coffee that have been grown under difficulties.

The city of Cienfuegos, or a Hundred Fires, is substantially built of stone and brick, with wide streets, radiating from a large central plaza, as in all Spanish cities the favorite meeting place where people discuss the topics of the day, and listen to the evening concerts of the munic.i.p.al band. There are several social clubs in Cienfuegos and a very good theatre, together with the city hall and hospital, which are creditable to the community. The population is estimated at 36,000.

Sancti Spiritus is one of the seven cities founded by Diego Velasquez in 1514, and still bears every evidence of its antiquity. Its streets are crooked and but little has been done to bring the city into line with modern progress. This is owing largely to the fact of its being located twenty-five miles back from the southern coast, and some ten miles off the main railroad line, connecting the eastern and western sections of the Island. It lies on the edge of the plateau, east of the mountain group of southern Santa Clara. An old, tall-towered church still bears the date of its founding by Velasquez. The city has a population of approximately 15,000.

Santa Clara, the capital, is located almost in the center of the province, well above the sea level. Its wide, well kept streets are suggestive of health and prosperity. It was founded in 1689, and until 1900 was the eastern terminus of the main railroad line running east from Havana. Rich fertile lands surround Santa Clara, while the mining interests a little to the south, although not at present developed, give every promise of future importance. Copper ore of excellent quality has been found in a number of places between Santa Clara and Trinidad, while silver, zinc and gold are found in the same zone, but up to the present not in quant.i.ties that would justify the investment of capital in their development. Ten thousand tons of asphalt are mined annually not far from the city, and considerable tobacco is grown in the surrounding country. The population is estimated at 15,000.

Sagua la Grande is located on the Sagua River, twenty miles up from the port of La Isabella. It is a comparatively modern city, with wide streets, and is the distributing point for the large sugar estates of that section. Its population is 12,000.

The Port of Caibarien has grown into considerable importance owing to the large amount of sugar brought in by the different railroads, for storage in the big stone warehouses that line the wharf. Shoal water necessitates lightering out some fifteen miles to a splendid anchorage under the lee of Cayo Frances, on the outer edge of the great salt water lagoon which envelops the entire north coast of Santa Clara. The population is 7,000.

Five miles west, on the line between Caibarien and Santa Clara, is the little old city of Remedios, that once occupied a place on the coast, but was compelled by the unfriendly visits of pirates, as were many other cities in Cuba in the olden days, to move back from the sea sh.o.r.e, so that the inhabitants could be warned of an approaching enemy. Around Remedios, large fields of tobacco furnish the chief source of income to this city of six or seven thousand people.

The great "Cienaga de Zapata," or Swamp of the Shoe, so called on account of its strange resemblance to a heeled moccasin, although geographically a part of the Province of Matanzas, has nevertheless always been included in the boundaries of Santa Clara. Its length from east to west is about sixty-five miles, with an average width from north to south of twenty. Many plans, at different times since the first Government of Intervention, have been formed for the drainage and reclaiming of this great swamp of the Caribbean, whose area is approximately twelve hundred square miles.

Nearly all of the surface is covered with hard wood timber, growing in a vast expanse of water, varying in depth from one to three feet. Owing to its lack of incline in any direction, reclamation of this isolated territory is not easy, although the land, after the timber was removed and the water once disposed of, would probably be very valuable.

Enormous deposits of peat and black vegetable muck, cover the western sh.o.r.es of this peninsula and will, when utilized for either fuel, fertilizer or gas production, be an important source of revenue, as will its forests of hard wood, when transportation to the coast is rendered possible.

Just east of the heel of the "Zapata" and some forty miles west of the harbor of Cienfuegos, a deep, open, wide-mouthed roadstead projects from the Caribbean some eighteen miles into the land, almost connecting with the little lake known as "El Tesero" or Treasure, located at the most southerly point of the Province of Matanzas. This roadstead, known as the Bay of Cochinos, furnishes shelter from all winds excepting those from the south, against which there is no protection, although abutments thrown out from the sh.o.r.e might give artificial shelter, and thus render it a fairly safe harbor.

Quite a large forest of valuable woods lies a few miles back from the coast, between Cochinos Bay and the harbor of Cienfuegos. The broken surface of the dog teeth rocks, however, upon which this forest stands, renders the removal of logs difficult and dangerous, since iron shoes will not protect the feet of draft animals used in the transport of wood to the coast. A narrow strip of very good vegetable land, running only a mile or so back from the beach, extends along this section of the coast for about twenty-five miles, awaiting the intelligent efforts of some future gardener to produce potatoes and other vegetables on a large scale for spring s.h.i.+pments to Cienfuegos.

The great source of wealth of the Province of Santa Clara, of course, is sugar, and to that industry nearly all of her industrial energies are at present devoted. Seventy great sugar estates, with modern mills, are located within the Province, yielding an annual production of approximately eight million sacks of sugar, each weighing 225 pounds.

The fertility of Santa Clara soil has never been exhausted, and the great network of railroads covering the Province furnishes easy transportation to the harbors of Cienfuegos, Sagua and Caibarien.

Considerable amounts of sugar are also s.h.i.+pped from Casilda, the port of Trinidad on the south coast, and some from Tunas de Zaza, at the mouth of the Zaza River, thirty miles further east. The sugar produced in the Province in 1918 was valued at eighty million dollars.

The tobacco of Santa Clara Province, although not of the standard quality obtained in the western provinces of Pinar del Rio and Havana, still forms a very important industry. That coming from the Manicaragua Valley, northeast of Cienfuegos, has obtained a good reputation for its excellent flavor.

Coffee culture in the mountains and valleys lying between Trinidad and Sancti Spiritus, introduced by French refugees from the Island of Santo Domingo the first years of the last century, was at one time a very important industry. With the introduction of machinery for hulling and polis.h.i.+ng the beans, and with better facilities for the removal of the crop to the coast, there is every reason to believe that this industry, in the near future, will resume some of the importance which it enjoyed half a century ago, or before the abolition of slavery rendered picking the berries expensive, since this work can be done only by hand. The growing of coffee offers a delightful and profitable occupation to large families, since the work of gathering and caring for the berries is a very pleasant occupation for women and children.

Owing to the fertility of the soil of Santa Clara, the abundance of shade, rich gra.s.s, and plentiful streams of clear running water flowing from the mountains, there is perhaps no section of Cuba that offers greater inducement to the stock raiser.

The breeding of fine horses, of high-grade hogs, of angora goats, sheep and milch cows, will undoubtedly, when the attention of capital is called to the natural advantages of this section of the country, rival even the sugar industry of the Province. In no part of the world could moderate sized herds of fine animals be better cared for than on the high table lands and rich valleys of Santa Clara.

Santa Clara bore its part in the trials and sufferings endured by the patriots of Cuba in the War of Independence. The range of mountains between Sancti Spiritus and Trinidad, during those four fearful years, furnished a safe retreat for the Cuban forces, when the soldiers of Spain, abundantly supplied with ammunition, which their opponents never enjoyed, pressed them too hard. It was in these dense forests and rocky recesses which Nature had provided that the great old chieftain, General Maximo Gomez, in the last years of the war, defied the forces of Spain.

CHAPTER VIII

PROVINCE OF CAMAGUEY

According to the log of the _Santa Maria_, the first glimpse of the Island of Cuba enjoyed by Christopher Columbus, sailing as he did in a southwesterly course across the Bahama Banks, is supposed by many to have been at some point along the northern coast of what is now known as the Province of Camaguey. The area of this Province, including Cayos Romano, Guajaba, Sabinal and Coco, is approximately 11,000 square miles.

The general trend of the coast lines is similar to those of the Province of Santa Clara, and the length of each is approximately one hundred and seventy-five miles. The average width of the province is eighty miles, although between the southern extension of Santa Cruz del Sur and the mouth of the harbor of Nuevitas, we have a hundred miles.

The same gentle graceful inoffensive natives were found in this section of Cuba as those who first received the Spanish conquerors at Baracoa and other places in the Island. Those of the great plains belonging to this province were known as Camagueyanos, and although for many years Spain called this section of the island Puerto Principe, the musical Indian term stuck, and with the inauguration of the Republic in 1901, the name of Camaguey was officially given to this part of Cuba.

In the year 1515, Diego Velasquez, with his fever for founding cities, established a colony on the sh.o.r.e of the Bay of Nuevitas, and christened it Puerto Principe. In those early days, however, there was no rest for the unprotected, hence the first settlement was moved in a short time to another locality not definitely known, but a year later the city was permanently established in the center of the province, about fifty miles from either sh.o.r.e, where it remains today, with many features of its antiquity still in evidence.

The first of the old Spanish adventurers who succeeded in making himself both famous and rich without flagrant trespa.s.s of law, was Vasco Porcallo de Figueroa, one of the original settlers whom Velasquez left in the City of Puerto Principe founded in 1515. This st.u.r.dy old pioneer did not bother with gold mining, but succeeded in securing large grants of land in the fertile plains of Camaguey, where he raised great herds of cattle and horses, exercising at the same time a decidedly despotic influence over the natives and everyone else in that region.

Vasco, although spending more than half of the year in the cities of Puerto Principe and Sancti Spiritus, had a retreat of his own, probably some place in the Sierra de Cubitas, where he held princely sway and guarded his wealth from intrusive buccaneers and other ambitious adventurers of those times. It was he who, meeting Hernando de Soto on his arrival at Santiago de Cuba, escorted that famous explorer across the beautiful rolling country of Camaguey, which he seemed to consider as his own special domain, and finally accepted the position of second in command in that unfortunate expedition of De Soto into the Peninsula of Florida in 1539. Fighting the savage Seminoles was not however to his taste, and the old man returned to Havana inside of a year, mounted his horse and rode home, firmly convinced, he said, that Camaguey was the only country for a white man to live and die in.

Even with the removal of the capital far into the interior, the peacefully inclined citizens were not free from molestation and unwelcome visits. During the middle of the seventeenth century, the famous English corsair, Henry Morgan, afterwards Governor of Jamaica, paid his respects to several Cuban cities, including Puerto Principe.

In 1668 he crossed the Caribbean with twelve boats and seven hundred English followers, intending to attack Havana. He afterward changed his mind, however, and landing in the Bay of Santa Maria began his march on the capital of Camaguey.

The inhabitants made a desperate resistance, the Mayor and many of his followers being killed, but the town was finally compelled to surrender and submit to being sacked, during which process many women and children were burned to death in a church behind whose barred doors they had taken refuge. Morgan finally retired from Puerto Principe with his booty of $50,000 and five hundred head of cattle.

During the Ten Years' War the province of Camaguey became the center of active military operations. The inhabitants of this section had descended from the best families of Spain, who had emigrated from the Mother Country centuries before. They were men of refinement and education, men whose prosperity and contact with the outside world had made life impossible under the oppressive laws of the Spanish monarchy.

Ignacio Agramonte, a scion of one of the best known families of Camaguey, was a born leader of men, and soon found himself in command of the Cuban forces. The struggle was an ill advised one, because the odds in numbers were too great, and the resources of the Cubans were so limited that success was impossible. The effort of General Agramonte and his followers, all men of note and social standing, was a brave one, and the sacrifice of the women, the mothers, sisters and daughters, of that period, were not surpa.s.sed by any country in its fight for liberty.

But the unfortunate death of General Agramonte, and the long uphill struggle, brought about the inevitable. The treaty of Zanjon in 1878 was ultimately forced upon the revolutionists, many of whom afterwards emigrated with their families to the United States, where some have remained as permanent citizens of that Republic; among others, Doctor Enrique Agramonte, a brother of Ignacio, who after fighting through the ten tiresome years, left his country, never to return.

In the more recent struggles for Cuban liberty, known as the War of Independence, Camaguey again took a prominent part and General Maximo Gomez, who had succeeded Agramonte at his death, and General Antonio Maceo, had the satisfaction of carrying the campaign of the Occident, from Oriente, across Camaguey, where they defeated the Spanish forces in several battles, and in the winter of 1896 led their victorious troops in three parallel invading columns, to the extreme western end of the Island. Thus the revolution was carried for the first time in history beyond the Jucaro and Moron Trocha, or fortified ditch, near the western border of Camaguey.

Narrow crooked streets still prevail in some parts of Camaguey and the erection of modern buildings, that has become so common in Havana, has not reached this quiet old munic.i.p.ality of the plains which still lives and breathes an atmosphere smacking of centuries past.

Topographically, although the surface of Camaguey, in alt.i.tude and contour, varies much, it is, as a whole, far more level than any other province in the Island. Great fertile savannas and gra.s.s covered plains predominate in almost every part. The potreros, or grazing lands, of Camaguey, have made it famous as the breeding place par excellence for horses and cattle, and its equal is not found anywhere in the West Indies.

In spite of the comparatively level nature of the country, with the exception of the low, heavily covered forest belt that sweeps along the entire southern coast, extending back from ten to twenty-five miles, the rest of the province partakes more of the character of an elevated plateau, interspersed with low ranges of mountains and foothills, which give pleasing diversity to the general aspect of the country.

The longest range in Camaguey is a continuation of the great central chain, that follows the trend of the Island. It begins with a prominent peak known as the Loma Cunagua, which rises abruptly from the low level savannas ten miles east of the town of Moron in the northwestern corner of the Province. A little further southeast, the range again appears and finally develops into the Sierra de Cubitas, which follows the direction of the north coast, terminating finally in the picturesque peak of Tubaque, on the Maximo River.

A small stream, known as the Rio Yaguey, sweeps west along the southern edge of this ridge and finally breaks through its western end, emptying into the lagoon or Bay of Cayo Romano. A parallel range of lower hills, with various spurs, lies a little south of the main Sierra de Cubitas.

The bountifully watered prairies, valleys and parks south and west of these hills form the ideal grazing ground of the Pearl of the Antilles.

Several large herds of fine hogs and cattle, recently established in this section, will soon play an important part in the meat supply of Cuba.

As in Santa Clara, an independent group, or nest, of low peaks and beautiful forest covered hills, occupies the southeastern center of the Province of Camaguey. The lands in this section are very fertile and the delightful variety of hill, valley and plain renders it a very attractive country in which to make one's permanent home. Several elevations of moderate alt.i.tude, known as lomas, rise from the more level country, a little to the north of the above mentioned district, and form something of a connecting link between the Najasa, or mountains of the southwest, and the Sierra de Cubitas of the north sh.o.r.e.

As before mentioned, several chains of the north coast, originating in Santa Clara, sweep over and terminate in Camaguey, some ten or fifteen miles east of the boundary line. The mountains of this district, owing to the fact that they were distant from the coast, have never been denuded of their virgin forests, and with the opening of the Cuba Railroad, connecting Santa Clara with Santiago de Cuba on the south coast, and the Bay of Nipe on the north, a considerable quant.i.ty of valuable timber has been taken out within recent years.

Camaguey has no rivers of importance, although numerous streams flowing from the central plateaus, toward both the northern and southern coast, are utilized during the rainy season to float logs to s.h.i.+pping points.

These short streams, varying from ten to thirty miles in length, each form basins or valleys of rich gra.s.s lands that are always in demand for stock raising. Between the Jatobonico del Sur, which forms a part of the western boundary of the Province, and the Rio Jobobo, which forms the southeastern boundary, are more than a dozen streams emptying into the Caribbean. Among these are Los Guiros, the Altamiro, the Najasa and the Sevilla.