two
ditches, or cuts, which are easy to inundate. The fort and bridge of
San Antonio that of San Geronimo, and the Escambron battery situated
on a tongue of land which enters the sea. Built over two hundred and
fifty years ago, the city is still in good condition and repair. The
walls are picturesque, and represent a stupendous work and cost in
themselves. Inside the walls the city is laid off in regular squares,
six parallel streets running in the direction of the length of the
island and seven at right angles.

The peninsula on which San Juan is situated is connected with the
mainland by three bridges. The oldest, that of San Antonio, carries the
highway across the shallow San Antonio Channel. It is a stone-arched
bridge about 350 yards long including the approaches. By the side
of this bridge is one for the railroad and one for the tramway which
follows the main military highway to Rio Piedras.

Among the buildings the following are notable: The palace of the
Captain-General, the palace of the intendencia, the town hall,
military hospital, jail, Ballaja barracks, theater, custom house,
cathedral, Episcopal palace, and seminary. There is no university
or provincial institute of second grade instruction, and only one
college, which is under the direction of Jesuit priests. The houses
are closely and compactly built of brick, usually of two stories,
stuccoed on the outside and painted in a variety of colors. The upper
floors are occupied by the more respectable people, while the ground
floors, almost without exception, are given up to the negroes and the
poorer class, who crowd one upon another in the most appalling manner.

The population within the walls is estimated at 20,000 and most of it
lives on the ground floor. In one small room, with a flimsy partition,
a whole family will reside. The ground floor of the whole town reeks
with filth, and conditions are most unsanitary. In a tropical country,
where disease readily prevails, the consequences of such herding may
be easily inferred. There is no running water in the town. The entire
population depend upon rain water, caught upon the flat roofs of the
buildings and conducted to the cistern, which occupies the greater part
of the inner court-yard that is an essential part of Spanish houses
the world over, but that here, on account of the crowded conditions,
is very small. There is no sewerage, except for surface water and
sinks, while vaults are in every house and