he sea, nothing is seen but lofty
mountains. When quite near, two mountains seem to suddenly part, and a
channel only 180 yards wide, but of good depth, is revealed.

It is the oldest city in America, many years older than St. Augustine,
having been founded by Velasquez in 1514, and is exceedingly quaint and
mediaeval.

Its chief fortifications are the Castillo of La Socapa and the Morro
Castle, the largest and most picturesque of the three of that name. The
latter was built about 1640, and is a fine specimen of the feudal
"donjon keep" with battlemented walls, moats, drawbridge, portcullis and
all the other paraphernalia of the days of romance. The harbor itself,
around which so much interest has clustered, is naturally one of the
finest in the world, but no pains has been taken to improve it, the
funds appropriated for that purpose having been stolen by the Spanish
engineers and officials.

Santiago is Spanish for St. James, who is the special patron saint of
Spain, on account of a myth that he once made a journey to that country.

Cuba, in short, is one of the most beautiful and fertile countries on
the face of the globe, but man, in the shape of brutal Spain, has done
everything he could, to ruin the gifts Nature so lavishly bestowed.

Let us hope and believe, as surely we have every reason to do, that upon
the "Pearl of the Antilles," the sun of prosperity will rise, driving
away the gloomy shadows of oppression, and that the dawn will be not
long postponed.

CHAPTER XVI.

WHAT WILL THE FUTURE BE?

It is unnecessary to refer except in a brief manner to the
Spanish-American war, as the struggle is at the present time of writing
only in its inception, and no one can tell how long it will last or what
reverses each side may experience before peace is declared.

One thing is certain, however. The result is not problematical. It is
assured. The United States will be victorious in the end, be that end
near or distant, and Cuba must and shall be free.

If ever there was a war that was entered into purely from motives of
humanity and with no thought whatever of conquest, it is this one. The
entire people of the United States were agreed that their purpose was a
holy one, and instantly the call of the President was responded to from
all parts of the country. Sectional differences, such as they were,
vanished like mist before the sun. There was no Easterner, no Westerner,
no Northerner, no Southerner, but