r, and is an elegant structure of stone, but one story high, built
at the early part of the present century. On the heights above the city,
the inhabitants have planted their country seats, and from the bay the
whole scene is most delightfully picturesque. There are two fine
churches in Matanzas, and a second-class theatre, cock-pit, etc.
Statistics show the custom-house receipts of the port to exceed the
large sum of a million and a half dollars annually. Besides the railroad
leading to Havana, there is another leading to the interior and bearing
southward, of some thirty or forty miles in length. On all the Cuban
railroads you ride in American-built cars, drawn by American-built
engines, and conducted by American engineers. The back country from
Matanzas is rich in sugar and coffee plantations.

Puerto Principe is the capital of the central department of the island,
and is situated in the interior. The trade of the place, from the want
of water-carriage, is inconsiderable, and bears no proportion to the
number of inhabitants. What ever portion of the produce of Puerto
Principe and its immediate neighborhood is exported, must find its way
first to Nuevitas, twelve and a half leagues distant, from whence it is
shipped, and from whence it receives in return its foreign supplies. It
is situated about one hundred and fifty miles from Havana. Its original
locality, when founded by Velasquez, was Nuevitas, but the inhabitants,
when the place was feeble in numbers and strength, were forced to remove
to this distance inland, to avoid the fierce incursions of the
Buccaneers, who thronged the coast.

Santiago de Cuba has a noble harbor, and is defended by a miniature Moro
Castle, being a well-planned fortress after the same style, and known as
_El Moro_. This city was founded in 1512, and is the capital of the
eastern department of the island, but has at various times suffered
severely from earthquakes, and within a couple of years was visited by
the cholera, which swept off some five or six thousand of its population
in about the same number of weeks. Santiago, though it now presents many
features of decay, and its cathedral is closed for fear of disaster
occurring if it should be occupied, is yet the third city on the island
in a commercial point of view. The immediate neighborhood of the city
being mountainous and somewhat sterile, produces little sugar, but the
many fine coffee estates, and several vast copper mines of uncom