f one of the great tobacco districts, producing a leaf of good
quality but generally inferior to the _Partidos_ of Havana Province, and
quite inferior to the famous _Vuelta Abajo_. Southward of this region, and
about midway the width of the island, somewhat more than two hundred miles
eastward of Havana, is the city of Santa Clara, better known in the island
as Villa Clara. The city dates its existence from 1689. It lies surrounded
by rolling hills and expansive valleys, but in the absence of extensive
plantations in its immediate environs, one is led to wonder just why so
pleasant a place should be there, and why it should have reached its
present proportions. For the tourist who wants to "see it all," it is an
excellent and most comfortable central headquarters.

[Illustration: A VILLAGE STREET _Calvario, Havana Province_]

From Villa Clara it is only a short run to Cienfuegos, the "city of a
hundred fires," a modern place, only about a hundred years old. There is
every probability that Columbus entered the harbor in 1494, and perhaps
no less probability that Ocampo entered in 1508, on his voyage around the
island. The harbor extends inland for several miles, with an irregular
shore line, behind which rises a border line of hills. The city itself
is some four or five miles from the entrance to the harbor. It came into
existence, and still exists, chiefly by reason of the sugar business. It
is an important outlet for that industry, and many estates are in its near
vicinity. The old city of Trinidad is reached, by boat, from Cienfuegos, or
rather its port city, Casilda, is so reached. Presumably, it was the port
city that Velasquez founded in 1514, a location a few miles inland
being chosen later, as being less exposed to attacks by the pirates and
freebooters who infested the Caribbean Sea for many years. It is said that
Cortes landed here and recruited his forces on his way to Mexico, in 1518.
The city itself stands on the lower slopes of the hills that form its
highly effective background. Its streets are narrow and tortuous. Like most
of the cities of the island, and most of the cities of the world, it has
its humble homes of the poor, and its mansions of the rich. Immediately
behind it stands a hill with an elevation of about nine hundred feet above
sea-level. Its name indicates the reason for its application, _La Vigia_,
the "lookout," or the "watch-tower." From its summit, we may assume that
the people of earlier