DE BOW'S REVIEW, A MONTHLY JOURNAL OF COMMERCE, AGRICULTURE, MANUFACTURES, INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT, STATISTICS, VOL. XIV. ETC., ETC. ESTABLISHED JANUARY 1, 1846. FEBRUARY, 1853. No. 2. ART. 1-THE ISLAND OF CUBA-PAST AND PRESENT. GEOGRAPHY-NATURAL HISTORY-MINERALS-CIVIL AND POLITICAL HISTORY-PRODUCTSSOIL-CLIMATE-HEALTH-POPULATION-GENERAL RESOURCES-REVENUES AND EXPENDI TURES-SYSTEM OF SLAVERY-GOVERNMENT, LAWS, ETC. [We promised in our last a paper which should examine our political relations with the island of Cuba, but are prevented from giving it by the length of the present article, by a gentleman of New-Orleans, which is full of valuable information, and which it would not have been well to divide. We may say in brief, however, that the administration and laws of the island of Cuba are matters with which we have no more concern than with those of France or Hindostan, except as subjects of history, and that in this regard only we make any reference to them. We do not believe in "manifest destiny," in "forcible intervention," in propagandism of political more than religious tenets, and have quite as little faith in what is called the "Monroe doctrine," but which has come to be a very different thing from what was intended in the sentiments of that cabinet. In regard to Cuba, it will only be necessary for us to quote the opinion which we ventured three years ago in the Review, Vol. IX. 173, and which we have seen nothing yet to change-"No one can doubt at this moment, there is a well fixed and almost universal conviction upon the minds of our people that the possession of Cuba is indispensable to the proper development and security of the country. We state the fact without entering into the reason, or justifying it, that such a conviction exists. Call it the lust of dominion-the restlessness of democracy-the passion for land or gold-or the desire to render our interior impregnable, by commanding the keys of the gulf-the possession of Cuba is still an American sentiment, not to be sure a late, but a growing and strengthening one. There are honorable means of achieving the purpose, and if these fail, the purpose itself becomes dishonorable. * * Let us negotiate with the cabinet of Madrid, as we did with that of Versailles. Perhaps **** Should these negotiations fail, honor and the preservation of national faith demand that we give no countenance to any movements hostile to the cause of Spain in the island."]-EDITOR. No portion of the insular world has, of late years, attracted more attention than Cuba, the Queen of the Antilles, the largest, richest, and most beautiful of the West India islands. It is now * “Antile Americæ dicuntur quasi ante insulas Americe," says an old historian. The idea was that America was only a large cluster of islands, instead of a continent, before which, that is, east of which, lay the Antilles. Some derive the term from the words Ante Ilos, (Forward Islands ;) whilst others assert that in maps drawn before the existence of a new continent was known, the name Antilla was assigned to the supposed country west of the Azores, and that when Columbus first saw the Antilles, he gave them that name in consequence. Peter Martyr, who wrote in Latin only eight months after the return of Columbus from his first expedition, says: "He gives it out that he has discovered the island Ophir, but after carefully considering the world, as laid down by cosmographers, those must be the islands called Antillæ." VOL. XIV. 1 just 360 years since the eyes of the great We along its peaceful shores, Cuba was a their fancying its shape to be that of the terrestrial paradise, fairer than aught tongue of a bird. that Mohammed or heathen mythology had ever conceived. Its inhabitants too, as is admitted by all of the earliest Spanish writers, were innocent and unsuspecting, docile and disinterested, gentle and generous. They received their destroyers with every mark of attention and courtesy, and with all the ingenuousness of their native innocence and simplicity. The form of the island is long and narrow, and somewhat that of an irregular crescent, with the convex side turned towards the north, the most northern portion of the curvature being nearly south of the southern extremity of Florida, the nearest distance between the two being about 124 miles, that is, from Point Hicacos, the most northern point of the island, to Cape Sable, the southern The island, when first discovered, was extremity of Florida. The western half divided into nine divisions, each having of the island lies almost directly between its own cacique, and all independent of Florida on the northeast, and the peninone another. The greatest tranquillity sula of Yucatan on the southwest, the everywhere prevailed, such was the western extremity of the island, Cape peaceful disposition of the inhabitants. San Antonio, being 125 miles from Wars and persecutions, the fruits of Yucatan. The most western point of boasted civilization, had never devasta- Cuba is in latitude 21° 54' North; lonted their shores, and filled their groves gitude 84° 57′ 15′′ West. The most and vales with lamentations. Simple eastern extremity, Point Maysi, is in and happy as they were created, they latitude 20° 16' 40" North; longitude lived and died in peace, their religion 74° 7' 53" West; and 49 miles Northbeing limited to a belief in the immor- east by East from Cape San Nicolas tality of the soul, and to the existence Mole, in Hayti; and Cape de Cruz, the of a great and beneficent Being*-un most southern point of the island, in Dios remunerador, as one of the Spanish latitude 19° 20' North, is about 95 from writers expresses it-who held in wait the most northern point of Jamaica. for them the unfading rewards of a glo- The length of the island, following a rious immortality. Ages, for ought that curved line through its centre from its we know, had rolled away in the peace- two extremities, is 790 miles. In its ful enjoyment of what we are pleased broadest part, that is, from Cape Materto call a "savage existence." nillos on the north, to Mota Cove on the south, is 117 miles wide. The width of the narrowest part of the island, from the mouth of Bahia del Mariel on the north, to Mayana Cove on the south, is Cuba, Spain's most valuable American possession, and the largest of the West India islands, was first called by the Spaniards Juana, in honor of Prince John, son of Ferdinand and Isabella. 22 miles. A straight north and south It afterwards was called Ferdinandina, after Ferdinand's death. Sometime afterwards it received the name of Santiago, from the patron saint of Spain, as a mark of reverence for the saint. To show their piety still farther, the inhabitants of the island gave it the name of Ave Maria, in honor of the Holy Virgin. The original name of the island, and the only one by which it was known to the aborigines when it was discovered by Columbus, was Cuba. Some of the old Spanish geographers called it La Lengua de Pajaro, the Bird Tongue, from In the famous bull of Pope Alexander VI., in 1493, he thus speaks of the natives: "Certas insulas remotissimas et etiam terras firmas invenerunt, in quibus quamplurimæ gentes, pacifice viventes, nude incedentes, nec carnibus vescentes, inhabitant et, ut nuntii vestri possunt opinari, gentes ipsa credunt unum Deum creatorem in cælis esse." line across the island from Havana measures 28 miles. Near the centre of the island the width is about 75 miles. Its coasts are very much indented, and it is surrounded by many islands, islets, reefs, &c. The periphery of the island, following a line cutting all the bays, ports, and coves at their mouth, is 1719 miles, the northern coast having an extent of 816 miles, and the southern 903. The great irregularity of the coasts has led to considerable differences in the estimated areas. Humboldt adopts the calculation of Don Felipe Bauza, who fixes the area at about 3615 square leagues, or 43,380 square English miles.* Mr. Turnbull estimates the area at only 32,807 square miles; others at 31,500, Geography and Natural History. 95 and others at 55,000 square miles, and resque, leaping from rock to rock, and including the adjacent islands belonging forming at short intervals beautiful casto it, at 64,000. Its area is probably cades, filling the mountains with their about 50,000 square miles, or about that roarings and gurglings as they hasten of the State of Alabama. A writer in onward to the sea. Others glide deep the Havana Diario de la Marina, of and silent between the lofty mountain January 1, 1852, fixes the area, includ- ranges, reflecting in their limpid bosoms ing bays, ports, and roads, at 34,233 the enchanting tropical scenery that no square miles. pencil can imitate. No island on the globe, in proportion The largest river of Cuba is the Cauto, to its size, has a greater number of ex- flowing from the Sierra del Cobre, and cellent harbors. On the northern coast after a course of fifty leagues, emptying there are 37, of which Bahia Honda, into the sea on the south side of the Havana, Matanzas, Nuevitas, Naranjo, island, into the Bay of Buena Esperanza. Nipe, Seviza, and Panamo, are spacious It is navigable 20 leagues from its mouth, bays, affording an anchorage to ships of which, however, at low water, is obthe line. On the south shore, Puerto structed by bars. The Sagua le Grande Escondido, Guantanamo, Santiago de Cuba, Masio, and Jagua, are harbors of the same capacity. A great many of these fine harbors, where magnificent cities would long since have sprung up under a good government, are to this day places as desert as when the isle was first discovered-360 years ago. There is now not even a fisherman's hut on their shores. The land along the sea-shore, almost all around the island, is so low and flat as to be scarcely raised above the level of the sea, which greatly increases the difficulty, especially in the rainy season, of communicating with the interior. There are many large lagunes near the shore, especially on the north side, which, at high tide, are filled with salt water, and from which vast quantities of salt would be procured, were it not for the enormous tax imposed by the enlightened government of the island. Of the 37 harbors on the north coast, and the 28 on the south, there are none that are not accessible to the largest schooners. From Cape de Maysi to Cape de Cruz on the south coast, and from Bahia Honda to Point Icacos on the north coast, the island is easy of access, and the coast navigation excellent. The rest of its coasts is guarded by reefs and islands, within which steamboat navigation is safe at all times of the year. RIVERS AND LAKES.-The rivers are generally short, as they must necessarily be, and flow towards the north and south coasts. Some of them, from the mountainous nature of the country, are continuous torrents, while others are suddenly lost in chasms, or disappear in the swamps, without reaching the sea. Some of the small rivers are very pictu is also a beautiful river, rising in the Sierra del Escambray, flowing by Santo Domingo, and emptying into the sea in front of the Boca de Maravillas. It is navigable five leagues. The Sagua le Chica rises east of the Santa Clara, and forms a good road for vessels at its mouth. The north and south Iatibonica, rising in the Sierra de Matadambre, from a lagune, traverses that ridge, running a league under ground, and forms at its outlet a short but noisy cascade. At the city of San Antonio, a few miles southwest of Havana, is a subterranean river, which can be seen through two openings in the earth, half a mile apart. Its course is extremely rapid, and the sound of its waters is distinctly heard. Pieces of wood thrown into the stream, through the openings at San Antonio, appear again on the coast several leagues distant. The island abounds in caverns, which often form the beds of subterranean streams. A well dug at San Antonio, some years ago, opened into one of these subterranean streams, the water of which now constantly gushes into it, never filling it, however, above a certain height. In the Vuelta-abajo is a large stream called the Cuyaguateje, rising at the foot of the Cerro de Cabras, and traversing the valley of Luiz Laza, surrounded by inaccessible mountains. Under these mountains the river continues its course through a natural tunnel, called El Rosallero, which has been explored, and can be passed with the aid of torches. It receives many tributaries, and empties into the Bay of Cortes. It is navigable, and abounds with fish and alligators. The river Sasa rises in Los Remedios, flows by Algodonal, and is deep and |