session of the Fifty-eighth Congress, which opened on November 9th. At this session, or, rather, at the regular session which followed immediately upon it, the provisions of the treaty of December 11, 1902, were embodied in an act which received the president's signature on December 17, 1903. It granted the meagre twenty per cent reduction in the duties upon imports from Cuba in consideration of the reduction made by Cuba in her duties upon American products.

By an agreement made in 1903 between the president of the United States and the government of Cuba, the harbors of Guantanamo on the southeast coast of Cuba, and of Bahia Honda on the northwest coast, were selected by the president as coaling stations under the terms of the Platt Amendment. The permanent treaty embodying the terms of the Platt Amendment was signed at Havana, May 22, 1903, and ratified by the Senate on March 22d, and by the president on June 25, 1904. The final status of the Isle of Pines has not at the time of the writing of this, been determined; but the island is being governed temporarily by the Cuban authorities.

While these pages are going through the press, a second intervention in Cuba by the United States has become necessary. The ultimate cause of the uprising in August, 1906, appears to have been the failure of the Palma administration to win the confidence of the great body of the Cuban people; the immediate cause lay in registration frauds perpetrated by the politicians surrounding Palma. The government, unable to crush the rebels who, on August 17, 1906, inaugurated a new revolt in the rich province of Pinar del Rio, asked for American protection, and on September 13th, at the suggestion of Mr. Jacob Sleeper, the American chargé d'affaires, about a hundred American marines were landed in Havana. The following day, under orders from the home government, these troops were withdrawn, but President Roosevelt was determined to investigate the conditions in Cuba, and accordingly, on September 19th, Secretary of War

Taft and Assistant Secretary of State Bacon landed at Havana. Promptly securing an armistice, the American commissioners then proposed certain conciliatory measures to President Palma, including the retirement of Palma's advisers and the holding of new congressional elections. These and other proposals Palma rejected, but insisted on calling Congress together on September 28th and presenting his resignation to it. Congress having failed to induce Palma to withdraw his resignation and being unable or unwilling to elect a new president, Secretary Taft on the following day, in the name of President Roosevelt, proclaimed the Cuban administration at an end, and the intention of the United States to occupy the island for the purpose of restoring order and protecting life and property. He expressly stated, moreover, that such occupation should continue only long enough for the establishment of tranquillity and public confidence, and for the holding of such elections as should be necessary to determine the persons upon whom the permanent government of the Cuban Republic should be devolved.

The rebels having agreed to surrender their arms to the American authorities, several thousand marines and about six thousand regular troops were landed under the command of Brigadier-General Frederick Funston. The Cuban flag has not been lowered, and Cuban officials, except President Palma and his Cabinet, still administer the affairs of the island. On October 13th Secretary Taft was succeeded as acting provisional governor by Charles E. Magoon, who resigned the governorship of the Panama Canal Zone to represent the United States in Cuba.

The term of American intervention is indefinite, but it appears to be settled that the United States must police the island until after the harvesting of the present sugar and tobacco crops; a policy which, if adhered to, will put off American withdrawal until the summer or fall of 1907.

CHAPTER IV

PORTO RICO UNDER SPANISH RULE

PORTO RICO, the smallest and most salubrious of the Greater Antilles, lies eastward of Santo Domingo at nearly equal distances from New York and from Panama. Possessing an area of about three thousand square miles, it is nearly three times the size of Long Island. The original inhabitants, who called the island Boriquén, have long since disappeared as a distinct race; but traces of the Indians' physical traits linger among the mixed population of the interior highlands.

Much diversity of opinion exists among archæologists concerning the affinities of these aborigines to the races of North and South America, and to the inhabitants of the other West Indian islands. It is unsettled whether the Boriquénos came originally from one of the Florida tribes, or from the races inhabiting the northern coast of South America; and the same doubt exists as to the relationship of the natives of Porto Rico to the Caribs, the inhabitants of the Lesser Antilles. No architectural works of these people are extant; but in addition to the common implements of the polished stone age, the most remarkable remains are clay and carved stone idols and strange polished "stone-collars." The latter resemble a horse-collar in shape; they are carved from stone, sometimes from hard granite, and measure from a foot and a half to two feet in length, and from fifteen to seventeen inches in breadth. With only

stone and wooden implements the task of making the collars must have been infinitely tedious, but no adequate explanation has been given of the religious or social motives which called forth this amount of labor.

There is little doubt that the inhabitants of the Greater Antilles were less warlike than the natives of the smaller islands; but whether this was due to a difference in race, as some writers affirm, or simply to difference in economic condition, has not been determined. The Boriquénos are described as good-natured, hospitable, and indolent; and the inhabitants of all the four larger islands,-Cuba, Santo Domingo, Jamaica, and Porto Rico,-were easily conquered by the Spaniards. The number of inhabitants of Porto Rico at the time of its discovery is a matter of conjecture, the estimates varying from 16,000 to 600,000; and in the absence of definite records there seems no hope of arriving at the true figure, which, however, must have been nearer the smaller than the larger estimate.

Columbus, on his second expedition, which was fitted out at great expense and comprised seventeen ships and fifteen hundred persons, sighted the island of Porto Rico for the first time on November 17, 1493. On the 19th a landing was made upon the west coast, where the admiral took possession in the name of Ferdinand and Isabella, and named the island San Juan Bautista, after John the Baptist. For fifteen years after this Porto Rico was neglected by the Spaniards, whose vessels occasionally stopped for water at points along the coast, but who made no attempt to explore or settle the island.

The Spanish occupation began by the despatching of an expedition from Santo Domingo under Juan Ponce de Leon, the leader who later became famous for his attempts to conquer Florida. In 1508 this expedition began the search for gold in the island, and through the friendship of the natives, it met with such success in the discovery of gold-bearing streams, that, in the following year a permanent settlement was established on the north coast. From Caparra, the