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Statistical and Documentary: English

The American Encyclopaedia gives these figures of the extent of the Island: "The greatest length of the Island, measured through the centre, is given by different authorities from 750 to 793 English miles; the greatest width, 50 miles west of Santiago, is about 127 miles; from Havana to the southern coast at Batabano, it is only about 28 miles across the Island. The area of the Island has been variously estimated. In 1825 it was computed by Senor Bauza, at the request of Humboldt, and found to be 3,681 square maritime leagues of 20 to the degree. This included the Isle of Pines, on the southern coast, the area of which is 98 leagues. The latest estimates of the area, converted into English statute miles, are from 42,383 to 45,277. The Isle of Pines contains besides 810 square miles, and other small islands, 970, making that of the whole territory belonging to Cuba from 44,163 to 47,057 square miles. The length of shore line on the south side is 301 leagues, and on the north, 272 leagues; that of the whole Island may be called about 2,000 English miles." It will be observed that in dimensions Cuba closely corresponds with the state of New York. The difficulty of soldiering in this country appears in this outline sketch of the swamps and their relations to the mountains and the sea. For the most part low tracts intervene between the central elevations and the shore on either side; and in the wet season these are inundated, and rendered almost impassable by the depth of water and the tenacity of the deep black mud. From Jagua to Point Sabina on the south side, the country is a continuous swamp for 46 leagues, and the same may be said of many other less extensive tracts on the north side.

There are limestone formations in the Island, cavernous like that of such mammoth cave celebrity in Kentucky, and, petroleum springs. Once--from 1724 to 1795--Havana was the port where the ships of Spain were built--114 vessels of 4,902 guns were constructed there--but this was stopped on the complaint that Spain must build ships at home. Cuba had too many facilities for the work to be allowed to carry it on.

On all the coasts of Cuba, but principally on the northern, are found immense deposits of salt.

The astonishing value of Cuban wood was one of the things that were discovered by Columbus. Among the woods are the lignum vitae; the cocoa wood or cocus, which somewhat resembles the lignum vitae, and is used for similar purposes, as also for pins, and tree nails, and for turnery, making excellent flutes; the lance wood, largely exported for carriage shafts, surveyors' instruments, and other uses. Mahogany is so abundant, and the quality of the wood is so superior, that it has been, since its first use in London, in 1724, an important item in the exports of the Island. Belonging to the same natural order is the cedrela odorata of Linnaeus, and there much used, as also in the United States, for the inside of drawers and wardrobes. It is the material of the cigar boxes.

Humboldt, citing the several species of palm, of which he enumerates five, remarks that "we might believe that the entire island was originally a forest of palms and wild lime and orange trees." These last, which have a small fruit, are probably anterior to the arrival of the Europeans, who carried there the agrumi of the gardens, which rarely exceed ten or fifteen feet in height.

There was but little gold found in Cuba, but, what was much better, a great deal of coal. Cuba has but one peculiar animal, and it resembles a big rat. There is also a big snake, quite harmless, and one, not so big, that is venomous, but not numerous or deadly.

There are 200 species of indigenous birds, many of them very brilliant. The fish are abundant, and rival the birds in beauty. The oysters are delicious, and the turtles crawl abundantly over the coral islands. The forest and fruits are thus treated by the Encyclopaedia Britannica: "The forests of Cuba are of vast extent, and so dense as to be almost impenetrable. It is estimated that of nearly 20,000,000 acres of land still remaining perfectly wild and uncultivated, nearly 13,000,000 are uncleared forests. Mahogany and other hard woods, such as the Cuban ebony, cedar, sabicei and granadilla, valuable for manufactures, cabinet work and ship building, are indigenous, and are exported to a considerable extent. The palm is the queen of the Cuban forests, and the most valuable tree on the Island. The most common species, the Palma Real (Oreodoxo regia), is found in all parts, but especially in the west. The fruits of Cuba are those common to the tropics, of which the pineapple and orange are the most esteemed. Of the alimentary plants, the plaintain is by far the most important." And we quote the same authority on sugar, coffee and tobacco: "The United States take about 70 or 80 per cent. of the sugar grown in Cuba, the greater part of the remainder passing to Europe. The quantity exported in 1873 from the ports of Havana, Matanzas, Cardenas, Sagua la Grande, Remedios, Nuevitas, Santiago de Cuba, Trinidad and Cienfuegos exceeded 600,000 tons, of a value of about Pounds 12,000,000. Besides this, 242,000 tons of molasses were exported. After the 'ingenios' the 'cafetales' or coffee estates are the most important establishments. They vary in extent from 100 to upwards of 1,000 acres, or even more in the mountain districts, the number of hands employed being as high as 100 in the low country, but generally averaging fifty or sixty negroes to 1,000 acres. The first coffee plantation was established in 1748, the seeds having been brought from San Domingo. Though at one time coffee was sent out from Cuba in enormous quantities, it does not now figure largely in the exports. Tobacco is indigenous to Cuba, and its excellent quality is celebrated in all parts of the world. The estates devoted to its cultivation are scattered over the greater part of the Island, but the finest qualities of tobacco are those grown in the country west of Havana, known as the 'Vuelta Abajo.' In 1873, 224,765,000 cigars were exported, besides nearly 13,500,000 lbs. of leaf. "The backward state of education is one of the grievances of the Cubans. "The Roman Catholic is the only one religion tolerated by the government. At first there was but one diocese, which included not only the whole Island, but also Louisiana and the two Floridas, all under one bishop. In 1788 Cuba was divided into two diocese, or that of Santiago de Cuba, was, in 1804, erected into an archbishopric, while that of Havana still remains under a bishop. "The crown revenues of the Island are the rentasmaritimas, including duties on imports, exports and tonnage, and the local or municipal duties levied at some of the custom houses; the impuestas interiores, including the tax on home manufactures, the sale of stamped paper, the profits derived from the lottery, and the impost on cock-fights; deductions from the rentasecclesiasticas, particularly those called the royal ninths and the consolidated funds, the sinking fund, the media annata, and the annual and monthly revenues of the clergy; personal deductions, such as from the pay of public functionaries, and the price of exemption from military service; miscellaneous receipts, as the produce of the sale of royal lands, the rents of vacant livings and of unclaimed estates, the produce of vendible offices, and casual receipts, including deposits, confiscations, donations, and the recovery of arrears." Concerning the mountains, we quote the Encyclopaedia Britannica: "The highest part of the Island is in the range extending in the southeast from the Punta de Maysi to Cape Cruse, called the Sierra or Montanos de Maestra or Cobre, the summits of which are the Pico de Tarquino, 7,670 feet, the highest point of the whole Island; Gran Piedra, 5,200 feet; Yunque and Ojo del Toro, 3,500. From this Sierra a ridge of much smaller general elevation follows nearly the central line of the Island westward throughout its extent, rising to form a marked range in the extreme west of Cuba, on which the Pan de Guajaibon attains 2,530 feet. An almost isolated mass of which the Pico de Potrerillo is the summit, 2,990 feet above the sea, rises immediately behind the harbor of Trinidad, near the centre of the southern coastland. "The rivers are necessarily short, and flow toward the north and south. The largest is the Cauto, rising in the Sierra del Cobre, and falling into the Bay of Buena Esperanza on the southern coast, after a course of fifty leagues, for twenty of which it is navigable by boats, though at low water obstructed by bars. The Sagua la Grande rises in the Sierra del Escambray, and falls into the sea in front of the Boca de Maravillas, being navigable for five leagues. "Situated within, and near the border of the northern tropical zone, the climate of the low coastlands of Cuba is that of the torrid zone, but the higher interior of the Island enjoys a more temperate atmosphere. On a mean of seven years, the rainfall at Havana in the wet season has been observed to be 27.8 inches, of the dry months 12.7 or 40.5 inches for the year. At Havana in the warmest months, those of July and August, the average temperature is 82 Fahr., fluctuating between a maximum of 88 degrees and minimum of 76 degrees; in the cooler months of December and January, the thermometer averages 72 degrees, the maximum being 78 degrees, the minimum 58 degrees; the average temperature of the year at Havana, on a mean of seven years, is 77 degrees." But it is fair that our readers should hear a cry from Cuba of poverty, and we find it in "Cuba and the Cubans," by Raimundo Cabrera. "Oh, we are truly rich! "From 1821 to 1826, Cuba, with her own resources, covered the expenditures of the treasury. Our opulence dates from that period. We had already sufficient negro slaves to cut down our virgin forests, and ample authority to force them to work. . . . . " By means of our vices and our luxury, and in spite of the hatred of everything Spanish, which Moreno attributed to us, we sent, in 1827, the first little million of hard cash to the treasury of the nation. From that time, until 1864, we continued to send yearly to the mother-country two millions and a half of the same stuff. According to several Spanish statisticians, these sums amounted, in 1864, to $89,107,287. We were very rich, don't you see? tremendously rich. We contributed more than five million dollars towards the requirements of the Peninsular-$5,372,205. We paid, in great part, the cost of the war in Africa. The individual doations alone amounted to fabulous sums. "But, of course, we have never voted for our own imposts; they have been forced upon us because we are so rich. In 1862, we had in a state of production the following estates: 2,712 stock farms, 1,521 sugar plantations, 782 coffee plantations, 6,175 cattle ranches, 18 cocoa plantations, 35 cotton plantations, 22,748 produce farms, 11,738 truck farms, 11,541 tobacco plantations, 1,731 apiaries, 153 country resorts, 243 distilleries, 468 tile-works, 504 lime-kilns, 63 charcoal furnaces, 54 casava-bread factories, and 61 tanneries. To-day I do not know what we possess, because there are no statistics, and because the recently organized assessment is a hodge-podge and a new burden; but we have more than at that time; surely, we must have a great deal more. "For a very long time we have borne the expenses of the convict settlement of Fernando Po. We paid for the ill-starred Mexican expedition, the costs of the war in San Domingo, and with the republics of the Pacific; how can we possibly be poor? While England, France and Holland appropriate large sums for the requirements of their colonies, Spain does not contribute a single cent for hers. We do not need it; we are wading deep in rivers of gold. If the fertility of our soil did not come to our rescue, we must, perforce, have become enriched by the system of protection to the commerce of the mother-country. . . . . The four columns of the tariff are indeed a sublime invention. Our agricultural industries require foreign machinery, tools and utensils, which Spain does not supply, but, as she knows that we have gold to spare, she may make us pay for them very high. And since our sugar is to be sold to the United States . . never mind what they cost. When there are earthquakes in Andalusia and inundations in Murcia, hatred does not prevent us from sending to our afflicted brethren large sums. . . (which sometimes fail to reach their destination). "We are opulent? Let us see if we are. From the earliest times down to the present the officials who come to Cuba amass, in the briefest space of time, fortunes to be dissipated in Madrid, and which appear never to disturb their consciences. This country is very rich, incalculably rich. In 1830 we contributed $6,120,934; in 1840, $9,605,877; in 1850, $10,074,677; in 1860, $29,610,779. During the war we did not merely contribute; we bled. We had to carry the budget of $82,000,000. "We count 1,500,000 inhabitants; that is to say, one million and a half of vicious, voluptuous, pompous spendthrifts, full of hatred and low passions, who contribute to the public charges and never receive a cent in exchange; who have given as much as $92 per capita, and who at the present moment pay to the state what no other taxpayers the world over have ever contributed. Does any one say that we are not prodigiously, enviably rich?"