Cfje JUferarp of \\>t UwiMmity of Bottb Carolina THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHAPEL HILL ENDOWED BY THE DIALECTIC AND PHILANTHROPIC F 1961 .H22 OEMCO 16 This book is due at the LOUIS R. WILSON LIBRARY on the last date stamped under "Date Due." If not on hold it may be renewed by bringing it to the library. DATE DUE RET. DATE DUE RET. MP — r " i n 1 n 201 f\ I I MARGHERITA ARLINA HAMM, Author of " Porto Rico and the West Indies," and " Manila and the Philippines," Inspec- tor of Supplies in Porto Rico. PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. BY MARGHERITA ARLINA HAMM, Author of "Manila and the Philippines." ■pi REVEW'ED BY F. TENNYSON NEELY, PUBLISHER, LONDON. NEW YORK. Copyright, 1899, by F. Tennyson Nkely in United States and Great Britain. All Rights Reserved. PREFACE. The following pages have been inspired by two visits to the "West Indies, one just prior to the breaking out of the Cuban rebellion, and the other during the war be- tween Spain and the United States. The aspect of any people is so different in war from peace that possibly the difference has imparted too much color to my im- pressions and opinions. During the last three years I have taken an active part in the movements looking toward the aid of the sick and injured in Porto Rico and Cuba, and have been thrown into contact with many natives of both commonwealths. My sympathies, it is needless to say, have been with them rather than with the Spanish administration. To them I owe the knowledge of numerous facts which would otherwise have been difficult to obtain. I am under obligations to many Americans and Porto Ricans for kindnesses shown me during my stay in that beautiful island, and more especially to Major-General Miles, Lieutenant- Colonel Burpee, Dr. Hertzog, John Palmer, of Albany, IT. Y; Captain Scott, Lieutenant Lawton, Lieutenant Otero, of the Spanish army; to Dr. Paoli, of Mayaguez; to Senors Mora, Sanchez, Preston and Silvero, and to the Jesuit Fathers of Ponce, Guayama and Mayaguez. To the latter I am indebted for help in compiling the fauna and flora of the island. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. page Geographical Notes 9 CHAPTER II. Suggestions to Travelers — Sights to be Seen 21 CHAPTER III. Sea Roads to Porto Rico 32 CHAPTER IV. The Animal World... 38 CHAPTER V. The Lower Forms of Marine Life ....... , . . . 53 CHAPTER VI. The World of Vegetation 58 CHAPTER VII. The People 64 CHAPTER VIII. Historical Notes. 71 CHAPTER IX. The Government 87 CHAPTER X. Social Life 94 CHAPTER XI. City Life 109 CHAPTER XII. The Woman's World , 121 CHAPTER XIII. Porto Rican Cookery, 139 vi CONTENTS. CHAPTER XIV. PAGE The Foreign Commerce of the Island 150 CHAPTER XV. Coffee and Coffee Growing „ 158 CHAPTER XVI. The Sugar Industry 165 CHAPTER XVII. Tobacco and Tobacco Raising , 171 CHAPTER XVIII. The Minor Agricultural Industries , , 178 CHAPTER XIX. Business Opportunities in Porto Rico 185 CHAPTER XX. The West Indies — Porto Rican Pirates 196 CHAPTER XXI. The Aborigines of the West Indies 211 CHAPTER XXII. Governmental Problems » 219 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Margherita Arlina Hamm Frontispiece Author of " Porto Rico and the West Indies," and " Manila and the Philippines. 1 ' OPPOSITE PAGE View of San Juan from the Harbor 12 The Plaza or Public Square in Ponce 19 The Morro of San Juan from the Land Side 26 Pontoon Pier at Guanica 33 A Peasant's Hut on the San Juan Road 40 Coast Line Near Bayamon 47 View on the Main Road from Ponce to Adjuntas 54 The City of Mayaguez 61 A Typical Native Plaza 68 Columbus Statue at San Juan 75 View of the Marina at San Juan 83 A Porto Rican Public Building 90 A Representative Drawing Room ' 97 How the Middle Class Live 104 The Interior of a Porto Rican Theatre , . Ill A Native Salon » 118 A Porto Rican House Party Representing Social Life 125 United States Camp at Buena Vista 132 United States Transports at Anchor 140 Bathhouse at Coamo. 146 A Shipping Scene 153 Coffee-Drying Plot Near Mayaguez 160 Bridge on the Main Road from Ponce to Adjuntas 167 Iron Truss Bridge at Mayaguez 174 Typical Native Farmers 183 Porto Rican Laundries 195 Rosario St., Yauco 202 Dr. Parrish and the United States Hospital Staff, Porto Rico Station 209 View of Ponce from a Small Hill Overlooking the Town. 215 Engineer Corps at Work 225 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. CHAPTER I. GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES. The West Indies in their skeleton may be said to form a letter L, of which Cuba, Santo Domingo, and Porto Rico compose the upright and the Windward Isles the base. The angle is the Danish Island of St. Thomas, to which Porto Rico is the first neighbor of any- considerable size. Roughly speaking, it belongs to the South American rather than the North American Con- tinent, its distance from Venezuela being about 500 and from Florida 960 miles. This situation makes it of great strategic value to the United States in the event of a war with Venezuela or with Brazil. It would also threaten the French West Indies, Martinique, Guada- loupe, Marie Galante, He des Saintes, Petite Terre, St. Bartholomew, and the northern half of St. Martin as well as French Guiana upon the mainland. It is 2,800 miles from the Canary Islands, which belong to Spain, and is nearly 700 miles further east than New York City. From the latter metropolis it is 1,580 miles. Its propinquity to the French possessions may be one yeason wh^ France, heretofore so friendly, 10 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. acted in so hostile a manner at the breaking out of the war between the United States and Spain. The island is a rough parallelogram of about the same proportions as an ordinary building brick. Its length varies from ninety -three to one hundred and five miles, and its width from thirty-two to forty-three miles. It may be averaged as being ninety-six by thirty-five miles. To it belongs one island, Vieques, and a lot of small isles and coral reefs to the east and northeast of its coast. It contains between 3,500 and 3,600 square miles of territory. Geological researches have shown that it is of comparatively modern origin. The Alleghanies were old mountains before the first rock of Porto Eico arose from the bed of the sea. What is now the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea was part of the Atlantic Ocean which flowed up to as far as St. Louis and Cairo on the north, and far into the in- terior of Brazil on the south, about the time Porto Eico was born. A very slow and gradual upheaval, or what seems more probable, an irregular contraction of the earth's crust which lowered the land at some points below the sea, and raised it along a line running east and west at others, produced the axis of which the Greater Antilles are the living result. The first part of Porto Eico was undoubtedly a long series of islands running east and west, and separated from one another by varying distances. This seems to have occurred in the middle or later Miocene period. The process kept on through centuries, during which PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. 11 the uplifting forces were aided by the wind, the wave, rain and vegetation in breaking down the rocks and converting them into soil on the sides and at the base of the jagged hills. The coral insect assisted nature's larger forces, and did excellent work, especially at the northeastern corner of what is now the present island. The territory had assumed nearly its present shape in the early part of the Tertiary epoch. Since that time the uplifting movement has been insignificant, but on the other hand, the enormous vegetation and the heavy tropical rains have extended the land into the sea, and built up meadows and marshes, more especially on the southern coast. This process is still going on to-day. There is hardly a harbor but what is much shallower to-day than it was twenty and fifty years ago. A com- parison of up-to-date charts with the old records shows that this silting process has been continuous, and in many instances has deposited from five to thirty feet of alluvium at points where the sea currents could not carry it away. It is this process which is ruining the roadstead at Ponce and gradually effecting the same result in the noble harbor of San Juan itself. The primitive axis of upheaval, though much broken down by time, is still easily discerned running through the middle of the island from east to west. The mountains grouped along this chain and the spurs ranging off from it are also noticeable, and add rare variety and beauty to the scenery, as well as diversity to the climate. This axis causes the rivers to flow in nearly every case north and south, the courses themselves being determined by 12 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. the isolated peaks, and by the spurs from the axial range. This does not apply, however, to the eastern and western ends, where the island falls away into the sea, and the deep channels on either side show that the range of hills from Cuba eastward to St. Thomas was not continuous, even at the time of the beginning of the upheaval. As a consequence of this fact, many streams in the extreme east and west flow east and west, unlike the majority of the watercourses. Rivers of this class are represented by the Rio Cale- brinas, in the province of Aguadilla, the Rio Anascoi, the Mayaguez, the Guanajibo, and the Grande, in the province of Mayaguez, while in Humacao Province, the Naguabo, the Humacao, and the Guayanes likewise flow in the same general direction. This configuration is very favorable to a system of small rivers and fertile valleys, and explains in part the rare fertility of the ter- ritory. The mountains are not of extraordinary height. Mount Barranquita is 4,260 feet high, Mount Yunque, in the Loquillo Mountains, is 5,000 feet high.. Most of the other mountains range between 2,000 and 3,000 feet in height, and in general appearance remind an Amer- ican of the Catskills rather than the more massive and majestic Rockies or Sierras. In this checkered map of hills, valleys, and little rivers there are over 500 peaks, which have specific names, and as many rivers and affluents. The formation is not favorable to lakes, ponds, and marshes; scarcely one of these exists in the interior or hill country. This is an enormous advantage to the PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. 13 population, as it prevents the accumulation and decom- position of organic matter, and the generation of germ diseases. Most of the so-called lakes are along the coast, and are either salt lagoons, which were once arms of the sea, or fresh-water lagoons, which have been advanced one step further in development by the silting up of the sea channel and the gradual encroach- ment of land and vegetation where was once the sand and the salt wave. This will explain the development and present condi- tion of that beautiful body of water, the Guanica lagoon in Southern Mayaguez and the salt lagoons and ponds in the southwestern corner of that province. Of similar origin is the long and narrow lake east of the city of Arecibo, known as the Cano Tiburones. While few of the rivers are navigable, even to light draught vessels for more than ten miles, most of them have so high a fall as to suggest to the practical mind the use of tar- bines and dynamos. Enough water power goes to waste in Porto Rico, thanks to the abundant rain sup- ply, to light every house, street and road, to propel every car, and to supply energy for all the machinery which is there now, and may be built during the cen- tury to come. In those districts where the granite and other ancient rocks are exposed, there are many sharply cut valleys, precipitous mountain sides, and picturesque waterfalls. In the districts where the upheaval has brought lime- stone formations to the surface, there are all the curious sights, such as caves, sink -holes, vanishing rivers, / 14 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. streams that burst from the ground, and subterranean watercourses which are found in our own Central States. The rains and vegetation have broken down and decomposed enormous quantities of what was once the hardest rock. From the granite it has brought the clay now found in clay beds, and from ferruginous strata it has created the fertile loam and red soil in which the coffee tree, the tobacco plant, and the sugar cane thrive in so superb a fashion. The same process goes on all the time, and the arable land is encroaching up the mountain side in one direction, and upon the sea- shore and the sea in the other. As if to insure everlasting fertility for the planta • tions, Nature has dowered this island with enormous deposits of guano, ranging from the mineral guano of the Tertiary period down to the fresh material of the present time. The coral formation makes itself notice- able just off the north coast of the island in the neigh- borhood of Torado. It runs parallel with the shore, and appears to consist of a reef broken here and there by deep channels, and massed here and there into sub- marine cays all the way eastward to the Cabeza of San J uan on the extreme northeast point of the territory. Here it becomes visible in a large series of isles and islets, which are famous for their danger to the naviga- tor. In ordinary weather this reef is not noticeable, and is dangerous at only a few points, but with the advent of rising seas, the telltale breakers soon indi- cate where the coral is approaching the surface. There is no more beautiful sight in stormy weather than PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. 15 the channel into the harbor of San Juan, and a hundred other points between that place and the Virgin Isles to the east. I have seen the sea break upon the invisible coral wall beneath and form a roaring, raging, bulwark of foam and froth in which it seemed as if the stoutest ship would be crushed like an egg shell. This reef is steadily growing, more perhaps by the action of the ocean than the industry of the little organisms which build it up molecule by molecule. In stormy weather the waves break off pieces of coral, sometimes small branches and irregular nobs, and sometimes great pieces weighing hundredweights, and even tons. These are thrown with immense force against the reef, and under the battering of years this is broken fragment by fragment, each block becoming another hammer with which Neptune tears apart the labor of the coral polyps. Some of the broken masses are dragged down into the sea, but the larger part is hurled shoreward, and there built up into dangerous shoals, and finally into islands and solid land. The northern coast of Porto Rico is slowly undergoing the change through which the State of Florida went ages ago 3 and which is best represented to-day by the great Barrier Reef off the coast of Australia. The oldest part of the island, so far as science is concerned, is in the eastern portion, more especially in the provinces or departments of Humacao, Guayama, and Bayamon. Here the primitive rock is found crop- ping out in the mountains, while in the valleys are bowlders of all sizes, most of them well weathered, and M PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. the Silurian or Devonian age. Tr, t^o province or department of Arecioo <* g0M age there were ™P^ 81 ; 6 ut bythe existence ot otner , . tte tt e Antilles, in Bj*«. -* ^ o{ famous bitumen lake, *»^f Trinidaa , a t the om Koaaeurate southward end of the W1 " . h aut horitiea, observations have mwy light but letters and «^Z^Z *» «— * Mn " C^rloetwrWin^tS,, mM e or less to the sam lanfc It „ ^r Antilles or line or raog e of therefore fair to suppose 8 ^ Wands bears the same relaton to the tw PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. 17 continents as the Japan, Formosa, Philippine, Sumatra line does to the Continent of Asia. While no earth- quake is to be apprehended in the island, it would be wise for future builders to imitate the Spaniards in con- structing their edifices of one and two stories. This condensed statement of fact cannot give the reader any idea of the wonderful beauty of the land- scape in every part of the island. It is Cuba in minia- ture, and to it is added the richer color of the ocean and of the sky, whose depths reflect the darker tinge of the deep water beneath it. This marine setting is in itself a source of never-ending surprise. At the shore it varies from dark blue, where the coast is steep, to whitish yellow, where rivers from limestone districts pour themselves into the sea, and to greenish yellow, where the streams and their affluents have traversed many miles of tilled land. It is broken here and there by combing breakers over submerged rocks, reefs and \ shoals, or else made into an undulating mirror when the winds have fallen asleep, and the ocean, like a rest- ing elephant, moves slowly to and fro. The coast line varies from mile to mile. Sometimes it is high and steep, covered with dense forests, and veiled with hanging curtain of vines and creepers; some- times the rocks and scarps are bare a3 if Nature were housecleaning, and had divested the frames of their up- holstering ; then again are long reaches of meadow and plantation sloping upward into ranges of wooded hills, or to the feet of mountains which in the distance pass from olive green into olive-brown indigo, and even 18 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. ultramarine. Where cities are seen the effect is always in keeping with the clime. It may be a time-worn and weather-stained Spanish fort or bastion, a country seat half covered with thick boughs and flaunting creepers, a little hut out of which the passer-by half expects a naked savage to emerge with his bow and arrows. Often the mountain wall of the background will break into a chasm, and there far away may be seen the silver splendor of a waterfall, which in the sunlight covers the walls with diamond sparkles of light, and fills the air with vague and wandering rainbows. The forests of the north are majestic and awe-inspiring, those of the south are beautiful and comfort-suggesting. To the Norse mind the groves were God's first temples, but to the dweller in warm lands they are the abodes of shade, of coolness and of comfort. Well do the Porto Ricans appreciate this principle. In nearly every yard trees brush the windows with their branches, and blooming flowers make a matchless car- pet for the soil. Long rows of palms and other grace- ful forms line the roads, and at many a place convert them into dim tunnels of shadow where single sun- beams break through in white shafts of brilliancy. Some of the hills are rocky and jagged like those of the White Mountains. These are the homes of the wild goat and the birds of the air. Others are covered with vegetation, which sways in the wind until the mountain looks as if it were beginning to move toward the in- truder. Still others will have a few umbrella-like palms upon the summit, which in the clear air look PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. W like the green banners which the faithful followers of the Prophet wave from peak to peak when summoning the tribes to a holy war. Words cannot describe the rich coloring of the landscape. The acacias and other trees burst into flame and make points and splashes of scarlet upon the surfaces of emerald. Others burst into snow-white flowers, and still others into gold and sal- mon and orange. On one hill near Coamo so many of the trees have brightly colored blossoms that when they are m bloom the vast slope seems like a giant Indian shawl woven with infinite patience from a thousand silken-colored threads. There is no winter there, and nature's garb of spring changes only in the variety of its tinting. A few de- ciduous trees drop their leaves in November in prepara- tion for the snow and frost which never comes, and send forth their leaves and buds in February and March as if to keep the northern visitor in remembrance of the spring season in his far-away home. But all the other children of the soil work their hardest to utilize the in- exhaustible bounty of surrounding nature. As the tree grows it renders service to vines and lianas, which c othe the trunk and boughs with pale-green vestments, often m striking contrast with the richer shading of its own foliage. Orchids attach themselves to its surface and there, like the accursed mistletoeof the Baldir rune' live neither in heaven, nor on the earth, nor in the waters around the earth; and then as if to prevent any- thing going to waste, mosses and fungi, green and brown, gray and black, plant themselves on every inch 20 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. of bark, from where the roots emerge from the ground up to where the bark changes into fresh green integu- ment. These mosses are a special charm of the island. They grow over walls and roofs, over ruined buildings, and the debris of trade and commerce, the rocks by the seashore or on the sides of the streams, the surface of half -used roads and the slopes of hills and mountains. The island is beautiful by day, and more than beau- tiful by night. The waters which surround it are alive with marine creations, and as soon as dusk falls each wave begins to wreathe figures in dim fires. Some nights the sea seems a long plain of lambent flame; at other times it is covered by ripples, bars and zigzags of splendor, which come and go swifter than the out- lines of a kaleidoscope. The air is filled with light- bearing insects, fireflies like those of the north, but larger, and butterflies whose eyes are microscopic search- lights. With twilight a breeze comes from the sea, and every leaf from coast to coast is in motion. Their movement makes a confused murmur or hum like the sound of a distant army, and as they move the light of moon and stars, or of artificial illumination, is reflected from lus- trous surfaces until it seems as if the trees themselves had become phosphorescent, or were trying in blind fashion to illuminate the black valleys and shadows. PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. 21 CHAPTER II. SUGGESTIONS TO TRAVELERS — SIGHTS TO BE SEEN. To those contemplating a visit to Porto Rico a few words of advice may be of interest. In the first place, make no especial preparations on account of the cli- mate. Porto Rico resembles Florida or South Carolina, with the notable exception that it is never so hot in summer, nor so cold in winter. It is practically a land of perpetual June. The coldest season is in January and February, when the average height of the ther- mometer is seventy-two. The highest is June and July, when the average is eighty-six. The zero days of Washington and Baltimore, and the 105° in the shade days of New York, Chicago and St. Louis are unknown to the island. The rainy season begins in August, and lasts till December. The rainfall is not so large as it is in many parts of the United States : the average for fif- teen years is forty- five inches, and the highest was in 1878, when it reached sixty inches. For men, light woolen suits, thin Scotch tweeds, clothing of linen, kharkee, alpaca or Japanese cotton are the most sensible. For women, traveling suits in thin flannels, brown linens and thin silks are the most comfortable and seasonable. Do not wear low shoes ? 22 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. as they leave a fine target for mosquitoes and other in- sects. A high boot, or even a bicycle boot, is the best for a woman traveler, and high shoes with knicker- bockers, and military leggings for men. It is unnecessary to carry any medicine, as in every city there is an excellent drug store, with a large stock of standard medicines, and many of the patent medi- cines of England and America. It is not necessary to speak Spanish, although a knowledge of that language increases the comfort and pleasure of the journey. Any one of the leading Anglo-Spanish grammars and conversation books will enable a patient reader to mas- ter the three or four hundred words, which will carry him anywhere in that country. In every city there are Britons and Americans, and probably five per cent, of the male Porto Ricans have some knowledge of the English language. Outside of Spanish, English is the commercial lan- guage of the West Indies, and is spoken in nearly every business house, and on every steamer. In respect to money matters, a letter of credit or, a Cheque bank cheque-book is the most convenient way of carrying money. If you carry cash you are liable at times to be charged a heavy exchange in small cities and towns. The currency of Porto Rico is in very bad condition. Though based upon gold, it is practically silver, and the coin is valued as bullion, and not at its face value. The monetary unit is the peseta, which is the Spanish equivalent of the French franc, and is worth the same as the latter — about twenty cents. Five pesetas make PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. 23 what is popularly known as a peso, and are worth nomi- nally a dollar. This is a dollar in silver, which is just one-half a dollar in gold. Gold Spanish coins are sel- dom if ever seen in Porto Bico. The French coins are frequently encountered; the franc, the five-franc piece, and the gold Napoleon. English sovereigns are not uncommon, neither are American five and ten- dollar gold pieces. Unscrupulous natives will try to pass their silver at the gold value, and so make 100 per cent, at your expense. Two or three days' experience, however, will teach the most careless traveler how to protect his financial interests. A trip to the island is comparatively inexpensive. The largest item is transportation from the United States to the island. This is about the same as the fare to Europe, although the distance is but one-half. On the island charges are very reasonable. At the ports the lightermen or boatmen charge five pesetas for car- rying you ashore with your baggage, and allow one trunk and two packages without extra charge. Extra packages are a peseta apiece. This makes really a charge of twelve and a half cents for the person, and for each piece of luggage. When you land you take a carriage to your hotel, which at most of the ports is two or three miles from the landing. The charge for the carriage is regulated by law, and is very low, and is two pesetas and a half for yourself and your baggage. The hotels are com- fortable, but the accommodations are very insufficient from an American point of view. The service is slow, 24 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES, the cooking is fair, and the foods of excellent quality. The rooms are large and well ventilated, and the beds are easy and restful. In San Juan, Ponce, San Ger- man, and the other larger places the charge is $1 or $2 per day, American money. In the smaller cities and towns the prices range from seventy-five cents to a dol- lar a day. Tips are not expected, and in some in- stances, strange to relate, are resented. You may, however, give a few copper coins for a pourboire. In traveling in the interior, it is cheaper to buy a mule and sell him at the end of your journey than it is to hire one, and have the expense of sending it back. Meals and refreshments at the f ondas or native restaurants are wholesome and cheap. Those who do not like onion and garlic need only express their feelings to the pro- prietor, and they will be omitted from the cooking. Wines and liqueurs cost comparatively little. A pint of fair table wine can be secured for fifteen cents. The shops, though small, will supply nearly every want, and at very reasonable rates. A person can travel in good style through Porto Eico for $2 per day. The island, though small, contains much worthy of visiting and study. Beginning at the capital, San Juan, the first point of interest is the Boca, or mouth of the harbor, through which the steamer passes from the sea. There is a morro on the left, which was bom- barded during the late war, and batteries upon the right. The fortification of the morro is chiefly ancient, and gives a good notion of what was regarded as an impregnable citadel in the early part of th© last century. PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. 25 The place is kept in good order by the Spaniards, and visitors will probably be allowed to go through its queer corridors and gloomy rooms under the new ad- ministration. The city itself is remarkably compact. It is about a half-mile long by a quarter of a mile in width. The streets are eleven in number, and are comparatively nar- row, and at places sloping uncomfortably. Many of the buildings are very old, and are associated with romantic and dramatic scenes and events during the past three centuries. One of the oldest edifices is the White House, which was built in 1525 by the enslaved Caribs, under Span- ish direction. It was occupied by the first governor- general, the famous Ponce de Leon, who tried to find in this island the magical fountain of Bimini, from which flowed the waters of eternal youth. He made many excursions during his sojourn in this place, and then disappointed at his non-success, crossed the seas to Florida, where he made another and equally unsuccess- ful search. The governor-general's palace is a handsome modern building, while some of the barracks of the garrison are excellent specimens of special military architecture. The cathedral, though smaller than those in other Span- ish cities, is quite attractive externally, and very beau- tiful within. The chief gates of the city would form capital illustrations for mediaeval romances. They are constructed according to the most aproved ideas of Ber- trand du Guesclin, and have the battlemented towers and 26 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. bastions, the crenellations and holes for boiling pitch, the portcullis, drawbridge and moat which enabled the robber chieftains of the dead past to defy their enemies in the greatest security. There are good examples of bridge building which connect the island on which the city is situated with the mainland, and four suburbs, peopled chiefly by the laboring classes, which though dirty and uninviting give interesting insights into the life of the very poor. Three of these — the Puerta do Tierra, the Marina and San Turce — are situated on marshy lands, and, in fact, are growing slowly into un- healthful mangrove swamps. No attempt has ever been made to drain or disinfect the soil, so that in the middle and end of the dry sea- son they abound in malarial fever, and the tropical diseases incident to such conditions. It is here and in places like these that leprosy and elephantiasis find their breeding place, and their best soil. They correspond exactly with those lands in southern China and India, where Dr. James Cantlie, formerly of Hong Kong, has demonstrated similar conditions to be the chief causes of the dread maladies mentioned. Many of the shops are of great interest, and are extremely picturesque. They are constructed upon the bazaar plan of the Medi- terranean, rather than upon the store models of England and America. In many there is a rich display of artistic Spanish-goods, cutlery, inlaid-work,laces, embroideries, jewelry and works of art. The scenery in the neighborhood of San Juan is of rare beauty. From any high point one can see beyond PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. 27 the surrounding hills the blue outlines of ^higher hills, and still higher distant mountains. In very clear weather it is possible to see Mount Yunque to the southeast more than twenty miles away. From San Juan as a base many delightful trips can be taken. One which can be recommended is the trip by rail west- ward along the north coast to Arecibo. The route travels through a magnificent country in which moun- tains, forests, lagoons, plantations, arms of the sea, rivers, salt marshes, and little towns picturesquely situ- ated amid trees and gardens follow one another in ever changing sequence. Lazy people will enjoy a short voyage from San Juan eastward along the coast, passing through the narrow channel at Cabeza de San Juan, and thence southward skirting the east coast and around the southern coast, ending at Arroyo, or the wonderful land-locked basin of Jobos. This trip is the best way of seeing and study- ing the notable, coral formation of the Cordillera reefs which display the greatest variety and beauty of corals. These sea trips are delightful at all times of the year, but in summer the pleasure is marred by the danger of tornadoes. The native boatmen are very expert in such matters, and can detect a storm several hours ahead, during which time they usually put for some little bay or harbor, where they can lie at anchor in safety. No coast is better adapted for yachting and steam yachting than the eastern half of Porto Rico. Along- side of it the western half is insignificant and worthless. Another magnificent trip is by the military road across 28 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. country from San Juan to Ponce. This is the finest road on the island, and is said by our engineers to be one of the best in the world. In the northern part it runs through a very fertile, rolling district, which grows more hilly as the traveler proceeds, and passes by degrees into a superb mountain country which culmi- nates near Aibonito, where it goes through a valley that suggests a western gorge or canyon. For nearly four miles the mountains rise up two thousand feet above the level of the road. The sides are of the richest green from the vegetation, and wherever there is room trees, shrubs and lianas crowd the surface. The configuration makes a strong draught through the valley, which is generally from the north. Though the thermometer be high, the force of the wind makes it extremely grateful and refreshing. From Aibonito the road runs south, southwest and west through the beautiful cities of Coamo and Juana Diaz to Ponce. Between Aibonito and Coamo the land is rolling and hilly, but from Coamo to Ponce it is ideal area for the farmer and gardener. Along this road are many fine examples of engineering skill. At some places hillsides have been cut away so as to form a shelf or terrace. At others artistic and substantial bridges carry the passenger over noisy streams, w T hich in the w T et season are raging torrents. With the exception of one brief link between Aibonito and Coarno the road is well metalled through- out, and is kept in capital condition by the local author- ities along its line. Ponce offers a strong contrast to San Juan ; the latter PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. 29 is the civil headquarters of the island, the former the military headquarters. San Juan is sluggish, indolent and unprogressive; Ponce is industrious, enterprising and prosperous. The capital seems to have been stolen from some old history; Ponce is a creation of to-day. Only one-third of the houses of Ponce are of brick or stone, the rest are of framework in wood. Many of the houses are fashioned after Eastern bungalows and seem like glimpses of India. The streets are wider and better here than anywhere else on the island, and more than fifty miles of good suburban roads make it a para- dise to the equestrian and the wheelman. Along these roads are cafes and fondas where the passenger can satisfy hunger and thirst at ridiculously low prices. At one not far from Juana Diaz my party stopped and spent a pleasant hour in which we had coffee, fruit, and some simple but savory dish, and the bill for four was only eighty cents in American money. In the city there is a handsome Catholic church, and a neat Protestant church. There are an excellent public hospital in a fine building, a religious hospital, four military hospitals, an attractive home for the aged, a private sanitarium, a model fire-engine house equal to the best in New York City, a well-furnished theatre, a successful-looking bank, some good hotels, a telephone office, gas works , an electric power building, five busy tanneries, some clean and neat stables , a botanical gar- den, a deer park, a handsome public square, and many private establishments with beautiful grounds. From Ponce a good shore road runs touching the 30 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. coast eastward to Santa Isabel, Salinas, Guayama, Arroyo, and Patillas to Maunabo. This is a capital thoroughfare in winter, spring and early summer, but after the rainy season sets in it is altogether too muddy for riding and driving until December. The western extension runs from Ponce to Guayanilla to Yauco and thence to Caborojo. This road is much more lonely and impressive than the eastward division. From Ponce to Yauco the country is flat and rolling, broken by many small streams and dotted with pretty towns; the shore line is irregular and forms numerous bays and arms of the sea, nearly all of which are pic- turesque and charming. From Yauco to Caborojo the path passes through a strange alluvial country, where fine farms abut upon salt marshes and plantations run down to the edges of lagoons and salt lakes. There are many streams and watercourses, and of ten at very high tides long miles of marshland will imperceptibly vanish beneath the ad- vancing wave. These marshes are not like those of our own north, long fields of waving sea grass, cat tails, calamus and flags, but are like those of Florida, with dense thickets, mangrove swamps, clumps of trees, bars and hummocks, smooth pools and surfaces broken by the living creatures beneath. A third trip by land is to Penuelas, Adjuntas, Utuado, and thence to Arecibo. This is like the trip from San Juan to Ponce, but is not so agreeable. In- stead of a noble military road, this is a country road, un- even in places, and sometimes so narrow that two mules PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. 31 can scarcely go abreast The scenery around Adjuntas is majestic, and from there northward the route tra- verses the famous limestone country, in which are caves and sinks, subterranean streams, hot springs, and other extraordinary phases of nature. A fourth and pleasant trip is by a coasting steamer or by a sailboat from Ponce westward to Mayaguez, or to Aguadilla. From the deck of the vessel the shore is a panorama of endless beauty. The western half of the island is more populous than the easterru Mayaguez, the third city, is famous for its chocolates and confectionery, and supplies these to every town of Porto Rico. It has a line of horse cars running to Aguadilla, and a railway is in construction connecting these cities with Lares, in eastern Agua- dilla. These cities are pleasant places to visit, and re- semble Ponce rather than San Juan. In the dry season the roads are notably good, but in the wet season only those within the city limits can be recommended to the traveler. 32 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. CHAPTER III. SEA ROADS TO PORTO RICO. Laws and policies of state may command the crea- tion and use of rcutes to any place, but a greater power, that of trade and commerce, is the one which determines what roads are needed and shall be employed. The policy of the Spanish government has always been to exploit its colonies for the benefit of the home govern- ment. Its laws are directed toward the same end, so that much of the commerce of Porto Rico which should come from other lands direct is forced by legal compul- sion from these lands to Spain, and thence to the island itself. It is this policy which has made the chief sea route to Porto Eico that which begins at Barcelona, touches at Cadiz, and then goes either direct to San Juan or indi- rectly by the way of the Canary Islands. From San Juan the Spanish steamers go on to Cardenas, Matan- zas, and Havana on the north of Cuba or to Santiago, Manzanillo, and Cienf uegos on the south. The average of steamers along this route during the present decade has been three a week, and of the same nature as this line are the Spanish local lines between Cuba and Porto Rico, which touch at Arecibo, San Juan, Arroyo, Ponce, Mayaguez and Aguadilla. These, including tramps, Q) O (V "Si's g; <'g e5 > U O ctf c c > J= .Q ft PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES, 33 average about four a week for the entire island. There is one steamer a week from Porto Rico to St. Thomas and St. Kitt's, and three a week for Jamaica, Bar- badoes, the Bahamas, and other British isles. Two a week afford communication with England, and four craft a week, including sailing vessels, carry the com- merce between Porto Rico and the United States. Two are regular lines, one running to New York and the other to Galveston, and the others are freighters or fruit boats going to Boston, New York, Baltimore and Phila- delphia. Every fortnight there is a boat to Martinique and one to Venezuela. There is a line to Santo Domingo, one to Germany, one to France, and occasional steamers to Belgium, Italy, Curagoa and Mexico. The price de- manded by the steamship companies vary ; the highest is asked by the American corporations, which charge the large rate of about three cents and a half a mile. The lowest rates are asked by the English freighters, which take passengers, and usually ask one and *a half cents a mile. The charges by the small coasters are Very low, but the accommodations are neither cleanly nor of the best quality. With the change in the fiscal system, such as would lighten the charges on steamers, and make them as small as they are in English or American ports there would be more lines and more boats to each line. Porto Rico, besides having commercial relations with Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, Holland, Great Britain, France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Austria in 34 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. Europe, Brazil, Venezula and Colombia in South America, with Central America, Mexico, the United States, Canada, and the British, French, Dutch, and Danish West Indies, has also social, political, and other ties. Thus many Porto Bicans are refugees, exiles, or emi- grants from Venezuela, Colombia, and the revolution- ary Central American republics. With nearly every insurrection in those pugnacious little commonwealths there is an exodus of citizens to the more peaceful shores of Ponce and San J uan. This odd style of mi- gration has been going on for ninety years, and espe- cially since steam navigation was introduced into the Caribbean. It has amounted to as much as 5,000 new- comers in a single year, and represents altogether at least 25,000 souls, not to speak of those who after arriv- ing in Porto Bico have gone back to the lands from which they fled. This movement has created many social relations, and explains a fact which appears mys- terious to visitors why so many Porto Bicans send their sons to ^Venezuelan colleges, and their daughters to Venezuelan convents. There is a large well-to-do class in Porto Bico, and all take pleasure and pride in edu- cating their children abroad. This kind of travel must amount to several thousand passengers each year, and ought to be, and doubtless will be, deflected in large part hereafter to the United States. All of these routes are much pleasanter than those across the Atlantic, as icebergs and floes never come south of latitude thirty-five, and rarely below that of PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. 35 New York — forty. The Gulf Stream runs northward parallel to the American coast, bringing with it the moist heat of the tropics, so that the traveler who leaves New York in a snow storm is generally compelled to put on linens or light woolen clothing at the end of twenty -four hours. From this point to either the north or south coast of Porto Rico the voyage is perpetual summer. It is seldom excessively hot and never unpleasantly chilly. The Caribbean Sea and the many channels of the Windward Isles are remarkable for their equable temperature and freedom from storms. The only cloud upon the sky is the tornado, which bears the same relation to this part of the world as the cyclone to Kansas, and the typhoon to the China Sea ; in fact, all three are swiftly revolving storms which move at the same time along a certain path or axis. These tornadoes at times work terrible damage. They occur during the summer monsoon or trade wind, and undoubtedly represent the clash of atmospheric currents produced by the slow movement of the air over the ocean with the hotter air over the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico. Their general course is in a line more or less parallel to one of the axes of the archipelago, and thence parallel to the American coast. Several have been of phenomenal power, and have wrought great damage in this part of the world. The tornado of 1825 destroyed several towns and villages, killed over 300 people and obliterated over 400 houses, sheds, and other buildings. Another one in the late sixties spent much of its force at St. Thomas, where, in conjunction with a 3G PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. tidal wave, it drove an American man- of -war inland, and when the water had receded left the vessel in the top of a tree. Tornadoes are as eccentric in their action as cyclones and typhoons. They will demolish half of a house, leaving no two bricks together, and yet sparing the other half intact. They will take every leaf from a tree, or they may tear up the monarch of a forest and carry it forty or fifty feet. They may take all the water out of the bay, leaving the shoals and rocks ex- posed, or they may force enormous quantities so quickly into the basin as to submerge the wharves, and low T " lying adjacent lands. Not far from the Playa do Ponce are the ruins of a bridge which was destroyed in this fashion so curiously that w r hile the abutments are still in perfect order, the middle part has vanished as if it had been carried away by an enchanter. Americans, however, have become accustomed to cyclones of late years, and to them the terrors of the tornado will be of comparatively little novelty. Under wise administrative action, especially if some agreement can be made between the respective governments involved, the sea routes of the Caribbean can be easily developed, and made a source of enjoy- ment as well as of financial profit. There should be one line starting at Porto Rico, and calling at each of the Windward islands, ending at Trinidad or Venezuela on the mainland. A second route should run westward from Ponce to Santo Dom- ingo, Hayti, Kingston, Jamaica, the Isle of Pines, and PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. 37 thence to Mexico. A third route should run from San Juan along the line which our great squadron traversed so often to the north of Santo Domingo and Cuba, while a fourth should run from San Juan to the various islands of the Bahamas, and thence to Florida. These would soon build up a large and remunerative traffic, and they would afford health seekers and the patrons of winter resorts the most beautiful series of excursions which can be had upon the round globe. Of the many routes to Porto Eico and the West In- dies, the author is of the opinion, from her own experi- ence, that that from New York is the most enjoyable. The steamers are usually first-class, and though smaller in size, are yet equal in accommodations and comforts to the foreign mailers. The voyage itself is generally smooth, calm, indolent and beautiful. No matter whether the ship go around the island to Ponce or directly to San Juan, the scenery is unspeakably at- tractive and imposing. The trip around the island is to be preferred from an esthetic point of view, as it gives a much longer and varied panorama of both the coast and the mountains and forests of the interior. American steamers are scrupulously clean, while those of the Spanish line, with which the author has had any experience, have been noticeably in need of soap, sand and water, and oftentimes of disinfectants. 38 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. CHAPTER IV. THE ANIMAL WORLD. Although no territory is better suited for a large and varied animal life, yet Porto Rico is not to be com- pared with many other lands possessing similar advan- tages. Professor Lydekker, the British zoologist, says that while North and South America were at one time connected by an isthmus, allowing the movement of animals from one continent to the other, no such con- nection ever seems to have existed between the West Indies and either of the two continents, and that, there- fore, it was impossible for the land animals of North and South America to migrate to these islands, and es- pecially to those at the greatest distance from the main- land. This will explain why Porto Rico is so deficient in indigenous mammalia, although it has a large repre- sentation of all those living creatures which move through either the air or the water. Most of the warm-blooded animals have been im- ported on purpose, or by accident. In the former class should be placed the horse, cow, sheep, pig, goat, donkey, dog, and the cat. In the latter class are several species of rat, mice, the monkey, the mongoose, &nd the guinea pig, which, of course, is not a pig at all. PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. 39 The horse does not seem to prosper in the Porto Eican climate, if the poor and weak specimens of to-day are to be taken as an example of the race. Now and then one runs across a handsome cob or carriage horse, but these have been imported from Spain, England or the United States, or else are descended from imported horses which were kept with particular care on farms in the country districts. It should be said that the average Porto Rican is very indifferent to the welfare of his four-footed friends. He seldom supplies them with proper food, but lets them forage for themselves by the roadside or from the gar- bage heap. Most of the horses on the island are thin, weak and puny creatures that excite the sympathy of any lover of horse flesh. The donkey, that wonderful little animal, thrives, as he apparently does, in every part of the world. He is the same patient, philosophic, big-eyed, long-eared creature in Ponce or San Juan as in Cairo, Naples or London. The mule and the hybrid jennet are more popular than either of their parents, and are cultivated with success. The climate seems too hot for the cow, whether the culture of that animal be directed toward dairy or stock- yard purposes. It receives but little attention, and is forced, like the horse, to shift for itself. What would be the result if the cow were treated with the same care as in England or in America remains to be seen. One thing is certain, it would attain greater beauty and use- fulness than it now displays, but whether it would ever rival its English or American cousin in m\lk 7 butter 40 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. and beef may be doubted. At any rate, the experiment ought to be tried, because if it were successful there would be a superior market for all three products. As it stands to-day, immense quantities of condensed milk, evaporated cream, canned butter, tinned oleomargarine, canned meats, jerked and smoked beef, are imported from different parts of the world. Labor is very cheap in the country, little or no shel- ter is required, and a rich vegetation supplies the very best grazing imaginable. The cost of production would therefore be smaller than it is in either the Old World or the new. Even under the present conditions, the Porto Ricans export large amounts of cattle on the hoof, wet and salted hides, to both the neighboring islands and the mainland beyond. The sheep, goat and pig do very well, but neither the sheep nor the goat produce as much fleece as in colder countries, and the pig does not attain the same fatness as in more northern lands. The latter tends to take one of two forms — either to become a long, lean and bony creature, known as the razor-back, or else to take to the woods and run wild. The goat also runs wild, and with the pig, forms a common feature of forest and mountain life. It may be added at this point, that run- ning wild is an excellent thing, from the gastronomic point of view, the flavor of wild pig and wild goat, the Porto Ricans say, being rich and delicate, and five times more pleasing than that of the domesticated beast. The dog, so loved in cold countries, seems to lose his honored standing with man in the tropics. It is so easy PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. 41 to live without human aid that the tendency to become a pariah overcomes the natural instincts. In every city there are pariah or street dogs, and they form about as melancholy and pitiable a class of quad- rupeds as can be found. They earn their living as street scavengers, and judging from appearances, their remuneration is small and irregular. When dogs are cultivated it is apparently without any reference to breed, quality or character. All that the average senora desires is a round, fat little creature that will bark at every guest, and wag his tail at every member of the family. Under such auspices, valuable animals are not to be expected. Two-thirds of all I have seen in the island were " mongrels and curs of high and low degree." What exceptions there are belong usually to Englishmen, Americans, and Germans. When you see a well-bred dog in any city or town you may be cer- tain that there is a foreign family, if not a foreign colony, in the immediate neighborhood. Man's other companion, the cat, follows the example of the dog and goat. There are so many little juicy birds in the fields and forests, so many delicious rats and dainty mice, that at least one-half of the feline pop- ulation is Ishmaelitic in character. Some are genuine wildcats who climb trees and make faces at travelers, the two trademarks of genuine wildcats^ while the rest of them make their homes in the fields or in dark cor- ners of sugar batteries and plantation outhouses. Patriotic persons claim that there are deer in the moun- tains, and point with pride to antlers which, upon their 42 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. face, were brought there from Maine woods. The only basis for the story is that some captain-general in the long past did import some deer at great expense, and set them loose in the Bayamon hills, but their descend- ants are either dead or else have a miraculous power of dodging every rifle shot fired upon them. The mongoose is, of course, the Indian animal. It was brought from India by the British government to rid Jamaica of rats, and after being there five years, it proved a more terrible scourge to the farmers than the rats themselves. A benevolent Spanish official, wishing to aid his farmers, brought some of the Jamaica mongoose to Ponce. They have not multiplied as rapidly as they did in Jamaica, but have done so much damage that they are shot on sight. Of the indigenous animals the prettiest is that curi- ous little fellow, the armadillo, or, as the English boy called it, the turtle-rat. It looks like a big rat, whose skin on the back has grown into a series of horny plates like those which cover a tortoise. The rat family makes an excellent showing, both the black and the Nor- wegian being represented, as are also the muskrat, the round-tailed muskrat, the common mouse, the harvest mouse, and a pretty little rodent known as the tree- mouse. There is also an odd creature called the hutia, whom people of our own race style the tree rat. It is considerably larger than our sewer rat, and has a longer fur. Its habits are arboreal, and its diet is like that of the squirrel. I did not see any squirrels, but have been told that there are a few in the interior of the island. PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. 43 There is an aguti and a native guinea pig. In some parts the Capuchin monkey is found, which has got to Porto Rico somehow from the northern coast of South America. The bat family finds this place a pleasant home. There are many species, of which the more prominent are the ordinary bat, the long-eared bat, the hairy bat, the big-head bat, the sheath-tail bat, the mastiff bat, the vampire bat, the javelin bat, and the blood-drinker bat. In justice it must be stated that all the shocking stories told about the last three classes have no basis in fact. The vampire bat takes its name from its resemblance to the carnivorous creature of Southern Brazil ; the Porto Rican animal lives a model life, is a strict vegetarian, and belongs to the latest London school of fruitarians. The javelin bat is a trifle more dissipated, and after nibbling on a mango, is apt to treat himself with a caterpillar or a tree snail for dessert, but his poor little teeth are incapable of break- ing the human skin, much less of going down into the blood vessels. As for the blood-drinker, the only ex- planation which can be offered for the name is that it was bestowed as a practical joke upon the most inoffen- sive of those little nocturnal flyers. It could not drink blood if it were starving to death. It lives upon vege- table pulp and fruit juices. Its ugly appearance is un- doubtedly one of those kindly gifts of nature, whereby the defenceless animal frightens away carnivorous foes. There is a small animal whose Spanish name cannot be translated. It looks like a short field rat, but the female has the teats not upon the breast or abdomen. 44 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. but upon the rear part of its haunches. . This strange configuration enables the young to cling to the hind legs and draw milk from the maternal fount while the mother is climbing a tree, or ascending a precipitous rock wall. In the waters the otter is found, though but rarely. In the larger streams and lagoons the manati is not uncommon. This interesting animal seems doomed to extinction. Its flesh is greatly prized, and the thin oil which is extracted from its fat is believed to have a mysterious medicinal virtue. It is purely aquatic, although it is said that the dam brings forth her young in marshes or on shoals inaccessible from the shore. The young swim almost as soon as they are born. When suckling the mother holds the young one to her breast with her flipper, and swims so high out of water that both heads are visible for some distance. It is this sight probably which gave rise to the poetic myth of the mermaid. Another marine animal which is almost extinct is the Caribbean seal. It is referred to as a common sight in the sixteenth century, and its skin was sold at so low a price as to indicate that the animal was very easy of capture. At the present time, however, it is exceedingly rare, *and were it not for specimens caught and preserved every now and then it might be doubted if the animal still survived. The feathered kingdom is remarkably numerous and varied. Many of the birds of the United States are found indigenous to the country, and several of the migrating species stop at Porto Rico during the winter months. The eagle, chicken-hawk, fish-hawk, owl, PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. 45 brown owl, heron, and crane belong to the former class, and the duck, wild goose, bobolink, to the latter. Our little friend, the English sparrow, also turns up in many tow T ns, but does not seem to be as successful in that part of the world as in the New England and Middle States. The turkey buzzard is very common, and is as useful there in devouring dead bodies as in other warm coun- tries. One of the fairest of the children of the air is the rose-breasted grosbeak. It makes a very pretty burst of color on a background of green foliage. The bobo- link is sometimes known here as the butter-bird. The Phoebe, rock bird or water pewee is of medium size, of dusky olive brown, and with a song, which though monotonous, is quite sweet. There are several varie- ties of the flycatcher, of which the crested flycatcher is the most attractive. On the top of its head is a line of small plumes pointed and erect. They are of a dark grayish green, while the wings and tail are of rusty iron brown, the lower part of the wings being crossed with two bars of corn color. He has a moody expres- sion, and a very melancholy eye. These become explic- able the moment the unfortunate bird begins its song, which is, without exception, the most dismal screech known to the feathered realm. The thrush family has several species, of which the black-cap thrush has the neatest garb and the sweetest song. There is a brown thrush with dashes of red, in the mountain district, which has also a very sweet and musical note. The robin redbreast changes his cloth- ing to suit the climate, and appears in a uniform of 46 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. sparkling brilliancy. The upper parts of the wings and tail are of bright blue, ranging near the skin to a pale sky color, and toward the ends of the feathers ranging almost into indigo. The throat, breast, and sides are of a rich cinnamon red, which fades into a dark brown on the back. The long-billed marsh wren is an interesting little creature, which suggests a small-sized crane. It lives and works in colonies, varying from ten to a hundred birds, and builds grass nests in communistic style with considerable regard for engineering principles. At all times these colonies act together as a unit for defense, and during the ^hatching season the male birds serve as the first army of defense, and the females as a second. They will not hesitate to attack a hawk, a snake, or any other enemy which comes too near their collective nests. The little English sparrow has a queer country cousin in this country known as the grasshopper sparrow. It is of a rusty, yellow-brown color, with irregular ragged feathers, and when perched upon a stone it might be mistaken readily for a large grasshopper very much in want of repair. The purpose of this singular garb ap- pears to be the deception of the little organisms it feeds upon. There are humming birds of many kinds, and almost every one of marvelous beauty. They are not quite up to the standard of the Central American varieties, but they are much handsomer than those of our Southern States. They appear in nearly every color, and with PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. 47 striking but graceful variations of the wing feathers and the tail plume. A notable species is the ruby- throated bird whose feathers on the top of the head and on the throat and breast are of a rich ruby color, which, when they reflect the light, have almost a metallic sheen. The mother bird has a strange way of feeding its young. It does not put raw food into the fledgling's mouth, but brings up half -digested food from its own stomach and deposits this in the outstretched open bill of the little one. Some of these humming birds live in holes in the trees, other in mossy hollows and pockets, while still others build tiny nests no larger than an egg cup. There are many warblers. There is a nightingale, larger and handsomer than the European bird, but not so melodious in its song. There are pigeons of many varieties, which are descendants of birds originally brought by the old monks from Spain. The parrot family is poorly represented in the larger sizes, but more than makes up for the deficiency in the smaller ones. At least ten varieties of parrakeets and love birds do their best to make day and night hideous with their dis- cordant yells. There are ravens, blackbirds, crows, pelicans, flamingoes, cranes, and almost every variety of bird common to the Southern States. In the migration of the birds considerable geographi- cal knowledge or instinct is manifested. The move- ment begins in October, and the return movement in February, although apparently there is more or less aerial travel the year through. One route is from Florida or the Gulf States to Cuba, and thence east- 48 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. ward over Santo Domingo to Porto Rico, the other is from the lower Atlantic States to the Bahamas, and thence to Eastern Cuba or Santo Domingo. The bodies of water which separate the islands along either route are usually quite narrow, so far as flying is con- cerned. The widest stretch is from Florida to Cuba. In this way the children of the air, even those which are weak and infirm, are able to secure resting-places during their long journey of a thousand miles on the continent, and another thousand along either island route. All the domestic fowl are quite plentiful; the chicken, turkey, duck and goose abound, as do such semi-domes- tic types as the widgeon and teal; peafowl and guinea fowl are more numerous even than at home. The reptilian world is not overabundant. The most agreeable member is the green turtle, which is found in all the "West Indian waters. On the land are several varieties of tortoise, and in the swamps are snappers and other fresh-water turtles. The Ophidian family is unusually small for a fertile tropical country. The largest snake is known as the hunting boa, and is a connecting link between the black snake of North America and the constrictor of South America. It grows to nine and ten feet in length, and even larger specimens are recorded. It is not dangerous to man, nor even to medium-sized quadrupeds. Its natural food are such small fry as the rat, mouse, mole, fledgling, chameleon and rock lizard. There is a poisonous copper snake, a viper, and many small forest and meadow PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. 49 snakes. Very few of the latter are poisonous, and all have an abject fear of human beings. The lizard is illustrated, though not to any large extent ; occasion- ally an alligator is seen, but these have been hunted so industriously for three centiuries that they vanish the moment they hear a strange sound or see a large ap- proaching animal. The old records refer to these Saur- ians as being numerous and dangerous in the sixteenth century, which shows that the qualities of even a cold- blooded animal can be modified, and even revolution- ized by the superior destructiveness of human beings. In the mountains are two or three varieties of iguanas or inoffensive land lizards, and eight or ten varieties of chameleons, house lizards, rock, tree and marsh lizards. That eminent musician, Mr. Frog, found this place a comfortable home, and lives here in considerable com- fort, with his cousins, the forest frog, the sand toad, the tree toad, and a small ugly creature resembling the horned toad of the tropics. As for marine life, the waters superabound with fish and shellfish. The prettiest of all is the rainbow fish, which is gayly colored in a fashion amply justifying its poetic name. The best sport is afforded by that monstrous king of the rod and reel, the tarpon. The red snapper is a favorite fish in the restaurants. In the market large, fat and well-flavored eels are to be obtained without trouble. Sharks are numerous, and are caught for their skin, and also for their fins and tails, which are in great demand among the Chinese population of Cuba. The spines are manufactured by the natives into 50 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. walking sticks, parasol handles, and articles of personal adornment and use. Other fishes found in the waters * are the ray, swordfish, mackerel, sucker, striped sucker, flying fish, filefish, spinefish, tunny -goby, catfish, her- ring, sprat and pilchard. A fine game fish is the sierra, which takes its name from its jagged fins. It ranges from twenty to sixty pounds, and is almost as combative as the bluefish. It takes a strong line, a muscular hand, and an enormous amount of patience to capture this fighting denizen of the waters. A large fish which tastes like halibut, and is apparently of the same family, is the gusa, which often tips the scales at 500 pounds. The sportsman who enjoys dangerous work can get all he desires from the blue sharks, which are found in groups, and sometimes in schools, off the leading ports. They are extremely voracious, and are much more dar- ing than their cousins of the north Atlantic coast. Ac- cording to the natives, every one is a man-eater, but this may be doubted, in regard to them as a class. Those in the harbors are usually so well fed from the sewage and offal of the city that they seldom attack any creature, and generally swim away when anything ap- proaches or disturbs them. Those off the coast are much hungrier and thinner, and in many cases are ravenous for food. The difference is easily seen in the demeanor displayed toward a well-baited hook. When thrown overboard from a sailboat in the port it may be several hours before the fisherman gets a bite, but outside the hook will be taken often in a few min- PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. 51 utes from the time it strikes water. The ronco or snort- ing fish is a large, active and handsome animal, with a swim bladder of unusual capacity and strength. He is very compactly built and muscular, and through the swim bladder is enabled to go much deeper after prey and to rise more swiftly to the surface than any other fish in the water, unless it be the blue shark. When captured and taken from the water, the mechanical contractions of the swim bladder, in the effort of the fish to escape, produce a series of odd sounds which have been compared to snoring, grunting, and snorting. This peculiarity has given him his name, in Spanish, " ronco," and such sailor terms as snorter, snorer, grunter, hogfish, and bass drum. Other good fishes for the angler are the gallego, the flatfish, the lista, the garfish, the blackfish, surela, the ribbon- fish, the manta, and the cubera. The lower forms of animal life are multifold, many of them being very unpleasant. The centipede grows to six and seven inches in length, and inflicts a poison- ous bite. There is the scorpion, with its tail of fire; land crabs, which are very ugly, but inoffensive; chigoes, which attack the feet, especially the toes ; ticks of various kinds; the minute and irritating insect known as the washwoman's itch; red ants, small but of great biting power, black ants, white ants, brown ants; several varieties of well-armed bees, wasps, tarantulas, black spiders, mason spiders, and mosquitoes. In the waters of the coast are shrimps and prawns of delicious flavor, and huge crawfishes or clawless lob- 52 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. sters, which equal the best Maine lobster in flavor. On© variety of prawn is about an inch and a half in length, and is known as the cameron, or camerony. It is the richest flavored of all the edible crustaceans, and is the basis of many palatable sauces, soups, bisques, and made dishes. The insect world has many pleasant features, the butterflies, moths, and many of the beetles possessing extraordinary beauty of color, design and form. One butterfly is of an intense blue, another is of a very deli- cate green. Most remarkable of all are the lucernas or fire-moths. They are small, drab-colored moths with rings of a lighter hue around the eyes. In the night time these rings become phosphorescent, and throw a light forward upon the insect's flight, acting very .uuch as does the lantern on a bicycle. The lucernes are almost numberless in some districts, and in dark nights when they fly in heavy numbers they present as strange and charming a picture as is ever presented to the human eye. The cucuyo, or lamp cricket, has a small patch of phosphorescent tissue under each wing. Both cucuyo and lucerna seem to be able to increase the light power at will, diminishing it when they are in the open moonlight, and increasing it when they are looking for food in the recesses of the wood, or among the shadows of shrubbery and underbrush. There are several odd species of insects similar to those which the naturalist Wallace discovered in the Malay archipelago. These are leaf and twig insects, creatures which, when they are resting, look for all the world like the dead parts of the plant to which they are attached. PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. 53 CHAPTER V. THE LOWER FORMS OF MARINE LIFE. The warm waters of the Gulf and the Caribbean are as favorable to the growth of coral as are those of the Mediterranean or the tropic belts of the South Seas. At least thirty varieties are found on the coast or the out- lying reefs. The commonest are the brain coral and star coral and next to these are the fan coral, and mushroom coral. There is red and black coral beside the white coral, though the quality is not as fine, so far as is known, as that of other seas. Near the island of Vieques, beautiful specimens of madrepores are found, and near the Cabeza of San Juan the cup coral attains great beauty, and not far from the capital itself pretty pieces of organ-pipe coral are often found. There is a small industry in the material, the finer specimens being employed in making cheap jewelry and the coarser and larger ones being sold to museums and dealers in curios. At one time there was quite a trade in these corals between Porto Eico and Boston, Massachusetts, Bristol, Khode Island, and New London, Connecticut, but this has been nearly destroyed by the competition of Florida, since that State has been enabled to enter Northern markets by means of steam- 54 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. ship companies and, more especially, of increased rail- way facilities. Next in importance to the coral, but of far greater beauty, are those wonderful flowers of the ocean known as sea anemones. Several hundred species have been found and classified, and these, it is believed, are but a small fraction of what exist there. In both Span- ish and English, these queer little stationary animals are known best by the flowers which popular fancy thinks they most resemble. One class is called the daisy anemone or the sea daisy, another the sea dahlia, and a third the sea marigold. There is the sea tea-rose, the sea moss-ross, and the sea blush-rose, the ocean peony, the sea pink, the sea aster, the cloak anemone, the opelet, the beadlet or strawberry anemone, the blue watlet, the pufflet, the sea buttercup, and even the sea geranium. They display every conceivable color, and when undisturbed in calm water they look from the side of a boat or from a bank overhanging the shore like a wonderful flower garden beneath the wave. Though none of the sea anemones are utilized on a large scale, several varieties are highly relished as food by the native blacks and whites. The members of the shell world form a large population on the sides of the sea or below the surface. The coast favors this kind of life. At some points where the coast is rocky there are caverns and hollows which are necessary to many genera. At other points reefs and shoals produce various kinds of pools and hollows suitable to other types, while the sand and shingle bars, the mud and PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. 55 silt formations afford homes to the varieties which require such surroundings. There are fair oysters which are more palatable than those of Europe, but inferior to the exquisite bivalve of Long Island, New Jersey, Maryland and Virginia. There are large shells, one being like a highly deco- rated oyster shell on a big scale, and another a sea conch which Neptune himself might have blown with comfort. The beaches are studded with shells alive and dead, some of which live in the sand and others which have been thrown up by the waves from various depths. In a half -hour on the beach not far from Playa de Ponce, I picked up a hundred handsome specimens, represent- ing thirty -one genera. The handsomest of these were a strombus, a helmet shell, a triton, a murex, and a miter. There were one or two pretty cyclophores or spire shells, but all had been injured by the action of the waves. Of the smaller shells, such as snails, limpets, periwinkles, and venus shells, the variety is numberless. There appears to be no use made of these beautiful creations excepting by the children at play or by an occasional collector, usually a foreigner. Yet nowhere on this side of the equator is there a wider and richer store of the exquisite creations of the deep. The sponge family has many members in the waters off the coast. The bath sponge, which is the most famil- iar individual of the family, is found here of excellent quality and often reaching enormous size. It is utilized 56 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. to a very small extent, the Spanish law aiming at the protection of the sponge industries of Spain on the Mediterranean from competition with colonial enter- prise. The natives get around the law by importing large quantities of cheap sponges from the Bahamas. At San Juan, some years ago, a naturalist demonstrated that sponges could be grown with great success arti- ficially. He took two large sponges, cut them into small pieces, and attached each piece to a stone or a piece of coral and placed it in a part of the bay where there was a good current which insured a vast supply of salt w r ater. He protected the sponges by a fine seine which kept out all fishes, starfishes, worms, and other creatures w r hich injure sponges. Under these condi- tions the pieces grew with great rapidity, and at the end of three years had attained marketable size. In five years most of them were more than a foot in diame- ter, and at the end of seven years some were nearly two feet in diameter. The bath sponges though useful are not beautiful. Those which possess genuine artistic merit, such at the flow r er-basket sponge, the lace-work, bird's-nest, glass rope, neptune's cup, cobweb, and foot- ball sponge, have their representatives in wide pro- fusion. There are four or five kinds of starfish to be found, ranging from the stiff, five-pointed animal of the At- lantic coast, to the sand stars, brittle stars, fern stars, and daisy stars of the tropics. These daisy stars are the loveliest of the family. The arms are flexible ribs, from whose sides extend fringes, and between them> PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. 57 close to the center, are separable portions of the body covered with fine, soft filament. They are more active than the common starfish but never attain large pro- portions. The biggest is less than two inches from tip to tip, and the majority of those seen range from a half-inch to an inch in measure. Sea urchins are plentiful, some being quite soft and others hard and horny. Some have spines, others fila- ments, and others a skin that resembles plate armor. Bathers have an unpleasant though not dangerous foe in one sea leech and several predatory sea worms. The sea leech is something like the medicinal fresh-water leech, but has a brown skin more or less ornamented with bows. "Where water is discolored by silt or mud it is difficult to see these little creatures or to notice them until they have given the swimmer a nip on the legs or the back. The sea worms do not attack a swim- mer, but inflict a painful puncture when trod upon. They are more highly organized than earthworms, hav- ing small or rudimentary eyes, little teeth and sharp spines, which serve to protect them from hungry foes. It is these spines which perforate the foot, although the fishermen claim that the animal when pressed turns and endeavors to bite. 58 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. CHAPTER VI. THE WORLD OF VEGETATION. It should be said to the credit of Spain and the Span- iards that their people have always manifested a warm love for flowers, vines and trees. They are not very energetic, and let all the hard work of horticulture and arboriculture be performed by laborers, and when a little work is done they sink back satisfied as if tired from sympathizing with the laborer himself. The principle is well exemplified by the Porto Eican law, which re- quires every one who cuts down a tree to plant three new ones. The law is usually not obeyed, I am told, but, nevertheless, it expresses popular feeling on the sub- ject. There is not here that fierce and unreasoning destruc- tion of the forest which marks our own people. The Spaniards have profited by the terrible lesson taught by their own history. In the old wars against the Sara- cens they laid waste the Moorish land in the fullest meaning of the word. They cut down every tree and shrub, and drew the harrow over every field and gar- den. The country which under the wise Abencerrages was an earthly paradise became in a century a sterile desert. Much of it to-day is a rocky wilderness which PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. 59 supports with difficulty a few goats and half -starved cattle. The natural vegetation of Porto Rico is very rich, and to it the inhabitants have added trees and flowers from temperate, subtropical and tropical lands. Thus the two chief industries, sugar and coffee, are based upon sugar cane, which was undoubtedly imported first from the far East, and coffee trees whose ancestors saw the light in Arabia. The wealth of roses which at some points run wild is a debt to European gardeners, and the one hundred and one flowering plants which please the eye and nostril at every turn have been brought over by plant lovers from Europe or America. While the climate is subtropi- cal, it is so uniform that it will permit the growth of nearly every tropical plant. Thus the royal palm, which is the monarch of all the palms, finds a congenial soil around Ponce and Coamo. Other foreign palms, which do well in their new home, are the Palmyra, the screw palm, and the date palm. The native palms in- clude the cocoanut, the banana, the palmetto, jipyopa and sago. Other native trees of beauty are the india rubber, the flamboyan, or flame tree, the magnolia, oak, live-oak, ortegon, red cedar, fragrant cedar, bread fruit, sapota, fig, guava, orange, stain wood, box, mahogany, sabina, laurel, bay, mango, lignum vitse, tamarind, mammee, paw paw, peach, apricot, lemon, lime, olive, cyathea, shaddock, almond, filbert, pecan, ivory nut, walnut, plantain, umbrella, cypress and pine. The list com- 60 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. piled by the Spanish government gives 550 different kinds of trees which attain a growth of more than fif- teen feet in height. Limited use is made of these for- est resources. A small amount of boxwood, lignum vitae, mahogany, Spanish cedar, fragrant cedar, and a few dye woods are exported, and another small quantity is used for house building and cabinet work; but even here, so unprogressive are the people, or rather so op- posed to progress has been the Spanish administration, that it is cheaper to import machine-made wooden arti- cles, even to houses and barns, barrels and furniture from the United States and pay the freight and import duty than it is to supply their wants from their own resources. With American furniture-machinery it would be easy to reverse the process and to supply the great cities of the United States coast with artistic fur- niture made from mahogany and other rich woods. A second use of the woods is made by the cane, um- brella and parasol handle industry. Every Spaniard has a cane, the well-to-do own several, and the jeunesse doree often have a small arsenal of walking sticks. The term arsenal in this case is used positively, and not figuratively as the Porto Eicans like the Spaniards have quite a penchant for sword canes and dagger canes, which they make with remarkable skill. The blades of the finer specimens come from famous smiths in Toledo and other Spanish cities, and are forged from the finest steel. Some are damascened and others inlaid with silver and gold; some have worked upon them the name of the owner and others the name of a patron saint, a PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. 61 cross or a religious sentiment. The assortment of canes in the stores in the larger cities is very large, and of every possible kind. They have fashions in canes, and also canes suited to different ages and professions. There are sedate mahogany, ebony and rosewood sticks for clergymen and physicians, and fanciful bamboos with gleaming steel inside for men about town. There are rough oaken sticks for the [Spanish Anglomaniac, and saucy little shafts for those who ape the styles of the Boulevard. For travelers are coffee sticks, thorns, tea sticks, leopard-wood canes, and orange sticks. In the agricultural world the leading forms are the coffee tree, maize, sugar cane, banana and plantain palms, orange, lemon, lime, and shaddock trees, the tobacco plant, the indigo plant, flax, ginger, cassia, citron, cotton, pineapple, medlar, guava, mango, sapota, sapodilla, custard apple, guazuma, hemp, bay, dog- wood, and the mallow. The mallow occurs in several species or genera, two of which are largely used by the natives for culinary purposes. The leaves and roots when boiled make a very pure and colorless mucilage which is employed for thickening soups and stews. It has about the same thickening power as the ocra or- okra, and both substances are known colloquially as gumbo. A gumbo soup is simply a soup in which the basis is this vegetable mucilage rather than beef -stock; and when transported to the United States, as it was by the Spaniards to New Orleans before French rule, it became the ancestor of the Creole dishes known as chicken 62 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. gumbo, shrimp gumbo, pompano gumbo and gumbo fillet. The flower gardens of Porto Rico are superb. Among the many leaves and blossoms may be seen the begonia, azalea, rhododendron, cape jasmine, the night-bloom- ing cereus, the coriander, dahlia, dogwood, flowering fern, flowering reed, coleus, canna, French columbine, English honeysuckle, gardenia, gladiolus, heliotrope, hydrangea, king cup, laurel, lemon, magnolia, lily, Japan lily, imperial lily, tiger lily, narcissus, castor oil plant, licorice, lobelia, love in a mist, century plant, Syrian mallow, every variety of rose, marigold, the mock orange and orange, scorpion grass, spider lily, the carnation, sweet william, prickly pear, spearmint, speedwell, the spiked willow, the camelia, poppy, ger- anium, verbena, lemon verbena, portulacca, pitcher plants, venus fly traps, snapdragon, fuchsia, foxglove, harebell, bougainvilla, passion flower, carrion flower, trumpet creeper and wisteria. Orchids are found in gardens, fields and forests alike. Over a hundred are indigenous to the island, and the wealthy, who own large gardens, have imported the more beautiful foreign varieties, and raised them there with marked success. The fern family displays a long series of types, ranging from a dozen species of maiden hair up to at least three species of tree ferns. Several varieties produce a small blossom, and are regarded very highly. Everybody has a flower garden, and some are of re- markable beauty. The handsomer ones are embellished PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. 63 with statuary, hedges, fountains and summer houses covered with vines and trailers. What flowers come into the market are ridiculously cheap — a great bunch of roses costing a few cents, and an armful of less pop- ular blossoms being had for a dime. That royal flower, the camelia, costs less by the dozen than it does in New York for the single flower. The gladiolus, with its intense color, and the tuberose, with its powerful per- fume, become oppressive by repetition. A pretty pas- time of little children is the making of wreaths and garlands, which they wear as they play in their yards, or on the verandas of their homes. Some of the flower pots are of more than usual ele- gance and beauty. A few consist of an earthenware pot covered with pretty basket work in dark wood. Others are made of embossed and colored porcelain, and glazed earthenware. Hanging baskets are quite popu- lar, most of them being made of wire and moss. The air is so balmy, and there is so much rain, that the plants and vines set in these ^objects grow as well as if put into the soil. 64 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. CHAPTER VII. THE PEOPLE. Many races and nationalities have contributed their share to the population of Porto Kico. When discovered by Columbus it was well peopled by Caribs, whose numbers have been estimated from 300,000 to 600,000. Thousands of these were slain by their conquerors, many died under the cruel and inhuman treatment to which they were subjected, but a larger number perished in the mines of Hispaniola which is now Hayti and Santo Domingo, whither they were deported by the authorities. Very few full-blooded Caribs now survive, although the race has left its marks upon the small farmers, field laborers and dwellers in the mountain districts. These cross- breeds are known as Jibaros, Xibaros and Givaros. Most of them are peasant farmers and are quite proud of their race. The men are small, with good if not handsome faces, and some of the women are very beau- tiful. Those who live in the hilly and mountainous countries have lighter complexions than those upon the lowland plantations, many of whom are as dark as mulattoes. The Jibaros are not "^together of pure Spanish- PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. 65 Carib blood. From the time of the introduction of African slavery up to its abolition in the present cen- tury in 1873, many runaway slaves found refuge among sympathetic farmers in the sparsely settled mountain- ous districts and there interbred with them. Neverthe- less both the Spanish Carib and the Spanish Carib African type are included in the Spanish census with Spaniards themselves, and with quadroons, octoroons and quinteros as whites. Of the pure white races the Spaniards or their de- scendants constitute the largest portion. Their num- bers have been reinforced during the present century by refugees from Cuba, Venezuela, Colombia, Central America and Mexico. Commerce has brought to the island people from the United States, Great Britain, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Holland, Belgium, France, and Russia. There area few Jews in Porto Rico and quite a number of Chuetas or the descendants of the Moorish Jews, apostate Jews and apostate Mos- lems from Majorca. There are also the descendants of immigrants from Minorca and the Canaries. In the last twenty years Porto Rico has followed the example of Cuba and has brought over coolies from China. Some have gone into the tobacco business and others are plantation laborers. There is a large body of Africans, who constitute, according to the census, about three-sevenths of the population. There is little or no race prejudice, and the white or whiter mixtures of the two races pass muster as whites and not as in the United States as blacks. If all the mulattoes, quad- 66 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. roons. octoroons, quinteros and other mestizos were in- cluded with the blacks instead of the whites, the pro- portions would be changed and the blacks would have a handsome majority upon the island. Many of the people both merchants and planters are Spaniards, who, from both patriotic and commercial reasons, maintain their domicile in Spain, visiting that country with great regularity. There is not much com- plaint of absentee landlords, but there is a numerous class of landlords and merchants who spend from one month to six every year in Spain, and who come to Porto Eico not as a home but as a workshop or office in which they earn their living. The Spanish law and policy tends to encourage this tendency and to discour- age the permanent expatriation of its citizens. Nearly all of the governmental offices in Porto Eico are filled with Spaniards and not Porto Eicans. So far as I was able to learn no native held any high office upon the island. Even those offices which are filled by popular suffrage come under the influence of the Spanish poli- ticians, and where it is possible they throw their weight in favor of their own fellow-countrymen against the colonials. This is one of the causes which has broken the colony away from the mother country, and which produced the memorable scenes in August, 1898, when the invading American troops were treated not as hos- tile conquerors but as generous friends, who had come to relieve the people from long captivity. Owing partly to nationality and partly to the climate the complexion of the Porto Eicans is a trifle darker PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. 07 than that of the Spaniard, Portuguese or Italian. Prob- ably the admixture of red and black blood has something to do with it; but the fact remains that they show greater varieties of brunette skin than any other people in the New World. Beside the orange-yellow of the mulatto there is a curious red-orange which is very striking. When this is combined with the reddish hair of Spain it makes a color scheme which is picturesque and novel if not beautiful. Young girls of this red- orange tint present a startling appearance when attired in low-cut evening dress of white silk or of black silk and velvet. The coloring is so intense that an ordinary brunette seems a sallow gray by contrast, and a north- ern blonde to be suffering from anemia. Another type which is very beautiful has an oval face and Spanish features in the outline, but Carib in the delicacy; soft brown eyes, a warm olive skin, and Spanish red hair. The natives claim that this was the complexion of the celebrated beauty, Queen Isabella, and judging from the portraits which have come down of that great sov- ereign the comparison is borne out by the fact. The Moorish type is quite common, especially where there is a dash of African blood. This serves to make the eye darker, to give the corner a bluish tinge, and to change the pearly Spanish teeth into the whiter ivories of the Ethiop. To an outsider this Moorish type is lovelier than the so-called Spanish blonde, but the na- tives themselves seem to prefer the latter. Another complexion undoubtedly expresses physical degeneracy. It is a sodden brownish-gray which suggests ecru color 68 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. in some faces, mouse eolor in others, and a long stand- ing liver trouble in others. It is usually accompanied by small muscles, hollow shoulders and a bowed-in waist. This is the class from which consumption, one of the curses of Spain, mainly selects its victims. Some handsome types are produced by the crossing of natives with the stronger-built blondo types of the northern races. This union tends to produce light-colored bru- nettes with brown hair, gray eyes and fine physique. They are to be found chiefly in San Juan, Ponce, and Mayaguez. Taken as a class the Porto Ricans are taller than the Spaniards, but shorter and sparer than the typical American or Englishman. They are thin, some of them being emaciated. The chief exception to this rule is found in young girls from twelve to sixteen, and in middle-aged women from thirty to forty; but even these plump specimens are not stalwart or well built. They are fat and generally flabby. Both men and women have fine heads of hair, and the men have soft and silky mustaches and beards. The skin is otherwise smooth, and in general the complexion is free from disfigure- ment. Muscular types of either manhood or woman- hood are extremely rare; the arm of the average man being no better than that of an American girl of four- teen, and the leg being no larger or stronger than the arm of an average New York man. In a social gathering a Porto Eican gentleman seems a slender youth alongside of his colleague from Eng- land or America. PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. 69 Just as there is little or no race prejudice there is but little caste or class feeling. The high Spanish officials, military and naval officers, look at themselves as the aristocracy. Next to them are the large plantation owners and wealthy merchants, that is to say, the Spaniards. Then 1 come the Spanish minor officials and the wealthy natives. Below these there are the middle classes, two-thirds farmer and one-third shop- keeper, and below these the laboring classes. The life conditions must be favorable, as the popula- tion has increased steadily from the beginning of the century. In 1830 it amounted to about 319,000; in 1840, 401,000; in 1850, 495,000; in 1860, 583,000; in 1870, 667,000, and in 1880, 754,000. At the present time it has been estimated to be 800,000. As appears from the figures the ratio of increase is slowly declin- ing, and it would indicate that the island is reaching its limit as to supporting its inhabitants. These figures and all inferences based upon them must be received with a generous allowance. The Spanish census taker has a cheerful way of estimating houses, families and districts, especially when his duty of enumeration is to be performed in hot weather. The census of the Phil- ippines is the worst ever taken by a civilized nation, while those of Cuba and Porto Rico cannot be held up as models for the world. In religious matters the people are Roman Catholics, both de jure and de facto. The Jews and Chinese on the island retain their own faith and are not disturbed by the authorities. The educated classes are tinged 70 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. with agnosticism and even gross infidelity. Porto Eico has the proud distinction of being the only Spanish colony which has a Protestant Church. This estab- lishment is supported chiefly by foreigners and seems to have made few converts among the people. PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. 71 CHAPTER VIII. HISTORICAL NOTES. Of Porto Rican history it may be said that it has been so uneventful as to escape notice. No complete historical work upon the subject exists in any language. Even in the Spanish annals the references to the island are infrequent, and in the official reports it is always classified with Cuba as if it were an insignificant prov- ince of the latter. The following notes may therefore be of interest to the reader. It was discovered by Christopher Columbus on his second immortal voyage, November 16, 1493. Where he landed is uncertain, but tradition puts it at Aguadilla, on the west coast, and local writers claim that the famous spring in that city, which is now handsomely walled and protected, is the spot w T here his men rested upon their landing. At that time the island was peopled by Caribs, calling themselves Arawaks. They had a chief or king, Ague • inaba, whom the Spaniards report to have been a hand- some and valorous savage. According to the Spanish monks the Arawaks were of the same blood as the natives of Hispaniola and Cuba, and though speaking a different language could understand the latter with- out trouble. They called Porto Rico, Borinquen, or 72 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. Borenquen. The Spaniards found gold in this new ter- ritory. This, added to the beauty of the land and the abundance of savages, who under the code of those years could be made into slaves by conquest or by agreement with the chief, induced several of the expedi- tion to settle in the land. These settlers were headed by Captain Juan Ponce de Leon, one of the associates and officers of the great admiral. From this able con- questador the city and province of Ponce take their name, and from him have descended the De Leon family, which is a part of the ancient aristocracy. The poor Caribs made a stout but ineffectual resist- ance, and were slain with remorseless fury by the inva- ders. While the behavior of De Leon and his men was terribly cruel, yet it may be palliated on the score of necessity. Had they warred in a humane manner, the conquest of the island would have taken a long period, and their forces were so few that they might not have been successful. They knew the strength of the Carib imagination and strove to impress upon them the belief that the Spaniards were invincible, and absolutely re- lentless. Thus in the pursuit of their plan, they killed the wounded and enslaved every captive, distributed the women and girls among the soldiery, and inflicted hideous punishments upon all natives found with arms in their possession. They brought with them from Europe bloodhounds and trained them to tear savages to pieces. In this frightful mode of warfare De Leon himself set the example, owning a dog whose name Berezillo is even to-day a synonym of strength, daring PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. ?3 and ferocity. This huge brute is said to have torn twenty savages to pieces in one day. The hounds brought over were the ancestors of the breed known at the present time as Cuban bloodhounds, and which in after years were trained to hunt black men the same as they had the copper colored. They have followed African slavery into both North and South America so that their presence in the United States and in the re- publics of South America is a standing memorial of the era of human bondage. The conquest of the island was practically completed in 1510. In that year Ponce de Leon founded his capi- tal and called it Caparra, which, on account of its un- healthfulness and its inferior facilities, military and commercial, was soon abandoned. The place still exists and is well known as Puerto de Viejo. In 1511, the governor, De Leon, established the capi- tal on its present site, naming it San Juan Bautista de Puerto Rico, or in English St. John the Baptist of Rich Port. Peasants were brought over from Spain, who were followed by adventurers and traders. The discov- ery of mines in Hispaniola, which is now the site of the two Republics of Hayti and Santo Domingo, soon devel- oped a new industry— the catching and shipping of Arawaks to the neighboring island where they were put to work in the mines. Here they were treated like cattle, the proprietors believing that it was cheaper to buy savages and work them to death within ten years, than it was to treat them well and work them for thirty. By degrees the native population was exhausted, the 74 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. only ones left being the servants of the settlers, their concubines, and the remnants of once powerful tribes who hid in the mountains. The Porto Kicans, His- paniolans and Cubans then turned their attention to the neighboring islands and soon depopulated them, as far as they could, in the same way. If the statements of the Spanish chroniclers are to be believed, some three or four millions of human beings were destroyed for the enrichment of the governing classes of Porto Eico and the other possessions of Spain. This complete destruc- tion of native labor and the refusal of the immigrants to take up agricultural work made a demand for slave labor, which was soon satisfied by the opening of the African slave trade. Other experiments were tried in the meantime, but without any real success. Ship loads of poor laborers were brought from Majorca and Minorca. Mohammedan captives were presented by the government to large plantation owners. Suspects of the Inquisition, Jews, Moriscoes, renegade Jews and renegade Moslems, also came out to try their fortunes in the New World. They must have come in consider- able numbers, because although no statistics are acces- sible, yet it appears from various sources that before the close of the sixteenth century all of these islands were settled, that many of them had considerable popu- lation, and that in the larger ones there were cities with populations as high as 4,000 and 5,000. The forces which defended the various ports against English and other assailants in those days indicate a goodly population from which they were drawn. PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. 75 The African slave trade which was inaugurated by the Portuguese in 1444, had proved so profitable as to incite the cupidity of other maritime nations, among whom were the Spaniards, English and Dutch. As the Spaniards claimed absolute sovereignty over the West Indies until they were forced through the arbitra- ment of war to renounce this claim in 1670, it is clear that the slaves which were carried to Porto Rico before that period were taken by Spanish and Portuguese traders. Before 1580 the African slave traffic was small, the slaves being brought from Africa in Spanish or in Portuguese ships chartered by Spanish merchants. Between 1580 and 1640 Portugal was a part of Spain, and the slave traffic grew into large dimensions. It continued through the last century and into the early part of the present one. It received its first great blow when the slave trade was abolished by Great Britain and the United States in 1807, but the traffic kept on surreptitiously, and the last cargo of slaves brought into Porto Rico came [.there, according to native authorities, in 1851 or 1852. In 1595 a British fleet which started under the joint command of Sir Francis Drake and Sir John Hawkins invaded the Caribbean. They arrived before San Juan on November 12th, where Hawkins died. Undaunted by the death of his great colleague, Drake, the Prince of Sea Rovers, attacked the city the next day with such fury that in a few hours despite a heroic resistance by the garrison and citizens, aided by the black and red slaves, Drake captured the city and the castle and took 76 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. away everything of value. Although he filled one man-of-war with spoils, it is said that he shed many grievous tears because "the treasure of the Indies had been sent away a fortnight before in a large galleon." This memorable fight will never die in the memory of Porto Eico. The Spanish government at that time, as to-day, suppressed all unfavorable news, and the defeat of the Invincible Armada was unknown in the colonies or else believed to have been a glorious victory for the Spanish arms. The triumphs of Drake, Gilbert, Hawkins, Frobisher, Howard and the other great sea captains were likewise unknown. It was therefore very much like a miracle when this expedition crushed all resistance and captured the capital in a single morn- ing. The name of the great leader, Drake, was trans- lated and became Dragon, and Francisco el Dragon holds a bigger place in West Indian imagination to-day than Captain Kidd does in the literature of the small boy. Myths have grown up about him in every Porto Eican household. One of them says that he would have sacked the whole island, but St. John the Baptist interfered to protect the pious people. Another myth represents him as having in his veins dragon blood and as being covered with scales, which rendered him in- vulnerable to the Spanish sword. A successful 'sea captain with the name of Dragon ought to be the sub- ject of many wonderful sea stories. The next taste of war which Porto Eico received was in 1598, when the Earl of Cumberland at the head of his own expedition of twenty warships appeared before PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. 77 San Juan. The Porto Ricans had heard the news of its coming from the Island of Dominica and reinforced the garrison with recruits from various parts of the island. Their forces were at least 10,000 strong and outranked foe English, who did not have one-half that number. But the English had better guns, gunnery, and discipline, and their men were veterans of many wars. The fight was short and resulted in the annihi- lation of the Spanish army. What was not killed and wounded was captured, and bands of soldiers and sailors soon scoured the surrounding country, capturing the neighboring towns. Tho earl was a man of his time and was as savage as Ponce de Leon. His plan was very simple and was to kill and deport the Spanish resi- dents, enslave the laboring classes and start a new prin- cipality with peasants from England. His executive officer was Sir John Berkeley, who carried out his leader's directions to the letter. Within a few weeks the power of the English arms had been extended throughout the central part of what is now the Depart- ment of Bayamon. At this point sickness broke out owing to the " direful excesses of the men." There was a council of war and the British leaders unani- mously agreed to leave the place. They accordingly sailed away some time in August of that year. This expedition is credited in the Spanish chronicles to Sir Francis Dragon as are four or five others with which that hero had nothing at all to do. In 1615, while the Netherlands were at war with Spain, a Dutch fleet under the command of Baldwin 78 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. Heinrieh made a descent upon Porto Eico. They sacked several small places and finally attacked San Juan. The Dutch were repulsed and the leader killed. Whether his death occurred at San Juan or Mono is in doubt. One account sa} r s that he was mortally wounded in the assault on El Castillo del Morro, and the other says El Castillo del Mono. Mono at that time was a small Spanish island on which there was a castle or fort, and was the scene of many fierce battles. San Juan was again attacked in 1678, by a British expedi- tion, but the assailants were forced to retire on account of a timely tornado. In 1703 an English fleet made a descent upon the Porto Bican coast. It captured and sacked several towns, and was repulsed at Arecibo where there was a strong garrison. The next visit of Mars was 101 years ago, in 1797, when a strong ex- pedition under Lord Abercrombie besieged San Juan. They captured or destroyed all the vessels in the harbor, and were arranging for a land attack, when the weather changed and a severe storm compelled them to sail away. Twice San Juan has been effectually defended by the powers of the air. Between 1815 and 1820, increased taxes and corrupt officials so excited the natives that in the later year a Junta declared the independence of the island. The former governor had been replaced by a new one, Senor de la Torre, who appears to have been a fine combina- tion of diplomat and soldier. He took prompt action the moment he was apprized of the action by arresting PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. 70 and shooting the irreconcilable, pacifying the indig- nant, overawing the timid, bribing the corrupt and buying the venal; restored peace in a short time and established perfect order and tranquillity by February, 1823. From that time on there have been agitations at irregular intervals in favor of autonomy or indepen- dence. These took a very active shape in the sixties, when movements of a similar nature were going on in Cuba. They came to a head in 1867, wdien armed bands made their appearance the same day at various places. By an odd coincidence there was a series of heavy earthquake shocks on that day, which so terrified the superstitious people of the island, and was so dw r elt upon by the people in power, that the insurgent leaders gave up the movement and disbanded their forces. In 1868 there was another insurrection with risings in Ponce, Bayamon and Arecibo. But these w T ere quickly suppressed by the Spanish officials. A number of citizens w r ere tried at court martial, convicted and shot or garroted, and large numbers arrested and thrown into prison. One result of this outbreak was the introduction of a bill into the Cortes at Madrid, which was made law in 1870. This measure took away the colonial character of the island and made it a political province and organic part of Spain. In 1895 the insurgent move- ment again became noticeable, and from that time to the present day the people of the island have been under surveillance by the military authorities. The garrisons were increased by reinforcements from Spain and by 80 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. the organization of volunteer regiments in the various cities. Many arrests were made and many suspects fled to the United States, Mexico and Peru. In 1897 these suspects formed a Junta in New York City, which co-operated with the insurgent leaders in Cuba and the Cuban Junta in New York. Up to 1873 the cruel system of forced labor prevailed in Porto Rico. This is one of the abuses which have estranged all the Spanish colonies against the mother country. It is the result of unwise theories of govern- ment. Every male citizen is taxed, irrespective of his means of paying that tax. Instead of basing taxation upon property, they base it upon individuality. The system works well enough when a country is prosperous and all its citizens are at work, but in hard times, when there are many unemployed, it bears with great injus- tice upon the working classes. When a man cannot pay he is arrested and fined the amount of the tax and the costs of the proceeding. The tax may be only a few dollars while the costs are often much more than the tax. The criminal, for such he now is legally, is con- demned to work out this fine at so much a day, the state supplying him with food and lodging. If the market rate of labor is fifty cents a day the state charges twenty for the food and lodging, and credits the man with thirty cents a day for each day's labor. A man therefore whose annual tax is two dol- lars is liable to be arrested and fined the two dollars plus six dollars cost, making eight, and is then put to work at thirty cents a day which would make a term PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. 81 of twenty-seven days outside of the period consumed in the legal proceedings never less than one or two weeks. In this manner the failure of a poor wretch to pay an annual tax would result in his being a slave for two months of the year. This system was not abolished until the year mentioned. It remained in force in the Philippine Islands up to last September. The latest important chapter in the history of Porto Eico occurred in the present year, when the island was invaded by the American armies during the war of the United States with Spain, and in August was ceded by a protocol to the former country. The invading army, carried by eight transports and convoyed by the battle- ship Massachusetts, the commerce-destroyer Columbia, and six smaller war vessels, the Cincinnati, Annapolis, Dixie, Gloucester, Leyden and Wasp, arrived off Guanica at daylight, July 25, 1898. The Gloucester began the serious work by entering the harbor and fir- ing upon the Spanish garrison. A party of sailors next landed and hauled down the Spanish ensign, which was flying on the beach. There was an exchange of volleys in which none of the Americans was hurt, while the Spaniards lost five killed and ten or twelve wounded. Guanica was occupied by the United States sailors before noon, and immediately thereafter the troops, which were under the command of Major-General Nel- son A. Miles, disembarked without an accident. No time was lost. At nightfall the outposts were extended beyond the city and early on the next morning an advance was made westward toward Yauco, in which 82 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. the second skirmish occurred. Here the Americans had four wounded, while the Spaniards lost three killed and thirteen wounded. On July 28th the Dixie,, Annap- olis, "Wasp and Gloucester appeared off the port of Ponce with the intention of blockading it and capturing such Spanish ships as might be found in the neighbor- hood. To the surprise of the squadron a delegation of the citizens came from the shore with the statement that the Americans could land and that no resistance would be offered to them. The sailors and marines landed, and the port of Ponce, which is about two miles from the city, promptly surrendered. It is said that the city of Ponce surrendered by tele- phone ! On July 29th transports arrived and landed a large body of troops. Sixty lighters and barges and twenty sailing vessels were taken by the ships. The reception of the troops was more than a surprise to the United States, and a, veritable thunderbolt to Spain. Instead of treating the invaders as conquering enemies the pop- ulace welcomed them as friends and deliverers. The mayor of the city issued a proclamation in which he wrote Ponce, United States of America, and every one who could secure a flag hung it out in front of his house or store. The capture of Ponce enabled Major-General Miles to re-establish cable communications with the United States. This was speedily accomplished; the first mes- sage flashing from the capital of the Province of Ponce to the capital of the United States on July 31st. On PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. 83 August 1st the Wasp and Gloucester entered the harbor of Arroyo, which is the seaport of Guayama, the capital of the province of that name, and were greeted with cheers before they came to anchor. On August 2d transports brought troops which were promptly landed and took possession of the place. On August 5 th an American force landed at the Cabeza de San Juan, which lies thirty miles east of the capital, and occupied the lighthouse. This was part of a strategic move against Fajardo, the leading city in that neighborhood. On August the 8th a force under General Schwan started from Yauco toward Sabana Grande and San German. They took both and were received everywhere with acclamation. Three miles beyond San German the road crosses Eosario River, which flows into an affluent of the Guana jibo River. Here there was a brilliant skirmish in which the Americans proved vic- ' torious. The loss of the victors was one killed and fif- teen wounded ; of the Spaniards, it is said, twenty killed and seventy wounded. On August 11th General Schwan occupied Mayaguez, and on August 13th he advanced as far as Rio Canas, not far from the Anasco River, and was attacked by 1,500 Spaniards. After a little firing the Spaniards retreated with twen- ty-four killed and fifty wounded, leaving sixty prison- ers; none of the Americans being hurt. Another part of the campaign was conducted by Gen- eral Guy V. Henry, who had in his advance General Roy Stone. This body was ordered to take the road which runs to Adjuntas and thence to Arecibo. Gen* 84 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. eral Stone started on August 1st, reaching Adjuntas the same evening. The garrison, consisting of 105 volunteers, surrendered, and the citizens turned out to welcome the invaders. At this point it was found that the supply of flags had given out, and one was impro- vised by painting an ordinary sheet with red and blue into a tolerable imitation of the real article. This flag was actually raised over the city of Utuado, which is about seven miles north of Adjuntas, and about twelve miles south of Arecibo. General Stone almost reached Arecibo, and would undoubtedly have taken it but for the cessation of hostilities. General Stone's extraordi- nary campaign, part of which the writer witnessed, de- prived General Henry and his troops of much of the hard work of war. As they marched on they found the American flag flying everywhere, and the people dressed in their best clothes upon the roads and streets waiting to welcome them. A third movement was made from Arroyo toward Guayama under General Hains. It started on the morning of August 5th and easily reached its destina- tion, having a single skirmish on the way. The vic- tory was not entirely bloodless, four Americans being wounded. The Spanish loss is unknown. The Span- iards retreated to a strong point in the hills back of Guayama on the mountain road that runs northward to Cayey and Caguas. On August 12th the Americans moved in force, beginning with reinforcements at Arroyo, and in the afternoon made preparations for an attack upon the Spaniards in their stronghold. This PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. 85 battle never came off, as orders for a suspension of hos- tilities were received just as the troops were about to open battle. The main movement was directed from Ponce as a base along the great military road which runs across the island to San Juan. The American troops had oc- cupied Juana Diaz already, which is some thirteen miles from Ponce. From this place the army, under the command of Major-General James H. Wilson, on August 4th moved forward toward Coamo. There ap- peared to be a large Spanish force ahead so that the advance movement was conducted with great delibera- tion and thoughtfulness. The wisdom of this course was demonstrated on August 9th at the bridge which crosses the Descalabrado River, where the enemy had constructed an ingenious ambush. The Americans had made a counter ambush during the preceding night, and the result was the overwhelming rout of the Span- ish. Over 200 were taken prisoners, the commander, two captains and twelve privates were killed, and a large number wounded. The American loss was six men wounded. The troops kept on the march and the same afternoon occupied the beautiful city of Coamo. On August 11th the main body moved forward near to a point where a mountain road connects the main road with the town of Alg&rrobos. Here it had a small skirmish in which several Spaniards were wounded, but no Americans hurt. On August 12th the troops reached the Aibonito pass, where the Spaniards were 86 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. strongly intrenched. There was a preliminary engage- ment intended to develop the Spanish position. In this engagement the Americans lost two men and had six wounded. The Spaniards lost about nine killed and twenty wounded. The battle was stopped by the news of the armistice sent by Major-General Miles to the front. In all, the Porto Eican campaign lasted nine- teen days. There was no engagement which reached above a skirmish, and the losses were singularly dis- proportionate. That of the Spaniards, including sol- diers captured, being over ten times that of the Ameri- cans. Worthy of mention, too, is the fact that during the nineteen days more than 5,000 Porto Eicans volun- teered to aid the American arms. At the moment of the cessation of hostilities the Americans held nearly all of the provinces of Maya- guez, Ponce, parts of Guayama, Humacao and Arecibo, more than half of the territory, and at the same time had a squadron of warships in front of the doomed capi- tal which made its prompt capitulation a necessity. PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. 87 CHAPTER IX. THE GOVERNMENT. Up to 1870 Porto Rico was governed like the other Spanish colonies. All power was exercised from Madrid, and the natives had comparatively little or nothing to do with matters of administration. From 1870 up to 1898 it was governed as a Spanish prov- ince, the administration being comparable to that of Majorca and Minorca. The act of 1870 created eight departments or provinces, which, with their capitals and leading cities, were as follows : Province, Bay am on; capital, San Juan Bautista; leading cities and towns, Vega Baja, Vega Alta, Coro- zal, Dorado, Toa Baja, Toa Alta, Naranjito, Bayamon, Rio Piedras, Trujillo Alto, Carolina, Loiza, Rio Grande. Province, Ponce; capital, Ponce; leading cities and towns, Yauco, Guayanilla, Penuelas, Ad juntas, Juana Diaz, Coamo, Santa Isabel, Barros, Barranquitas, Aibonito. Province, Arecibo; capital, Arecibo; leading cities and towns, Quebradillas, Camui, Hatillo, Utuado, Manati, Ciales, Morovis. Province, Guayama; capital, Guayama; leading 88 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. cities and towns, Arroyo, Salinas, Cayei, Cidra, San Lorenzo, Caguas, Gurabo, Juncos, Aguas Buenas, Sabana del Palmar. Province, Humacao; capital, Humacao; leading cities and towns, Naguabo, Piedras, Ceira, Fajardo, Luquillo, Yabucoa, Maunabo, Patillas. Province, Aguadilla; capital, Aguadilla; leading cities and towns, Isabela, Moca, Aguada, Eincon, San Sebastian, Lares. Province, Mayaguez; capital, Mayaguez; leading cities and towns, Anasco, Las Marias, Maricao, Saba- na Grande, San German, Hormigueros, Cabo Rojo. Province, Isla de Vieques ; capital, Isabel Segunda; leading cities and towns, none. Spanish names are hard to remember, but with a lit- tle thought they may be made comparatively easy. Thus, Agua means water, and enters into many words as a root. Aguas buenas means "Good Waters," Aguadilla means a watering place; Grande is equivalent to big or large, Sabana Grande might be well trans- lated "Long Meadow;" Monte Grande, "Big Hill." Alta and Baja mean upper and lower ; Viejo means old, and Nueve, new. Lago is a lake; laguna a lagoon; bahiaabay; vado a ford; arena, sand; piedra, stone; rio, a river; puerto, a port; colina, a hill; hueco, a hol- low; cabeza, a head; boca, a mouth; brazo, an arm, and fonte, a spring. The first seven departments are provinces in the full sense of the word, and correspond to the counties in the American system, and the shires in England. The PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. 89 eighth, Vieques or Crab Island, is really a military de- partment, and is used as the site for an army penal sta- tion, and other correctional institutions. The highest official is the captain-general, who is ap- pointed by the crown. He is the head of the army, of that part of the navy which is assigned to the island, the civil executive, and the president of the highest court. Next to him is the intendante, who would cor- respond to the provincial treasurer or the state treasurer in the American system. The head of each of the provinces is a military officer known as a commandante, who has headquarters in the capital of his department He has also a fiscal admin- istrator corresponding to the intendante at San Juan. These department commanders exercise some civil jurisdiction, but do so as representatives of the captain- general, and not as officers of original jurisdiction. In every town there is an alcalde or mayor, who governs according to Spanish law. He is appointed by the captain-general, and where it is possible, the ap- pointment is based upon the nomination of the leading citizens of the town, and the indorsement of the local commander. Many of the appointments are wise, the appointees being just, patriotic, and public spirited citizens. Others are of a very different sort, and are scheming Spanish politicians, who desire the place not for honor or public good, but for the opportunity which it gives them of making money illegitimately. _ 90 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. There is a well organized hierachy, of which the head is the Bishop of Bayamon, who has an archiepiscopal residence and cathedral at San Juan. There is an over large customs service, which, in order to find employment for needy office seekers and friends of the government, has invented so much red tape as to make mercantile business a tribulation and a perennial nuisance to every merchant. In order partly to increase their importance, and partly to augment their revenue, they are reinforced by a series of remarkable laws of seizures, confiscations, fines and penalties, which render commerce almost as dangerous, from a financial point of view, as the manu- facture of high explosives. Thus, if on a ship's mani- fest there is an entry of 100 barrels of flour, the law de- mands that exact amount just as Shylock demanded his pound of flesh, and in the Spanish system there is no Portia to plead the cause of the unfortunate. The only relaxing of the law is allowed by the way of compro- mise, and the imposition of a fine. These are paid alike by Americans and British, French and German. The amount of the fine depends upon the temper of the col- lector, or his venality, and upon the political power of the flag upon whose subject the penalty has been imposed. The revenue of the government is drawn from a tariff which is imposed upon as many goods as possible, in- cluding breadstuffs, provisions, and the other neces- saries of life. Thus in 1897 two-thirds of all the goods imported into the island were dutiable and paid PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. 91 revenue. Second, a tax upon all exports from the island. Third, licenses for lotteries, cockpits, bull fights, gam- bling establishments and special trades. Fourth, ground rents upon all lands belonging originally to the crown, or which have been confiscated or have es- cheated. Fifth, a personal tax, which is based upon a compli- cated system of classification. Sixth, a land tax, and seventh, a tax on stamped paper. This tax is a curios- ity. If you write to an official upon official business you must use stamped paper or else put a government stamp upon ordinary paper. The amount of the tax or stamp depends upon the length of the communication, and the grade of the official you address. Under the American system it would be like charg- ing ten cents for writing to an alderman, twenty to an assemblyman, forty to a congressman, fifty to a State senator, and a dollar to the governor. The tax has one recommendation, it discourages that class which exists in Porto Rico, as everywhere else, and which takes pleasure in making trouble about its neighbors' short- comings. Besides these regular taxes, the captain-general levies, whenever it is deemed necessary, special im- posts, such as garrison taxes and road and bridge as- sessments. Still another means of obtaining revenue is the system of taxing the tax, by adding to the face of every bill some percentage of its face value. Some of the revenue goes to Spain, some goes to pay off the in- terest on the public debt, other portions are applied to the 92 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. army, the church, schools, hospitals and asylums, roads, bridges, rivers and harbors, and other objects. Besides the regular allowance or sanctorum for the church, the latter, in its educational capacity, receives a large part of the sum set aside for education, and in its philan- thropic and charitable capacity another amount for insti- tutions of that class under its own wing. There is, as a rule, a deficiency of revenue each year which has to be included in the next year's budget. Beyond the taxes, which are very large, much annoy- ance is occasioned by the legal methods and official sys- tem employed in assessment and collection. These in- volve the payment of small fees and perquisites and amount in the course of a year to a vast sum. They increase the financial burden of the people, prevent the development of trade and commerce, and diminish the value of the wonderful natural resources of the country. The revenue, before the breaking out of the Cuban war, was about $4,000,000, but in the past year has been about $5,000,000. Of this more than one-fourth has been ap- plied to the army, a tenth to the judiciary, a seventh to the public works and a fifth to the debt. It should be said in conclusion that the officials sent out by the home government have been superior in every respect to those who were dispatched to Cuba and the Philip- pines. The downright robbery, the universal extortion and the high-handed outrages which have prevailed in Cuba have been almost unknown in Porto Eico. There have been peculation and exaction in the smaller island, but they have been on a small scale, and not accom- PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. 93 panied by a display of military power, and much less of violence. The captain-general of 1898, General Macias, is spoken of in high terms by the natives as a brave soldier, a courtly gentleman and an honest official. 94 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. CHAPTER X. SOCIAL LIFE. The Porto Rican excels in social life. He has the fine manners and dignity of his Spanish ancestors, and adds to them the lighter spirit and congeniality of the New World. He is very hospitable, and treats a guest like the proverbial returned prodigal. It is not true that this courtesy and hospitality are mere affectations, or a series of social shams. They are not now and never have been. The manners have developed through the centuries, and represent strong mental and social ten- dencies. The Spanish gentleman who lives upon a few cups of coffee and rolls to-day in order that he may serve you a partridge to-morrow, takes as much pleasure in the self-sacrifice, and in the delight which he confers as the guest himself in the excellence of the entertainment. It is not uncommon for the head of a family to pawn jewels and heirlooms in order to obtain the means for a lavish entertainment of relatives and friends. The custom is unthrifty, extravagant, wasteful, and at times ruinous; but it expresses an altruistic tendency which has been developed through generations. Along with this reckless hospitality have grown up compen- sating features and customs, some of which are sensible, PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. 95 while others are humorously pitiable. When you are entertained by a comparative stranger or a chance ac- quaintance, you incur the obligation of returning the compliment in some way or other. It may be in the form of a dinner, a handsome present to the children of the house, a piece of jewelry for one of the members of the family, or even in a horse and harness. You should also present a substantial douceur to the servant. In colloquial Spanish are odd terms of reproach which have no meaning in our speech, and cannot be trans- lated. One is applied to the person who always accepts hospitality but never returns it, and another is applied to a person who entertains his entertainers, but over- looks the cook, waiter and chambermaid. When families are quite poor the mistress has no hes- itation in sharing the money which the guest has given the servant. There is a dim feeling that the present was quid pro quo for the guest's pleasure, and that, therefore, the master and the servant are equally en- titled to its benefit. This funny practice finds its highest point in small hotels and inns, where, after the departure of a wealthy and generous guest, the landlord and his wife round up all the servants, and compel them to disgorge every gift they have received. On the other hand, the same landlord and landlady that ransack their servant's pockets, and take away everything of value will the next moment share with the latter wine, fruit, flowers, cigars and cigarettes which they themselves have re- ceived from the guests. 06 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. Underneath these customs are the old feudal relation and, in fact, they may be said to be survivals, of the Middle Age. It is, therefore, not surprising for the visitor to find that the servants, as a class, are dishonest in regard to such trifles as sugar, coffee, tobacco, wine, fruits and other things, which, to their mind, are the currency of courtesy, but in everything else they 'are models of rectitude. A man-servant will die in defense of his master or his master's guest, and a maid-servant will sit up cheerfully every night for a week to serve as a nurse for a sick visitor within the home. Wages are very small, and, in fact, many servants work for their food and clothing. Under the head of food are included light wine and smoking material, and on all church holidays the master gives according to his means a small sum to each domestic for purposes of enjoyment. When servants become sick and old they are not thrown out into the street, as it must be confessed is the custom of the more cold-blooded commercial com- munities of the North, but are cared for and attended to with as much solicitude as if they were aged members of the family. There is no prettier sight than an old retainer of a Porto Rican family. He glories in his weary years of service, in the virtues and accomplish- ments of his master and master's relatives, in the pedi- gree of his master's race, in the house, grounds, or plan- tation beyond it. The house may be falling into ruin, the estate may be crushed beneath debt, the family may be smirched with scandal, or bowed down with sorrow and disgrace, but to the old man the place is still a PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. 07 palace, the plantation yields a king's revenue, and the family is the noblest caballero blood which the broad empire of Spain can furnish. At Mayaguez, when the American army entered, there was one handsome house which was barricaded like a fort, and behind whose windows could be seen two white-haired men armed to the teeth. They were ready for an attack, and were willing to defend it at the cost of their lives. At least two days passed before the aged warriors were con- vinced that the Americans came to bring peace, and not a sword. They then came out and offered to sur- render their arms, asking protection for the senora, their aged mistress, and the four beautiful senoritas, her daughters, who were all that was left of a wealthy and noble family. Social intercourse is light, pleasant, artistic. Nearly every one is acquainted with the poets of the mother country, with Lope de Vega, Calderon and Cervantes, and also with the French satirist Lesage, whose master- piece of "Gil Bias" is as popular with them to-day as the immortal adventures of Don Quixote. Of science, history, other literatures, philosophy and the works of higher thought, they know little or nothing. Among the well-to-do there is a good reading knowledge of French, but this is applied to Belot, the De Maupassants, Mendez, De Musset, Gautier, Dumas fiis, Pierre Loti, Daudet, and Chenier. A minority like the healthier and more vigorous productions of Hugo, D amas and Balzac, while a larger class like the depraved yellow-covered literature of the present decade. 98 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. Music is everywhere, and marks every social gather- ing. Gambling is fashionable and popular. It could not be otherwise in a community where the government itself conducts a lottery, and where the drawings are supervised by at least one ecclesiastic, and where the government issues licenses to gaming establishments and legalizes betting on thejnational sport, cock fighting. The favorite parlor games of cards are ombre, quad- rille, siete y mitad, baccarat, piquet, solo, and some- times, though, rarely whist. Other games are draughts, dice, chess, loto and backgammon. Young men of the well-to-do class imitate young Englishmen and indulge in hunting, fishing, fencing, tennis, steeple chasing, and a few go so far as to play cricket and indulge in mild athletics, but the best native athlete I ever saw would not be a match for the average Vassar graduate. It is partly the climate and partly hereditary indolence which make all exercise and activity unpleasant. The youth- ful Porto Rican who exercises one hour a day displays greater heroism that the crazy century rider of the bicycle world. Billiards and dancing are universal. Private bil- liard parties are more frequent than in American cities. Every man, woman and child appears to be a master of round, square and fancy dancing. Those who are fashionable favor the styles in vogue in Paris, while the great middle classes still retain their love for the bolero, fandango, cachuca, and the rustic bailes or country dances of the old country. Their dancing parties are pretty pictures. The gentlemen are attired PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. 99 in black and white clothes, the regular attire being a black silk or alpaca coat, white linen shirt, vest and trousers, patent-leather shoes, and sometimes in place of a waistcoat they wear a broad silk sash. Officers wear handsome tropical uniforms, and ecclesiastics the neat and artistic robes of the church. The priest never dances the round dance, but may take part in a quadrille. The women range from black and white combinations in their dress to delightful ^bursts of lace and varicolored silk and satin. Black or white dresses which disclose the arms, shoulders, bust and back, but are lined elsewhere with white or many- colored satin, Jare more numerous than any other single style, and embroidered linen or silk is also in vogue. The bolero jacket, the most graceful of the articles of raiment here, is worn by nearly all the senoritas. They have slight but pretty figures, and in the excitement of a dancing party their olive cheeks turn pink and red, their eyes brighten, their faces assume an unwonted ex- pression of mental activity, so that they form as beau- tiful a spectacle as one can well wish to see. To an American there is a dark side to the picture. The condition of woman is very inferior, and as a result, or a concomitant, morals are none of the best. The men treat women with exquisite courtesy, both in speech and action. They foresee every want, and they bestow at- tention with tact and delicacy, but it is the master pleasing the slave, and not one human being treating his equal, The woman cannot go out alone without losing caste and being insulted. She cannot receive a 100 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. visitor alone, not even when that visitor is her fiance. She cannot go to an opera, concert, theatre or reception alone. Even in going to church she must be accompa- nied by a servant or a duenna. The husband is always jealous of the wife, though not in the same way as men are of our own race. He does [not seemingly object to her smiling, wink- ing, or waving a fan from her veranda at a strange passer-by, neither does he object particularly to her de- mure and disguised flirtations in church, but if she re- ceive an octogenarian caller in his absence there is bound to be trouble in the camp. On the other hand, he him- self looks very lightly upon his obligations to his spouse. It is so common for men to have illegitimate relations that no one seems to regard the fact as objec- tionable. At one hotel the wife of the landlord pointed out to me with equal pride her own children and the children of her husband by a servant in the establish- ment. Not far from Ponce lives a well-to-do Jibaro, who would be a good acquisition to a Mohammedan community. He lives with two wives and has a regi- ment of children. When complimented upon the size of his family, he sighed, and said: "Ah, yes, eight of them belong to my third beautiful wife who is dead and in heaven.' 7 And when asked if the two wives lived together in amiable relations, he looked puzzled and answered : "They loved each other before marriage, and the marriage has made them into two loving sisters." This immorality or unmorality, because it is open PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. 101 and avowed, has done much toward amalgamating the different races. As mentioned in another chapter, there are no lines between the white, black and red types. They pass imperceptibly from one into the other, until it is well-nigh impossible to determine the exact racial purity of any individual you may encounter. The con- dition of the working classes was, of course, not im- proved by the influence of slavery. Under that institu- tion the mating of human beings lost all its sacredness and significance, and was viewed with no more concern than incidents in the lives of domestic animals. It made little or no difference to the planter whether his slaves were married or not. All that he required was that his property should not die out, and he therefore welcomed every addition to his wealth, no matter how it came about. Thus to the slave mind came the feeling that a mar- riage ceremony was simply a festival affair or a pleas- ant recreation. When they could afford it they would get married and have a wedding feast. When they did not have the money they had no ceremony. In manv cases the black man and woman lived together and slowly put by their little savings until they had enough for a marital feast. There are cases on record where successful blacks, after having raised a family of children, and married off their daughters in great style, then turned and accumulated the amount requisite for a first-class wedding for themselves. The abolition of slavery did not abolish the customs, ideas and beliefs which slavery engendered. A large 102 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. part of the people in Porto Kico view marriage as a pleasant social event, and not as a ceremony of sacred and binding force. It will be long before they change. The higher classes are almost as careless in their opinions, so that there is no center nor point from which the initiative can be taken. Only by the pressure of civilization, and the force of northern example and con- duct, can the moral status of the masses be raised from the low level in which it now exists. In social life the first meal is an early breakfast, known as the desayuno. In its simplest form it consists of a large bowl of coffee, sugar and condensed milk. With working people a piece of bread and cheese, a raw onion, and a fruit are added to the coffee. Among the well-to-do the coffee is reinforced with biscuits, rolls, fruit, and sometimes a little cold fish or meat. It is served between 6 and 8 o'clock in the morning, the working people taking it at the former hour, the wealthy people at the later hour, and usually in bed. The next regular meal is a second breakfast, known as the almuerzo. This meal is unlike anything in American social life, and ranges from the French de- jeuner a la fourchette to the tiffin of the far East. It is a generous, substantial meal, with several or many courses, and cooked and served with the same care and skill as dinner. At one house the bill of fare consisted of an omelet for the first course, some delicious fried fish for the second, and some broiled chicken for the third. There was fruit in epergnes, from which the guests helped themselves as they pleased. There were PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. 103 also three dolces or sweetmeats, one being a guava paste, which is brown, and about as hard as cream bonbons, a second being a pineapple jam of about the same con- sistency as Scotch orange marmalade, and the third be- ing a compote or macedoine of stewed fruits in honey. Another almuerzo began with the waiter bringing a large tray on which were dishes containing sliced Vic sausage, sardines, tunny fish in oil, radishes, olives and cold sliced meat, spiced or seasoned. Each guest helped herself to as many of these appetizers as she desired, and ate them with some excellent bread. There was canned butter on the table, but no one excepting one American used it. It must have been too rich for the Yankee palate, because he did not try it a second time, nor finish the piece put upon his plate. Then came several hot dishes, including a Spanish omelet, a very nice hash made of mutton, green chilies, onion, and tomato, and some chops which were not broiled but fried. These were cooked with bananas, making a very agreeable combination. The next part of the meal con- sisted of cold dishes, and included a Spanish salad, in which there was very little meat, and a bewildering variety of vegetables. I noticed lettuce, chicory, onion, shallot, green and red chilies, parsley, and queer- est of all, spearmint. The dressing was a French dress- ing, but the pepper was reinforced by cayenne, and, I think, a little mustard. It was a novel mixture, but it can be commended both for palatability and health. In some homes a light luncheon, known as merienda, is served, but more frequently coffee and biscuits, and 104 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. a piece of fruit take the place of a regular meal. Another odd tropical beverage is tea, in which has been steeped a spray of lemon verbena. The intense per- fume of that popular flower communicates itself to the hot fluid, and makes it about the most odorous drink imaginable. Comida or dinner is the big meal of the day, and is served anywhere from 5 to 8 o'clock. It is a course dinner, but not so elaborate and many -numbered as the French table d'hote, nor so heavy and simple as the English meal. There is a soup which is always rich and appetizing. The Spaniards have carried soup-making to greater lengths than almost any other nation. They have an intricate classification, which, I must confess, is beyond my grasp. They divide foods of this class into three groups. One is the caldo, which the dictionaries trans- late as broth, but which, as a matter of fact, includes both broth and heavier soups, such as gravy soup and English beef soup. Then there are the sopas, which include the pot-a-feu, bisque, macaroni soup, pea soup, julienne, rice, vermicelli, and bean soups. The third group consists of the potagios, which, in the main, are thicker than any of the soups enumerated. They corre- spond to the ancient potage of the American, colonial and English table, which consisted of the rich juice which remained in the pot after a pot roast, and which when served plain was a potage, and when thickened with burnt flour was old-fashioned pot gravy. Many of the soups may be recommended to the PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. 105 American housekeeper. Of these the most prominent are the black bean soup, the shrimp soup, and the dish known as "old clothes, " rojo viejo. The next course of the dinner is an entree or made dish, of which the favorite specimen is chicken and rice prepared verj~ much like the pilau of the Mediterranean. The third course is a highly flavored stew of veal or pork cutlet, and as if to show the pressure of the Anglo- Saxon, a biftek, in which mutilated word it is still easy to see the wholesome English word beefsteak. Then follows a dessert, both hot and cold fruits, cheese and coffee. Dinner and second breakfast are w T ashed down with Spanish wine, or, where the homes are well-to-do, with the vintages of France. The dining room is always decorated with good taste, the table linen is usually embroidered, the glass and china are of the finest quality. The knives are shaped more like a dagger than the silver-plated ware of the United States. They have good strong steel blades, and ivory or mother-of-pearl handles. An odd feature is in serving the various foods hot and cold. They are placed, no matter whether animal or vegetable, in one dish of china, porcelain, earthenware or metal, and this in turn is placed in a larger second one. Whether this is done to prevent the dripping or overflow of contents upon the tablecloth, or to keep the heat in the hot dishes, is impossible to ascertain. There is a more lavish use of plates than in other countries. The dinner plate is small, especially when compared with the roast beef plates of England, and the 106 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. curry plates of Holland. The rule is to put only one thing, and comparatively little of that, upon one plate. This is carried so far that where lamb chops, fried pota- toes and small stuffed tomatoes are served, the guest will put a tiny chop upon one plate, three potatoes, or rather three slices of potatoes, upon a second, and a tomato smaller than an egg upon a third. On one oc- casion I noticed that a Porto Rican lady separated the in- gredients of meat stewed with vegetables, and in this way employed four plates. Most extraordinary of all is the finger-bowl service. This is a ceremony which is almost as good as a play. When done in proper style in the best houses, the serv- ing man brings a silver salver on which is a beautiful linen doily. Upon this rests a dark -colored finger bowl, one-third filled with cold water. In the finger bowl stands a tall wineglass filled with perfumed water, the perfume being orange-flower water, rose water, tincture of benzoin, or a few drops of myrrh. Alongside of the bowl are three wooden toothpicks, a slice of lemon, and two medium-sized napkins. The guest removes the wineglass from the bowl, and puts it on one of the napkins on the table alongside of the salver. He then, using the lemon as a piece of soap, washes both hands in the finger bowl, and dries them with the second napkin, which is placed to the left of the salver. He next moves the wineglass nearer, covers his mouth with the first napkin, uses one or all of the toothpicks, rinses his mouth with the per- fumed water, ejects this into the bowl under cover of PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. 107 the napkin, then wipes the mustache and lower face with the linen, and lays it over the bowl and wine- glass. I had a wild desire when I first saw it to sug- gest that if a tooth brush had been added the toilet service would be complete, but I sagaciously held my peace. Late in the evening a cena or supper is served, which is sometimes replaced by a tea, consisting of a cup of tea, a piece of toast, a biscuit, or a sweet cake. Some Spanish bon vivants add a wineglass of arrack or other liqueur to their tea as a sort of nightcap. The discrimination against children which prevails in many American and English families is seldom seen. They appear at the table, and even in the case of little tots, are as polite and decorous as their parents and grandparents. There is a strong family feeling among the people, and filial love and respect are more notice- able if not stronger than among the colder-blooded races. The father may be wealthy and the grandfather de- pendent upon him, but it is the latter who is the real head of the family. Mothers are treated the same when old as when young. Gray-haired men kiss and fondle their white-haired mothers with the same heartiness and playful affection as if they were little boys. Note- worthy is the habit which the old ladies have of dress- ing in bright colors and pretty frocks. Americans with grim humor, but deplorable taste, insist upon their old people wearing black clothes of formal cut, as if to in- dicate that the mourning they wore was in honor of their approaching dissolution. An American parlor of old ladies, and an English one as well, always prompts 108 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. the query, which one, if you please, are the others mourning for? It is therefore a novel pleasure to see pretty, graceful old ladies gleaming in lilacs, sulphur rose, and sky blue, rustling in satin and fluttering in lace. It is in keeping with the light-heartedness and affectionate activity which characterizes the aged ladies of this land. PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. 109 CHAPTER XL CITY LIFE. The tendency toward the segregation of population in a few large cities has not made as much progress in Porto Rico as in other western commonwealths. The three largest cities, San Juan, the capital, Maya- guez, the western, and Ponce, the southern metropolis, have the following populations: San Juan, 30,000; Mayaguez, 20,000 and Ponce, 18,000. Fajardo, the eastern metropolis, has about 12,000; Guayama, in the southwest, about 5,000, and Arrojo, its port, 3,000. Aguadilla, in the northwest, the capital of the prov- ince of that name, has 6,000, and Arecibo, the capital of Arecibo Province, has about 8,000, Cities like Luquillo, Cerra, Naguabo, Humacao, Yabucoa, Piedras, Maunabo, and Patillas, in the Prov- ince of Humacao, range from 1,500 to 5,000. So do such cities in Bayamon Province as Vega Baja, Vega Alta, Corozal, Naranjito, Toa Alta, Toa Baja, Dorado, Bayamon, Rio Piedras, Trujillo Alto, Carolina, Loiza, and Rio Grande. * j In the same class are the following cities of Guaya- ma, Sabana del Palmar, Aguas Buenas, Caguas, Gurabo, Juncos, San Lorenzo, Cidra, Cayeiand Salinas; 110 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. in the Province of Ponce, Parranquitas, Aibonito, Coamo, Santa Isabel, Barros, Juana Diaz, Adjuntas, Penuelas, Guayanilla and Yauco ; in the Province of Arecibo, Manati, Morovis, Ciales, Utuado, Hatillo, Cainui, and Quebradillas ; in the Province of Agua- dilla, Isabella, Moca, Aguada, Rincon, San Sebastian, and Lares. In the Province of Mayaguez, Anasco, Las Marias, Maricao, Hormigueros, Caborojo, and Sabana Grande, and on the island of Vieques, Isabel Segunda. The entire population of the seven provincial capitals and the fifty-nine cities of the second class is about 200,000, or a little more. Below these are towns and cities ranging from 100 to 1,500 in population, of which Ponce has 156, Bayamon 117, Aguadilla 103, Guayama 96, Arecibo 89, Mayaguez 81, Humacao 77, and Vieques 5, making 724 municipalities. They will average about 400 inhabitants apiece, giving a grand total of about 500,000 residing in cities and towns, and 300,000 living on farms or plantations. When the configuration of the country is taken into consideration, and a due allowance made for mountains as opposing influences and fertile lowlands as favoring ones, it will be seen that the population is distributed with remarkable uniformity. In the relation of race to locality, the present condition has not changed much from that which existed when slavery was in force. The bulk of the slaves worked upon the hot and humid plantations, and the free Jibaros upon the less fertile and cooler hilly districts, so at the present time the larger number of the blacks is encountered on the low- PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. Ill lands and rich farming country near the coast, while in the less hospitable hill districts of the interior, more es- pecially in northern Ponce and Guayama, and in south- ern Arecibo, the whites predominate largely. This cor- responds almost exactly with the conditions prevailing in the United States. The Black belts of to-day were formerly the districts in which were the large plantations or else the lowlands fringing the coasts, while in the cooler and higher coun- ties citizens of African blood are in a marked minority. The cities of the island bear the imprint of their Span- ish, builders. The one which most closely resembles the smaller Spanish cities is San Juan, and those which least resemble the original type are the newcomers representing the development of agriculture and commerce. At San Juan are a morro or hill fort, an ancient city gate, here and there remnants of city walls, and within are the narrow streets, the latticed jalousies, the heavy awnings, the barred doors, the posterns, and patios. The houses are close together, and the popula- tion comparatively dense. At the other extreme is Ponce, where a majority of the well-to-do live in villas surrounded with gardens, and where the city is accessi- ble from the country in every direction. But even in Ponce there is a strong Spanish flavor similar to that which obtains in Cuba and Mexico. Where the streets are paved the work is neatly done, and the surface is kept very clean. One or two cities have a pavement, which is imported from England, and made of artificial 112 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. stone. It affords a good foothold to both man and beast, and wears very well where the traffic is light and the loads not heavy, but it cracks and crumbles when heavy loads are drawn over it, making sharp and dan- gerous hollows in the surface. In other streets may be found a style of paving which comes down from the Moors and consists of long and narrow flakes of stone driven with mallets into the soil. While this pave- ment does not look strong, it is extremely stout and serv- iceable. At other points the people have used the old Spanish paving, which consists of small squares of stone, larger than the Russian block familiar in American cities. Many streets are macadamized, and make a satisfactory driveway. Other thoroughfares have been paved by Father Time, the materials being pieces of brick, crockery, bottles, jars and water coolers worn into a smooth surface by thousands of feet, human, canine and equine. There are well-rolled dirt roads which are dusty in summer, muddy in the wet season, but, taken as a whole, very serviceable. The water and sewer facilities are simply infamous. Much of the water is rain caught on roofs and stored in brick cisterns. Another supply is drawn from wells, and a third from streams and ponds. There are almost no sewers worthy of the name in the entire island. Ces- pools are common, and the leakage percolates through thin strata, and often contaminates the water supply. This is undoubtedly the chief cause of the malaria and typhoid fever, the cholera morbus and dysentery which PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. 113 break out when the dry season has begun to decrease the height of the water in the wells and cisterns. At San Juan and at Ponce careful housekeepers have all the offal and refuse of the house carried away by scavengers late at night or in the early morning. This ancient custom which has been planted by the Spaniard along with his flag is the most ingenious way known of spreading infection and epidemics. The sidewalks are always narrow, and sometimes only a shelf on either side of the street, along which only one person can walk at a time. It reminds one of Chinese cities, and excites wonder why the Castilians do not walk single file as do the citizens of Canton. The pavement proper curves toward the middle, which in the rainy season serves as a sluiceway along which the strong rains carry the filth of the cities. The houses are one and two stories high, and when not made of wood, are constructed in simple form of brick or of rough cut stone. They are seldom left in their natural color, but are whitewashed, stuc- coed, and tinted. The effect is rather artistic. One store will be a gendarme blue, while the next will be the last shade in cerise; a third will be pallid gold, and a fourth a light green. Occasionally the f agade is orna- mented with glazed tiles, either in plain tints or else with a tinted ground, and a raised or molded figure in color. The architect seems to have died two or three centuries ago. One looks in vain for the new and beau- tiful designs which characterize every modern city in the more progressive lands. I cannot recall a man- sard roof, an Elizabethan window, a Gothic doorway, 114 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. a Tudor casement, a Queen Anne cottage, or a French Renaissance front anywhere on the island. The build- ing of yesterday is a capital copy of the one put up by the conquestaclores three hundred years ago. The win- dows, where there are any, are small, and glass is con- spicuous by its absence. An alcalde told me that there were few panes of window glass on the island, and my observations sub- stantiate his statement. It must be said, however, that the windows carry out the full meaning of the names. The word window originally meant the place where the wind could come in — a ventilator, in short. But American artificial life has made window the exact antithesis of ventilation, and it is practically something which keeps the wind out. In fact, one might add a "t" to the present word, making it "windowt," and then it would express the real meaning. Every window and every door has a jalousy or set of shutters, which when turned prevent any light or rain entering into the house. They are of use in the rainy and stormy season, and also serve to keep away flying insects which are attracted by a flame. The idea of having a house to oneself does not appeal to the mind of the city man. A wealthy proprietor leases his ground floor to shopkeepers when the house is situated upon a business thoroughfare, and lives in the second story, which is always large, roomy, well ventilated and comfortable; but when upon other streets he leases the ground floor to poor tenants so that the ex- traordinary picture is presented of a millionaire living PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. 115 in luxury on the second floor and ten or a dozen dirty, naked families, swarming together immediately be- neath. The upper occupants do not notice the lower ones in any way. They may be beggars, thieves, or lepers, but it does not affect the feelings or conduct, or even the thought of those overhead. It is a complete reversal of the apartment system of Paris, where the poor workman lives on the fifth and sixth floor, and the jeweled lord or lady upon the first. The system spreads disease, and increases the mortality of all the larger cities. In every large community there is a theatre, and at least once a month there is a praise- worthy performance. Sometimes it is an operatic or concert company from Spain, Havana, Mexico or South America. Sometimes it is a dramatic troupe, or it may be some strolling vaudeville artist, a prestidigitator, a panorama, a phonograph, a kinetoscope, educated dogs or a set of acrobats. The natives love amusement, and patronize entertainments so generously that companies can do as well in towns of 1,000 population as they do in American cities of 10,000. The American circus is very popular, and many small concerns pass their time in going through the long series of towns and cities in Porto Rico and the neighboring islands. In most of the cities there is a plaza or public square, and here at least once a week is given a popular con- cert. The musicians are military bands whenever there are garrisons, and when these are not available, the municipality, and even private philanthropy supply the performers. 116 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. The music is simple, melodic, and often a little bar- barous from its large use of the triangle, cymbal and Castanet. In several of the cities the band stand is a handsome work of art. The one in the Plaza of Ponce is modeled after a Moorish pleasure house, and is a blaze of color and gilding. Around it are planted flowers, and here and there beautiful vines ornament the walls. It affords a place where the musicians can dress and have refreshments, and is vastly superior to the round, roofed platforms which are used in Ameri- can parks for the same purpose. These concerts make a feature in social life. Those who can, go in carriages, for which a certain space is allotted and set aside, and there sit and enjoy the music and receive calls from friends. The women dress in their handsomest and showiest attire, go bareheaded, or else cover themselves with bewitching head draper- ies. The public can use the seats provided by the au- thorities, but the great mass stand still or stroll slowly around the stand, chatting with one another, and keep- ing time with the music with the swaying of their bodies, or the gestures of their hands. It is amusing to watch the crowd when the bands strikes some wild Moorish march or some well-loved dansa. Every face brightens, every eye sparkles, and every head nods to and fro like that of a toy mandarin. At ordinary times, and especially the early morning the plazas are used as markets. Here come the Jibaros and Jibaras, bringing with them the choicest products of their little farms. The poorer ones carry PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. 117 their goods upon their backs or on their heads, the more prosperous use sumpter mules and little pack donkeys, while a few reach the dignity of a diminutive cart. Most noticeable are the fruits and flowers. In the early morning between 6 and 7, before the buyers have taken away the goods, the open space is a blaze of color — yellow lemons, green limes, pallid shaddocks, glisten- ing oranges, bananas and plantains, green, yellow, red and brown; pineapples, yellow, red and brown; bright tinted guavas, brown sapodillas, mottled and striped mangoes; piles of melons, pyramids of onions, and everywhere masses of flowers wild and cultivated. The market people are almost as varied in color as the goods they sell. It makes a weird combination when three or four young peasant women with flashing eyes, erect carriage, and well-rounded figures form a group and begin to chat. The yellow arm resting upon the bronze shoulder, the black hand patting the olive back, the copper fingers arranging the ruddy red hair around the white face, compose an odd study in the variations of color. As the buyers increase conversation rolls out, until finally it becomes a perfect tumult. Everybody seems to be talking to everybody else, and for the moment the visitor's mind leaps from the plaza to the Stock Ex- change in Wall Street on a busy morning. The same spirit underlies both. Those who have, wish to sell at the highest price possible, and those who have not, desire to buy at the lowest. Excitement brings out queer mixtures of abuse and courtesy. Such 118 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. expressions as "the illustrious thief," "noble pig," "extraordinary miser," "black Jew/' "heathen Moor," "atrocious negro," "commercial hog," "un- speakable donkey," "ineffable cow," and other phrases fill the air. The funniest part of it all is when the buyer and the seller begin to quarrel over the amount necessary for a family. They have agreed upon the unitary price, but the buyer insists that his or her family can live upon one pound, while the seller de- clares that one pound means starvation, and that the family must take two pounds or die; or else when the opposite kind of a bargain is struck, the peasant is cer- tain that una libra will be enough for a family of three, and will in fact support five, while the housewife or servant vows with tears that each member of the family can eat dos libras, and then feel hungry and want more. This style of bargaining based upon the size of families and the dimension of appetites is a royal novelty to sightseers from America. The market closes at 11, and toward the end the character of the customers change greatly. In the early morning and up to 9 o'clock the buyers were evidently people who had money and were willing to pay fair prices for what they bought. They were followed by a second class who had but little money, and wanted to buy the inferior and cheaper arti- cles left by the first. These, in turn, are replaced by the very poor, and by beggars who expect to get some- thing for a few cents, or to receive as a charity from the good-natured farmers enough of the unsold produce to keep them alive for another day. PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. 119 In Porto Eican cities there are beggars galore. The climate is so mild that a man can live in perfect com- fort the year through in the open. During the rainy season he finds shelter in sheds, unused buildings or in the halls of friends. A single suit of cheap clothing will last a year or more, and a few cents will buy both food and drink enough to support life, if not to satisfy appetite and thirst. You meet the beggars everywhere. They are most plentiful at the doors of churches, and the entrances to hotels. They stand in front of cafes and clubs, lying in wait chiefly for cigar and cigarette stumps which still contain three or four whiffs of tobac- co. They are an aimless, shiftless, hopeless set, igno- rant to the last degree, and without a thought of anything beyond the brute necessities of life. They have not the robust appearance or the belligerent air of the Ameri- can tramp, nor the confidential whisper and pleasing smile of the British beggar. They are the lowest tj r pe of the mendicant. There is a religious flavor to the city atmosphere, the number of members of religious orders being larger in proportion to the population than in more northern lands. These are rendered more noticeable by always wearing the garb of their calling. There are Domini- cans, Franciscans, Augustinians, Jesuits, Paulist Fathers, Eecoletos and Capuchins. On religious feast days there are church processions, and at any time the visitor is liable to encounter some little procession or function in the streets. The people, no matter what they believe, treat these 120 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. events with profound courtesy, and uncover themselves, standing in silence until the affair has gone by. Often the traffic of a business street will cease for a few min- utes out of respect, it may be for a marriage procession, a funeral, the carrying of a relic to a sick-bed, or the celebration of the anniversary of some saint. There is a certain vague pleasure in this courteous treatment of religious ceremonies which is in marked contrast with the fierce business turmoil of the great American cities, where nothing is ever permitted to interfere with the mad pursuit of the flying dollar. PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. 121 CHAPTER XII. THE WOMAN'S WORLD. As the average man knows little or nothing of woman's attire and domestic duties, he is requested to skip this chapter, which treats of those topics exclu- sively. The life of the women of the middle and upper classes is essentially indoor. Of walking as an amuse- ment, of long constitutionals, of light sports and exer- cises, they are completely ignorant. Owing partly to their education and habits and partly to the lethargy produced by the tropical climate, they look down upon all physical activity, excepting dancing. I spoke to many Porto Rican ladies about gymnastics and calis- thenics, and in every instance but one my listeners seemed to regard these things as evidences of eccentric- ity. The one in question said that exercise might make a woman healthier, but certainly it would make her harder, and therefore less handsome. The consequence of this physical activity displays itself at a very early period. The rounded and exquis- ite outlines of the girl are not based upon firm flesh and blood, but upon the weaker and less permanent tissues of childhood. The strain of married life, and especially motherhood, comes with crushing force, and results in 122 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. premature aging and decay. With young English and American wives matrimony usually brings increased health, beauty, and a higher womanhood; but with the Porto Ricans its concomitants are wrinkles, gray hairs, and an expression of weariness and loss of hope. There is a liberal use of cosmetics by the sex, although this is, so far as my experience is concerned, a characteristic of social life in all warm countries. Some rich scent is added to the bath by every woman who can afford it. The favorite preparation is Florida water, which is im- ported from the United States, England, France and Germany, as well as from other islands of the Antilles. Next to that is the native bay rum, of which the finer qualities are exceedingly pleasant. The third is cologne, both the standard article and such varieties as violet, jasmine, lilac, and jockey club cologne waters. Tincture of benzoin is popular, as are also such scents as musk, orange flower, mille fleurs, myrrh, camphor, sandal wood and attar of rose. The towels are the plain French articles, and not the stouter fabrics of the English loom. Soap is not used as largely as with the colder races. There is a prejudice which is supported by the opinions of native physicians that too much soap abstracts the natural oil from the glands, thus drying the skin and injuring the complexion. It must not be supposed that the women are at all careless ; on the con- trary, those of the middle class bathe every day, and of the wealthier two and three times a day. The effect of their prejudice is seen in the faces of the women, which are nearly always shiny, or else well powdered to con- ceal the shine. FORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. 123 At the hotels you have to make a special call for soap, and even then you are liable to get a little piece which looks as if it were a century old. In private houses soap dishes are not as common as they might be, and even where there is one upon your washstand, it is generally empty. The safe rule for the traveler is to carry a small supply in her satchel. The combs and brushes are varied and numerous. Some of them are very artistic. The more popular styles of American, English and French goods are seen in the stores. Very pretty and novel to an American eye are Spanish designs made from dark woods, rubber, horn, ivory and other materials inlaid with silver or mother of pearl. Some of these are so arranged that when the bristles show too much wear, they can be removed in one piece and re- placed by fresh ones. For combing long hair they em- ploy a short comb with long, and well separated teeth. This takes out tangles without pulling, and prepares the way for the ordinary comb. The women have re- markably beautiful hair, which is seldom troubled with dandruff, dryness, splitting of the ends, or falling out. The excellent health of the scalp is doubtless due to the non-wearing of hats and bonnets. The headwear is simple and romantic. The universal style is the mantilla, which may be anything from a piece of crocheting or knitting to a priceless bit of old Gothic lace. Laces are much cheaper in Porto Rico than in New York, and handsome mantillas may be purchased for a dollar which bring three and four times as much in America, and marvelous creations of 124 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. the lace-maker's pillow can be purchased for eight and ten dollars. The mantilla is usually worn with the point falling down to he level of the eyebrows. Coquet- tish wearers carry the point down till it touches the bridge of the nose, which throws the great brown eyes out into beautiful relief, and often increase the artist ic effect by bringing the lower end around the cheek and lips, so as to imitate the veiled beauties of the old Sara- cen seraglios. The color of the mantilla is usually black. The next favorite is old gold, orange gray, or Spanish yellow, which is known as la blonda. One made of embroidered net or net applique is called la gasa. The workingwomen and the peasantry wear the most gorgeous headdress imaginable. It consists of a huge handkerchief printed in glaring colors, ranging from the familiar red and yellow bandana, so popular with darkies of the Southern States, to fantastic designs in stripes, circles, stars and leaves. Blue is rarely employed, the colors of the Spanish flag, blood and gold, being universal favorites. The bandana may be worn like a mantilla, like a cook's cap, a socialist's bonnet, or a Sikh turban. Long practice enables the women to weave it into all sorts of odd shapes and effects. The contrast with the blue-black hair and the olive skin is always striking, and generally very artis- tic. Most of the bandanas are cheap affairs, costing from three cents to twenty-five. There are linen ban- danas, but they are not in great demand. Beyond these are bandanas made of silk, and taffeta, known as seda or tafetan, which are colored as gaudily PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. 125 as the poor cotton ones. These are quite expensive, and are worn by prosperous Jibaras. The influence of the climate can be noticed in the footwear of the women. Many of the field hands wear a sandal made of pleated or stitched rope, with a single band across the instep. These cost but a few cents a pair. A grade higher than these is a slipper made with the same kind of rope sole, but with uppers of strong drill or cotton cloth in checks, stripes, bars or plaids. These are worn by women and men alike, and cost from ten cents to twenty-five cents a pair. Next in cost comes a long series of Moorish, Turkish and Spanish slippers, made of enamelled cloth, leatheret, leather, kid, patent leather, morocco, cordovan, alpaca, silk, satin, and even velvet. They range from natural colors, through every stripe of the rainbow, and are plain, hand-stitched, machine-stitched, embroidered or decorated with ap- plique silver and gold thread or seed pearls, beads and passementerie. In price they range from twenty-five cents to fifteen and twenty dollars a pair. Fashionable women wear these goods, that is to say, the more ex- pensive variety, and also the latest designs in boots and shoes from Paris. A small class which has traveled and taken a fancy to the comfortable and sensible hand- icraft of the American and English boot-makers, patronizes the styles familiar to shoppers in the big- cities of the United States. There is a very pretty dancing boot which is often worn at dancing parties. It has the high Spanish in- step, the small ankle, and the long narrow toe, and 126 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. around the upper edge are fastened either little bells or castanets, which make music in time with the dancer's feet. These are historical in character, being referred to in the old books as far back as the tenth or eleventh centuries. In the morning a Porto Eican lady wears a wrapper, a morning gown similar to those in vogue in this country, but usually of lighter and more permeable make. They are more ornamented than our own styles, and are fre- quently flounced, as well as embellished with lace and embroidery. Many women use light calico wrappers, keeping a large assortment, so as to allow having a fresh one every day. Peculiar to Porto Eico is a pretty morning sacque or dressing-jacket, which comes down in a long basque well over the hips, has flowing sleeves, and a loose rolling collar. The basque, sleeves and col- lar are trimmed with edging, lace, Swiss lace, embroid- ery or ruffled tulle. In the main, these sacques are of simple material, but ultra-fashionable women have them of silk, tafeta, and fine nets. "With these an embroid- ered skirt or petticoat may be worn. Hosiery is re- garded as much a luxury as a necessity. It is a little surprising the first day or two to see well dressed, be- jeweled women in handsome homes going about their rooms in slippers and bare ankles, but when the novelty wears away the practice receives approval. It keeps the body much cooler, and the feet and ankles in far better condition than the northern habit of putting on strong, well- woven stockings at the beginning of the day. PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. 127 The difference is that while only one American woman in three has a pretty and undisfigured foot, nine out of ten in Porto Rico enjoy that satisfying privilege. As a consequence, the chiropodist does not find lucrative employment in Porto Rico. Stockings are required in going to church, and at all formal and informal social functions. They are not a necessity when riding mules- and horses. An amusing sight may be seen on the roads leading to the churches on Sunday morning. When the rider gets within a half-mile of the sacred edifice she produces from some receptacle in the panier a pair of handsome stockings, and puts them on with the same calm indifference as a woman of northern countries puts on her gloves. The hosiery runs more to bright colors and contrasts than to plain black and other solid colors. Clocks are indispensable. The clocked stocking, in fact, comes from Spain, where it was developed to a much greater extent than in other countries. Some of the clocks are admirable pieces of needlecraft starting below the ball of the ankle, and running up even to the garter. Another pretty design consists in replacing the solid front with embroidery, drawn work and lace work. With the ultra-fashionable these decorations will start near the base of the toes and run up the instep and ankle halfway to the knee. When the body of the stocking is a mass of bright colors, the lace or embroi- dery forms a lattice through which the rosy, golden, or olive skin shines out very prettily from within. Women ride so much that frequently the stirrups and 128 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. reins are decorated so as to indicate the sex of their users. Estribos de seda, or silk stirrups, are exceed- ingly pretty, and are nothing more or less than a strongly made silken, heelless slipper suspended from the stirrup strap. These are usually embroidered, decorated with seed pearls worked in gold and silver thread, or ornamented with perforated silver coins. Some of them are quite handsome and expensive. When a woman use such stirrups, she will go bare- footed, or else keep her slippers or shoes on the saddle or panier while she is on her steed's back. Women's reins are similarly decorated and make a very pleasing embellishment to a quadruped's harness. In regard to public sports women can only go to a place with an escort, who must be her father, grandfather, uncle, brother, son, or else a duenna. Wealthy people employ a duenna, while those not well-to-do hire one whenever necessary. The average duenna is a hideous old maid or widow, and sometimes a poor married woman. She is ugly, plainly dressed, tireless, sleepless, garrulous, suspicious, and always hungry and thirsty. She takes a particu- lar pleasure in preventing wicked men from coming too near her charge, and preventing her naughty charge from winking and otherwise encouraging wicked men. She has two ideas, one is that every man has a mad desire to carry off each woman he meets, and each woman has a mad desire to be carried off; and second that it is her duty to get everything possible out of her position. She is not exactly venal, and in many cases PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. 129 will spurn a bribe unless it is diplomatically given, but she will accept cigars, cigarettes, coffee and wine at all hours of the day and night. When hired permanently she gets from $1 to $5 a month with her board and lodging, and when hired by the day demands from fifty cents to $2, with the ex- pectation of receiving from twenty-five to seventy-five cents as fees. She is not such a bad creature alto- gether, and is invaluable as a gossip or cicerone. She knows every scandal that has occurred in her native city from the time of her childhood. She knows exactly the amount which every Spanish official made in gam- bling, or how much he purloined, embezzled or stole, and how he invested his ill-gotten gains. She knows the name and fortune, prospects and pedigree of every eligible young man and woman in the province. While she is grasping herself, she is a fiend incarnate toward every servant, peddler, tradesman and cabby with whom you do business. In this way she saves you two and three times her paltry pay. She will fight, call every name and invoke every saint when your fruit peddler asks you two cents for three bananas, when the market rate is half a cent apiece. When she comes from poor stock she invariably an- nounces herself as being the illegitimate descendant of a duke, count or captain-general. When she comes from a good family she wearies you with long tales of its grandeur, estates and achievements. The duenna system is woven curiously into native life. If one or two American women stop on the road at a 130 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. plantation, the proprietor, manager, or person in charge will, after saluting the visitors, and assuring them that the entire place is theirs, send for a duenna and present her to his unknown guests. She will accompany the visitors until they remount their steeds, or return to their carriage, and will do her very best to make the visit interesting and agreeable. In return she will ex- pect a cigar or two, a package of cigarettes, or some lit- tle pin, tie or other article of personal wear. The corsets are heavier and stronger, and are made to be used with removable covers. The afternoon gown and tea gown are not much in vogue. Women receive their friends in the daytime in their wrappers or dressing gowns, calling being com- paratively infrequent. In the afternoon women make their toilets for dinner and the evening. These are rich, cool and elegant. Uncovered low necks and bare arms are quite rare, the rule being a lace or neck sacque or waist which allows the skin to be seen, and yet at the same time gives it a greater charm of being half- hidden. At the theatre, of 100 women of the better class, seventy were attired in this way, ten wore high necks and long sleeves, twelve had low necks, but lace covered arms, while the remainder were half -covered with boleros, lace, and ribbon fabrics. This proportion would apply to all the cities. In the country the rule would apply to social gatherings upon the large planta- tions. Among the middle and poorer classes the pre- vailing style is nets with unlined sleeves, or else light and moderately thin summer goods. In social enter- PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. 131 taining the rule that little children must be seen and not heard applies to young unmarried women, the mar- ried ones carrying the brunt of the conversation. When, however, all the guests are on very friendly terms the rule is relaxed. In going from drawing room to dining room the gentlemen escort the married ladies the same as in other countries, but the young unmar- ried ones usually go in twos, with their eyes slightly cast down, and their faces flushed with a pleasant hue of bashfulness. Every woman is powdered. Nine- tenths enhance their charms with rouge, and more than a few make use of darkening for the eyebrows and eye- lashes, and of coloring for the lips. In full toilet the Porto Eican women make a very engaging and delight- ful picture. Accomplishments are common. Nearly every woman plays some instrument, and sings, if not with taste, at least with a skill derived from long practice and care- ful tuition. Some paint, some draw, others make lace, embroider or crochet; some make a fad of floriculture, and others of fruit culture ; some cultivate aquariums and others herbaria. The well bred have a reading knowledge of French, and sometimes of Italian. In the bringing up of children the women are less careful in some respects than American mothers, depending more upon nature than upon art and science. Children are provided with but little clothing, and the spectacle of naked urchins may be seen everywhere. They run naked until they are seven and eight years of age. This, of course, applies only to the lower classes, 132 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. but they are the majority of the population. In the middle classes children may run naked in the house or in the garden, but wear at least one garment on the street. The children of the well-to-do wear one gar- ment at home, and are dressed quite neatly when they appear in public. But the full toilet of child-life, so 4 common to American and English children, is almost unknown in Porto Rico. While mothers do not nurse their children more than their American cousins, yet the employment of wet nurses is much greater there than here. Physicians have tried to develop a larger use of baby foods, but without much success. The practice of em- ploying wet nurses cannot be commended. Ages of slavery, and it must be confessed, vice and shame, have injured the physical quality of the class which sup- plies wet nurses, and in numerous instances the taints and unhealthf ul tendencies of the woman must be trans- mitted to the foster-child. It seems probable in the light of recent discoveries that not only specific germs and sicknesses of the commoner type are carried in this manner, but also the germs of other less understood maladies, such as cancer, leprosy, epilepsy, elephantia- sis and berriberri. In educational matters the women are pitiably be- hindhand. Those of the lower classes are illiterate and superstitious. Those of the middle classes are three- fourths illiterate, and one-fourth able to read and write, while even in the better classes a large percentage is unfamiliar with the A B C's. > "5 < I Z o UJ ^3 c/) ^ 13 Ou * < 5 (- o * (/I t|2 o E Q a « w c 5. ah cr o . J2 o 3.1 !c e PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. 133 The women are gentle, polite, affectionate and hospit- able. They are inquisitive, talkative, nervous and ex- citable. They love social diversions and all amusements which they are permitted to attend, and they dote on flirting. They cannot imagine how the men and women of the northern races refuse to indulge in the harmless pastime, and much less how they look down upon it. They themselves believe that a woman who will not flirt is either eccentric, or is about to take the veil, and as for a man who refuses to respond to the advances of a woman they regard him as "an animal of a low order of intelligence." A woman may attend a bullfight, and when she does she applauds the bull when he rips open a luckless horse and the matador when he neatly dispatches his bovine antagonist. She may not attend a cockfight in a public cockpit, but she may hold rinyas de gallos or mains upon the grounds attached to her house. This sport is very popular, and is, if possible, more highly enjoyed than the heroic recreation of the bull ring. The fighting birds are Spanish gamecocks carefully bred and trained for the combat. Their natural spurs are trimmed and covered, or made more deadly by pol- ished steel gaffs, and it is said that the beaks are trimmed so as to increase their efficiency. When two well-bred cocks fight one is nearly certain to be killed, and the victor is usually so injured that its owner in mercy will put it to death. She may attend the opera and theatre, but not low vaudeville, and low vaudeville to the Porto Rican mind 134 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. would include many of the popular serio-comic per- formances of the American stage. She may not hunt, shoot, row, sail, camp out, or go on entomologic or botanical expeditions. A few years ago she was not permitted to use the bicycle, but the force of example in other lands is proving too strong for ancient preju- dices, and already a few of the senoras and seSoritas of the island may be seen on American and European wheels. It is not probable, however, that this health- ful sport will ever prove really popular in Porto Eico. It requires too much energy and industry from the riders. Children do not have as good a time in that Warm climate as in the States. They play pelota or ball, los trucos or marbles, they roll the aro or hoop. They are skillful with the cuerda, or skipping rope, and indulge in escondite and paso, the former of which is like our hide and seek, and the latter is the old game of parr. The women are good card players, beginning to shuffle and deal in childhood. They use the Spanish cards, and take great pride in card layouts of high cost and elegance. No Porto Eican woman is ever without a fan, and nearly all have a good collection of these cooling instru- ments. The prevailing type is made with sticks of native wood, polished, carved, gilded, silvered, inlaid or even jeweled. The face is made of silk or of strong flexible paper, on which is a highly colored painting or chromo-lithograph. This class costs from fifty cents upward to several hundred dollars. Another type is PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. 135 the Spanish lace fan, in which the sticks are of ivory tortoise shell, or other strong and beautiful material, and the face is made of lace, silk and satin. In many of them the lace is not laid flat, but is fastened so as to make fluffy heaps at either outside stick. The ring at the foot of the handle may be German silver, silver or gold, or in place of the ring there may be a fine chain or metal rope or braid made of German silver, silver, gold and even platinum. Then there are old-fashioned royal fans, in which all of the sticks are of ivory, and very broad; the first and last being of double or treble thick- ness, and all cut through so as to resemble Gothic lace. These are held in place by fine bands of silk or satin, and sometimes their beauty is further increased by the insetting of little pieces of jade turquoise, malachite, and even precious stones. They came originally from China, where the carving was done, and thence to Spain where the jeweling was performed by skillful specialists. Ancient and wealthy families cherish mediaeval fans, and take them to church, to the opera, and important social functions. Some of these are of wonderful work- manship; the most striking are those whose sticks are made of gold or silver, with solid edges and filigree interiors. As mere bullion they are costly, and this value is greatly enhanced by the exquisite workman- ship, and the many historical associations. The com- mon fans are neat, pretty, and cheap. The most inex- pensive are made from the palm leaf, and include the common palm-leaf fan of America, circles, ovals, and graceful lozenges called rombos* Beside the yellow 136 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. palm leaf is another known as the vermejo or russet palm, which is very pleasing to the eye. Sometimes the palm leaves are stained in one or more colors in stripes and bars, making quite a gaudy appearance. A hand- some plain fan is made from the Porto Eican acei- tuna or olive wood. It is of a handsome dark green, running into brown and greenish black. Beside the " fan for the hand, there are others which are made to be carried at the belt. Fans are also employed as screens, as wall ornaments, and as objects of sport in blowing paper butterflies from one person to another across a room or a veranda. The parasol fan is a novel sight to a northern visitor, it being an ingenious little instrument, which can be readily used in both capacities. A very ugly contriv- ance is the fan-dagger, in which the outer stick is a sheath containing a sharp-pointed keen-edged blade of steel. It can be easily released, and makes a very deadly weapon. Now and then the visitor runs across feather fans of various kinds. A popular type is the urraca or magpie plume. It is speckled, light, strong and graceful. Almost as common are fans made from the long feathers of geese, turkeys, and other fowl. They are strong and durable. The daintiest of the feather fans are those made with olive sticks and humming birds' crests and breasts. The Porto Eicans derive the idea from the original inhabitants, the Arawaks, and have probably improved upon their teachers. The fine plumage of these tiny creatures of the air is unspeakably rich and deep in PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. 137 color, and in one light seems like green and rose gold, and in other lights the darkest and intensest hues. The parasols and umbrellas differ very slightly from those in vogue in the northland. There is a larger use of colors in the covering, and of lace upon parasols. The sticks display greater variety, being made chiefly from the native woods. The jewelry is rich, and often tawdry. Large and heavy earrings are common, and gaping earring holes and misshapen ears are seen every- where as the result. Porto Eican women still wear the heavy hoops and long massive drops, which were dis- carded by American women fifty years ago. The industrial condition of women is about the same as in the Mediterranean countries. Among the Jibaras the women do as much of the hard work as the men. They cut the cane, stack and load it into the carts or carry it on the head to the mill. They cultivate the vines and fruit trees and kitchen gardens. They bring the produce to the markets and sell it there. Fish women aid their husbands on the water, carry their capture to the market, and there dispose of it in true Billingsgate style. They work in the coffee planta- tions, and the tobacco fields, and a few of them in the manufacture of tobacco. They are also engaged in book binding, dyeing, upholstering, dressmaking and tailoring. They act as teachers, domestic servants, governesses, and duennas. Large estates usually have a ca bailer iza, or woman outrider, who precedes the ladies of the family when they go visiting. Another woman is the floor scrubber and polisher, who carries with her an armament of brushes, and half- 138 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. cocoanuts, and who after cleaning the floor thoroughly, will oil, or paraffine it, and then rub it until it gleams like a mirror. Many widows and married women are successful cafeteras, or coffee-house keepers, and fondis- tas or restaurateurs. "Women are successful as peddlers and agents for the sale of all sorts of goods. They are street musicians of about the same class there as the Italian organ grinders are here. They may be found keeping a hotel or in charge of one, and they have one business that seems peculiar to the island. It consists in going to the stores in the early morning, selecting a stock of goods, carrying it to a list of customers, and there selling what is brought, and taking orders for similar or other goods. The saleswoman is accompanied by a clerk from the store, who carries with him a purse full of small change, and who receives the payment for all goods sold. The woman receives a commission upon her sales, and often makes a very good living. Many positions held by women in this country are occupied by members of the religious sisterhoods. Thus they serve as trained nurses, as invalid's companions, as readers, preceptors, book agents, art critics, garden directors and advisers in household economics. Among the women of Porto Eico, as the same in Spain, the bourgeois spirit has not developed to the same extent as in France, nor has the higher education of the sex made any progress whatever. Thus there is an absence of the grisette and shop-girl class, and of women professors, doctors, lawyers, dentists, typewrit- ers and bookkeepers. PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. 139 CHAPTER XIII. PORTO RICAN COOKERY. Porto Rican cookery is at first a disappointment to an American visitor. The use of olive oil instead of butter, the liberality displayed toward onions, shallots, garlic and chilies, the prodigality of spices and condi- ments, the perpetual cooking of fruit instead of their service raw, are in the beginning novel and oftentimes unpleasant. But a little experience and study demon- strate in a short time that the native chefs have devel- oped that which is best under the surrounding condi- tions of the country. The climate is so warm and humid that butter in tubs will not keep at all, and that in cans develops a semirancid taste within forty-eight hours ; in fact, many tins of the best Danish butt or un- dergo a slight chemical change from the heat even be- fore they are opened, and thus give a stranger a fake idea of the original quality of the goods. Olive oil, on the other hand, retains its freshness and sweetness for an indefinite period, and whether kept in glass, tin, earthern ware or wood, is always pleasant and nourishing. The general conditions of life are not con- ducive to appetite. The simple dishes of the northern lands become flat and insipid. Nature, as if to give the hint, is prodigal with every kind of spice and season- 140 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. ing, and dishes prepared with these healthful excitants arouse the appetite and facilitate digestion. Eaw fruits are in many cases the vehicle of disease. Earth, air and sea swarm with invisible life, and the rind of every fruit, and often the flesh, contain microscopic creatures, animal and vegetable, which may be innocuous, or may be detrimental to the human being. Cooking destroys all of this life, and so acts as a guarantee or assurance against sickness and suffering. Newcomers invariably rail against the native table, and insist upon roast beef, steaks, and the other delicacies of home. After they have been there several months they drift away unconsciously from their old moorings, and finally come to enjoy what they once deprecated and denounced. In the kitchen gridirons, broilers and bak- ing pans are comparatively rare, but frying pans, grid- dles and pots and kettles are as numerous as at home. In wealthy establishments French ranges are found, and in many homes the simple stoves and ovens of Spain and southern France are employed. In addition to these are brick ovens with holes in the top, and small fire- clay braziers or furnaces similar to those employed by American plumbers. Coal is not so widely used as in colder countries. Coke is popular wherever there are gas works, but the standard fuels are charcoal and wood. Of late years the oil stove has made an ap- pearance, and is beginning to be well liked. Where the kitchen is hot the year through a strong coal fire entails needless suffering upon the cook, servants, and even the family. For that reason any fuel or arrange- PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. 141 ment which will give a strong heat in a very short time, and can be cut off at a moment's notice, will always be preferred. It is certain, in view of this fact, that in San Juan, Ponce, and other large towns there will be a prosperous future for the gas stove and electrical cooking. The market is not so changeable as it is farther north. There is always a fair supply of lamb, yearling, mutton, shoat, pork, veal and beef ; although the sheep and the steer are rather lean, and not so well flavored as are the Chicago-dressed articles. It is also easy to obtain kid and goat's flesh, both of which can be highly recom- mended. Young kid is as delicate as lamb, sweeter and more tender. Goat's flesh is not so strong, nor so tough as mutton. The fish market is very rich in both the variety and excellence of the creatures of the sea. The natives, nevertheless, prefer salted or smoked codfish or codfish cured with rock salt, so as to be of a slightly reddish brown color. This is known as baca- lao, and is found on every table from the captain-gen- eral's, to the poorest Jibaro's. Sardines, anchovies and tunny fish from the Mediterranean are in general de- mand, and among the better classes there is some use of canned and smoked American salmon and Russian and imitation Russian caviare. Other imported forms of sea food which are encoun- tered here and there are the pickled herring and jellied eels of northern Germany, Norwegian sprats or sar- dines, and a very toothsome fishcake, put up in Den- mark and sent out to foreign parts in tin cans. These 142 PORTO kICO AND THE WEST INDIES. cakes are somewhat smaller than an egg, are snow- white, like a boiled dumpling, and when heated in boil- ing water, or when fried, make a capital dish. The vegetables are largely imported, and are on a par with those of the New York market. Salads and field salads are cheap and plentiful, while fruits are simply num- berless. The seasonings are usually bought by the cook fresh every morning. Where we depend upon dried and powdered sage, thyme, sweet marjoram and sav- ory, the Porto Rican housekeeper gets her bay leaves, laurel, sassafras, fenugreek, tarragon, and similar aro- matic tissues from the market women only an hour or two after they have left the soil. This goes so far as to allow the use of fresh peppercorns instead of the dried and dusty powder familiar to our nostrils and palates. Great attention is paid to bread and pastry. The sys- tem followed approaches more to the Vienna styles than to those of France, Germany, England or the United States. The common form is the so-called Spanish bread, which is a loaf or stick from a quarter of an inch to an inch in diameter, and three or four feet long. A feature of this style of loaf is that it is all crust, and no crumbs, and that when eaten by invalids or dyspeptics it never sours or ferments in the stomach. Quite com- mon, too, are small loaves or biscuits, which resemble the American tea biscuit, but contain no saleratus or baking powder. Another neat style of fancy bread is called flower bread, pan de flor. This is very light, spongy, rather sweet, and is made in eccentric shapes. The pastries PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. 143 are made with considerable care and are as crisp and flakey as the best products of the pastry cook in any part of the world. Puddings are popular, but are light in composition. A typical example is the orange pudding, which is made of orange juice, sugar, a few slices of orange to give it artistic finish, and a little rice flour, wheat flour, sago, or tapicoa to give it body. The same system is applied to the meat of mangoes, to chopped bananas, to young cocoanut meat, to grated pineapple and to guavas. Another class of dishes which cannot be praised too highly consists of fruit custards, in which the fruit juice or the grated flesh are employed with the eggs, milk, sugar and salt to form a delightful whole. Analogous to these are jellies made of fruit juices instead of water. They are of especial benefit to sick people, and in hot weather are more refreshing than any drink. The chef puts fruits to another use, which has become familiar to American housekeepers of late years. It consists of the slow and long-continued digestion of fruits in hot water until all the starch and jelly elements are made into a mucilaginous fluid, which is strained off from the woody fibre and then boiled down with sugar, molasses or honey until it reaches a stage about half- way between jelly and jam. Every fruit makes a palatable preparation of this class, the best being those derived from the pineapple, and the guava. Some of the native cooks add a little lime juice during the boiling, which makes a confection similar to those famous sweetmeats of the far East, known as chutneys. The 144 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. tamarind treated in this manner may be made into a long series of tart, but pleasant compounds, ranging from a thick extract known as tamarind water, up to a firm, semi-solid known as tamarind paste. The tama- rind has considerable medicinal virtue, and no matter how prepared, is of value when the stomach, liver, or intestines are sluggish or unnerved. The banana and its twin brother, the plantain, are favorite subjects of culinary science. Banana fritas are the Porto Rican equivalent of the familiar fritters of our own country, but they are usually cooked in much hotter grease or oil, and so are very crisp on the outside. A modifica- tion of this treatment is to dip a slice of the fruit or a piece cut at right angle to its length in batter, then in cracker dust or bread crumbs, and fry it like an oyster. The outside is brown and brittle, and the inside be- comes a translucent golden paste. The luscious fruit is also fried without any coating or flouring, is broiled, and is baked with spices and other fruit. It is stewed with oranges, and other members of the citrus family, with pineapple, young cocoanut, guava, mango, peaches and apricots. The banana flavor appears to be 'too plain for the native palate, and is almost always modified by a little cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves or cassia. Eggs are a stand- ard dish everywhere, and are presented in an endless variety of forms. Many of these styles are quite novel, One is huevos con bananas, in which the bananas are fried, the eggs hard-boiled and cut into long, thin slices, and placed between the slices of the fruit. An egg PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. 145 salad is made with two hard-boiled eggs sliced, and two cut up fine, the inner leaves of a head of lettuce, two or three leaves of chicory, one raw tomato sliced, a half-dozen olives stoned, and cut up a teaspoonful of capers, and over all a plain or French dressing of oil, vinegar, salt and pepper. This salad is very pretty to look upon, and is delight- ful on a warm day. Another excellent dish is the Porto Rican omelet, which demands considerable work, but which, when well made, more than repays the trouble and time consumed. A small piece of ham is cut quite fine until the fragments are no larger than peas. This is put into a frying pan with a Spanish or Bermuda onion cut fine, one clove of garlic chopped to a mince, and fried a few minutes. To it are added a sweet Spanish pepper, cut into slivers, a large tomato sliced, two okras and salt, white pepper, cayenne and capers. Enough water is added to keep it from burning, and the dish is put back from the fire, and at the end of five minutes the contents are poured into an omelet, which has been made in the interim. This appears to be the general formula of this class of omelet. It is varied by different cooks, by the addition of canned mushrooms, fresh mushrooms, asparagus tips, celery, a bay leaf, a shallot, and other ingredients; but I have never tasted one which was not appetizing and easily digested. Huevos revueltos is another admirable dish, and may be translated as truffled eggs. There are many ways of making the dish, but the simplest is scrambling the eggs with a large piece of butter, pepper, salt, cayenne, 146 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. adding three or four pieces of trufBes, allowing a tea- spoonful of the black esculent to every two persons, and a tablespoonf ul of chopped mushrooms to each guest. The dish presents a handsome, black, spotted gold effect, and is as attractive to the palate as it is to the eye. Omelets made with chopped ham, mushrooms, onions, oysters, sardines, shrimps, tomatoes and sweet peppers may be had to order in all the large cities. Those made with the large shrimps or prawns of the coast are deli- cacies of the best order. In the preparation of meat the tendency is toward highly seasoned entrees, and made dishes, rather than to plain modes of treatment. The commonest form is represented by the carne con chili, which is practically nothing but beef slowly stewed with chiliesto which an equal quantity of tomatoes have been added. Variations are produced by the addition of onion, okra, gourds, or garlic, and the juice is thickened with flour, starch, cornmeal, or farina made from the palm. The pepper gives a slight bite to the tongue, while the long cooking has made the toughest beef soft ^ and spongy. Another pleasant class of dishes are, strictly speaking, what our cooking schools would call rechauffees. Cold boiled meat, poultry or game is the leading ingredient. This is cut into convenient pieces, not larger than an egg, nor smaller than a teaspoon. Un- eatable bone, skin and gristle are removed, and the piece battered, floured, cracker dusted, or breaded is fried or baked in a hot oven and served with vegetables, or with a vegetable stew in which the sweet pepper and the onion are common ingredients. PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. 14? A standard plate is chicken and rice. The former should be fried plain or else stewed with aromatic vege- tables and seasoning. The rice should never be boiled plain, but should be cooked with such ingredients as will give it some color, and a distinct and pleasant flavor. When cooked with a tomato it becomes a very- pretty pink, When cooked with beef stock or beef gravy, it becomes a yellow or yellow brown. Using vegetables of the spinach class gives a green color. Skillful cooks, by washing and changing waters, will give the rice any desired color, and different flavors; but in general the natural flavor of each color is per- ceptible when the dish is placed upon the table. Lamb, mutton, black Spanish beans, game, duck, and the poorer flavored fishes are usually rubbed with a clove of garlic before or during the cooking. Even to the American palate this improves mutton, lamb and black beans. Many of the Spanish sauces are nothing more than familiar French sauces under another name. This would include bordelaise, bearnaise, tartar, and Lyon- naise dressing, and possibly the Hollandaise. A pleasant style of cooking chops and cutlets may be recommended to all who enjoy good living. The real feature of the dish is the sauce, and not the meat, which may be broiled, fried or stewed. The sauce is made by putting into the frying pan a gill of olive oil, a clove of garlic, ten fresh mushrooms cut fine, and an ounce of grated onion. As they begin to heat add a bay leaf, a dozen green peppercorns broken in the mortar, a little nutmeg, a cup of gravy, and half a cup of sherry. Let 148 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. these simmer half an hour, take the garlic out and throw away, add boiling water to thin it slightly, and strain through a sieve or strainer. Then add a cupful of skinned tomato rubbed through a sieve, and one okra treated in the same fashion. Put this back on the range, and let it keep hot not less than five minutes, and pour over the meat, garnishing the dish with alternate slices of lemon and orange. It is a very rich sauce, and may be warranted to make the most sorrowful dyspeptic go wild with hunger. The sauce may be used over cold meats or rechauffees. Curried sauce is well liked by the Porto Ricans, but curry -making is no more advanced there than in the United States, where it is a delusion and a snare. Porto Riean curry is nothing more nor less than a mayonnaise or other sauce flavored with curry powder beyond all recognition. Nevertheless, it is well adapted to the climate. Jerked beef, which is practically our smoked beef, with little or none of the smoky flavor, is, if posssible, more popular than the fresh fibre. It is cooked in numerous ways, and in all is extremely good. A common form is very much like our smoked beef frizzled with eggs. In another it is cooked with milk, butter and thickening, in the same manner as New England picked-up codfish. In a third, it is Lyon- naised with olive oil, onion, sweet pepper and spices. In a fourth it is stewed with okra, tomato, and chilies. Various kinds of pies, called empanadas, are another feature. They correspond to the vol-au-vents of the French cuisine, and the noble meat pies of England PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. 149 rather than the articles found in the great American Pie Zone. These pies may be of fish, potatoes and onions, chili peppers and tomatoes, of meats, poultry, game, turtle meat or shellfish. The bottom crust is thin and never soggy ; the side walls are light and spongy, and the top crust is crisp and flaky. These empanadas are excellent when served hot from the kitchen, and also make capital cold dishes the next day. The fondistas, or eating housekeepers, are extremely courteous, and are always willing to go out of their routine to please guests, especially foreigners. Their cooks are capable, and only require a hint to prepare the favorite meals of other lands. They will fry instead of broil, and when they broil they invariably make a fiasco ; but in other respects they do competent work, and will get up at short notice a New England breakfast, a southern luncheon, or an English dinner. 150 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. CHAPTER XIV. THE FOREIGN COMMERCE OF THE ISLAND. The foreign commerce of Porto Rico has always been so large as to command the notice'and admiration of the mercantile world. It has grown steadily, though slowly, since the beginning of the century. During the past decade the commerce has averaged about $34,000,000 a year, the imports slightly exceeding the exports. The imports and exports for the years 1892, 1893, 1894 and 1895, which are the latest obtainable, from the Spanish authorities, are as follows : Imports— 1892, $17,081,609.80; 1893, $17,320,453.68; 1894, $18,316,971.00; 1895, $16,155,056.00. Exports— 1892, $16,076,312.12; 1893, $16,745,392.90; 1894, $16,015,665.00; 1895, $14,629,494.00. In 1896 and 1897 the Spanish officials declare that the figures exceeded those of 1894, which aggregated $35,- 000,000 each. This is an enormous sum for a small community like that of Porto Rico. Upon the basis of a population of 800,000, it would give $42 per capita for the inhabitants. This handsome figure will stand comparison with the per capita amounts of the other commercial nations, which are as follows : Holland, $240; Belgium, $160; Australasia, $130; PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. 151 New Zealand, $114; Switzerland, $103; Great Britain, $97; Denmark, $92; Mexico, $56; Canada, $45; Porto Eico, $42; Germany, $40; Sweden, $38; France, $37; United States, $26; Brazil, $21; Spain, $18; Italy, $16; Portugal, $16; Austro-Hungary, $14; Egypt, $11; Turkey, $9; Kussia, $6; Japan, $4. The addition of Porto Eico to the United States will increase both American commerce and the per capita ratio. When it is borne in mind that the transporta- tion facilities of the island are very small, and that the Spanish system of taxation is injurious to all commerce, the showing of Porto Eico is remarkably excellent. This commerce is divided among various nations about as follows : Spain, $10,000,000; United States, $5,000,000; Cuba, $4,000,000; Great Britain, $3,000,000; Germany, $2,- $500,000; British West Indies, $2,300,000; France, $1,700,000; Italy, $650,000; Holland, $350,000; Den- mark, $300,000; Danish West Indies, $50,000; French West Indies, $50,000. Much of the commerce that is charged to Spain really belongs to the United States, discriminating tariffs making it frequently more profitable to ship flour, fish, meats, and other articles all the way to Barcelona, and thence back to Porto Eico than to ship directly from the United States. With free trade the United States would exchange places with Spain. The Spanish cus- toms reports show that Porto Eico takes from the United States the following list of goods at the values men- tioned. The figures are averages, and represent what 152 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. may be considered the normal trade during the present decade : Wheat and flour, $1,200,000; lard, pork, ham and bacon, $1,000,000; dried, canned and preserved fish, $500,000; wood, wooden ware, hogsheads and barrels, hoops, shooks, boards, planking, laths and timber, $1,000,000; coal, $70,000; petroleum, $80,000; kerosene, $30,000; benzine, $15,000; gasoline, $10,000; wire and barbed wire, $60,000; tinware, $50,000; cotton goods, $50,000; yarn and thread, $50,000; hemp, jute and cord- age, $40,000; fine paper, stationery, books, $40,000; coarse paper and wrapping paper, $20,000; machinery, $80,000; carriages, $5,000; cornmeal, $80,000; butter, $40,000; cheese, $50,000; vegetables, fresh and canned, $40,000; leather, $25,000; paraffine and vaseline, $5,000; firearms, $10,000; soap, $5,000; drugs and chemicals, $5,000. And in smaller amounts, cottonseed oil, oil cake, lamps, rubber goods, gunpowder, and other ex- plosives, copper wire, cigarettes, telephones, typewrit- ers, bicycles, watches, clocks, prints, chromo-litho- graphs, woolens, boots and shoes. These articles con- stitute one-sixth or one seventh of the total commerce of the island. The imports of Porto Rico, from other countries than the United States, include the following articles: Coal, blacksmith's coal, iron, steel, copper- ware, brass and brass ware, axes, saws, hardware, machinery, tinware, Portland cement, lime, vegetables, olive oil, wine, cigars, cigarettes, leather, saddlery, machinists' tools, firearms, glass, china, candles, drugs, chemicals, yarn, thread, worsted, cotton goods, dried PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. 153 and canned fish, woolens, carriages, laces, embroi- deries, fans, perfumery, soap, cosmetics, boots and shoes, engines, boilers, locomotives, railway cars, lamps, cutlery, haberdashery, works of art, linens, rub- ber goods, trunks, matches, pipes, silverware, silver plate, chandeliers, safes, pianos, musical instruments, stationery, telegraph equipments, watches, clocks, spec- tacles, eyeglasses, jewelry, ribbons, chairs, furniture, umbrellas and parasols. In this list are many goods where American manu- facturers can compete with Europeans on even terms. "Where a protective tariff favors the home industry the American will be able to supplant a foreigner in at least two-thirds of the supply of the goods enumerated. The removal of the Spanish tariff will in itself work many important commercial changes. It will open a market for light California wines, which compare favorably with the cheap red wines, now imported by Porto Rico from Spain. It will also enable American beers to be sold at a reasonable figure. In regard to the olive oil which comes from Spain, France and Italy, a large part of the supply is of p oor quality, and adulterated with Colza oil made in France, or with cottonseed oil made in this country, and shipped to the Mediterranean. The trained nostril can detect the odor of cottonseed oil when employed in cooking, and I have frequently noticed it in many parts of the island. In place of cooking oil the Porto Ricans would undoubtedly use such oleaginous products as cottolene, cottosuet, and 154 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. other preparations in which cottonseed oil is a lead- ing ingredient. Without a protective tariff it would be difficult for our provision manufacturers to introduce the smoked beef of this country in competition with that received from other lands. In cotton goods, especially prints, calicoes, muslins, American mills ought to drive European rivals out of the market. The same should occur in respect to leather, boots and shoes, rubber goods, iron, steel, cop- per goods, all breadstuffs, telegraph equipment and electrical appliances. Merchants intending to take ad- vantage of this new market must not ship goods popu- lar in this country in the belief that they will be promptly bought up by the Porto Eicans. Their tastes and habits are very different from those which prevail in the United States, and are largely Spanish, modified by French influences in one direction, and by the neces- sities of the climate in another. This may be illustrated by the continuous demand in Porto Rico for extra large bandanas, printed in stripes, cross bars or fancy pat- terns with bright colors. In color they approach those used by the colored people of the United States, but in pattern they are essentially Spanish. The boots and shoes are of a different style, and finish from those turned out in American factories. They are not so good, so strong, or so durable, but they are what the natives desire. This principle of local taste and of habit applies to nearly all textiles, leather, articles, vehicles, perfumes, soaps, medicines, jewelry, and household furnishings. The only safe rule for the mer- PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. 155 chant and the manufacturer is to send at first, not a salesman, but a first class workman or superintendent to see exactly what the new market wants. If this is done, it will be easy to turn out goods which will find an immediate sale. If this is not done, both merchant and manufacturer will suffer disappointment and loss. In estimating the expenses of any transaction in Porto Rico, American business men must bear in mind the important fact of inadequate, and even ridiculous means of receiving and discharging cargo, and of transporting goods from the shore to the market where they are con- signed. In nearly, if not quite all, the ports of the island clumsy lighters, small, weak, and insecure, are used as cargo boats. They are slow, the men who work them are lazy, and often dishonest, and the expense is much larger than what it is in the United States. After a cargo is landed, everything depends upon where it is consigned to. If it be at San Juan, all is well, as the cargo is received directly in the city. At Ponce it is not so good, because it is landed at the Playa or beach, some two miles from the city itself. The port of Arecibo is even worse, as the ship lies in the open roadstead, and the lighters have to be poled, pushed or drawn up the Rio Grande, which is a small and shallow stream in the dry season, and a swift and unpleasant one in the rainy months. The port of Aguadilla has also a roadstead for a harbor. Maya- guez is of the same objectionable nature as Aguadilla. Guayama, the capital of Guayama Province, has for its port the city of Arroyo, situated on the west side of the mouth of the river LlaureL 156 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. A careful scrutiny of the goods in the stores shows that many articles supposed to be manufactured by other nations are really imitations and simulations from Germany, Holland and Belgium. In these countries shrewd, unscrupulous merchants and manufacturers have built up a large business in merchandise of this class. Those of German make are usually of fair qual- ity, but poorer workmanship than the originals, while those of Holland are of poor quality and workmanship, and those of Belgium have nothing to recommend them except extreme cheapness. The fault does not lie alto- gether with the countries mentioned, but is chargeable also to reputable merchants in England, France and Spain, who are willing to injure the industrial interests of their own countries for the sake of increasing the profits of their business. Thus many so-called English penknives, scissors, and other forms of cutlery marked with English names and trade marks are really made in Germany. In Ponce I saw one or two Belgium revolvers which were almost facsimiles of the Smith and Wesson type of the United States. From Hamburg, Bremen, Amsterdam and Eotterdam are sent bogus wines and liqueurs, done up so as to re- semble, in bottle, label and foil the products of cele- brated and popular brands in other countries. Ameri- can goods which suffer in this way are firearms, saws, axes, leather, cotton goods, typewriters, and metal work. According to the merchants of Porto Rico the sale of PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES 157 these imitations is on the increase, and in a few fields the fraudulent goods have largely replaced the genuine. The Spanish law on the subject is very vague and in- definite, and its administration is so slow, inefficient and oftentimes corrupt, that aggrieved parties usually regard an appeal to the courts as being a hopeless un- dertaking. 158 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES, CHAPTER XV. COFFEE AND COFFEE GROWING. More than important to the island's welfare is coffee culture. The tree is hardy and vigorous, and seems to thrive as well on rocky hillsides as in fertile valleys, although the planters believe that it does the best on sloping hillside or rolling farmland. The young plants are placed ten to fifteen feet apart. "Where they are set out in narrow valleys they can be put nearer together, as the tendency of the tree is to grow upward rather than outward. On a sloping hillside the wider dis- tance is preferred, as the trees grow outward, and tend to touch one another at the circumference of the branches. The tree grows well, and at four years begins to bear fruit. This occurs in exceptional cases, at the age of three, and where growth is slow on account of unfavor- ble conditions, at five. It reaches its maximum pro- ductivity at from twelve to fifteen years of age. Be- tween fifteen and eighteen it begins to be less prolific, and at thirty displays symptoms of old age. Most trees in Porto Rico die between forty and fifty. Even here there are exceptions Trees are pointed out as be- ing seventy and eighty years of age, but whether these PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. 159 ^re planters' tales or strict statements of fact, I cannot determine. A coffee plantation is a very pretty sight. The regu- lar rows of small trees, the trim and graceful branches, the lustrous, rich green leaf, the aromatic snow-white flowers, and the fruit beginning green, passing then to pink, and bright red, make altogether as pretty a pic- ture as agriculture can furnish. So pleasant are the flowers that in nearly every coffee land they are ex- tremely popular. When they fall they are gathered in some communities and put into jars, from which they emit a rich bouquet for months and years. They are never picked, because each flower picked means the loss of a berry, and these berries are a source of valued in- come. The soil of a coffee orchard is seldom used for other purposes. There seems no reason, however, why it should not be utilized for gourds, melons, squashes, and other plants whose constituents are drawn chiefly from the air, or for such vegetables as do not grow into the subsoil. The young coffee tree reaches the subsoil usually the first year of its life, and after its second year draws practically all of its sustenance from a stratum considerably below the surface of the ground. Most of the plantations are left untouched in this respect, although many planters permit cattle and horses to browse in the coffee field when under the eye of a farm hand. Coffee does not draw much strength from the soil, and does not therefore require a large amount of fertilization. It is benefited, however, by cultivation, and the best farmers keep the soil rather loose about 160 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. the roots, and turned up every now and then between the lines of trees. Frost is a deadly foe to the coffee plant. So sensitive is it in this respect that a low temperature, though above the freezing point for many days in the winter season will interfere with both the quantity and quality of the crop. The flowers appear in very early spring, and as they fall away their base grows into a berry. This contains the seed, which consists of two grains, familiar to every housekeeper. The berries are pro- tected like nearly all seeds. Besides the skin of the berry, each is covered with a thin, and a thick mem- brane or husk. The berry ripens in midautumn, when the crop is gathered by the coffee pickers. These are trained in the calling, and only pick those which are thoroughly ripe. The picking season lasts several weeks on account of the difference in time consumed by berries in different parts of the tree. The berry is first washed, and then passed through a hulling machine and dried. It still has around the grain the little husks which have to be removed before the grains are in marketable condition. In the old years, and in Arabia to-day, where the cli- mate is hot and dry, the drying is effected by exposure in the open air. On some of the smaller plantations in Porto Kico this old-fashioned process is still followed, the washed and hulled berries being put upon stone paved floors in the sunlight, but in nearly all instances the drying is accomplished by the use of hot air or steam. PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. 161 This great improvement was effected by American inventors, and more especially by a talented New Yorker, James Lidgerwood, who applied his talents to coffee culture nearly fifty years ago, and who invented or improved nearly every process employed in the in- dustry. After being dried, the berry is next passed through a husking machine, of which the best ones are those invented by Lidgerwood in 1865 — 1866. Before that time the little husks were picked one by one by opera- tives, or else rubbed between the two hands of a laborer until the husks broke and fell away. These machines imitate the action of two hands rubbing each other, but do it upon so large a scale that a single machine will husk and clean several thousand bushels of coffee a day. The thin membranes are separated from the grains by the simple expedient of blowing air through both as they come from the rubbing attachment. The light membranes or husks, which are as thin as tissue paper, are carried away by the breeze, and the solid grains fall into receptacles and are carried on to other attachments, which polish them, and then separate them by means of a network of sieves. The best Lidgerwood machines do their work so efficiently that they have been compared to human beings for intelli- gence of action. They separate the coffee so that one part will consist of flat beans of about the same outline and shape, another of smaller and rounder beans, a third broken beans, and a fourth of inferior and mis- shapen beans. A few of the great coffee plantations have the very 162 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. best machinery, but the majority are satisfied with pat- terns from ten to twenty-five years old. Even the old- est grade the coffee, to a certain extent, and so increase its value. The handsomest kind finds a ready market, and is said, with I know not how much truth, to be sold as Old Government Java, or as fine Mocha. Although enormous quantities are exported, it is very seldom seen in the market under its own name, while on the other hand, the poorer qualities are bought up by unscrupulous dealers, roasted, ground and mixed with other grades to form the "family coffee," or "bargain coffee," which is so marked a feature of the modern grocery. The Porto Eicans regard it as the best coffee of the world. They prepare it in a way very different from that familiar to most American households. The first difference is in the roasting. They go far beyond the medium or dark brown color which we prefer, and almost reach a brown black. The result of this over- roasting is to produce a beverage that is so dark as to be of the same hue as the black after-dinner coffee of the French. Instead of grinding it in a mill, they crush it between two stones, or pound it with a pestle in a mortar. They put the crushed fragments in a pot with boiling water, and let it stand for three minutes, or else in a pot with cold water, which they bring to a quick boil over a hot fire. They then strain it through a fine cotton bag, an old bandana handkerchief, or a filtering cone made of cloth or felt prepared for the pur- pose. The resulting fluid is perfectly clear and trans- PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. 163 parent, despite its very dark color, and has a richness of flavor and perfume which cannot be too highly ex- tolled. Though dark, it is not very thick, and the high roasting appears to destroy much of the tannin or bitter principle of the raw berry. The people, both natives and foreigners, drink it in very large quantities, and apparently are not injured thereby in their digestion. A Porto Eican gentleman, in speaking of their mode of preparing coffee, said that the high roasting not alone destroyed the bitter princi- ple, but also increased the food value of the beverage, while, on the other hand, the American practice of roasting to a pale or medium brown left much of the bitter principle intact, producing dyspepsia and heart- burn, and not breaking up the starch and sugar ele- ments, which ought to be utilized by the stomach for their nutritious qualities. There appears to be a very great future for Porto Rico coffee. The supply of the Old World, in spite of every governmental precaution, has been slowly de- creasing. The Mocha remains steady, the Ceylon coffee plantations are practically extinct, the Java crops have fallen off more than one-third in the past ten years, while the only marked increase is shown in lands like Brazil, and the Malay settlements, which produce an inferior quality of the berry. The Porto Eican supply might be enlarged fifty per cent, without any trouble, and if necessary could be doubled within eight years. The output has risen as high as 50,000,000 pounds. <~. Its cost in the markets of the world could be reduced 164 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. from two to five cents a pound, if there were better means of transportation upon the island. Many of the plantations are in the interior, connected by villainous roads with the nearest port. The cost of hauling is very great, and to this is added the cost of lightering; of transportation from the local port, to a port of entry, breaking and transfer of freight to an ocean steamer, the export tax, and the fees and profits of a half-dozen middlemen. If business principles were applied to the coffee industry here under an American administra- tion, we could have a noble berry upon our table at nearly one-half the present price, and with the same profit to the grower. PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES 165 CHAPTER XVI. THE SUGAR INDUSTRY. The most important industry of the island is the utilization of the sugar cane. It was the first one es- tablished after its colonization. Several shiploads of cuttings from the Moorish canes of southern Spain were sent over about 1520. Since that time enterprising planters have tried other varieties of cane, and in the course of years the imported plant became adapted to its new conditions. So much so that an expert can tell Porto Rican cane at a glance from that of Cuba, Jamaica or Hayti. Sugar cane is a grass, but does not run to seed, as do most of the members of the grass family. It propa- gates itself by shoots and suckers, and may be also re- newed by fresh cuttings. It grows very rapidly, and under a warm sun, and with plenty of water, reaches a height varying from seven to fourteen feet, and a diame- ter from three-fourths of an inch to two inches and a half. It extracts many of the soluble elements of the soil, but cannot be compared in this respect with the tobacco plant, whose insatiable appetite for potash com- pounds, ammoniacal substances and phosphate is notori- ous. For that reason most sugar planters either use 166 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. fertilizers in a liberal manner, or else follow the more scientific system of rotation of crops. When the cane has reached the proper stage, which is just before phy- siologic maturity, it is stripped of the leaves. The top of the stalk removed, cut from its roots a little lower than is done with Indian corn, piled into shocks, and carried upon carts or on the backs of laborers to the mill or battery. In well conducted plantations all the mat- ter which is thus thrown away is ploughed again into the soil, thus returning some of its lost constitutents. In others, carelesssly conducted, the tops are fed to ani- mals, and the dried leaves used for fuel or allowed to be blown away by the wind. The sweet juice of the cane is liable to ferment and become sour, and even putres- cent. For that reason the sugar growers endeavor as far as possible to run the canes through the cutting mill, and thence to the presses as soon as they are har- vested. The mills vary according to the system followed upon the plantation. The oldest type used heavy rollers. Another system had a cutting or shredding machine, which reduced the stalks to fibres, and these were after- ward passed between rollers. In the latest system, which is called the diffusion process, the cane is cut into disks, which are packed into a battery, consisting of a number of cylinders through which water is forced, starting from one cylin- der, and making the circuit of the entire six. Where the cane passes through the rollers without any prelim- inary cutting, not more than fifty per cent, of the juice PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. 16? is extracted. Where it is shredded about sixty-five per cent, is utilized, whereas by the diffusion process, be- tween ninety and ninety-five per cent is obtained. The simplest system costs the least, so far as the machinery is concerned ; the diffusion process costs the most, but the greater efficiency and economy of the lat- ter more than repays the additional outlay in a single season. The older systems are the more striking, be- cause they are noisy, cumbrous, and have the appear- ance of doing an enormous amount of work. The diffusion system is the very opposite, its action being quiet, uniform, and chemical rather than mechanical. The juice which runs from the mill is caught in large vessels, and that which comes from the diffusion process is pumped directly into large pans. The bagasse or spent cane is dried, and used as fuel in the furnaces of the factory. It gives a good heat, but burns with ex- cessive rapidity. Under skillful management the ashes of the bagasse, which contain large amounts of valuable mineral in- gredients, are mixed with other fertilizers, and put back upon the canefields. The juice which comes out is thin, with a rather pleasant odor, an agreeable taste, of a light yellowish, greenish, or greenish yellow color. The best contains as high as twenty per cent, of sugar, the poorest about ten per cent., and the average in Porto Rico fourteen per cent. The juice is then run into large vessels, which are heated nowadays by a steam coil or a steam jacket, but which in the old days were heated by fire direct, The 168 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. change from direct fire to steam made a great improve- ment in the business of making fine sugar, but it did away with the old-fashioned molasses and brown sugars, which still retained a slight flavor like caramel. This old-fashioned stuff has never lost its popularity, and is made on a small scale to-day in Porto Eico, and also, strange to say, in Louisiana, for people who like the half -obsolete flavor. The cane juice is far from pure. It contains some acid and other constituents, which unless removed, would soon produce fermentation. It is therefore boiled, treated with lime, boiled, skimmed, reboiled, and then finished in vacuum pans, w r hich enable the operator to boil away the water at a temperature fifty or sixty de- grees below the ordinary boiling point. This prevents burning, and any chemical change in the sugar itself. In some parts of Porto Rico they keep up the old fashioned system of boiling the juice down in a battery of four large copper boilers mounted in a brick bench. When the juice has reached a certain stage in the first boiler it is ladled into the second, and thence into the third and the fourth. In the newer establishments centrifugal machines are used, which separate the sugar from all adhering fluids. When the sugar is crystallized what remains is known as molasses. Molasses itself is treated several times, so that there are almost as many varieties of that humble but well-beloved fluid as there are of sugar itself. The skimmings, when the sugar is being purified, are not thrown away, but are utilized to make rum. They are PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. 169 mixed with the cane juice, water and yeast, and allowed to ferment. This brings up a heavy froth on the top, which when it has reached a certain stage, indicates that the sugar in the fluid has been changed into alco- hol. It is then distilled, and makes the raw rum or casasha of the tropic?, a vitriolic fluid like the cheap moonshine of the North Carolina mountains. The fluid is redistilled and colored, making the so called West India rum. Some of it is distilled with orange peel, and some with pineapple, making fluids which were at one time quite popular!, known as orange rum, and pineapple rum, but which are never seen in the mar- ket nowadays. I do not remember of seeing any refined sugar used in the hotels and homes in Porto Rico. Governments with a protective tariff discriminate against it, while those which pay sugar bounties have no use for it. That which is employed mostly in Porto Eico is a coarse, yellowish sugar with a pleasant taste. The middle classes use a cheaper grade of a darker hue, while the poor use the cheapest, which is of a deep brown color. One or two kinds of Porto Eico molasses are very delicious, and makes an excellent sauce upon cakes and puddings. The rum, as made there, is very different from what it becomes when sold in the United States. It is far above proof, and is so strong as to make a person cough who sips it. When fresh it has the pleasant perfume of molasses, but a rather raw and harsh taste. As it grows older it improves rapidly, and when fifteen or twenty years of age it is mild, 170 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. richly flavored, and oily like old brandy. It is color- less when fresh, and a very pale gold when old, but to please the foreign palate, especially the English and American, it is colored a dark red with burnt sugar. The product of sugar and molasses is very large, the output having reached as high as 100,000 tons, of which 90,000 were exported. These are sent to many countries, but chiefly to Spain and the United States. There has been a slight decrease in the sugar output of late years, owing to sugar bounties and tariffs, but at any time the island could increase her annual product to 110,000 or 120,000 tons. As a new commonwealth in the American union governed by the same laws, there will be a fine field at Ponce or San Juan for a great modern sugar refinery. American ingenuity would undoubtedly find the means of producing a pure white sugar direct from the cane juice, without the many intermediate processes which are now employed. Labor is cheap, the climate is favorable to the industry, and all other conditions are propitious toward the establishment and maintainance of a successful enterprise. PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. 171 CHAPTER XVII. TOBACCO AND TOBACCO RAISING. Tobacco raising is in importance the third industry of Porto Rico. The official returns show that the trade is "very uneven, running as high as 2,000 tons export in one year, and as low as 900 tons in another. The British consul, who, in general, is a better au- thority than a Spanish official, says that the output is slowly diminishing. In 1883, a very good year, the ex- port was 1,730 tons, while in 1896 it was only 1,039 tons. On the other hand, the price and quality have advanced, the returns per ton being about thirty five per cent, better than they were in the last decade. Porto Rican tobacco does not enjoy the popularity of its next door neighbor, the Cuban, although large amounts of the leaf are shipped to Havana, where it is made into cigars and cigarettes. The Porto Rican cigars are called good, but their first quality is about equal to the third quality of the Havanas. On the other hand, the cigarettes are preferred by many Spaniards to the more famous brands of the Cuban capital. This difference in quality is quite a puzzle. The same leaf is used in both islands. It is grown, cultivated and cured in the same way, and by the same class of laborers. The climates are very much alike, except that of Porto Rico appears to be a trifle 172 ' PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. drier, and more equable. The geologic formation and the soil are so similar that to the eye of a non-expert they cannot be distinguished apart. Why, therefore, there should be such a difference in the quality of the leaf baffles explanation. The culture of the weed is conducted with great care, and according to general rules, which are modified, to a certain extent, by each planter. Thus the careful cultivator makes allowance for local peculiarities in soil, elevation, rainfall, natural drainage, humidity and sunlight. These allowances are not made upon any scientific basis, but are governed by what has been well called "the rule of thumb. ' ' The work begins in the fall, the seed is sown near together in seed beds, in very much the same style as florists in northern latitudes plant handfuls of seed in forcing beds, and after they have sprouted and attained a height of an inch or two, transfer them to pots or to places in other parts of the garden. These seed beds are generally situated so that the heavy rain will flow off of them, so as to avoid soaking the loose earth, and making the roots decay. They seem to be selected with a view to escaping high winds, especially the cooler ones, which come from the mountains. The planter watches the germination of the seed, and destroys any luckless tobacco worm or moth that ap- proaches the neighborhood. The love of the weed seems to be confined to human beings, for neither bird nor brute, excepting demoralized goats on shipboard will ever touch it, and of the hundreds of tribes of insects and other low forms of life which prey upon young vege PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. 173 tation, not more than five species are known to eat the young tobacco shoot The seed sprouts rapidly, and during this stage the land is prepared for its reception. Here considerable variety is presented, slovenly or lazy farmers plow the land in a way that suggest scratching, while enterprising planters plow, harrow, fertilize, and even stake it off so as to form rows and beds. In gen- eral, the more the labor bestowed upon the land, the larger and finer will be the following harvest. When the sprouts have reached a certain height, they are transplanted from the seed beds to the surrounding farm. Here again individual fancy or judgment crops out. Some farmers will pick out what seem to be the hardier sprouts and put them into the best locations, and plant the weaklings in the poorest sites of the farm. Others go ahead and plant the sprouts as they come to hand. This is done between the middle of October and the first week in November. From now on the planter exercises special care in regard to his insect foes, which, though few in number, are seemingly ever on the alert. The tobacco worm proper eats the young leaves. Another kind of worm bites into the stem or stalk. One variety of ant is destructive to the plant, and strangely enough, seems to be impelled by a love of mischief rather than by any desire to reach the young fibre. The conduct of this little creature has, however, been justified by a German naturalist, who says that the ant attacks the plants in order to get at microscopic animals which burrow under the skin of the stalk. Religion is brought into a part of the calling. The 174 PORTO RICO AND TKE WEST INDIES. farmers pray to St. James for relief against the worms, and to St. Martial for protection against the ants. There is a great deal of individualism in the character of the farmer. Each seemingly believes that he grows the best tobacco on the island, and packs his tobacco, and marks it with the same care that a jeweler marks an article to be shipped. Another odd feature is, that where a planter owns large estates, he does not view it as a whole, but as a number of small farms. Each farm is treated as a unit, and in many, or most cases, all the leaves of each are put up in separate bales. Some of the more progressive planters adopt the sim- pler system of grading the leaves; but this, I am told, is a rare exception, and not the rule. As the shrubs grow the farm hands keep the soil clear and clean, and upon the better plantations, prune the plants and trim them so as to equalize the distribu- tion of the sap. "Where this is not done, the plants produce a larger quantity of leaf, but very irregular in size and generally inferior in quality. Children are employed, but whether by regular wages, or by special arrangement, I do not know. Their duty is to collect every form of crawling thing, especially the worms and ants which prey upon the weed, and to deliver all they catch to an overseer, when it is a wealthy plan- tation, or to the planter himself, when it is a small farm. In January the harvest is gathered. Where the conditions have been favorable in regard to both sunlight and rainfall, and where the plants have been properly pruned and trimmed, the leaves are very PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. 175 much of a size, and ripen together. In the years when there is a very good harvest, almost every leaf on the farm will be harvested. Immature or half-grown leaves are allowed to remain upon the stalks and ripen, and beyond these is a third class of leaves, which make their appearance after the harvest is cut. The imma- ture leaves when they ripen are very much inferior to the first cutting, and those which are not born until after the harvest are ten times worse still. As soon as the leaves are cut they are placed on poles under cover and dried. This is done sometimes in the planter's own house, sometimes in houses made for the purpose, and sometimes in sheds. The reason is to avoid the possible rains, but more especially the heavy dewfall, which on clear nights is sometimes equal to a good shower. After it has partially dried it is mois- tened, piled in heaps, and allowed to undergo a mild fermentation. This part of the business is more or less a trade secret. Each farmer has his own system, and if you ask him the details he smiles and avoids the ques- tion with all the skill of a Madrid diplomat. I believe that after the fermentation it is again dried, and after that shipped to the nearest market. There are many curious details around this stage w T hich form in- teresting gossip. Some planters moisten their tobacco, or at least that which is very fine, with a small quantity of sweet wine; others employ wine and water for the same purpose; others use wine and some flavoring or vegetable extract known to themselves alone ; others are said to use very dilute milk and water. The object of 176 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. these modes of treatment is to modify the fermenta- tions, and so improve the flavor of the finished leaf. It is rather ticklish business, however, as an excess of any of these flavorings creates an unpleasant fermentation, which spoils the flavor of the tobacco, causing possibly the profit of a harvest to change into a loss. There are said to be all sorts of tricks of trade in the business, be- ginning with the laborer who defrauds the planter, the planter who deceives the purchaser, the purchaser who defrauds the wholesale dealer, and the wholesale dealer w r ho swindles the foreign merchant. As the trade keeps on, however, it is probable that the dishonest operators are in the minority, and that in the long run those who are upright come out ahead. The larger part of the surplus of the crop is exported, the amount manufactured in Porto Rico being compar- atively small. The wealthy people smoke Havana cigars, many of which are composed, it is said, to a large extent, of tobacco, which has been shipped to Cuba and brought back again. I saw the largest works of the island, and found them small as compared with establishments I have seen in Havana and New York. The cigars are nearly all hand made, the use of moulds being unpopular. The cigarettes are folded and not pasted, and look like those of Havana. The com- monest kind is made with the thick, white cotton paper of Spain, whose only justification is its ^purity, it being heavy, and increasing the empyreumatic flavor of the leaf when smoked. Another kind known as the pectoral is rolled in a PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. 177 thick brown paper, which appears to be made out of cotton, tobacco stems, molasses, and a little nitre There are still smaller quantities of cigarettes made with special wrappers, yellow, coffee-colored, and flav- ored, and rose-tinted and perfumed. Most of the fac- tories will fill orders from private parties, when novel designs are often required. Among these may be men- tioned corn husk wrappers, cardboard mouthpieces, cork mouthpieces, gold -printed names, fancifully colored papers or special shapes and sizes. In the tobacco industry the Chinese are employed, where they are engaged under contract with the Six Companies, or the Four Companies, as that famous cor- poration has since become. The thrift and corruption of the Spanish army is exhibited in Porto Rico, as well as in Cuba, many of the privates being specially de- tailed to cigar and cigarette factories, where they make a humble living, and where, at the same time, they put an honest dollar in the pockets of their officers, in the shape of a commission upon their labor. 178 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES, CHAPTEE XVIII. MINOR AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES. Improvements in navigation, and the steady reduc- tion in freights have played havoc with the minor agri- cultural industries. This is well shown by a compari- son of the export and import tables of to-day with those of sixty years ago. At one time Porto Rico exported rice, and it now imports it to the extent of 1,000 tons annually. It exported maize, but now imports it from the United States. It exported cattle and meat prepa- rations, and it now imports these from different coun- tries. It grew its own vegetables, but now imports large quantities from the other Antilles and New York. It made its own soap, but now imports nearly all that it uses. It grew its own ham, bacon and lard, but now depends for those articles upon Chicago and Cincinnati. At one time it had lamps which burned vegetable oil, but these have been driven out of exist- ence by American kerosene. The soil is not so much to blame nor the competition, as the laziness of the people and the burden of taxa- tion. It is a queer fact that taxation seems to be the highest in the countries where the people are the laziest. Good potatoes can be grown in Porto Rico, and splendid onions, but most of those served at the table or found in the markets are brought there in saiing vessels or PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. 179 cheap freighters. The native sweet potato is, if possi- ble, better than the finest Georgia esculent, but the cul- tivation is so neglected that the crops are only one-half or a third as much to the acre as they are in our South- ern States. As the price of the root is the price of the American tuber plus freight and duty, the amount which the Jibaro receives for his crop hardly pays him for his labor, and when from that is taken the govern- ment tax, the octroi, and the heavy cost of transporta- tion, his profit is at the rate of about twenty-five cents a day for his labor. With such rewards year after year, men become hopeless and lethargic. They have not got to work anyhow, as their banana palms will keep them alive if everything else fails. Maize grows well in the hill country, and some of the ears of corn would do credit to Southern Illinois. The yam flourishes, and is a trifle more tender and pleasan- ter flavored than the Cuban article. Under proper rule the people would do much better; where they have a chance they take advantage of it, and do capital work. In nearly every city are makers of sweetmeats, whose goods will compare favorably with the finest preserves and confections of New York, London or Paris. The best undoubtedly, the mazapan, or English marchpane, whose chief ingredients are the meat of almonds and sugar. They are made sometimes into a cake, with milk or cream, with the white of eggs, or beaten into wonderful froths and baked, making kisses as light as those made by the French, or they are mixed with other preparations and fruits so as to form both sightly and 180 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. savory dishes. Nearly all the fruits, and more espe- cially the guava, pineapple, quince, plum, and orange, are converted into all sorts of jams, jellies, marmalades, pastas and conservas. They cook the fruit with differ- ent saccharine bases, using white sugar, yellow sugar, brown sugar, syrup, molasses and honey. The combi- nations with honey are oftentimes revelations to Ameri- can lovers of good living. They crystallize and spice the tomato, and convert it into a very agreeable confec- tion. They make a dessert which is unknown at the Waldorf-Astoria by stuffiing a cucumber with spices, chopped or pounded nuts, a little sugar, and then cook- ing it, and finally crystallizing it in some odd fashion. When finished the humble cucumber looks something like an emerald banana, whose pulp is mixed with a stuffing so as to make a most palatable blending. The dairy business has also suffered and fallen away from the causes mentioned, and also from the greater convenience and economy of condensed milk, which is imported from Switzerland, the United States and Den- mark. Fresh butter is made in small quantities, the demand being supplied by the canned article sent usually from Denmark. At one time the United States sent oleomargarine to the island, but the bitter war made upon that useful food product by American politi- cians has driven the trade almost entirely to the more progressive communities of Denmark, Holland and Bel- gium. The oleo oil is exported from New York to Europe. It is there converted into oleomargarine, and thence sent to San Juan and Ponce. The cheese industry has PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. 181 been nearly crushed by competition from both sides of the Atlantic. French and Swiss cheeses are used by the well-to-do, and American by the middle and lower classes. A little Spanish cheese is imported, and all that remains of the industry is a very delicate and deli- cious cream cheese made from goat's milk. The cocoanut makes a profitable crop to the agricul- turist. It is always marketable both at home and abroad. When ripe, the meat is dried to form the copra of commerce. The shells are made into drinking cups, known as jicara dippers and bails. The simplest form is that made by removing the husk and polishing the exterior of the nut. Handsomer kinds are made by carving the exterior of the nut with some primitive machinery, and then polishing it with a little oil until it looks like the finest jet. The handsomest are hand- carved on the outside in original designs by the work- man. These sell best in Europe, altthough a few reach the United States. Another curious use of the cocoanut is made by cut- ting an overripe one through the middle, removing the meat, and using the hemisphere as a scrubbing brush. The strong fibres of the husk are more efficient and dura- ble than bristles, and will clean a board floor, or even a stone walk with comparative little trouble. The cost is a mere trifle, from two to five cents, and the scrubber will last from six months to a year, even when used every day. Fruits bring a ready sale, but are very cheap. They afford a living to poor farmers, but certainly will en- 182 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. able no one to grow very rich. There is a small but rather profitable demand for such products of the plan- tation as cassia, indigo, tamarinds, aloes, ginger, bal- sam. Even here the products enter into competition with those of other countries, nearly all of which are tropical lands, where the labor is of the cheapest sort ; hence the prices are determined by the great markets of the world, and the profit is never very large. Hemp grows well, but does not equal that from Manila. The hemp farmers complain that there is little or no money in the business, and their complaint is usually confirmed by their appearance and condition. Connected with agriculture is apiculture and honey- making. Here Porto Eico is singularly rich. The Spaniards have a sweet tooth, and learned from the Moors a thorough knowledge respecting bee-raising. They carried to Porto Eico the best bees of the Penin- sula, although the native insects were probably just as efficient. Owing to the richness of the floral world, and the absence of ill-favored or noxious blossoms, the honey produced is of the very highest quality. The natives say that it is the best grown, and some of the samples given to the traveler bear out the claim. Many of the bees have returned to the wilderness, and have learned the habits of their indigenous cousins. The favorite storehouse of these busy little workers is the interior of palm trees. The palm, unlike the northern trees, is strongest around its circumference. The in- terior is of softer and spongier tissue. When decay sets in, it attacks the center, moving along the axis of PORTO RICO AJNTD THE WEST INDIES 183 the trunk, and spreading from the axis laterally out- ward. Thus, when the palm falls, it is almost always hollow in whole or in part. These hollows are where the hees store their wax and honey. They do it upon an extensive scale, so that it is not uncommon to take two and three hundred pounds from a single trunk. "When such large amounts are taken from one tree, much of it is old and discolored, although the honey is still sweet and palatable, while the wax can be bleached by the use of proper chemicals. Honey is used by the natives in many forms, and is utilized by the cook, and by the preserver much more than in the United States. Large quantities are exported to Europe, but little if any to North America. Under improved industrial and political conditions this industry, as well as others of the same class, could be largely developed. The demand for canned fruits, preserves, jellies and marmalades is on the increase in every civilized nation. Fruits in Porto Rico are cheap and excellent, labor is inexpensive and intelligent. Preserving sugar costs less than anywhere in temperate lands, so that the outlay in putting up canned goods of all kinds would not be much more than one-half of what it is in the manufacturing cities on either side of the Atlantic. The agricultural implements throw a strong sidelight upon industrial conditions. They vary from the primi- tive tools used in the Middle Ages to the latest conceptions of Sheffield and Pittsburg. The average Jibaro turns up the sod with the alamo negro, which is a rough, 184 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. awkward, home-made wooden plough whose friction and resistance are so great that it scarcely more than loosens the grass and roots from the soil beneath. To him deep soil plowing is practically unknown, and sub- soil plowing would be regarded as incontrovertible evi- dence of insanity. Sometimes he harrows with a prim- itive harrow, consisting of a wooden triangle with wooden teeth five or six inches long, but more fre- quently he leaves the work to el sol criador (the fructi- fying sun). It is said that a grateful American once gave a fine steel plow to a Bay am on Jibaro. Several years afterwards he called upon the planter, received an effusive welcome, and was promptly escorted to the drawing room, where, upon a small platform, stood his gift, cleaned and polished until it shone as a jewel, but absolutely innocent of use. In many parts of the island the Scriptures are well illustrated by oxen, which tread out the grain the same way as was done 4,000 years ago on the plains of Mesopotamia, The hay and grass cutter is occasion- ally encountered, but is not very popular. The peasant thinks, when he does think, that it is cheaper to use his machete. More often he gives the fodder to the animals without any preparation at all. This carelessness and ignorance is the secret of the non-success of stock-raising although there is enough food to keep every animal in prime condition, yet for fear that they may injure regular crops, they are usually confined to inadequate pasturage or to the road- side. Of a hundred horses and cattle ninety-nine look underfed or half -starved. PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. 185 CHAPTER XIX. BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES. While Porto Rico offers a great field for American capital, energy and executive ability it does not present the variety of opportunities to be found in newly settled lands. It is well if not thickly populated, and the arable land is held at very good figures. The prices this year (1898) this varied, but were in the main higher than those of lands in New York State outside of the large cities. The lowest price was asked for mountain land, and was about $5 per acre, and from this it ran up to rich bottom land near the cities to $350 an acre. It is clear that where a plantation will permit six and even eight cuttings of sugar cane a year that it must have a much higher value than American wheat fields which at the best give but two crops a year. In the cities the price of real estate, both improved and unimproved, is reasonable, and sometimes low. Labor is cheap, and the cost of buildiDg houses is much smaller than in the United States. The absence of win- ter renders a more open style of architecture advisable, and diminishes the cost that is entailed by well-fitted windows, doors, vestibules, furnaces and flues. With the increase of business that will necessarily come 186 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. wages will go up, and with these there will be a corre- sponding advance in real estate, rents and values. The investor, therefore, rather than the speculator, will find Porto Eico real estate an excellent place for the safe utilization of his money. At this point it should be noted that the Spaniard, both at home and in the colonies is a good and honest tenant. When he takes a house his word is as good as his bond, and in the Porto Kican courts there is hardly an instance in which either Spaniard or native violated an agreement as to real estate. Leases there are usually given for three years, and dispossess proceedings for non-pay- ment of rent are very rare. As a side issue there is a fine opening on the island for modern hotels. To Americans and Englishmen this is one of the great wants of Porto Eico. What hotels they have are Spanish and French inns rather than anything else. The best hotel is at Coamo, and that is not saying much, because the others are bad indeed. The country is bound to become a winter resort for Americans, and the places suitable for hotels for this class of patrons are almost numberless. There are many localities where there are valuable springs. At Aguas Buenas, in the Province of Guay- ama, about fifteen miles from San Juan, are springs of such excellent quality as to give the place its name. iSTear Utuado, in the Province of Arecibo, are mineral springs, which are said to be beneficial in cases of rheu- matism and gout. At Coamo, in the Province of Ponce, are mineral springs, and a very elaborate bath and clubhouse. PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. 187 There is a strong sulphur spring at Aguas Blancas, west of Ponce. The water contains magnesia, as well as sulphur, and is said to be diuretic, as well as cathar- tic. The Province of Arecibo is quite mountainous, the axes of upheaval have disturbed the strata, and brought up to the surface an extensive limestone forma- tion. It runs south at least as far as the boundary of Ponce, and northward to the Atlantic. In this lime- stone formation are many caves, which will compare favorably with those of Kentucky and Tennessee. Those not far from Ciales at Miraflores, at Hato Viejo, and near Arecibo are locally famous. Some are of great beauty, others of wide extent. Many have been enlarged and converted into popular resorts, a few are employed as sanitariums, and one or two are said to have been the homes of hermits in the past. The larger caves were undoubtedly used by Caribs before the advent of the Spaniards in the New World. In the floors have been found the bones of ani- mals and fishes, the remnants of fires, broken weapons, stone and fish bone arrow heads. Through this dis- trict are many springs of a mineral character. It is not safe, however, to drink the water, as it is too calcareous for health. Where the limestone formation is broken by ferruginous rocks, the springs change in chemical character. Some contain iron, others white sulphur, still others yellow sulphur ; while now and then an ex- plorer rtins across a mud spring. There are salt springs not far from Guayanilla, Yauco, Salinas, Cabo Roja, Yagua, and Guanica and 188 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. Sabana-Yeguas. The hot springs are declared by na- tives to possess medicinal virtue. The best known are those already referred to at Coamo; others are found at San Sebastian, Santa Isabel, San Lorenzo, Ponce, Juana Diaz and Tallaboa. There are many places where the mountain scenery is of remarkable beauty. One of these, Aibonito, has been made famous by the late w r ar. Another district which enjoys the double advantage of handsome moun- tains and a noble panorama of the sea is in the south- east of the island in the Province of Humacao. Three small cities, Yabucoa, Maunabo, and Patillas, situated about a mile from the coast, are also on the flank of the mountains which mark that portion of the province. Most beautiful of all the mountain districts is in the northeastern portion, where the central range comes down almost into the sea. It is known as the Luquillo country, named after the peak, which is nearly a mile high. This is abo^t the same as if Mount Marcy in the Adirondacks were put at New Brighton on Staten Island. All of these would make notable winter re- sorts, and those built upon the high hills would be equally comfortable in July and August. Capital may be advantageously employed in develop- ing the ports of the island, which, as shown in the pre- ceding chapter, are altogether unworthy of the nine- teenth century, and particularly of a prosperous business community. Dock and wharf companies could readily do a profitable business at many of the ports named, and more especially at San Juan, Jobos, Salinas, Puerto de PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. 189 Ponce, Guanica, and Cerra. At the other ports the ex- pense of breakwaters and of pier construction would be so large as to render governmental action a necessity. Such companies would be favored by the climate in one or more respects. The heavy rains of the wet season necessitate well built go-downs or storage sheds. These cost but little money, and return a very fair interest on the money invested for use during the inclement season. A much larger field for enterprise is in transportation and locomotion. The island, roughly speaking, is ninety -six miles long, and thirty-five miles wide, and , possesses a population of 800,000. There are thirty small cities, and none disproportionately larger than others. The people themselves are quite uniformly dis- tributed, so that railway and trolley business would not vary greatly between any two districts. While there are mountainous stretches of territory, yet there are no formidable obstacles to railway engineering and con- struction. English engineers and capitalists have planned a series of steam railways, which would belt the island, and also cross it. They have obtained the concessions which will, of course, be respected by Amer- ican law, so that any one contemplating action should take these facts into consideration. Those already built are as follows. From San Juan to Dorado and Arecibo, second from Aguadilla to Mayaguez and San German ; third from Yauco (this, by the way, is said to be owned by Frenchmen), and fourth, a short line running southward from San Juan, whose intention is to ultimately reach Ponce. Alto- 190 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. gether 137 miles are built, with about thirty miles of sidings and switches. When the plans are carried into execution the mileage will be about 350. It will con- sist of a road from San Juan to and through the follow- ing places, Dorado, Arecibo, Hatillo, Camui, Quebra- dillas, Isabella, on the north of the island Aguadilla, Anasco, Mayaguez and San German on the west, Sabana Granda, Yauco, Guayanilla, Ponce, Santa Isabel, Salinas, Guayama, Arroyo Patillas on the south, Maunabo,Yabucoa, Humacao, Naguabo, Ceira, Fajardo on the east, Luquillo, Loiza, Carolina and Rio Piedras on the north. The crossroad from San Juan to Ponce will follow the highroad via Caguas, Cayey, Aibonito and Coamo. Beyond this it may be questioned if any steam railway would prove profitable, but, on the other hand, there is an immense field for trolley roads. They will not be strangers to the island altogether, as there are already four lines of horse cars in operation, one at the capital, one at Ponce, one at Mayaguez, and one at Bayamon. These roads could be converted to-morrow into trol- ley roads at a slight expense. A trolley road from San Juan to Ponce would meet a small city or large town every four or five miles, The simplest route between these points would be from the latter place to J uana Diaz, Coamo, Aibonito, Cidra, Aguas Buenas, Rio Piedras and San Juan. A trolley line starting at Mayaguez, and taking in the little cities, Hormigueros, San German, and Sabana Granda ought to pay well. Better still would be a line PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. 191 from Aguadilla to Aguada, Moca, San Sebastian and Lares. A bright American who has studied Porto Rican conditions this summer (1898), said that it pos- sessed many business opportunities for stage lines, es- pecially in the hilly country and mountainous districts, but no stage line is ever so good a permanent invest- ment as a trolley road or a steam railway. There are vast deposits of guano on the islands and on some of the outlying islets. These have been utilized locally to a considerable extent, but have not been developed, as have the phosphate rock deposits of South Carolina and Florida. There is also excellent clay here which could be made the basis of a large brick and terra cotta industry. Cement rock ex- ists, but of its practical availability there is no trust- worthy information. There ought to be a good field for agricultural implements, coffee and sugar machinery. At one or two of the largest sugar plantations improved methods and apparatus are employed with great profit to the owners. The smaller planters have been unable to make such large investments as are required by the best batteries. Neither have they come together to form a co-operative arrangement or a syndicate. This could be done in many parts of Porto Rico with profit to the promoter and all parties involved. There is a field for small coastwise steamers, staunch, seaworthy, of low expense and large carrying capacity. Much of the produce is bulky, and can be carried at a smaller cost by water than any other way. Of mining enterprises not enough is known in respect to the mineral resources 192 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. to give a just opinion. In the eastern part of the island there are good slate beds, granite quarries, and build- ing stone deposits. Along the northern frontier the rock is of a later geologic formation, and clay beds, sand- stone, limestone, and a good quality of building marble are encountered. Of the metals, gold, copper, iron, lead, mercury, zinc, manganese, bismuth and antimony have been found in appreciable amounts. Sulphur lignite, magnetite, malachite, azurite, haematite, limonite, calcite and gypsum, selenite, magnesite, pyrites and chalcopyrite have been discovered. There are many private collections of minerals in Ponce and San Juan. There is a cabinet of excellent specimens in the possession of th6 ex-governor-general, another which belongs to the Porto Rico historical society; a fair as- sortment in the San Juan college, and a magnificent collection in the Governmental Museum at Madrid. None of these mineral resources are worked to any extent. The gold, which is found in dust and nuggets in placer form, is mined to the extent of about 88,000 a year. There has been sporadic copper mining and iron min- ing but the amount of metal extracted from the ores has never been more than thirty or forty tons in a year. The agricultural resources are still comparatively un- developed. Enterprising Spaniards have proved that the soil was adapted to cotton growing, including sea island, upland and Egyptian varieties ; to the culture of indigo, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, cardamons, quinine, chinchonine, and india rubber PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. 193 With every variety of soil and tropical and sub- tropical climate it ought to be possible to grow every form of vegetation of commercial value now grown in India, Ceylon, Java, the Straits Settlements and South- ern China. Carriage building should prove a good business ventuie. The people, like all residents of hot countries, prefer riding to walking, and import the larger part of their better vehicles, but repair them at home. In this way there are many skillful carriage makers and wheelrights in every populous center. Northern woods, even when well seasoned, do not stand tropical heat as well as the harder fibered timbers, which are native to the place. A small capital could be used to advantage in the making of wheeled vehicles for general use. The maker should follow the types now in vogue there, and by using the machinery of the United States, the woods and native artisans who work for a dollar and less a day could turn out admirable products at a much smaller expense than the imported ones now cost. There is a good field for one or more breweries, and I understand that already one enterprising business man has obtained a concession for an establishment near Ponce. Under the free government which the people will henceforward have, there will be greater prosperity and a larger accumulation of wealth. With these will come the want for necessaries and luxuries which mark all opulent communities, and in supplying these wants there will be business opportunities numberless. The -A 194 PORTO RICO AND THE WEST INDIES. beginning of this growth is already shown in the larger cities. In six there are now telephone s ystems, in two there are electric lights, in two ice plants, and in nearly all the bicycle and the typewriter are familiar sights. The sugar bounty system of Europe seems coming to an end. When that occurs the plantations of Porto Rico w T ill double in value, and its commerce increase correspondingly. In that field there will be room for scores of the bright artisans, engineers, chemists and merchants of the United States. "What is imperatively needed at present is a good governmental topographical and geological survey of the entire commonwealth. It is an odd commentary upon the Spanish administration that the official maps of Porto Rico now in use on that island and in Madrid were made by a map publishing firm in New York City, and that the best charts of its beautiful coasts embody the long-continued labors of the British Admiralty and the Hydrographic office of the American Navy Department. With a complete survey of the island it will then be possible to develop its min- eral wealth, of which we know only enough to justify a desire for greater knowledge. In conclusion it may be well to notice the maritime possibilities of the new commonwealth. Under the present system it has quite a lively commerce with St. Thomas, Santa Cruz, Guadaloupe, Martinique, Vene- zuela, Santo Domingo, Jamaica and the Bahamas. As a part of the West Indies it has many social as well as commercial and political relations with the other islands. At present that commerce is burdened by legal 0) e c p 4» fcuO 1- I '3 8^ "2 « £ >> — T3 ^ C v, I a X >