The History of Cuba Volume V Part 4

The short streams flowing from the mountain chains along the north coast are the Mariel, the Manimani, the Mulata, the San Marcos, the Guacamayo, the Caimito and Mantua, and the Rio Salado. Returning on the south coast we have the Cabeza, the Guama, Ovas, Hondo, Herradura, San Diego, Los Palacios, Bacuranabo, Saba.n.a.l and the Bayale.

The northern coast of Pinar del Rio is fortunate in having three of the finest harbors of Cuba, bordering on the Gulf of Mexico. First, the beautiful Bay of Mariel, located about 30 miles west of Havana, has a narrow, deep entrance with a lighthouse on the eastern point, and the Government Quarantine Station for foreign s.h.i.+ps on the western side at the entrance. This Bay rapidly widens out into a large deep basin, three miles in length from north to south, with an average width of perhaps a mile, together with several prolongations towards the west, all furnis.h.i.+ng excellent anchorage and securely protected against any possible weather.

The sh.o.r.es of Mariel are beautiful. Palm covered bluffs several hundred feet in height rise almost abruptly from the eastern side of the Bay. On top of this promontory or plateau is located a fine two-story building, erected in 1905 as a club house, but occupied at the present time by Cuba's Naval Academy. The view from the crest over the surrounding country, with its tall mountains in the distance, its forest covered foothills and great valleys planted in sugar cane to the south and west, with the Gulf of Mexico lying off to the north, presents a picture of rare tropical beauty.

Between this promontory and the lighthouse a modern cement factory was built in 1917, turning out at the present time 1,000 barrels of Portland Cement per day, while near the head of the Bay, a narrow gauge railroad, bringing asphalt from back in the foothills, terminates alongside the s.h.i.+pping wharf.

The quaint little fis.h.i.+ng village of Mariel is located on the sh.o.r.e at the southern end of the Bay. Its inhabitants, although leading rather an uneventful life, seem quite content to remain, although Havana is less than thirty miles distant over a splendid automobile drive; one of the most beautiful in Cuba. The Quarantine Station is splendidly equipped and always in readiness to take care of any s.h.i.+p's crew or pa.s.sengers that may be detained by orders of the authorities in Havana. Mariel, owing to its natural beauty and its proximity to Havana, is frequently visited by President Menocal in his yacht, and furnishes a delightful, cool resting place for anyone during the summer season.

Ten or twelve miles further west, we have the Bay of Cabanas, another perfectly land-locked harbor, whose deep entrance is divided by an island into two channels. These open out into a wide picturesque expanse of water, extending east and west for some ten miles or more, with an average width of two or three.

On the small island that almost obscures the mouth of the harbor from the sea, a little old Spanish fort, with its obsolete guns, up to the present unmolested, bears mute evidence to those times when visits of pirates, with the equally troublesome corsairs of France and England, were common, and provision for defense was absolutely necessary. The village of Cabanas, in order to secure better protection from the danger mentioned, is located two or three miles back from the eastern end of the harbor.

Great fields of sugar cane surround the Bay on all sides. These, of course, have been greatly extended since the European War and the increased demand for sugar. A beautiful automobile drive that branches from the main line or Pinar del Rio road, at Guanajay, pa.s.ses along the crest of the ridge of hills back of the Bay of Cabanas, for over ten miles, giving at almost every turn a new view to this beautiful sheet of water. Once known to the outside world, this magnificent Bay of Cabanas would soon become a popular resort for private yachts that spend the winter season in tropical waters.

Fifteen miles further west, this same winding, hill-climbing, macadamized Government driveway, reaches another splendid harbor known as Bahia Honda, or Deep Bay. Like most of the bays of Cuba, the entrance to this, although comparatively narrow, is deep, and with two range lights maintained for the purposes of easy access day and night. This harbor extends back from the Gulf of Mexico some seven or eight miles, with an average width of three or four, furnis.h.i.+ng good anchorage for s.h.i.+ps of any draught.

Bahia Honda was selected by the United States Government in 1902, as a coaling station, a large body of land on the western sh.o.r.e being reserved for that purpose. Owing, however, to the completion of the Panama Ca.n.a.l later, and to the consequent advantages of having a naval station closer to the line of maritime travel, between Panama and the Atlantic Coast, Bahia Honda was surrendered to the Government of Cuba and Guantanamo became the princ.i.p.al United States Naval Station for the West Indies.

The harbor of Bahia Honda, dotted with islands, and with comparatively high lands extending all along its western and southern sh.o.r.es, offers the same advantages, not alone for an extensive commerce, but as a rendezvous for foreign yachts and pleasure craft, during the closed season or winter months of the north. The little village bearing the same name, two miles back from the Bay, is reached by a branch from the main driveway connecting Bahia Honda with Havana and intermediate cities.

The Bay of La Esperanza, one hundred miles west of Havana, is inclosed by the long chain of islands and coral reefs known as the "Colorados,"

that lie some eight or ten miles off the mainland, and protect three-fourths of the sh.o.r.e of Pinar del Rio from the heavy waves of the Gulf of Mexico. The entrance to this and adjacent bays is through narrow breaks in the barrier reef. Its waters have an average depth of only two or three fathoms; nevertheless considerable amounts of copper ore are s.h.i.+pped from the mines some fifteen miles back in the mountains during all seasons of the year.

Along the western sh.o.r.e of the main body of this Province, we have the harbors of Dimas and Mantua. Like the Esperanza, they are comparatively shallow bays, entered through breaks in the Colorado Reefs, but still available for moderate draft vessels in all seasons of the year.

In the angle of the ankle, formed by the shoe-like extension of the Province of Pinar del Rio, we have a beautiful wide indentation of the coast known as Guardiana Bay. On the sh.o.r.es, some ten years ago, was located a Canadian colony, but, owing to its isolation, and lack of transportation of all kinds, it has since been practically abandoned.

This settlement, like the Isle of Pines, had little to recommend it except its beautiful climate and its perfect immunity from the cares and troubles of the outside world.

Aside from wide, deep indentations from the sea, and shallow landing places at the mouths of rivers, the south coast of Pinar del Rio has nothing to offer in the shape of harbors. Nevertheless, owing to the presence of long lines of outlying keys, and to the fact that northerly winds produce only smooth water off these sh.o.r.es, there is considerable local traffic carried on between various places on the south coast and Batabano, whence connection with Havana is secured by rail. A large part of the charcoal used in the capital is cut from the low lying forests that cover almost the entire length of Pinar del Rio's south coast.

Across the ankle-like connection between the mainland and the peninsula forming the western extremity of the Island a depression runs from Guardiana Bay on the west to the Bay of Cortez on the east. Numerous fresh water lagoons or inland lakes lie so close that a small amount of dredging would cut a ca.n.a.l from one sh.o.r.e to the other, and save thus over a hundred miles of travel for local coasting vessels. At the present time these lakes, with their rich growth of aquatic plants, furnish a retreat during the winter season for many varieties of wild ducks, which the game laws of Cuba are endeavoring to protect. Wild deer are also very plentiful throughout the greater part of the Province, especially in the mountainous districts and in the jungles of the south coast.

The capital, Pinar del Rio, is a modern and rather attractive little city of some 12,000 inhabitants, located on a gentle rise of ground in the western center of the Province. Immediately surrounding it is the celebrated tobacco district known as the Vuelta Abajo, or Lower Turn, so called, perhaps, owing to the fact that the coast line of this section recedes rapidly towards the south and west.

The choice lands of this locality cover a relatively small area, not over thirty miles from east to west and less than half that distance from north to south. And even within this circ.u.mscribed area, the best tobacco is grown only in little vegas, or oases, whose soil seems to contain mineral elements the character of which has never been discovered, but that nevertheless give to the plant a peculiarly delightful aroma and flavor, not known to the tobacco of any other part of the world. As a result, the price of these little vegas, so favored by Nature, is very high, often running into thousands of dollars per acre.

Pinar del Rio is connected with Havana by the Western Railway, that traverses almost the entire length of the Province, terminating at the present time at the town of Guane within thirty miles of Guardiana Bay.

This railroad furnishes transportation for the great level plains, together with the fertile foot hills that occupy the southern half of the Province.

An extension of the line has been granted and contracts signed carrying it around the western terminus of the Organ Mountains, whence it will follow the line of the north sh.o.r.e, returning east to Havana. This line when completed will furnish transportation to the entire length of the coast lands bordering on the Gulf of Mexico.

Along the Western Road are a number of prosperous little cities or villages, with populations varying from two to eight thousand, including Artemisa, Candelaria, San Cristobal, Taco-Taco, Los Palacios, Herradura, Consolacion del Sur, Ovas, etc., all of which are located along the foothills, and in the tobacco district is known as the Partido or Semi Vuelta. Beyond Pinar del Rio, we have San Luis, Martinez and Guane, which claim to be within the charmed zone of Vuelta Abajo.

Tobacco is also grown around the little town of Vinales, nestling in the center of that valley, and in nearly all of the foothills that border the north coast; hence the tobacco industry in this end of the Island, greatly exceeds in value, that of sugar cane, which up to the beginning of the great war, was grown only in the basins of rich heavy soil surrounding the harbors of Mariel, Cabanas and Bahia Honda. There are seven ingenios or sugar mills within the limits of this province that produced together 645,000 bags of sugar in 1918.

The growing of fruits and vegetables, especially since the birth of the Republic, was introduced into Pinar del Rio as an industry by Americans, many of whom settled along the line of the Western Road, many of these, taking advantage of the rich sandy loams between the railroad line and the Organ Mountains, have built up a really important industry not before known to Cuba.

An American colony was started at Herradura, one hundred miles west of Havana in 1902. Unfortunately, the inhabitants of the little settlement gave nearly all of their capital and energy to the planting of citrus fruit groves, which as a whole, have rather disappointed their owners.

This was not because the growing of citrus fruit cannot be successfully carried on in Pinar del Rio, but was in most instances owing to the fact that the areas planted were very much larger than the available help could possibly handle and care for intelligently; hence many groves, lacking this care, have lapsed into grazing lands, whence they came.

The growing of vegetables, green peppers, tomatoes, egg plants and beans, especially where farms were located near enough to streams to provide irrigation during the months of January, February and March, has proven very profitable, and within the near future will undoubtedly be still further extended.

In the early part of the 19th century, and for that matter, up to the abolition of slavery in 1878, the production of coffee in the mountainous districts of Pinar del Rio was the chief industry in the Province. Beautiful estates, the ruins of which are frequently scattered along the line of the Organ Mountains, especially in that section of the range included between San Cristobal and Bahia Honda, and splendid country homes with approaches cut from the main highways of travel up into these delightful picturesque retreats, were occupied during the summer months by prominent citizens of Havana, who found the growing of coffee both profitable and agreeable. The coffee trees still grow, although uncared for, and many thousand of pounds are still brought out of this almost forgotten district, on mule back, to be sold to the country groceries of Bahia Honda and San Cristobal, where the green beans bring twenty dollars per hundred weight.

With the introduction of colonists from the Canary Islands, Italy, and other countries who love the fresh air of the mountains, and who do not object to the isolation which naturally follows a residence in remote sections, there is every reason to believe that the coffee industry will again be resumed. The settlement of these hills and vales with families whose children can a.s.sist in the picking of berries, will make the growing of coffee a great success.

Until 1913 the mining interests of Pinar del Rio were practically ignored, in spite of the fact that several excavations or shafts, that had been worked many years before, gave evidence of the existence of copper. It was in this year that Luciano Diaz, formerly Secretary of Public Works, became interested in the district known as Matahambre.

Competent mining engineers, brought from the United States, a.s.sured Mr.

Diaz that his claim was valuable, and merited the investment of capital. This proved to be true, since the mine has produced high-grade copper at the rate of about five million dollars per year since the date of its opening.

Valuable deposits of manganese, too, have been recently discovered in the western end of the province, and will undoubtedly be developed in the near future. Excellent iron ore is found in the same chain, west of the capital, but owing to the difficulties of transportation, the mines have never been operated. Asphalt, asbestos and other substances used in the commercial world, are found at various points along the range, and await only intelligent direction and capital for their development.

Although Narciso Lopez, with his unfortunate followers, endeavored to arouse the people of this Province against the iniquities of Spanish rule in the year 1852, the revolution had never reached the west until the winter of 1896, when General Antonio Maceo, with his army of Cuban veterans, carried the "invasion of the Occident" to its ultimate objective. After one of the most skilfully conducted campaigns known to history, he rested for a few weeks in the little town of Mantua, within a few miles of the extreme western sh.o.r.e of Cuba.

The crossing of the Trocha, that had been built between the harbor of Mariel and the south coast, by this invading army, was very distasteful to General Weyler, who soon filled Pinar del Rio with well armed regiments and gave Maceo battle for more than a year. Short of ammunition, and in a section of the country where it was almost impossible for the expedition to aid him, General Maceo was compelled to keep up a running fight for many months, and in the Organ Mountains and in their various spurs toward the north coast were fought some of the most stubbornly contested engagements of the War of Independence.

CHAPTER VI

PROVINCE OF MATANZAS

Historically the province of Matanzas has played a comparatively unimportant part in the various events that have influenced the destiny of the Island. In the early days of conquest, little mention of the district was made. Grijalva, however, with a small body of men, was the first of the Spanish conquerors who, pus.h.i.+ng his way along the northern coast of Cuba, reached the harbor now known as Matanzas on October 8, 1518. A very substantial fort of the same excellent style of military architecture as that seen in Havana, was erected on the western sh.o.r.e of the Bay of Matanzas to protect the city from invasion, in the middle of the eighteenth century.

The province of Matanzas joins Havana on the east and has an area of 3,257 square miles. The surface as a whole is comparatively level, although the chain of mountains, which forms the backbone of the entire Island, is represented along the center of Matanzas in a series of low peaks and foothills sloping away to the northwest corner, in which the capital, Matanzas, is located on a bay of the same name.

Across the eastern center of the Province of Matanzas, nature left a depression that extends from the north coast at Cardenas, almost if not quite, to the sh.o.r.e of the Caribbean, at the Bay of Cochinos. The elevation above the sea level is so slight throughout this belt that a series of fresh water lagoons, swamps and low lands, without natural drainage of any kind, has rendered the district almost useless for agriculture and grazing purposes during the rainy season. Between the months of May and November this section is frequently flooded so that animals occasionally perish and crops are frequently destroyed.

To relieve the situation a drainage ca.n.a.l was proposed a few years ago, that should furnish an artificial exit for the surplus water into the Bay of Cardenas. The length of the proposed ca.n.a.l was thirty miles, and work began on the big ditch in 1916. At the present time it is practically completed, at a cost of approximately five millions of dollars. Its width varies from sixteen to forty-four meters, carrying an average depth of one and a half meters, or five feet.

The possibility of eventually converting this drainage ca.n.a.l into an avenue of traffic, between the north and the south coasts, furnis.h.i.+ng thus water, or cheap transportation, between Havana, Matanzas, Cardenas and Cienfuegos, or other ports on the south coast, has naturally appealed to engineers who have studied the terrain. There are no engineering difficulties that would prevent a ca.n.a.l of this kind from being converted into a deep s.h.i.+p ca.n.a.l across the Island which would shorten the distance between New York and Panama by at least two hundred miles. Steamers bound north from Panama would then cross the Caribbean, pa.s.s through from Cochinos Bay to Cardenas, entering at once the Gulf Stream, the force of whose current would still further shorten the time between Panama and Pacific ports on the south, and all Atlantic ports north of Cuba. The engineering problem could not be more simple, since it is merely a question of dredging through earth and soft limestone rock for a distance of seventy-five miles, taking advantage, as does the present drainage ca.n.a.l, of the Auton River, where it empties into Cardenas Bay. That such a saving of time and distance will some day be consummated is more than probable. Not only the economics and benefits to be derived from such a shortening of miles between local points in times of peace, but the strategic advantage of the short cut for naval units in time of war, are more than manifest to any one at all familiar with the geography of Cuba and the West Indies. Cuba, for commercial and economical reasons, is deeply interested in the construction of a ca.n.a.l that would make the Province of Matanzas an intersea gateway, not only for her own coastwise trade, but for much of the northbound traffic that in the near future will carry millions of tons of raw material from the west coast of South America to the great manufacturing centers of the North Atlantic.

Running parallel with the north sh.o.r.e, a short series of remarkable hills rise abruptly from the surrounding level plain to an alt.i.tude of a thousand feet or more. One of these is known as the "Pan de Matanzas,"

whose round, palm covered top may be seen for many miles at sea. s.h.i.+ps coming from New York usually make this peak above the horizon before any other part of the Island comes into view.

The Yumuri River, at some time in the remote geological past cut its way through these hills and found exit in Matanzas Bay. The valley lying between two of these parallel ridges, through which the Yumuri flows, has been rendered famous by Alexander Humboldt, who visiting the spot in the winter of 1800, traveling over most of South and Central America, p.r.o.nounced it the most beautiful valley in the world. No terms of praise are too great to bestow on the Yumuri; but in truth it must be said that Humboldt had never seen the Valley of Vinales, one hundred and thirty miles west, or he would probably have hesitated in bestowing such superlative praise on the Yumuri.

Only a few miles south of the Yumuri, another river known as the San Juan has broken through the ridge which lies along the western sh.o.r.e, and empties its waters into the bay. Another small stream, the Canima, pouring its waters into the Bay, a little further east, flows through a series of limestone cliffs covered with a wealth of tropical forest and furnishes a source of recreation to visitors and many people of the capital, who make excursions to the head of navigation in motor launches.

The Province has an average length of about 70 miles, with a width from north to south of fifty miles, and forms a fairly regular parallelogram.

From the center of the coast line a narrow neck of land, known as the Punta Hicaco, projects out toward the northeast for some fifteen miles, inclosing the Bay of Cardenas on the west. The outer sh.o.r.e of this strip of land, known as El Veradero, forms the finest bathing beach in all Cuba, to which those who do not find it convenient to visit the United States in summer, can come during the warmer months.

A chain of islands varying in size from little keys of a half acre to that of Cayo Romano, seventy miles long, extends from a few miles east of Punta Hicaco, along the north sh.o.r.e of Cuba to the Harbor of Nuevitas, a distance of three hundred miles. The Bay of Cardenas, although large in extent is rather shallow in comparison with most harbors of Cuba. Extensive dredging, however, has rendered it available for steamers of 20-foot draft.

The southern boundary of the Province is formed by the River Gonzalo, fairly deep throughout half its length, but obstructed by shoals at the mouth. The upper extension of this stream, known as Hanabana, flows along the larger part of its eastern boundary. Just south of the Gonzalo River lies the great Cienaga de Zapato, or Swamp of the Shoe, which belongs to the Province of Santa Clara. The land along the northern bank of the river is also low and marshy, with sharp limestone rocks frequently cropping out on the surface. Of navigable rivers, Matanzas has really none worthy of mention but with railroads it is quite well supplied.