Little Journey to Puerto Rico Part 8

The cultivation of sugar-cane, coffee, tobacco and cocoanuts furnishes the industries of the neighborhood. We find the three establishments for the preparation of coffee for market very interesting places to visit.

MAYAGUEZ.

Leaving Aguadilla for Mayaguez, we take the tramway which connects the two towns. It is the only one on the island, and the people are very proud of it. But oh, what a ridiculous little road!

It is a narrow gauge, not more than forty-seven inches wide. The cars are quite diminutive, and do not carry more than ten or twelve people.

We can ride the length of the road, about two miles, for five cents.

We see long lines of patient oxen plodding their way to the city, pulling clumsy carts piled high with oranges. Mayaguez is the market to which the best oranges in Puerto Rico come.

Large, sweet, and luscious we find this fruit, the princ.i.p.al food of many of the people.

It grows wild by the roadside, in the valleys, everywhere except on the hillsides. Such quant.i.ties of oranges! It seems as if enough of the fruit is grown in Puerto Rico to supply the whole of the United States.

Yet very few oranges are sent away from the island. They can not be s.h.i.+pped profitably until good roads are built.

The city of Mayaguez claims a population of 20,000 people. It has, probably, 12,000 to 15,000. It is the great western s.h.i.+pping port, is the third largest city, and the prettiest and most attractive city in Puerto Rico.

Mayaguez is very different in appearance and customs from the other cities. We can scarcely realize that we are on the same island.

The streets are macadamized, wide, shaded by trees, and lined with handsome shops and residences. The sidewalks are narrow,--only two can walk abreast on them.

The town is well provided with public buildings. It has also three hospitals, a home for the dest.i.tute, a public library, good waterworks, is lighted by electricity, and possesses the only street-car line on the island. The princ.i.p.al plaza is a park of grand old shade trees. It contains a majestic statue of Columbus.

The citizens are, many of them, coffee planters who have estates near the city. Each family of the better cla.s.s dwells in a home of its own, instead of living in second stories.

The poor people of the town are not so poor, or unclean, or s.h.i.+ftless, as the poorer cla.s.ses at the capital.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A VIEW IN PONCE, PUERTO RICO.]

PONCE.

To reach Ponce, the next city we wish to visit, we must use carriages as well as railways. It is on the southern side of the island.

Ponce is the largest city in Puerto Rico, having a population of over thirty-seven thousand people. The main part is built on a plain about three miles from the seash.o.r.e.

A fine road connects it with Playa, the port, where are found a good harbor, large wharves and the more important government offices.

Ponce has wide, clean streets, handsome buildings, and attractive homes.

Many quaint and picturesque old buildings line its avenues; but in the newer parts of the town and in the suburbs the buildings are modern.

It has a military hospital and barracks, two other hospitals, a home for the old and poor, gas works, and an ice machine. There are also establishments for hulling coffee, drying coffee, distilling rum, manufacturing carriages, and grinding sugar. (See ill.u.s.trations on pages 54 and 69).

The large central plaza has pretty gardens and a cathedral.

There are three manufactories of chocolate for the use of the people in the surrounding country. Sugar, coffee, oranges, pineapples and cocoanuts are brought here to be s.h.i.+pped to the United States and other countries.

Near the city are white-gypsum quarries; also medicinal baths, to which many invalids and travelers go.

The only Protestant church in the West Indies is the Episcopal church here.

On the outskirts of Ponce is an old cemetery, in which many famous Puerto Ricans of an early day were buried. It is quite different from our idea of a cemetery. It is one solid ma.s.s of masonry built into the side of a hill. In this are narrow vaults, one above the other.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A FUNERAL PROCESSION.]

The openings of these vaults look much like bakers' ovens. The bottom vaults are used first, and when a body is laid in one of them it is sealed up and the name of the deceased graven on the outside. The next member of the family who dies is placed in the vault above; and so on, each family having a tier of vaults.

As carriages and hea.r.s.es are rare objects in Ponce, the coffin is sometimes carried on the shoulders of men. The procession is often composed of those attracted by curiosity, rather than the friends and relatives of the deceased.

The people of Ponce are wide-awake, progressive and anxious to better their condition. They are also more hospitable and friendly than in other towns.

It was here that the American army under General Miles proceeded in 1898, after landing at Guanica. The troops received a hearty welcome from the inhabitants.

The people were glad to be relieved from Spanish rule, and wished to have their land annexed to the United States.

A proclamation of welcome was issued to the soldiers, feasts were spread, and the stars and stripes floated from many house tops.

THE MILITARY ROAD.

Now we are ready to return to San Juan, going northward over the great military road, one of the finest highways in the world.

It is macadamized, is fifty feet wide, ninety-seven miles in length, and smooth and even as a boulevard. It crosses mountains which reach a height of almost four thousand feet. It winds in and out among the coffee-covered hills, giving us a fine view of the green mountains and the deep valleys below.

Looking down we see patches of sugar cane and tobacco; groves of bananas, cocoanut, and palm trees; hedges of strange growth; unknown plants and vines, and fern-covered rocks.

Here and there is a rude cabin surrounded by bread-fruit and banana trees. We pa.s.s picturesque little towns with blue and yellow houses and quaint churches, their spires towering upward. In fifteen hours we would reach San Juan, but we delay our journey in order to obtain a closer view of the scenery and of the homes of the people.

Many happy hours we spend on the plantations in the country.

During these country rides and visits we get our knowledge of the animal and plant life of the island.

Let us stop, then, for a few days, at a country home by the seash.o.r.e.

A COUNTRY HOME.

The residence of this home we find to be of good size and divided into rooms by part.i.tions that reach only half way up to the roof. This is to give a free circulation of air. The house is thatched with palm leaves, and has a wide veranda running around it.

Mosquito curtains are used to keep out the swarms of sand flies and mosquitoes that make the night uncomfortable.

All doors and windows are closed before sunset and not opened until the moon is well up. Then large fires are lighted around the house to drive the mosquitoes away. This is for our benefit, for the natives do not mind these insects as much as we do. But we have other midnight visitors.

Large fireflies fly in at the open windows and light up the room with their fairy lamps. And such wonderful fireflies, over an inch long!

The people, the children especially, are very fond of these fireflies and frequently keep little cages of them for pets. They feed them on sugar-cane juice and bathe them as if they were birds.

[Ill.u.s.tration: COUNTRY HOME OF THE BETTER CLa.s.s.]

Little crabs rattle gaily over the floor and sometimes crawl into our shoes, where we find them in the morning; friendly but ugly lizards croak from the walls and roof, where they pa.s.s the night hours in catching insects.