Morning journal and courier., 1888-05-07

The city of Cienfuegos on the southern coast of Cuba, while possessing many of those quaint features in scene and architee- the stranger, is So bright and pleasing with al, and so sunny and warm in it's opulent so- eial and business activities, that one almost feels, after knowing it, that there is some hope for Cuba, even with it's curse of Span ish misruIe fastened like monstrons devil- fish upon it. To the north, east and west, for great distance behind it, the country gradually and almost imperceptibly rises to- wards the central mountain range of the is- land, and upon this fair slope are hundreds of the richest plantations in Cuba. Forest, vale, ranch, plantation succeed each other in every direction; the 1uxuriance of nature is and with American methods of cultivation and American thrift to house the gains, the whole vast region would at once become garden of transcendent beau- ty and storehouse of incalculable wealth. The commercial importance of the city is by no means insignificant. Large exports are made of sugar, tobacco, cattle, tallow, hides beeswaX and enormous shipments of the val uable Cuban woods such as mahogany and cedar. Millions of dollars of American cap- ital are invested here. Many of the largest sugar plantations are owned and operated by capitalists in Boston, New York and PhiIa- delphia; and it is not unusual to find the handsomest structures of the really beauti- ful city owned by Americans, while large number of the most important commercial houses owe their prestige to American mon- ey and the association of American business men. Cienfuegos cannot but soon rival Ha- yana in business importance, and should there be successful completion of canal across the isthmus venture the prediction that here will be found in quarter of a cen- tury the largest, richest and most brilliant cathedral and plaza at Cienfuegos are stri- kingly beautiful, and the building occupied by it's leading club, the 'fCirculo de Instruc- cion recreo ell Liceo," on the Calle de San ta Cruz, formerly wealthy Cuban's resi- dence, is Oriental in design, appointments and embellishments. The harbor is one of the finest in the world. It is named Bahia (bay) Jagua, from the jagua tree which grows profusely in this part of the island The jagua resembles our American locust, though its leaves are more nearly like those of the poplar. 1t bears fruit something like the sweet zapota in appearance, but is only edi- ble by swine, which fatten upon it as rapidly as upon corn. The bay is five leagues in di- ameter; and as we steamed over it en route for Trinidad, some eighty miles by sea to the east, the picture of the splendid city encir- cling the white shore, and brilliant in it's odd colorings of pink, blue and yellow, backed by far-reaching waves of luxuriant foliage. was one which the Mediterraneans shores cannot surpass. The harbor entrance is most interesting. It follows the sea in sinuous hugging bold ocean bluff, upon which looms grim fort of Moorish design; and just within, along the debouching shore, are delightful quintas and villas, brilliant hued bathing boxes and numberless quaint fishers cabins, above which are endless flow CTS and tropical verdure.
 ALONG THE SOUTHERN COAST
 Our trip along the southern coast of Cuba was a lazy and dreamful one. Underneatb great awnings perhaps half hundred pas sengers, the larger namber of pure Castillian or the darker-hu mixed Cuban types, lolled the whole day long in languid siesta. But to me and my companion, whose eyes kindled with delight as olden scenes were discovered. or suffused with tears as olden memories of the brave and bitter struggle for the liberty of his loved land were awakened, the passage was replete with interest For the whole distance we were never a league, and often within hailing distance, from these witching shores. Something as upon the great Baha- ma banks, the coralline sea-bed formation gives wonderful color to the water Here it is as milk. There it has tho glowing flush of the opal. Again we cIoss bit of green the palest shades of the eme- rald. Now our course is where the blue of the sea deepens to crimson-t tinted purple And more than once we glided through still waters like amber, where seaward and shore ward there swept over hidden coral reefs surfs high and stately like massed columns of miIk-white steeds decked with snowy plumes. Myriads of sea-gulls circled about us 1azily, uttering their half-whistled meanings and at midday even the sleepy Cubans were reused into activity by the hoy ering of one of those mammoth birds of the sea, the albatross, or "man-of-war" as the sailors have it, which followed for fully a half hour in majestic circlings, apparently without @ single movement of it's tremendous wings. Soon the San Juan river was seen. At it's mouth great breakers were tossed back and forth over coral reefs which here and there rose in black, white or mottled lodges and pinnacles to the height of an hundred feet. At the peaceful shore edge beyond, on sither side of the river mouth, inconceiyably large turtles lay summing themselves upon ripple-washed rocks, occasionally moving in lethargy, or, as if determined on sudden mission, plunging from sight inte the depths below. Here and there, in barren tide washed spaces of shore, there suddenly wild hogs, which, catching sight of the pass ing steamer. with excited gyratiens and ea- vortings expressed their astonishment Tn snortings and sharp barking, not unlike those of the American coyote, and with curved backs and wild jumpings into the air on all-fours, precipitately disappeared. Some fishers huts of palmetto and palm were set here and there beneath lofty trees: and glimpses were caught far up the stream among weird erags and cliffs of monteros homes, picturesque as ever peeped from heights in the Tyrol. Behind all this, tier on tier, stood almost impenetra- ble forests, now forever haunted by the wraiths of uncounted thousands, Spanish and Cuban foes, who fell in the awful con- fiict which must come again and again until Spanish barbarism is swept from Cuba; while beyond, looming vast and high in this strange tropical air as another Iseran is the peak of Potrellio, six thousand feet high, the loftiest elevation in Cuba save Mount Turquino.
 CASILDO.
 Toward evening we steamed up the canal from the sea to Casilao, the little outer port of Trinidad, one of the oldest cities of Cuba, and in former times even surpassing in rich es and splendor Havana in her most famous decades of opulence. Casildo was never but an entrepot for Trinidad, the latter being built upon splendid inland harbor; but here are some of the greatest warehouses and wharves in Cuba Before the revolution of '6S, which almost destroyed the wealth and even resources of this ineenceivably rich southern coast country, and left it's splendid cities efortless and silent, these vast wharves and almacens must have presented most stir ring scenes, stored as they constantly were with millions upon millions of dollars worth