The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-10-12

trade and the great ocean-liners the world has hetrd less about this island than others of the West lndies-untll the war with Spain brought 1t into our possession. Yet it is only few days pleasant sailing from New York (about seventeen hundred miles, belieV), and perhaps thousand miles south east from Havana. Owing to. its Ia vorably position, the hurricanes that so often visit Martinique, St. Vincent and other islands to the southward, do not disturb Porto Rico. In normal times 1t is an ideal winter resort, with the very perfection of climate, where the thermometer never falls below t1tty de- grees and seldom rises above eighty. Earthquakes and volcanoes are alike unknown here. Snakes and othr veno- nous creatures are as scarce as in lre- land after St. Patricks isit and there are no end of places in the highlands where yellow fever and kindred dis eases can never climb. Though popu- lated to the number of nine hundred thousand or therabouts, mainly Span ish Creoles and negroes, with a mix ture of Germans, French, Danes, | Swedes, Russians, Chinese, Canary Is flanders and Chuetas or descendants Of the Moorish Jews, there Is plenty of room for more Unlike most of the oth- CT West India Islands, there are a good many more white than black citi- zens here, the proportion in Porto Rico being not so great as in the capital of our own country, where, as is well | known, about two-thirds of the resident population is "colored."
 | In spite of it's sprawling cognomen, 1 there was never a more compact little
 city than this "Santo John the Bap- tist." It is situated on a long narrow island, connected with the north shore by a bridge and causeway. The penin-
 sular-like island has strong fort at either end and is entirely surrounded
 by massive walls of stone and mortar rising in places to a height of from fifty to one hundred feet. The houses are all of stone, no wooden buildings | having been allowed by the Spanish au- | thorities except along the wharves out side the walls Like other casas built by descendants of the Moors, these are mostly one-storied, painted in all the colors of the rainbow, rose pink, sky 1 DluG anu yellUW pICuOIlllAihliiAS, "i1ii | iron barred windows and enormous doors. Some of them have iron balco- nies, shutters and jalouses, but there is | not such a thing as chimney in all Porto Rico and few glass windows.
 Not far from the landing is the Marina,
 the park and parade-g ground of the city, adorned with statues and flowers. It has a wide, central walk, lined with l benches while rows of palm and pepper trees strive to hide the drowning walls | which enclose it, with their sentry-b box es projecting here and there At it's | seaWard end is the main fortress, Of course called the Moro, and very like | it's namesakes in Havana and Santiago,
 only on a smaller scale. Within it's
 grim walls is a little town by itself,
 with houses chapel and barracks. A tower dominates the whole, equipped with ancient guns and there are cov- cred passageways, subterranean dun geons and other mysteries, which could
 no doubt tell some gruesome tales of murder torture and death had they the power of speech. The rusty cannon have done good service in times long gone and rendered historic this old Cas- l tillo del Moro. They could not prevent the sacking of the capital by Drake, the
 English buccaneer, in 1895; nor again, ' only three years later by the Earl of
 Cumberland; but when Baldwin Hein-
 rich attempted the same little game in 1915, they wiped him out of existence,
 together with most of his men. Tn 1878 the covetous English made another as 1 sault, but were disastrously repulsed
 A hundred years afterwards the gallant l Abercrombie had to retire discomfited after three days seige, and what they