The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-08-01

and proper consideration in favor OF
/ our doing so.
As a naval station the harbor of San
Juan de Puerto Rico is preferable in
location to the Bay Of SANTANA, Mole ST.
! Nicholas. or any other place on the is
/ land of San Domingo, and to Charlotte
/ Amalia, the port of st. Thomas. OF
the advantage of possessing all the
| land to WHICH q naval station is appur-
/ tenant there can be no doubt. Puerto
Rico occupies the central place on the
eastern frontier of the great American
archipelago. the outpost of the Greater
Antilles. and the watch tower between
the Bahamas and the Caribbees. The
Mona passage on the west and the Vir-
gin passage on the east are pathways
to the South American coast. 1t is a
commanding position between the two
continents of the west, and upon the
island rampant between the Atlantic.
ocean and the Caribbean sea- The most
deliberate choice of a naval station in
the West Indies could not have placed
/ it better than the course of events,
which has put the island of Puerto
Rico at our disposal.
And it is an island we'll worth hav-
ing-the real gem of the Antilles. A
little more than 100 miles long and a
little less than 40 miles wide il has
nearly the area of Connecticut. In
spite of misrule, exhausting taxation,
! and backward state of industry, it is
a populOus island, having more than
500 900 inhabitants, or about as many
as Connecticut. This is because the
soil is most prolific and the climate ex-
ceptionally salubrious; and twice as
many people could live there in ease
and comfort. Except for the irregular
eastern end Puerto Rico is almost a
parallelogram, and while there are bays
and harborS at convenient distances all
around it's shores, the coast is less
broken and less INSTRUCTED by reefs
than those of any other considerable
island in the West Indies. 1t has no
large cities, but many small towns and
villages, and the population is we'll
distributed. San Juan, the chief port
on the northern shore, has barely $4,000
inhabitants, and Ponce, near the south
ern coast, the largest and wealthiest
city on the island, has less than 40 200.
In 1903 Ponce de Leon, who had be-
come governor of the western province
of Santo Domingo. came over and took
possession of this fair island Of the
noble port" and established its
capital where it still bears the name
given to the whole territory by the
first discoverer. In the casa blanca
which still ornaments the variOusly
tinted town of San Juan he planned
his expeditions in search of the foun-
he set forth on the quest which led to
the discovery of the Florida coast,
whose present name we owe to him
some say on account of the flOWery
aspect of the land and some on ac-
count of its discovery on Easter day.
1t matters not, but we owe to Ponce
de Leon the close association of our
howery peninsula with the verdant is
land of Puerto Rico; and perhaps the
source of perpetual youth for nations
was really found by the disappointed
conquistadOr whom the Indians mort
ally wounded on our shores.
There are many relics of the abOrig-
inal races of the Antilles in Puerto
Rico, including that curious horse coll
lar carved from stone, which is found
nowhere else and is supposed to have
been associated with the religion or
the burial Superstitions of the natives.
There are neglected opportunities for
the study of American ethnoqOgy in the
island. as well as political naval and
commercial advantages to be gained,
and infinite attractions of tropic
scenery and climate to be visited.
Whatever may be said or thought of
keeping the Philippines or acquiring
the HawaiianS, there can be no ques-
ton of the wisdom of taking and hold
ing Puerto Rico without any reference
to policy of expansion. We need it
as a station in the great American
miS-named the West
Indies, and providence has decreed that
1t shall be ours as a recOmpense for
shifting the last whitening clutch of
Spain from the domain which Column
bus brought to light and the fairest
part of which has long been our own
heritage. AMOS K. FISKE.