The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1898-10-06
CUBAN PLACE NAMES.
Double Names Adopted for Many Villages
A Balance Between SANITY and Abor-
iainaI Suggestions.

In Cuba there are no Smithvilles.
Jones's functions, no Robinson's Ferries.
But every locality there has name; a
more than a ranch house to mark them
off from the forest, have actually two
names-one in the mouth of the people
who live thereabout or who travel that
way; the other on the old Spanish maps
or in official reports.
When our army landed in Cuba it
found that the villages and localities had
an embarrassment of names Daiquiri
was also called Los Altares, and Siboney
was sometimes Juragau, and Firmeza was
also known as Juraguacito. We heard of
the next place in advance of us, after
Siboney was passed, as Sevilla, and it
was down on the ridiculous MAPS as a
considerable town; but we found no town
there at all, and before we reached it we
and the Rough Riders-found an old
ruined ingenio. or sugar mill, called Las
Guasimas, which is the plural for quasi
ma, branching Cuban tree that looks
like butternut. The next place was Fl
Pozo, but no one was able to ascertain
whore Ell Pozo began or left off. A Gu
ban gentleman informed me that it WAS
ranch, the remaining buildings of which
our soldiers passed before they came to
ths equally indefinite neig borhood called
San Juan. The spot where General Shat
ter had his headquarters was locally
known to the Cubans as Los Mangos. but
it was never called by that name in the
official reports. which General Shafter
dated from headquarters, near the San
Juan river" All these locality names
were of indefinite application. I found
that the block houses Immediately to the
eastward of Santiago bore these names
officially: San Juan, Canoza, Caney,
POGO, San Miguel d. Lajos, Marianaje,
Solano Ingenio, and Concha.
In the United States a curious unoer-
tainty applied to the spelling of the name
of ths place in Cuba where our army
landed. 1t was really Daiquiri, and the
spelling "Bsiquiri" was evidently the
result of an error on an American map,
which other maps repeated, though have
wondered whether the name of this small
place might not perpetuate in corrupt
ed form the ancient Indian name for the
whole section about Santiago, which
was Bayaquitiri. I have now several
printed spellings of the name CT this
village in the documents of the Spanish
American Iron company, whose head
quarters it was, and in Santiago papers,
and in every case it is 'Daiquiri," with
the accent mark on the final i; in fact,
no one in Cuba, while we were ther :.
ever thought of calling it anything else.
Siboney has somet INES been spelled "Se-
bone'-I do not on what authority.
1t is prcnoua ding to the first
spelling, Sea-iJe 18th the accent on
this last syllabie. nc name Juragua
and Juraguacito, though they were on the
map, were not used at all in Cuba. and
no one could be sure where the places sup
posed to bear those names were.
The ''El Caney" Of the official reports
was simply Caney to the people iof the
town and the country roundabout. This
name Caney, by the way, has a sinister
eslNls AoA to, pIOPiOu1O 1ucAIlISt Ii Is
an Indian word, signifying 1.-THE grave. -
Many caneye, or heaps of aboriginal
human remains, are found in CUBA by
arohaeologists. An ancient burial place,
and after that for centuries an agreea BILE
suburb of Santiago, this Caney has be-
come the place of seppulture of many
brave American and Spanish soldiers.
The Spaniards, indeed who fell on the
LIST OF July were buried where they fell
in the town itself; our men were inter-
red on a grassy hilltop about quarter
of mile away.
We were somewhat surprised to find
that, in the mouths of the poor refugees
and paciticos from Santiago, our name
for that city was practically nonresident
10 them the ancient town, which was
the goal of our expedition, was simply
Cuba, or, as they pronounced it, rs if
their tongues fingered lovingly on the
novels, Goo ball." Santiago de Cuab,
taken altogether, was necessary as an
official designation because there was q
Santiago in every other Epanish colony,
and several Santiagos in Spain itself
At least half-a-doZen there were in Mex
leo and at least one In Chile and one in
Santo Domingo, and SO on. But some
how the people of the Cuban Santiago got
the idea that: as it was proposed to call
the whole island Santiago, their town
had in nm especial way the right to the
name of "Caba,'' too-as if the island
had this name from the town, At any
rate, at Some indefinite past time, the
city became CUBA to them, and SO it
still remains When the American sold
iers, who had been taught to say in Span
ish, Where do you come from?' put this
question to the refugees from Santiago,
and they answered &C ba,'' the soldiers
thought the people we're "guying" them,
and made no courteous reJoinder. This
was enc of a great many misunderstood.
ings that arose between the American
soldiers and the Cubans and refugees.
The name Santiago de Cuba has in it
good deal of the history of Cuban place
names. AS matter of fact, the Span
iards who first landed in Cuba were as
poor in invention as the Puritans of New
England. To considerable extent, but
without any thought that. they were do
ing anything meritorious, they borrowed
Indian names where they served. Cuba
Itself. like Massachusetts, the name be-
longed originally to small region, which
the conquerors, ignorantly or carelessly
extended to wider one. Where the In
dian names were not readily at hand
their place was supplied by names
brought bodily from the old country, or
by the mans of saints or religious festl-
walls; for these Spanish settlers had one
unfall1ng resource for names which the