The Republican journal., 1899-10-05
skirting the South Coast of Cuba.


Few of Cuba Fifty-Four Ports. Glimpses
Ashore. What Americans may do in the
Big Island.
special Correspondence of The Journal
an BOARD LA CIENEGA, Aug. %. Sail
ng eastward from Isla de Pinos you find
,aulsef at once in the mazes of another
,reen archipelago-the Banco de los Jar
lines Jardinillas, or Reef of Gardens
and Gardeners. And very appropriate
#, he name bestowed by the verbose
>qauards, for every islet, big and little,
Il, a geritable conservatory of bloom and
,qaaty, though nature is the only garden
. The archipelago has ever known. This
.4-iicular group numbers about fifty
lands, the largest not n ore than six or
..At miles long, the smallest, bit of
.H rock just peeping above the waves.
-he north, between Los Jardines and
III. Peninsula de Aapata, ("The Shoe"
,,- He'd because of its shape, which
tIms the southwest end of Santa Clara
.lnce) the tranquil Caribbean is dotted
With islets, each frpged with man
I-s thickets, the home of crocodiles,
5.1ts and sea fowl innumerable. The
lind secure breeding places in these
atnre paradises, unfrequented by the
Au species, and birds of every feather
d on the wild fruits and seeds. This
e chosen home Of the Cuban parrots
paroquets, which find such profitable
. III the United States. Every thicket
We with them and their shIill scream
Ills the air. The fowler has only to
nut from the main land IN his canoe,
, mis- snares in the bushes and wait for
Of. gorgeous green and yellow fellows to
ter into them. A modern Crusoe, cast
ne on one of these islands, would not
badly, providing he kept at a respect
lStanee from the CROCODILE jaws, and
ltious land-cra did not devour him.
dies fish and Holsters, the finest to be
Id anywheIe-oysters cinging to the
..l4rove branches and birds that will al
at NOnc az GdIlJ HAVING ueNtl itdIutu
tear of man-are various wild fruits,
l ding oranges, figs, plantains, cocoa
> malangoes, "a species of indigenous
tltO Yucca, cassava and other edible
Is, and usually plenty of fresh water.
$40 country on earth is SO rich in natural
ems of the sea as Cuba, being en-
ned by no fewer than fifteen hundred
sands OF account, besides innumerable
is and Gays, the smallest of them capa-
# sustaining few people almost in
Iendently. Most of these slets are not
he the Bahama and Florida reefs, hav-
e- heen created by the same coral build
- .udt to-day may be seen through the
parent waters, working as busily as
an this old world was young and COM
lively poor IN islands.
,.xt t. Isla de Pinos, the largest of
..a islands lies Oft the north shore,
liug forty miles or more between the
4ee Of Puerto Principe and the old
ma channel, known as Cayo Romano.
olGtthlEAs IL ID lbtll NY iSldAttSt
use together and surrounded 10y
.r ot uuIe ones, and their combined
is about two hundred square miles.
-.re unique. being a vast natural salt
M -lpable OF supplying half the world.
surface is broken all over by many
ID lepIesslou>, TWO OF three feet deep.
.,
completely over these Gays, leaving
ollows filed with brine. The burning
ot summer soon dries the water and
sits of pure salt are left behind, all
-.45 tor use without the trouble of evap-
ing. The sole industry OF Cayo Ro-
an5 is that OF gathering what the sea
thus provided, and the only inhabi-
are a few salt miners, who remain
rhan half the year and work in desul-
fashion. Off the southern coast of
q, Grande Caymen and two smaller
I1suens are the most important islands,
ways excepting Pinos; and next to them
rea is the long and narrow archipelago
LED Cayos de los Doce Leguas. Between
latter and Puerto Principe province
scattered the brightest gems of the
rbbean-f1awless emeralds set in tur-
Sc and sapphre-the hundred tlowery,
Il- haunted islets of eternal summer,
"lch Columbus named 1.-THE Queen S
vatdens,'' when his caravals was becalm-
among them. For one who has had
g9ugh of life in cities and longs for
oeful days ''far from the madding
wd, what more perfect place of re-
cement could be found than one of these
autiful islets? For very little money
DE Of these 'Gardines de la Reina' might
bought and lodge or bungalow built
ereon; and nearly everything the blessed
NIT would need to sustain life he might
H0se in his dooryard, assisted by nature S
lnty in the way Of wild fruits, fish, ct
eera. There are neither snakes nor wild
mails to be feared, the climate is abso-
lie perfection, epidemic diseases are I'M
.Lown, and-protected by the long Cayos
los Doce Leguas on one hand and the
main land on the other-hurricanes and
....aya ct1,p,e ,,a1,o,, +I,o