The Republican., 1899-10-05
THE SOUTH COAST OF CUBA
An Eastward Cruise From the
ISla de PinOS.
A FEW OF CUBA'S MANY PORTS
Some of the Things That Americans May
Do to Develop the Trade of the
Big Island.

On BOARD LA CIENEGA, Sept. %.
Sailing eastward from Isle de Pinos
you find yourself at once in the mazes
of another green archipelago-the
Blanco de los Jardines y Jardinillas,
or REEF of Gardens and Gardeners"
And very appropriate is the name
bestowed by the verbose Spaniards,
for every islet, big and little, is YER
liable conservatory of bloom and
beauty, though Nature is the only
gardener the archipelago has eyer
known. This particular group num-
bers about fifty islands, the largest
not more than six or eight miles long,
the smallest bit of coral rocks just
peeping above the waves. To the
north, between Los Jardines and the
Peninsula de Zapata (''The Shoe," So
called because of its shape, which
forms the southwest end of Santa
Clara Province), the tranquil Carib-
bean is dotted thick with islets, each
fringed with mangrove thickets, the
home of crocodiles, parrots and sea-
fowl innumerable. The latter find
secure breeding places in these Ininia-
ture paradises unfrequented by the
human species, and birds of every
feather fatten on the wild fruits and
seeds. This is the chosen home of
the Cuban parrots and paroquits,
which find such profitable sale in the
United States. Every thicket is alive
with them, and their shrill voice fills
the air The fowler has only to row
out from the mainland in his canoe,
set his snares in the bushes and wait
for the gorgeous green and yellow
fellows to flutter into them. A mod
ern Crusoe, cast ashore on one of
these islands, would not fare badly,
providing he kept at a respectful dis
tance from the crOcodiles' Jaws, and
voracious land-crabs did not devour
him. Besides fish and Holsters, the
finest to be found anywhere, oysters
clinging to the mangrove branches
and birds that will almost come at
call, having never learned the fear of
man, are various wild fruits, includ-
ing oranges, figs, plantains, cocoa
nuts, malangoes "a species of indigen-
Gus potato), yucca, cassave and other
edible roots, and usually plenty of
fresh water.
No country on earth is so rich in
natural gardens of the sea as Cuba,
being environed by no fewer than
fifteen hundred islands of account,
besides innumerable reefs and Gays,
the smallest of them capable of sus-
tanning few people almost independ-
emily. Most of these islets are not
unlike the Bahama and Florida reefs,
having been created by the same
coral builders that to-day may be
seen through the transparent waters,
working as busily as when this old
world was young and comparatively
poor in islands.
Next to Isle de Pinos, the largest of
Cubas islands lies off the north
shore, stretching forty miles or more
between the Province of Puerto Prin-
cipe and the old Bahama channel,
and is locally known as Cayo Rom
ano. Correctly speaking, it is four
big islands set close together and sur
rounded by a score of little ones, and
their combined area is about 200
square miles. They are unique as
being vast natural salt mine, capa-
BILE of fsupplying half the world. Their
surface is broken all over by many
small depressions, two or three feet
deep. During the winter storms At
lantic billows surge completely over
these Gays, leaving the hollows filled
with brine. The burning sun of sum-
mer soon dries the water, and deposits
of pure salt are left behind. all ready
for use without the trouble of evap-
Grating. The sole industry of Cayo
Romano is that of gathering what
the sea has thus provided, and the
only inhabitants are a few salt
miners, who remain less than half
the year and work in desultory fash
ion. Off the southern coast of Cuba,
Grande Cayman and the two smaller
Caymens are the most important isl
ands, always excepting Pinos; and
next to them in area is the long and
narrow archipelago called Cayos de
Doce Leguas. Between the latter
and Puerto Principe Province are
scattered the brightest gems of the
Caribbean-hawless emeralds set in
turquoise and sapphire-the hundred
flowery, bird-haunted islets, of eter
nal summer, which Columbus named
1.-THE Queens Gardens when his car
avals were becalmed among them
For one who has had enough of life
in cities and longs for peaceful days